He Became Napoleon’S Genius Son [EN]: Chapter 43

(42) Eugene’s Information Campaign Begins in the Dark Vendée

Cléber thought this place was hell.

-Bang! Bang! Bang!

Muskets cannot fire in rapid succession.

The reason why gunshots rang out incessantly was that guns were being fired sequentially from all directions.

The living were struck by bullets and turned into corpses.

All were unarmed, peasants and their families holding only rakes.

“Agh! S, save me! A, aren’t you a Christian too!”

“Shut up! We are the Revolutionary Army! Curse Jesus Christ!”

“Please, Holy Mary! Aagh!”

This is the scene of the massacre taking place in inland Vendée.

This is Luçon, located in the southern part of the Vendée region, near La Rochelle.

It is a place with a port connected by canal facilities, once occupied by the Vendée rebels, but recaptured by the government army.

There, the blue-uniformed Republican Revolutionary Army was retaliating against the peasant remnants.

Wars in this era have no Geneva Conventions [international laws establishing standards for humanitarian treatment in war].

The fear that one cannot know who the enemy is pervades the soldiers in a civil war.

But even so, this is too much.

Even for Brigadier General Cléber, who had wandered foreign battlefields for over 20 years.

At that moment, a strange shout reached Cléber’s ears.

“Now, strip! Get on the boat! This is what you did to the Revolutionary Army!”

“We didn’t do anything! Please save us, please! I’ll take off my clothes, I’ll do whatever you say, at least spare this child!”

“Shut up!”

In the distance, people were being forcibly put on boats over the canal.

Stripping naked, screaming children, women, and men were being put onto the canal.

One soldier bared his teeth and shouted with an expression of hatred.

“I’ve seen your face before. You’re the one who stepped on and killed my friend who was running away during the Battle of Chemillé!”

Before Cléber could stop him, the boat began to sink into the water.

The boat had been deliberately punctured with holes before people were put on it.

A woman holding a child wailed.

“Ah, please, have mercy!”

But everyone is tied up.

People were submerged underwater, unable to swim properly.

The soldier threw a stone on top of them as if driving in a wedge.

-Splash!

Cléber, who had been blankly watching the scene from afar, hurriedly asked.

“What is that, Captain?”

The captain who was guiding Cléber, Jean Rechelle, turned to him and replied nonchalantly.

“It’s a drowning execution, sir.”

“Who told you to deal with the rebels like that? I can’t help it if the soldiers are excited.”

“It’s a typhoid prevention measure, sir.”

Captain Rechelle retorted with an expression that Cléber was being fussy.

“Typhoid is spreading in the prison right now, and everyone is terrified. It’s an unavoidable situation.”

Typhoid, an acute infectious disease that kills people with high fever and abdominal pain.

In the late 18th century, there was no specific cure or vaccine.

In an era of poor sanitation, there was no countermeasure once an epidemic broke out.

As a result, soldiers, along with their desire for revenge, were killing prisoners altogether.

Cléber, who was dumbfounded, shouted.

“Even so, is it necessary to strip and kill innocent people, especially nuns, like that? This isn’t the Middle Ages; it’s almost 1800!”

“But, we are also following orders.”

“Orders, my foot!”

Cléber shouted at Captain Rechelle and the soldiers of the Luçon garrison.

“Who is the commander here! This is something that even Paris would not order! At the very least, you have to go through a trial to execute someone!”

If Cléber were just an ordinary soldier, Rechelle would have ignored him.

Even if he was of high rank, there were quite a few brigadier generals who had been promoted rapidly in the recent Revolutionary Army.

But Cléber is not alone.

Behind him, the army of 14,000 men who had fought on the Rhine front, commonly known as the [Mainz Division], came with him.

A unit specially extracted by the Revolutionary Government to suppress the entire Vendée region.

So Rechelle and the other soldiers could not treat him carelessly because of Cléber’s soldiers.

Just as Rechelle was hesitating, a man in a general’s uniform approached from the center of the massacre site.

“I am the commander of this entire Vendée region, Major General Jean Antoine Rossignol. Pleased to meet you, General Cléber.”

“Commander? Wasn’t General Biron the general manager of the Vendée region? Besides, why is the commander here?”

“That man was dismissed in Paris. He’s currently locked up.”

