Make France Great Again

After playing several games in a row, lunch finally officially started at around 2 p.m.

Jérôme Bonaparte, Vaillant, Niel and Madame Alléende entered the restaurant one after another. Under the warm invitation of Minister Vaillant, Jérôme Bonaparte, as a guest, sat at the main seat. Originally, this position could only be occupied by Minister Wayang, the master of public relations.

Later, the housekeeper brought another bottle of unopened wine. Judging from the body and mouth of the wine, this bottle of wine should be taken from the mansion's wine cellar.

The butler carefully placed the unopened wine on the trolley nearby, and then used a corkscrew (the corkscrew had been invented as early as 1795) to pull out the slightly dusty wooden cork.

The next step is to sober up the vintage wine.

I saw a servant carefully carrying a decanter made of glass to the butler. After the butler took the decanter from the servant, he picked up the unopened wine and carefully decanted it along the wall of the decanter. Backflow in the device.

The red wine slowly flowed into the decanter. When the wine in the grape bottle was less than one-tenth of its original volume, the butler stopped pouring it and then placed the decanter with wine in the small bottle. On the cart, he picked up the bottle of wine, bowed and smiled at everyone present, and then left the restaurant.

After another 5 minutes or so, the key appeared again.

At this moment, there was no wine bottle in his hand, and behind him were four three-tiered trolleys, with two covered dishes on each level of the trolleys.

The butler arrived at Jerome Bonaparte's side again and said respectfully to Jerome Bonaparte: "Your Majesty!"

"Let's get started!" Jérôme Bonaparte responded calmly.

After hearing Jérôme Bonaparte's answer, the servant in charge of pushing the trolley took out the vegetables from the trolley in unison and placed them on Jérôme Bonaparte and others. in front of them, and then uniformly opened the meal cover that was still on it.

The first dish was foie gras, a traditional French delicacy. Jerome Bonaparte carefully moved his Adam's apple as he smelled the aroma that kept pouring into his nose.

From morning to now, Jerome Bonaparte has not eaten for nearly half a day.

Immediately afterwards, the second and third courses also appeared one after another. These dishes are all very traditional French delicacies, but now they are particularly tempting.

After all the dishes were served, the butler held the handle of the decanter with one hand and dragged the decanter with the other hand, and carefully poured the wine that had been placed in the decanter for nearly 10 minutes into everyone's glasses. .

Everyone's glasses were full of a large glass of red wine. Jérôme Bonaparte raised his glass and said to everyone present: "Let us drink to the prosperity of the Second Empire and the prosperity of our army!"

Minister Vaillant, Chief of General Staff Niel and Mrs. Alleynde raised their wine glasses at the same time. As the host, Minister Vaillant also added, "Why can France have someone like you, His Majesty the Emperor?" Excellent monarch! Cheers!"

"That's right!" Chief of General Staff Niel also echoed, "Cheers to His Majesty the Emperor!"

Jérôme Bonaparte smiled slightly, and the four goblets collided with each other, making a pleasant sound.

After Jérôme Bonaparte drank the red wine in his glass, he immediately felt the fruity aroma lingering between his lips and teeth.

He turned to ask the steward next to him, "In which year did this wine enter the cellar?"

There was a hint of surprise on the steward's face, and he quickly responded to Jérôme Bonaparte: "Your Majesty, this bottle of wine is the wine that Minister (Wayant) suffered from the puppet king (Louis XVIII) in the (First) Empire. ) In the third year after seducing the throne with conspiracy, the wine was buried underground!"

Jérôme Bonaparte couldn't help but smacked his lips after hearing this, "So it's almost 40 years!"

"That's right!" the steward said respectfully.

"What a pity!" Jerome Bonaparte sighed and said to himself.

"Your Majesty, wine itself is for drinking!" Minister Vaillant thought that Jerome Bonaparte was regretting that forty years of red wine had been wasted. He quickly responded to Jerome Bonaparte, "Only people like It’s people like you who taste it that make it more meaningful and valuable!”

"No! I'm not saying it's a pity!" Jérôme Bonaparte shook his head and said to Minister Vaillant, "I'm saying it's a pity that such a fine wine has to wait thirty years before being opened! What a pity. !”

Minister Vaillant instantly understood that Jérôme Bonaparte was using things to describe people, and he quickly responded to Jérôme Bonaparte: "Your Majesty, it is not a pity, not a pity at all!

The older the wine, the more memorable it is. "

"That's right!" Jerome Bonaparte chuckled, turned to the butler beside him and responded: "Give me another drink!"

"Yes!" The butler hurriedly poured another glass of wine for Jérôme Bonaparte.

