Joseph submitted the "Four Color Problem" to the Academy of Sciences, and it was really difficult for those guys including Laplace, everyone studied it for a while, but they couldn't come up with an answer, and even the feasible solution to the problem was not available for the time being. And the people including Laplace, everyone has their own research, it is impossible to spend time on such a topic, so in the end, just like Joseph said, the Academy of Sciences simply publicize the topic, to the world to solicit answers.
Joseph originally threw out the topic because he wanted to pit Mara. With Joseph's experience in his previous life, generally speaking, the civil science thing was more in physics and chemistry, and very little in math. What he didn't realize was that the reason why there were fewer math students in the latter days was because the topics of those math problems in the latter days were not comprehensible to those students, so the reason why there were fewer math students in the latter days was not because they had any respect for math, but because they couldn't even understand the topics!
But the "Four Color Problem" was a topic that everyone - including the folk like Mara of course - could understand. Therefore, as soon as the announcement of the reward came out, the Academy of Sciences immediately received a paper from Mara, which was said to have solved the problem perfectly. Then Laplace just glanced at it and saw seven or eight errors. Then, naturally, the paper went where it was supposed to go.
However, Mara did not give up and sent the "paper" to Joseph. In his letter, he also expressed his belief that Joseph would be able to see the value of his thesis. At this point, Joseph realized that he had made a mistake, dug a hole, and buried himself in it.
Mara's "paper" was like all "civil science papers", full of all kinds of problems, from derivation errors to conceptual errors, so to speak, there are all kinds of problems. Joseph also only glanced at it and found seven or eight problems.
"If this had been written by Napoleon, or any of my other students, I would have opened his ass up to flowers!" Joseph cursed through clenched teeth while his head hurt over how to write back to Mara.
"It is not easy to find 'something of value' in this 'paper'. If I must say that there is something 'valuable' in this 'thesis', it must be fearless courage. After all, ignorance is fearless." Joseph couldn't help but spit in his mind.
"But in the reply letter, one can't just keep praising his 'courage', right? Mara is indeed a minko, but he's not a fool. If I praise him like that, he'll definitely think I'm being sarcastic."
So Joseph had to study Mara's flawed "thesis" over and over for a long time before finally finding something praiseworthy: "Well, the derivation of this paragraph is not rigorous, but some of the ideas are still somewhat interesting. Ah, let's just blow this paragraph hard for now."
So Joseph began to put pen to paper to write a letter back to Mara. In this letter, Joseph first used two full sides of paper to praise Mara for that small piece of analysis. The tone of the praise even gave him goose bumps all over himself.
"I'm almost as carnal as the king of root diggers, aren't I? I really can't imagine that I would be like this for the sake of cha rice. Alas, earning money, business, not too shabby." Joseph spat at himself while continuing to write back.
"Now it's time to turn the corner, it's time to but it up a bit." Joseph thought so, under his hand then wrote: "But this essay also still exists a little problem, for example, in ... Mr. Laplace believes that there are logical loopholes in the argument here, ignoring ... you may not be As you may not know, people in mathematics are a bit paranoid, and Mr. Laplace is very paranoid about this type of problem, so he believes that this paper does not succeed in proving the conjecture ..."
Finished the "but" in a few sentences and smoothly channeled the bogeyman to Laplace's side. Joseph then finished his reply, and then, after carefully sucking the excess ink off the letterhead with blotting paper, he sealed the letter and sent it back. As for how Mara would hold a grudge against Laplace after receiving the letter, that was none of his business. Considering how much of a headache Laplace had caused himself in his previous life with his set, Joseph felt that his conscience was instantly better.
This tactic did work, not long after, Mara again sent a reply letter, thanked him for his affirmation, and expressed his anger at those "old-fashioned guys" inside the Academy of Sciences, and hinted that one day when I come to power, I will definitely expel these guys from the Academy of Sciences, and when that time comes, I will let those courageous and pioneering people like Josef to take over the Academy of Sciences, so that they will be able to take the lead. When the time comes, I will let a young man like Joseph, who is brave to explore, to be in charge of the Academy of Sciences, and I believe that he will be able to make the science of France shine.
"Is this 'If I am the Green Emperor in other years, I will report that I am blooming with peach blossoms in one place'?" Joseph couldn't help but laugh.
