The region around this Belgian city is busily preparing to commemorate the 200th anniversary in 2015 of one of the major battles in European military history. But weaving a path through the preparations is proving almost as tricky as making one’s way across the battlefield was back then, when the Duke of Wellington, as commander of an international alliance of forces, crushed Napoleon.

　　A rambling though dilapidated farmstead called Hougoumont, which was crucial to the battle’s outcome, is being painstakingly restored as an educational center. Nearby, an underground visitor center is under construction, and roads and monuments throughout the rolling farmland where once the sides fought are being refurbished. More than 6,000 military buffs are expected to re-enact individual skirmishes.

　　While the battle ended two centuries ago, however, hard feelings have endured. Memories are long here, and not everyone here shares Britain’s enthusiasm for celebrating Napoleon’s defeat.

　　Every year, in districts of Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, there are fetes to honor Napoleon, according to Count Georges Jacobs de Hagen, a prominent Belgian industrialist and chairman of a committee responsible for restoring Hougoumont. “Napoleon, for these people, was very popular,” Jacobs, 73, said over coffee. “That is why, still today, there are some enemies of the project.”

　　Belgium, of course, did not exist in 1815. Its Dutch-speaking regions were part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, while the French-speaking portion had been incorporated into the French Empire. Among French speakers, Jacobs said, Napoleon had a “huge influence — the administration, the Code Napoléon,” or reform of the legal system. While Dutch-speaking Belgians fought under Wellington, French speakers fought with Napoleon.

　　That distaste on the part of modern-day French speakers crystallized in resistance to a British proposal that, as part of the restoration of Hougoumont, a memorial be raised to the British soldiers who died defending its narrow North Gate at a critical moment on June 18, 1815, when Wellington carried the day. “Every discussion in the committee was filled with high sensitivity,” Jacobs recalled. “I said, ‘This is a condition for the help of the British,’ so the North Gate won the battle, and we got the monument.”

　　If Belgium was reluctant to get involved, France was at first totally uninterested. “They told us, ‘We don’t want to take part in this British triumphalism,’” said Countess Nathalie du Parc Locmaria, a writer and publicist who is president of a committee representing four townships that own the land where the battle raged.

　　比利时滑铁卢的周边地区正在为2015年滑铁卢战役200周年纪念活动进行紧锣密鼓的筹备。滑铁卢战役是欧洲军事史上的重大战役。但是，在筹备现场迂回行进，其难度决不亚于在滑铁卢战场上奋勇前进 。滑铁卢战役中联军统帅威灵顿公爵击败了拿破仑。

　　霍高蒙特(Hougoumont)对滑铁卢战役的胜败举足轻重。如今，人们正煞费苦心地将这座广袤而破败的农庄复原成一座教育中心。农庄附近的地下游客中心正在施工建设;双方激战过的农田连绵起伏，那里所有的公路和纪念碑都在加紧翻新。6000多名军事爱好者希望重温滑铁卢独特的战争场面。

　　尽管滑铁卢战役已经过去了两个世纪，但人们还是耿耿于怀。这里给人们留下的记忆刻骨铭心，并非所有的人都愿意与英国人一同庆祝那场胜利。据比利时著名实业家和霍高蒙特复原委员会主席乔治•雅各布•德•哈根(Georges Jacobs de Hagen)伯爵介绍，每年比利时法语区瓦隆尼亚(Wallonia)都要举行纪念拿破仑的盛大活动。雅各布先生今年73岁, 他一边喝着咖啡，一边说：“拿破仑深受这些人的爱戴，所以，现在还有人对霍高蒙特的复原工作充满敌意。”

　　其实，1815年还没有比利时这个国家。那时，荷语区属于尼德兰王国，而法语区属于法兰西帝国。雅各布先生说，拿破仑对法语区的人们“产生了巨大的影响——无论是他的治国之道，还是他的《拿破仑法典》，”亦或是他对法治体系的改革。当年荷语区的人们聚拢在威灵顿公爵的麾下，而法语区的人们则与拿破仑并肩作战。

　　如今，法语区的部分居民对霍高蒙特复原工作十分排斥，特别是对于复原项目中的一个提议尤为反感。英国人提议要求树立一座英雄纪念碑，纪念在1815年6月18日威灵顿公爵获胜的关键时刻，因镇守狭窄的北门而阵亡的英军士兵。雅各布先生回忆说：“委员会每次一讨论这个提议，委员们都高度敏感。我说：‘这是英国人帮助我们的前提条件’，既然英国人因北门而获胜，那我们就建一座北门纪念碑好了。”

　　如果当初比利时对纪念活动置身事外的话，法国更没有必要参与，因为法国一开始就对此毫无兴趣。当年作为战场的土地现在归属四个镇管辖，这四个镇组成了一个委员会，该委员会主席伯爵夫人娜塔莉•杜•帕克•洛克玛利亚(Nathalie du Parc Locmaria)还是一位作家和时事评论员。她说，“法国人当初告诉我们，‘我们不想参加英国人的胜利纪念活动’。”

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