He Became Napoleon’S Genius Son [EN]: Chapter 53

(52) Eugene Throws the Vendée Royalists at Paris

Sometimes, victory can be a burden.

“Kill them! All of them! Don’t leave a single one alive!”

[One-Eye], Carrier, who had lost an eye, roared, demanding the wholesale slaughter.

It had been about a month since the Battle of Machecoul.

It was now December, the time for snow.

However, Nantes was far from a celebratory atmosphere; it was rather bleak.

All because of the Vendée rebellion.

Or perhaps because of Carrier, who was now screaming.

“Representative Carrier, it’s not that simple. They must be tried.”

“Tried? What for! There’s no need to send them to Paris. No, Paris is already doubting the victory over the Vendée rebellion. General Kléber, this is all your fault for being negligent in pursuing the enemy!”

“What nonsense! Capturing the enemy leadership was crucial at the time!”

At that moment, Carrier slammed his fist on the desk in the Nantes mayor’s office and shouted.

“That’s why we’re still facing sporadic attacks from ‘bandits’!”

In fact, strictly speaking, Nantes is not in Vendée but the central city of the Brittany region to the north.

However, it was close to Vendée, and because the Vendée rebels mainly targeted it, it became the center of the civil war.

Conversely, Nantes is also where the Revolutionary Army had its headquarters.

Furthermore, the place where Carrier led the massacre was the banks of the Loire River in Nantes.

Therefore, the 3,000 key surrendered Royalist rebels were all imprisoned in the temporary prison at Nantes City Hall.

Now, Carrier is shouting that all of them must be killed.

Of course, all the Royalists who had been captured before were already dead.

“We must kill them all! We must instill fear in this Vendée! That way, we’ll have something to bring to Paris!”

“What exactly are you going to bring? Is someone going to give you a certificate of rebellion termination?”

“At least we’ll take their heads!”

Carrier glared at Kléber, Lecomte, and Lequille with his ‘one eye’ and shouted.

“Those guys aren’t just rebels. They’re traitors colluding with foreign powers!”

In other words, the Royalists captured this time are not simply counter-revolutionary rebels.

They are ‘traitors’ suspected of colluding with foreign powers.

This is the background for [One-Eye], Carrier, who lost an eye in Napoleon’s shelling, to insist on the wholesale slaughter.

Carrier seems to be trying to vent his resentment by killing the Royalists.

“Are you going to leave it like this?”

Ippolito suddenly asked Eugene.

Eugene and Ippolito were already leaving the mayor’s office.

Carrier wasn’t interested in them anyway, and Eugene wasn’t particularly interested in Representative Carrier either.

However, it is clear that Carrier is still a [Representative on Mission] dispatched by the National Convention [a member of the National Convention sent to the provinces to enforce laws and maintain order].

Nominally, he is the highest decision-maker responsible for this rebel area.

Eugene shrugged.

“What can I do? Should I get rid of Carrier?”

“That’s not it. Weren’t you supposed to save your Royalist friends when you caught them?”

“I was. As much as I can.”

Clearly, Eugene had promised Rochejacquelein.

That he would save him.

In the name of the Knight of the Princess.

Of course, from Eugene’s point of view, it’s not a name he cares much about.

Eugene’s goal is to become a key member of the Napoleon Club.

So, why would an old royal knight be important?

Marie is important to Eugene, but he doesn’t necessarily want to be a [Knight].

So, he didn’t intend to overdo it.

Besides, there’s another problem.

“But this isn’t a good time. Paris is slowly being dyed with ‘terror’.”

As Eugene clicked his tongue, Ippolito’s eyes widened.

“What do you mean? Terror? Is there any bad news from the Rhine front?”

“I don’t think so? Rather, Hoche, Pichegru, and Jourdan are winning small victories on the Rhine front. I haven’t obtained all the accurate intelligence, though.”

“Jourdan? That’s the first time I’ve heard that name. Wasn’t Dumouriez the top man in that area?”

Ippolito tilted his head at the names of the victorious generals of the [Revolutionary Wars] that Eugene mentioned.

The revolution always creates new faces.

