I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 226 Some are happy and some are sad

December 10, 1788.

The whole of Paris was shivering under the dry and cold wind, especially the news about insufficient food supply coming from other provinces from time to time, which made this winter seem particularly cold.

Only the news of victory in North Africa put people in a good mood during this difficult winter.

The French people are now on the eve of a national awakening, and they can empathize with the country's achievements and glory. For a while, everyone in the streets and streets are discussing this matter enthusiastically.

When the Guards Corps returned to its garrison in Paris, people gathered outside the camp to greet them with cheers and warm smiles.

At the same time, a grand celebration ceremony was also held in the Palace of Versailles.

Joseph got down from the track carriage a little tiredly, and immediately heard a tsunami of cheers. Looking up, he saw thousands of nobles crowding both sides of the road in the Palace of Versailles Square, stretching all the way to the palace gate.

He steeled himself and waved to the crowd, which immediately drew enthusiastic cheers.

To be honest, he had traveled from Tunisia to Paris for more than half a month, and what he wanted to do most at this time was to sleep well on a big, soft bed.

However, Joseph also knew that people would always be unable to help themselves, and they still had to deal with the situations that they should deal with.

He looked at the carriage behind him. Berthier, Joan, several agents from the Police Intelligence Division, and Hilada, who represented Tunisia, got out of the carriage one after another.

Several people had obviously never experienced such a grand scene. They stood there in shock for several seconds before they woke up at the low voice of the etiquette officer and quickly came behind the crown prince.

A group of people walked through the dense crowd surrounded by Joseph. Not far away, the sound of the palace band played, followed by the roar of a salute.

The aristocratic ladies of the Palace of Versailles were more enthusiastic and infatuated with the Crown Prince than before. This experience in remote North Africa made Joseph's skin color slightly darker, making him look more masculine. He also added a sense of mystery to his body, which would fascinate the little girls to death.

And those nobles with a certain status, the way they looked at Joseph was obviously very different from before.

Before the Crown Prince went to Tunisia, there were attacks on the French everywhere, and it was a mess. The cabinet was even prepared to throw away this hot potato. After the crown prince left, the situation in Tunisia quickly stabilized. When he returned to Paris, he even brought a new province to France!

No one would think this was just a coincidence.

It was obvious that the young crown prince had talents and skills far beyond his years.

Of course, Her Majesty the Queen may have directed all of this from behind, but the Crown Prince's ability to execute it flawlessly should not be underestimated.

However, in Tunisia, regardless of the methods of the queen or the crown prince, the prestige of the royal family has been significantly improved. At least, no one will look at the royal family as a joke like before. On the contrary, more and more people praise and respect the royal family.

In addition, the nobles who often visited the Royal Palace were struggling fiercely in their hearts at this moment.

They watched helplessly as the Duke of Orleans stumbled step by step, losing the High Court, hegemony of public opinion, and control of the banking industry.

So will you continue to side with the Duke of Orleans in the future? You should still show your goodwill to the royal family as soon as possible and leave a way out for yourself...

On the steps in front of the gate of the Palace of Versailles, Queen Marie watched her son approaching with disbelief. However, because of the presence of the Tunisian envoy, she could only suppress the urge to rush forward and hug her son, and only exchanged greetings with him as usual.

Hilada came up from behind, saluted respectfully to the king and queen, and then presented the application for joining France signed by Haji Bey to Louis XVI.

The matter of Tunisia becoming a French province had been decided ten days ago, and it was just a formality at this time.

Louis XVI took a deep breath, mustered up all his strength, and then said loudly: I accept the loyalty of Tunisia, and in the name of the King of France, I will protect Tunisia forever and grant you peace and prosperity.

Thunderous cheers suddenly rang out across the square of the Palace of Versailles: Long live His Majesty the King!

The glory of my King will always shine on Tunisia.

Praise God! Praise my King!

It was just that this wave of cheers that was louder than the previous wave made Shefeng Shiliu nervous. It was not until the etiquette officer came closer to remind them that he raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and then invited the Tunisian representatives and others to enter the Palace of Versailles.

