I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 237 Turning Point (please vote)

Brian was confused and said:

"You mean, the church?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Joseph patted his forehead, "Speaking of which, I still need your help here. "

When Brian heard that Beaumont, Dafleur and other archbishops had agreed to use "private grain" to fill the food gap in the southern provinces, he was overjoyed:

"How did you convince them?"

In fact, what he wanted to ask more was, how did you know that the priests had hoarded a large amount of grain?

When he was still in Toulouse, he also asked his priests to do similar things. Later, when he was promoted to chief minister, he disdained the little profit.

"Establish a church cultural development company and sell a new type of 'indulgence'." Joseph said a few words in general, and then ordered, "You first draft an order to transfer back the officers. The details will be discussed later."

"Okay, Your Highness."

Although Brian felt that the army should still be used to maintain order, out of absolute trust in His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, he still nodded and prepared to execute it immediately.

However, he turned back just after taking a few steps, frowned slightly and said:

"Your Highness, the second half of this order... it may be appropriate for the High Court to decide whether to impose the crime of rebellion."

Joseph was a little surprised. We are not a society ruled by law, so why do we still pay so much attention to procedural justice?

Brian caught a glimpse of his expression and hurriedly considered:

"Your Highness, if you directly accuse the officers of rebellion in the name of His Majesty the King, it may cause the nobles to panic. It may even cause many neutral nobles to sympathize with those careerists."

Joseph immediately understood that he had indeed acted too hastily - the places where officers are stationed are considered their responsibilities, and they can find a bunch of reasons for you to refuse to come to Paris. If they are convicted of rebellion because of this, it will make other nobles feel that the royal family is doing whatever they want, and they will act on their behalf. If they are not as good as the royal family wants in the future, they will also be sentenced to a serious crime.

This has touched the bottom line of the aristocracy.

Joseph nodded thoughtfully:

"You are right, then only the officers are strictly ordered to come to Paris. Anyone who violates this will bear the consequences."

He whispered to himself again:

"It seems that we have to find a way to make them really rebel..."

After Brian left, Joseph took out the list he had sifted on the road, wrote personal letters to the senior officers on it one by one, and then gave it to the queen to sign and send it out.

Then, he summoned Mirabeau, Bailly and other representatives of the capital aristocracy, handed them a document that had been prepared, and explained it carefully.

After doing these things, it was completely dark. Regardless of his fatigue, Joseph got into the carriage with his dinner and rushed to the Paris legion's station.

On the speeding carriage, he looked out the window at the stars, chewed corned beef, and sighed to himself: He was really worried about France...

Montpellier.

In the hunting ground of the Count Serulier's manor, the Marquis of Saint-Villan shook his horse's reins lightly, looked at the continuous military tents of the Montcalm Army in the distance, and said to the Duke of Orleans beside him:

"Do you think the royal family will agree to those conditions?"

The latter also urged the horse to move slowly and said leisurely:

"With such a large-scale riot, the royal family will face huge financial and public pressure, and it will also seriously damage the royal family's prestige. My cousin Austria has no other way, and she will definitely agree, at least partially."

"So what clauses can we allow her to strike out?"

"Any terms." Duke Orleans spread his hands indifferently, "As long as she makes concessions, you and other generals will send troops to quell the riot."

The exaggerated conditions he proposed to the queen were arbitrary, and he had no intention of being accepted by the royal family.

This is just a cover-up. His real goal is to give the army a suitable excuse to move at the same time!

The fighting power of those rioters was almost negligible, and he sent people to instigate them, so it was easy to quell them.

Once the troops from various places are on the move, it is not that simple to return to their bases.

At that time, the military, with its great prestige in quelling the chaos, would gather troops from all over the country northward on the pretext that there were still riots, and form a semi-siege of Paris - if the northwest provinces could complete the layout before, it would be almost a complete siege.

With the few troops the royal family has, they will definitely panic. The meeting of dignitaries took the opportunity to lead the nobles to put pressure on the royal family again.

By that time, the conditions offered will not be as simple as last time.

According to the Duke of Orleans' plan, he should at least serve as regent - to achieve this goal, he has married the extremely influential Marquis of Luckner in the military, whose daughter will soon marry Philip.