Cléber frowned.

Armand Louis de Gontaut Biron, the man who was the commander of the Rhine front until recently.

He held the title of Duke but sympathized with the revolution and participated in the Revolutionary Army.

However, the Revolutionary Government suspected Biron.

Because a major suspicion arose on the Rhine front.

The Dumouriez treason suspicion case.

The suspicion that Dumouriez, one of the best general cards of the Revolutionary Government, was colluding with the enemy.

In fact, it was an event that originally occurred in March in the original history.

However, as of October, Dumouriez has not yet made a decision.

Because of Hoche, who became Joseph Bonaparte’s brother-in-law.

Because Hoche received the support of Napoleon and Eugene, he took more initiative on the Rhine front than in the original history.

Because of that, Dumouriez has not yet been able to escape.

However, suspicion is shaking Paris and the entire Rhine.

In the end, all soldiers from the old aristocracy became objects of suspicion.

Duke Biron seems to have become a victim of that.

But it’s too much to have the unknown Rossignol in front of him as his successor.

Cléber, who had wandered the battlefield for over 20 years, recognized it at a glance.

This Rossignol doesn’t know war.

Suddenly, Rossignol wiped the sweat from his blood-stained hands and explained.

“We’re not doing this because we like it, General. This battlefield is where French people kill each other. It’s different from the honorable Rhine front you fought on.”

“What’s different! Killing people is the same there!”

“It’s different.”

Rossignol turned his gaze with tired eyes.

“Here, we have to kill children too.”

It was a very reluctant tone.

But he has no intention of stopping.

At the end of his gaze were children and women being dragged away, and soldiers pointing bayonets.

A soldier shouted, pushing people into a huge wooden barrel.

“Get in!”

“T, that’s a press!”

“Shut up! Get in now! Or I’ll kill you with a bayonet!”

Again, Cléber’s eyes widened as he looked at Rossignol at the sight beyond imagination.

“What are you doing now?”

Rossignol spat out with a heavy face.

“It’s revenge.”

It is a wooden barrel and instrument called a grape press [a device used to extract juice from grapes in winemaking].

Before he could stop them, the soldiers pressed the press.

Instantly, the press was turned on with people inside.

-Creak!

Cléber realized.

This is the hell of this world.

***

Is it really possible to suppress the Vendée region in this situation?

“There’s a problem on the La Rochelle side, General.”

At the temporary headquarters of the [Mainz Division] set up in Luçon, Cléber was sitting slumped in agony.

Rossignol and the main force of the Vendée suppression army are currently moving north to Nantes.

Currently, the Vendée is a kind of point and line, that is, the government army has seized cities and roads.

Conversely, the rebel army occupies rural areas and forests.

As a result, the commander’s movements all had to be done with the army.

Rossignol entrusted the defense of Luçon, which he had just suppressed, to Cléber.

La Rochelle is south of Luçon.

So if there is a problem in La Rochelle, Cléber must take charge.

But Cléber retorted cynically, pulling on his plump cheeks.

“Problem? The biggest problem right now is that butchers have taken over here. There’s no bigger problem than that!”

“No, that’s… A postal unit came from Marseille.”

“Postal unit? Ah, is that the unit that the hero of Toulon [Napoleon Bonaparte] created because he had nothing to do? Hmph, what’s so important about mail. But? Is there anyone here who can write a letter?”

Then Cléber’s adjutant, Colonel Buin de Marigny, scratched his head.

“That’s not the problem, General. That unit has deprived the command of La Rochelle and taken control of the local unit.”

“What? Is it a rebellion?”

“I don’t think so. However, they are requesting an interview with the general. It is an accusation that the local commander violated military law.”

Cléber seemed to know the situation a little.

Immediately after coming to Vendée from Mainz (called Mayenne in French), Cléber was only shocked.

Perhaps if he had been a little more courageous when he met Rossignol, Cléber might have started a rebellion.

It seems that the friends from Toulon were excited.

But Cléber snorted cynically.

“The commander is violating military law, so what’s so important about that.”

“Shall we refuse?”

“Okay, tell them to come! I’ll have to tell the subordinates sent by the hero of Toulon about the world. This world is dog-eat-dog!”

Cléber has been on the battlefield for quite a long time.

So he knows that war is inhumane and that the orders of superiors are absolute.

