Section 271 The Legacy of an Empire
If they had strength, of course, the Bourbons would not be able to resemble Napoleon, but the problem was that they were incapable.
Therefore, when the Chinese snatched Napoleon to China, Louis XVIII was furious, and he responded very positively to Britain's proposal to form a European alliance and unanimously dealt with China. It is a pity that the enthusiasm of the French was handed over by the British, who did not trust the French army.
In fact, the Bourbons themselves did not trust those armies, and the first time Napoleon was overthrown, they purged the French army, and a large number of generals who were originally in high positions under Napoleon were deposed, including many generals with the rank of marshal. After the restoration of Louis XVIII, more than 10,000 officers were dismissed from their posts in a short period of time, and incompetent nobles were placed in high-ranking positions and received large salaries. He hoped that the nobles would help him control the army, and as soon as Napoleon returned, the nobles left the army and ran.
As a result, Louis XVIII could only get angry, and he almost expelled the Chinese consul general, not only because China had taken in Napoleon, but also because Lindy had published Napoleon's letter to the French people in the French liberal newspapers.
Napoleon wrote: Dear French people, I am Napoleon Bonaparte, I am fine, I am safe. I was courteous in China. It doesn't mean much to me to be freed from British captivity, because as long as I am away from you, I am like living in prison. But I am still grateful to His Majesty the Emperor of China, not because he has helped me, and I have not felt free, but I deserve my gratitude to him for keeping me away from the British. Love you Bonaparte.
Napoleon announced his presence to all the French people through the newspapers, and even caused a parade, with the lower ranks shouting for Napoleon's return, and Napoleon's news almost caused a revolution in France.
Louis XVIII angrily summoned Lindy to Versailles, where he confronted Lindy in person. But the Chinese consul made his anger disappear in just a few words, or he lost his courage, and he did not dare to expel him again, and even had to be polite to him.
Lindy asked Louis XVIII what would happen if the French were not happy that China had taken in Napoleon, and Napoleon had secretly left from China. This is a threat to the red fruit, but Louis XVIII just has no temper. Because as long as Napoleon left China, no one could guarantee that he would not sneak back to France again, and as long as Napoleon returned, Louis XVIII felt that he had no other way but to flee again. He lost the courage to expel the Chinese consul.
A simple political conspiracy, this is how the Jin people played Zhao Gou back then, and Zhao Gou threatened to return to Huiqin Erzong if he was disobedient. Zhao Gou is honest, otherwise why would he kill Yue Fei? Is it true that Zhao Gou didn't know that Yue Fei was loyal?
It would have been easy to shock Louis XVIII, and Napoleon's prestige in France had become a golden signboard, and his appeal to the French was self-evident.
The reason why Louis XVIII was unpopular in France after the Restoration was not only because he restored a corrupt aristocracy, and Napoleon's government was not necessarily very clean. Mainly because of the fact that France was doubly raped by both interests and spirits.
In terms of interests, France was forced to open up the market and lift the blockade, and the export volume of British goods to the European continent increased sharply from 13 million pounds in 1811 to 27 million pounds in 1814, of which at least one-third entered the French market, and in the past the blockade of Britain, the mainland market was monopolized by France, and now under the impact of Britain's better and cheaper industrial products, France can not even keep its own market, let alone other markets. This caused a serious economic crisis, which is why Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, and the workers marched in support of Napoleon, and when Napoleon was finished, French industry was finished.
Now, under the onslaught of British industrial goods, not only the workers are unlucky, but a large group of capitalists are also unlucky. The bourgeoisie is already the elite class of France, and the more dissatisfied this group is with the government, the more they miss Napoleon. And among this elite, there are university professors, engineers, and then Lin Di published a newspaper in France, recruiting university professors to teach in China, recruiting engineers to work in China, recruiting only the best talents.
If there is no Napoleon in China, these people may not go, because as the best talents, they are always scarce, even in France in crisis, most people will not be unemployed, and even if they are unemployed, they are all propertied classes, and it is not impossible to get by, even if they want to leave France, there are places to go in the surrounding countries, historically, the surrounding Prussia and other countries rely on the continuous absorption of French technicians to improve their own technical level, such as the group of Huguenots not only fattened the Netherlands, It also allowed Prussia's handicraft industry to advance by leaps and bounds.
But the spiritual loss will make them disappointed in France, and at the same time they will be interested in Napoleon's China, which has a mysterious feeling in the West, where is Napoleon, and how many people will this attract to go?
