Chapter 231 Famine

Chapter 232 Famine

The officers frowned and looked at the Duke of Orleans.

The latter smiled: "The legion controlled by the royal family is expanding rapidly. As far as I know, they recruited nearly a thousand new soldiers in a short period of time after returning to Paris.

"Now, including the Moulin Legion that has surrendered to the royal family and the Swiss mercenaries, the royal family has more than 10,000 soldiers."

"You forgot the Flanders Brigade, oh, now it is called the Paris Legion." Monod also came over, "They have always been flirting with the royal family."

"Thank you for your reminder. Then it is 13,000 people." The Duke of Orleans glanced at the Marquis of Saint-Priest, "According to this trend, it won't be long before the royal family will have a powerful army, and you will become worthless."

General Astu snorted disdainfully: "It's just more than 10,000 people, not even enough to maintain law and order in France."

The Duke of Orleans smiled: "Do you know the weapons and equipment of the Berthier Legion? "

As he spoke, he took out an Auguste-style percussion gun, along with a small bag of percussion caps, and threw them to General Astu. This kind of weapon has already begun to be mass-produced. As long as you are willing to spend money, it is not difficult to get one or two from the arsenal.

After a group of military leaders figured out the use of the percussion gun and took turns to test fire it, they all showed solemn expressions on their faces.

"You are all experts, and you can definitely see how much this gun can greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the army."

The Duke of Orleans did not wait for the officers to refute, and immediately continued: "In fact, the most dangerous thing is the new promotion mechanism implemented by the royal family in the army."

"Promotion mechanism?"

"Haven't you heard about it?" The Duke of Orleans had an exaggerated expression on his face, "In the royal army, civilians can be promoted to officers based on their military merits, without restrictions, and can even be promoted to generals! At the same time, not only do you not have to pay a "promotion fee" for promotion, you can also get a considerable bonus. "

The officers' faces turned cold when they heard this.

Such a system is simply digging up their ancestors' graves!

They have always relied on bloodline and status to monopolize officers. If even civilians can be promoted to generals now, their descendants may lose control of the army in the future.

What follows is the loss of a large amount of income.

Mono muttered at the right time: "Oh, maybe in the future everyone will listen to the command of a certain pariah and fight a bloody battle with the enemy. And he will sneer at you in the command post..."

"Never allow this!" General Astu roared, "The royal family is blaspheming the tradition of the military!"

Other officers also followed suit and cursed, but the Marquis of Saint-Priest looked at the Duke of Orleans with a solemn expression: "My Lord, in fact, we have always wanted to show the attitude of the military to the royal family. However, this requires an opportunity, such as an enemy that the royal family cannot deal with. "

"This opportunity is about to appear. "The Duke of Orleans said loudly, "It won't be long before the royal family will be in a huge predicament. "

"Oh? Why are you so sure? "

Mono continued on the side: "Because, there will be a large-scale famine soon, and there will be mobs everywhere."

"Mobs?" The Minister of War shook his head, "Those mobs are not a threat."

The Duke of Orleans laughed and said, "If we do some 'operations', the situation will be completely different."

He roughly described his plan, and finally said, "This time we have the support of the meeting of dignitaries. Yes, the royal family has been too much in recent times, and everyone hopes to correct the king's mistakes."

The eyes of more than a dozen officers present lit up.

...

"I'm so stupid, really!"

An ordinary carriage was heading towards the Saint-Germain district against the setting sun. In the car, Sorel clasped his hands and lowered his head, blaming himself: "I actually thought that those two guys were heroes who saved Celine, and I rashly asked His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to help them get rid of the crime! ”

She shook her slightly curly black hair vigorously: "His Royal Highness the Dauphin may now misunderstand that I am an accomplice of those two guys..."

A young and handsome man in his twenties sitting opposite her comforted her: "Tulip, you don't have to blame yourself too much. Everyone can be blinded sometimes. Moreover, we will soon be able to help you make up for this mistake."

The 1.9-meter-tall, muscular man next to him snorted: "Humph, it was a wrong decision for you to ask the royal bastard for help. Why worry about his misunderstanding..."