Minister Wayang and Niel also poured a glass of wine each, and then everyone clinked their glasses again.

After two glasses of wine, Jerome Bonaparte rejected the butler's idea of ​​giving Jerome Bonaparte more wine.

Jérôme Bonaparte put down his wine glass, picked up the knife and fork placed on the plate, carefully cut off a piece of the steaming foie gras, and chewed it carefully.

After swallowing the foie gras, Jérôme Bonaparte showed a satisfied smile on his face and said jokingly: "Minister Vaillant, I remember you told me just now that you have nothing to eat at home!

I think this foie gras is pretty good, almost surpassing the chef at Tuyinleli Palace! "

"Your Majesty, you are exaggerating!" Minister Vaillant replied humbly to Jérôme Bonaparte.

Mrs. Alende, who was sitting next to Minister Vaillant, also spoke up when she saw this. She enthusiastically said to Jérôme Bonaparte: "If your Majesty is willing, you can come to the mansion to dine at any time!

Everyone in the mansion welcomes you! "

Hearing Mrs. Alende's response, Jérôme Bonaparte's expression became indifferent, and then he casually said: "Yes!"

Minister Wayang, who was sitting aside, glared at the restless woman. Mrs. Alende, who knew she was in the wrong, had no choice but to lower her head and say nothing.

Mrs. Alleynde said not a word during the next half hour of the meal.

Jérôme Bonaparte also did not say much because of the appearance of Mrs. Alliande.

After the banquet was over, Jérôme Bonaparte, Niel and Minister Vaillant came to the study room of the mansion, but the warm-hearted Mrs. Alliande did not follow them because of Jérôme Bonaparte's explicit refusal. Enter.

The three people sitting on the sofa began to discuss the current military system and tactical system of the French Imperial Army.

Although Minister Vaillant already agreed that the current tactical system was no longer suitable for the French army, he still had doubts about Niel's improved skirmish line tactics.

After all, the chaos caused by skirmish line tactics was obvious to all during the First Republic.

Only in the next battle with the Kingdom of Morocco, the skirmish line tactics can prove that they are indeed excellent tactics, then he will choose to support Niel's tactics without reservation.

Of course, Jérôme Bonaparte understood Minister Vaillant's concerns, and he nodded in support.

Later, Jérôme Bonaparte discussed the issue of breech-loading rifles with Minister Niel and Vaillant.

Ministers Niel and Vaillant believed that although the French army had breech-loading guns, weapons with a faster rate of fire, they still could not neglect training. Therefore, they suggested designing a threshold in the army that would not allow the target to be concentrated. In this case, It can effectively guarantee the hit rate of the army on the battlefield.

Jerome Bonaparte was not too harsh on the hit rate of the breech-loading gun.

After all, if the future war is a total war, France's existing 550,000 troops (actually just over 500,000, because nearly 50,000 are already aiming to be disbanded) will expand to the original 50,000 troops at an extremely fast rate. Times, 6 times, in this case the original troops will be scattered. In this case, the accuracy of shooting has no meaning.

However, Jerome Bonaparte still agreed with the opinions of Ministers Niel and Vaillant.

It is always beneficial to train more on weekdays.

At least the soldiers in the army should not be left idle. Apart from getting drunk all day long, the idle army can only find custom practitioners to experience the joy of life.

The world has not yet provided the ultimate happiness for soldiers.

Thinking of this, Jérôme Bonaparte once again made suggestions to Niel and Vaillant: Each military region must communicate and compete regularly, so that the combat effectiveness of the army can be maintained!

Nières and Vaillant also agreed with Jérôme Bonaparte's proposal.

At the same time, Jérôme Bonaparte also proposed the establishment of a gendarmerie to manage military discipline in the army, which would be mainly responsible for inspecting the discipline of legal military areas.

Ministers Niel and Vaillant raised objections to this proposal. They believed that the gendarmerie was not conducive to the unity within the army.

Of course, Jérôme Bonaparte knew that their so-called image of military unity was just an empty talk. They were simply afraid that the emerging Gendarmerie would become a terrorist organization that would dominate them.

Think back to the time when the military police force of the Napoleonic Empire was under the control of the famous Fouche. He was like a poisonous snake secretly monitoring everyone in the army.

Of course, this also includes the original Emperor Napoleon,

Therefore, Jérôme Bonaparte immediately told Niel and Vaillant that the Gendarmerie headquarters in charge of discipline was subordinate to the French General Staff, and they took over the orders of the General Staff and the headquarters above the division of the Ministry of War.

Nières and Vaillant reluctantly agreed to Jérôme Bonaparte's suggestion.