Fox of France

While Napoleon was fighting in Italy, the situation in Paris changed dramatically. The first parliamentary elections under the rule of the Thermidor Party ended. As a result, the turnout rate hit the lowest value in history (although this history is not a few years old). In Paris, the Royal Party won more than half of the seats.

The Thermidor government immediately announced that the election was invalid because of various fraudulent acts in this election, which seriously damaged the fairness of the election. The government will hold another election in ten days.

During the ten days during this period, the Thermidor Party members desperately propagated to the people at the bottom, saying how the Royal Party would settle accounts with the people of Paris after the autumn came to power. Count on such threats to get those ordinary people to come out and vote for them.

After ten days of this delay, a second election was held in Paris. As a result, the people of Paris still did not stand up, and the proportion of votes was lower than last time. The royal party won again, and more than half of the seats in Paris fell into their hands. The situation in the other provinces is too late to be counted, but it is estimated that the situation in the other provinces will not be better than that in Paris.

If such an election is recognized, it will only be a matter of time before the Thermidorians are liquidated. Therefore, the Thermidorians certainly declared the election invalid without hesitation!

So what kind of election is effective? With the National Assembly, which they still control, the Thermidors passed a bill which stated: "In the new Parliament, the Thermidors must hold a two-thirds majority."

As soon as this resolution was announced, there was an uproar in Paris. Needless to say, the royal party, even the remnants of the Brissot faction who had once allied with the Thermidorians also openly turned their faces against the Thermidorians.

The royal party even publicly threatened: "If you can't come to power by legal means, then use revolutionary means to come to power!" They began to prepare for the riot semi-openly, and the Thermidor party actually had almost nothing to do with this situation.

In order to eliminate Jacobin's influence, the Thermidorians reorganized the National Guard in Paris. Those who leaned towards the bottom were purged from the National Guard and replaced by "more respectable" candidates. The number of the National Self-Defense Forces has also been greatly reduced. The Self-Defense Forces in the slums have been disbanded altogether, and the self-defense forces' salaries are no longer borne by the government. In this way, only the property owners can serve as the Self-Defense Forces.

This measure, of course, eliminated the danger of Jacobin insurrection, but it also left the main armed force in Paris, the National Guard, in the hands of people who were not so loyal to the revolution. Today, more than half of the National Self-Defense Forces have clearly leaned towards the royal party, and the remaining half have a basic attitude of supporting whoever is on the rostrum, and this support is not very firm. In the current situation, almost as long as the Royal Party launches a riot, the Thermidor Party will definitely be finished.

Some Thermidorians have already begun to prepare for exile, and no one wants to take some of the originally crucial positions, such as the commander of the Paris garrison.

Under such circumstances, that night, in the middle of the night, a person quietly visited Ballas, an important figure of the Thermidor Party.

At this time, Ballas had already gone to bed, but because of the strong request of the visitor, he got up from the bed and went to meet the visitor.

"Mr. Fouché, why have you come to me at this hour?" Barras frowned when he saw this man. It's not because he hates this person, but because this person has always brought him all kinds of very reliable bad news during this period of time.

"Your Excellency," said Fouché with a smile, "it is admirable that you can still sleep."

"What's wrong?"

"One of your servants took other people's money and betrayed you." Fouche said, "He sold your daily whereabouts and other arrangements to Viscount Thierry, um, Thierry Who is Mr. Viscount, you must know very well, right?"

Balla suddenly changed his face. He has already arranged various things for exile. Could it be that...

"Who? What did he tell them?"

Fouche slowly reached into his bosom, touched for a long time, took out an envelope, and handed him to Ballas.

Ballas took the envelope, pulled out the letter paper inside, put on his glasses with slightly trembling hands, walked to the candlestick, and looked at it by the candlelight. Looking at it, the letter paper in his hand kept shaking...

"It turned out to be him... this ungrateful snake... I'm really blind..."

"Monsieur Barras, now is not the time to curse." Fouche said, "The rebellion is just around the corner, and the time has come... Besides, it is not a good way to arrange a new escape plan... With all due respect, in today's In such a situation, there are not many reliable people around you. Just because I caught a mole for you, you must not think that there is only one mole by your side. The situation is so clear, in order to save your wealth and life, you are willing to fall to There will be no shortage of them."

At this time, Ballas had regained his composure. He nodded and said: "Thank you, Joseph. Since you came to me at this time, you probably want to tell me that I am dead, right? What do you have?" Method?"

"There is only one effective way to deal with armed rebellion, and that is to suppress it by force." Fouche said, "Isn't the commander-in-chief of the Paris garrison now that no one is willing to be the commander of the garrison except royalists? You can take this post and you can legally to mobilize troops to suppress the rebellion."

"But the National Guard is mostly on their side."

"You are wrong. Most of the National Guard is on the side they think is stronger." Fouche said, "Besides, the National Guard is not the only military force near Paris."

"You mean the army...but there aren't many troops near Paris, and mobilizing the army will only lead to an early riot by the royal party."

"There is no need for additional mobilization, there is already an army in Paris-the Red Army is in Paris." Fouche reminded.

"Red Army?" Ballas, who was not very familiar with the military, took a while to remember that there was such a team commonly known as the "Red Army" in Paris, and the official name was "Teaching Troops", but...

"But, it seems that there are not many people in the 'Red Army'?"

During the Jacobin period, the size of the "Red Army" once expanded to more than 1,000 people, but as the Thermidorians came to power and the military budget was substantially reduced, the size of the "Red Army" was once again reduced to about 500 people. This is the result of Kano's hard work.

