Chapter 3: Toulon
Joseph and his brother Napoleon spent a day traveling the calm Mediterranean Sea in a two-masted ship called the Autumn Fairy and, early the next morning, reached the southern French port of Toulon.
Toulon is France's largest military port, with France's most important shipyards and more than half of its warships deployed in this port. The commercial wharf where the ship is docked is in close proximity to the military harbor. Standing on the deck of the Flower Moon, one could clearly see those tall battleships that were like castles floating on the sea. They were arranged one after another in the military harbor.
Napoleon stood on the deck, gazing at the huge ships.
"It's really majestic, isn't it?" Joseph put his own hand on his brother's shoulder and said in the Corsican dialect, "White sails like white clouds in the sky, lofty hulls like floating castles, and cannons firing in unison like the thunder of Zeus ... Look at all these warships, feeling the pressure, my brother?"
"Indeed, we are too weak compared to France." Napoleon nodded and said, "That's why we need a hero, one who can do more with less and win with less."
"Hehe." Joseph laughed.
"What does hehe mean?" Napoleon said with displeasure.
"O my stupid brother, hehe is hehe."
By now, the ship had steadied itself against the dock. Passengers are beginning to disembark one by one. Mr. Foix had not originally intended to stay in Toulon. According to his plan, he should immediately get on a carriage and head to Marseille, some sixty kilometers away. However, on the way to Toulon, he became so seasick that he had to take a day's rest in Toulon before going to Marseilles when he was in better shape.
For Joseph and Napoleon, it also meant they had a day to have a good look around Toulon.
After a temporary stay at the hotel, Napoleon encouraged Joseph to have a look around. Joseph knew that Napoleon was taking the opportunity to take a closer look at the largest military port in France and get to know his future enemies.
So Joseph went and stated to Foix that he wished to take his brother Napoleon out for a walk and also to try to use the French he was learning for the first time.
Foix was satisfied with the demands of the studious boy, though he was not so sure about the security around Toulon. Over the years, France has been losing the battle with Britain over its overseas interests. It also makes it not so good financially. In order to get more money to compete with England, the King of France has raised taxes more than once. Honestly, Louis XVI didn't raise taxes too much. But there have always been a couple of constant laws in human society: the first is that bureaucrats will always seize every opportunity to do themselves favors, and the second is that any burdens will always fall on those who really should bear them and who can afford to bear them.
The decision to increase taxes allowed many people to enrich themselves by scrounging, and, again, these tax burdens did not fall on the heads of the aristocrats and bishops. Still, they all weighed heavily on the third class. This put the farmers and craftsmen out of business in increasing numbers. Generally speaking, the more bankrupts and people with no means of subsistence there are in a society, the more chaotic the social order will be. The French economy is not doing so well these days, so social security is no better.
Mr. Foix thought for a moment and remembered that one of his servants was a native of Toulon, so he called the servant, called Swan, and instructed him to take the brothers out for a walk and take care to keep them safe.
Swan responded and led the brothers out the door.
"Where are you going to look?" Swan asked.
"We want to see the warships." Joseph said without hesitation.
Napoleon glanced at Joseph but didn't say anything.
"Ah, every boy who comes to Toulon for the first time has a favorite warship to see." Swan chuckled.
"So is there a way we can get a good look at the warships?" Napoleon asked.
"There is." Swan replies, "For a few sous, you can rent a fishing boat and then you can go fishing near the military harbor. You can see a lot of warships there, but of course, we can't get too close."
"Then everything will be a bother." Joseph said this to Swan.
Swan is a local, so he quickly contacts a fishing boat. A few people got into the boat, and the boatman swung the oars and rowed the small boat in the direction of the military harbor.
It was about ten o'clock in the morning, and the rare winter sunlight was shimmering and jumping on the tips of the fine waves in the bay. The boatman stopped the boat and threw the bait into the sea, then pointed to the military harbor not far away and introduced the guests, one by one, to the warships that were docked there.
"Look, there's the 'Bucentaure,' that's the biggest one in there, and that's a three-deck battleship with a hundred guns. The one a little to the left is the cruiser 'Awe', which is much smaller, with only one gun deck..."
