The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 842 The Beauty of Xiang Yu

Paris, Saint-Luc Palace.

This royal castle is located in Saint-Luc, on the left bank of the Seine in the western suburbs of Paris. Although it is not famous in later generations, it was one of the three great royal palaces at that time, on par with the Louvre and Versailles.

Napoleon, the First Consul of France, who was about to turn thirty-four, was deep in thought in the Saint-Luc Palace. This famous French emperor was twenty-two years younger than Maupassant, making him a clear junior.

At this time in history, Napoleon had already transformed the French Consulate into the French Empire and had obtained the title of Emperor of France, but he had not yet held a coronation ceremony at Notre Dame Cathedral.

However, in this timeline, because of the existence of the behemoth that is Da Yu outside of Europe, Napoleon was much more cautious. In order to become emperor, he had more than a dozen rounds of communication with Da Yu in private.

He even met with the fifth son of the Great Yu Emperor, Mo Zhouzhen, whose fief was located on the west coast of North America, through the French immigrant leader in Louisiana, to solicit the opinion of the Eastern Emperor Mo Zibu on his claim to the throne.

What could Mo Zibu possibly think? Of course, he hoped for a fierce battle, so he immediately instructed Prince Yan, Mo Zhouzhen, to secretly reply to France.

The Seres Empire had no conflict of interest with the French Consulate and had no intention of helping the Bourbon dynasty to restore itself. It had no other demands as long as the newly established French Empire could properly bury Louis XVI and his wife.

Upon receiving Mozibu's reply, Napoleon became more cautious. He promised Mozibu that the future French Empire would never interfere in Eastern affairs, while inquiring whether an alliance could be reached with the Seres Empire.

An alliance between France as the leader of the West and Seres as the ruler of the East, with both countries jointly ruling (or dividing) the world.

Mo Zibu knew this was a test; if Da Yu didn't respond on this point, Napoleon would become suspicious.

He then immediately ordered Prince Yan, Mo Zhouzhen, to send a secret envoy aboard a large sailing ship from New Spain (Mexico) to Madrid to negotiate with Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte.

The two sides conducted seven rounds of formal negotiations, with the highest-level negotiation being led by Wu Wenchu, a Han Chinese from Annam, who was the father of Consort Wu, the concubine of Prince Yan Mozhouzhen, the Assistant Minister of the Northern Hezhou Governor-General's jurisdiction, and the Earl of Guiren, a member of the Imperial Merit Clan.

Now, it has basically entered the final stage. In the treaty, the Great Yu agreed with Napoleon that the two sides would divide the entire Asian continent along the Persian-Caucasus-Volga-Ural Mountains line.

The rest of the land belonged to Dayu in the north, to France in the south, to Dayu in the south, and to France in the north.

It looks very convincing, but this is just a ruse by Mozibu to give France the confidence to fight against all of Europe.

Only a fool would sign such a treaty, turning the world order into a model of East-West confrontation.

“Brother, the impact of the execution of Duke Angian is far more serious than we anticipated. We seem to have been too hasty.”

At this point, the only person who could still speak frankly to Napoleon and point out his mistakes was his brother, Lucien Bonaparte.

Because of Napoleon's rise to power, the shrewd and cunning Lucien Bonaparte played a crucial role.

Napoleon nodded slowly, realizing that he had indeed only considered domestic factors and had not fully taken into account the influence of foreign countries.

Last year, in 1804, Napoleon faced a very dangerous assassination attempt.

A bomb thrown by royalists nearly hit Napoleon's carriage, killing him instantly. Terrified, Napoleon immediately launched a nationwide manhunt for the royalists.

Since the establishment of the French Republic, assassinations have been rampant in France, as this was the last resort for the royalists, who spared no effort in searching for assassins throughout the country.

It was also much easier to assassinate important figures in the French Republic than during the Bourbon dynasty.

Because the Bourbon dynasty was, after all, a feudal society, the movement of people and the personal dependence of the common people on the nobles were much stronger than during the Republic period.

Since the establishment of the French Republic, in order to develop a capitalist economy, it is impossible to continue to restrict the movement of people on a large scale, and it is necessary to break the personal dependence.

As a result, many migrant workers from other places have entered big cities, hoping to find a job in the city. In extreme poverty, a little money can make these people do dangerous work.

