He Became Napoleon’S Genius Son [EN]: Chapter 55

(54) The Birth of the Eugene Bonaparte Faction in the Vendée

Nantes is a city built on an island in the middle of the Loire River.

Therefore, crossing the Loire River to get to Nantes is not unusual.

However, they never imagined that upon arrival, they would be tied up with ropes and treated like prisoners.

Especially after hearing that a Revolutionary Army officer was looking for them.

Angelique, along with her mother and younger sibling, cried out as they were dragged away, bound by ropes.

“Why are we being taken away?”

A prisoner next to her spat.

“Because the butchers caught you.”

“What does that mean? I came here because Marceau was here, because an acquaintance is a Revolutionary Army officer!”

“Are you from Cholet?”

Angelique blinked at the question.

“Yes, I am. But…”

“They must have classified you this way based on your accent. You and your family too.”

“That’s absurd! Many people just lived in Cholet. Besides, I didn’t participate in the Royalist rebellion!”

The prisoner, Jacques, smiled bitterly.

“There’s nothing we can do. In their eyes, we’re all the same Vendéans [people from the Vendée region, known for their counter-revolutionary sentiments].”

Angelique turned her gaze.

Soldiers in blue uniforms.

Clearly, the ones who brought Angelique were wearing the same uniforms.

The problem was being suddenly subdued by other unit members along the way.

After being dragged away in confusion, they were now tied up among these soldiers, walking towards the river.

They had survived the past year of civil war with their family.

But now, were they going to die?

“Angelique, what do we do now?”

Her mother, Jeanne de Mesly, asked weakly.

Angelique gritted her teeth.

She couldn’t die like this.

The soldiers who came with them wouldn’t have lied.

Marceau must be somewhere in this city.

Suddenly, Angelique began to shout desperately.

“I’m Marceau’s wife! Revolutionary Army officer, Marceau! Where are you!”

“Shut that mouth! Can’t you just go quietly to the Loire River?”

“No! Marceau! Please help me!”

It was the only thing she could cling to now.

Marceau.

She didn’t want to be indebted to him, didn’t want to cause him trouble, and even thought about running away to Paris.

Instead of Marseille, where Marceau was.

But now, her entire remaining family was about to die.

Amidst the line of prisoners, Angelique desperately shouted again.

“Marceau, please!”

Just then.

“Indeed, you’re here. Marceau’s ‘wife’!”

Angelique was surprised by the unexpected title and even more surprised by the gaze directed at her.

The gaunt Carrier and the middle-aged Westermann in his forties were glaring with gleaming eyes.

With a very greedy look.

Of course, that greed had a completely different meaning from what Angelique thought.

***

At that moment, Marceau was riding on horseback from the Marseille Postal Special Regiment headquarters on the outskirts of Nantes.

“Stop! What is the meaning of this!”

Three thousand.

The number of Royalist prisoners in Nantes.

The urgent news that all of them were being dragged out of prison and heading towards the Loire River had reached the Marseille Regiment.

However, Eugene and Napoleon were both at the suppression army’s temporary headquarters.

In haste, Marceau had ridden ahead on horseback.

Riding swiftly, Marceau discovered a group of residents right in front of the Loire River.

“General Westermann!”

General Westermann, who commanded a division of 10,000, glanced over.

While Carrier was leading this massacre, the execution was being carried out by Westermann’s division.

Marceau had arrived alone, but he fearlessly blocked the procession.

10,000 against 1.

Marceau, who had single-handedly blocked 10,000, roared in front of the Loire River.

“Wait! This is an overreach of authority! Moreover, some of the people you’re dragging away haven’t participated in the rebellion!”

“Who do you think you’re stopping, Lieutenant Colonel! Get out of the way!”

“I can’t move! Have you forgotten that Commander has been given full authority!”

At that moment, a scream-like voice was heard right next to Westermann.

“Marceau!”

Marceau turned his head and was horrified.

“Angelique, why are you here!”

“I, I came to find you, but suddenly I was arrested as a Royalist!”

“This is absurd! Look, General Westermann! This girl is just a refugee who was swept up in this. I vouch for her identity! There are definitely innocent people mixed in here!”

Westermann frowned, then twisted his lips.

They had taken the bait.

Conversely, the soldiers of Westermann’s division hesitated and stopped.

Carrier could be seen gesturing from the side.

Coldly, with his one eye gleaming, Westermann gritted his teeth.

There was no turning back now.

What would happen if they didn’t kill the Royalist prisoners here?

Eventually, the rebellion wouldn’t be suppressed, and Paris would hold them accountable for the massacre.

As things stood, they had no choice but to trigger the trap.

Westermann approached Angelique as planned and asked.

“What’s your name?”

Angelique trembled and replied.

“A, Angelique de Mesly.”

“Oh, Mesly. One of the noble families in the Vendée region, isn’t it?”

“Yes? Y, yes. But my family supports the revolution.”

At that moment, Carrier interjected and shouted.

“This woman is definitely a Royalist traitor! And you vouch for her identity? Major Marceau, does that mean you’re a traitor too!”

Marceau glared.

This was a trap.

Carrier and Westermann were trying to frame Marceau as a Royalist and then implicate Napoleon.

How could he escape the trap?

Suddenly, Marceau gripped the sword at his waist.

Cut them down.

That was the only way.

Just then.

A group of soldiers from the headquarters ran up and surrounded Marceau.

Members of Eugene’s Special Company, belonging to the Marseille Postal Regiment.

In particular, the injured Ellie and Gomi were among them.

Commander Kleber ran with them, shouting.

“What is the meaning of this, Carrier! Stop it immediately!”

Division Commander Westermann hesitated.

However, Carrier looked at Kleber and twisted his lips.

It was an opportunity.