Because the powerful figures of the old era are either deposed or killed.

Moreover, the war that France is facing is truly a national crisis, which rather creates more ‘heroes’.

It means that the old generation of generals who were active in the previous battlefields are falling, and a new generation of generals is being born.

Jourdan, the man who conquers Belgium, is one of them.

Then, what about Dumouriez, who was originally the number one in the Revolutionary Army, now that Lafayette is gone?

Eugene shrugged.

“Well, Dumouriez might run away soon.”

“Where to? Ah, now that you mention it, I remember what you said to Hoche. That Dumouriez might betray us?”

“Originally, he was a man of the Duke of Orléans. It wouldn’t be strange if he betrayed us at any time.”

In fact, in the original history, Dumouriez should have already betrayed them.

Because he crosses over to the Austrian camp in May 1793.

However, currently, Eugene killed the king first, and Napoleon finished Toulon earlier than originally, and Vendée was also successfully concluded.

It’s like the revolutionary government is repeatedly winning internally.

So, Dumouriez missed the timing to betray and run away.

Nevertheless, Eugene thought that Dumouriez would eventually betray them.

Because he is not a person who gets along with Robespierre.

The only difference is whether he will die or successfully escape.

Above all, there is an absolute future that Eugene cannot change no matter what he does.

It is the climate of the [Little Ice Age] that is sweeping this era [a period of regional cooling that followed the Medieval Warm Period].

Eugene simply put the prediction into words.

“Besides, I think there will be a famine this winter.”

“Oh, it’s cold. It feels like the winter of 1788.”

“That’s the problem. A severe cold is always followed by a famine. It could happen again this time.”

Eugene suddenly looked at the sky.

“Then, a scapegoat will be needed. Anywhere.”

A scapegoat, a Christian symbol referring to Jesus Christ.

Even the revolutionary government that destroyed the church did not destroy the famous cathedral of Nantes.

Looking at the tall church tower, Eugene suddenly smiled.

“Still, it’s almost [Noel] [Christmas in French].”

Noel, that is, Christmas.

-Ding! Ding! Ding!

As if to announce the arrival of Christmas, the bells of Nantes Cathedral rang.

***

However, as everyone already knows, the real power in Nantes lies elsewhere.

“It’s hard to handle it like Toulon, you know?”

The temporary headquarters on the outskirts of Nantes doesn’t even have Commander Kléber.

Rather, it is occupied by Napoleon’s troops, whose base is in Marseille.

Kléber occupied the city hall, but more than that, it was because he respected Napoleon.

As the one who ended the Vendée civil war.

Eugene smiled at Napoleon, the terminator of the Vendée civil war.

“I know. I’m 13 years old now, General.”

“Don’t you know that even in the old days, the marriage age was 14? Currently, the revolutionary government only considers you an adult at the age of 18.”

“That’s why I sleep eight hours a day to grow up quickly.”

At Eugene’s light joke, Napoleon chuckled and replied.

“Four hours of sleep is plenty, boy jockey. By the way, has the pure-hearted Marceau found his lover?”

“She’s still wanted. But we’re roughly tracking where she went, so I think we’ll find her soon.”

“That’s a relief. No, I should say our Marseille postal unit is that good, right? Hehe.”

Napoleon suddenly looked outside the headquarters barracks and said.

“Paris will want their deaths, boy jockey.”

The city hall is visible in the distance.

The buildings on the outskirts of the city hall have been turned into bleak prisons.

Originally, when Nantes was peaceful, they were mansions where high-ranking nobles or bureaucratic nobles lived.

However, with the suppression of the Vendée rebellion, they are being used as temporary prisons.

Carrier seemed to want to burn those prisons down immediately, constantly urging Kléber and Napoleon.

But Napoleon hasn’t given an answer yet, and neither has Paris.

Nevertheless, as Napoleon said, if they drag it out, the answer will be clear.

Summary execution.

That is the decision Paris will make.

Napoleon said with a stern face.

“I don’t want to kill 100,000 either. But there are already 3,000 people in the Nantes prison. You know?”

“I know.”

