Chapter 849 An Unexpected Path (Part 1)

Louis Philippe had three generals under his command, namely, Paris Police Chief Lesser, Paris Garrison Commander General Sebastian, and National Guard Commander Jacqueminot, with a total force of 60,000.

It was because of such a powerful force that Louis Philippe felt that everything was under his control, and of course General Sebastian also lied about military intelligence.

In fact, this was also due to the credit of Police Chief Lesser, who had the least troops, but they were all elite.

At that time, the police in Paris were the most elite troops in Paris, and these people were selected from experienced and strong soldiers.

They had the best equipment, the best training, and the most generous treatment in France, so they were extremely loyal and disciplined.

It was because of this that Lesser wanted to take the credit for himself. He ignored General Sebastian's garrison and chose to send cavalry to disperse the crowd directly.

That's right! At that time, the police in Paris had a cavalry system, and as the maintainers of the dynasty order and the people who exercised police functions, they inevitably had some conflicts with ordinary people.

This long-term and persistent conflict caused hatred between the two sides, so some Paris policemen were fierce in the performance of their duties.

Some people were broken several bones by the Paris police, and some unlucky people fell down in the shove and were trampled to death.

This may not be a big deal in normal times, but the anger of the people of Paris has been ignited at this time. And those college students and nationalists will not be arbitrarily kneaded by the Paris police like ordinary people.

"Paris police killed people!"

The Paris police have long been accustomed to such words, but today it was the order of the director, and there was the support of the king behind them, so they became more and more ruthless.

As an old district, the people of Paris have a strong sense of resistance, and with the nationalists and the student party taking the lead, the conflict soon turned into a fight.

The first gunshot announced that the conflict was out of control. When General Sebastian and his Paris garrison arrived, they faced fully armed people and barricades everywhere.

In order to obtain weapons, the people began to attack weapon stores and lone gendarmes, which resulted in the scale of chaos becoming increasingly uncontrollable.

Faced with such a chaotic situation, Generals Lesser and Sebastian were at a loss. They wanted to ask the old Marshal Soult to come out.

However, the old prime minister, who was about to retire in a few months, chose to resign at the speed of light. He did not want to be involved in the vortex of the French Revolution again.

After all, the paper could not cover the fire. Baron Pasquier reported everything that happened in the outside world to Louis Philippe.

However, the former still chose to distort the facts to favor his colleagues, which shocked the latter, but Louis Philippe felt that he still had a trump card, that is, the National Guard.

The National Guard was actually a bourgeois army composed of taxpayers. Louis Philippe felt that he and the Orleans bourgeoisie were of one mind and shared honor and disgrace.

The total strength of the National Guard exceeded 35,000 people, and was led by Jacqueminot, one of Louis Philippe's most trusted ministers.

However, doing business at a loss is not what businessmen would do. Almost all the National Guards ignored Jacqueminot's orders.

In the end, Jacqueminot only summoned less than a thousand people, which was a drop in the bucket for the current situation in Paris.

And soon these people also shouted "Long live reform" and joined the other camp.

The prime minister resigned (deserted) and the army rebelled. Nothing could be worse than this. If there was, it must be the situation in Paris at this time.

After becoming a commander without troops, Jacqueminot immediately led his family on a cruise to the United States.

Lesser and his police force were besieged by Parisians. After a day of fierce fighting, the Paris police force surrendered. Lesser was lynched, his body was dismembered into countless pieces, and only his head was hung in front of the Bourbon Palace.

When Lesser and his police force were besieged, General Sebastian and his garrison rushed into the barricades.

The general obviously lacked practical experience and courage. After attacking for 30 hours, he still did not remove a barricade.

At this point, Louis Philippe had no choice but to sacrifice his ministers. He first dismissed General Sebastian, the commander of the Paris garrison, but the people of Paris were obviously not satisfied. He then dismissed more than a dozen ministers in a row to satisfy the people's representatives.

February 23, 1848, night.

The streets of Paris were decorated with lights as if welcoming the New Year. The crowds waved the tricolor flag and sang "La Marseillaise" through the streets and alleys of Paris.

However, the Paris garrison and the private bodyguards of those bigwigs did not relax their vigilance. Similar to the La Fontaine incident in history, a mysterious gunshot broke the joyful atmosphere when a parade passed by the mansion of a bigwig.

The guards, frightened by the gunshots, instinctively fired back at the crowd. Gunshots rang out one after another, and dozens of people were killed or injured. The sounds of wailing, crying, and cursing rang out.

After the riots subsided, people used the light of torches to see the dead. Among them was a pretty young woman who was shot twice. Her clothes were torn open on her chest, revealing a large area of ​​white with a smear of bright red blood.

People's anger was ignited again, and they returned to the barricades and vowed to fight the Orleans Dynasty to the end.

Louis Philippe tried to make greater concessions while reinstating Thiers, who was dismissed because of the Turkish-Egyptian War, and Odilon Barrot, who showed goodwill to the dynasty.

At this time, Barrot still tried to persuade the people to give up the war, but he had lost his reputation and no longer had any appeal.

Thiers continued his usual tough style. He immediately ordered "The Butcher" Bigot to take charge of all military affairs in Paris.

Thomas Robert Bigot de Labigony was the governor who had a massacre policy in Algeria mentioned earlier.

He was also ruthless to the French. As soon as he took over, he immediately ordered the soldiers to bombard the barricades with cannons. Thirty minutes later, "The Butcher" Bigot used the most cruel and efficient method to conquer the barricades that General Sebastian had failed to conquer in thirty hours.

However, at this time, Louis Philippe panicked. He was afraid that the tragedy would happen again, so he forced Bigot to treat the French people in a more reasonable and gentle way and give them a chance to negotiate.

Louis Philippe's behavior directly shook the morale of the army, because the soldiers at the grassroots level clearly felt that the top leaders had no determination.

Even a famous general could not lead a team that had lost its morale, so the Paris government army began to retreat step by step.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Thiers asked Louis Philippe to immediately evacuate Paris lightly and take refuge in Orleans to avoid repeating the mistakes of Louis XVI, and he would mobilize troops from other parts of France to quell the rebellion.

However, at the critical moment, Louis Philippe retreated again, and Odilon Barrot also opposed his strategy.

In desperation, Thiers could only take out the letter written by Franz to him and fled to Alsace-Lorraine with Louis Philippe and his family.