Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 608 Banquet in the Tuileries Palace

Before seven o'clock in the evening, Deguigne returned.He hurried upstairs to find Deng Fei and Zhao Xin, and told what he had learned.

The place where the king's family was imprisoned is called the "Temple Tower", which is really related to the Knights Templar.It was the first stronghold of the Knights Templar in Paris. After the collapse of the Knights, it has been idle.The main building is a 50-meter-long saw-toothed square spire tower. The average thickness of the city wall is four meters, with four floors and forts at the four corners.There is a small tower on the front of the main tower, and there are two turrets on both sides of its narrow building, and the king's family is locked in the main tower.

Deng Fei asked: "What about the defensive facilities? How many guards are there?"

Degigne took a sip of his wine and said, "I'm not sure about this. But when I passed by the gate of the monastery, I saw a dozen soldiers of the National Guard standing guard."

"Great monastery?"

"Yes, if you want to enter the Temple Tower, you must pass through the Abbey."

Zhao Xindao: "Can you find the floor plan?"

"I mentioned it to my father, and he said that he would go to the Royal Library to look for it tomorrow."

After hearing this, Zhao Xin said to everyone: "It's our first day here, don't worry, we'll get the floor plan first."

Erlu said: "Why don't I bring someone over to have a look tomorrow?"

Zhao Xin shook his head and said: "We must not get involved in these things on the surface. We came to Paris with such a big fanfare, and there are only a lot of eyes staring around. Needless to say, the servants, the Russians and the British must be paying attention Follow our every move."

At 07:30, the housekeeper Bu Wei came to report that the carriage to pick them up for the banquet had arrived.In addition to Zhao Xin and Deng Fei, those who went to Beihai Town were accompanied by Jiao Xun, Huang Chengji, and eight soldiers from the Special Operations Battalion pretending to be followers.In addition, Deguigne, as a representative and interpreter of the French East India Company, also accompanied him.

Because today's dinner is a state banquet, the venue is located in a building on the south side of the Tuileries Garden on the right bank of the Seine, which is also the office of the Citizens Association.When Zhao Xin and the others were brought into the hall by the mayor of Paris, all the French present applauded, and the band beside them immediately played soothing music.

The French people present were all smiling, but they frequently whispered to each other, talking about the distinctive faces and dresses of the people in Beihai Town.

Deng Fei was still wearing the white navy uniform with the rank of major general, and a large piece of medals and medals hung densely on the left chest, and the golden yellow thread hanging from his left shoulder to his chest was even more conspicuous, gold-plated The brass pendants gleamed in the light.You must know that the uniforms of the European Army in this year have not yet been decorated, and they will not appear until Napoleon becomes emperor.

Zhao Xin stood uncharacteristically at the left rear side of Deng Fei this time. His identity today is Deng Fei's assistant, so he only has the rank of major.

The Frenchman looked at the two people's attire, except for their skin color, they couldn't find the ancient oriental feeling from head to toe, and wondered if this is still the Chinese in the picture book?

Fortunately, Jiao Xun and Huang Chengji, who were walking with them, were both wearing toga gowns with large sleeves, brocade-faced straight gowns, jade belts around their waists, square scarves made of black gauze on their heads, and fans in their hands. Let the French present believe that they are indeed Chinese.

The French were looking at the people in Beihai Town, and Zhao Xin was also looking at the French present.He glanced around and found many familiar faces.Although the people in his impression were all portraits in textbooks, which were somewhat different from real people, he immediately recognized a thin man with a fluffy wig, a pointed chin and sunglasses as Robespierre ( The person is nearsighted).

It was hard for Zhao Xin to imagine that such a pale, seemingly harmless guy could unleash enormous energy in the future and drag the entire French Revolution into a bloody abyss.

"We must follow the virtues of the people! Terror without virtue is evil, virtue without terror is weakness!"

Yes, just like his spiritual mentor Rousseau, they only love abstract "people", but they always treat living and concrete people as rags that are thrown away after use.

The thinker who wrote "The Theory of Social Contract", loved one when he saw one, sent all five of his children to orphanages, and was finally pushed to the altar by countless people, created two bloody hands for Europeans, Robespierre and Kant.One of these two sent the king and more than 2000 "people" to the guillotine in the political field, and the other sent the awesome God to the gallows in the ideological field.

