Eagle’s Glory

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When the sunlight quietly filtered through the window and fell on his face, Aigron quietly opened his eyes.

At this time, he was lying on a large bed, the velvet mattress was extremely soft, and, of course, he was not alone.

The girl in his arms was hugging him tightly, and the messy traces proved what happened last night.

"Well... um..."

In the unconscious murmur, Agnes's face turned slightly red. Under the sunlight, she looked both elegant and holy, and also had a touch of irresistible charm.

He looked at Agnes in his arms, and then couldn't help but kiss her forehead.

With his kiss, Agnes also woke up. At this time, she had already become accustomed to the young man's presence when she opened her eyes. Not only did she not panic, but she also looked at the young man so close in front of her with obsession. man, and then also offered a sweet kiss.

She knew in her heart that this kind of "couple" life was just a fleeting bubble. In the end, she would return everything to the person who should have him. But the more she knew this, the more she devoted herself to it and enjoyed it eagerly. The tenderness between each other.

After being cozy for a while, the two of them got up lazily, washed up, and started a new day's schedule.

As usual, during the breaks between breakfasts, Aigron had been processing documents and letters sent from Paris, and he obtained crucial information from these letters.

During this period of time, the two of them often stayed together and flew together without anyone disturbing them. Although Aigron felt that it was too high-profile and inappropriate, which would cause any objection to Theresa who was far away in Paris, he was reluctant to do this. It was a hard-won enjoyment, so he continued to let himself go amidst the vague uneasiness - anyway, except Theresa, no one else could blame him.

In the almost daily correspondence between him and Teresa, Teresa never mentioned Agnes, let alone showed any dissatisfaction about it. Therefore, in a fluke mentality, he had even more reason to think that something was wrong. None of it happened.

In Teresa's letter today, she mentioned that her brother Albrecht and Prince Eugène's widow Princess Auguste had all rushed to Paris to congratulate him on his victory and prepare to come to join him and Theresa. Shah's coronation.

Teresa left them all in Paris and settled them properly. It is expected that these relatives will stay in Paris to wait for her in the next few months.

Eggron had no intention of changing his schedule for them, but he was certainly happy to see these relatives come.

Although he is about to reach the top now, he is alone after all, and he needs more cronies to help him defend the throne.

As the heir of Archduke Charles, Prince Albrecht will certainly not stay in France for a long time, but Prince Eugène's two sons will be available to him when they grow up - and because Prince Eugène has a good reputation, so When he activated these two "nephews", neither Bonaparte family supporters nor French nationalists would have any objections.

So in his reply to Theresa, he asked Theresa to entertain these relatives for him, and at the same time, he answered other questions that Theresa discussed with him in the letter.

Of course, he did not forget that Theresa was still pregnant at this time, so at the end of the letter, he took the trouble to tell Theresa to take more rest and take care of her body, and he also wrote many affectionate words, He told about the interesting things he encountered during the trip, how he missed his wife and children after traveling far away, and how he looked forward to returning home as soon as possible to witness the birth of the couple's second child.

For Agron, who has been "trained for a long time", such sweet words are naturally easy to grasp, and he does not feel any sense of violation at all - and this is not entirely a lie. He does miss his wife and children far away in Paris. But it's not that exaggerated.

After writing the reply, Aigron stuffed the letter into the envelope leisurely and sealed it with wax clay.

Then he handed it over to the attendant beside him. The attendant took the letter and left the room immediately. Then his reply will be sent to Paris as quickly as possible for Theresa to read.

While he was writing a reply, Agnes sat next to him and enjoyed breakfast silently, with a trace of imperceptible embarrassment and nervousness on her face. Although Theresa herself did not appear here, she did on this occasion. It made her feel a little on pins and needles, as if the position she was sitting on was stolen.

Fortunately, this embarrassment did not last long. After breakfast, the two of them could start their scheduled schedule for today.

Today, accompanied by the mayor, they will visit the residents of the city.

Lille is the core city in northeastern France, and its economic strength is naturally very strong. Not only does the city have developed textile factories and metallurgical factories, but it also has a well-known local university.

From north to west, surrounding the city center square and the avenue, is the wealthy area of ​​Lille, where Aigron and Agnes stayed. Although those carefully constructed mansions are not as luxurious and luxurious as Paris, they are still expensive and beautiful. They are the pride and essence of the entire city.

However, in the slums of Chengdong District, which is only a few streets away from the wealthy areas of the city, the scene is completely different.

There are no luxurious high-rise mansions, no wide streets, no various sculptures and artistic creations, and no well-dressed aristocrats and wealthy businessmen. What it has are only residential buildings that are crowded together without any features, and there are also small, crowded, and Sewage-filled alleys and cul-de-sacs. There are traces of dirt and moss-covered brick walls everywhere.

The residents here are either working as hard labor in various factories or wandering the streets doing nothing. Their faces only have a dead gray color of indifference after suffering, and their foreheads appear red due to long-term hunger and malnutrition. Protruding, showing a strange appearance.

Even judging from the situation of this era, the quality of life of these destitute people was very poor - according to statistics, around 1830, among the 100,000 residents of Lyon, there were thousands of households in abject poverty and low-class citizens who had no housing. They can only live in cellars, and these cellars are cold, damp, and not ventilated. Therefore, they have no protection from the cold in the cold winter and early spring. Therefore, many people freeze to death every winter.

Even if there is a job and they can buy fuel to escape the fate of freezing to death, it is just to slow down the death a little. These workers work in textile workshops as stoppers, weavers and spinners. They do not have unions. Protection and no labor bargaining rights, they can only receive a meager salary that can sustain the life of a family. In order to obtain these salaries, the price they pay is to work fifteen to sixteen hours a day, and at most they can only earn I can rest for a day or two.

