Chapter 27 Sharp Sword (Asking for Monthly Votes)

Joseph smiled and said to himself:

"If I have the chance, I must open a bank.

He finished reading the financial information, pushed the document basket aside, rubbed his sore shoulders, and picked up the new tax bill document to read it.

The bill has a lot of clauses, more than thirty pages in total.

Joseph frowned more and more as he read it. The people who compiled these bills were really smart. They put all kinds of messy and irrelevant things in them. Even a person who has received higher education in the 21st century felt dizzy. It was simply a dream to expect ordinary people to understand what was written on it!

And it seemed that the compilers were worried that the bill would be obstructed by the nobles, so they deliberately added some taxes that favored the aristocracy and were not good for ordinary people.

But they didn't expect that this tax, which had almost no effect, would become the focus of the nobles' attack on the tax bill. Ordinary people simply couldn't understand the details of the bill's clauses. According to public opinion, The bill will harm their own interests, so they will oppose it together.

In fact, the core content of the bill is to abolish the land tax privileges of the nobles and let the nobles bear some of the national finances.

In addition, it stipulates that grain can be freely transported and sold, and the tariffs between domestic regions are abolished to promote economic development.

This bill fully reflects the weakness and compromise of Louis XVI's government...

Adding shit to sugar - trying to please both the nobles and the common people, but in the end, neither side likes him.

Thinking of this, Joseph picked up the pen and crossed out all the taxes that were unfavorable to ordinary people and small businessmen one by one.

Pulling one group and hitting another is the way of politics.

After the deletions, this bill is no longer a bargaining chip that the nobles can use to control the government, but a sword to attack them!

Joseph checked it carefully again, and when he wanted to give it to his assistant to re-copy and organize it, he found that it was already dusk.

"Forget it, let's talk about it tomorrow. "He stretched and threw the bill into the drawer. Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you. If there is no emergency, do not force subordinates to work overtime.

As soon as he walked out of the office, he saw Emmanuel with a maid: "Your Highness, Her Majesty the Queen is holding a gambling game in the Mars Hall and invites you to participate."

Joseph wanted to laugh in his heart. Why does it feel so weird for a mother to take her son to gamble?

But he also knew that this was a very normal entertainment project in the Palace of Versailles. Even the Sun King Louis XIV specifically asked the court to hold more such activities in the "Instructions to the Crown Prince" to enhance the relationship between the monarch and his subjects.

Joseph nodded: "Okay, I'll go right away. "

He went back to his bedroom to change into a light and luxurious suit for entertainment, and then followed the queen's maid to the Mars Hall.

From a distance, there were already bursts of noise accompanied by cheerful piano music coming from the hall. The guards at the door bowed and nodded to Joseph, and pushed open the two-person-high door.

Queen Marie, who was playing baccarat under the huge portrait of Louis XIV, saw her son at a glance, and immediately waved with a smile on her face:

"My dear, you are finally here!"

Joseph hurried over and bowed. The queen was obviously in a good mood: "I heard that you were busy at Brian's all day, go and play and relax. Oh, you know? I just won eleven games in a row! I hope you have the same good luck as me! "

When the nobles heard that the crown prince had arrived, they all stopped and saluted him, especially the young girls in silky clothes, all of whom had peach blossoms in their eyes and giggled.

Joseph looked at the nobles surrounding Queen Mary and constantly flattering her, and the queen, whose face was flushed and laughing because of winning money, and suddenly remembered the later writer Zweig's sigh-"She was too young at that time and didn't know that all the gifts given by fate had already been secretly marked with a price." [Note 1]

Just as Joseph was sighing secretly, Mono, whose face was covered with powder and white, trotted over with a smile on his face, and pulled him behind him and said attentively:

"Your Highness, you came at the right time! We are worried about missing one person, come and play cards with us. "

A young nobleman at the card table was startled when he heard this, and quickly disappeared at a very fast speed, realizing the situation of "lack of people".

Joseph couldn't refuse the kindness, so he followed the Minister of the Interior to sit down at the card table under the oil painting of the God of War, and servants immediately brought wine and drinks.

"Two 10s." Count Papus at the top played the card.

The rules are similar to "Run Fast", but the smallest card is A, and K represents the king, the largest.

Joseph took a glass of juice, looked at the cards in his hand, and shook his head and said, "No. "

When he saw the pile of gold ecus and silver livres on the table, he couldn't help but think of France's 2 billion debt. Then he looked at the cabinet members across from him who were carelessly throwing gold coins and playing heartlessly. He shook his head and smiled bitterly in his heart: Maybe it is necessary to play a big game of fate...

He was thinking about the national debt, and coupled with his poor card skills, he soon lost three games in a row and lost 12 gold ecus.

Not far away, more than a dozen noble girls were staring at his table intently. Seeing that the prince was a little absent-minded, they thought he was unhappy because of losing the cards, and immediately clenched their fists and gritted their teeth.

Several girls took action immediately.

Some of them went around to the opposite side of their father or uncle, and enveloped them with murderous intent and resentful eyes respectively.

Some came to the side of their brother, as if asking him how the cards were, and secretly pinched a piece of meat on his arm and rotated it 180 degrees.

In fact, according to the tradition of the French court, you cannot lose intentionally when gambling, but the three people sitting at the same table with Joseph decided to give up this practice without hesitation.

Mono split the straight of 6 to 10 in the middle and played a single 8. Count Papus looked at the 7 played by the crown prince, clenched the single 10 and Q in his hand, and firmly shouted "no"...

Joseph's "luck" suddenly improved. He won no matter how he played. There was even a game where the biggest card was only J, and almost all single cards were single cards, but he still won.

The consecutive wins made him very excited. He forgot the time for a while until he felt a little tired. Then he looked up at the clock and found that it was already 11:30 in the evening.

He hurriedly got up and said goodbye to several card friends, asked Emman to pack up the money he won, and dragged his tired body towards the bedroom.

After leaving the hall, Emmanuel followed him and whispered excitedly:

"Your Highness, you won a total of 156 livres."

One livre equals six livres, which means that Joseph won nearly a thousand livres in one night!

"Not bad," Joseph felt quite accomplished, "I didn't do anything for half a night, but I made so much!"

But then he remembered the terrifying 2 billion debt, and he couldn't help but calculate in his mind that according to the way he won tonight, it would only take about 550 years to pay off the 2 billion.

Joseph sighed. To repay such a large sum of money, it was far from enough to rely on himself to do some money-making projects. He must use himself as a fulcrum to pry the industrial revolution of the whole of France, which was the way to solve the financial problem.

So steam engines and textile technology need to be developed as soon as possible, and there are supporting financial, patent and other policies.

Joseph was thinking about the industrial revolution in his heart. He didn't know where he was walking. Suddenly, he heard a "gurgling" sound from his stomach. He couldn't help but shake his head and laugh. He had been winning money all night and didn't even have time to eat supper.

When he looked up, he found that the kitchen was right in front of the corridor. There was a light inside, and it was obvious that there was a royal chef on duty.

This place is quite far from the prince's bedroom. I don't know how long it will take to send food when I go back.

Just ask the chef to make some food and fill it up here. When he thought of this, he walked towards the kitchen.

[Note 1: From the biographical novel "The Queen of the Beheaded" by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (November 28, 1881-February 22, 1942). ]

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