When news of the Paris revolution’s success and Napoleon IV’s exile spread, the European continent was shaken by a political earthquake. Anyone with even a little political sense knew that at such a moment, the sudden emergence of a republican government would be disastrous for France. Controlling Paris and controlling France were two entirely different things. Without the threat of an external enemy, the revolutionary government could still use political means to unify the country and gradually purge Bonapartist elements from the bureaucracy and the army. Obviously, that was impossible now. The anti-French coalition would not give them the time to integrate the nation. Facing the coalition’s millions of troops, a revolutionary government that only held Paris had not the slightest chance of winning. Strength was the basis of negotiation. Without sufficient power, hoping for France to preserve its vitality after the war was nothing but a pipe dream. In London, upon receiving this sudden and dreadful news, Prime Minister Gladstone was so furious that he overturned his desk on the spot. As for what happened to France, he could not worry about that now as the key problem was that the fall of the Bonaparte dynasty had come at the worst possible time. Not long before, they had just reached a secret agreement with Napoleon IV to purchase the entirety of the French Navy’s capital ships for the sum of 18 million pounds. They had thought they had secured a bargain, but before the ink was even dry, the Bonaparte dynasty had ceased to exist. With the dynasty gone, there was naturally no one to honor the secret deal. This was no longer the age when Britain stood unrivaled, and even if the British government wanted to force the revolutionary government to fulfill the agreement, they had no grounds to use that secret pact as leverage. There was no way around it. The treaty contained far too many clauses aimed at the anti-French coalition. Once exposed, Britain would have no way to operate in Europe. If that were the only issue, it would not have been a big deal. They could simply pretend the secret agreement had never existed. The real problem was that the money already paid out could not be recovered. Originally, it was believed that the French were selling their warships to raise funds to fight Austria, and the British government paid so readily that they handed over half the payment before the ships were even delivered. Now there was nothing more to say. It had instantly become bad debt. Even knowing the money had ended up in the hands of Napoleon IV, the British government had no way to publicly demand repayment. Not only could they not try to collect the debt, they also had to find a way to keep the matter covered up. If word leaked, the plan to acquire the French warships would collapse and political opponents would seize on the breach of procedure. By regulation, such a large transaction had to be approved by Parliament. Clearly, such a secret deal was not suitable for open discussion in Parliament, so the Gladstone cabinet could only act first and report later. There had been precedents for this sort of thing in Britain. As long as it succeeded, no one would criticize it. Unfortunately for Gladstone, this time the move had failed. Once he had calmed down, Prime Minister Gladstone said, “Send someone to contact Napoleon IV immediately. Promise him that as long as he returns the money, we will support his restoration to the throne.” Foreign Secretary George replied helplessly, “It will not work, Prime Minister. We have already sent someone to approach Napoleon IV. His condition is very poor right now, and our people dare not agitate him too much. To avoid an incident, we have only been able to negotiate with the French government in exile. Regrettably, they demanded that the treaty continue to be honored and immediately issued an order for the navy to hand over the warships. Given that the government in exile has already lost control over the navy, such a hasty order is worth little more than waste paper. We can only refuse.” No matter how far he had fallen, an emperor was still an emperor. When the British representative saw that Napoleon IV was on the verge of death, his original intent to demand answers instantly vanished. Unable to tell whether the illness was real or feigned, the British representative naturally dared not take the risk. He feared that provoking him too much might cause Napoleon IV to die on the spot, leaving Britain accused of driving an emperor to his death. Since Napoleon IV did not appear, the French government in exile simply played dumb. It was clear they did not believe the British government’s promises and intended to keep the enormous sum of money. Hearing this, Gladstone asked through gritted teeth, “Do they really think we would not dare to retaliate? Eliminating a government in exile does not require much effort.” Foreign Secretary George shook his head and said with a wry smile, “Prime Minister, the French truly do not fear us taking action against them right now. Although Napoleon IV is in exile overseas, the Bonaparte dynasty has not lost all of its foundations. Because of their hatred, these people are now perhaps the most determined anti-Austrian faction in France, and Napoleon IV is their natural leader. Whether it is the House of Orléans or the House of Bourbon, neither will step forward to oppose Austria at this moment. If the revolutionary government surrenders to the anti-French coalition, all the anti-Austrian forces in France will rally to them. If we destroy them, we will shatter France’s internal anti-Austrian forces, which would essentially hand Austria a great advantage. At this moment, not only must we refrain from making a move against them, we must find ways to strengthen them and even support their restoration to the throne, to prevent there being only one voice on the European continent. From this perspective, as long as the Bonaparte dynasty continues to oppose Austria, there is no harm in letting them keep the money.” Knowing full well they had been swindled, yet unable to retaliate and instead having to increase their support, Gladstone felt the world had gone mad. Yet this was the reality. For the sake of Britain’s national interests, the French government in exile had to continue to exist, otherwise France’s anti-Austrian factions would have no organization to rally around. After a moment of thought, Prime Minister Gladstone realized the truth and remarked, “Napoleon IV is truly skillful. Without even showing his face, he managed to cheat a huge sum of money out of us.” … “If he is so capable, then why is he in