Then, Napoleon received a secret letter stating that the previous assassination attempt was orchestrated by the Prince of Condé, and that the mastermind was the Prince of Condé's son, the Duke of Engian.

Enraged, Napoleon immediately dispatched troops across the Rhine to arrest Duke Engian of Baden, a man who never expected Napoleon to send men to capture him, and brought him to France for trial.

While imprisoned in Vincenburg, Duke Louis Antoine of Enghien denied all the crimes and resolutely refused to admit his involvement in the assassination of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Before his departure, Duke Engian cried out in grief and indignation: "I am going to die for a crime I never committed, and my blood will soak his crown!"

The reason the Duke of Engienne was so grief-stricken was that the secret letter Napoleon received regarding the Duke's involvement in the assassination was not a letter, but rather the confession of Georges Cardudar, a Juanist who had been arrested and was a royalist.

He confessed that a prince would arrive in France and personally oversee the assassination of Napoleon.

However, this was actually a misrepresentation that occurred after being relayed by several intermediaries, and it is also possible that George Kadudar deliberately exaggerated the story in order to gain credit.

There was no prince at all; rather, it was Prince Moggonze of Belgium who arranged for people to deliver revolvers and new high-explosive shells to Georges Cadoudar and other Juan Party members, which would be helpful for assassination.

The police chief in charge of the interrogation, Renier, was overjoyed. He continued to refine the information he had gathered and eventually focused his attention on the Duke of Engien, who lived in Baden and was separated from Alsace, France, by only a river.

This was entirely a political stunt orchestrated by Napoleon to frame someone, with three objectives.

Firstly, from a political perspective, Napoleon needed to demonstrate to the public that nobles with Bourbon lineage were still engaged in the cause of opposing the revolution.

Therefore, in order to protect the revolution, it was necessary to make Napoleon Bonaparte the emperor of the revolutionaries to safeguard the achievements of the Great Revolution.

In reality, it was about protecting the interests of the newly rich members of the revolutionary government who had grown up alongside Napoleon.

They feared losing everything after the Bourbon Restoration and desperately hoped that they could become princes or dukes after Napoleon became emperor.

From a personal perspective, Napoleon needed to use this event to carry out a large-scale purge of the remaining royalists in the country and to severely deter the royalists in exile.

This deterred them from continuing to use assassination as a means to threaten Napoleon's life. Napoleon was afraid that if he wasn't careful, these people would succeed in killing him.

Finally, Napoleon needed to strike at his greatest political enemy, General Jean Victor Moreau, who had played a crucial role in defeating the Holy Roman Empire.

At that time, in the French Consulate government, General Moreau was the only person in the army whose prestige could barely rival that of Napoleon.

Therefore, all forces in the Consulate that opposed Napoleon and those who simply disliked the monarchy began to rally under General Moreau's command.

Napoleon desperately needed to use this assassination attempt to frame General Moreau, to make the people believe that General Moreau had colluded with the Bourbon exiles to assassinate him in an attempt to undermine the achievements of the French Revolution.

Judging from these three points alone, Napoleon achieved all his goals, and he won a resounding victory in this political struggle.

The Bourbon dynasty's elaborate scheme to kill Napoleon certainly made his followers very nervous.

Even the peasants who had received some land from the nobility and clergy during the French Revolution were nervous. They began to actively demand that Napoleon ascend the throne and establish a French Empire that could better protect the fruits of the Revolution and provide Napoleon with higher-level protection.

General Moreau was also completely defeated by Napoleon and implicated in this assassination attempt, which ruined his reputation. He was placed under house arrest in Spain, which was tantamount to exile.

Meanwhile, the Bourbon nobles in exile were terrified, fearing they would be captured and executed like the Duke of Engian. For the next ten years, they largely ceased their assassinations of Napoleon.

But the uproar caused abroad by the execution of Duke Engian far exceeded the Bonaparte brothers' expectations.

Because more than a decade had passed, the fear inflicted on European nobility by the deaths of Louis XVI and his wife had begun to scab over, and few people mentioned them anymore. However, the execution of the Duke of Engián, also a member of the Bourbon dynasty, was like someone violently tearing open this scabbed wound.

This once again unleashed the deepest fears of the European nobility, almost immediately breaking down the defenses of most of them.

Furthermore, Duke Angien was almost the most docile of the exiled Bourbon nobles, because he married a commoner, which went against aristocratic tradition, and he had long been abandoned by the exiled noble group.

