Chapter 127 You Can Absolutely Trust My Loyalty

Queen Mary was startled when she heard this, and secretly became nervous. Seeing her son's attitude being so positive, could it be that he had thoughts about the Princess of the Two Sicilies?

Oh, by the way, I heard that Maria was also a very smart girl, good at astronomy and mathematics. Maybe it was these that attracted Joseph.

She nodded reluctantly: "Of course it's good, dear, it can make the Princess of the Two Sicilies feel our enthusiasm and courtesy."

Then she immediately added: "By the way, Clementine will be coming to Paris soon. Are you going too..."

Joseph immediately smiled and bowed: "Of course, mother, how could I not greet my cousin who came from afar?"

Of course he doesn't care about welcoming the princess a few more times, and this can also cover up his attempt to set a trap for Bessonval by welcoming Maria.

The queen was relieved. It was great. It turned out that her son only paid attention to etiquette and was not more interested in the Princess of the Two Sicilies. Clementine, you have to work hard and try to capture the heart of the crown prince!

Joseph greeted the queen and immediately went to the chamberlain to discuss in detail the etiquette procedures for welcoming the Princess of the Two Sicilies and the arrangements along the way.

"Well, I think the roads here should be lined with colorful ribbons." Joseph pointed to the map and said, "Otherwise the bare trees will look too monotonous in winter. There are also these farmhouses, which the princess can see from a distance in the carriage. Just decorate it well.”

"Yes, Your Highness, I would like to follow your instructions." The chamberlain hurriedly wrote down these requests.

He knew that the princess who came this time was not just for "tourism", but was likely to become the crown prince's fiancée, so it was not surprising that His Highness attached so much importance to her and wanted to make it grand.

After Joseph finished discussing the ceremony to welcome the princess with the chamberlain, he did not return to Paris. Instead, he returned to the Dauphin's palace where he had not lived for a long time.

He walked slowly in front of a row of huge arched floor-to-ceiling windows, his eyes swept across the colorful halos reflected on the window glass, and suddenly turned his head and asked Kesoud who was standing aside: "Viscount Kesoud, will you be my captain of the guard?" How long has it been, seven or eight years?"

Kesode was a little surprised and immediately took a few steps closer and said: "Yes, it has been eight years, Your Highness. I was fortunate enough to become your bodyguard when you were four years old. Two years later, Her Majesty the Queen promoted me to captain. ”

Joseph turned around: "So, the person I can trust the most in this world, apart from the king and the queen, is you."

Kesode quickly raised his hat and bowed: "By God, you can absolutely trust my loyalty, Your Highness."

Joseph nodded, then looked at him seriously and said: "Jacques, my friend, I am about to face a challenge, which will have a huge impact on me. I really need your help."

Kesode immediately stood up straight and said firmly: "Your Highness, I will do anything for you, including sacrificing my life!"

…

Eastern suburbs of Paris.

Beside the road leading to a nearby town, there is a small mound more than ten meters high, with sparse shrubs growing on it.

At this time, in the bushes, there were several men wearing greasy coarse cloth coats and equally dirty felt hats, with various weapons stuck on their waists or behind their backs. They were sitting on the ground carelessly, saying something Chatting without saying a word.

"It will be dark in another hour at most." A bald middle-aged man playing with an ax looked up at the sky and muttered dissatisfiedly, "It seems like we have to wait in vain again today."

"Even if he doesn't come today, he will definitely come tomorrow." The red-haired man next to him rubbed his neck and looked under the mound. "That's tens of thousands of livres. It's definitely worth waiting a few more days!"

The man sitting on the outermost side with a sinister look suddenly spoke: "Colette, if we can't wait for that person within three days, I will beat your butt to pieces with the butt of my gun."

The red-haired man trembled and said with an apologetic smile: "Boss, it has been spread all over the town that Baron Gedeon has sold his house and all the land and is going to Paris to marry the widow.

"Oh, I saw Baron Gédéhan's servants loading boxes of luggage onto the carriage outside his yard."

A strong man next to him with a prosthetic leg on his left hand, who looked a bit like Captain Hook, nodded immediately: "That guy also posted a notice recruiting bodyguards in the town. It's obvious that he will leave in the next few days."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a hurried whisper from the top of the mound: "Hurry! That guy is coming!"