exile?” … “No, something is wrong with the Paris Revolution. The Bonaparte dynasty is not so fragile. It could not have collapsed so quickly! The troops stationed in Paris were Napoleon IV’s personal guard. Unless they had been transferred away, the revolutionaries could never have succeeded. It seems we have all been played. The collapse of the Bonaparte dynasty was orchestrated entirely by Napoleon IV himself, and the current revolutionary government is nothing more than a scapegoat he prepared in advance. This is bad. The continental war will end sooner than expected. Napoleon IV will not give the revolutionary government a chance. The French army at the front is about to run into trouble. There is no time. We must negotiate with the revolutionary government immediately and finalize an agreement before the French surrender.” It was no wonder that Gladstone was considered Britain’s most successful prime minister of the eighteenth century. From just a few clues, he had pieced together the truth of the matter. Everyone knew what Napoleon IV was doing, but it was an open scheme. Even knowing it was a trap, everyone still had to walk into it. From the moment the revolutionaries launched the armed uprising, there was no way back. The responsibility for starting the war was dumped on the bourgeoisie, and the blame for losing it was shifted onto the revolutionaries. Napoleon IV, the emperor, instead became the victim. For the people, there was at least a barely acceptable explanation: the defeat was not because the emperor was incompetent, but because there were too many traitors. With both internal and external troubles breaking out at once, it was simply impossible to carry the burden. Once the peace treaty was signed, the people’s anger would turn toward the revolutionary government that had humbly surrendered, thus easing the blame on the previous regime. … In the vast tides of history, individual power is insignificant. While the Paris Assembly was still bickering over the food crisis, the troops at the front were already cut off from supplies. On October 19, 1891, on the third day without food, the elderly Marshal Patrice de MacMahon publicly issued a telegram titled “Your Conspiracy Has Succeeded.” The message recounted the blood and sacrifice of the French forces at the front in defending the homeland, denounced the revolutionary government for colluding with the enemy and selling out the country, and accused them of deliberately cutting off the army’s supplies to force them to surrender. Immediately afterward, he ordered the troops at the front to lay down their arms and surrender. As if prearranged, the French commanders on the southern, western, and central fronts followed suit, each issuing their own public telegrams. For a time, France was awash with telegrams. It seemed that before surrendering, every French general had to denounce the French revolutionary government, as though failing to do so meant being out of step with the times. Like a great black pot dropping from the sky, the bewildered French revolutionary government was smashed into utter confusion. “Colluding with the enemy and selling out the country”? That was indeed something they had intended to do, but the armistice negotiations had not even started yet, so what exactly were they selling? Explanations were useless. Napoleon IV had carefully planted the mine, and now it had already gone off. The military took a united stance, insisting that the revolutionary government had colluded with the anti-French coalition, cut off supplies to the front-line troops, and forced them to surrender to the enemy. The French revolutionary government had no room to defend itself. It was not that the Bonaparte dynasty had overwhelming influence in the army. If Napoleon IV could truly control the entire military, he would not have gone into exile in the first place. At the root of it all was self-interest. Someone had to take the blame for defeat. Especially for the military, which had lost the war, the postwar days would not be easy. The defeated generals could well imagine the storms of public criticism that awaited them. Like Napoleon IV, they needed a scapegoat to take responsibility. The French revolutionary government happened to be in the right place at the right time. Wanting to be in charge was fine. With just a few telegrams, the French revolutionary government had nominally taken over command of the military. As the new leader, it naturally had to feed the troops, and the responsibility that once belonged to the Bonaparte dynasty now fell on the revolutionary government. Since he had already laid the trap, Napoleon IV made sure not to leave much in the way of strategic supplies in Paris. Even the food and materials stored along the transport routes were either sold off or removed. When the French government took over power, it happened to coincide with the time for sending supplies to the front. Trainloads of goods, already prepared, were seized by the revolutionary army before they could leave Paris. If they continued sending them to the front, they themselves would have gone hungry. There was nothing to discuss. They naturally commandeered them. And once they did, they could not shake off the blame. Without control over local governments and unable to gather enough food in a short time to send to the front, the result was that the front-line troops went without supplies. The damage was done. No matter how the French revolutionary government explained it, the fact remained that the front lines starved because of them. Chaos followed. France as a whole fell into turmoil. With each new public telegram, the French revolutionary government was pushed further into the spotlight. Students and intellectuals who had once supported the revolution began to waver. Nobles, peasants, and some workers, who had opposed the revolution from the start, grew even more hostile toward the government. Even the capitalists who had just been released from prison and had been preparing to seize the fruits of the revolution stopped in their tracks and chose to watch the situation unfold. There was no helping it. The anti-French coalition had already advanced. Paris’s strategic position was poor. It had no natural defenses and was close to the front lines. Once the front-line troops surrendered, Paris itself became the new front. At such a moment, stepping into the central government without the ability to confront the coalition would be nothing but asking for trouble.
*** https://postimg.cc/gallery/PwXsBkC (Maps of the current territories of the countries in this novel made by ScH)
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