From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

On the evening of March 31, 1770, on the outskirts of Ajaccio, the Defense Forces were stationed.

"Alas, with such ingredients, the bullet strength is simply not strong enough."

Major Trifari scratched his head in distress and stabbed the small piece of cork in his hand with his dagger.

After Bonifacio's triumphant return, Major Trifali also received more feedback from those precision shooters on the actual use of rifles. Therefore, during these days, he was basically busy with the design improvement of bullets and firearms.

Even the wooden house where Major Trifari lived had been moved into countless raw materials, parts, tools and equipment. They were all piled on the ground in a mess, everywhere, and there was not even a place to stay.

"Major, excuse me."

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, followed by a young soldier's loud report.

This voice is also familiar to Major Cui Farley, who is his personal guard. In addition to simple security work, the guards also play the role of secretaries for these officers.

"come in."

Major Trifari greeted without raising his head and continued to look at the cork in his hand.

"yes."

The guard responded and pushed open the door. He carefully tiptoed through the scattered parts and made a long detour before arriving in front of Major Cui Farley.

"Major, here is your letter for today."

The guard said, placing a few envelopes on the table, and then waited for Major Trifali's order.

Major Trefarley sighed, put the cork aside, and glanced impatiently at the envelopes.

As a well-known firearms craftsman, Major Cui Farley often receives letters from wealthy businessmen and dignitaries, requesting him to customize those flashy pistols to show his power or wealth.

"Those commission letters again? I told you to throw these letters aside and don't bother me with them."

Major Cui Farley said with a somewhat displeased frown.

The guard also scratched his head in shame, but said nothing. It was obvious that he had received a lot of benefits from those clients when delivering the letter.

"By the way, Major, there is a letter inside which is not a commission. I can't understand the content, but the envelope does say it is addressed to you."

Seeing Major Cui Farley's expression getting increasingly grim, the guard quickly changed the subject and thrust one of the worn and yellowed envelopes into Major Cui Farley's hands.

There is almost nothing on the cover, except for a short line of small words, indicating that it is sent to Major Cui Fali of the National Defense Forces.

Major Cui Farley opened the envelope in confusion, took out the letter and spread it on the table.

I saw this huge piece of paper. There was no greeting, no conclusion, no title or signature. There was only one word on the entire white paper:

start.

"start?"

Major Cui Farley scratched his hair twice, but couldn't find any clues at all.

Just when Major Cui Farley was upset and thought it was a prank by a child with a bad temper, an unobtrusive pattern in the lower right corner of the letter immediately caught his attention.

"This is.!"

Major Cui Farley stared at the pattern for two seconds. He saw that the upper part of the pattern was a pointed cone, and the lower part was a rectangle with a semicircle cut out.

For this figure, Major Cui Farley, who dealt with it every day, instantly recognized it:

"Isn't this the shape of a mini bomb? And knowing that the structure of the mini bomb is correct, this must be Lieutenant Colonel Bonaparte."

Major Cui Farley suddenly realized that this was a letter from Lawrence.

"In this case, then what this means at the beginning is that"

After knowing that this was Lawrence's letter, Major Trifali nervously and excitedly glanced at the word "START" in cursive letters in the center of the letter paper.

Thinking of the plan Lawrence had given them when they returned to Ajaccio that day, Major Trifali immediately understood that the weather in Corsica was going to change from now on.

"Uh Major?"

The guard stood aside with some embarrassment, watching Major Cui Farley suddenly startled at the almost blank letter, and couldn't help but say:

"Have you worked too hard these days?"

Major Cui Falali ignored the guard, but closed his eyes hard to calm down, and then said to the guard in a deep voice:

"Guard, go find Lieutenant Seth immediately and ask him to come to me now."

"Ah, yes!"

Although the guard didn't know what was going on, when he saw Major Cui Farley's serious expression, he quickly saluted and ran towards the door without caring whether he stepped on any parts.

Meanwhile, to the south of Corsica, Bonifacio.

Since the former supreme commander of the Southern Army, Colonel Silva, unfortunately died on the battlefield and sacrificed his life for his country, Lawrence inquired among the soldiers before leaving and independently appointed an officer with both ability and political integrity to take over the Southern Army. Legion commander.

Of course, Governor Pauli did not know and would not accept that Lawrence had appointed a regiment commander on his own initiative. So after learning of the death of Colonel Silva, he hurriedly dispatched a loyal colonel as the official commander. official.

And at this moment, in Bonifacio's camp.