The royal power will return to the state before Louis XIV, that is, a high degree of autonomy for the noble lords.

After that, as the powerful regent, he could still manipulate the royal family however he wanted!

The Duke of Orleans was thinking about how to torture Louis XVI's family, and at the same time said relaxedly to the Marquis of Saint-Villan:

"We are ready from Brittany to Provence, with a total of 80,000 troops in each legion. General Urtule and others in the north will also respond to us at the same time."

The Marquis of Saint-Villan looked at him and said:

"Your Majesty the Duke, in terms of logistics for such a large-scale troop mobilization..."

The Duke of Orleans said indifferently:

"I will provide funds for each legion. Duke Dulfo and Duke Mushi will also mobilize resources to supply the army."

Financial support is also an important factor in the Duke of Orleans becoming the core of the military. Before this incident, he had distributed tens of millions of livres to more than 20 senior military generals.

In order to bring down the royal family, he has prepared to spend all his wealth of more than 50 million livres. In terms of military expenditure alone, he was confident of defeating the royal family.

In fact, this is just his cash and debt. If you include fixed assets, it will be an astronomical figure. You know, the annuity paid to him by the royal family alone is as high as 3 million livres every year. The Duke of Orleans also has a huge amount of property, and it is not just bragging to say that he is as rich as anyone in the country.

"That's great." The Marquis of Saint-Villan said with a happy expression, "When will the Queen's envoy arrive?"

"It should be soon..."

As the Duke of Orleans was speaking, he saw a servant of Count Serrurier riding up and saluted them:

"Your Majesty the Duke, General, the people from Versailles are here."

The Duke of Orleans and the Marquis of Saint-Villan looked at each other and smiled:

"Come on, let's go take a look."

When the two returned to Count Serulier's villa, they did not notice that the Count standing there had a strange look on his face.

The Duke of Orleans sat down on the chair and said to the palace officials who came to deliver the order:

"Tell me what conditions Her Majesty the Queen has agreed to."

Before the official could say anything, Count Serulier on the side handed him an order stamped with the king's seal.

The Duke of Orleans glanced at the document and stood up in shock.

The Marquis de Saint-Villan leaned over in surprise and saw that there were only a few simple sentences on the paper. The main content was to request all officers above the major to report to the Palace of Versailles immediately.

He looked at the official who was delivering the order and said according to his previous thinking habit:

"The queen didn't give the order to send out troops to quell the rebellion?"

The latter nodded and gestured to the document:

"That's all, Lord Marquis."

The Marquis of Saint-Villan seemed a little anxious:

"What conditions cannot the queen accept? We can discuss it again..."

The official who passed the order still said numbly:

"Your Majesty has no other instructions, Lord Marquis. Please also sign for me to confirm that I have received the order."

The Marquis of Saint-Villan and the other three people suddenly looked at each other, not knowing what to do for a while.

They imagined that the queen might have many reactions, but they did not expect that she would just let the riot go unchecked.

They seemed to have gathered all their strength, preparing to deliver the most fatal blow to their opponent, but suddenly found that there was only a ball of air in front of them, with nowhere to exert their force.

"But what to do about the riot?" Marquis Saint-Villan grabbed the official, "My army is ready, just waiting..."

"You can go to the Palace of Versailles and ask His Majesty in person about this." The latter politely touched his chest and bowed, "I have not received any other instructions."

The Duke of Orleans suddenly stepped forward and said:

"What about other provinces? Don't they care about the riots?"

"As far as I know, that seems to be the case, Your Majesty the Duke. All the southern provinces, except Bordeaux and Lyon, should have received the same order."

As the area with the largest potato planting area in France, Bordeaux did not suffer from any food shortage this time, so no riots occurred.

As for Lyon, after signs of food shortage appeared, the textile industry guild immediately organized major factories, gathered their supervisors and security guards, and set up temporary patrol teams, which quickly dispersed the rioters.

This is mainly because Lyon's textile factories have been quite profitable since Paris Fashion Week. The industry association spent a large sum of money to pay bonuses to the patrols, thus ensuring that the factories did not shut down due to riots.

When the herald officer left, the Marquis de Saint-Villan immediately looked at the Duke of Orleans awkwardly:

"Your Majesty the Duke, what should we do? Are we going to Paris..."

