I Became A Genius Of The French Royal Family [EN]: Chapter 193

Became a Genius of the French Royal Family 193 I Want It (193/355)

< Because I Want It >

Pitt returned to England as soon as the closing ceremony ended.

He immediately convened Parliament and summoned top experts from various fields to hear their opinions directly.

“The French Téméraire-class battleship is certainly a threat to our country. From a purely technical point of view, I think their battleship is at least as good as ours, if not better.”

“We shouldn’t just look at the technical aspects. We need to consider whether France can really concentrate its investment in naval power like that. There’s no reason to believe what Prime Minister Christian says at face value.”

“According to our investigation, France currently has the capacity to do so. Please see the results reviewed by the scholars. France was originally a uniquely wealthy country in Europe. They just haven’t been able to use it properly until now.”

France’s current financial situation has long since moved beyond its previous miserable state.

However, most lawmakers knew this in their heads, but they didn’t know exactly how much it was in numbers.

Their perception was superficial, just thinking, ‘It’s gotten a lot better, so it must be.’

When they confirmed this with accurate figures, the seriousness of the situation hit them hard.

“The New France [French colonies in North America] is not included in these figures. If you consider how much New France has benefited from the American Civil War, you should see that France has much stronger national power than we think.”

“In addition, there is intelligence that they have extracted considerable compensation from Prussia, and resources from the land acquired by the Habsburgs are flowing into France without anyone knowing. In conclusion, France’s current economic power is at a unique level in Europe.”

“Come to think of it, there’s also the existence of the steam locomotive that the Prime Minister himself rode, isn’t there? Was it really that threatening?”

Unlike Pitt, who had seen and ridden the locomotive in person, many of the lawmakers didn’t seem to think it was a big deal.

“Wouldn’t it be enough to just organize more carriages?”

“I think so too. I saw something made using a steam engine last time, and it wasn’t particularly impressive. I think it would be faster to just ride a horse, right?”

With each word of these complacent voices, Pitt’s face gradually distorted.

This isn’t necessarily because British lawmakers lack a sense of reality.

Originally, when something completely different from the existing one is born, a lot of verification and questioning is bound to pour out.

Besides, even if it sounds like a new invention, only one or two out of 100 items that come out with that title succeed.

How many people in the world can accurately distinguish whether this is a money-eating hippopotamus or a goose that lays golden eggs?

Of course, the conclusion is that the latter is more likely at the moment.

However, that’s why lawmakers are receiving tremendous lobbying from various industries that use carriages.

If a power innovation occurs with steam engines, the profits of industries using carriages will naturally decline.

Due to these various interests, there is a growing reality of people who are just blindly opposing it.

Until now, he had just brushed it off, but now was not the time to do that.

England must have a sense of crisis.

Pitt felt the need to completely overhaul this soft perception.

“The steam engine that you think of and the steam engine that France is using now are almost different things. In the future, France’s locomotives will be able to transport much faster and more goods. If there is anyone who doesn’t know what this means, raise your hand right now, because such a person is not qualified to maintain a seat in the next election.”

“No, Prime Minister. Even so, that’s too extreme…”

“Look at how much the consumption of coal and iron is increasing right now! And think about how quickly materials can be transported if that railroad is laid all over the country! No matter how hard we try, there will be a physical gap that we cannot fill. And that gap will only continue to accumulate!”

At Pitt’s scolding, a sense of tension gradually began to circulate in the eyes of the lawmakers.

The atmosphere became heavy as the opposition party seemed to realize that it was not the time to oppose for the sake of opposition.

“So, what do you want to do, Prime Minister?”

“We must immediately recruit excellent scientists to improve the steam engine. And we must expand our excellent warships that are not inferior to France’s new battleships. Fortunately, we have achieved a considerable number of the things we were aiming for in this meeting. Now is the time to consolidate our internal affairs.”

“It sounds good, but everything you’re talking about requires money. An enormous amount of budget must be additionally allocated, but do you have any countermeasures?”

“We’ll try to raise as much as possible from our country, but if that’s not enough, we’ll have no choice but to bring it in from overseas, right?”

If there is a shortage of money, we have to squeeze it out. What else can we do?

First, we can squeeze as much as we can and compensate them later.

Fortunately, India was a wealthy place, so we could extract enough money if we tried.

“Honorable members of Parliament, I earnestly ask you to approve the enactment of a special law for the future of the British Empire.”

There is no room for conflict between the ruling and opposition parties in the face of the value of the glory of the British Empire.

England has always united in the face of crisis and achieved victory.

The result will not be different this time either.

It was definitely the right choice to take control of India.

Pitt watched the process of the special law being passed with overwhelming support, feeling a sense of relief and anxiety.

※※※

After the successful hosting of the Paris Peace Conference.

Louis XVI pleaded for leniency, saying that he would never be lazy again.

I’m not a cold-blooded person without blood or tears, so I don’t turn a blind eye to the voices of those who ask for forgiveness.

I generously decided to have him take charge of official events once a month and review important matters and express his opinions.

What I want is not really something grand.

All I need is for him to pretend to work, but that’s not that difficult, is it?

Even if he is a constitutional monarch, it’s troublesome if rumors spread that ‘the king does nothing and only plays’.

Still, thanks to my tireless efforts, the conference itself ended very successfully.

All the strategies I had planned in the beginning hit the mark, so now I just have to wait leisurely for them to sprout.

