Life of Being a Crown Prince in France - Chapter 1548 - 1454: The Crown Prince's Most Bewildering Days
Joseph hurriedly flipped open the battle report sent by the General Staff, feeling a tightness in his chest.
The main force of the Polish Army was concentrated near Smolensk, which meant that the nearest Polish city, Minsk, was a good 330 kilometers away.
If the Polish Army’s attack is thwarted and they want to retreat to their homeland, Kutuzov will relentlessly pursue them from multiple directions.
The severe cold will exponentially increase the Polish casualties.
Back in the day when Napoleon retreated from Moscow to Vilnius, he lost over 80% of his soldiers.
Joseph doesn’t believe that Kosciuszko’s organization and concealment abilities surpass Napoleon’s.
If the Polish Army suffers excessive losses, the strategic situation in Eastern Europe will quickly become unmanageable.
As for Kosciuszko performing exceptionally well and completely defeating Kutuzov?
Joseph admits that although the probability is extremely low, it is still possible.
However, even so, the Polish Army will end up facing scorched earth tactics in Moscow and be worn down by the Russians.
Russia can still cover up domestic conflicts under the guise of the Patriotic War, thereby increasing cohesion across all strata.
After repelling the “Polish invaders,” Alexander I’s prestige will be at an all-time high, likely as in history, he will start desperately expanding military power, stepping onto the path of the “European Gendarmerie.”
Joseph shook his head, so for Poland at this moment, the best strategy is to quickly retreat west of the Dnieper River-West Dvina River and form a standoff with the Russian Army.
He quickly wrote a few lines, signed, and handed it to the Major who came to deliver the message: “Please send it back to the General Staff immediately. In addition, I need more detailed battle reports from both the Polish and Russian armies.”
His order to the General Staff was to have them immediately help Poland formulate a retreat plan and inform Kosciuszko of the enormous risks currently facing the Polish Army.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The next day, Joseph had just entered Arles City when he received an urgent report from the Palace of Versailles.
This time the sender was Alexandra.
Joseph thought it was his wife missing him, leisurely opening the Sharp Signal Tower document, but his face instantly turned pale after reading just a few lines.
The Crown Princess informed him that His Majesty the King unexpectedly contracted a serious illness called “typhus,” and the Palace of Versailles had already fallen into chaos. The Imperial Physician said that the King must go to Brittany for treatment, while Her Majesty the Queen demanded that the news of the King’s illness not be made public for the time being, specifically emphasizing not to tell the Crown Prince yet.
She was worried that the diagnosis or treatment might go wrong and delay the King’s condition, so she secretly sent him this letter.
Furthermore, she subtly hinted at the possibility of a coup by Count of Artuwa, Duke of Broglie, and others towards the end of the letter. This was actually the main reason she hurried to notify her husband.
Joseph, of course, didn’t take any coup seriously, given his current prestige whoever dared to utter the word “coup” would be torn to pieces by the military, police, and citizens of Paris together in less than half an hour.
But his father’s health made him anxious.
The main issue being his father’s diet habits of high fat and sugar, and often being busy all day in the Royal Workshop, it’s no surprise his health would have problems.
Joseph tightly clutched Alexandra’s letter, silently thinking: He had been exercising with his dad for months now, his resilience shouldn’t be so poor, he should mostly be able to pull through.
Suddenly, he thought of something and quickly wrote a letter, handing it to Eman: “Please send it immediately to the Paris Pharmaceutical Factory Laboratory.”
He instructed in the letter for Lamark to take penicillin to the Palace of Versailles and give his father two injections.
He didn’t know if penicillin was effective against typhus, but it was the most powerful drug he had, it had to be tried.
Penicillin being a state secret of France, its use required Joseph’s personal authorization.
However, that very afternoon, a report from the Intelligence Bureau was delivered to Joseph.
Randa Li elaborately reported the events of the King’s illness, diagnosis, and the reaction of those influential at the Palace of Versailles.
In the latter part of the report, Joseph was unexpectedly confronted by the unanimous opinion of esteemed medical doctors that the King’s condition was not life-threatening, and if he immediately went to the Chateau de Fontainebleau for treatment, the chances of recovery would be very high.
Joseph was a bit puzzled, not knowing whether the Imperial Physician or the Medical Health Bureau was the incompetent one…
But two hours later, Lamark’s letter via Sharp Signal Tower cleared up his doubts.
According to this top French doctor, influenced by Joseph’s modern medical concepts, he swore with his reputation, from his observations, the King should not have typhus, and the condition was not serious. But he still followed the Crown Prince’s orders and injected the King with “Type One antibiotics.”
This only made Joseph even more anxious, diagnosis would be fine, not knowing what illness it is was the worst.
So he abandoned riding by carriage, taking the horse with his Imperial Guard himself to rush.
By evening at seven o’clock, with the sky already too dark to travel, Joseph had to stop overnight in Alamon.
Upon entering the city, the mayor, along with a dozen officials, came up to greet him, bowing: “We extend our deepest respect to welcome His Highness the Crown Prince, and the Regent King.”
Following this, the mayor solemnly presented a copy of an edict recently signed by the King, registered two hours ago by the High Court.
“The Regent King?”
Joseph’s head was full of fog, he looked at the Sharp Signal Tower document by the flames, eyes widening.
There, printed conspicuously—Regent Authorization. Beneath it was a series of King’s signatures (signed by the Queen), Senate endorsements, and High Court registration notes.
Then he saw the content of the edict.
Summed up in one sentence: The King falls ill with a serious illness, now authorizes the Crown Prince as Regent.
Joseph turned his head to Eman: “Immediately have the Intelligence Bureau and Baron Breti submit detailed reports to me, I need to know what’s happening at the Palace of Versailles.”
…
Pushing hard all the way, Joseph reached the southern part of Nemours in only six days, and boarded a train from there.
At noon that day, he finally saw his father at the Fontainebleau Sanatorium.
Imperial Physician Pertti raised a thermometer high: “39.7 degrees Celsius, Your Highness.”
Joseph ignored him, using his forehead to test his father’s forehead.
Not hot at all!
He even noticed that Dad seemed to sneaky glance at him.
He gestured for all doctors and servants to leave, personally shut the door, turned to look at his mom: “So, is Father really sick?”
Queen Mary, somewhat nervously avoiding his gaze, nodded: “Uh, it should be typhus…”
Louis XVI squinted around, making sure there were no outsiders, then “shushed” up from the bed, scratching his neck vigorously: “What kind of paint is this? Making me itch all over…”
