After teasing the priest, An Ning took Napoleon and returned to his manor with Christina.
After a short lunch break at noon, Christina held a literary salon in her garden in the afternoon.
An Ning is basically a layman on literature. If he wants to show off by being a literary copywriter, then he can only pretend to be a copycat by copying the texts that he was required to memorize in middle and high school.
There must be something wrong with writing an article about Zhu Ziqing's "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" in eighteenth-century France.
It's even more wrong to get Mr. Lu Xun's stuff. It's impossible for a French aristocratic lady to care about how many ways to write fennel for fennel beans.
So An Ning remained silent the whole time in the salon, silently listening to the country nobles and reading those extremely embarrassing limericks in front of Christina.
And Napoleon seemed to be transformed into a literary critic. After each nobleman finished reading, he would jump out and give a sharp review in French with extremely irregular pronunciation.
The nobles who had been sharply criticized by Napoleon were all furious and clamored for a duel with Napoleon.
Then they would calm down quickly as soon as they saw the tranquility drinking tea next to Napoleon.
The prestige of the Duel King of An Ning has been enhanced several times over the past six months, and has become well-known among the nobles in the countryside.
Because they would be criticized by Napoleon, gradually no one spoke at the literary salon, and the good salon turned into a chat and tea party for girls.
The men were bored and went to the garden to play tennis.
Because Napoleon was short, he would suffer when playing tennis, so he ate snacks silently.
An Ning was captured by Christina and told the story of the duel to the noble ladies, but she got along well among the ladies.
The afternoon tea party passed quickly and seamlessly transitioned into the evening dance party.
An Ning couldn't dance, so he could only sit and watch the dance. Napoleon could dance, but he didn't want to dance, so he chatted with An Ning.
However, the two of them had many topics to talk about, ranging from mathematics to military affairs, which was not boring at all.
Christmas has just passed.
Then came New Year's Day, and the last few days of 1780 passed so unremarkably.
In the second year, Brienne Military Academy still repeatedly taught the cadets how to drill formations, but did not teach more advanced war theories at all.
Finally, An Ning understood that the goal of Brienne Military Academy is to train non-commissioned officers. Non-commissioned officers do not need advanced military theory. It is enough to be able to manage large numbers of soldiers and arrange them to line up. At most, they can teach individual combat skills.
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However, the mathematics, history and other courses offered by the Brienne Military Academy obviously benefited Napoleon a lot.
Napoleon was the same as what An Ning had read in the Napoleon biography. He liked the story of Rome very much and was a die-hard Rome fan. Whenever he came over excitedly to talk to An Ning about Rome, An Ning knew that he had read another biography about Rome.
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Napoleon's own money was basically used to buy Roman biographies, while An Ning basically bought the books of Rousseau, Montesquieu and others as gifts to him.
It can be said that An Ning used his own financial resources to irrigate Napoleon's understanding of Enlightenment thought.
At the end of the school year, the Brienne Military Academy held an examination for the whole grade. Napoleon came first, while An Ning ranked eleventh.
In fact, An Ning could have taken first place because he had great advantages. French and Latin could be solved by plug-ins, and he had advanced knowledge of mathematics for future generations.
But An Ning deliberately made a mistake and carried out a minute of control.
Because he didn't want his achievements to surpass Napoleon's. As the saying goes, there is no sun in the sky, but in my heart there is only one sun, Napoleon.
Unexpectedly, after the exam, Napoleon took the initiative to find peace and expressed his regret: "I always felt that you must have higher scores than me."
An Ning: "Exams also depend on on-the-spot performance. Your foundation is more solid than mine, so you performed better than me this time."
An Ning then changed the subject: "What should I do to prepare for the holiday?"
There is no such thing as summer vacation at Brienne Military Academy, but there will be a short vacation when you are promoted to grade.
Napoleon shrugged: "Nothing to do, just stay in Brienne and read."
"Don't you want to go home and have a look?"