The few people who were extremely lazy just now suddenly jumped up from the ground. The sinister man signaled to his men: "As I said before, do it!"

"Yes, boss."

Several people gathered around the road under the mound, while the man who weighed nearly 200 pounds and was responsible for looking out on the top of the mound pulled hard on the rope in his hand.

Dozens of giant trees that had been prepared immediately rolled down, blocking the road more than ten meters wide.

The carriage that was moving leisurely suddenly came to a sudden stop. The two coachmen were so frightened that they jumped off their seats and fled towards the woods in the distance.

The sinister man fired another shot at the carriage, led his men to surround the two carriages, and shouted proudly: "Baron Gedeon, we are just some poor people. I hope you can generously leave some silver coins. Otherwise, we can only give You spend a few bucks and get the money yourself.”

He was about to open the door when he suddenly heard a gunshot behind him.

He suddenly felt as if he had been hit by a giant hammer on his back, and he threw himself hard at the carriage. Then he saw that the carriage turned red, which was his blood.

The other bandits were startled and turned around in a hurry, but unexpectedly, two pistols were stretched out from the carriage and pointed at the backs of Captain Hook and the bald man. At the same time, several men with guns jumped out of the weeds on both sides of the road.

The fat man's voice of begging for mercy came from the top of the mound. Several bandits turned their heads and saw a man who was not tall and looked like an ordinary farmer waving a pistol and took him down.

Not long after, except for the dead leader, the other four bandits had their weapons taken away, and they were pointed at their heads with guns, squatting in the open space beside the road in fear.

A carriage drove over from a distance and stopped next to several people. Fouche opened the door and got out of the car. In order to capture these gangs alive, he personally brought people to this town and made up the story of Baron Redang, and finally waited until the "fish" took the bait.

Fouche took out a pistol and played with it. He scanned the gangsters with his dead eyes and snorted: "Well, the Blood Knife Gang, right?"

The fat man who was watching the wind before was so scared that he started crying: "Let me go, I can tell you where your boss hides the money..."

The bald man glared at him and said with his neck stiff: "Yes! We are the Blood Knife Gang. It's our bad luck to be caught by the army."

At this time in France, everyone conceded that only the army could deal with the fierce gangsters like the Blood Knife Gang, and the police were not enough.

Prospere, holding a gun, shook his head and sneered: "Who said we are an army?"

"We are from the Lakeville Gang." Fouche continued, "We have a big deal to do recently, so we need some manpower."

The Blood Knife Gang members all breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this. It seemed that they would not be sent to the gallows, so they all looked up at Fouche: "I am willing to join."

"I will join too."

"And me..."

Fouche snorted coldly: "But I only need two people, let's see who is more capable."

As he said, he threw the two daggers on the ground, his eyes full of excitement and madness.

The bald man and the red-haired man reacted the fastest. They immediately jumped, grabbed the daggers from the ground, and stabbed the other two accomplices without hesitation.

...

Southern suburbs of Paris.

The trees on both sides of the avenue leading to the city were covered with ribbons, as if beautiful corals were growing there.

In the distance, the sparse farmhouses were painted beautiful white and gold, like treasure chests dotted among the corals.

On both sides of the more than 40-meter-wide avenue between the coral and the treasure chest, a French Guard soldier with a gun stood solemnly every five or six meters. The guard team extended from the suburbs to the city of Paris.

Two days ago, this place has been under martial law, but Bessonval still took the trouble to personally lead the officers to check this 4-mile long section of road again and again - the princess of the Two Sicilies will come tomorrow, and according to the arrangement of the Palace of Versailles, the prince will also come here to welcome the princess, so there must be no mistakes.

At this time, a team of craftsmen carrying paint and brushes, led by the French Guard soldiers, walked towards a farmhouse on the east side.

Bessonval casually asked the officer beside him: "Who are those people?"

The latter hurriedly said: "General, they are craftsmen of the Palace of Versailles. Their documents have been strictly checked. There is no problem. They always like to say that this or that is not perfect enough, and they make decorations everywhere. In my opinion, they just want to get more funds."

