I Became A Genius Of The French Royal Family [EN]: Chapter 214

The Spoon Murderer

A war for the ethnic minorities suffering under Qing oppression.

Looking closely, it’s utter nonsense, but as far as justification goes, it’s not bad. It just so happens that rebellions by ethnic minorities are springing up like mushrooms in the Qing Dynasty right now.

If we tie in the past missionary assassination incident and keep harping on it, we can find a reason to participate that is completely separate from opium.

“This war has great implications. It will be an opportunity for the home country and France to be recognized as the world’s strongest powers, not just European powers.”

“Hmm…”

“Moreover, if the Qing’s ethnic minorities break away as planned, they will call us saviors, just like Greece does now. That way, opium will naturally be forgotten from people’s memories.”

“Yes, that’s definitely true.”

“As expected, Prime Minister. I knew you would understand. Then, let’s proceed to coordinate the detailed contents immediately…”

Pitt, completely riding the wave, reached out to sign the treaty, assuming France’s participation in the war.

However…

“But Prime Minister Pitt, I never said France would participate.”

At my words, Pitt’s hand stopped in mid-air.

“…Excuse me? But surely…”

“The fact that Britain’s plan is plausible is a completely separate issue from our participation, isn’t it?”

Let the preachers of freedom do their thing.

Trying to subtly involve us and get us to sign.

“Prime Minister Pitt, I clearly asked: what benefits will we get if we side with you?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying until now…”

“That’s not enough. As I said before, we automatically benefit just by staying still. You need to be generous enough to make it sound like we’d be fools not to participate, at least.”

Originally, my judgment was leaning towards non-participation by a ratio of 9:1.

There’s no room for debate on this.

It was a decision anyone with a brain would make.

Still, after listening to Pitt’s long speech a little while ago, I had a slight change of heart.

It wasn’t that I was tempted by the conditions he offered, but that I got to know Pitt’s personality better.

A truly rare talent with the ability and character befitting the title of Prime Minister of the British Empire—and even blaming others.

But I had to admit that his patriotism, thinking of his country’s interests, was also outstanding.

If we completely ignored Britain’s request, what decision would Pitt make?

To secure the current regime’s re-election, they would have no choice but to wage war against the Qing. I didn’t think they had any other options.

But now, I thought that man might give up the war and choose to be ousted himself for the sake of his country.

It’s not a bad flow for France, but it’s not a very satisfactory result.

It’s like getting only about 10% of the 100% profit we could get.

From that perspective, the most certain way to extract the biggest profit is to start a war after all.

And then we just have to take most of the spoils of war.

If they don’t like it, they can give up the regime and retire from politics.

“If Britain accepts the conditions we propose, we will consider participating in the war. If not, this meeting is over, and Britain will have to fight a lonely battle.”

“…I understand. Let’s hear what your country wants.”

“First, even if we achieve satisfactory results in this war, I hope you will refrain from selling any more opium. You understand why, right?”

If they keep selling opium even after the war, the justification we put forward will lose its power.

And more than anything, France will not be able to avoid the stigma of being a country that cooperated in a war to sell drugs.

“…That’s…”

“At least, we, France, cannot cooperate with a country that starts a war to sell drugs. Let’s make that clear first.”

“I understand. If the result ends in victory, ‘we’ won’t need to insist on selling opium anymore. There are plenty of additional rights we can obtain.”

Pitt, emphasizing the word ‘we,’ surprisingly accepted our request without resistance.

Of course, I can see through what he’s thinking.

He’s planning to officially ban sales but continue to extract silver through smuggling behind the scenes.

Anyway, it’s not bad for me whether those guys secretly do that or not.

In the long run, we can gain the reputation of appropriately controlling Britain’s reckless behavior.

“And one more thing. If we are to be ceded territory in Qing and demand additional treaty ports, we will have the priority in negotiations.”

“Excuse me?”

“In other words, if there is a situation where we occupy land, we will be the first to choose the area we want.”

