Chapter 94: Chapter 94: Crisis (Part 2)
Carnot worked tirelessly, attempting to send more personnel and supplies to the north. However, the northern army did not immediately receive sufficient personnel and provisions. The reason was simple: a massive rebellion had erupted in the Vendeé region.
Vendeé was a region full of hills and forests, one of the most traditional, backward, and isolated areas in all of France. The way of life there had changed very little over the centuries.
However, this closed-off and backward Vendeé was not a stronghold of the monarchy. The peasants there didn't have much affection for the king, which was quite normal. Just like the peasants in the Eastern Great Eats, as sung in the "Rice-Pounding Song": "We work at sunrise, rest at sunset. We dig wells to drink, plow fields to eat. What does the emperor's power matter to us?" So, to the peasants in Vendeé, what did the king matter to them?
The revolutionary government had beheaded a fellow named Louis XVI, which wasn't a big deal for the peasants in Vendeé. As long as their crops were growing, what did they care about the king? And as for the nobles who had their heads on the line, the peasants in Vendeé didn't care about them either. If the nobles were hung from lampposts, it had nothing to do with them. As long as their crops were growing... So, with a constitutional monarchy, Vendeé was stable; with the king's execution, Vendeé remained peaceful.
But recently, the peasants in Vendeé had begun to feel that the current revolutionary government was causing some problems.
The government's first annoying move was their attempt to expel the clergy. After the revolution, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was passed, which required priests to swear allegiance to the government, leading to a split in the church in France. But in Vendeé, the priests who had not sworn allegiance to the government continued to operate their churches, perform their religious duties, and hold the keys to heaven for every poor peasant. The French government in Paris couldn't really reach these remote places. So, the impact of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy on Vendeé was limited.
But after the king was beheaded, the situation changed. Many of the priests who refused to swear allegiance to the government became the backbone of the rebellions in various regions. Therefore, the National Assembly passed a law declaring that all priests who had not sworn allegiance to the government should be expelled from the country.
According to this new law, all priests who had not sworn allegiance to the government had to leave France within a certain time frame. Any priest found in France after the deadline, without having sworn allegiance to the government, would be considered a rebel and could be sentenced to death without trial.
Some priests in Vendeé initiated some rebellions after the king's execution. Initially, these rebellions seemed no different from those in other regions. Most of the peasants in Vendeé maintained their "What does the emperor's power matter to us?" attitude and didn't actively participate. So, these rebellions were quickly suppressed.
However, the subsequent action of expelling "unlicensed" priests created significant discontent among the Vendeé peasants. In the closed-off region of Vendeé, there were virtually no "licensed" priests. Therefore, the government's actions in Vendeé were, in a sense, an attempt to eradicate Christianity from Vendeé.
If the priests' rebellions did not receive much support from the peasants, the government's expulsion of priests escalated the anger throughout Vendeé.
But if it were just this issue, the Vendeé rebellions might not have become so severe. Because of the crisis in the north, the revolutionary government passed a conscription law proposed by Carnot, calling for a nationwide draft. Special envoys were sent to various regions to enforce conscription and taxation.
Due to limitations in their production methods, generally, rural populations were reluctant to leave their hometowns. Vendeé peasants were no different. In fact, even the National Guard in the cities was generally unwilling to leave their cities to fight in distant regions. Add to that the priests, nobles, and foreigners inciting the situation, and the Vendeé rebellion quickly escalated.
The revolutionary government mobilized some National Guard troops to suppress the rebellion, thinking they could easily crush the disorganized and uncooperative rebels. However, the situation in Vendeé was entirely different from what they had imagined. The Vendeé peasants proved to be incredibly brave when defending their homeland, not inferior to the National Guard. Moreover, their leaders were former high-ranking officers in the French army.
Vendeé was located near the sea, and the English noticed that during the early stages of the rebellion, providing an excellent opportunity to strike at the French. So, they recruited individuals from the French exile nobility who both despised the republic and had military experience, gathered them in England, organized them, and then transported them to the Vendeé coastline by warships. With the guidance of local church members, they formed separate units and took charge. The Marquis de Lantenac in Victor Hugo's final novel, "Ninety-Three," was one such person who set foot on Vendeé's soil.