The fact that such a low-key and kind-hearted man was still executed led all the European nobles to see Napoleon as the next Robespierre.

In the Rus' Empire, upon receiving the news, Tsar Alexander I erected a shrine for Duke Engian in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, publicly vowing, "Those who have shed the blood of innocents will not be forgiven!"

In Prussia, the news sparked outrage, with even pro-French members of parliament changing their stance. Frederick William III of Prussia was forced to deliver a speech strongly condemning Napoleon, and the pro-French sentiment in Prussia began to shift.

In Austria, Francis II also gave a speech, deeming it an unforgivable crime, and the Austrian army, under the banner of avenging the Duke, began a large-scale mobilization.

In England, the national propaganda machine began to operate at full speed, and Napoleon's already bad reputation in England was completely ruined, turning him into a man-eating monster. The later rumor that Napoleon was only 1.5 meters tall was fabricated at this time.

Under the propaganda of the English state apparatus, ordinary Englishmen were extremely hostile to the French revolutionary government, believing that once the island of Britain was occupied by France, they would fall into a cannibalistic hell, and their desire to resist suddenly increased.

The death of Duke Engian also transformed the Third Coalition against France from a coalition of interests into a coalition of values ​​to some extent.

The atmosphere was unusually silent, making it difficult to breathe. The strong reaction from the European countries caught Napoleon and his advisors off guard.

However, this was not Napoleon's greatest loss. With the arrival of his brother Joseph Bonaparte, an even more shocking piece of news reached the ears of the future emperor.

"The Seris Empire's special envoy, Earl Guiren Wu, has left. He said that killing Duke Angian was unacceptable and that the delegation needs to return to the Seris Empire to consult His Majesty the Emperor in person whether it is necessary to continue negotiations with us!"

As soon as Joseph Bonaparte finished speaking, Lucien Bonaparte immediately shouted.

"That's the excuse. The death of an unknown European duke has nothing to do with the Seres. They just saw that another anti-French alliance was about to emerge in Europe, so they immediately stood on the sidelines to sell themselves for a good price."

As the blows came one after another, Napoleon became much calmer, gently brushing off a few small stains from his clothes.

"I will abandon the Seres, for I have decided to bring India under French rule in the future, and the Seres will forever lose this treasure continent."

Napoleon seemed to have a bit of the brilliance of Xiang Yu in diplomacy. His biggest problem with Dayu was that he regarded India as a treasure that Dayu could not afford to lose.

Napoleon believed in Da Yu's sincerity in negotiations because Wu Wenchun pretended not to budge an inch on the India issue.

"Let the process of crowning me Emperor of France begin quickly! Let the generals mobilize all the warriors of France! Since they oppose us, let's defeat them all!"

On June 15, the French government passed a resolution to establish the Napoleonic dynasty almost unanimously. Many people believed that only by establishing the Napoleonic dynasty and ensuring its orderly succession could the interests of the French Revolution be guaranteed.

The underlying message was that these upper-class figures who had benefited from the French Revolution feared that the Consulate government would also fall into the same state as the Republican and Directory governments. They hoped to use the imperial succession model to cut off the space for successors to launch coups and overthrow them.

With the support of public opinion, the Senate selected the titles of Emperor of France and French Empire, and nominated Napoleon Bonaparte as Napoleon I, Emperor of the French Empire.

In return for the favor, Napoleon appointed the Second Consul, Campassiers, as Grand Chancellor of the Empire, and Anna Le Brun, son of the recently deceased Third Consul, Charles Le Brun, as Minister of Finance of the Empire.

Napoleon's elder brother Joseph Bonaparte was the Elector of the Empire (Head of the Imperial Clan Court), his younger brother Louis Bonaparte was the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Household, his wife Beauharnais's son from her previous marriage, Eugène Beauharnais, was the First Minister of State, and Murat was the Admiral of the Navy.

At the same time, Napoleon selected eighteen people to be appointed as marshals of the empire, merged the Consulate Guard and the Senate Guard into the Royal Guard, and appointed a large number of trusted officers to key positions to protect the newly established Napoleonic Empire.

On June 22, Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine Beauharnais worried that their marriage, which they hadn't publicized much, wasn't genuine enough, given that it was a story of an older, high-class socialite marrying an ambitious, ambitious, and poor military officer.