“The voices saying to kill them all to save 100,000 are loud enough to reach here. Commander Kléber says it’s more troublesome now than when he was fighting the war.”

This is something that happens a little later in the original history.

In early 1794, the Vendée civil war is temporarily ended in the original history.

However, with the Royalists not all captured, hardliners including Carrier and Thureau take the lead.

In the midst of the massacre, Kléber opposes it with Marceau and is kicked out.

Now, the crucial difference is that the civil war ended much earlier, the military prodigy Napoleon is here, and Carrier has lost the lead.

That’s why Paris hasn’t made a decision yet.

So, what should they do?

Napoleon stared at Eugene.

“But if we kill 3,000, they’ll say to kill another 30,000. Then they’ll say to kill another 300,000. I didn’t know, but the representatives who had never killed anyone in Toulon were making such a fuss.”

“That’s the nature of massacres, according to history books.”

“Do you like history too? I enjoyed reading Plutarch’s Lives and Livy’s History of Rome when I was your age.”

Napoleon, who was reminiscing about the old days with a pleasant face, hardened his face again.

“I think we should at least execute all the leaders of the Royalist command. That way, at least 3,000 people in prison will live. Rochejacquelein, of course.”

Kill a few to save the many.

That is the conclusion that heroes eventually reach in history.

Heroes are generally not ruthless mass murderers.

But they are also ruthless enough to make the cold decision to kill a few.

3,000 people.

Not a small number at all.

However, compared to the 300,000 who would have originally died in Vendée, it is clearly less.

Eugene took a deep breath and looked at Napoleon.

“That may be true. But I don’t think the General needs to get his hands dirty.”

“Why do you think so, gambling prodigy?”

“The politicians in Paris can get their hands dirty. The blood that the General makes flow is enough for the enemy.”

Eugene expressed the truth he had been thinking about since the day the war ended.

“That is the path that the General, who will become a hero of the future battlefield, must take. Just like Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar in history.”

Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar.

The greatest conquerors left in Western history.

Among them, Caesar even reached the point just before becoming emperor.

Napoleon, a young man who was not even 25 years old, opened his mouth wide and burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! Really, I don’t know where he learned such flattery at that age. Don’t you think so, Marmont?”

“I think so too, General.”

“Hehe! What that little gambler is saying is all right!”

The adjutants, Marmont and Junot, who were listening next to him, laughed and agreed.

In fact, even for an outstanding young general, comparing him to ‘Caesar’ is really excessive flattery.

Eugene, who knew the original history, simply brought it up because it was so obvious.

Isn’t Napoleon the one who becomes the [Emperor] that even Caesar could not reach?

Suddenly, Napoleon, still a young and inexperienced youth, turned to Eugene and asked.

“Do you have a plan, boy jockey?”

Napoleon had also made up his mind.

To try to save them if there was a way.

Eugene smiled as he put into words the method that Napoleon had once thought of in his heart.

“Yes, we throw them all to Paris.”

To throw the responsibility to the decision-makers.

***

Serious criminals are imprisoned in serious prisons.

-Knock, knock, knock.

Underneath the city hall, the dungeon is cramped.

So, they can’t imprison all 3,000 people, so they remodeled the mansions around the city hall into prisons.

But the most serious criminals were still imprisoned underground.

For example, Commander-in-Chief Rochejacquelein.

A damp prison where groundwater overflows and water drips.

Rochejacquelein, in shackles, sat with his eyes closed.

Suddenly, Rochejacquelein opened his eyes.

“Who is it?”

Eugene, who made a sound, walked over lightly and opened his mouth.

“You have good ears. Rochejacquelein.”

Rochejacquelein looked at Eugene and smiled bitterly.

“The Knight of the Princess. Still too young to come to a place with prisoners.”

“I heard that a lot when I went to the battlefield, when I founded the bank, and when I was dragged to the royal gambling table.”

“I’ve seen you from afar. When you were representing the Count of Artois and crushing the Count of Provence with cards.”

This time it was Eugene’s turn to be surprised.

It was a long time ago that he didn’t even remember.