In this kind of "wear and tear", the lives of these workers are surprisingly short, often ending their lives around the age of thirty.

Heavy labor, poverty and desperate situations are like swamps, swallowing up lives without any hope of escape. In comparison, even the most dangerous period of war may not have a death rate as good as this peaceful and poor period.

Of course, this is by no means a local problem in Lyon, nor is it a problem in France alone. When the entire Europe entered the early stage of industrialization, the problem of "a large number of extremely poor people crowded into cities" appeared.

Faced with this tragic scene, politicians in Western Europe are deeply worried about it. However, the focus of politicians is not on how to save their miserable lives, but on worrying that these working classes trapped in extreme poverty will rebel and overthrow the current system. order.

In order to solve this problem, politicians finally formed two plans: The first plan was to impose severe penalties and pass extremely strict laws to intimidate the bottom class. The poor would be sentenced to heavy or hard labor for the slightest crime; the British also in 1834 The "New Poor Law" was passed, and poor people seeking social relief were packed into labor camps for isolation, and heavy labor was used to prevent them from "harming society."

The second option is to vigorously expand the colonies, and then directly exile the poor people they regard as "superfluous" into the colonies. The "pioneering colonization" of this era was by no means as good as imagined. Because of the unsuitable climate and soil, coupled with the government's neglect of management, the mortality rate of this kind of forced immigration was extremely high. However, for the government, it was the same anyway. As long as As long as the pressure you face is reduced.

Compared with ruthless politicians, some social activists are much more compassionate. Many people have spent all their wealth to build communities, hoping to use their own methods to mobilize the poor and help them get rid of poverty and become rich. However, most of their efforts have failed. It was regarded as a "utopian socialist experiment"; another British man, Malthus, was much more straightforward. He believed that overpopulation would crowd out social resources and cause famine. His supporters went one step further and believed that the infinite reproduction of the poor class It will bring about "surplus population" and destroy social order, so we should find ways to help the bottom class get birth control.

In short, in this era when productivity has begun to leap forward and modern morality has not yet taken shape, social culture is ruthless to the bottom class. Even if a person dies of freezing and starvation due to poverty, it will be regarded as a matter of course; because of this, in order to seek spiritual comfort and social Relief, among the working class who have fallen into extreme poverty, religious enthusiasm has increased again, because the church still has some grassroots organizational power and can provide minimum relief to the believers.

Therefore, Christianity, which was ridiculed and despised in the Age of Enlightenment, has quietly reoccupied people's hearts at this time, and conservatism has made a resurgence. For these people who have been abandoned and squeezed by society, this is their only spiritual support. .

The ruling classes in various European countries are also very happy to see this trend of thought, because religion is naturally a collaborator of the rulers and a powerful tool to ease social conflicts. Therefore, the relationship between governments and churches has become closer again, even in France. In the 19th century, laws were enacted many times to allow church members to undertake public education. It was not until the Third Republic at the end of the 19th century that the separation of church and state was finally achieved.

When Aigron proposed to inspect Dongcheng District, the mayor initially objected because he did not want His Majesty to see the negative image of the city under his rule, and was also worried that someone would take the opportunity to "smear" him in front of His Majesty. Own.

However, under Aigron's insistence, he had to comply with His Majesty's wish, so accompanied by him, Aigron and his group walked through the streets together and arrived in the Dongcheng District.

In order to worry about someone making trouble, the mayor also issued a notice in advance. During His Majesty's inspection, all factories in the entire city will have a day off. After that, free bread and pastries will be given to the residents. This reward is more valuable than the King of Rome himself. Able to arouse the joy of residents.

Although they were already lightly dressed, surrounded by guards, police and officials, this inspection team was still very grand. Compared with the warm welcome received in the city hall and wealthy areas, the group that was greeted by Aigron at this moment was Although there were many residents, they all just watched from afar with the mentality of watching the excitement, and did not show enthusiastic expectations for the young people.

For them, no matter who sits on the throne, it will not bring any change to their hard life, so it is just for the sake of bread and pastries to watch the excitement.

Aiglon and Agnes shuttled through the alley. Because it was too narrow, they couldn't take a carriage and had to walk. Although the road they passed had been cleaned urgently before their inspection, Agnes's shoes and skirt were inevitably stained with a lot of mud and dust.

However, Agnes was more shocked by the sights she saw before her eyes than by the dirt.

She is not a young lady who lives in a vacuum. Of course she has seen the poverty of the lower classes and working class in Paris, but the scene of abject poverty here still shocked her.

And this kind of shock formed an astonishing contrast and irony with the luxurious life she had been living recently.

"God, the piece of jewelry I accepted is enough to provide enough food and clothing for many people, but so many people are still suffering... This is really unfair." She leaned against Aigron and murmured muttering to himself.

Agnes's shock and pity were not beyond Aigron's expectations. He just gently held Agnes's hand to help her regain her composure. "It's unfair, but it's not your fault. Don't feel guilty, Agnes."

"Your Majesty, shouldn't we do something about this?" After walking for a while, Agnes finally couldn't help but ask him again.

"Of course I have to do something," Aiglon replied quietly. "The poverty and pain in the past have nothing to do with me, but from now on, I must be responsible for all poverty and pain. If I don't do something, I will be burned by fire sooner or later. Since the people have revolution Once you do it once, you won’t be afraid to do it a second time or a third time.”

Then, he changed the topic again, "Of course, it's not enough for me alone. It requires the efforts of all of us, and that's why I'm here."

"I hope you can succeed!" Agnes looked at him with both uneasiness and expectation. "If you can do it, you will be the greatest king."

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