Just as Zhao Xin was staring at Robespierre, the famous "Asceticist" suddenly felt a thorn in his back, as if there was a great danger hovering above his head.He blinked and blinked his big eyes hidden behind the green lenses like a cat with its hair blown out, and he locked his target on Zhao Xin in an instant.

"Strange, this man?"

Hearing his friend muttering, Dandong who was standing beside him asked concerned: "My friend, what's wrong with you?"

"Oh, nothing. It may be an illusion."

At this time, under the introduction of Degigne, Deng Fei walked in front of the current chairman of the National Convention, Ellie Guadet.The people in the National Convention are also very funny. In order to ensure that all factions sit in line to eat fruit and fruit, the chairmanship is elected every two weeks. After the elected person resigns, he can continue to be elected every two weeks.

"General Deng, please allow me to introduce you to the President of the First French Republic, the current President of the National Convention, His Excellency Eli Guadet."

"Mr. Guadet, honorable members of the National Convention, this is General Deng Fei, the commander of the Republic of China's fleet in the East Indies. General Deng has led the Republic of China's naval fleet to defeat the navy of the Qing Empire many times. , also led the fleet to conquer Batavia, the largest city of the Dutch in the East India"

"Republic of China!" A group of members of the National Convention present looked at Deng Fei and others with puzzled eyes, but also delighted to meet a bosom friend.Unexpectedly, there is also a republic in the distant and ancient East, which completely subverts their impression.As for the Dutch in Batavia, love it!

Deguigne introduced everyone present to Deng Fei one after another, Danton, Robespierre, Marat, Desmoulins, Condorcet, the Rolands, Le Brun, Villeneuve, Saint-Just. If nothing else, most of these people will die within two years, either in the bathtub or on the guillotine.

After everyone present had finished their introductions, Deguigne finally added loudly: "In addition, what I want to explain is that the Republic of China is a regime established by a group of Chinese elites. They have led a group of people who yearn for freedom and The democratic peasants declared war on the decaying and declining Qing Empire. After ten years of struggle, the Republic of China has occupied a large area of ​​territory including Mongolia, with a territory of more than 10 million square kilometers. I believe that in two or three years, They will complete the unification war and completely destroy the rule of the Qing Empire!"

boom! ! !The French people present were all shocked!The jaws almost fell to the feet.

God! 1000 million square kilometers, isn't that almost 20 Frances?How big is the whole of Europe?
Robespierre was thinking about what he was doing ten years ago!It was in Arras, my hometown, that I was suing my neighbor over a lightning rod problem.Thinking of this, the eyes behind the glasses gradually brightened.It seems that today is still the right time. If you have the opportunity, you must have a good chat with these Chinese people on the "problem of the people's virtue".

However, some people suddenly remembered the two big defeats the Russians suffered in the past few years, and looked at Deng Fei thoughtfully.

Not much nonsense, the four people from Beihai Town greeted each other with the members of the National Convention and their beautifully dressed wives, and then came to the restaurant to sit down.Because there were no female guests in Beihai Town this time, Deng Fei took the lead and led all the male guests to their seats first.Then the female relatives took their seats.

In order to take care of the distinguished guests from afar, a lady and a man sat beside the Beihai town group of four.Zhao Xin and Deng Fei were fine, but when Jiao Xun and Huang Chengji saw the white breasts of the women, their expressions were a little unnatural.When Deng Fei saw this, he asked Degenie to switch over to act as an interpreter for the two.

Even though the members of the National Convention present seemed to be in harmony, the clearly divided seats clearly showed their respective factions.The cabinet ministers are all Girondins without exception, while the guys from the Montagne belong to the "Paris Commune".

Right now, the rivalry between the Montagne and the Girondins has just begun to emerge.The Girondins had been trying to avoid a trial of the king, fearing that it would rekindle the rebellion of the royalist forces at home and intensify the hostility of the European monarchies; Ster and others believe that democracy is not thorough enough, and killing the king is the only way to a republic.

The problem is that this year's food shortage has caught all the representatives of the National Convention by surprise, and the common people in Paris are facing the famine years three years ago again.

