I Became A Genius Of The French Royal Family [EN]: Chapter 273

Became a Genius of the French Royal Family Episode 273: As You Sow, So Shall You Reap (273/355)

< As You Sow, So Shall You Reap >

The French 3rd Army marched south with such force that it seemed they could handle the entire Boxer Rebellion single-handedly.

The Qing Dynasty’s regular army, who had been watching their advance with bated breath, cursed the Boxers’ foolishness.

But what was this?

Wang Qing triumphantly returned with about half of his warriors, claiming he had forced the French 3rd Army to retreat.

“Those French bastards weren’t as tough as I thought.”

“Y-you really repelled them?”

Commander-in-Chief Mingliang, who had joined the group late, asked Wang Qing again, his mouth agape.

“H-how… their weapons should have been far superior to ours. Did you really win?”

“If you’re so curious, go and see for yourself. The 3rd Army retreated under our offensive. Otherwise, how could we have returned so leisurely?”

“T-that’s…”

Mingliang vividly remembered the nightmarish power of the 2nd Army, which had annihilated his Eight Banners Army [Qing Dynasty military units].

Therefore, no matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t believe that the Boxers had defeated them with only 100,000 men.

“Is the 3rd Army… really that much weaker than the 2nd Army? If so, I can understand…”

“…Ah, yes… well, maybe that’s it. Didn’t you say that the French unit you fought was an elite force? It seems the ones we fought were weaker. Ahem!”

Reflecting on the previous battle, Mingliang’s words were correct, but he couldn’t say it outright.

Wang Qing decided to use Mingliang’s reasoning as an excuse.

“Their weapons were good, but they didn’t seem very skilled at using them. So, they had no choice but to be defeated by our army, which charged in disregarding death.”

“Aha! That makes sense. I mean… it wouldn’t make sense for there to be tens of thousands more of those devilish guys.”

Wang Qing didn’t care that things seemed to be spiraling out of control.

After all, his purpose in returning here was only one thing from the start.

“Well, shall we go discuss what to do next?”

“Yes, we should. The others are already here.”

“That’s fortunate. It will speed things up.”

Following Mingliang into the tent, Wang Qing greeted the other leaders who were already seated with a smile.

“Comrades, it’s truly a pleasure to see you all again.”

“The hero who repelled the Westerners has arrived! Hahaha, our unit has accomplished something that no one in Qing has ever achieved, making me feel proud!”

“That’s right. It’s painful that we used up almost all the talismans that protect our bodies… but we still achieved victory.”

“Hahaha! Winning is all that matters.”

The Boxer leaders, Zhang Fugu and Zhao Dejing, seemed to have no doubt about Wang Qing’s victory.

The fact that they had used up almost all the collected medicine unintentionally inspired trust.

Mingliang, who was sitting on the opposite side, asked cautiously.

“But did you talk to Major James? He was very angry and sailed away.”

“When we said we were going to fight the French, he foamed at the mouth and opposed it. Well, the results have proven that their eyes were like pinholes.”

“Aren’t they Westerners anyway! There’s no way those stupid Westerners can make proper judgments!”

Wang Qing laughed and joked as if he felt no guilt at his comrades’ agreement.

“That’s exactly right. Whose country is this! We must protect it with our own strength, without borrowing the power of dirty Westerners. And as we have proven this time, we have enough power to do so!”

“…Then, can we know how much damage you inflicted on the enemy? Knowing that would make it easier to plan for the future.”

“Ah~ the extent of the damage. Right. Well… the battle was so intense that I don’t know exactly…”

*Should I say that half of them died since half of us died?*

*No, even so, that would be too obvious.*

“It seems we inflicted about 10,000 casualties out of the enemy’s 30,000 troops… or a little less. But it must have been over 5,000.”

“10,000!”

Mingliang’s eyes widened as he opened his mouth.

It was only natural for him to react that way, since they had thrown in over 100,000 men and couldn’t kill a single enemy, but the Boxers had killed nearly 10,000 enemy soldiers.

“T-then, you should have been able to capture their weapons. Taking those would be a huge help to our forces…”

“Well… I was going to, but they were incredibly quick to collect the weapons of their fallen comrades. It seems they didn’t want to hand over their weapons to us.”

“No, even so…”

“And we also suffered quite a bit of damage, so we had to consider the enemy’s counterattack. You could say it couldn’t be helped.”

Despite his desperate excuses, Mingliang looked unconvinced.

However, he didn’t ask any further, perhaps because he was aware of the other Boxer leaders’ expressions.

“Ahem! Anyway, that’s not what’s important to us. Right now, His Majesty must be eagerly awaiting our victory report. I heard he even fled to Manchuria this time, so we must bring his sacred body back to the Forbidden City as soon as possible.”

“That’s… right.”

As soon as the war broke out, the Jiaqing Emperor fled to Manchuria from the Rehe Palace to avoid Christian’s retaliation.

As Mingliang, the emperor’s subject, the safety of the emperor was brought up, he had no choice but to put aside his doubts.

Certainly, if the war dragged on, there was a high possibility that the already weakened emperor’s body would not be able to withstand it.

Wang Qing, judging that the atmosphere had shifted, drove in the final wedge.

“Then, it’s our turn to take the offensive, taking advantage of the momentum. Even though we have suffered great losses, we still have nearly 250,000 troops left. But they only have about 20,000. There’s no way we can lose with 12 times their forces.”

