Fox of France

"Unplanned funds?" said Talleyrand.

"Yes, it was originally supposed to be a tithe tax dedicated to the Holy See. Now the money has been temporarily withheld by us. At least until the problem is finally resolved, the control of this money is in our hands." Metternich replied Said, "Last time I remember you said that if money is put in the warehouse without moving, it is no longer money. I think there should be many investment opportunities in the maintenance of free trade at sea Yes. See if we can have a chance to cooperate..."

"This, this question, you know, my friend, I can't answer you right away. But I will help you find out... After all, our two countries are friendly countries with the same belief."

Talleyrand did keep his promise and told Napoleon the news.

"Mr. Talleyrand, what do you think these actions of the Austrians mean?" Napoleon asked after hearing the news.

"Your Excellency, I think the Austrians are moving closer to us." Talleyrand returned, "At the same time, they also want to test what they can get by moving closer to us."

"Go on," Napoleon said.

"Your Excellency, I think the peaceful development of the past few years has made Austria realize that the gap between them and us is widening, and it has become impossible to challenge our dominance in Europe. Moreover, Austria is another country with obvious weaknesses. Your Excellency in power, I have heard you mention that the combat effectiveness of today’s army is composed of two aspects. One is weapons and training, and the other is ideology.”

Napoleon nodded.

"Let's not talk about weapons and training. Today, France is invincible in this regard." Talleyrand continued, "As for ideology, in 1993, the French army, which was obviously insufficient in equipment and training, relied on democratic ideas With the support of patriotism and the courage to overwhelm the enemy army, the intervention army was able to be defeated in one fell swoop. But nowadays, anyone in European countries can practice patriotism, but Austria cannot do patriotism, let alone do it Democratic minded. So they are now more vulnerable than ever.

Voltaire said that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. Because this country is a feudal hodgepodge, and the nationalities in their country are too complicated. When talking about patriotism, people will immediately talk about love for Hungary, Czech Republic, love... As for democracy, that can't be mentioned. And these things are now becoming mainstream ideas. In this situation, Austria is unprecedentedly weak. He no longer cares about the hegemony of Europe, and all his strength can only be focused on how to maintain himself from collapsing. And even just to do this, it will be very difficult for them without our support. So, maybe one of their goals right now is to bundle their interests with us as much as possible. "

After hearing this, Napoleon said: "Minister Talleyrand, you can make a memorandum in this direction, and then I will discuss it with others. After all, this involves too many important things..."

The so-called more people were actually not much more, basically just a family meeting in the Bonaparte family.

"Talleyrand is very talented and has great vision." After seeing the documents Napoleon showed him, Joseph commented, "Just a little bit, he almost saw the bottom truth. But some guys in Austria What's more, they are already formulating their own policies based on the truth at the bottom of the world."

"What is the bottom truth of the world?" Lucien asked.

"Lucien, let me ask you, what do you think is the most fundamental difference between people?" Joseph asked suddenly.

"Joseph, your question is too broad, and the direction is unclear. I don't know where to start answering." Lucien protested. Even today, Lucien still unconsciously felt very nervous when he was suddenly asked by Joseph.

"Okay, let me be more specific. Which do you think is the most fundamental difference between cultural differences and income differences?" Joseph then asked.

The question is much more specific these days, but that doesn't mean it's easy to answer. Lucien thought for a while, and then said: "Well, these two differences are very important differences, for example, the reason why there are so many countries in Europe is because there are enough cultural differences in Europe. There are so many different nationalities, so many different languages, and various religions, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodox Church. Under each large sect, there are a lot of small sects, and then small sects can Split into more and smaller sects, all of which turned Europe into a big beach of fragments...

But the difference in income is also a very important difference. For example, when we were in the revolution, why did we go to other places? Whether it was in Italy or Austria, as long as we went to the places, the people in those places would follow us. Walk? The important reason is that we are on the side of the low-income people. So the difference in income is also very important..."

Lucien talked blabberingly for a while, and Joseph frowned.

"Okay, Lucien, don't talk nonsense, just tell the conclusion!" Joseph said.

"Oh." Lucien said, "No, there is no process to directly answer the question, don't you always deny it?"

"Is the process like yours?" Napoleon said, "You are also called a process? You are like proving the 'four-color conjecture' by exhaustion method! You are also called a proof process? You are wasting time. Go straight to the results!"

"Just tell me the result?" Lucien said.

"Yes!" said the two brothers together.

"Oh, well, then I said... well, I don't know." Lucien said, "I haven't thought it through yet. Well, how can such a profound question be answered immediately? Well, Joseph , you better simply speak directly!"

Joseph laughed all of a sudden: "Knowing that you are ignorant is the real wisdom. Lucien, you have made great progress. As for this issue, my opinion is this.

I think that people must first eat, drink, live, and wear clothes before they can engage in politics, science, art, religion, etc.; therefore, the direct production of material means of subsistence, and thus a certain stage of economic development of a nation or an era , it forms the basis from which people's state facilities, legal views, arts and even religious concepts develop, and therefore, must also be explained from this basis, instead of doing the opposite as in the past. I call this idea: 'The economic base determines the superstructure'. "