Fox of France

On December 19, which should be the Frost Moon Olive Day, Napoleon met an old acquaintance of his in Marseilles—Commissioner Joseph Foucher. Fouché was ordered to come to Marseilles to replace Couton, investigate the previous counter-revolutionary behavior in the south, and be responsible for the collection of various materials.

When Couton came here, he was full of ambition. He thought that if he went to the south, he would be able to make achievements like Saint-Just. Who knew that those guys in the south were so careless, his movements were a little slower, and he missed the victory in the battle.

Then he suppressed the counter-revolutionaries. He thought that he had done a good job, but he didn't expect that Paris would be very dissatisfied with his achievements in suppressing the counter-revolutionaries. Robespierre is said to have complained privately:

"Ku Dong knows how to kill people. Yes, he has killed many counter-revolutionaries. However, if we just want to kill those guys, it doesn't matter who we send? Why should we send him? He has gone, but we can't just kill people." Yes! He had to organize production and collect wealth. But look at this guy, he chopped off two thousand heads in one go, but look at him he didn't receive anything more! The number of heads he chopped off , compared with the amount of wealth he confiscated, it doesn't even reach the average level of the commissioner, this is really...he is completely wasting people's heads..."

For this reason, the National Salvation Committee held a special meeting to discuss. Except for Kano, everyone thought that Couton was ineffective. As for Kano, he followed his habit during this period of time. He didn't directly comment on Couton's performance, but he said, "I want money, a lot of money, a lot of money!" , This statement is stronger than other people's accusations of Ku Dong's ineffectiveness.

So everyone decided that Ku Dong must come back immediately, and change to someone who can make money and go to the south. Among the gang of Jacobins today, there are two people who are known to make money, one is Danton, and the other is Fouché.

Selfishly speaking, Robespierre dislikes Fouche even more-after all, Fouche betrayed him. But when choosing between the two, Robespierre chose Fouché without hesitation. There are two main reasons. One can be said in private;

The reason that can be said in private is this: Danton is really good at getting money, but he is also good at getting money back to his family. If he is allowed to do this, I believe he can hand in more wealth and supplies than Ku Dong can hand in. However, he is sure to withhold a good portion to enrich himself. This is a serious disservice to the reputation of the revolutionary government.

The reason I can only think in my heart is: Dandong's status and appeal are much higher than that of Fouché, and he has finally been removed from the inner circle. Now let him take charge of this matter, which is not good. This guy made a comeback and came back.

As for Fouché, although this guy is very powerful and dangerous, after all, his starting point is low and his influence is limited. Even if he makes more contributions, Robespierre still feels that he can still suppress him.

As for other people, their thoughts on this issue are probably not too different from Robespierre. In addition, Fouche's performance recently is indeed very good. Whether it is in Le Mans, the Vendée area, or the Lyon area, Fouche's beheaded head is not the most-of course there are not many, Fouche is a A very careful person, he carefully controlled the number of kills he killed, neither too much nor too little.

But in terms of making money, Fouche's performance is very outstanding. Among all the commissioners, Fouche had the most money to hand over to the treasury. Moreover, there are many Fouchés, not like the group of guys sent to Belgium before, who offended all the Belgians, but more under the premise of maintaining the stability of the local society. It's definitely not easy.

If you want to calculate how much money Fouche can get for the revolutionary government every time a head is cut off, then Fouche's efficiency is even more frighteningly high, because this ratio is even almost twice as high as that of Coudong.

Nowadays, when the entire government is particularly short of money and things, a person like Fouché is almost a living treasure. Therefore, everyone unanimously agreed to let Fouché replace Couton. Even Kano, who always looked down on him, expressed his support for his appointment after asking "Does this guy make money?"

Fouché is indeed a person who is willing to work hard. After arriving in office, he greeted his old acquaintance Napoleon, and then plunged into his office and stayed there for three days. In the past three days, except for eating and going to the bathroom, he never left the office.