After that, Queen Mary presided over the ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors for France to accept the four provinces of North Africa.

This was Joseph's proposal to the queen on his way back to Paris, to divide Tunisia into four provinces - Bizerte, Susa, Kairouan and Sfax.

Among them, the city of Tunisia was included in the province of Susa. The poorer areas in the south belong to the province of Sfax. From now on, the name Tunisia appears only as a geographical concept.

Joseph was also worried about the long-term peace and stability of Tunisia in the future.

Dividing Tunisia into four provinces can first dilute Tunisia as a whole to prevent anyone from using this to create separatism in the future.

Secondly, the four governors can check and balance each other and supervise each other, avoiding the emergence of overseas vassals. After all, Ottoman's lessons were still there. When the empire's strength declined slightly, the Guards immediately became the king in Tunisia.

Finally, communication and management capabilities in this era are very limited, and it is difficult for a governor to effectively manage the entire territory. You know, Tunisia has 160,000 square kilometers, more than a quarter of the total area of ​​France! However, although Tunisia is large in area, its population is relatively small, and it can basically be managed by appointing four governors.

The ceremony to receive the province ended, followed by a ceremony for the king and queen to commend those who had made meritorious services in North Africa.

Joseph stood at the head with some embarrassment. On his right were Berthier, Joan, Ishaq and others.

Queen Mary put a wreath on her son's head, looked him up and down, and finally couldn't help but hug him into her arms, and whispered with concern: My dear, I am so proud of you! By the way, Are you injured? Are you sick? Are you used to eating in Africa...

Joseph patted the queen's back and nodded: Don't worry, everything is fine with me. After all, I am a grown man, and I will often travel around the world in the future. You don't have to worry about me all the time.

Okay, okay... Queen Mary's eyes were a little wet, but the corners of her mouth were raised, My Joseph will definitely spread his wings and soar in the vast sky like an eagle. And I will always be here waiting for you. go home.

Louis XVI also came over and whispered: Well, me too.

The palace etiquette officer looked at his watch and coughed helplessly.

Queen Mary quickly let go of her son, held back her tears, took the wreath from the ceremonial officer, and walked towards Berthier: Your outstanding performance in North Africa surprised everyone. Please accept my respect and that of His Majesty the King, Lieutenant Colonel Your Mightiness.

Joseph on the side turned his head in time and whispered: Mother, it should be the Brigadier General.

The queen nodded: Well, yes, I heard about that battle. Your contribution was enough to be promoted to brigadier general.

A smile flashed across Joseph's face. According to convention, Berthier should be promoted to colonel this time, but it is not impossible to be promoted to brigadier general. Taking advantage of the queen's happiness, setting his military rank will be of great benefit to the future development of the Guards Corps.

After all, the brigadier general can already command an entire local garrison. It will be much easier to expand the number of guards or recruit officers in the future.

By the time the queen put a wreath on the last person and made a brief speech, it was already lunch time.

Queen Mary couldn't help but walked towards the restaurant with Joseph on her arm, asking questions along the way. Clementine was so anxious that she wanted to listen to her cousin's story about the North African war, scratching her head and head, but she never got the chance to interrupt.

The royal chef specially prepared the North African-style tagine as the first course of the lunch. In fact, he struggled for a long time on whether this North African dish should be the first soup or the first dish. In the end, it was included in the dish because the soup was a little short.

Joseph was very familiar with tagine, which he would eat every day when he was in Tunisia.

This is a dish cooked in a clay pot. It uses a lot of spices and sauces, and adds beef, fish, tomatoes and various vegetables. It is a bit like Oriental maocai, and it tastes very good.

When the French chef's tagine arrived, the servant opened the pointed lid on the clay pot, and a strong aroma immediately hit his face.

Joseph picked up a piece of fish meat with a fork and put it into his mouth. The fish meat wrapped in soy sauce immediately spread on the tip of his tongue, and the sweetness of the seafood inside appeared. He chewed it a few times and swallowed it in one gulp.