When it comes to establishing a base in Northeast Asia and expanding our influence, the most valuable areas are Guangzhou’s core area and Hong Kong.

If we put a stake in these places, we can consider the first stage of the plan a success.

“…You don’t mean to give France all the occupied territories, do you?”

“Of course not. It would only be difficult to manage if we greedily ate up land on the opposite side of the globe from our home country.”

“Then I understand. I’ll concede that much.”

“And we will also have priority negotiation rights for railway construction and telegraph installation. After all, we have the best technology in Europe, so nothing will change even if we go through competitive bidding.”

“……”

Pitt’s face gradually soured as he listened to the demands.

“Wait a minute…”

“And above all, this is the most important thing. Since Britain is declaring war, advocating for the freedom of ethnic minorities, I ask that you fulfill that role.”

“…Excuse me?”

“I mean, you’ve put up the slogan of liberating ethnic minorities, so make sure you deliver results. That way, the position of the allies who trusted you and jumped into the war together won’t be difficult.”

One of the important reasons for participating in this war is this.

It was the liberation of ethnic minorities that Pitt had put forward.

To put it coldly, the country with the greatest potential in the world right now is undoubtedly China.

Especially since the American continent is divided into the United States and Nouvelle France [New France], and Russia’s future is uncertain, there is no country with more potential than China.

Looking at the original history alone, even though they were so miserably defeated from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, they grew to be called G2 [the world’s second-largest economy] in just a few decades.

If we look more than 100 years into the future from now, the Qing Dynasty should be split up around this time.

Originally, I was going to wait about 20 years before taking action, but the Opium War, which broke out earlier than expected, became a variable.

What if the Qing Dynasty devoured Britain and used this opportunity to usher in another period of revival?

The possibility is infinitely low, but the butterfly effect of history could flow in any way.

So, now that things have turned out this way, let’s make the most of this opportunity.

We’ll take all the promising rights in the future, and leave Britain with an appropriate level of profit and the task of cleaning up the mess.

Above all, the demand that you keep the justification you claimed is by no means unreasonable, is it?

“Prime Minister Pitt, didn’t you say earlier that the ethnic minorities would praise us as saviors? I’m saying to make that a reality.”

“No…but that’s a little…”

Looking at his flustered face, it seems he had no interest in the liberation of ethnic minorities at all.

People in this era, who don’t know how much national power China will have in the future, can’t help but not think in that direction.

“You can’t achieve true sustainable growth by pursuing only interests in war.”

“I know that too. The problem is how the Qing Dynasty will react if we sincerely bring up that issue.”

Of course, they would vehemently protest and shout absolute impossibility.

You’d have to roll around like crazy to fix it.

“The separation of ethnic minorities is an act of directly wielding a knife against the Sinocentrism [the belief that China is the center of the world] that has continued for thousands of years. There will be considerable backlash.”

“…Sinocentrism?”

“You can understand it as a kind of ideology that the empires of the Central Plains have used to justify their rule.”

“The task of collapsing that will be very difficult…do you have any brilliant ideas?”

“That’s what you have to think hard about now.”

Is it a little harsh to demand this high-level task from a country that has neatly drawn lines on a healthy continent and torn it apart?

But the Britain I know is a country that really does it if it sets its mind to it.

How else would the keyword summarizing India’s colonial stabilization policy be ‘divide and rule’?

In particular, Britain’s ability to divide and conquer can shine in a country made up of multiple ethnic groups.

“But no matter how hard we try, it’s hard to achieve results in the short term.”

“Of course, I’m not saying to produce results as soon as the war is over. This is a task that must be carried out little by little, delicately, over a period of ten years. And that’s why we need to leave solid evidence in writing.”

“…Hoo…”

Pitt took a long sigh and scratched his head.

I didn’t urge him to answer.

If he didn’t like it, he could just overturn the table and crash and die alone, or he could give up the war and have his cabinet resign en masse.

