Joseph submitted the "four-color problem" to the Academy of Sciences, and sure enough, those guys, including Laplace, were stumped, and everyone studied it for a while, but they couldn't come up with a solution, and even a feasible solution to the problem was not available for the time being. And people, including Laplace, also have their own research, and it is impossible to spend time on such a topic, so in the end, as Joseph said, the Academy of Sciences simply published the topic and solicited answers from the world.

Joseph originally threw out this topic because he wanted to pit Marat. Based on Joseph's experience in his previous life, generally speaking, there are more things in physics and chemistry in civil science, and very little in mathematics. But what he didn't expect was that the reason why there were fewer civil subjects in mathematics in later generations was because the topics of those mathematical problems in later generations were no longer understandable by those folk subjects, so there were fewer civil subjects in mathematics in later generations, not because they had any awe for mathematics, but because they couldn't even understand the questions!

But the "four-color problem" is a question that everyone, including civil science like Marat, of course, can understand. So as soon as the announcement of the reward came out, the Academy of Sciences immediately received a paper from Marat, which was said to have solved the problem perfectly. Then Laplace just glanced at it and saw seven or eight mistakes. Then, of course, the paper went where it should be.

However, Marat did not give up and sent this "paper" to Joseph. In the letter, he also expressed his belief that Joseph would see the value of his thesis. It was only then that Joseph realized that he had done a self-defeating job and dug a hole, and as a result, he had buried himself in it.

Marat's "papers", like all "civil papers", are full of all kinds of problems, from derivative errors all the way to conceptual errors. Joseph also only glanced at it, and found seven or eight problems.

"If this had been written by Napoleon, or by any of my other students, I would have opened his ass!" Joseph gritted his teeth and cursed, and he had a headache about how to reply to Marat.

"It's not easy to find 'something valuable' in this 'paper'. If there is anything 'valuable' in this 'paper', it must be fearless courage. After all, the ignorant are fearless. Joseph couldn't help but complain in his heart.

"But in the reply, you can't praise his 'courage' vigorously, right? Marat is a citizen, but he is not a fool. If I complimented him like that, he would think I was sarcastic. ”

So Joseph had to turn Marat's flawed "paper" over and over again for a long time before finally finding something commendable: "Well, although the derivation of this paragraph is not rigorous, some ideas are still interesting. Ah, let's blow this paragraph vigorously first. ”

So Joseph began to write back to Marat. In this letter, Joseph begins with two full sides of paper to praise Marat's analysis of the short paragraph. The tone of praise gave him goosebumps even on his own.

"I'm so numb that I'm about to catch up with the Lotus Root King, right? I can't imagine that I will do the same for the sake of Cha Fan. Alas, making money, business, not chilling. Joseph complained to himself as he continued to write back.

"It's time for a turnaround, it's time for a moment." Thinking so, Joseph wrote, "But there are still some minor problems with this paper, such as in ...... Mr. Laplace argues that there are logical holes in the argument here that ignore ...... You may not know that mathematicians are a bit paranoid, and Mr. Laplace is very paranoid about this kind of problem, so he thinks that this paper has not succeeded in proving this conjecture......"

In a few sentences, he wrote "but" and directed the troubled waters to Laplace's side. Then Joseph finished his reply, and then he carefully blotted the excess ink from the letter with blotting paper, sealed it, and sent it back. As for how Marat will hold a grudge against Laplace after receiving the letter, it is none of his business. Considering that Laplace had used his set of things in his previous life to cause him a lot of headaches, Joseph felt that his conscience was suddenly better.

Soon after, Marat sent a reply again, thanking him for his affirmation, and expressing his anger at the "old-fashioned guys" in the Academy of Sciences, and faintly revealing that one day Lao Tzu would come to power, and he must drive these guys out of the Academy of Sciences, and then let a pioneering young man like Joseph take charge of the Academy of Sciences, and I believe that French science will shine.

"Is this 'if I am the Green Emperor in his year, I will repay the peach blossoms together'?" Joseph couldn't help but laugh.

Marat did get up one day, but that was for the future. And for now, if he climbs up, he won't have much malice towards Joseph. So for the time being, the matter of Minkomala can come to an end. Now Joseph's attention can be focused on his brothers again.