This is the first time Cléber has seen a battlefield where civilians are massacred like this.

But isn’t it the Revolutionary Period?

If you disobey orders, not only yourself but also your family can go to the guillotine.

Biron, who was the commander of this Vendée, is destined to be greeted in Paris [executed].

But Cléber had to be shocked again when he saw the ‘commander’ entering the headquarters.

“Reporting. Major Eugene de Beauharnais, belonging to the Marseille Special Regiment, acting commander. I came to inspect the postal situation in Vendée under the orders of General Napoleon, and took over the command of the La Rochelle Regiment.”

No matter how much he washed his eyes, it was a child.

Major Marceau, who looks like a guardian, is next to him, and Colonel Thurot is standing stiffly behind him.

But the one who came forward as the commander is a child.

Cléber, who was dumbfounded, looked down at Eugene and asked.

“Good heavens. This country is really ruined. How old are you?”

“I’ll be 13 next year.”

“You’re crazy! It’s absurd that a 13-year-old is deployed to the battlefield. What? A major? Who pushed you into that position! Wait, did you say Beauharnais?”

Suddenly, Cléber frowned and bared his teeth.

“Is your father the former chairman of the parliament, that Beauharnais general?”

Alexandre de Beauharnais.

The second son of the Beauharnais Marquis family, a participant in the American Revolutionary War.

As soon as the revolution began, he quickly changed his words and became a successful opportunist as Lafayette’s close aide.

He briefly served as chairman of the National Assembly, the predecessor of the National Convention, and is now one of the commanders of the Rhine Army.

Until recently, he was the commander of the corps Cléber worked for.

Of course, he was incompetent, and thanks to him, Cléber was captured by the enemy.

In this situation, the Mainz Corps was extracted through negotiations by Alexandre and sent here.

Disgraced soldiers who were prisoners in Mainz.

An army dispatched to wash away this disgrace by making achievements in suppressing the civil war.

Of course, Alexandre tried to save the lives of his subordinates in his own way.

However, it is difficult for Cléber to see it in a good light.

To even put his son, presumed to be his son, as a major.

It’s an absurd thing.

But Eugene, a boy presumed to have been appointed through ‘connections’, smiled brightly.

“As expected, you are a true soldier. You only know the battlefield.”

Cléber was dumbfounded and asked if he should hit him.

“What’s with that arrogant sound?”

“Here, there is another major besides me. Major François Séverin Marceau.”

“Then, instead of a brat like you, that Major Marceau should have introduced the unit!”

Eugene shrugged and replied.

“The story I’m about to tell is something that our Major Marceau can’t dare to talk about.”

“What are you talking about? Ah, La Rochelle? Forget about that place. Anyway, the Vendée rebels will be attacking here again soon. We’re going to kill them. Soldiers and farmers, all of them!”

“First of all, we need to change that to a system where only soldiers are killed, General.”

Suddenly, Eugene said in a low voice.

“By replacing the commander.”

At that moment, all the Mainz Division officers in the headquarters were shocked.

Major Jean Buin de Marigny, Major Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen, Major Jean Chrysostome Bruneteau de Sainte Suzanne.

Excellent officers who are active under Cléber along with Adjutant Marigny.

Among them, Decaen and Sainte Suzanne even go to India and are active.

But now they are just ordinary soldiers who fought on the Rhine and were thrown into the Vendée.

Everyone froze at the unimaginable sound of replacing the commander.

However, Cléber, who is at the center of it, was not just an ordinary soldier.

Cléber frowned and glared at Eugene.

“What the hell are you talking about now?”

“Freemason.”

“What?”

Eugene stared at Cléber and threw the words as if betting on a game.

“The general is originally a stonemason and architect, and a legitimate member of the Freemasons [a fraternal organization with roots in stonemasonry]. Let me introduce myself again.”

Before Cléber could react, Eugene introduced himself.

“The Grand Master of the French Freemasons of the time, General Lafayette’s subordinate. Eugene de Beauharnais. You’ll know if I say Knight of the Princess, right?”

Freemason.

The man recorded in history as having created the first Freemason lodge (conference body) in Egypt.

Stonemason Cléber looked at Eugene and sat down.

“Let’s hear the story.”

So, Cléber was also a member of the hidden ‘Constitutional Monarchist’ faction.

