Descending On France 1780
Chapter 187 - 180 Jacobin gentlemen

Chapter 187: 180 Jacobin gentlemen

Anning spent several comfortable days in Milan.

At this time, Italian cuisine had already fully taken shape. After just a few days of enjoying Italian dishes, Anning immediately abandoned French cuisine, even though in this era French food was recognized as the highest-class cuisine.

He always felt that Italian cuisine was more suitable for a Chinese palate, possibly because it used a lot of rice?

In Milan, Anning particularly liked a dish called creamed chicory risotto. This dish used Italian-grown rice, which was very plump and round, and it fully absorbed the cheese and butter, making it extremely smooth and refreshing to eat.

Ever since he tasted this dish, Anning had his chef make it every day.

Then, because of Anning’s immense prestige in his own troops, the mid- and high-ranking officers started eating it too, and then the new elite of Milan followed the French Army in eating it.

Rice wasn’t actually cultivated on a large scale in Italy, so the upper echelon’s craze for creamed chicory risotto directly led to soaring rice prices in Milan.

As if the price hike wasn’t enough, it started to be out of stock. Hence, the person responsible for procurement in the French Army had to sign a contract with the Italian suppliers, ensuring they would provide rice for the General.

Yes, rice became the first special supply item in Italy, reserved exclusively for the General.

After learning about this, Anning was very surprised, and only then did he start to eat other dishes.

However, having finally eaten rice after so many years of crossing over, it still gave him a touch of homesickness.

Speaking of which, his homeland is still the Qing dynasty at the moment, and in fifty years the First Opium War will break out. If his health still holds up by then, maybe he could make a long journey back to the homeland to take a look?

But by that time, Anning would already be over ninety years old; he didn’t know if he could withstand the journey across half of the globe.

In addition to devouring rice in Milan, Anning also did a few other things.

The first was to completely control the printing presses of Milan, churning out newspapers every day that praised himself as the liberator of Italy from France, laying the groundwork for his future plans.

The second was to follow the plan and crack down on currency traders, opening an official currency exchange office, using his immense prestige as a guarantee.

Since most of the currency traders were Jewish, the act of cracking down on them appeared to the Italian public to be making a joke at the expense of the Jews.

The public’s reaction to this was: Well done!

Anning deeply felt that Europe had a tradition of anti-Semitism.

As for Anning’s own conscience, it’s a joke, Anning was a Paradox Interactive (P) player. Every P player had two solutions when they were short of funds: The first was to seek the Pope’s generous donation, and the second was to expel Jewish merchants.

He had absolutely no psychological burden, okay! After all, he had clicked on that decision countless times in the games.

As the moneymaking venture went smoothly, Anning relaxed.

According to the plan, he dispatched the less disciplined Lana division to keep watch on the Austrians near Mantua Fortress, while leaving the well-disciplined Davout division in Milan to maintain order.

Meanwhile, the Massena division continued to monitor the Sardinian Kingdom along his supply line.

The Sardinian Kingdom’s response to Anning’s request for passage was non-existent.

Perhaps because after Anning’s troops passed through, they sent a cartload of silver coins gathered by Diego to the Sardinian Kingdom.

Everything is easy to discuss with bribe money, right?

Of course, the Sardinian Kingdom might also have gone to protest in Paris, Anning didn’t know. In any case, Anning’s principle was that whatever happened in Paris was none of his business.

Let the gentlemen in Paris worry about those issues.

During Anning’s time in Milan, news came from Paris that a new King was enthroned. When the news of the enthronement reached him, Anning was having tea with Christina, and so he jokingly called her "Sister Emperor Christian."

Christina couldn’t stop laughing.

By July, the news of the truce finally arrived.

The Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France had signed a truce treaty.

Anning had initially thought that the gentlemen in Paris would trip him up and return Milan to the Holy Roman, but it turned out that the gentlemen in Paris did quite well, demanding that Milan maintain the status quo in the truce agreement.

The Holy Roman probably had its eye on Poland and actually turned its nose and accepted it.

Upon reflection, it was probably because Anning only occupied Milan, with a large part of Northern Italy still in Holy Roman hands, so the Holy Roman Emperor wasn’t especially heartbroken.

If Anning had taken the Mantua Fortress like in another piece of history, devouring all of Northern Italy, the Holy Roman Empire probably couldn’t have remained so nonchalant.

After the truce, Anning had no idea how history would unfold.

He decided to stay the course amidst changes and focus on developing himself first.

He fostered a Republic of Milan on his side, endorsed it with his prestige, gained control of the republic’s right to issue currency, and began printing Paper Money in grand fashion, amassing a great fortune.

He also recruited Italian artisans and scientists to tinker with steam engines in preparation for spearheading the Industrial Revolution in Southern France and Northern Italy.

Provided there was an Industrial Revolution, with the strength of the Industrial Revolution as the foundation, he would have the capability to deal with whatever direction history took next, right?

Anning also organized a Republican military force in the Republic of Milan.

He had a tailor he personally found design uniforms for the republican military, primarily in red according to his specifications.

Napoleon was very puzzled about it: "Shouldn’t it be blue? I thought that the uniform of a freedom-loving military force should basically be blue."

Anning shook his head: "No, no, you don’t understand. The main force of the Republic’s army are Italians. You get it? Italians have to wear red to fight!"

Napoleon: "Ah? This..."

Anning shook his head and smiled, saying nothing.

After all, the Italian Redwood military force was an event of several decades later; it was useless to discuss it now, so he might as well let everyone regard it as his own unique quirk.

Then time moved into the tail end of 1792, and another change occurred in Paris.

The economy of France was still problematic, and most of the people were not living well.

So, in October 1792, another revolution broke out in Paris, the Girondists were overthrown by the armed populace of Paris, who also stormed into the Palais des Tuileries, demanding the King sign an order to dissolve Parliament.

The new King had no choice but to comply, and so the reign of the Girondists came to a complete fall.

Anning was shocked by this news; he originally thought that the rule of the Girondists would be stable for a while and not fall as quickly as it did in actual history.

But after history took a turn, it came back to its original track.

It seems that the fundamental reason for the downfall of the Girondists in original history was still unresolved domestic issues, and the loss in wars was just a catalyst.

After the fall of the Girondists, the new National Assembly was quickly elected, and the members of the Jacobin Club occupied most of the seats in the Parliament!

Yes, the Jacobins, they actually came to power!