Sorrel immediately glared at him: "How can you say that about His Royal Highness the Dauphin! You don't know that His Royal Highness the Dauphin is completely different from other people in the royal family. He is kind and has a strong sense of justice!"

The sturdy man spread his hands and turned his head away: "Okay, whatever you want..."

The handsome man parted the curtains and looked out the window: "Everyone, recall the action plan, the Bastille is coming soon. "

The carriage immediately fell silent.

A few minutes later, two carriages stopped one after the other at the intersection opposite the Bastille. Sorel and five young men got out of the carriage and looked at the terrible fortress from afar.

"This is probably the most dangerous mission I have performed in recent years." A thin red-haired man whispered.

"For fairness and justice, no matter how dangerous it is, it is worth it!" The handsome man immediately replied.

Sorrel nodded: "Twilight is right! The Brotherhood will always be with justice!"

These people are all members of the brotherhood that Sorel belongs to [Note 1]. This brotherhood has nearly 20 people, all of whom are children of nobles. They like to do good deeds in Paris. Although they are very immature, they have helped many poor people.

A young man carrying a bow and arrow looked at the sky and said to Sorel: "It's almost time. Now it's up to you."

The girl nodded, pulled up her veil, and walked towards the Bastille with her long legs.

She was very agile and swift. Taking advantage of the cover of dusk, she quickly came to the wall of the Bastille. With the help of very simple tools, she climbed up to a lookout window more than ten meters high like a gecko under the blind spot of the patrolling guards on the wall.

She opened the window with a few simple moves. It was obviously not the first time she had done this. Then she turned over and entered the window, hanging the rope around her waist along the window.

Not long after, three brotherhood companions climbed into a preparation room in the Bastille along the rope.

Sorel urged in a low voice: "There are only 3 minutes left before the routine inspection, change clothes quickly!"

Several people quickly changed into the military uniforms they brought, and under Sorel's leadership, they slipped into a utility room along the corridor, and then climbed into another room on the third floor through the window, took advantage of the gap between the guards changing shifts to go around to the officers' lounge, and then climbed out the window again...

In the heavily guarded Bastille, Sorel relied on his talent to make a way.

About ten minutes later, the three people who had been in danger all the way still arrived safely on the west side of the cell on the third floor where the Maletto brothers were imprisoned.

Sorel, hiding behind the protruding pillar at the end of the corridor, glanced at the two guards in front of the cell door, and retracted his body and said to the red-haired man next to him: "Fox Hunter, you have to lead the two guards away."

The latter also looked at the cell and swallowed: "It looks very dangerous."

However, he still covered his face, muttered "for justice", and ran towards the two guards. It's not that he is ready to die, but because his father is a very prestigious earl. Even if he is caught, he can get out by paying a sum of money.

The guard saw the strange figure and immediately drew his sword and chased after him, shouting: "Alarm! There is an intruder!"

Sorrel immediately came to the unguarded cell. This time she did not try to pick the lock, but signaled to the strongest companion: "Leishi, it's up to you."

The latter nodded, took out the iron spike from his waist, swung it high, and smashed it on the door lock.

"Bang" a muffled sound. He was very powerful, and a crack appeared on the cast iron lock instantly, as if it would break if he hit it again.

The small window on the cell door was opened, and a man with a pointed face and monkey cheeks looked out from inside: "Brother, they are smashing the door, not like guards."

"Get out of the way." A face behind the small window changed, and asked suspiciously, "Who are you?"

"Fox Hunter" immediately said in a rough voice: "The boss sent us to rescue you."

This is the plan of Sorel and others to make up for their mistakes.

After they learned that Mono's son could not be convicted due to insufficient evidence, they decided to pretend to break into the prison, deceive the Maletdu brothers' trust, and extract useful evidence from them. Of course, if they couldn't deceive the two, kidnapping and torture were also options.

The people in the cell were surprised and said, "Did the Duke change his plan?"

"Duke?" Sorel, who was closest, was stunned. Shouldn't the eldest of the Maletdu brothers be Mono's son? How did he become the Duke?

Before she could think about it, there was a sudden sound of dense footsteps on the stairs on the west side.

