Fox of France

Before the sun came out the next day, Joseph got up early habitually. In this era, there is no Internet, no games, not even electric lights, and ordinary people cannot afford candles or even oil lamps. At night it was pitch black. Joseph, who was used to going to bed after eleven o'clock in his previous life, now has a good habit of going to bed early and getting up early. In fact, people in this era are basically like this.

Joseph got dressed, walked out of the door, and came to the courtyard of the church. At this time, the sun had not yet risen, and even the east hadn't even revealed its fishy belly. The half moon and a few remaining stars were still hanging on the black velvet sky. It was already mid-December at this time, and it was already a snowy moon if calculated by the later Republican history. Although it was not snowing in Paris at this time, and it was still not particularly cold, there was already a layer of hoarfrost on the roof and in the courtyard in the early morning.

A stout figure was chopping wood with an ax in the yard. Joseph knew that it was Father Jean Jacques. He works out this way every morning.

"Father, good morning!" Joseph walked over and said.

"Ah, Joseph, good morning." The priest threw the ax aside, stood up straight and smiled at Joseph, "Want to go for a run?"

"Yes, run around the church." Joseph replied, "Run twenty laps, and you can just eat."

"Ah, where is your brother?" asked Father Jean-Jacques again.

"I got up too and was washing my face. He will go out for a run with me later. By the way, Father, we will invite you to have a good lunch at noon. Nothing will happen again this time. I promise!" Joseph was a little embarrassed the way.

"Okay! No problem!" Father Jean Jacques said.

At this time, Napoleon also came out from behind. His character was not as easy-going as Joseph's, so he just nodded with Father Jean-Jacques and followed Joseph out the door.

The two ran along the road next to the church. Since Napoleon entered the military academy, although his height is still very short, his physical fitness has improved a lot. So he picked up the speed first, trying to get rid of Joseph, so that he could win.

But Joseph did not intend to let him do so.

"With your two short legs, you want to run ahead of me?" Joseph also speeded up. After traveling to this era, Joseph knew that the level of medicine in this era was appallingly low. Even a small cold can kill a person at any time. Therefore, strengthening physical exercise and improving immunity became the means for Joseph to save his life. Although Louis the Great School does not have quite high requirements for sports like military academies, Joseph has never relaxed his physical training. Coupled with his long hands and long feet, he is obviously superior to Napoleon in terms of running. How can he let Napoleon, who has been suppressed by him, run ahead of him?

So Joseph also speeded up, and in just a few steps, he ran in front of Napoleon again. Then Napoleon started to accelerate again...

"Damn it... If your legs weren't a little longer... I this time..." Napoleon bent over, panting, and said intermittently, the white mist that the rising sun would spray from his mouth and nose Dyed reddish.

"If you can't run, you can't run... What's the use of making excuses... But... But defeating you this time... is much more difficult than before..." Joseph also replied panting.

Yes, Joseph believed that he must be able to overwhelm Napoleon in as many ways as possible, not because he was competitive or something, but because he would be convincing enough to put the brakes on Napoleon in the future.

"Okay, are you out of breath?" Joseph said, "If you're out of breath, I'll tell you something."

"I've been fine for a long time." Napoleon stood up straight and said as he walked forward.

"I just won the thesis award." Joseph pretended to be calm and said, "The prize is six hundred francs, so at noon today, we can have a big meal to celebrate."

"Your thesis won?" Napoleon was taken aback and stopped.

"Of course, your eldest brother is here, is there any problem that cannot be solved?" Joseph said quite proudly.

"What did you write?" asked Napoleon. "Why did you win the prize and not me?"

"Because I may have overturned one of Sir Newton's assertions."

"What? How is it possible?!" Napoleon stared at Joseph with wide eyes, trying to see the joking look on Joseph's face. He noticed, however, that there was only that repulsive smugness on Joseph's face.

"I found a phenomenon that can be used to explain that the nature of light is closer to Hooke's view—it is a wave rather than a particle." Joseph replied.

"So it's just this." Napoleon said with a dismissive look, "I thought you overthrew the Three Laws."

