Descending On France 1780
Chapter 50 - 50 046 Fight

50: 046 Fight 50: 046 Fight As the days passed at the Briena Military Academy, Napoleon started to grow taller.

Unfortunately, the others were either older or had better nutrition and developed earlier, generally starting to grow taller sooner.

Not to mention Anning, who was already an eighteen-year-old adult.

So, as a result, Napoleon was still the shortest person in the class and even the grade.

Whenever Anning, his “backer,” wasn’t around, he would inevitably be mocked by his classmates as the “Corsican potato.”

One day after summer began, Anning’s military uniform ripped a large hole, beyond Vanni’s sewing skill level, so he went to a tailor shop in town to repair it.

When he came out of the tailor shop after fixing the uniform, he saw a group of Briena Military Academy officer cadets running excitedly.

The leading guy shouted loudly: “Hurry up, if we’re slow, we’ll miss it.

The Corsican potato is dueling someone!”

Anning was shocked.

Napoleon was indeed sensitive and easily irritated, but because he always had Anning, his “ally,” by his side, his mood swings were within acceptable limits.

Moreover, Napoleon should have been used to being mocked by his classmates.

He often received praise from the monks who taught cultural lessons at the school, and he maintained his self-esteem through this appreciation.

Theoretically, there shouldn’t have been such a violent outburst.

Anning quickly caught up with the officer cadets and asked loudly, “What happened?

Who challenged Napoleon to a duel?”

At that moment, Anning still thought it was Napoleon’s sharp and harsh words that had angered some noble, resulting in someone throwing a glove at him.

But the leading officer cadet replied: “Not at all!

He threw the glove himself and hit someone!

Right now, he is being pinned down and beaten up!”

Anning raised his eyebrows and turned back to Vanni, who accompanied him to mend clothes: “You go home by yourself; I’ll go check it out.”

Then he started running with the much younger officer cadets.

Vanni, holding the repaired clothes, sighed and started walking home.

**

When Anning and a group of officer cadets arrived at the scene, the crowd had already surrounded the fighting duo, three layers inside and three layers outside.

The spectators overwhelmingly cheered for Napoleon’s opponent: “Kill the little Corsican dwarf!”

“Beat him to death!”

Anning, blocked on the outside, could only shout loudly to make way: “Stop!

The school rules state that fighting and brawling in school will lead to confinement!”

People on the periphery turned their heads to see Anning and moved back while shouting: “The Corsican potato’s servant is here!”

Anning angrily said: “I am nobody’s servant!

When will you learn to respect the dignity of commoners?”

As his words fell, someone sarcastically said: “Where does a rude commoner get dignity?”

Anning immediately switched to Latin, which was a symbol of being cultured in other European countries if one could speak French, but in France, speaking Latin was the most prestigious.

Anning rebuked in Latin: “A person’s knowledge depends on postnatal upbringing; you uncultured buffoons understand nothing!”

Then he switched back to French, as most of these noble youths were not good at their studies and had low Latin scores.

Anning: “Look!

You don’t even know what I’m scolding you for, what right do uncultured pigs have to pretend to be elegant in front of me?

Rather, you bunch of incompetents, you disgrace your own noble titles!”

The effect of speaking Latin, combined with Anning’s personal martial prowess, immediately had a striking effect.

The officer cadets all wilted.

“Move aside!

Let me in!” Anning ordered.

The crowd parted like the Red Sea before him, and he finally saw Napoleon at the very center of the crowd.

The short Napoleon was pinned down by an officer cadet much older than him, but he did not yield and was still furiously scratching the face of the person pinning him, leaving two bloody marks.

Anning shouted: “Enough!

Let go!”

However, his voice was ignored by Napoleon’s opponent, so Anning went up and punched the opponent in the face.

He has never been particularly concerned about these nobles.

After all, his backer is the Duke, the most top-level noble in France, who even has the right to succeed the throne.

The guy riding on Napoleon was sent flying by Anning with a punch, falling to the side, spitting onto the ground with broken teeth and blood.