"There are 500 men in the Red Army, all of whom are veterans of many battles," Fouche said.

"However, there are tens of thousands of people over there!"

"There are tens of thousands of mobs." Fouche said disdainfully, "In the past few years, the way of war has undergone tremendous changes, and the old-fashioned tactics are no longer effective. Facing the most advanced Red Army in the world,

No matter how many of these mobs there are, they will be vulnerable. What's more, you also know that most of the National Guards are on their side because they feel that the Royal Party has already won. As long as they give them a head-on blow, most of the people who originally fell to the royal party will hesitate, and those who are still neutral will fall to us. "

Fouche's words gave Barras a lot of encouragement. He said: "If it can be like this, of course it is very good, but... the Red Army, will the Red Army listen to us?"

"You are the commander of the Paris garrison. You make a request, and as long as the Ministry of War does not object... Besides, to be honest, the army doesn't have a good impression of you. You'd better find them a commander they think they can trust."

Ballas' pupils shrank suddenly: "Ah, Mr. Fouché, it turns out that you have been working for the Bonaparte brothers."

"Yes, since you and your friends abandoned me. I have to support a large family, and the Bonaparte brothers also need to keep abreast of Paris." Fouche did not deny this. It's time for a showdown, and it would be too petty to cover up these things.

Ballas pondered for a moment and said, "Okay, let's talk about your conditions."

Fouche said: "The era of the Great Revolution is over, we all know this. So you don't have to worry about us resurrecting the Jacobins. We are only pursuing interests."

"You mean munitions?" Balas immediately reacted.

"Yes. Our arms companies must become the main suppliers of the military. We demand the restoration of the military representative system, strict review of the quality of military products, and hold accountable those unscrupulous businessmen who produce military products that cut corners."

"You should know how much interest there is behind this. I am not the whole government, even if I agree with these, if other people disagree, this matter..."

"Under the current situation, I believe you can persuade them." Fouche replied with a smile.

"Is this the only condition?" Ballas asked again.

"Of course more than that." Fouche said, "Our people must occupy a relatively important position in the government to ensure our right to speak after the incident subsides. We need a position for the speaker and a position for the minister of public security."

"Speaker and Minister of Public Security?" Barras smiled sarcastically, "Your appetites are really big."

"If we ask for less than this, will you still be able to sleep?" Fouché was still polite.

Barras was silent, he fully understood what Fouche meant, and he knew the threat hidden in his words. They want so much, which shows that they really want to cooperate with him. If they have the power to overturn the table, but only need a little leftovers, it can only show that they don't want any cooperation at all, they just want to get everything by overturning the table.

"Well..." Barras finally said, "Mr. Fouché, it seems that you are going to be the Minister of Public Security. Who is the remaining speaker? Is it Joseph Bonaparte?"

"Joseph Bonaparte is in charge of military production. He cannot take up this position. It is his brother Lucien." Fouche said.

"Lucien? How is this possible? How old is he? And he didn't have anything before..."

"He would have done something in the counterinsurgency. Besides, you were very young when you entered the political arena," Fouche replied.

"Well, I also have a request." Ballas said, "You know, I have a lot of cash now, and I need a profitable investment opportunity..."

Neither side is a long-winded person, and an agreement was quickly reached between the two, and then Fouche quickly took his leave and left.

Early the next morning Ballas went to visit some of his friends. He showed them what Fouché had offered him, similar to what he had seen the night before, and then threatened and seduced...

Two days later, the government announced a new transfer of personnel, Paul Barras became the commander of the garrison of Paris.

On this day, Joseph, accompanied by his younger brother Lucien, came to the Red Army's garrison with an order jointly issued by Cano and Barras. He announced to the commanders and fighters of the Red Army an order requiring them to participate in the counter-insurgency and delivered a speech to them.

Throughout the speech, the commanders and fighters of the Red Army continued to cheer their old chief, the creator.

That night, all the Red Army put on the uniforms of the National Guard, armed with weapons, and came to set up positions near the National Assembly.

The royal party did not take the actions of the Thermidor Party government too seriously. After all, they have already mobilized nearly 40,000 people at this time, and the National Self-Defense Forces that may stand on the government's side are at most more than 10,000. people. How can you lose such a battle?

So they continued to prepare step by step, and then launched a rebellion near the end of the year. This is a few months later than the original history, but the momentum is not worse than the original history. Of course, the organization is as messy as their rebellion in Portugal in the original history.

The various ministries of the rebellion did not actually have a unified command, because these people were only recruited by the royal party with future high-ranking officials and generous salary, and the royal party itself did not have many commanders who could be trusted and had military prestige . Their leaders were still in hiding abroad, and the nobles who took charge of the rebellion in Paris were not well versed in military matters.

In addition, the National Self-Defense Forces after being purged have not had any decent training, and their military quality is not much better than those who attacked the Bastille. So these people can't actually command at all-fortunately, the National Self-Defense Forces are also supporting the government on the opposite side. Everyone's eldest brother, not to mention the second brother, is the same thing.

As a result, tens of thousands of rebels rushed towards the National Assembly in a chaotic and unorganized manner. Along the way, they waved weapons, shot at the sky indiscriminately, and sang all kinds of songs in a mess. For example, "It will be fine" and the like, but the "nobles are hung on the lampposts" in it is changed to "republicans are hung on the lampposts". Some people even sang the original lyrics without paying attention.

Soon, the National Assembly building appeared in front of them.

Double updates will resume tomorrow.