Either way, Britain would only lose, with only a difference in degree, and France would benefit.

Conversely, if he accepted my proposal, France would gain immeasurable benefits, but Britain would not lose either.

It may be that the tail wags the dog if he accepts all of our demands, but Pitt’s ability should be able to handle it somehow.

Even though it’s just a hope torture, being able to promise the future is a strong temptation that’s hard to resist.

In the end, Pitt bit his lip once as expected and slowly opened his mouth.

“…I understand. Assuming that we accept France’s proposal…let’s coordinate the details.”

“Thank you. Oh, and if possible, I’d like your country to bear the cost of supplying coal to our steamships. We plan to resupply once in India, so that shouldn’t be difficult, right?”

“No, France should bear that much…”

“Then is the negotiation over?”

“…I’ll consider it positively.”

That’s right, that’s right. The one who’s desperate has to take the hit.

Isn’t this the charm of negotiation, where each other’s understanding and friendship coincide?

※※※

“Ambassador! Long time no see.”

“Haha, didn’t we meet two weeks ago?”

Russian Ambassador Alexander’s face was full of amiable smiles today as well.

“Today, I have brought up an agenda that will benefit both countries.”

“Oh! As expected. I can’t help but be moved by the Prime Minister’s consideration, who always strives for the friendship between France and Russia.”

“Aren’t we blood brothers bound by blood? Of course, we have to share the good things.”

“Thanks to France’s consideration, the work of going down to the Central Asian region is going smoothly.”

Alexander looked at the ever-growing map of Russia with pleasure and continued.

“There are ignorant complaints that it’s not a very wealthy area, so there’s not much to take yet, but those people don’t know the value of the future.”

“Still, you can’t completely ignore those voices. You never know when you’ll get into trouble if you ignore minor complaints. In that respect, this plan may be an opportunity for Russia as well.”

“If it’s an opportunity…?”

“Britain will wage war with the Qing Dynasty. You probably already know that, right?”

Alexander nodded nonchalantly.

“Who wouldn’t know? We are predicting that Britain will be defeated.”

“That won’t be the case. Several countries, including the home country and Spain, are planning to intervene in this war.”

“Excuse me? Why is France…?”

“You would understand if Britain promised to guarantee that much interest. When I told Spain this fact, they asked to be included with the intention of grabbing a share.”

In fact, I hinted to Spain that Russia would also participate.

So Spain, judging that it would be left behind if things continued like this, hurriedly made a decision.

Anyway, Russia will participate with the same idea, so I didn’t lie, right?

This is something that is being done in the spirit of everyone benefiting.

“Britain, France, Spain…an unimaginable combination.”

“Now that the 판 [a Korean word for ‘game’ or ‘situation’] has grown this big, the victory itself is as good as confirmed. Now that the situation has become like this, I was worried that we hadn’t notified only Russia of this fact. Above all, Russia is in a position to attack Qing by land, unlike us.”

“Of course.”

If the European Allied Fleet strikes the south of Qing, Russia can freely stir up the northern border of Qing.

And it will be able to gain an overwhelming advantage in negotiations using this as an excuse.

There’s no way Alexander wouldn’t know this simple truth.

He leaned his body towards me unconsciously and asked urgently.

“Then can we also get a share of this?”

“Of course. However, you must accept the conditions we have set.”

“Hahaha, of course. You told me about this good opportunity, so I should be happy to concede. His Majesty will also gladly accept.”

I handed Alexander the documents I had prepared in advance with a very kind smile.

The expenses required to operate the fleet will be received from Britain, and even if the Spanish and Russian troops are moved, the cost to be borne by us will be negligible.

Anyway, we have already agreed on all the benefits we will take in advance, and if we tell Spain, Russia, and Britain to divide the rest, the amount of pie that one person will take will be reduced accordingly.

The more I think about it, the more I chew on it, the better it tastes.

Thank you 혐… 아니 Britain and Pitt.

Your struggle will make me stronger.

End of