Napoleon finally got himself free, stood up, immediately ran towards the flowerbed nearby, picked up a hoe and started waving, ready to settle the score with the fallen enemy.

Anning grabbed Napoleon: “Enough!

If you go and hit him now, you’ll get yourself into trouble!

You don’t want to be charged with murder, right?

What exactly happened?”

Napoleon, fuming with anger, pointed at the person lying on the ground and yelled: “He said my father was a traitor from Corsica!

That he betrayed Pauli!

He called me a traitor’s son!”

The person on the ground got up, sneered, and said: “Aren’t you one?

You are now a French noble, officially recognized and registered by the bureau!

This is the reward you got for betraying Corsica!”

Napoleon angrily retorted: “That’s not true!”

“Not true?

Where did the money for your education come from then?

I’ve heard it all.

It was given to your father by His Majesty, like rewarding a dog, for serving France for ten years!

Your father, that Sergeant, has betrayed Corsica for ten years now!”

Unable to contain his rage, Napoleon once again swung his hoe to rush forward, but Anning held him back.

“Don’t let anger replace your reason!” Anning shouted loudly, “Think about what you’ve told me before!”

Napoleon had told Anning more than once that he disdained to be seen on the same level as “these idiots”, and he would use the knowledge he learned from France to liberate Corsica.

He said all these overbearing classmates would be his defeated foes in the future, and he, as he was then, shouldn’t lose his temper over them.

But clearly, these words had been forgotten by Napoleon in his raging fury.

After Anning’s reminder, Napoleon seemed to finally remember those words, and his anger gradually subsided.

He shook off Anning’s hand from his shoulder, glared viciously at his recently standing foe: “Humph, consider yourself lucky, since Andy is here, you just saved your own life!”

That much taller kid spat on the ground, and angrily said: “Wrong, if he hadn’t come, you would have ended up beaten up and stripped naked!

You would be too embarrassed to ever enter a classroom again!”

Anning: “Enough!

Get lost!”

His roar had quite the deterrent effect.

The bully who was picking on Napoleon walked away cursing, not caring at all that Anning had just knocked out his teeth.

He probably didn’t dare to make an issue out of it, fearing Anning would really challenge him to a duel.

Seeing this scenario, the onlooking cadets also dispersed in twos and threes, leaving only Anning and Napoleon in the garden.

Napoleon, while wiping his face, muttered: “I’ve had enough of these foreign kid’s taunts.

They are just richer than me, spiritually nowhere as noble as me!

I’ll write to my father, I want to return to Corsica, to join the struggle in Corsica!”

Anning remembered, indeed in Napoleon’s Life, it was recorded that he wrote similar letters to his father, wishing to return to Corsica.

Anning still remembered, Napoleon’s father’s response was simple: “We have no money, so you must stay there.”

Anning: “Do you know, Napoleon, in the Eastern Ancient Country, there’s a fable.”

Napoleon asked in confusion: “Eastern Ancient Country?

Is it India?”

“No no, it’s a country even farther east than India, the land of gold portrayed by Marco Polo.

The fable says, if the heavens want to place a great responsibility on a person, they must first suffer his mind, toil his body— which means to make him endure hardships.

Napoleon, all the hardships you are facing today are for your future smooth rise.”

Napoleon pursed his lips, obviously waiting for Anning to continue.

Anning: “You should learn knowledge in France, wait for an opportunity, and when the opportunity comes, you can liberate not just Corsica.”

Napoleon frowned: “But besides Corsica, besides my homeland, I don’t care about any other place.”

— That’s now, it will change in the future.

Anning: “If you want to write to your father, go ahead, but before you write, think about your family’s situation, consider your family conditions, and then calmly guess whether he will agree or not.”

After a few seconds of silence, Napoleon shook his head: “No, my father will not agree.”

Anning: “Right, you can tell just by thinking a little.

Napoleon, use your brain, don’t act on impulse.”

Napoleon stifled for a while, then sighed, “You’re right, I was too impulsive.

Sorry.”

Anning was startled.

What the hell, Napoleon apologized to me?