The officer appointed by Lawrence was sitting by the campfire like the other soldiers, but he did not join in the soldiers' chat, but read a letter from Ajaccio with a serious expression.

"Hey, sir, what are you looking at?"

A soldier noticed the serious expression on the officer's face and couldn't help but asked.

"Is it from Ajaccio's relatives?" A soldier asked caringly after seeing the sending address on the envelope.

The officer just shook his head silently, but did not explain the content of the letter. He still glanced at the contents of the letter.

The soldiers looked at each other in confusion, wondering what the usually cheerful and enthusiastic officer was looking at that made him so serious.

After a while, the officer finally finished reading the entire letter, but his expression was still not relaxed at all. After hesitating for a moment, he threw the entire letter into the bonfire beside it and turned it into ashes.

"Sir, who sent it?"

The soldiers became even more curious when they saw this, and they all came up and asked.

The officer stood up, patted the dust on his body, and said in a deep voice:

"It was from Monsieur Bonaparte."

The soldiers immediately opened their mouths in surprise and discussed continuously:

"Monsignor Bonaparte?!"

"The officer who fought with us and won the Battle of Bonifacio!"

"Yes, he was the one who captured General Belrain alive two years ago."

"Sir, what did Monsieur Bonaparte say in his letter?"

Faced with a flood of questions, the officer could only signal everyone to be silent and then said:

"Monsieur Bonaparte hopes that we, the Army of the South, will march immediately to Ajaccio to accept his command."

As soon as the words fell, the soldiers were stunned for a few seconds. Everyone knew that Lawrence was truly overstepping his rank. Once he was held accountable by General Pauli, no one could escape responsibility.

Seeing everyone froze in place, the officer immediately said:

"I also knew that this was an over-the-level dispatch that was a serious violation of regulations, but I still decided to accept Monsignor Bonaparte's dispatch, just because that day, on the plain outside Bonifacio, I saw Monsieur Bonaparte abandoning The scene where the mounts were marching with us under fire.”

The officer's words immediately brought back the soldiers' memories of the Battle of Bonifacio that day. They thought of the young Bonaparte commander, how he shouted and questioned them before the battle, and how he marched under artillery fire on the battlefield. , and the sincere vow to mourn the heroic soul after the war.

"Maybe there will never be such a commander in this life." This is the thought of many soldiers after the war.

However, now, there was an opportunity before them.

Whether to go north to Ajaccio to follow in the footsteps of Bonaparte, or to stay in Bonifacio and rust and rot here for a lifetime, many people already have the answer in their minds.

"March to Ajaccio!"

"March to Ajaccio!"

"March to Ajaccio!"

The excited shouts of the soldiers instantly spread throughout Bonifacio.

And just a moment later, a shout was heard outside the camp, suddenly interrupting the soldiers' shouts.

"Hey! You bunch of pigs! What are you doing! Why are you making such a fuss!"

Outside the camp, the colonel who took over as commander rushed in angrily, pointed at the soldiers and cursed.

The officer just now walked up to the colonel without changing his expression and said loudly:

"We are preparing to march. Our destination is Ajaccio."

"March?! Ridiculous! Whose order!" After hearing this, the colonel's face immediately turned livid and he roared.

"Monsignor Bonaparte's order." The officer responded, neither humble nor haughty.

"Bonaparte? Laurence Bonaparte? He has been removed from office! What orders does he have the authority to give?"

The colonel pointed at the officer's nose and yelled:

"You are General Pauli's soldiers. You can't obey anyone except General Pauli's orders!"

"No, we trust Monsieur Bonaparte who has fought alongside us more." The officer stood upright in front of the colonel and did not give in a step.

"You! You traitor!"

The colonel's face was swollen with anger and he was speechless. He directly drew the sword from his waist and stabbed the officer.

The officer reacted even more quickly. In an instant, he also pulled out the saber and held it in his hand, parrying the colonel's thrust. Then with a flick of his wrist and a little force, he knocked the colonel's saber off his hand.

"you"

Under the colonel's shocked gaze, the officer stepped forward without any hesitation. The tip of the knife followed his body forward and penetrated into the colonel's heart.

"Wow."

The soldiers watched silently as the colonel's body fell, and watched as their nominal supreme commander died before their eyes.

The officer raised his saber that was still bleeding and did not look at the colonel at his feet who had not yet completely died. He knew that there was no turning back now and he had no choice but to believe in Lord Bonaparte.

"Soldiers, march to Ajaccio!"