***

In this revolutionary period, the French population already exceeded 25 million.

However, the elite who lead society in any era are a minority.

Even if it is not the aristocratic class of 3% of the population, the bourgeoisie leading the revolution is also a minority.

Even the French Revolutionary Army, which already exceeds 600,000, is a minority at the officer level.

That’s why Eugene and Cléber have connections if they go through one bridge.

An evil relationship called Alexandre, and a good relationship called Lafayette.

Eugene spread out a map of Vendée on the desk at the temporary headquarters and explained.

“Hatred is inevitable in Vendée right now. The royalists have already massacred the republicans. It’s not strange that the soldiers are full of anger and revenge.”

In fact, the massacre was first carried out by the royalists.

The Massecra massacre that took place in Massecra on the west coast is a good example.

Hundreds of Republican citizens were attacked and massacred by farmers.

In addition, surprise attacks unique to civil wars occurred frequently, and those who were killed by surprise attacks among the soldiers thrown in for suppression were frequent.

Naturally, even the Revolutionary Army, which was forcibly conscripted and thrown in, cannot help but be filled with anger.

Of course, Cléber, who had been a career soldier since a very young age, cynically asked back.

“So, are we going to kill them all?”

“We can’t do that. Also, if we do that, the war will not end. Unless we kill everyone here.”

“Ha, at this rate, we’re going to kill all 300,000 residents of this area.”

The moment Cléber clicked his tongue, Eugene retorted.

“Rossignol or Carrier above him can do that, General.”

Of course, Cléber will think it’s an exaggeration.

But it actually happens in the original history.

Scorched earth tactics [a military strategy that involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy].

It is what Colonel Thurot, who is standing nervously behind Eugene, does.

He doesn’t look like a murderer at all just by looking at his face.

But was Rossignol a murderer from birth?

In the process of realizing the whirlwind of revolution in reality, if you just carry out orders as they are, this is what happens.

It’s what bureaucratic humans without their own thoughts do.

Of course, Cléber is the opposite.

Cléber frowned and asked back.

“So, what are we going to do?”

“We need to replace the commander. And we need to reduce the enemy to soldiers, not civilians, and we need to comfort the civilians.”

“It’s easy to say. Everything is difficult. Right now, even my subordinates can’t be controlled.”

In fact, the Mainz Division, or the Mayenne Division, is also excited while controlling this area.

Those who have already experienced war kill people easily.

If the royalist rebels use the residents to attack, they will obviously retaliate.

Eugene pointed to Nantes on the map, where the headquarters is located, and smiled.

“So, we need to replace the commander. I know you came after being defeated in Mainz, General.”

“Is that an insult?”

“Don’t you want to restore your honor?”

Cléber, who was staring at Eugene, opened his mouth again.

“How?”

Cléber made outstanding achievements on the Rhine.

That’s why he was promoted to brigadier general.

But in the end, he was defeated and captured, and as a result, he was thrown into this civil war site instead of the Rhine.

To a battlefield that any soldier would want to avoid.

Is there a way to restore honor here?

No matter how close he is to Lafayette, Eugene in front of him is a boy who is not even 13 years old.

But Eugene smiled confidently.

“Replacing the commander is my specialty, General. If you make up your mind, I’ll replace him in an instant. The general has nothing to lose.”

Anyway, Eugene belongs to Napoleon’s command, the Marseille headquarters.

If a problem arises, Napoleon will take responsibility, so Cléber has nothing to worry about.

Besides, with connections from Alexandre to Lafayette, Eugene will be able to get out.

This thought moved Cléber.

“Okay. I’ll take charge of this battlefield. Replace the commander. What do I need to prepare?”

Eugene replied concisely.

“Okay. Then, the start is to defeat Rossignol. For that, we will spread ‘pamphlets’. However, with only one sheet.”

There is no [Pira] yet, that is, propaganda material in this era.

Eugene decided to spread propaganda pamphlets as a means of spreading rumors.

In the form of a one-page ‘leaflet’, not a book.

***

Even in an era without even a telegraph, rumors spread even on the battlefield.

“What is all this?”

In front of numerous printing presses, Adjutant Hippolyte asked with a dumbfounded face.

After La Rochelle, Eugene took control of the Thurot Regiment, and the control of this small city fell into Eugene’s hands.

