Almost at the same time that Napoleon had solved the problem of Toulon, the French, who had quickly mobilized more troops, also turned to the offensive in the north. Their chances of choosing this attack were very appropriate. Because when they attacked, there happened to be another moth on the side of the anti-French alliance.

Just like the fable of the goose barracuda and the prawns pulling the carriage together, the anti-French and flattering countries each have their own calculations. As a result, they lack cooperation with each other, and even tear each other down.

The first thing the British wanted to ensure was their interests in the Netherlands. Therefore, they strongly proposed to use the main force in the attack on Dunkirk. They surrounded Dunkirk from both land and sea directions, and demanded that the Prussians and Austrians join in the offensive against Dunkirk

But Dunkirk was not a very attractive target for the Austrians and Prussians, so they, in turn, tried to subdue the British, wasting time and strength on this "secondary objective", and hastily transferred their troops to join them in a decisive attack on the Belgian border against the French.

The British Army was limited in number, and it was all thrown into the struggle for overseas colonies that were of greater interest to the British. Both the Austrians and the Prussians tried to convince the British to hurry up for mobilization. But Prime Minister Pitt was reluctant to disrupt the rhythm of British national development. So Pitt took a more compromised approach. That is, Britain paid for the guns, and Italy sent people to fight the French.

The British recruited a mercenary army of more than 10,000 Rao in Italy, and then took advantage of the Austrian roads and sent them to Belgium. The British, when borrowing from Austria, had said that these troops would be used for operations on the borders of Belgium and France. However, when the team arrived in Belgium in August, the British said that they had to use the mercenaries to fight at Dunkirk because of the changing situation on the battlefield.

However, the Austrians and Prussians claimed that they had included this mercenary force in their battle plans. When formulating the battle plan, although they did not use this Italian mercenary army as the main force (as everyone knows, these Italian mercenaries are not very reliable in combat, far inferior to the mountain people or German mercenaries). The only advantage is that you want less money. But they can at least be used for garrison missions in order to free up more troops. Now, the British suddenly lost their credibility and transferred this army away, so naturally their offensive could not be carried out.

But the real truth is not the same as theirs. Recently, Her Majesty the Empress of Eastern Rome was so grieved by the loss of her beloved lover, Duke Potemkin, that she fell ill. As soon as the Empress fell ill, the Polish guys were ready to move, and there was some turmoil in the area that had been controlled by Prussia.

The Empress's serious illness also opened the eyes of the Prussians and Austrians to the idea of making a little more profit from Poland. However, any idea must be supported by military force, otherwise it can only be delusional. Austria shares a border with France and is not yet quite afraid to transfer troops back, but this is not the case with Prussia. Prussia now felt that the security of the Rhine states seemed to be no problem for the time being, and that the interests of France were limited to what they could share. So the Prussians had long been thinking about moving some of their troops to the east. It's just that Austria used all kinds of means to hold them back.

And after knowing that a mercenary army of more than 10,000 Rao was about to join the Belgian battlefield, the Austrians could no longer hold the Prussians. Before the Italians were in place, the Prussians first transferred back more than 10,000 troops. Anyway, the Italians will fill the void they left behind...... However......

On the front of the confrontation between the two sides, one side suddenly lost more than 10,000 people, so naturally there were more flaws. But on the other side, on the side of the French, the situation is very different. While the commissioners from all over the country used the guillotine to quickly deal with those who had a "virtue" in their name, they also continued to send a large amount of wealth and conscripted soldiers to Paris. By the end of September 1793, France had organized an army of up to one million. Yes, most of these armies are poorly trained and poorly equipped (because the military-industrial production cannot keep up with such a conscription rhythm), but the morale is high. Most of their troops could not yet be put into battle, but new, trained troops (which were actually quite limited) were constantly being sent north by the revolutionary government. Unlike at the time of Di Mourieux's rebellion, the French army had regained its morale and had a clear numerical advantage.

Taking advantage of the hesitation of the Allied forces, Canot concentrated a large number of troops in the canton of Knore, and the French army launched a counterattack in early September under the supervision of the commissioner (political commissar) of Saint-Just. They defeated the British army of the Duke of York (later George V) at Honschot, then turned in the direction of Mauborges, where they routed the army of General Coble of Austria.

The military danger in France seems to have been solved temporarily, but as soon as the tight silk thread of the military is relaxed, many problems that were originally pressed down by the military crisis will immediately emerge again.

The first thing that comes to mind is the economic aspect.

After the Jacobins came to power, in order to support the war effort, they adopted a system of in-kind solicitation and various price limits in the country. This tactic, similar to that of wartime communism, ensured that the state could concentrate its forces against foreign enemies, but it also brought many problems.

According to the decree of 29 September, the French counties are responsible for limiting the price of grain, while the municipalities are responsible for setting the wage limit. Under the constraints of this decree, the price of grain generally rose by a third compared to 1790, and the wages of the people by a half. Everything seems to be fine.

But there is a great imbalance in the prices and wages set across France, with each prefecture trying to raise the price of local products and lower the price of goods from abroad. (Otherwise, it will be difficult to sustain wage growth.) This has led to the fragmentation of the national market.

On the other hand, the high level of conscription has strained the labour force, especially in rural areas. There was a bumper grain harvest this year, but because of the lack of manpower, the harvesting and threshing of the grain has been delayed, coupled with the demand for a large amount of military rations, as a result, there was a grain shortage in many places in the harvest year, especially in some areas of southern France, because of the impact of the war, these problems became more and more serious.