She was about to urge Lei Shi to hurry up, when the door of a cell in the distance suddenly opened, and seven or eight fully armed guards rushed out from inside, obviously ambushed there a long time ago.

Sorel and others were shocked, and they hurriedly showed their weapons and fought fiercely with the guards.

They all came from prestigious aristocratic families and practiced swordsmanship since childhood. For a time, they actually forced the guards, who were twice as many as them, to retreat again and again.

Just as the three of them reached the end of the corridor and were about to jump out of the window the way they came, they heard a "click" sound of gun bolts being pulled behind them.

Sorel slowly turned his head, and what came into view were more than thirty black muzzles of guns.

A man with a pair of dead fish eyes pushed aside the guards and came forward, sneering: "I've been waiting for you for a long time. Catch them all!"

Three hours later.

In the interrogation room of the Bastille, Fouché frowned and threw down the confession in his hand, glancing at the beautiful young woman opposite: "Sorrel? From the Frazee family?"

Sorel nodded nervously.

Fouché sighed: "So, you want to kidnap the prisoners?"

"No, sir, we just want to trick them into confessing..."

Fouché suddenly slammed the table in anger and roared: "Do you know how long I have been arranging to catch the mastermind behind them? You messed it up!"

He could tell from experience that the few young nobles he had just interrogated did not lie.

He waved at the guards irritably and turned away: "Lock him up first."

Sorrel was dragged up by two guards, but suddenly remembered something and said to Fouché: "By the way, sir, I heard from those two guys that their boss seems to be a duke."

"Oh?" Fouché turned back immediately.

...

Royal Palace.

The Duke of Orleans looked at the butler with a gloomy face: "Someone wants to kidnap the Marletto brothers? Who is it?"

"This is not clear yet." The butler lowered his head and said, "The Bastille only reported that there were four people. Oh, and they also said that someone vaguely mentioned the "duke" during the interrogation."

The Duke of Orleans suddenly stared, pondered for a moment, and suddenly stood up: "Quick, let all places start to move immediately."

The housekeeper was startled and reminded him carefully: "Master, the northwest provinces have not yet been arranged..."

"They've probably noticed something and can't delay it any longer."

The Duke of Orleans paced back and forth anxiously, and then ordered: "Get ready, let's leave Paris too. Go and notify Monod and ask him to leave quickly.

"Oh, and also, the money given to the military was directly paid with bills of exchange from the Paris Discount Bank. It was too late to leave the UK."

As the Bank of France's "central bank" status is gradually established, it has begun to carry out necessary supervision of major French banks. The "funding" he promised to the military is huge and will easily be noticed.

He was planning to transfer the money from a British bank before, but now that the situation has changed, it may be too late.

…

Provence.

Nice.

Several craftsmen in shabby clothes braved the biting cold wind to arrive at the nearest strategic grain storage depot, only to find that nearly a thousand people had gathered here - they were all informed by the government grain sales point that no food had been sent from the grain storage depot. Only then did he come all the way to inquire about the situation.

The officials at the grain depot had to repeat over and over again: "All our grain has been transferred to Montpellier. There is really no grain in the warehouse now. But in a few days, the grain from Grenoble will arrive." …”

A tall man with a scar on his face immediately interrupted him loudly: "That's what you said five days ago. Where is the food now?"

The man next to him immediately answered: "The government has always said that there is enough food, so that everyone does not need to worry. It seems that we have all been deceived!"

A skinny old man wearing a thin linen coat, dragging a ten-year-old child with him, struggled to squeeze in front of the grain depot official, lowered his head and stroked his chest and said: "Master, all the bread in the city is sold for 22 sous a pound. We really can't afford it... Please be kind and send some food."

Generally speaking, Nice bread does not exceed 10 sous per pound. For citizens who are barely surviving on every sou of wages, this means that they will have no money to buy food for more than half a month.

[Note 1] Brotherhood was originally a guild organization, and later gradually evolved into a society. Generally composed of members who share the same interests or beliefs, or even established for social purposes. Members support and help each other, and will also elect cadres internally for management. Very common in the 18th century.