Even though it is a small city, it was a prosperous port city until the Seven Years’ War.

Advanced machines of 18th century European civilization, such as printing presses, exist.

Of course, it costs money, but in wartime, armies have the right to requisition civilian goods.

In reality, the residents of La Rochelle, who had become prisoners, were being forced to work.

Instead of killing them, Eugene, the unscrupulous financier, was making them do forced labor. He replied,

“Printing press.”

“No, I know that. What are you printing?”

“It’s simple. The red ones are ‘propaganda’ to be spread in enemy territory, and the blue ones are ‘information bulletins’ to be spread among our allies.”

Propaganda, originally a Latin term meaning missionary work.

This meaning was diverted, and in later generations, it became synonymous with ‘propaganda and agitation.’

It’s a general term for information operations that agitate public opinion by mixing facts and rumors.

The ‘one-page’ pamphlet that Eugene is creating now is the core of it.

In an era without telegraphs, telephones, or radios.

People get information from paper.

For example, Eugene, ‘the knight of the princess,’ became known as far as Marseille with just one illustration.

-Clunk, clunk, clunk!

Hippolyte picked up a sheet, watching the large letters being printed on the paper by the printing press.

“Hmm, let’s see the contents. Huh?”

At that moment, Hippolyte was so shocked that his eyes almost popped out.

-〈Louis XVII Sold France to England!〉

-〈The gunpowder and weapons of the Vendée Royalist Army all come from England. La Rochejaquelein is a slave of England! The nobles are preparing to flee to England, the land of Anglican devils.〉

-〈Oh, you traitors! Are you abandoning the Catholic faith and your country, and selling France?〉

In the late 18th century, Europe was already capable of color printing using three primary colors.

Of course, it’s not an easy technology.

However, port cities have printing presses capable of color printing, and there are also printers.

It’s just that it originally costs a lot of money.

Instead of making them work through forced conscription, Eugene’s request to the printers was simple.

Print one in bright red and the other in bright blue.

The bright red one is to slander the Vendée rebels, and the bright blue one is propaganda to be distributed to the Revolutionary government forces.

In short, the Vendée rebellion slander propaganda that Hippolyte is looking at is in bright red letters.

Hippolyte, who was dazed by the ‘propaganda’ [a term for information, often biased or misleading, used to promote a particular political cause or point of view] leaflet he was seeing for the first time, staggered and asked.

“What is this?”

“What else? The Vendée rebels are traitors in collusion with England.”

“Is it true?”

The absence of telegraphs, telephones, radios, and even video media means that there is little information stimulation.

People of this era get a strong impression from just these large letters.

Eugene smiled with satisfaction, reaffirming that fact.

“Where else would the gunpowder come from? Well, it doesn’t matter if it’s not true. What matters is that the farmers believe it.”

Normandy, Toulon, and Vendée.

These are the regions where the royalists have rebelled.

Except for Lyon, where the rebellion occurred on its own, they all have in common that they are coastal areas.

Who sponsored the rebels?

Even if it’s not Toulon, where British troops openly entered, there is a high possibility that the British Navy supplied supplies.

In particular, even the regular army of the French Revolutionary government is short of gunpowder and rarely fires live ammunition during training.

It is not a trivial matter for a peasant rebel army to use gunpowder weapons.

It would be impossible unless someone provided a source of gunpowder.

So, whatever the truth, this propaganda can be considered plausible by the residents of Vendée.

But now is the late 18th century, just before nationalism is about to emerge.

Moreover, they are receiving help from England, France’s competitor and enemy?

No matter how united the rebels are by faith, they will inevitably waver.

Besides, England is not a Catholic country either.

Hippolyte nodded in admiration and picked up the blue-lettered side.

“Then, what about this one? Huh? Oh. Hmm.”

The blue propaganda was no less impressive.

-〈Rossignol and Carrier are deceiving the National Convention in Paris and carrying out massacres and forced drownings!〉

It’s propaganda that seems like you’d be executed by military law if you were caught publishing it.

Of course, Eugene will spread it using the postal corps, but it’s too inflammatory.

Also, wasn’t the mass slaughter ordered by the National Convention?

Hippolyte tilted his head and asked.

“What does this mean?”

Eugene looked down at the printed matter and said.