And the person who will play the last role in that piece did not return home even after the peace conference ended.

Since the story had already been discussed in advance, the reason was provided by this side.

Mehmed Ali, the tax collector of Kabala, who was said to have suddenly developed a fever and whose return home was delayed, was fidgeting in front of me, fiddling with his teacup.

“How is it? Didn’t everything proceed as I said?”

“…Yes. I apologize once again for not trusting your words, Prime Minister. Please forgive me…”

“It’s natural that you couldn’t believe it at first. But now that the results are out, can we have a more constructive conversation?”

“Yes, yes, of course.”

Mehmed Ali was born in Ottoman Macedonia.

Even though his name is similar, he was an Albanian who had nothing to do with the person who flew like a butterfly and stung like a bee [a reference to Muhammad Ali, the famous boxer].

At first glance, he was just one of the many young men scattered throughout the Ottoman Empire, but I knew how skilled he was in scheming.

A master of scheming who cleverly used the decline of the Mamluks and Ottomans to build the Egyptian kingdom in the original history.

He doesn’t know it yet, but I had already marked him as a reliable source of money on this side.

“The Ottoman Empire has already lost its authority as an empire and will never be able to restore its former glory.”

“I certainly understand that point. But I still don’t understand how that relates to your story, Prime Minister.”

“Are you talking about the advice to seize the position of Governor of Egypt?”

“Yes. Egypt is still Ottoman territory anyway. The momentum of the Mamluks, who are calling for independence, cannot be ignored either. Unless Europe intervenes directly, the current state of stagnation will continue.”

It is a realistic judgment. Perhaps almost all European countries think this way.

I deliberately focused only on Egypt at the conference.

“Ali, if you are appointed as the Governor of Egypt, it will not be difficult to expel the Mamluks or Ottoman forces.”

“No, that’s impossible. Even if I am appointed to Egypt, I will have no choice but to watch the two major forces and end up watching them.”

“Because those two major forces will be swept away soon.”

The reason why Mehmed Ali was able to expel the native Mamluks and seize power in Egypt was because he did not miss a sure opportunity.

It was an unexpected gain thanks to Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition.

At that time, the Ottoman and Mamluk forces were brutally defeated in front of Napoleon’s military tactics, and thanks to this, Ali was able to easily plant his flag in Egypt, which had become a no man’s land.

Of course, the current France had no justification for attacking Egypt like Napoleon in the original history.

He made his intentions clear at the Paris Conference.

“…I have no idea what you are looking at, Prime Minister.”

“This Paris Conference issued an official statement that it is not right to forcibly oppress a people who have achieved a brilliant civilization. Egypt was directly mentioned as a representative example.”

“I know that. Perhaps when this news is delivered, the locals in Egypt will not be able to hide their excitement. But that’s it. It’s too optimistic to be sure that the situation in Egypt will change simply because of this…”

“No. It’s not Egypt that’s changing.”

“…Yes?”

I clicked my tongue at Ali, who didn’t know what was going on at all, and emptied my wine glass.

I guess Egypt’s aggro [a term from gaming, meaning to draw attention] was amazing.

I thought at least one or two people would notice, but everyone’s attention was focused on that side.

“Who are the people who achieved a brilliant civilization in ancient times, were praised by all Europeans, but were occupied by the Ottomans and suffered from oppression?”

“That’s Egypt, which we’ve been talking about so far, isn’t it?”

“There’s one more besides Egypt. Unlike Egypt, which is operated as an autonomous region by the Mamluks, there are people who have a much greater desire for independence. You were born there, so you must know the atmosphere?”

“Ah…!”

Ali opened his mouth in shock and froze.

He couldn’t believe why he hadn’t noticed such a simple thing.

“Do you know? Recently, a romanticism craze, different from the existing classicism, is blowing in Europe. One of the characteristics of this romanticism is the longing for the Roman and Greek eras.”

“…”

“But Rome is somehow maintaining its form within the Papal States, but what about Greece… Oh my. It’s fallen into the hands of those infidels and the splendor of the old days cannot be found.”

Currently, a Greek sympathy theory is spreading like wildfire among intellectuals in Europe without anyone knowing.

No, not only in Europe, but also in the United States, these voices are coming out.

The government’s high-ranking officials have not yet noticed, but it is only a matter of time before they find out.

“If we mobilize the media to sympathetically cover the poor reality of Greece, public opinion will form on its own. If we inform Greece of the contents of the resolutions passed at this peace conference, the effect will be doubled.”

“Could it be that the area you were aiming for from the beginning was not Egypt but Greece, Prime Minister?”

“To be exact, it’s both. No. To be honest, I’m not very interested in Greece.”

The independence of Greece is nothing more than a good justification for this side to intervene in Turkish territory.

Of course, other European powers will drool and rush to the bait of Greek independence.

“But Prime Minister. There is also one weakness here. Greece has been ruled by the Ottomans for almost 400 years. The Ottomans will try to defend Greece no matter what. They will never allow independence.”

“That’s what the Ottomans would do.”

“But how are you going to make Greece independent…?”

“What does it matter whether the Ottomans allow independence or not?”

I smiled mockingly and placed chess pieces with the flags of the great powers engraved on the Greek region on the map.

“Russia, England, and France want it.”

And above all…

Because I want it.

< Because I Want It > End