"The Three Laws won't move in a short time." Joseph shook his head and said.

"Can't move in a short time?" Napoleon was taken aback again. He shook his head and said, "You mean you have discovered a loophole in the Three Laws, but there is no evidence to overthrow it yet?"

"No." Joseph shook his head. "Where are there any obvious loopholes in Sir Newton's three laws? I just do it out of faith, and I don't want to believe it."

"Out of faith? Could it be that the Three Laws leave no room for God?"

"No, it's not." Joseph shook his head. "I just can't accept complete fatalism. This kind of argument will make me feel that life has no meaning at all."

"What does this have to do with fatalism?" Napoleon obviously didn't respond.

"Ah, my stupid brother. You really don't have the talent to become a great scholar." Joseph said, "According to Newton's three laws, we can regard the current state of the universe as its past effect and future cause. If a wise man Knowing at a given moment all the forces of motion in nature and the positions of all objects of nature, if he can also analyze these data, the motions of the largest objects in the universe down to the smallest particles will be contained in a simple formula. For this For the wise man nothing is ambiguous, and the future will only appear before him like the past. Everything is predestined, just as Oedipus could not resist that terrible prophecy, because even he All resistance is just a part of destiny. If I really believe in the Three Laws, then what is the meaning of my life?"

This statement was completely beyond Napoleon's expectations. He frowned and thought for a long time, then shook his head and said, "For the time being, I haven't found the problem with your statement. But there must be something wrong with this statement. Otherwise, this conclusion is really difficult... Wait Wait! Joseph, aren't you a devout believer? Isn't God the wise man? God is all-knowing, all-powerful. But you can't even accept omniscience, you hypocrite."

After talking about it, Napoleon laughed out loud, as if proud of having caught his brother's question.

"These are two different things." Joseph said, "Besides, from your words, I can smell Calvin, you heretic!" Joseph also responded with a smile.

Calvin was an important leader of Protestantism and an important supporter of determinism in philosophy and theology. France is the territory of the Catholic Church, and Calvin is heresy in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Now when Napoleon said that God's omniscience was predestination, Joseph retorted that he was a Calvinist heretic.

After teasing each other for a while, they went back to church together.

After breakfast, Joseph casually tested Napoleon's studies, and took out his award-winning thesis for Napoleon to study carefully, and then showed him the two experiments involved.

"I believe your point of view." Napoleon said, "Is there any problem with this conclusion?"

"Of course there is." Joseph replied, "Any wave needs a propagation medium, but there are many questions about the medium of light propagation. For example, the speed of light is very fast, although the exact value has yet to be measured, But there is no problem with being very fast. For a wave to travel at such a fast speed, it means that its propagation medium should have a very strong strength. But we act in such a hard medium, but I have never felt any resistance from the light ether. In short, there are many problems here, but I believe that with the deepening of research, this problem will eventually be solved, although the solution may not be the same as we imagined. Same."

"Unfortunately," said Napoleon, "although I am very interested in it, I have to admit that I have no idea about it, at least for the time being."

"My stupid brother, you know, everyone's talent is different. Some people may be born better in some aspects, but not in others. For example, in mathematics and other things. In natural science, I think you are probably inferior to me, but you may be better than me in other aspects. For example, if there is a small hole that you can get through, I probably can't. "

Hearing Joseph's serious words earlier, Napoleon was still a little moved. To be honest, although he is pretentious and thinks that he has a strong talent in mathematics and natural science, Napoleon is not a person who likes to deceive himself. Although he does not admit it with his mouth, he knows in his heart that he The talent in this area is indeed inferior to that of my brother, so I am indeed a little frustrated in many cases. Now those words that Joseph said earlier were really heart-warming, but who knew that the sentence that he made a hole in the dog later made Napoleon so angry that Napoleon really wanted to beat him up.

"Joseph, you are really not a good guy." Napoleon said.

"Haha..." Joseph smiled smugly, "Besides, considering the difference in our sizes, you must not be able to eat me when eating meat at noon."