“In war, retaliatory killings are hard to avoid.”

“That’s, um. That’s right. I get furious when I see my comrades dying.”

“But sporadic killings and organized massacres are completely different. Especially in military organizations like today, massacres are difficult to carry out without systematic orders.”

In the future, the era of ‘total mobilization’ will come, with 200,000 troops clashing on the battlefield.

But for now, the scale of clashes on the battlefield is only tens of thousands.

Furthermore, there is a difference in scale between retaliatory killings of civilians and organized massacres.

For example, an accidental death of dozens of people becomes a tragedy in which tens of thousands are killed.

But will massacres occur simply because soldiers are having seizures?

It’s not the 13th century Middle Ages; it’s the late 18th century.

In Europe, soldiers can generally read, or at least know the Bible.

In other words, they are not barbarians.

Therefore, massacres in which tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands die are not simply caused by the anger of soldiers.

It is a tragedy created by an organized military system.

Eugene glanced at the printers, who were still terrified, and said in a low voice.

“In short, the massacre taking place in this Vendée is happening because the headquarters is ordering it. Everyone needs to be aware of that. Especially Robespierre in Paris.”

Whether Robespierre intended it or not, it doesn’t matter.

The massacre has begun, and all he needs to realize is that this will be a political burden and must be stopped immediately.

Once this kind of propaganda starts to be spread, that burden will definitely arise.

However, Hippolyte still had questions.

“How will Robespierre know about this?”

It is 470 kilometers from Paris to La Rochelle.

Even Nantes, which is closer, is 380 kilometers away.

How will Robespierre, who is so far away, know about this propaganda?

Eugene replied cynically.

“Robespierre is a suspicious person. Do you think he would send just one member of parliament and leave it at that?”

He must have sent scouts to gather information.

But conversely, this also means this.

Up to this point, Robespierre is condoning the massacre.

***

The revolution can turn a college student into a diplomat or a ‘spy.’

“This Vendée is really terrible.”

A young man, still 18 years old but with a rather determined face, wiped away sweat and urged his horse onward.

The young man’s name is Marc Antoine Julien.

He comes from a revolutionary family, a golden spoon [a metaphor for someone born into wealth and privilege], with a father who is the vice president of the National Convention with the same name.

Originally, they were a fairly wealthy bourgeois family from southern France, but they rose to the upper class as the revolution began.

Thanks to this, the still young Julien was appointed as a diplomat by Foreign Minister Condorcet.

Julien’s mission was to create communication lines with the old French nobles who had gone into exile in London and the British Parliament.

Julien was quite skilled and succeeded in creating two connections.

The French exile noble Talleyrand, and the influential British Earl of Chesterfield.

Talleyrand is famous in later generations, but at this point, Chesterfield was much more influential.

This is because he is King George III’s close aide and one of Pitt’s opponents.

However, as the political situation changed rapidly, Julien had to return home urgently.

This is because England and France entered a state of war.

When he returned to France, the most powerful person had changed.

Robespierre.

Clearly, Lafayette or Brissot were influential when he left, but it was overturned in just one year.

Still, Julien, who was young, from a revolutionary family, and a sympathizer of the revolution, gained Robespierre’s trust.

That’s why he was dispatched to Vendée with a secret mission.

“Everywhere I go, it’s just destruction…”

Julien looked with a heavy face at the destroyed villages, dead bodies, and fires that had not yet been extinguished.

It is the site of a clash between the Revolutionary Army and the rebels.

It’s the same everywhere in Vendée.

He sees scenes of people who are dead, will die, or are dying.

When he returned from London, he had no idea that France would be in this situation.

Why did this happen?

At that time.

-Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!

Suddenly, someone was riding a horse and throwing pamphlets in a surprise attack.

Julien is too fast to even see who it is.

He seems to be wearing a military uniform, but he is wearing a coat over it, so you can’t see what color it is.

At least it’s definitely not blue, the Revolutionary Army’s uniform.

Julien, startled, stepped back and grumbled with a sigh.

“What? Is it a rebel?”

“You must be careful. Commissioner, the rebels are still appearing near Luson.”

“Shh! Can’t you see the living people? It’s going to be difficult if anyone hears you.”

Julien hurriedly waved his hand at the sound of his entourage’s words.

