Fox of France

This summer, Napoleon successfully passed the graduation examination and graduated from the military academy as he wished. He was transferred to the Legion of Raphael and received the rank of second lieutenant of artillery. On the day Napoleon left Paris, Joseph went to the stagecoach station to see him off. Napoleon was wearing a new gray-blue military uniform with a sword hanging from his waist. He looked extraordinarily energetic. If he hadn't been a little shorter, he would have looked a bit majestic.

"He looks like an officer." Joseph reached out and patted Napoleon on the shoulder, "Work hard and become a general soon."

"What's so good about being a French general?" Napoleon whispered.

"Don't say such things in front of other people." Joseph said, "Work hard in the army and practice your real skills. You will be able to use them no matter what you do in the future."

After seeing off Napoleon and returning to school, Joseph just sat down at his desk, and before he had time to make himself a cup of coffee, he saw Will, the principal's secretary, walk in.

"Mr. Bonaparte, the principal has something to do with you." Will said.

Joseph quickly stood up, followed Will and walked towards the two-story building exclusively occupied by the principal.

"Will, what does the principal want from me?" Joseph asked while walking along the path beside the flower bed to the small building.

"It seems that there is something about engineering. I don't know the details. You will know when you meet the principal in a while." Will replied.

The two walked into Earl Dupont's small building while they were talking. A waiter wearing a wig opened the door for them, and then took the hat handed over by Joseph and said, "Mr. Bonaparte, the Earl is upstairs in the office. Waiting for you. Please follow me."

Joseph followed the waiter to the second floor and entered Earl Dupont's office. The waiter withdrew.

"Ah, Mr. Bonaparte, you are here." Earl Dupont said.

"Principal, what do you need from me?" Joseph asked.

"Yes, something about engineering. Hmm... have you ever been to Calais, the one that makes lace?" asked Count Dupont suddenly.

"No." Joseph replied.

"Oh, Calais is not bad among the provincial cities. It's very nice to take a lover or a few lovers on vacation. But I didn't mention Calais to you this time, but because of a military officer. Fang's mission. Would you like to go?" Earl Dupont said with a smile.

"I am willing to serve the country." Joseph hurriedly said, "I don't know what it is?"

"Nothing, the fort at the port of Calais is too old to be used. So a new fort needs to be built to defend the port. And the new fort needs a mathematics consultant. This matter should have been arranged for Mr. Monge. It's just that Mr. Monge has other important business, so he recommended you. Joseph—is it okay for me to call you that?"

"Of course no problem." Joseph said hastily.

"Well, Joseph." Earl Dupont said, "The school's salary is actually very limited, and people can't starve to death, but it's not easy to live a good life relying on it alone. Although it is very tiring to perform such tasks, the income But it’s very good. You can save a small amount of money by doing this kind of mission a few times. Look at Monge, his salary is actually limited higher than yours, but relying on many such things, his income is at least yours Six or seven times."

Joseph knew that Monge recommended this matter to him because he had too many things to do and was too busy, but the meaning of taking care of himself was also obvious. He said gratefully: "Thank you, principal."

"Thank me for what? You should thank Mr. Monge." Earl Dupont smiled, "Of course, Monge is a bit old-fashioned. If you give him a gift, he might think that you are insulting his personality..." Having said that, Earl Dupont shook his head again, "You have to thank him, it is best to send him an article with creation. Well, you are going to be a mathematics consultant this time, whether it is me or Monge, I hope You can take this opportunity to make further progress academically. Well, the matter over there is not too urgent, but if you have nothing else to do, arrange the work at hand and report to Calais as soon as possible .”

Joseph knew that this sentence was basically equivalent to serving tea to see off in China, so he thanked Earl Dupont again, and then withdrew. Now that the semester is coming to an end, he basically has nothing to do. So after a little processing, three days later, he took the letter of introduction signed by Earl Dupont, took the stagecoach, and headed for Calais.

In later generations, there is a Eurostar high-speed train connection between Paris and Calais, and it takes less than an hour to go from Paris to Calais. But in this era, there is no such good thing. It took two full days for Joseph to arrive in Calais near sunset.

Because it was very late, Joseph did not go directly to the naval camp in the port of Calais. At this time, most of the navy will not receive him. So he directly found a very ordinary hotel near the port and stayed there. After battling bedbugs all night, he left the hotel at dawn the next day, and made up his mind that he would never live in such a cheap hotel again. .

