Chapter 2016: Enlightenment Thought

Bonaparte picked up Rousseau's manuscript and looked at the text on it.

The title caught his eye in five large characters, reading "The Social Contract".

Bonaparte's gaze moved downward to the messy pile of text; between the lines were traces of revisions, yet what was revised back became the original sentences again.

Clearly, the revised sentences did not align with the author's intent.

Bonaparte looked at the content, reading it once with the original sentences and once with the revised ones.

At this moment, his thoughts were the same as the author's; he also believed the effect of the original sentences was clearly better and more in line with the book's viewpoint.

But he did not know why Rousseau had to keep changing them back and forth.

Not until Bonaparte finished reading all the manuscripts did his smoothed brow furrow tightly; he finally understood why the other party had to modify this text, which was already perfect enough.

It expounded upon a large number of arguments capable of influencing the Monarchy; the book was a critique of the current social structure and also discussed several other possible social structures.

He gave his opinion: "Sir, your revisions are meaningless; absolutely no newspaper or publishing house would dare to publish this book of yours!"

"Believe me, the social views you expound within it will bring you many unnecessary troubles."

Rousseau nodded and said: "Although I really don't want to admit it, you are absolutely right; it is precisely because of this that I thought about revising it into a form that could be published."

He sighed and said: "I feel that today's society needs such a work, needs to make some changes; otherwise, our society is very likely to slide into a terrifying abyss."

"The Empire is already tottering..." he lamented.

Bonaparte's mouth twitched; he was currently a soldier of the Empire, yet now someone was telling him the Empire was already tottering. If he didn't feel the same way himself, he feared this person would have already been arrested for Treason.

Bonaparte returned the manuscript in his hand to Rousseau; the mental impact this "The Social Contract" gave him was immense.

After returning it to Rousseau, Bonaparte did not offer him a helping hand; he lacked the ability to do so and could only dissuade Rousseau from thinking about publishing this book.

And if possible, it would be best to burn this book.

But in the end, Bonaparte did not say what he was thinking in his heart; good things should be preserved. He said to Rousseau: "Thank you for your book; I hope you can find a publishing house to publish it."

"Thank you; I will try to find a Longyan publishing house. I hear they don't care about such content..."

"Good luck."

Bonaparte rose and left.

As for the content of the book, he could not forget it for a long time. He let out a long breath, thinking of the predictions he had made himself; the Empire indeed needed a little change.

Thinking this, he returned to the military camp.

And at this time, on the other side of the French Empire.

Jiang Xuelan and Feng Zhenyun were busy preparing to attend the banquet of Prince Baru of the French Empire.

Because their current identities had changed; they were now great Nobles from Saxony.

Although Saxony had become a dependency of Longyan, as a European country with a long history, its status was still very high.

Especially the status of a Noble.

After obtaining the status of Nobles, the two of them successfully received an invitation from Prince Baru.

Under the pretext that they wanted to purchase a large quantity of French fine wine, they successfully got Prince Baru to invite them.

Even though they had the faces of Longyan people...

Having received the invitation, the two prepared immediately for the evening banquet; they had only one goal today, which was to find out the location of the factory that manufactured the fine wine.

The two rode in a Horse Carriage to Prince Baru's castle, though it looked more like a palace that had been built.

Seeing such a towering palace, the two let out a breath.

The castle built by Prince Baru, while not as beautiful as those imperial palaces of Longyan, had a unique charm; that peculiar style manifested a strange beauty.

It made people feel both fearful and attracted to it.

Feng Zhenyun said quite candidly: "A strange style, but it is fascinating."

Jiang Xuelan did not offer much evaluation; she stepped forward to climb the stairs, and Feng Zhenyun did the same.

Entering Prince Baru's palace and seeing the magnificence inside, Prince Baru kindly and enthusiastically entertained the two guests who had come from afar.

Even though they had the faces of Longyan people, the other party still welcomed them warmly.

It was for no other reason than that the two had brought him immense wealth.

His butler was told that these two would be his most distinguished guests.

"You are too kind, Prince Baru," Jiang Xuelan smiled.

Prince Baru nodded slightly, looked at Jiang Xuelan, and said: "This is what I should do."

"After all, you have brought sales and wealth for my fine wine."

Jiang Xuelan nodded slightly in thanks, but Feng Zhenyun began to examine the internal structure of the castle; he thought that if any incident occurred, he would have enough ability to escape from here.

For him, this was not a difficult task.

But Jiang Xuelan was still there, so he had to determine the route.

Just at this moment, Prince Baru reached out his hand to him and welcomed him warmly: "Welcome warmly, Mr. Feng."

Feng Zhenyun came back to his senses and shook Prince Baru's hand.

"I am equally honored to receive the hospitality of His Highness the Prince."

That is what he said.

Prince Baru invited the two to the banquet prepared for today; at today's banquet, there were only the two of them as guests, with no other outsiders.

Before serving the meal, Prince Baru said extremely earnestly: "You know, I am a generous person."

"The price can be negotiated, but I need to apologize and say that one bottle of wine requires at least one Silver Coin; this is a very fair price."

"After all, it can rival Yinzhou Drunk that costs five Silver Coins a bottle."

Jiang Xuelan laughed and said: "This price is naturally low, but Prince, five Silver Coins is the price for which one can buy Yinzhou Drunk that has been cellared for over five years."

"The longer Longyan's Yinzhou Drunk is kept, the better the taste and the more precious it becomes."

"Among your wines, is there any that can compare to the vintage of the Dragon Flame Yinzhou Drunk?"

Prince Baru let out a laugh and said, "I can guarantee you that I will provide the best goods, but do not forget that this transaction is happening because you offered an outrageously expensive price to purchase wine from me."

"And not because I came to your door begging you to buy it."

"I ask you both to keep this point in mind."

Feng Zhenyun looked up at Prince Baru in the seat of honor and said, "You are right, but in our line of business, we must at least take a look at the goods."

Prince Baru clapped his hands, and soon a maidservant walked in carrying a bottle of wine and two stemmed glasses.

She placed them in front of Feng Zhenyun and Jiang Xuelan, and poured some of the fine wine from the bottle.

Feng Zhenyun merely sniffed it, and his heart began to pound violently; if he were not in this environment, he would have almost believed this was Yinzhou Drunk!

He looked at Prince Baru, feeling absolutely certain in his heart that this fellow definitely knew something, or that those missing Dragon Flame engineers and scientists were under his control!