Chapter 755 The military parade in front of the Champ de Mars
Under the spotlight, Jérôme Bonaparte and his party set off south from the Place de la Concorde at 1 p.m., crossed the Pont de la Concorde and arrived at the Rue du Quai d'Orsay, and then continued southward amid the cheers of citizens on both sides of the street on the Quai d'Orsay. Soon we arrived at the Champ de Mars near the Invalides at the scheduled time.
It was already 2 o'clock in the afternoon, there were only a few clouds in the blue sky, and the sun happened to be hidden behind these clouds.
The golden sunshine shines through the clouds towards Emperor Napoleon at the Champ de Mars. After looking through the bronze pillar statues in the Alps, it adds a sense of sacredness to the statue of this great man, as if the victory of the Crimean War was all It was destined to be the same.
When Jérôme Bonaparte walked past the bronze statue, he paused deliberately for a while, raised his head and silently stared at the bronze statue in front of him, and then drew out the sword hanging from his waist and pointed it at the statue in front of him. Pay homage to the statue.
The golden sunlight shone on Jerome Bonaparte's sword, causing every foreign minister following Jerome Bonaparte to subconsciously close their eyes.
After finishing all this, Jérôme Bonaparte put his sword back into its scabbard, and then continued to move forward to the venue where he observed the military parade.
As soon as Jérôme Bonaparte stood on the viewing platform of the military parade, he immediately heard gun salutes coming from the distance.
The salute was fired at the Les Invalides next door. As the salutes were fired, the people around the Champ de Mars also burst into deafening cheers.
"Long live the Empire, long live Bonaparte!"
The shouts of thousands of people soon covered up the rumbling artillery. Amidst the shouts, Jérôme Bonaparte showed a joyful smile on his face.
Nothing pleased Jérôme Bonaparte more than these shouts, because every shout represented the Parisian people's affirmation of the imperial government.
As long as he can keep hearing these cries, the empire he built will never fall.
On the contrary, if no one in Paris stops shouting, then the countdown to the empire's demise will begin.
After the salute ended, Jerome stood on the stage. Bonaparte made two false gestures to indicate that they could stop.
The shouting stopped immediately after ten seconds.
Immediately afterwards, Jérôme Bonaparte said in a solemn tone to the people who came to watch: "Dear French citizens and foreign friends, I am very happy that you can come here to celebrate this upcoming victory with me and France in the Place de la Victoire. The coming peace conference.
…Looking back on the past year, we have experienced a lot. One of the most important things is our cooperation with Britain, Austria, the Ottomans, Sardinia, Sweden, and the Kingdom of Prussia (the Prussian Foreign Minister showed a hint of dissatisfaction), Together with most European countries, they fought against the Russian Empire.
Since 1815, we have never experienced a war like this. In this war, we lost a total of nearly 100,000 brothers and sisters (the number of casualties in France was only about 30,000, and the vast majority of casualties were caused by the British and Ottomans). Imperial Contribution), and the rival Russian Empire also suffered nearly 200,000 casualties.
Now let us, regardless of nationality, pay a silent tribute to those soldiers who died in the Near East!"
As he spoke, Jerome Bonaparte closed his eyes and put his hands together in a gesture of silence.
After seeing Jerome Bernard's actions, the generals and foreign ministers who followed Jerome Bonaparte followed Jerome Bonaparte's example and closed their eyes in silence.
The people staying near the Champ de Mars were also infected by the inexplicable atmosphere, and they began to pray for the dead soldiers.
The troops stationed on the Champ de Mars also raised their rifles and fired into the sky under the orders of their officers. The dense sound of gunfire comforted the dead heroes.
After praying for nearly a minute, Jerome Bonaparte opened his eyes, and then continued to tell everyone present about the relationship between war and peace in a loud voice, and emphasized that no one likes war, so this time peace The purpose of the conference is to eliminate war as much as possible so that all parties can negotiate and help each other within a more stable framework!
At the end of his speech, Jérôme Bonaparte specifically emphasized, "I believe that peace will be completely realized in the near future!"
After Jérôme Bonaparte finished his speech, warm applause burst out from the surroundings.
Immediately afterwards, the entire Victory Square also burst into warm applause.
"Thank you very much for listening to me talking here!" Jérôme Bonaparte said to everyone present in a very down-to-earth tone, "I declare the military parade to officially begin!"
After Jérôme Bonaparte announced the start, groups of soldiers began to walk towards the viewing platform in uniform order.
The members of the diplomatic missions from various countries standing behind Jérôme Bonaparte also started talking among themselves.