The problem at hand is simply that with the control of the National Salvation Committee over the state and their understanding of the economy, it is obviously far beyond their ability to set aside the traditional market economy and directly use planning to allocate the resources of the whole country. But once you abandon these things that are full of planned economic colors, politically, it is almost suicidal.

Therefore, the National Salvation Committee must allow the revolution to continue in order to be able to take real control of the country in order to survive the immediate crisis.

But it takes pressure. Previously, foreign intervention forces provided such pressure. But now, a comical situation has emerged, that is, the previous series of victories has fundamentally shaken the legitimacy of the revolutionary government.

If there is no pressure, then it is artificially created. At the very least, drag a dead tiger to beat it hard. So Robespierre chose the dead tiger of the church.

Prior to this, through the Law of the Clergy, the revolutionary government had already carried out strikes and plunders against the Church. The rest of France today are clergy who are willing to swear allegiance to Parliament. But now, the republic needs an internal enemy that can unite everyone. Thus the remaining clergy, as well as the whole of Christianity itself (including the bishops, both Orthodoxy and any Protestantism), became the condemned enemies of the Republic.

On 24 October, the National Assembly passed a bill to introduce a republican calendar in France, a move that in fact sounded the clarion call for an all-out declaration of war against Christianity and the complete expulsion of the Christian faith from France.

Kano returned home very depressed, he was very uninterested in the "republican calendar" or something. Although the republican calendar seems to some guys in later generations, what "Fog Moon", "Frost Moon", "Snow Moon", "Bud Moon" and "Flower Moon" are really beautiful and bubbling, and they are super high. But in Kano's view, it's all about nothing. And although he was the first contributor to a series of victories of the French army during this period, just as the authority and legitimacy of the National Salvation Committee were weakened by the victories it led, Carnot's position was also reduced by this series of victories. So his opposition to the republican calendar and non-Christian movements was almost ineffective.

"These guys are getting crazy! Especially the power-grabbing thugs of the Paris Commune! France will let them go on like this, it will be over sooner or later! Kano was angry at his wife.

When his wife heard this, her face turned white with fright. She looked around and lowered her voice, "You're crazy! Can this kind of talk be casual? You don't want to die? ”

"How dare they?" Unconvinced, Cano lowered his voice and said, "Damn it, at this time, Napoleon is in the south, and Joseph has locked himself in the laboratory!" I didn't even welcome anyone to talk to..."

"Can't you go to the lab to find Joseph? Or let him come to the War Department and report back to you on the study? ”

"Well, that's a way to do that, too. Joseph has many methods, and there may be a good one. Kano said.

Compared with the decline in status because of the victory, Joseph's status has risen a little. The grenades launched by the laboratory he was in charge of were used in the Battle of Toulon, as well as in the campaign in the north. Napoleon called it "a cannon in the hands of the infantry" and "Jupiter's thunder" in his war report, and praised that without the help of grenades, it would have been difficult for them to capture the crucial fortress of Malgrave in such a short time with such sacrifices, and it would not have been possible to easily repel the British counterattack thereafter.

To the north, St. Juste was also impressed by the products of Joseph's laboratory.

"This new type of weapon played a decisive role. A strong, trained soldier can throw this thing fifty or sixty meters away, and it will also be able to land it relatively accurately. This distance is not much different from the usual distance at which enemy platoon guns fire. In Honsshott, the British, as usual, wanted to bump headlong into us with bayonets. As a result, they were blown apart by grenade shells halfway through. And in Mauborges, grenades also played a decisive role. Especially the skirmishers, armed with grenades, are a nightmare for the enemy...... Therefore, I propose that the production of hand grenades should be regarded as the most urgent and important task in the military affairs, and that everything related to hand grenades must be treated as a top secret of the State......"

Because of this merit, Joseph was also promoted to brigadier general. Of course, his military rank was still below Napoleon. In accepting this honor, Joseph strongly praised Lavoisier for his contribution to the development of the grenade. He told Charles, an observer sent by the National Salvation Committee, that the explosives and fuses used in the grenades were the work of Lavoisier's research team. And it was proposed to name the explosives after Lavoisier.

However, the National Salvation Committee believed that Lavoisier was a captured enemy and that all his research was aimed at returning what he had stolen from the people. So Lavoisier does not deserve such honors. Therefore, this explosive was named Republic I, and the grenade was named Equality I grenade. Externally, it is claimed that this is the collective result of the army's technical laboratory. However, the soldiers preferred to call it "Bonaparte melon".

After Joseph told Lavoisier about the decision of the National Salvation Committee on the naming of the grenade, Lavoisier muttered: "It's nothing, anyway, I've done enough to contribute to science, enough to leave a thick chapter in the history of science." Besides, a weapon that defended this group of thugs, if named after me, would be a mockery of me! Well...... That's it! ”

But after a while, the guy said, "Alas, Joseph, if I were an Englishman, how much money would I make just by inventing the patent fee for the invention of nitrostarch?" In France, there is no right to give a name. ”

Joseph could only comfort him: "Monsieur Lavoisier, as long as you take care of your health, as I suggest, maintain a healthy diet, and run and exercise regularly, you will definitely get the royalties in the future." ”

"Running and exercising really made my body seem to be a lot better, so much so that I ate more. Every time I run, I can see the thug named Charles, hiding behind a bars and watching me. ”

"Me and him, this is a discipline domestication of you." Joseph, "Of course it's just to fool him." ”

"I understand that." Lavoisier, "I think I'm running in the sun, and he's huddled behind a dark bars, and I don't really know who is more like a prisoner." ”