Along the stone paved street, Joseph walked towards the port.

The port of Calais is divided into two parts, one side is a noisy civilian pier, where there are many flute-shaped boats and other ships docked by several trestles. Although it is still early, sailors can already be seen scrubbing the deck. On the other side, there is a military pier for the French Navy. The size of the military pier in the port of Calais is much smaller than that of the civilian pier. There is only one trestle, and beside the trestle, there are only a single-deck frigate and a patrol boat with only two masts. The main force of the French navy has always been in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, and the port of Calais is too close to the UK-stand on the high place on the shore and look west. If the weather is good, you can even directly see the white stretches on both sides of Dover port cliff. Calais is only more than 30 kilometers away from the British military port of Dover in a straight line. The French navy may feel that if the main force is deployed here, it will always make people worry that one day they will be directly blocked by the British navy in the port. So they never arrange their main force here. Perhaps based on the same considerations, the British never deployed their main fleet at Dover.

Joseph walked in the direction of the military pier. He walked to the gate with the horse rejected.

"Stop, military restricted area, don't come close!" A red-nosed sentry shouted at him, and then walked towards Joseph with a bayonet-equipped flintlock.

"I am Joseph Bonaparte, a mathematics teacher at the Paris Military Academy. I was ordered to report to Commander Villefort." Joseph said as he took out a letter of introduction and handed it over.

The sentry handed the gun to his left hand, took the letter of introduction with his right hand, glanced at the cover, then raised his head to look at Joseph, and said, "Sir, please wait here for a while."

After saying this, he took the letter of introduction and turned around and walked into the gate. After giving some instructions to another sentinel, he took the letter and walked towards a small building over there.

Joseph stood outside the gate and waited. After a while, he saw the sentry approaching with a captain.

The captain said to Joseph: "Mr. Bonaparte, I am Captain Cisse. Commander Villefort is not in the port right now. He is in the fortress on the hill over there. I can send someone to take you there."

"Then I will trouble you," Joseph replied.

"Can you ride a horse?" Captain Cisse asked again.

"A little while," Joseph replied.

"That's good." Sissy said. He turned his head to the sentinel again and said, "Pierre, go and lead us two horses."

The sentinel agreed and left, and Sissy chatted with Joseph.

"Now the Paris Military Academy actually has such a young math teacher?" Cisse said.

"Mr. Monge was very young when he first came to prominence," Joseph replied.

"Ah, yes, geniuses are like that," said Cisse. "Well, I see your name. Are your ancestors Italian?"

"I'm a Corsican," Joseph replied, "I'm probably half Italian."

"My grandfather's generation is still Italian. However, our family has been in France for three generations. Well, I don't speak Italian very well." Cisse said, "I heard Corsican dialect and Italian very close?"

"It is indeed very close, and even in a sense, the Corsican dialect should be regarded as a dialect of Italian..."

While the two were talking, Sentinel Pierre had already led two horses over.

These are two ordinary army horses. The navy only needs horses for commuting and pulling, not horses for charging.

Cisse handed Joseph the reins of one of the gray and white mare, "Mr. Bonaparte, follow me, I will slow down."

Joseph thanked him, took the reins, and got on the horse. Cisse stood aside, as if ready to give Joseph a hand if necessary. Seeing that Joseph got on the horse neatly, he nodded, and got on the other horse as well, and then urged the horse to walk ahead.

The fortress is actually not far from the military port. In fact, the fortress is on a small plateau tens of meters high next to the port. The two men drove the horses to a trot for only a few minutes before approaching the fortress.

After dismounting before the horses refused in the fort, Cisse said a few words to the sentry in front of the fort, then handed over the two horses to the sentry, and then led Joseph into the fort.

"It's certain that the sentinel recognized Cisse. But just because he recognized him, he didn't even ask, and let him bring another person into the fort. This discipline of the French navy... no wonder he was beaten by the British. "Joseph couldn't help thinking.

Cisse led Joseph along a stone road, bypassing the front gun emplacement, and then a maple forest, and a white two-story building appeared in front of them.

"This is the headquarters of the fortress. Commander Villefort is here." Cisse said to Joseph. Then he walked over with Joseph.