Anyway, you can’t come to the rebel area alone.

Therefore, Julien, who was dispatched as a ‘supervisor,’ came with soldiers as bodyguards.

Suddenly, he saw the survivors of the village staring at him with hateful eyes.

Julien sighed and tilted his head.

“Huh? What is that?”

A pamphlet had fallen.

The soldier who just passed by was actually Sergeant Jean-Marie Sylvain Gomi, Eugene’s close aide.

He participated in the storming of the Bastille [a pivotal event in the early stages of the French Revolution], crossed the Atlantic with Eugene, and fought in the Battle of Toulon.

He is now participating in the Postal Special Corps and has come to Vendée.

He was spreading pamphlets made in La Rochelle throughout Vendée.

Of course, Julien, who would not know that fact, also saw the pamphlet.

An attendant quickly brought the pamphlet.

“There’s something unusual about the wording. It seems like one of our soldiers made it and spread it?”

“Where, Louis XVII sold France to England? Ah, are you talking about the Count of Artois? Well, he actually went into exile in London. Is this the propaganda skills of the Vendée suppression army? It’s well made.”

“This one is a different color. It’s blue.”

At that moment, Julien was shocked and widened his eyes.

“What is this!”

It’s a completely unexpected phrase in bright blue letters.

-〈Rossignol and Carrier killed the residents of Vendée! They were forced to drown naked in the water!〉

Below that, there is one illustration.

A boat, a river, and people.

The sight of naked people falling into the river.

It is a rough but clear printed illustration.

“It seems that the rebels are spreading this, Commissioner.”

The attendant cautiously said to Julien.

However, Julien frowned and stared at the pamphlet.

Suddenly, Julien’s eyes turned to the village.

The residents of Vendée are looking at Julien with hatred in the ruins.

A pile of unremoved corpses.

In the distance, a boat is broken and floating on the river.

Julien approached the river.

“Ugh.”

A rotten corpse was floating on the river.

“Commissioner, this is.”

“The pamphlet is real.”

“It may be rebel propaganda!”

The attendant hurriedly said, but Julien shook his head.

Julien’s secret mission is one.

To monitor the Vendée suppression army, to monitor whether Carrier, the dispatched member of parliament, is doing well.

This is the secret mission that Robespierre entrusted to Julien.

The young Julien engraved that secret mission deeply in his heart.

“That’s not important. What’s important is that this massacre is taking place!”

Now, Paris is about to learn about this massacre.

***

Originally, propaganda is much easier to do to allies than to enemies.

“What is this? Who is spreading this!”

Nantes, a port city in the northern part of Vendée that was once at the forefront of the slave trade.

This is where the Revolutionary Army’s Vendée Suppression Temporary Headquarters is located.

That also means that this city is the center of the massacre taking place in Vendée.

The person who ordered the massacre is also in Nantes.

Jean-Baptiste Carrier, a member of parliament dispatched by the National Convention [the government of France during the most radical period of the French Revolution] to monitor the Vendée suppression army, shouted.

In his hand is a document with bright blue letters.

It is natural to jump up and down because it is a document that directly attacks him.

Kleber, commander of the Mainz Division, Colonel Thurot, commander of the La Rochelle Regiment, and Captain Desmars, who reported the document, shouted with surprised faces.

“It is certain that the enemies are spreading it. Commander.”

“Those royalist nobles are really absurd. This Thurot is also seeing this for the first time. I thought this was only done in newspapers.”

“I, it’s amazing. Who on earth came up with this amazing, no, heinous thing?”

Of course, they are also the ones who secretly spread this propaganda in Nantes at dawn.

Among the military commanders who were pretending not to know, Commander Rossignol grabbed the propaganda.

It’s just one piece of propaganda.

But what will happen if this one piece goes to Paris?

Suddenly, Carrier shouted next to Rossignol.

“Besides, what is this illustration! It’s not just done by someone, it’s done by an expert!”

It was an illustration depicting the drowning massacre.

It was a hastily made, rough picture, but the sight of Revolutionary Army soldiers massacring civilians was vivid.

Rossignol felt wronged when he saw this picture.

Wasn’t it the residents of Vendée who first ambushed and killed the Revolutionary Army soldiers?

Why did they leave out all that content?

