French Empire: But Napoleon IV

Chapter 60 Loyalty! Eugene's Reputation in the Army

loyalty!

In the sweltering summer heat, a rare sight appeared: two suns blazing in the sky, the second sun so bright it was almost impossible to see clearly.

The moved recruits erupted in deafening cheers, many shedding tears of emotion, waving their hands trembling with joy to express their gratitude.

They may not say it, but they'll think it in their hearts.

People in old revolutionary areas are progressive in their thinking.

Many soldiers had already realized that they were just sacrificial lambs brought in by the government to be used as cannon fodder, but they did not expect that the fourteen-year-old crown prince would actually care about their lives.

What else is there to say? Loyalty is all that matters.

However, this loyalty is contingent on Eugène truly fulfilling his promise.

Eugène was clearly aware of this, knowing that if he did not take further action, this loyalty would gradually turn into unrest, and the soldiers would feel that Eugène was deceiving them.

As a result, that afternoon, Major Duval, who was in charge of the 14th Army's supplies, was dragged out of his luxurious villa in Versailles by the gendarmerie.

After a surprise interrogation and the use of techniques such as memory restoration, Duval honestly admitted that he had colluded with grain merchants in Paris.

This major, utterly devoid of conscience, substituted moldy wheat and flour mixed with sand for high-quality military rations, embezzling a total of 12 francs in food funds.

12, a mere 12. Euren knew that the amount involved in this embezzlement case was definitely in the millions.

But this foolish major only received 12 francs and was completely swindled by those grain merchants.

Speechless and full of complaints, Eugene showed no mercy to the foolish major.

He immediately ordered Duval to be publicly executed by firing squad at the gate of the Versailles barracks, and his crimes of corruption were printed in leaflets and posted in all the barracks and streets of Paris.

In fact, this matter was resolved so quickly thanks to Pietri's help.

The secret police in Paris had already discovered that a batch of grain of unknown origin had flooded the market at high prices, and following the clues, they traced it back to Duval.

Even if no new recruits cause a disturbance over food, Eugene plans to personally arrest Duval during his visit to the military camp in order to quickly establish his prestige among the new recruits.

Now that new recruits are causing trouble due to dissatisfaction with the food situation, the whole thing seems a bit more reasonable.

Eugène no longer cared about saving face. Unlike before, when he only provided financial subsidies to cover up the loopholes caused by corruption, this time he was going all out.

The change in tactics and the efficient execution caused a huge uproar within the entire Paris Legion.

Not only the 14th Army, but all the quartermasters of the former 13th and 15th Armies were also terrified and dared not tamper with supplies anymore.

The quartermaster was frightened, which boosted the morale of the lower-ranking soldiers to an unprecedented high.

With morale high, the enthusiasm for training naturally increases significantly as well.

In order to speed up the training, Eugene rehired a group of veterans from Paris with an average age of over 55. These veterans were no longer good at fighting, and their tactical awareness was outdated.

However, given the current lack of experienced veterans mentoring new recruits, it is perfectly acceptable to have these elderly veterans train new recruits in simple shooting, marching, and other skills.

Paris had almost exhausted its pool of experienced soldiers in their prime, but there were still quite a few veterans in their fifties and sixties, and even some born in the Napoleonic era.

Those retired veterans may not have participated in the Italian (Franco-Italian-Austrian) wars, but they participated in almost all of the Crimean and colonial wars.

All the veterans who were rehired had seen blood and killed the enemy. These men not only taught the new recruits how to shoot and bayonet, but also how to hide on the battlefield, how to bandage wounds, and how to survive under artillery fire.

These veterans had a strong sense of honor for France. Eugène simply gave each of them 10 francs and provided a meal, and he rehired more than 5,000 of them.

With the addition of veterans, many of the original regular soldiers from the 13th Army who were responsible for basic training were freed up.

Eugene also had Conrobel select another 3000 soldiers with rich combat experience from the 13th Army and assign them to various recruit battalions as squad leaders and platoon leaders.

At this point, knowing that his ultimate base was still the military, Eugene chose to live and eat almost entirely in the military camp.

His mother, Eugénie, had some objections, but Eugénie, who had his own opinions, refused her firmly, even though it would hurt her feelings.

He was already 14 years old. As the Governor of Paris, Eugénie obviously couldn't order Eugénie to be confined to his house and prevented from leaving, as that would be a huge scandal.

Therefore, after seeing his mother wiping away tears, Eugène still resolutely made the difficult decision to move to the military camp. He would only occasionally appear on the streets of various districts each day, so that the people would not forget his kindness as the Crown Prince of France and ensure that the French people could never repay his kindness.

By this time, Eugène was doing everything he could to win the favor of the French soldiers. For example, he ate communal meals with them, stood at attention with them under the scorching sun, and visited sick soldiers in the barracks at night with a lantern.

While some argue that a general only needs to be fair in rewards and punishments, the terrifying aspect of emotional manipulation lies in the fact that soldiers are willing to hold out for their commander for a period of time, even when the disparity in strength is vast or when supplies are exhausted.

Even if defeat and surrender are still possible in the end, in the current situation in France, under the heavy pressure of Prussian artillery fire, the emotional manipulation provided by PUA is very effective.

Therefore, in order to deepen this manipulation, Eugene stopped putting on airs as the crown prince.

During his time in the military camp, Eugene would patiently listen to the soldiers' complaints about the hardships of training, give advance pay to soldiers whose families were in financial difficulty, and even personally bandage the wounds of injured soldiers.

The benefit of doing this was that, gradually, the name "Crown Prince of the Sun" spread throughout the Paris Legion.

Unlike Louis XIV, who ruled as the "Sun King" and relied on his military achievements to ensure France's enduring prosperity during his reign, France was not the same.

Eugene's reputation stemmed more from his unparalleled affability and his extravagant spending. The soldiers, grateful for Eugene's sun-like warmth, gave him this nickname.

Judging from this nickname, his behavior of eating and living with the soldiers made them no longer regard him as a high-ranking member of the royal family, but as one of their own.

Eugene was delighted about this, as it meant that the soldiers were beginning to genuinely support him, the young crown prince, and were willing to fight for him, even die for him.