“We must capture Bonaparte, Commander Kleber.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Because it has now been revealed that General Bonaparte’s subordinate is a Royalist!”

Just then.

“Is this Bonaparte a [thief]? Carrier?”

Before they knew it, the ranks of Eugene’s company had parted, and two people appeared.

It was Napoleon and Eugene.

***

In this era, Royalists were synonymous with traitors.

If Angelique was a Royalist, then her fiancé, Marceau, would certainly be suspected of being a Royalist.

In a world where what the Revolutionary Army pointed out became the truth.

However, there was something Carrier hadn’t considered.

Napoleon looked coldly at Carrier and smiled.

“Say it again, Carrier. That I am a Royalist thief?”

Carrier gritted his teeth, glared at Napoleon, and spat out as if chewing.

“That’s what an investigation will reveal! If you have a Royalist subordinate, your loyalty is naturally questioned!”

“Say it again. Here, Marceau may have noble acquaintances. He may even love those acquaintances! But it was this Major Marceau who shot the Royalist commander and annihilated the enemy vanguard. Are you saying that this major betrayed the Republic?”

“That’s right!”

Carrier shouted with all his might at Napoleon’s oppressive question.

“If you have a Royalist lover, you’re a Royalist, and if you have a Royalist subordinate, you’re also a Royalist!”

Suddenly, silence hovered over the Loire River.

Because Napoleon was smiling coldly.

Clearly, Carrier’s claim was dangerous and could be used as an excuse to put Napoleon in prison at any time.

But why was Napoleon smiling?

Because he had found a loophole.

“Are you questioning the loyalty of this Napoleon, who was recognized by Monsieur Robespierre? Is that so?”

Carrier’s mouth dropped open at that moment.

Because he realized what he had done.

A Royalist subordinate is a Royalist?

Then, when Napoleon was called a Royalist, was Robespierre, who was Napoleon’s superior, also a Royalist?

“No, that’s not it!”

Instantly, all of Carrier’s soldiers, including Westermann, turned around in surprise.

Everyone knew that the massacre could be a problem.

That’s why they had impulsively tried to induce ‘treason.’

But what if Napoleon became their enemy as a result?

It would be even more problematic if Robespierre was really behind him.

It was said that Robespierre was presenting the guillotine to those who were branded as traitors in Paris.

Just as Carrier and Westermann were about to touch their necks with a chilling feeling.

-Swish!

When the surprised Carrier turned his head, Eugene was cutting the prisoners’ ropes with a dagger.

“What are you doing, cutting the ropes!”

“They are prisoners, but it’s enough to imprison them. Drowning them is a violation of the Republic’s criminal law, Carrier.”

“Ha! You arrogant bastard, are you flaunting your power because you trust General Bonaparte!”

However, Eugene retorted coldly.

“No, we’re going to Paris to get a decision. Ten Royalist ringleaders. We’ll have them formally tried in Paris. And you too.”

Carrier was momentarily stunned by the very cold notification, then widened his eyes.

“What? Me? Why?”

“The crime of killing people without trial, the crime of carrying out a massacre without the government’s orders, and above all, the crime of losing La Rochelle.”

“Wait, that was Rossignol, not me!”

Eugene sneered at Carrier, who was evading responsibility to Rossignol even in this situation.

“That’s also something the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris will decide. I’ll testify about the crime of trying to kill at least 3,000 people here without trial. General Bonaparte has already sent a letter to Paris!”

Nantes, on the banks of the Loire River.

In the original history, in 1794, the Revolutionary Army drowned the Royalists in the river.

Even though Eugene and Napoleon had changed the war situation, Carrier was trying to carry out the same mass murder.

However, Carrier didn’t realize that Napoleon had already sent a letter to Paris demanding a formal trial.

Carrier collapsed to the ground.

One of the Royalist soldiers, his ropes untied, stared blankly at Eugene and bowed his head.

“T, thank you.”

At that moment, Rochejacquelein, who had been glaring from the center of the ranks, stood up abruptly.

“This Rochejacquelein will testify in Paris! Even if we have committed crimes, General Bonaparte and the knight of this princess are innocent!”

The soldiers, the prisoners, and Eugene looked at Rochejacquelein in surprise.

Napoleon blinked, not even expecting those words.

However, Rochejacquelein was now uttering a cry that was not prepared in advance, but bursting from his heart.

“That’s not as a nobleman, but to die without shame before God as a Catholic! Everyone, swear to me.”

Rochejacquelein shouted to the 3,000 Royalists.

“Let us risk our lives for this general and this boy, who risked their lives for us!”

The trial by the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris was extremely dangerous.

However, even making them undergo that trial could incur the displeasure of the rulers of Paris.

Rochejacquelein realized that Napoleon and Eugene had taken that risk.

In an instant, 3,000 Royalists began to shout.

“We swear!”

“Holy Mary, bless this young man and boy!”

“We’ll testify or do whatever it takes! Viva Bonaparte!”

The shouts filled Nantes like wildfire.

“Viva Bonaparte!” [Long live Bonaparte!]

Long live Bonaparte.

A slogan that later, in the original history, only ‘Bonapartists’ would shout.

That was now echoing among the Royalist nobles and peasants who strictly served the French royal family.

Napoleon, who had been blinking, turned to Eugene.

Napoleon was embarrassed and also agitated by the experience he was having for the first time.

“This isn’t even a victory in war, what on earth is going on?”

Eugene quietly looked at the crowd, the shouts, and the enthusiasm, and looked at Napoleon proudly.

“Now, they are the general’s supporters.”

January 1794.

When Napoleon was still just a general.

Bonaparte enthusiasts, the first Bonapartists, were born.

A fanatical Napoleon support group that also supported Eugene.