It’s so much more delicious than what the Tunisians make.

French chefs really live up to their reputation!

Joseph suddenly came up with the idea of ​​​​promoting this dish in France to promote French acceptance of Tunisians.

When he raised his eyes, he suddenly found that except for himself, everyone else was staring at the tagine without moving.

Could it be that this dish is not to the French’s liking?

Joseph was muttering in his heart, but he saw the palace etiquette whispering something to the queen, who then awkwardly picked up the fork and put it into the clay pot.

The nobles below looked at the queen and started eating in the same way.

Joseph couldn't help but raise his forehead when he saw this. He had forgotten that eating anything in the Palace of Versailles must follow etiquette. There are strict rules on which tableware to use first and which part to eat later.

So just now everyone encountered North African food that they had never eaten before, and they didn’t know where to start...

After the banquet, there was a celebratory ball - a Tunisian-themed ball.

The nobles dressed in North African-style clothing, played exotic music, and began to dance.

Joseph stood in the corner as usual, looking at the Tunisian clothes that were integrated into the fashion, and secretly estimated how much the Paris fashion designers had earned this time.

Some people were happy and some were worried. While everyone was celebrating happily, the military aristocrats seemed to be worried.

Who said last time that Berthier's troops couldn't even enter the city of Tunisia? A middle-aged officer complained in a low voice, As a result, he not only stabilized the situation in Tunisia, but even defeated Algiers. people!

I didn't expect those Algiers to be such useless people. If I had known this was the case, we should have gone to Tunisia then!

General Astu frowned and said: Now Berthier's reputation has greatly increased. You know, he is a member of the royal family. If this continues, the royal family's influence in the army will become greater and greater!

That's right, didn't the Mulan Army surrender to the royal family? said the middle-aged officer. It was another direct order from the Queen. Without going through the Minister of War, Duke Villar's army headed for North Africa!

The Marquis of Saint-Villan, who had just returned to Paris yesterday, immediately said bitterly: We must not let this trend continue! When the royal family no longer relies on our army, they will abandon us like rotten boots!

Someone whispered: But what can we do? We have no means to control that Berthier.

Someone else made a smaller voice: Actually, it's not impossible for us to cooperate with the royal family...

The other officers immediately glared viciously at the speaker. This is a tacit thing. If they monopolize the army, it means that France's military expenditure is allowed to be squandered by them.

If military command is handed over to the royal family, then the hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of livres of free salary, equipment purchase kickbacks, and extra funds for expeditions will be lost to the people here every year.

More importantly, their descendants are likely to be unable to inherit their high military ranks.

Their family may no longer be famous.

This is absolutely unacceptable!

General Astu said in a stern tone: We must unite. That Berthier is not impossible to deal with.

Have you forgotten? His army was originally part of the French Guard, and the other part has now become the Maret Corps. We can try to restore the structure of the French Guard, return these two regiments to the French Guard, and Create a high-ranking commander for the Guard.

In this way, if the royal family wants to mobilize the Berthier Army, it must give orders to his superior commander.

This is very feasible! The Marquis of Saint-Villan immediately agreed. As for the Mulan Army, I remember that it was previously commanded by Major General Villar, and then the Duchess of Villar suddenly took it back.

The Major General Villars he was talking about was the uncle of Marie Emilie, Duchess of Villars.

We need to use our influence to support Major General Villar. His niece who is sixteen or seventeen years old is nothing to worry about.

We have to find ways to make enemies that Berthier can't deal with pop up, so that the royal family will compromise with us.

You are right, but something like Algiers will definitely not work...

…

Kostantinye.

Although Tunisia's decision to secede from the Ottomans did not cause substantial losses to the empire, it still caused an uproar in the Ottomans.

Especially when the war with the Russians was extremely unfavorable, this news became the last straw that crushed the confidence of the people of the empire.

People in the streets were whispering about the defeats on the north and south fronts, and pessimism was spreading everywhere at an extremely fast speed.