Mara did have his day to climb up, but that was still in the future. And as of right now, he wouldn't be able to bear much ill will towards Joseph when he climbed up. So for the time being, the great supremacy regarding Minkomara could come to an end. Now Joseph's attention could focus on his younger brothers again.
Napoleon was less of a bother to Joseph now that he was back in Corsica and wouldn't be returning anytime soon. As for Louis, now is still small, Joseph asked someone to find a good elementary school, let him study in it. As for Lucien, Joseph arranged for him to be enrolled in his alma mater, the King Louis School.
Lucien's performance at the King Louis School was certainly not as notable as Joseph's, but academically it was not bad, and he did well in speeches and performances as well. Joseph had now stepped down as a writer for the Dragon and Rose Theater Company, though his connection to the company remained. Relying on that connection, he also lets Lucien have a few guest roles in the troupe from time to time. According to Headmaster Denardi, "He's a naturally good actor." Only Joseph had not seen Lucien perform with his own eyes, so he did not know how much exaggeration there was in Denardi's words.
In addition, Joseph also hired an Austrian musician named Fraser to teach Lucien the piano. According to the musician, although Lucien was a bit late in learning the piano, he had a good talent, and if he was willing to work hard at it, he would have a chance to reach the level of performing on stage in the future.
In fact, Joseph did not require Lucien to reach such a level, in his conception, Lucien will be responsible for cultural and artistic propaganda in the future, he does not need to be very proficient in all kinds of art, as long as a little dabbling will do.
However, Lucien seemed to have some talent in these areas, he even recently created a few small plays, and composed a few small tunes himself. Joseph had seen and heard all of these works, and honestly speaking, they weren't too outstanding, but they were still passable.
Precisely because of his performance, Armand simply pulled him into his "Spartacus" creative group, often in the weekend, pulling him out to discuss the issue of the script.
Time went by in this way. The year 1789 rolled around. In the past two years, France's finances had reached an untenable point, and King Louis XVI had to propose a tax increase to avoid the total bankruptcy of the kingdom's government. French society was divided into three classes, the clergy, the nobility and the commoners. The first two classes occupied a great deal of social wealth, but did not bear much of the taxation. These two classes were naturally resolute in their opposition to any increase in taxes on them, and with the political power they wielded, they did have the strength to oppose it. Therefore, the only target of tax increase was naturally the third class.
In order to increase taxes, the king had to reconvene the third class meeting, which had been interrupted for one hundred and seventy-five years, to seek a solution to the financial crisis.
"The King of France is such a fool that he would come up with such a stupid, stupid idea as convening a tertiary conference at this time!" Napoleon mocked the French king unmercifully in a letter to Joseph, "Doesn't he realize how much dissatisfaction and resentment the Third Estate has buried against him? If he does not call a meeting of the Third Degree, all this anger is still only latent, and for the time being there will not be much danger, but he calls some meeting of the Third Degree! Doesn't he know that this will give those who oppose him a chance to organize? Individuals are always timid and weak; even if they harbor resentment in their hearts, they dare not do anything. But once they come together and are organized, they have the courage and strength to fight lions and even dragons. People are like locusts; when they are not swarmed, they are nothing more than worthless grasshoppers, but once swarmed, they are unstoppable locusts. And that fool was foolish enough to give those who opposed him such a chance, a chance to unite them and turn them from grasshoppers into locusts. The fool must have thought that the third-rate fellows would just bluff their way out of the money, or at best, even if they wouldn't pay, they couldn't make much of a mess, and yet there were others watching from the sidelines ..."
Joseph was in complete agreement with Napoleon's judgment. Indeed, as the representatives of the Third Estate gradually concentrated in Paris, the whole of the city was in turmoil. A number of pamphlets began to become popular among the citizens. These pamphlets, which informed the citizens about the Third Estate, were mostly directed at the taxes that the king was going to raise and how he was going to further exploit the people. This kind of propaganda made the common people of Paris, who were already living in a difficult situation, worry a lot.
At the same time, because of the spring drought in the northern provinces, out of the fear of a possible harvest failure, starting from the grain merchants under the command of a few great nobles, and finally almost all the grain merchants began to take the practice of selling, selling less and less grain on the market, the price naturally climbed all the way up. The rising prices further stimulated the hoarding and selling trend, the continuous rise in food prices, but also let the Paris grievances. It was at this time that Armand once again found Joseph.