Chapter 236 Turning Point (Asking for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 237 Turning Point (asking for monthly votes)

Brian asked in confusion:

"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 Archbishops Beaumont, Davreul and others agreed to take out "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, he was promoted to the chief minister and disdained the little profit.

"Establish a church cultural development company and sell a new type of "indulgence." Joseph said a few words roughly, and then ordered, "You go and draft the order to recall the officers first, and the details will be slowly told later."

"Okay, Your Highness. "

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

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

"Your Highness, the second half of this order... whether to punish the crime of rebellion should be decided by the High Court. "

Joseph was a little surprised. Now it is not a society ruled by law, why is procedural justice so important?

Brian caught a glimpse of his expression and hurriedly considered:

"Your Highness, if the officers are directly sentenced to rebellion in the name of His Majesty the King, it may cause fear among the nobles. It may even cause many neutral nobles to sympathize with those ambitious people. "

Joseph immediately understood that he was indeed too hasty - those officers were stationed in the local area as part of their duties, and they could find a lot of reasons for you to refuse to come to Paris. If they were convicted of treason for this reason, other nobles would feel that the royal family did whatever they wanted, and they would be convicted of a serious crime if they did not meet the royal family's wishes in the future.

This has touched the bottom line of the aristocracy.

Joseph thought and nodded:

"You are right, then just strictly order the officers to come to Paris, and those who violate the order will bear the consequences. "

He whispered to himself again:

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

After Brian left, Joseph took out the list he had selected 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 had someone send it out.

Then, he summoned Mirabeau, Bailly and other representatives of the capitalist aristocracy, handed them a document that had been prepared long ago, and explained it in detail.

After doing these things, it was completely dark. Joseph ignored his fatigue, took dinner and got on the carriage, and rushed to the Paris Legion's base.

In the speeding carriage, he looked at the stars outside the window, chewed salted beef, and sighed in his heart: I really worry about France...

Montpellier.

In the hunting ground of Count Sérurier's manor, Marquis Saint-Veran shook the reins lightly, looked at the continuous tents of the Montcalm Legion 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 his horse to slow down and said leisurely:

"Such a large-scale riot will put the royal family under tremendous financial and public pressure, and will seriously damage the royal family's prestige. The Austrian cousin has no other choice, she will definitely agree, at least partially agree. "

"Then which clauses can we allow her to exclude?"

"Any clause." The Duke of 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 just random, and he didn't intend for the royal family to accept them.

This was just a trick. His real goal was to give the army a suitable excuse to move at the same time!

The combat effectiveness of those rioters was almost negligible, and they were all instigated by his people, so it was easy to quell them.

Once the troops from all over the country were mobilized, it would not be so easy to return to their bases.

At that time, the military, with its great prestige in suppressing the riots, would gather troops from all over the country to the north on the pretext that there were still riots, forming a semi-encirclement of Paris - if the northwestern provinces could complete the deployment before, it would be almost completely surrounded.

With the little troops in the hands of the royal family, they would inevitably panic. And the dignitaries would The Duke of Orleans took the opportunity to lead the nobles to put pressure on the royal family again.

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

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

And the royal power will return to the state before Louis XIV, that is, the form of high autonomy of the noble lords.

After that, as the regent with great power, he can manipulate the royal family as he wants!

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

"From Brittany to Provence, everything is ready, with a total of 80,000 troops in each legion. General Urtule in the north will also respond to us at the same time."

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

"My Lord, such a large-scale troop mobilization, logistics..."

The Duke of Orleans said indifferently:

"I will provide funds for each legion. Furthermore, Duke Durfu 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 was ready 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 of 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:

"Didn't the Queen order 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 simply let the riot go.

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 should we do if there is a 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. Except for Bordeaux and Lyon, all the southern provinces 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 my 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 dared to take advantage of the chaotic situation to gather troops and force the palace, but he still didn't have the courage to rebel directly - an unjust rebellion could at most force the royal family to flee abroad, and then other major powers would send troops to intervene. Finally, the royal family would return, and the rebels would 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..."

He was just halfway through his words when a woman suddenly appeared beside him, snatched the bread away, and stuffed it into her mouth.

The old man pointed at the woman in shock and anger:

"You, you shameless guy, that's the child's food..."

Before he finished speaking, a five or six-year-old child came in from outside the door, holding a baby, and said to the woman very weakly:

"Mom, my sister..."

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

"Swallow it, Alian, swallow it quickly!"

She had no milk because of hunger, so she could only feed her dying daughter in this way.

The baby's cheeks bulged, as if it had eaten the food.

The woman nodded excitedly, and was about to bite the bread to feed the child again, but her hand suddenly felt light, 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 hoarsely, but no tears came out. "Alian can't hold on any longer..."

The old man was not moved at all and stuffed the bread to his grandson:

"Sorry, Alessi is also starving to death."

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

"Alessi, eat quickly!"

"Please, leave a small piece for Alian!"

The two were struggling weakly, and suddenly heard someone outside shouting:

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

"It seems that there is also food in the Adeg Parish!"

Both of them were stunned, and then let go at the same time. Seeing that the bread had been eaten, the woman quickly pulled up her eldest daughter and rushed towards the church.

The old man caught up with them, took the baby from the older child, and gestured to the woman:

"I'll hold it for you, so you can get on the road faster."

They followed the rioting crowd to the church in the south of the city, and saw the priest distributing black bread, and the hungry people were almost pushing down the church 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 immediately ate it with the child.

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

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

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

Another priest next to him continued:

"And the respected King, Queen, and Crown Prince! The food was distributed by them and the church."

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

When people were no longer hungry and received the promise of "more food tomorrow" from the priests, they returned home tiredly.

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

"Who will follow me to Viscount Anrol's house? There must be food in his house!"

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