Of course, Rossignol forgot that the Vendée rebels do not systematically massacre prisoners.

For a moment, while Rossignol was lost in thought, Member of Parliament Carrier grabbed him.

“Now that this has happened, let’s kill them all!”

Rossignol was surprised and asked.

“Member of Parliament Carrier, what are you talking about?”

“This is all a problem because there are prisoners who will testify, right? If we kill them all, who will testify?”

“Are you saying that now?”

At the moment when even Rossignol, who had massacred the ‘rebel bandits,’ was dumbfounded and asked, Carrier shouted.

“Or, are we all going to die!”

Rossignol’s face turned pale.

In fact, the same is true for Thurot and Desmars, as well as other generals in the headquarters.

Danton’s friend François Westermann, American Revolutionary War veteran René Le Conte, and the victor of the Battle of Luson, Jean Le Quell.

All of them were dispatched to this area, commanded more than 100,000 Vendée suppression troops, and participated in the massacre.

Whether they carried it out directly or condoned it indirectly, everyone is an accomplice.

At that time, someone opened his mouth in the corner of the headquarters.

“We have to fight.”

Carrier tilted his head at the face he was seeing for the first time.

“Who are you?”

“I am Major François Marceau, commander of the dispatched army belonging to the Marseille Headquarters Postal Special Regiment.”

“Ah, that friend Bonaparte said he would send? Well, it seems that I am the only one who can send mail here. Can you send one to Paris? Vendée is being ‘stabilized’ and all the ‘bandits’ will die.”

Carrier sneered and replied.

Laughter spread throughout the headquarters.

A postal unit in the Vendée battlefield where people are dying and killing is ridiculous.

There is no time to even send military mail.

Moreover, in order to prevent this massacre information from spreading, all mail must be censored.

So everyone thought that Bonaparte had sent a useless unit for nothing.

But Marceau took a step forward confidently and said.

“We must catch those bandits so that this propaganda does not go to Paris. Member of Parliament.”

Bandit is a slang term for rebels.

Of course, the bandits that Carrier is killing are all the residents of Vendée, but Marceau was speaking in a pure sense.

Anti-government rebels who launched an armed rebellion.

He said that we must kill them so that this propaganda does not spread to Paris.

Carrier frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“This is a typical tactic of the British army. I know it well. I experienced it in Toulon.”

“England? Ah, that’s right!”

Suddenly, Carrier clapped his hands and shouted.

“At this scale, we need mobilization power at the level of a regiment or division. This is definitely something the British are doing!”

Kleber, Thurot, and Desmars turned their heads with a feeling of being stabbed.

Carrier’s analysis is accurate.

It’s just that Eugene, who took control of the La Rochelle Regiment, is the one who mobilized that regiment-level force.

However, Carrier was already self-assured and did not even suspect his allies.

Moreover, Member of Parliament Carrier had even directly seen British intelligence operations.

“I saw quite a bit when I was working under Duke of Orléans.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The funds, collusion, and methods of the British! The Duke tried to use them to overthrow this country. Well, the great revolutionary comrades stopped it all. Hahaha!”

Carrier, a former henchman of the Duke of Orléans, shouted at Marceau with a chuckle.

This is the story of when the Duke of Orléans was a patron of the revolution.

Carrier, a man who has now converted to republicanism and is massacring royalists, suddenly turned to Rossignol.

“Okay, Commander Rossignol! Defeat the enemies! Let’s carry out a full-scale attack on the royalists. Only victory! That’s the only way we can live!”

“Yes? But it’s not easy at all. First of all, the enemies’ defenses are strong, so we have to destroy the strongholds one by one. That’s why we’re executing the rebels now!”

“Commander.”

Suddenly, Carrier glared at Rossignol and bared his teeth.

“I’ll say it again. Do you all want to die?”

This is not just Carrier’s anxiety.

This is what actually happens in the original history.

Because the massacre becomes a problem, Carrier and Rossignol, as well as Westermann and other people in charge of Vendée, are taken to Paris.

After that, the guillotine cuts off their necks.

Of course, Carrier does not know history, but he sensed the arrival of such a situation.

Rossignol sighed.

“I understand.”

At this moment, the full-scale offensive of the Vendée suppression army was decided.

Seeing this, Marceau’s eyes lit up and he glanced at Eugene next to him.