'This was the 'Bucentaure', the flagship of the combined French-Spanish fleet at the later Battle of Trafalgar.' Listening to the boatman, Joseph couldn't help but think so.
"What's that over there?" Napoleon asked, pointing to the right at a hillock that jutted a little halfway into the bay. Joseph looked over that way, only to see a flag of Fleur-de-Iis erected on top of that little hillock, and underneath that flag, something like a fortress could be faintly seen.
"That's the Mulgrave fort. There are batteries up there that guard the harbor. Need to go over there and check it out? There's some pretty good cod fishing in the ocean over there sometimes." The boatman replied.
Napoleon said, "Then go over there and take a look."
When the boatman heard this, he intended to reel in the bait and turn over to the Mulgrave fortress when a bell tied to a fishing line snapped. The boatman hurriedly reached out and grabbed the line. The line did not shake very much, and a look of disappointment showed on the boatman's face as he pulled the line up in a few handfuls, and there was just a modest mackerel hanging on the hook.
The boatman dropped the mackerel into the creel as far as he could by hand, then reeled in his line and rowed toward the Mulgrave fortress.
It took the boat a full hour to walk under the Mulgrave fortress. But at this point, the Mulgrave fortress was quite limited in size, so there wasn't much to see. Plus, it was past noon, and everyone was hungry. So the boat didn't stay there long before going back.
After getting off the boat and finding a random place to grab a bite to eat, Joseph talked to some passersby in his broken French - talking about boring, everyday life stuff, nothing more than lamenting together about how hard life was. Then, a few people went back to the hotel. Napoleon didn't say a word the whole way. It wasn't until he was inside the room that Joseph smiled at Napoleon and said, "What's the matter, intimidated by the French warships?"
"No." Napoleon replied briefly.
"What was it that you specifically wanted to see over at the Mulgrave fortress later on? There's nothing to see over there." Joseph asked again.
"If an army occupied that place, it could sink all the warships in the harbor with a few cannons." Napoleon spoke up.
"A few guns won't be enough, because warships move, they'll leave their berths and retreat out to sea. Plus, they'll return the favor." Joseph laughed, "And it takes a lot of knowledge, like math, like physics, to use a cannon well. If you can't get a good handle on Sir Isaac Newton's set, even if you have a hundred cannons, it may not work."
"Then let's go learn how to do this well." Napoleon replied.
Joseph nodded, then asked, "Napoleon, do you know what I saw at Toulon?"
"What did you see?"
"I see poverty and anger. The same poverty and anger that we saw in Corsica." Joseph replied, "O my foolish brother, have you not noticed the same dusty, almost ash-heap-like poor people trudging through the dusty streets of Toulon?"
"Pay attention to them for what?" Napoleon asked.
"Even the humblest slave needs hope. Do you see hope in the eyes of those poor people on the streets of Toulon? Do you see in their words that they have any more bright ideas for the future? Do you know what happened when the humblest of slaves, lost all hope?" Joseph continued to ask.
"I know ..." Napoleon replied, "There has been a rebellion of Spartacus. But ... but they are not really without hope, he did not still have a hope, and the only hope, that is heaven. They are not like Spartacus, they are people of faith."
"People of faith?" Napoleon's remark was completely unexpected by Joseph. Although he was now treated as a manifestation of divine grace by Bishop Myriel, Joseph himself knew very well that the so-called exorcism rite was not useful at all. The so-called effect was nothing more than a gradual adaptation of Joseph as a traverser to his environment. But even now, it is always a habit for Joseph to overlook religious influences when considering issues.
'Religion is really the opium of the people.' Joseph thought silently in his mind and then said, "O my foolish brother, remember that the bread of the future does not replace the bread of the present, and the bread of the future does not fill the belly of the present. Why else would we Corsicans have opposed Genoese rule in the first place? What's more, revolting and going to heaven are two different things, aren't they? Though it is said that the power of kings is granted by God. But is it not God's will that someone should rebel? God is omniscient and omnipotent, so if He did not want anyone to oppose the King, how could there be a rebellion. My brother, know what I see? I see the seemingly mighty France as a storehouse piled with wood and brimstone, which its keepers, still raise fires to roast and eat."
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