Even in France, which is known for its openness, this was not a very respectable event, so the wedding was just a hasty affair.

Now that things have changed, they decided to hold a grand wedding ceremony before the coronation.

Subsequently, Napoleon immediately launched a counterattack against foreign forces that opposed him.

In addition to continuing the blockade of continental Europe and prohibiting trade with England, Napoleon also courted a large number of small Holy Roman states along the Rhine River, demanding that they hold elections and agree to allow the French Emperor Napoleon to enter the Holy Roman Senate in his personal capacity.

This clearly indicates an attempt to enter the fray and compete with the Habsburg family for the title of Holy Roman Empire and control of the Holy Roman Empire's vassal states, and even to seize the title of Holy Roman Emperor.

At the same time, Napoleon also deceived King Frederick William III of Prussia, successfully making Frederick William III believe that after Napoleon consolidated the Holy Roman Empire's vassal states, he would give him the position of Holy Roman Empire leader, and therefore did not object to Napoleon's entry into the Holy Roman Empire system.

When the news reached Vienna, Emperor Franz II of the Holy Roman Empire, left with no other choice, heeded the advice of Archduke Karl and Mogonze and reorganized his empire.

Franz II merged the territories controlled by the Habsburg family into the Austrian Empire, and Franz I, who called himself Emperor of Austria, took the title of Holy Roman Emperor a step further into the void.

In this way, the Austrian Empire became the largest member of the Holy Roman Empire, equivalent to an elector, and any election of an emperor by the Holy Roman Empire could not be accomplished without the consent of the Austrian Empire.

By resorting to this desperate tactic of killing a hundred enemies while losing fifteen thousand of his own, Franz II managed to retain the title of Holy Roman Emperor and stabilize the empire, but the decline of the Holy Roman Empire was already inevitable.

In December of the same year, Napoleon, wearing a cloak with a golden bee motif, was crowned Emperor and Empress of France by Pope Pius VII at Notre Dame Cathedral with his wife Josephine Beauharnais.

One of the most memorable scenes was when Napoleon, after having Pope Pius VII place the golden laurel wreath symbolizing the Roman emperor on his head, snatched the replica of Charlemagne's coronation crown from Pius VII and put it on his own head. He then went on to crown his wife, Josephine Beauharnais.

This arrangement implies that Napoleon believed that the title of Emperor of France, inherited from Charlemagne, was entirely his due, and that the Emperor of France was the true ruler of the French Empire.

With Napoleon's coronation as emperor, the Third Coalition against France officially began to take shape.

The army of Da Yu withdrew from the occupied Rus' Empire territories, maintaining only an army of 15,000 men and a Caspian Navy of 4,000 men in Astrakhan.

The Rus' Empire then transferred 130,000 of its 150,000 troops from Tsaritsyn (Stalingrad) to the west, preparing to enter Western Europe to fight against France.

The newly established Austrian Empire also began large-scale preparations for war. Before preparing for a war that would cost the entire nation its life, Austrian Emperor Franz granted the request of his uncle, Prince Maurice of Belgium.

The titles of Prince of Belgium, Grand Duke of Transylvania, Duke of Limburg, Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Parma were all inherited by Maurice.

Mo Gongze finally went from Prince Ferdinand to Prince Ferdinand, leaping into one of the most prestigious noble families in Europe.

Because of his considerable strength and influence over Hungary, many people began to regard him as a king.

In January 1805, 1 men from the ninth supplementary army of the Lu Fan Three Guards of the Great Yu Dynasty of the Seres Empire crossed the Black Sea by boat and then traveled up the Danube River to Belgrade, Serbia.

Mo Gongze's strength has been further enhanced, and he now commands 17,000 elite troops from the Dayu region alone.

Meanwhile, more than 4,000 retired soldiers from the Lu Fan Sanwei who were willing to leave and were over the age of 40 also traveled by ship from the Black Sea to the Caucasus region.

They will be assigned to the Caucasus and southern Caspian regions of the Liao Dynasty, as well as the former Turkmen region of Anxi Province, as a middle force among the local Han Chinese vassals.

At this point, all the factors that would otherwise have formed the powder keg of Europe were in place, and the third anti-French coalition was about to be formed, igniting one of the most brutal wars of the Napoleonic era.

(End of this chapter)