It was an event before the revolution even started.

A gamble when he was used as a royal page and went back and forth to the gambling table.

It seems that Rochejacquelein, who was a nobleman at the time, also saw him when he visited the royal palace.

“You remember things that I don’t even remember anymore.”

“It’s natural for you since the revolutionary period is your growing period. For me, the days before the revolution were rather dazzling.”

“Versailles was dazzling.”

Eugene recalled the old days for a moment and smiled coldly.

“But back then, outside Versailles, Paris was in an environment like this prison. Maybe even worse. I almost got bitten to death by a wolf on my way out of the palace.”

Nobles say that the revolution is bad.

But what was the world like before the revolution?

The lives of commoners were truly miserable.

Then Rochejacquelein asked in surprise.

“In Paris? Goodness, that happened! Weren’t you hurt?”

Eugene stared intently at Rochejacquelein and sighed.

“You are kind, Count Rochejacquelein. But that kindness cannot overcome the waves of this revolution.”

If you only consider the person, Rochejacquelein would be a much better person than Carrier, who participated in the revolution.

But if Rochejacquelein took power, would France get better?

There is already an example in the original history.

Louis XVIII, currently the Count of Provence, whom the Royalists, including Rochejacquelein, worship as [Louis XVII] [Louis XVI’s son, who died in prison during the revolution; Royalists considered him the rightful king].

During the Restoration, when the Count returned as king, French citizens fell back into miserable lives.

Eventually, France would be caught up in the revolution again.

Nevertheless, Rochejacquelein in front of him is a good person.

He doesn’t want to make him die.

Rochejacquelein smiled weakly at Eugene.

“Thank you for protecting the Queen. King Louis was a foolish man. So, this rebellion that you call a revolution must have happened.”

“Now your uprising is a rebellion, Rochejacquelein.”

“What can the loser say? I just hope it ends with my life alone. As I said then. I don’t know what power you have.”

Eugene shook his head as he looked at the nobleman with the virtues of an old-fashioned knight.

“There are three paths.”

Eugene counted his fingers in front of Rochejacquelein, who widened his eyes.

“One is to die here.”

“That’s right.”

“Instead of just you dying, all 3,000 people here will die.”

At that moment, Rochejacquelein exclaimed in shock.

“That can’t happen! There are pregnant women too. At least save the women and the elderly!”

“I saw them. But from the Revolutionary Army’s point of view, those women and the elderly are traitors and hated nobles.”

“Aren’t you a knight too!”

Of course, Eugene, who is not a knight, replied coldly.

“So, I’m suggesting a second path. I’ll open the door here, so escape and go to London.”

“What?”

“Instead, the guards here will be executed. Also, you will become traitors.”

Eugene’s eyes shone coldly.

“Honor dies. Instead of life.”

Rochejacquelein gritted his teeth.

If it were another tainted nobleman, he might have accepted it.

From the Duke of Orléans, the nobleman among nobles, didn’t he leave for exile?

But if that were the case, Rochejacquelein should have left when the royal family collapsed.

Back then, it was Rochejacquelein and the Vendée rebel Royalist nobles who protected Versailles Palace and then went back to their hometowns.

Rochejacquelein, a true knight who values honor more than life, asked.

“What is the third path?”

Eugene’s eyes flashed as he grabbed Rochejacquelein’s shoulder.

“Go to Paris and be tried by the revolutionary government. Like the Queen, it’s a trial where the death penalty is virtually set.”

Rochejacquelein was about to ask how that was different from the first path.

Then, Rochejacquelein opened his mouth for a moment.

Because he remembered the nickname of the boy in front of him.

“Knight of the Princess.”

How was that nickname given?

Because he saved the Queen at the trial.

In short, Eugene was saying this.

Let’s have a formal trial in Paris.

I will try to save you there.

At that moment, Rochejacquelein reached out to Eugene.

“All three are paths to death. Okay, I’ll take the trial instead. The trial of you [Revolution].”

At that moment, Eugene and Rochejacquelein shook hands.

It was the moment when the future adopted son of the revolution terminator shook hands with the leader of the Royalists.