"What are you talking about? My home is in Corsica, and it takes a long time to walk home. But you, it only takes two days from here to Paris, don't you plan to go back and see it?"
An Ning reminded Napoleon: "I am not a Parisian. My home is in Caen, which belongs to the Normandy region and is far away from Paris."
Napoleon said "Oh" and suddenly laughed and said: "You keep telling me about the Enlightenment thoughts of Paris and interesting stories about Robespierre, Danton and others. I think you are an old Parisian."
An Ning also smiled. Indeed, when he told Napoleon stories about himself and the future Jacobin leaders, he could not help but use the tone of an old friend, as if he had known them for many years.
However, in fact, he had only known each other for a few months.
Napoleon added: "My biggest dissatisfaction during my year in Brienne was that I didn't learn much about the art of war. Why did the optics line up? Corsica's independence cannot be won by lining up!"
An Ning shrugged: "Although you haven't learned much about the art of war, you have learned mathematics. Mathematics is the basis for the use of artillery. Artillery is something that can influence war. It is not an exaggeration to say that artillery is the king of war."
Napoleon said disapprovingly: "Isn't artillery just a large ground ball? How much impact can it have?"
An Ning raised his eyebrows. It was obvious that the eleven-year-old Napoleon had not yet realized the importance of artillery. He was not at all the artillery general who later knew the use of artillery.
Speaking of which, most biographies of Napoleon do not mention Napoleon's encounter with artillery. He seemed to have become that artillery lieutenant in the blink of an eye, proficient in the use of artillery, and had a special liking for artillery.
An Ning: "I have been on the battlefield and personally experienced the tremendous psychological pressure that artillery puts on soldiers. In addition to being able to kill enemies with high efficiency, artillery can also cause a strong blow to morale, which is quite fatal to an army with low cohesion."
Napoleon looked at An Ning: "Is that so? Since it is what you said, it should be right. But I still want to personally experience the morale suppressing effect you mentioned. Without personal experience, it is difficult for me to understand your words.
The statement makes me feel the same way.”
An Ning shrugged: "I'm afraid I can only wait until you go to the battlefield. The military academy won't use artillery to bombard the students, right?"
However, An Ning didn't expect that he said this too early.
At the beginning of Brienne's second year, the instructors took the cadets to a specially prepared bunker to actually experience the feeling of being bombarded by artillery.
The person responsible for this teaching task was an artillery company stationed near Brienne, equipped with six twelve-pounder infantry cannon.
These six artillery pieces are new artillery pieces redesigned by the famous French artillery general Guiberval. Their firepower projection efficiency is higher than that of traditional artillery pieces.
The result was that the cadets were pinned to the spot by six cannons, unable to move except lowering their heads and holding their heads.
After the bombardment stopped, the disgraced Napoleon brushed the dirt from his hair and said to An Ning: "Now I understand what the morale blowing effect you mentioned is about. It's just one artillery company. It's unimaginable that several companies with more than ten people can do it."
The scene of door cannons firing together."
An Ning curled his lips: "A dozen cannons? No, no, artillery should be concentrated in large numbers like other weapons to achieve the desired results..."
——Wait a minute, isn’t this a famous quote from Napoleon himself?
Oh my god, how did I say this to myself?
When An Ning stopped talking because of his own words, Napoleon asked: "You think a dozen cannons are not enough. How many are you going to concentrate on using? Dozens of them?"
An Ning shook his head: "No, no, if possible, we should gather hundreds of artillery pieces together, so that the fierce firepower can directly destroy the enemy!"
Napoleon gasped: "If hundreds of artillery are used together, the enemy will be doomed."
An Ning: "Yes, the enemy will be crushed."
——Humph, in this way, when I personally command the Emperor's concentrated artillery in the future, I will remember that I was the first to propose it. In this way, my position in the First French Empire will be as stable as a mountain.
Every time Nahuang wins a victory, he will think of me.