The Fox of France

This Lucien Evans is actually a pseudonym for Gauss. Of course, this name was chosen with the help of Joseph Bonaparte for certain undisclosed reasons.

"Hehe, do you really think this matter will end like this?" Joseph couldn't help but think while assigning this name to Gauss's pseudonym.

Of course, besides Joseph, no one knows the terror represented by the seemingly ordinary name "Lucien Evans". In another time and space, such infamous names as "Original Devil, Fallen Morning Star, Skull Crusher, Brain Eater, Headshot Maniac, Destroyer of Worldviews" would be enough to silence a crying baby.

Napoleon naturally had no idea what terror he was about to face.

"The rigorous proof of geometric principles and the parallel line theorem?" Napoleon read the topic once, "Parallel line theorem, ah, is this another attempt to eliminate parallel lines from axioms?"

The fifth postulate of Euclidean geometry, also known as the parallel postulate, seems far less intuitive than the previous ones. Lacking the concise beauty of axioms, many mathematicians since ancient Greece have sought to prove it using alternative sets of four postulates and five axioms, thereby removing it from the ranks of axioms and turning it into a theorem.

Napoleon opened the paper and began to read.

"Not bad, at least from the beginning, it seems quite organized, unlike those fools before who couldn't understand even the most basic things." Napoleon nodded, took a sip of coffee from the table, and continued reading with his head down.

As he read on, Napoleon became less composed.

"Damn, what is this! Really... I thought I might see something non-crackpot, something normal, but... how can this person earnestly talk such nonsense! Doesn't he want to see what the outside world is like? It's truly infuriating!"

Napoleon couldn't bear to continue reading and just flipped to the end of the paper, then began to write his comments directly:

"A ludicrous argument. Leading to absurd conclusions, this paper is riddled with errors, utterly worthless, and cannot pass review. I believe the author should look out the window. See the real world... In my opinion, the paper cannot pass review due to its nonsensical and incomprehensible nature. For such whimsical and incomprehensible delusions, the best course of action is to throw them into the fireplace, where they can serve their only purpose."

After finishing, Napoleon threw the paper aside, grumbling to himself: "Now I understand why no one wants to do paper reviews. It's like force-feeding people crap. A whole morning, a whole morning wasted on this load of nonsense! It's... as Joseph said, human intelligence has no lower limit."

Normally, to ensure impartial evaluation during paper review, several people would be assigned to review one paper. This, of course, increased the workload, so Napoleon was assigned another stack of papers in the afternoon.

Napoleon's enthusiasm had been exhausted by those crackpot papers. So he made up an excuse, saying he had a date with Miss Lora, and passed all the work to Mr. Lagrange, then slipped away. Of course, Mr. Lagrange wasn't keen on doing this either—he hadn't done such work for many years. So naturally, he casually assigned these things to his own students to give them some practice...

Early the next morning, Napoleon unexpectedly received a notification from the Academy of Sciences. Because his judgment of the paper "Rigorous Proof of Geometric Principles and the Parallel Line Theorem" differed significantly from that of another probationary academician—Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier, the Academy, according to custom, sent him the paper again for re-evaluation. If no one changed their opinion after a week, a hearing would be convened to resolve the dispute.

"Huh? Fourier let that damn paper pass?" Napoleon was surprised.

Given Fourier's academic level and contributions, he should have been a full member of the Academy of Sciences long ago. But he was still an important figure in the Bonaparte Laboratory, and his most important research findings were considered strategically significant by Joseph, especially in wireless communications. As long as his findings were temporarily kept under wraps, even if the British managed to steal French secret radio equipment, they would hardly be able to replicate anything useful. So these findings were kept confidential for the time being.

Of course, Joseph didn't mistreat Fourier either. Fourier received quite a few shares of Bonaparte General Electric as a result. With just the annual dividends, he had become one of the wealthiest men in the French Academy of Sciences, second only to Joseph and Lavoisier.

However, because of this, Fourier was still only a probationary academician. (Actually, it wasn't bad. In the original history, Fourier wasn't even a probationary academician at this time.)

Although Fourier was only a probationary academician, Napoleon still admired his academic level. Moreover, Fourier was a man of Joseph's faction, which made Napoleon even more wary.

"Could I be wrong? Well, that damn paper I haven't even finished reading. If the first thing I do as a full member is to make a mistake, that would be truly embarrassing. Damn it, could Joseph have arranged this intentionally to trap me? No, I won't be fooled!"