Not long after everyone was seated, the waiter wearing a wig brought up carefully prepared delicacies one by one, which looked like flowers in full bloom under the illumination of bright bamboo lamps and surrounding candles.Zhao Xin saw that the ingredients are very rich, at least from the appearance, it can be seen that they are carefully cooked.

He didn't know that for today's meal, the mayor of Paris put in all his effort and summoned many court chefs who had been exiled after the Great Revolution to prepare such a table of dishes.

You must know that there are no big hotels in France these days, and even a larger "hotel" is just a family-style hotel consisting of many small rooms.And this kind of "hotel" does not provide a wide variety of meals, at most it is bread and milk, plus two eggs to finish!

Seeing a pile of knives, forks and spoons for different purposes in front of them, Jiao Xun and the others did not take out their chopsticks this time.When they were on the boat, Degigne had already taught them a lot, so there was no strangeness at all.After Guadet and Deng Fei finished their respective toasts, they used them slowly and step by step, which surprised the woman sitting next to them who was going to explain the usage to them.

It is said that the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 led to the reshuffle of the original one, two, and three grades. All aesthetic ideals in the monarchy era were declared ugly, and the court table culture that symbolized "imperial power and grade" was completely subverted, at least in Everyone at the table can talk freely and toast each other at will.

However, there are not too many wine glasses and wine bottles on the banquet table these days, and if you want to drink, you can only wait for the waiter to bring it over.The purpose of this is to prevent someone from poisoning the wine.Before the Great Revolution, even at court banquets, each table had only one wine glass for everyone to use in turn.Want to poison?Come on, hurt each other!Anyway, everyone has to take turns drinking a cup to see the bottom.

Zhao Xin thought that despite the fact that these people here are shouting for freedom, equality, and for the people, judging from the exquisite and gorgeous wigs, vests, and knee-length shorts on them, it is obvious that they are not standing with the people.It won't be long before the Jacobins openly condemn the sans-culottes for eating "pig food," and when "equality" begins to crumble, the so-called revolutionary ideals will be utterly disillusioned.

Later generations often say that the purpose of a dinner party is not just to eat, and it was the same in the eighteenth century.The reason why the mayor of Paris wanted to arrange such a big meeting was not only because Beihai Town was the first mission to visit after the establishment of the "First French Republic", but also he was concerned about the rumored food.But you can't talk about this kind of thing at the dinner table, especially when a woman is present, and you can't talk about business or money.

After dinner, when the waiters cleared the tables and finally removed the tablecloths, the real conversation finally began.

Members of the National Convention holding wine began to ask questions about Beihai Town's system. Their first concern was what the constitution of the Republic of China was.

How would Deng Fei answer this shit?He can only say that of course we also have an electoral system, but because the people's education level is not high and the country's territory is too large, it is only carried out at the administrative village level.As for the age, you can be 18 years old.

"Land reform? Yes! We have a clear law that all land is state-owned, and the people only have the right to use it. Of course, the means of production must be in the hands of the state."

"Decentralization of power? Of course, there is a committee for the military, administration, and legislation. The head of state is the descendant of the "former last prince of the Ming Dynasty". He was the leader who initially led the rebellion against the Qing regime, but he will not be emperor. "

When the French learned that the Supreme Head of State of the Republic of China didn't even have a palace, and the whole family lived in an "ordinary residence" that was two or three times larger than this restaurant, they couldn't help but gasp in admiration
"As for the handling of the emperor and nobles who brought the Qing Dynasty, this will be judged by the Supreme Court at that time. Look at the specific matters. I am a soldier, and soldiers cannot interfere in politics."

"Monsieur Condorcet? I heard that you are a mathematician? My two companions have admired you for a long time. Monsieur de Guigne, please help me translate."

Deng Fei's mouth was dry, and he kept quenching his thirst with wine. Many of what he said were discussed with Zhao Xin these days, and were used to learn and use.While he was narrating, Desmoulins, who was the editor-in-chief of the "Le Vieux Cordelier", kept recording. He planned to sort it out overnight after returning home, and publish it in the newspaper tomorrow.

Zhao Xin stood for a while holding the wine glass, but he couldn't understand French, so he came to the door with the wine glass, intending to smoke a cigarette.As soon as he took out the cigarette, he heard footsteps behind him, and when he turned his head, "Rousseau's hand" actually followed.

"Mr. Zhao, can I have a chat with you?"

(End of this chapter)