Napoleon didn't need Joseph much to bother with now, he went back to Corsica and will not be coming back for a short time. As for Louie, he was still young, and Joseph asked the people to find a good elementary school and let him study in it. As for Lucien, Joseph arranged for him to attend his alma mater, the School of Louis the Great.

Lucien's performance at the Louis GRANDE was certainly not as conspicuous as Joseph's, but he was also good academically, and he did well in speech and acting. Joseph has now stepped down as a screenwriter for the Dragon and Rose Theatre Company, but his connection to the troupe remains. Relying on this relationship, he also asked Lucien to play a few cameos in the troupe from time to time. According to Captain Denardi, "he was a naturally good actor". It's just that Joseph hadn't seen Lucien's performance with his own eyes, so he didn't know how much exaggeration was in Denardi's words.

In addition to this, Joseph also hired an Austrian musician named Fraser to teach Lucien piano. According to the musician, although Lucien learned the piano a little late, he had a good talent, and if he was willing to work it, he would not have a chance to reach the level of being able to perform on stage in the future.

In fact, Joseph did not ask Lucien to reach such a level, in his conception, in the future, Lucien would be responsible for literary and artistic propaganda, and he did not need to be proficient in all kinds of arts, as long as he dabbled in a little.

However, Lucien seems to have some talent in these areas, and he has even recently written a few small plays and composed a few little tunes of his own. Joseph has seen and heard all of these works, and to be honest, they are not too good, but they are still passable.

It was precisely because of his performance that Armand simply pulled him into his "Spartacus" creative group, often pulling him out on weekends to discuss the script.

Time passed like this. It's 1789 in a blink of an eye. In the past two years, France's finances have become untenable, and King Louis XVI has had to offer a tax increase to avoid total bankruptcy of the royal government. French society was divided into three classes, the clergy, the nobility, and the plebeians. The first two estates occupy a great deal of social wealth, but they do not bear much in taxes. These two estates were naturally resolutely opposed to raising taxes on them, and with the political power at their disposal, they did have the strength to oppose them. Therefore, the only goal of tax increases is naturally the third estate.

In order to raise taxes, the king had to reconvene the Estates-General, which had been interrupted for 175 years, to find a solution to the financial crisis.

"The King of France is a fool to come up with such a stupid and stupid way to convene the Estates-General at this time!" In his letter to Joseph, Napoleon mercilessly mocked the King of France, "Doesn't he know how much resentment and resentment the Third Estate has buried against him?" If he didn't convene the Estates-General, these anger would still be hidden, and there wouldn't be much danger for the time being, but what Estates-General would he convene! Didn't he know that this would give those who opposed him a chance to organize? Individual people are always cowardly, weak, and do not dare to do anything even with resentment in their hearts. But once they got together, they had the organization, they had the courage and strength, and they dared to fight lions and even dragons. People are like locusts, when they are not in a swarm, they are just grasshoppers worth mentioning, but when they are in a swarm, they are unstoppable locusts. And that fool foolishly gave those who opposed him such a chance, a chance to unite them, from grasshoppers to locusts. This idiot must have thought that the guys of the third rank would obediently pay for it as long as they bluffed, or at most, even if they refused to pay, they wouldn't make any trouble, but there were still people watching from the sidelines......"

Joseph fully agrees with Napoleon's judgment. In fact, as representatives of the Third Estate gradually concentrated in Paris, the whole of Paris became in turmoil. Some pamphlets began to become popular among the citizens. Some of these pamphlets are designed to introduce the citizens to the Estates-General, and most of these "knowledge" have a certain orientation, on the one hand, they are all about introducing what taxes the king is going to increase and how to further exploit everyone. This propaganda worries the already difficult Parisian people.

At the same time, because of the general spring drought in the northern provinces, out of concern about a possible big harvest, starting with a few grain merchants under the command of the nobles, and finally almost all the grain merchants began to adopt the practice of reluctant to sell, and the grain sold in the market became less and less, and the price naturally rose all the way. The rise in prices has further stimulated the trend of hoarding and reluctant to sell, and the rising food prices have made Paris complain. It was then that Armand found Joseph again.