Not necessarily every elite recognizes Napoleon, not necessarily every elite who recognizes Napoleon will be willing to go to China, but as long as there is a small part, it is also considerable, as a technologically advanced country in Europe second only to the United Kingdom, France is really countless. Especially after the French Revolution, there was a rapid development of cultural undertakings, and the reformed university education produced a large number of intellectual elites, while the intelligent people of France could often learn in the church schools in the past, not practical theology.
For a time, a large number of university professors, lecturers, and even students who could not find a career after graduating from college aspired to Napoleon, and thousands of top French talents, or at least above the standard, signed up for the Chinese consulate in the hope of getting a job.
For these people, of course, the top talents are welcome, but as long as they are regular university graduates and have a certain amount of work experience, they will be recruited, if they only graduate from college and lack any work experience, they will only be given free ferry tickets, indicating that they have to find jobs on their own, and the government cannot solve their employment.
A stream of middle and high-level intellectual resources is rapidly draining from France and pouring into China.
The fall of an empire leaves behind a rich legacy, as long as it is eaten, it can be fattened.
With these talents, Zhou Lang greatly expanded the Royal Tai College of China, which was previously established by the Li Comprehensive Institute of Technology, which was originally formed by a group of French scientists, and was not large in scale, but now it has been greatly expanded, and can train 500 senior engineering and technical talents of various types every year.
It also trains various theoretical talents, and introduces physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, oceanography, astronomy and other scientific disciplines. Royal Tai College is not a science and engineering professional school, but a real comprehensive university.
In addition, a large number of polytechnic schools have been formed.
The polytechnic-based university education system established after the French Revolution was later imitated by Germany and developed into a world-class university training model, and is now the first to be replicated in China.
A professional polytechnic school was established in Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Wuhan, with each enrollment ranging from two to three hundred, and the government was fully capable of absorbing graduates to become government officials and promote modern industrial technology. These science and engineering schools focus on cultivating engineering and technical talents, introducing practical specialties such as engineering and mining.
In a sense, China excavated a Western scientific training system from the remains of Napoleon's empire.
For example, Napoleon believed that "it is dangerous to give advanced education to children who are not from wealthy families", so École Polytechnique charges high tuition, while Zhou Lang insists on free of charge, after all, as an official school to train future officials and public officials, this cost is affordable for the government.
In fact, Napoleon's ideas are also very attractive to Zhou Lang, which is a typical bourgeois thought, through high tuition fees, let the bourgeoisie monopolize high-quality educational resources, will allow the bourgeoisie to expand its discourse power rapidly, because they have mastered the most advanced knowledge.
But Zhou Lang finally felt that it was better to be more civilian, as long as the children of the poor were willing to work hard, give them a chance, and expand the school's talent selection base, of course, if they wanted to be admitted to this school, it was equivalent to the single-plank bridge that had passed the imperial examination, although the scope of the imperial examination was much smaller than that of the imperial examination, but the overall opportunity was much greater.
Zhou Lang passed the university examination, compiled a set of science education textbooks, printed and published, and if you want to rely on the university, you can buy and study.
So it still attracts a large number of scholars to study natural sciences, and many people do not give up the imperial examination, but pay equal attention to both, after all, this is equivalent to one more way, and any one of them can be an official. Even after being admitted to the university, they still did not give up the imperial examination, and they also reviewed the Four Books and Five Classics in the university, which Zhou Lang did not expect.
By excavating the legacy of Napoleon's empire, science and technology spread by leaps and bounds in China, especially driven by university examinations, and through the self-study of scholars, natural sciences began to spread on a large scale in China, which also resolved Zhou Lang's anxiety about not being able to reform the imperial examination in a short period of time.
In addition, the military academy run by Zhou Lang has gained a large number of truly world-class military scientists, including teaching staff who originally served in various military schools in France, as well as a large number of French generals, and even invited Ney and Murat, two marshals of the Napoleonic Empire, to China. Originally, after the defeat, both were arrested and sentenced to death.
But they were all rescued by Lindy, who was hidden by Lindi after Napoleon's restoration. At that time, Napoleon was restored, Murat's cavalry responded, in fact, Napoleon did not accept him at all, after he was defeated by the Austrians, he fled to Paris to see the emperor, Napoleon because he betrayed him before his first abdication, refused to see him, Murat was desperate, Lindy invited and protected him. Ney has always been loyal to Napoleon, after the defeat of Waterloo, Napoleon stepped down again, Ney was arrested by the Bourbons and sentenced to death, Lindy interceded several times, managed to postpone the sentence, after confirming that Napoleon had been rescued to China, he used this to coerce the Bourbons, which released Ney.
Now Ney was with Napoleon again, while Murat entered the military academy as the head of the cavalry section.