Napoleon took the "Order of Imperador" and hung it on his chest, and a shout rang out all around: "Imperator! "Imperator!"

Napoleon, after the shouts had subsided, gave a short speech to the crowd. In his speech, he first thanked the French people for their favor and said that he was deeply moved. Then he reviewed the course of his struggle for the realization of freedom and democracy in France together with countless heroes and martyrs since the French Revolution, and said that those who really deserve this supreme honor should be those heroes who died defending the freedom and democracy of France and building a free and democratic France.

Then Napoleon once again emphasized the French spirit of "freedom, democracy, and fraternity", and said that it was the greatest honor of his life to work with the French people to defend the French Republic, democracy and freedom.

Finally, to the cheers of the crowd, Napoleon completed his speech and returned to the ruling government to continue serving the French people.

Napoleon's impromptu speeches were naturally reported on the front pages of various newspapers. Today, not only the French newspapers, but not only those of the allies (client states) with which France was particularly close, but even some of the British, Prussian and Austrian newspapers praise Napoleon's humility and his loyalty to democracy.

Of course, the situation abroad is naturally not like in France, where everyone naturally praises Napoleon one-sidedly, but abroad, there are always sour voices. For example, a certain newspaper in Austria ridiculed Napoleon as a low-class hillbilly with a foam monkey crown, and reprimanded him for not peeing and acting like himself.

The newspaper even declared that in all of Europe, there was only one legitimate "Anbrado", and that was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, His Majesty Franz II.

"His Majesty Franz II was of noble birth, a true Orthodox Emperor of the Romans, blessed by God, the defender of Catholicism, the true and legitimate Imperator. Compared to him, the Corsican dwarf was nothing more than a monkey. ”

The newspaper that made this statement was a newspaper with an exile background, and it was very normal for such a newspaper to publish articles that slandered France and denigrated Napoleon. Even, if such newspapers began to praise Napoleon, it must have been Napoleon's revision.

Moreover, the circulation of this newspaper is actually limited, and many times, it is just the exiles themselves who print it to cheer themselves up. Even, the letters from readers in the newspaper, many times, are made up by the editors themselves, quite like "don't look at the many people talking here, in fact, all of them are my Amon's vest".

What do these newspapers say, under normal circumstances, the big newspapers, especially the French press, don't care at all - who is interested in going to the toilet with a magnifying glass to observe the feces every day?

This time, however, the newspaper's report was suddenly noticed by the French press, first of all, a tabloid, which was also not very conspicuous, reported the incident under the more frightening title "The Austrians Wantonly Insult the French Leader", and also hinted that the newspaper's vicious attack on Bonaparte's government was in fact at the behest of the Austrian government.

But then "Scientific Pravda" followed up, saying that such reactionary newspapers did not represent the attitude of the Austrian people, but in fact the Austrian people still had great respect for the French people and for Bonaparte's rule. No one bought the newspaper in Austria. The Sun interviewed many Austrians in Austria, and many Austrians said that they were very envious of France for having a good government, and also thought that Bonaparte was the greatest great man of our time. The famous musician Mr. Beethoven even wrote a symphony specifically for our First Consul and named it "Imperator". From this we can clearly see that the Austrian people did not actually have any ill will towards France.

But after exonerating the Austrian people, Scientific Pravda raised another question: we knew that if a newspaper could not sell at all, it would soon go bankrupt and close its doors. But today, a newspaper that no one buys at all can be published in Austria for many years. Obviously, there must be someone behind this who is backing it with real money.

Of course, it was not necessarily the Austrian government that supported such newspapers, but when the peace agreement between Austria and France was reached, Austria included that Austria should prohibit other forces from using Austrian territory to engage in activities against France. Now it seems that the Austrian government did not do this, and they clearly violated the peace agreement with France, and obviously did not take France seriously. From this point of view, it is indeed not wrong to say that the Austrian government is insulting His Excellency the First Consul and insulting France.

Despite its name, "Scientific Pravda" has nothing to do with the French government, and is a completely independent media. But everyone knows that "Scientific Pravda" is, in a sense, the mouthpiece of the French government. In particular, the editorials in Scientific Pravda often directly represent the voice of the French government. Therefore, the appearance of such an article in the newspaper "Scientific Pravda" is absolutely not to be taken lightly.

As soon as he saw this report, Ambassador Metternich immediately broke out in a cold sweat. He knew that it would never be easy to make such an article in the "Scientific Pravda", but Metternich thought about it for a day and a night, and he couldn't figure out why France was engaged in Austria today. Because now Austria has almost fallen down, only France is the horse. Of course, some newspapers against France do exist, but these newspapers have not existed for a day or two, and the French have never taken it seriously, and now they are suddenly making a big fuss about it, what is the purpose of it?

Ambassador Metternich was worried, but someone came to report that the banker Nathan Rothschild had come to visit.

Metternich had Rothschild brought in.

"Mr. Rothschild, at this time you have deigned to visit, is there anything you want to tell me?" Metternich asked.

"Of course I'm here for that article in Science Pravda." Nathan Rothschild replied very directly, "Because this matter could have a big impact on our business." ”

"What do you think about this?" Metternich said.

"Mr. Ambassador, how much do you know about His Excellency the First Consul? What do you think of the recent 'Anbrado' incidents? ”

"The 'Imperator' affair? Obviously, this is the First Consul's own leadership. Metternich was also straight up against Nathan Rothschild.

"His Excellency the First Consul is of course a very capable person, but he is not a saint, and a true saint cannot reach the position he is in today." Nathan Rothschild said, "But the First Consul seems to be very fascinated by Rome. And I think his ambitions should be more than just a first consul. ”

This reminded Metternich of this, and he thought for a moment and said, "So, he wants to follow the example of Augustus and turn France into an empire?" …… In that case, then his actions are completely understandable......"

In Europe, de jure speaking, there are only two crowns, both of which come from Rome, the crown of the Western Roman Empire and the crown of the Eastern Roman Empire. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Pope wore this crown on the heads of many monarchs, such as the famous Charlemagne, who was once crowned by the Pope as the "Emperor of the Romans".

And today, the crown of the "Holy Roman Empire", traced back to its roots, also comes from Western Rome. The other crown is the crown of the Eastern Roman Empire, after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Russians married the princess of the Eastern Roman princess to Russia, and regarded themselves as the heirs of the Eastern Romans, which is how the crown of the Russian tsar came about.

If Napoleon really intended to do Augustus, then all this is easy to understand, because the crown he needed was in the hands of Austria.

"Mr. Ambassador, in terms of interests, France should not directly oppose your country at this time. But I'm worried about one thing. Nathan Rothschild said.

"What's the matter?" Metternich asked.

"The French may have come up with tricks through the Pope." Nathan Rothschild replied.

Metternich immediately understood what Nathan Rothschild meant. Nowadays, the crown of the "Emperor of the Romans" is worn on the head of Fritz II, but in some cases the Pope can also snatch the crown from the head of Fritz II and give it to Napoleon. For example, if Emperor Fritz II is accused of being unrelievable, violating the canons of Catholicism, or even directly accusing him of heresy, then he can be excommunicated and his title of emperor withdrawn.

And considering the situation in the Italian region today, the French already have an absolute advantage there. The Republic of Northern Italy was an ally of France, where France's most elite Italian legion was stationed. Austria's influence was almost completely squeezed out of Italy by France.

Faced with the 100,000-strong army of the Italian legions at hand, and the Austrians on the other side of the Alps, it was almost impossible to imagine what choice the Pope would make when he had to make a multiple-choice question.

So, what do we do? Can we still make His Majesty give up the crown himself? Metternich said.