As a result, when the poorly experienced National Guard generals from the revolutionary government, leading their troops into Vendeé, thought they would easily suppress the peasant uprising, they were met with a true army. Vendeé peasants displayed the same high morale, better leadership, better coordination, and more soldiers as they did.
The outcome of the battles was self-evident. The government forces were defeated by the peasant army, and the entire Vendeé region fell. At that time, most of France's military forces had been sent north to confront the coalition of Prussia and Austria, leaving the entire south vulnerable. If the rebels took advantage of this situation and headed north, the republic would find itself in a perilous two-front war.
Since joining the ranks opposing France, the English had yet to deploy even a single infantry battalion on the ground. Nevertheless, in terms of the threats and losses inflicted on France, they were no less formidable than Austria and Prussia, who had mobilized tens of thousands of troops. Quite the legend of stirring the pot!
Of course, being a master of stirring the pot could lead to other problems, such as relying too much on others to play the game of "fighting fire with fire" and being unwilling to invest a single penny of your own strength. With France implementing a nationwide draft and continuous mobilization by Austria and Prussia, the English even managed to trim a quarter of the army, thus saving costs.
This brought up another problem, namely, while the leaders of the Vendeé rebellion and the English hoped that the English army would land in Vendeé and join forces with them to march north and defeat the rebels, restoring the Bourbons, the English refused to send a single soldier and hoped the rebels could solve the problem on their own. The English calculated that if the Vendeé rebels were to strike north at this time, it would be enough to achieve their goal.
However, an unexpected situation arose that neither the English nor the Bourbon supporters had anticipated: the Vendeé peasants weren't really loyal to the monarchy.
In fact, just like the urban National Guard troops who were reluctant to leave their hometowns to fight in distant regions, the Vendeé peasants were similarly unwilling to leave their villages and farmlands. Their attachment to their hometowns even exceeded that of the city dwellers.
Once the urbanites who had forcibly dragged them hundreds of miles away to fight were expelled, the peasants dispersed, each returning to their homes, leaving the nobles and a few cats and dogs behind.
Watching these scattered peasants, whether from the republican side, the Bourbon side, or other foreigners, they were all dumbfounded, feeling like their eyes were playing tricks on them.
So, the northern march to Paris was naturally off the table, and the peasants were just too... too honest, weren't they?
But leaving Vendeé unattended was not an option either. What if, what if the British army really came from that direction? The British had not sent troops so far, but who could guarantee that they wouldn't send troops in the future? If they were engaged in a heated battle with Austria and Prussia in the north, and the British stabbed them in the back, it would be a disaster...
So, the revolutionary government had no choice but to hope to hold the north, then transfer the troops sent to the north back south to resolve the Vendeé issue. Fortunately, Austria and Prussia were relatively cooperative, especially Austria. They saw the pressure on the battlefield ease a bit and immediately remembered that the queen had eaten such a big piece of meat but only let them smell its aroma. So, they turned their heads and got entangled in the special interests of the Holy Roman Empire in Poland.
In addition, Austria thought that if they fought too hard in the north now, it would only attract more French troops, and in the end, they would lose all their gains to the British and the Spanish. If it turned out that way, they would be left sniffing the aroma from the other side, wouldn't they?
As for Prussia, they also thought it was better to wait and let the French fight amongst themselves. It would be even better if the French fought the British, and then they could take action to maximize their gains.
As a result, the little schemes of two kings and one emperor created a temporary calm on the decisive northern battlefield. The French were given a rare chance to catch their breath.
During this lull, Carnot quickly recalled Joseph and Napoleon, as well as the Red Army. One of his ideas was to have them deal with the Vendeé rebellion. However, when he mentioned this to Joseph, Joseph strongly opposed it.
"The situation in Vendeé is not a military problem but a political one. If political problems have to be solved militarily, Lazar, then I have to say, you have prepared too few troops."
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