The first group of people to come towards Jérôme Bonaparte were some outstanding soldiers of the 3rd Division under the leadership of Pelissier and Trochu. As the French Guards, they fought on the Crimean battlefield. , but served as the main force.
Any battle with high casualties is basically won by the third division.
When the troops of the Third Division approached the viewing platform, Marshal Pellissier immediately took out the command knife from his waist and shouted loudly: "Salute!"
After hearing the shouts of Marshal Pellissier, the soldiers in the phalanx made uniform movements with their knives, and at the same time aimed their murderous eyes at the "guests" on the viewing platform.
Some of the "guests" almost fell down under the gaze of the soldiers of the Third Division, and some members of the mission who had military careers also couldn't help but sigh in their hearts that France's military strength is still so strong.
Just the sight of these soldiers in front of me is enough to scare people.
Jérôme Bonaparte, who was standing at the front, was obviously not bet on the formation of the Third Division. He smiled and waved to the soldiers of the Third Division.
After the Third Division left the viewing platform, they were followed closely by the soldiers of the Second Division. As the Second Division that made great contributions in the Battle of Alma, it can be said that it is second only to the entire Crimean War. It is second only to the Third Division and on par with the First Division.
If Jérôme Bonaparte hadn't given the third division a hard nut to crack later, the second division would never have lost to the third division on the Crimean battlefield.
The reason why Beaucas could serve as marshal was because of Jérôme Bonaparte's compensation for the Second Division.
After the soldiers of the Second Division arrived at the viewing platform, Marshal Boccelli also imitated Marshal Pellissier and performed a bayonet show. Each bayonet gave off a cold glow under the sunlight.
Then, the 1st, 4th, and 5th divisions and Zhu Afu's team passed the viewing platform in sequence.
…
After all the troops had passed through, it was already around 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and the salute sounded again.
Jérôme Bonaparte walked down from the viewing platform, came to the phalanx of soldiers, and enthusiastically shook hands with the commanders of the phalanx at all levels.
Then Jérôme Bonaparte returned to the viewing platform and solemnly declared that the military parade was officially over.
Groups of phalanx soldiers began to leave Victory Square under the guidance of their commanders, and the crowds standing around Victory Square also began to leave under the guidance of police and military police.
Jérôme Bonaparte and others also walked back to the Palace of Tuilleries under the escort of the army led by General Vaillant.
By the time Jérôme Bonaparte and others arrived at the Tuileries Palace, it was already around 6:30 in the evening, less than half an hour before the dinner started.
Jérôme Bonaparte, who took the guests to the banquet hall, sneaked to the second floor to rest before others could react.
The nearly four-hour military parade really made him very tired.
Half lying on the sofa, he took off his coat and closed his eyes.
But before he could rest for 10 minutes, there was a knock on the door.
Jérôme Bonaparte quickly took off his coat and put it on again, and then responded: "Who?"
"Your Majesty, the Ambassador of the Russian Empire Gorchakov would like to see you!" Mokar's voice reached Jerome Bonaparte's ears.
"Gorchakov?" Jerome Bonaparte shook his head to himself. He knew that Gorchakov must have come to "provoke an attack" on him.
"There is still some time left, let him come over!" Jerome Bonaparte responded calmly.
"Yes!" Mokar immediately replied to Jérôme Bonaparte.
After a while, Gorchakov pushed open the door and entered.
"Your Majesty!" Gorchakov said as he entered the room and bowed to Jerome Bonaparte.
"Mr. Gorchakov, please sit down!" Jerome Bonaparte stretched out his hand and said to Ambassador Gorchakov, and then added: "You only have 10 minutes!"
"Your Majesty, I just want to ask you a question!" Ambassador Gorchakov said to Jerome Bonaparte with a solemn expression.
"What's the problem?" Jerome Bonaparte asked with a confused expression on his face.
"Are the countries participating in this generation of peace conferences the traitors of St. Petersburg?" Ambassador Gorchakov asked Jerome Bonaparte.
"Mr. Gorchakov, we sincerely invite all countries and governments related to the Crimean War to participate in this meeting, with the purpose of maintaining the current peace!" Jerome Bonaparte seems to have the wrong head.
The cry from the horse's mouth actually told Gorchakov his answer.
"Your Majesty, didn't you promise us not to invite them over?" Gorchakov said slightly angrily.
"Mr. Ambassador, are you remembering it wrong! When did I promise you not to invite them to the meeting? I was just a gentle reminder that you should actually come!"