For the past three days, Fouché has been staying in the office to study the files left by Coudong. When he was hungry, he asked someone to bring him some bread and a bottle of milk from outside; when he was sleepy, he asked someone outside to prepare strong coffee or cold face wash for him; Bring him candles. For three whole days Fouché did not go to bed for half an hour. In this way, with astonishing energy, he carefully read, studied, classified and annotated the files left by Ku Dong.

After doing all this, Fouche said to his guards: "I'm going to sleep. In the meantime, you must take care of this room and don't let anyone approach it. Remember, it's not entering, but approaching." .”

Fouché's voice was not loud, and it was full of exhaustion. Also, anyone, even if he is Fouché, must be very tired after such a high-intensity labor. But the guards will not relax about this matter just because Fouche's voice is not loud-if something goes wrong, it will be fatal!

Fouché returned to his room, threw himself on the bed, and fell asleep at once. After three days of work, he already had a general understanding of the current situation.

Fouche slept on the bed for four hours, and then got up refreshed. Then he ate the bread for three people in one go, and then came to find Napoleon and told him that he was going to Toulon to see it, so he needed to send some soldiers to cooperate with him.

Napoleon gave him a company and asked him to contact Davout stationed in Toulon after he arrived in Toulon.

"If you need any support, you can ask Davout directly. Well, that young man is the one who defeated the rebel counterattack with cannons at Le Mans last time. You know him." Napoleon said to Fouché in this way.

"General Bonaparte, thank you for your help. Last time at Le Mans, we cooperated very happily. I hope that this time, we can also make new achievements for the Republic."

After Fouche said this, he got on his horse, waved to Napoleon, and left.

Napoleon knew what Fouché was going to do in Toulon. Couthon beheaded two thousand heads at one go at Toulon, but he did it so quickly that he beheaded the nobles before they could figure out where their money was hidden.

Couthon probably thought that if he went to the homes of the nobles, or at most the manors in the country, and searched them carefully, he would be able to find all the louis d'or and silver livres they hid. However, it is already this era, even the local nobles in other provinces know how to store these things in the bank to earn interest. And it's really not easy to hide the bank's deposit certificate

Now Fouché is going to Toulon, presumably to try to see if he can recover a little bit, and find a way to dig out some confiscible deposits from the bank. However, Napoleon felt that such a thing was difficult to think about, and he did not think that Fouche could achieve much success in this matter.

Fouche stayed in Toulon for a little more than two days before returning to Marseille. Once back in Marseilles, he found Napoleon.

"General Bonaparte, I have some clues in Toulon. These clues show that in Marseilles. There are also some people who participated in, or at least watched the rebellion in Toulon."

"Wait and see?" Napoleon said.

"It's just knowing and not acting." Fouché's face showed a cold smile again, "Knowing and not acting is a conspiracy, that is, joining a traitor. In this struggle, anyone must either stand on our side, or, Standing on the side of our enemies, there is no room for neutrality."

Napoleon roughly followed Fouche's train of thought. Fouché went to Toulon not to dig out the deposit certificates of the decapitated nobles from the bank at all, but to connect the Toulon rebellion with the nobles and rich people of Marseilles. As long as he can do this successfully, is he still worried that he won't be able to get money?

However, Napoleon felt that it was best not to interfere with these matters, so he smiled and said, "These guys are well hidden. I can't do anything about them. I hope you will succeed. If you need anything, just order it." gone."

"If I need your help, I will definitely ask you for help." Fouché also replied politely.

On the second day after Fouché returned from Toulon, he launched a large-scale raid. More than a thousand people were arrested in one go, and the prison in Marseille was almost full.

But Fouche did not hand over these people to the "Revolutionary Tribunal", or even say that they were criminals. Even when arresting people, what he said was "assisting in the investigation."

Fouche showed some people enough evidence to guillotine some people, and then said that he was chasing the money hidden by the rebels in Toulon. "There. Fouche also said that if they can contribute to the Republic in this matter, then he is a generous person, and his memory is not very good, and he will probably forget some of the things they have done.

There is another one tonight