“But Admiral Nelson of the British Empire repeatedly told us not to fight…”

“Hasn’t it already been proven that that was a wrong decision! If we obediently follow their words here, they will look down on us even more. Rather, we need to show them our strength here so that they don’t see us as pushovers.”

Every word was logical, so Mingliang couldn’t refute it.

Certainly, if they carried out the war according to Britain’s instructions from start to finish, they might really become their colony after the war.

They needed to show their strength at least once.

“Are you really… sure about this?”

“Of course, I am.”

“Good. Then let’s go out and… have a decisive battle with those French bastards.”

“Ooooh!”

Even throughout the entire history of the Qing Dynasty, there haven’t been many instances where such a large army was committed to a single battle.

Moreover, if it’s a do-or-die gamble with the fate of the nation on the line, what more needs to be said?

The Boxer leaders, now the main players on this grand stage of history, cheered enthusiastically and applauded.

Their minds must have been filled with visions of the rewards they would reap by leading this war to victory.

Mingliang, too, wore an awkward smile as he imagined himself being praised as the savior of the Qing.

Wang Qing responded to their gazes with a relaxed smile, meeting their attention head-on.

‘Good. Now, all that’s left is to take all of those bastards’ assets and run away.’

Would he be crazy enough to fight those devils again?

Whether he commands 200,000 or 250,000 men, it means nothing against those guys and their modern weaponry.

The only reason he was driving his comrades into a certain death trap was simple.

Otherwise, he would be blamed for the defeat and face execution.

Moreover, if he ran away in the night, he wouldn’t even be able to take half of the wealth he had worked so hard to accumulate throughout his life. Why would he do such a foolish thing?

Rather, if he sends those guys away like this, he can slowly recover the assets here and, as a bonus, take the gold and silver that those guys brought with them.

Since they have been together for a long time, he knows his comrades’ habits better than anyone else, and he has a rough idea of where and how they have hidden their assets.

From the beginning, they would have exploited the *Danmin* [outcast or boat people] in a similar way to increase their wealth, so isn’t it obvious?

Whether the country collapses or the nation perishes, Wang Qing had never cared in the slightest.

After taking as much as he can, he can launder his identity later and go to France for investment immigration to enjoy a comfortable life.

He had it all planned out.

※※※

Hubei Province.

French Army Barracks.

At the headquarters that had been newly established after temporarily retreating after the battle, General Laurent was writing a report to send to Christian.

“I’m worried about whether the smoke screen was effective. I wonder if those guys were fooled?”

“I wish that were the case, but wouldn’t it be difficult? If those guys aren’t complete idiots…”

“No, those guys *are* idiots. That’s why they tried to fight us with only that much manpower. The problem is that our smoke screen would have been so unnatural that it would have been difficult to fool even an idiot.”

“Then shouldn’t we just rally the army and advance on them?”

It’s not that he hadn’t thought about that.

However, what Laurent was paying attention to was the enemy’s ununified command structure.

If this could lead to even a slight underestimation of us within the enemy’s ranks, there would be nothing more to wish for.

“First, keep an eye on the movements of those Boxer bastards. We need to see how they react and decide on our course of action.”

“Understood.”

The 3rd Corps pretended to have lost momentum and rarely entered Hunan Province.

As a result, unbelievably, a report came in that the enemy’s large army was gathering in Hunan Province and heading north.

It is a miraculous development that is hard to believe even when seen with one’s own eyes.

“My God… it worked.”

“Could it be that they really thought we had retreated?”

Maybe this is a trap… no, I don’t have to worry about that anymore.

Laurent had already grasped all the enemy’s weaknesses in the last battle.

A disorganized mob armed with *jeongsin-ron* [spiritual strength doctrine], an ideology that wouldn’t have worked since the Middle Ages.

‘No. It wasn’t just that, but I even sensed some ulterior motives.’

Perhaps the leaders leading those guys don’t have the conviction to save the country as they proclaim.

There was still no concrete evidence, but Laurent couldn’t shake off the unsettling feeling.

“…Either way, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that this benefits us.”

If we eradicate the Boxers here, the South will be safe for the time being.

Even though the British fleet was still annoying, they couldn’t directly enter the Guangdong inland and occupy the cities.

“General. Still, the enemy’s army is estimated to be close to 250,000. That’s more than eight times our strength… shouldn’t we prepare accordingly?”

“Of course. We can’t fight the same way we did last time. This time, we will annihilate the enemy more thoroughly and *hwaksilhage* [certainly/definitely in Korean].”

Laurent recalled what Christian had told him before leaving Beijing.

-The main force of the Boxers is the Han Chinese. And for the peace of this region in the future, it is necessary to weaken the influence of the Han Chinese as much as possible.

There is no more *hwaksilhan* [certain/definite in Korean] way to break the opponent’s strength than to reduce their military power and labor force.

Of course, considering the enormous number of Han Chinese, this level would not be noticeable.

“The enemy is a large army, and we are a minority, no matter how well-equipped we are. It will be difficult to chase and defeat the retreating enemies.”

“But there are plenty of people who will kill the scattered guys for us.”

The atrocities that the Boxers had committed in this area had reached their ears.

“In the end, you reap what you sow. The price for oppressing and persecuting other ethnic groups and wielding power as they please will eventually strangle their own necks.”

Without exaggeration, it is impossible to find other ethnic groups in this area who are friendly to the Han Chinese.

The French army only needs to give them the courage to rise up with an overwhelming victory that anyone can recognize.

In other words, the moment this battle ends.

A great empire centered on the Han Chinese will never appear on the lands of the Central Plains again.

End