Bessonval nodded and said with a stern face: "Don't be careless, keep a close eye on everyone."

"Yes, General."

As they were talking, they saw several officers, with 20 or 30 soldiers whose uniforms were obviously more majestic and straighter than those of the French Guards, coming towards them.

"Imperial Guards?"

Bessonval frowned, and only saw the appearance of the visitor clearly when he got closer. He quickly put on a smile and raised his hat to greet him: "Viscount Csode, how come you have time to come here?"

Csode, sitting on his horse, also raised his hat to return the greeting: "It's nice to meet you, General Bessonval. You know, I can't make any mistakes in that kind of occasion tomorrow, so I must familiarize myself with the environment in advance."

"Who said it wasn't?" Bessonval smiled, "Look, I've been here more than a dozen times today."

Csode looked at the wasteland on both sides of the road: "Oh, I'll go over there and take a look. You continue to do your work. After the welcoming of the princess, I'll treat you to a drink."

"Ha, I look forward to your invitation."

The two passed each other, and Csode seemed very serious, and took people to carefully look at both sides of the road several times.

The officer next to Bessonval glanced at Queso's back and said disdainfully: "Hmph, pretending, there are our people everywhere here, what's there to see?"

Bessonval waved his hand carelessly: "It's normal for the prince to come here and his guards to do some routine inspections."

On the other side, Queso's team passed by a bush, and at the same time, seven or eight court painters came towards them.

Queso saw the appearance of the painter in the lead, and hurriedly reined in his horse and gestured behind him. A high-nosed soldier immediately nodded to him and pulled the other two into the bushes.

Queso's team stopped where they were, covering the figures of the three people tightly.

The soldier with a high nose and two men took off their uniforms very neatly, revealing the painter's clothes that had been put on inside, with a few traces of paint on them.

The three men stuffed their military uniforms into empty paint cans, handed their weapons to the soldiers behind Ksode, then picked up the paint cans and followed the painters as if no one was around, walking away.

On Kesode's side, it was as if nothing happened. He circled the area a few times and then returned the same way.

No officer or soldier of the French Guard noticed that three people were missing from the more than 20 members of the Crown Prince's personal guard.

The painters walked happily towards a farmhouse not far away.

In the team, a red-haired man looked around nervously and asked in a low voice the "painter" with a high nose next to him: "Boss, why are there so many soldiers? What are we going to do? Is it dangerous?"

The tall-nosed man smiled relaxedly: "You have just arrived, so you don't know the strength of our Lakewe gang. Let me tell you, half of the soldiers around are ours."

He said, waving to a soldier in the distance. The latter waved his hand perfunctorily and responded with a smile. These craftsmen are all from the Palace of Versailles, and who knows which big shot they will work for, so the soldiers at the bottom are very polite to them based on the principle of not offending them if they can.

"You are really one of our own." The middle-aged "painter" beside him exclaimed.

If you take off his felt hat, you will find that he is actually bald.

Yes, this man and the red-haired man are the surviving members of the Blood Knife Gang. The tall-nosed man who led them was Kesoder's confidant named Odolik.

The matter was so important that Joseph did not even involve Fouche. After the latter caught the members of the Blood Knife Gang, they handed them over to Kesoud, and all subsequent matters were presided over by Kesoud.

The red-haired man was still uneasy: "Boss, what are we going to do this time?"

Odolik answered according to the "script": "Robbery. Tomorrow a noble will pass by with several carts of gold, which is discount bank money. They have some relations with the military and have hired these soldiers to be bodyguards.

"But how did he know that there is a big shot behind our boss, who has already packed our people into the army.

"As you all saw just now, no one came to question us at all."

He continued to encourage the two gangsters: "And our mission is just to show off in the distance. When we grab the gold, we will hide in the woods behind there. There is no risk, and we will get at least seven or eight thousand livres by then."

While talking, the painters had arrived at the farmhouse. The owner of the house had long been "invited" by the French Guards to go elsewhere, leaving only one soldier to guard here.

The painters greeted the guards and spread out to work.

Odolik took his two "younger brothers" and casually entered the attic and hid in a wooden cabinet.