"You must not go!" the latter said with a livid face, "I don't believe that Austrian cousin really doesn't care about the riots. Just wait here, she will definitely compromise!"

The Marquis of Saint-Villan hesitated and said:

"What if there's no compromise?"

The Duke of Orleans gritted his teeth and said:

"We will directly lead the army..."

The Marquis of Saint-Villan immediately shook his head decisively:

"No, no, to mobilize troops without an order is rebellion!"

He dares to take advantage of the chaotic situation to gather troops and force the palace, but he still doesn't have the courage to rebel directly - an unjust rebellion can at most force the royal family to flee abroad, and then other major powers will send troops to intervene. Finally, the royal family returns, and the rebels Go to the guillotine.

He knew that the Duke of Orleans wanted to usurp the throne, but he did not want to be a stepping stone under the throne.

But he also knew that because he had threatened the royal family this time, if he went to Paris, his political future would be over immediately.

He thought about it and finally made up his mind:

"I think it's safest to wait and see."

The Duke of Orleans returned to his room with a gloomy expression and wrote letters to the more than 20 military leaders one by one, asking them to hold on and wait for the royal family to compromise first.

…

Two days later.

The hungry people of Montpellier swept through the city like locusts, taking away all the food in sight.

Baron Laurent's villa is in a mess.

In the maid's lounge, a dirty old man found a small piece of bread in the corner cupboard, and immediately shook it happily to a seven or eight-year-old boy beside him:

"Alesi, look what I found..."

Just as he was mid-sentence, a woman suddenly appeared next to him, snatched the bread away, and stuffed it into her mouth.

The old man pointed at the woman angrily:

"You, you shameless guy, that is children's food..."

Before he finished speaking, another five or six-year-old child walked in from the door, holding a baby in his arms, and said to the woman extremely weakly:

"Mom, sister, she..."

The woman hurriedly picked up the baby, fed the chewed bread into her mouth, and murmured anxiously:

"Swallow it, Erianne, swallow it quickly!"

She had long since run out of milk due to hunger, so she could only feed her dying daughter in this way.

The baby's cheeks puffed up, as if he had eaten food.

The woman nodded excitedly and was about to bite the bread again and feed it to the child, but suddenly there was a light touch on her hand, and when she turned around, she saw that the bread had been taken away by the old man.

"Give it back to me, please!" She cried in a hoarse tone, but she couldn't shed tears. "Erianne can't hold it anymore..."

The old man was unmoved at all and gave the bread to his grandson:

"Sorry, Alessi is going to starve to death too."

The woman handed the baby to her eldest daughter and tried her best to grab the food from the child's hand. The old man hugged her waist desperately:

"Alessi, eat quickly!"

"Please, leave a little piece for Elian!"

The two were struggling weakly when they suddenly heard someone shouting outside:

"Go to church quickly! The church is distributing food!"

“There seems to be one in Adeghe Parish too!”

Both of them were stunned for a moment, and then let go at the same time. When the woman saw that the bread had been eaten, she quickly picked up her eldest daughter and hurried towards the church.

The old man caught up with him in a few steps, took the baby from the older child's hand, and signaled to the woman:

"I'll hold it for you so you can get on your way faster."

They rushed to the church in the south of the city with the rioting crowd, and sure enough they saw the priest distributing black bread, while the hungry people almost pushed down the church's fence.

The woman and the old man waited in line for half an hour, and finally each received a pound and a half of bread, and they immediately ate it with their children.

After a while, the woman looked at her little daughter who was full of bread batter and her mouth was squirming, and silently bowed to the priest.

The priest made the sign of the cross on his chest and said to the people around him who were constantly saluting:

"You should thank the merciful God, not me."

Another priest next to him continued:

"There are also His Majesty the King, His Majesty the Queen, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince! The food is distributed by them and the church together."

The crowd immediately began to make the sign of the cross, and then shouted: "Long live His Majesty the King!"

After the people were no longer hungry and received the promise from the priests that "there will be food distributed tomorrow," they all returned home exhausted.

Dozens of gang members who were paid to incite the riots were still shouting not far away:

"Whoever comes with me to Viscount Anluol's house will definitely have food at his house!"

People just looked at them indifferently, but no one responded.