Fox of France

Charles could find no reason to object to this suggestion. Although Joseph was not a commanding instructor, when he was instructing everyone to build the barricades, everyone still felt that an instructor who taught in a military academy had military capabilities that were far beyond what he, a layman, could compare.

"Of course there is no problem. As long as Mr. Bonaparte is willing, we are very welcome." Charles laughed. "I don't know if Mr. Bonaparte is willing to help us."

"As a member of the community, I am naturally duty-bound. But you also know that I am an active soldier. If there is a military order from above, then I must give priority to the military order. As long as it does not violate the military order, I am willing to do my part. Power," Joseph replied.

"Then, let us all express our gratitude to Mr. Bonaparte!" Charles said.

In this way, Joseph became a military adviser to the National Guard of the neighborhood. Then everyone also agreed that tomorrow the neighborhood militia will be reorganized into the National Guard and military training will begin for them.

But this plan almost immediately fell through. Because at noon that day, new rumors emerged.

This rumor said that the cannons of Montmartre and Bastille had been aimed at downtown Paris. The army loyal to the king is about to attack Paris.

This is of course a rumor, but the vast majority of Parisians believe it to be true. And there is no way to refute this rumor. This is not only because "spreading rumors is a mouthful, and dispelling rumors is a waste of time", but also because at this point in time, dispelling rumors is a political mistake. Anyone who tries to refute the rumors will be regarded as a "tyrant's running dog" by the angry people. They wouldn't hesitate to hang these people on lampposts.

Since no one dared to refute the rumor, the rumor naturally became more and more convincing. No one dared to mention the loopholes in the rumors, and they were even filled in silently during the spread. In short, this rumor convinced almost all Parisians.

The citizens of Paris have been partly armed in the past few days, especially after the capture of the unguarded Invalides, from which more than 30,000 rifles and more than a dozen cannons were obtained. It's just that there are only these guns and artillery in the Invalides, but there is not enough gunpowder.

So a newer rumor was born on the basis of the previous rumors, that is: in the Bastille, there is a large amount of gunpowder. This rumor is also "reasonable", because if the king intends to use the cannons of the Bastille to suppress the resistance in Paris, they must naturally store enough gunpowder in the Bastille.

Attacking the heavily guarded Montmartre Heights is really beyond the capabilities of the Paris militia. But in comparison, the Bastille seems to be much easier to deal with.

The Bastille is a building built during the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France. It was originally a fortress built outside the city gate to defend Paris. It has 8 towers about 30 meters high, and the towers are connected by a city wall 30 meters high and 3 meters wide. Later, 15 cannons were installed on the city wall; the castle is surrounded by a moat 26 meters wide and 8 meters deep. , the moat is connected to the Seine, and there is only one drawbridge to connect with the outside world. It can definitely be called an impregnable castle.

But later, with the expansion of the city of Paris, the Bastille Fortress, which was originally outside the city gate, became a building inside the city, and its military role in defending Paris was weakened. So the Bastille, the military fortress, died, and was replaced by the Bastille, the fortress of the royal power.

In the late fourteenth century, the fortress was converted into a royal prison, dedicated to the most important "offenders". Many of these detainees are political prisoners. Therefore, in the hearts of the French, this prison is almost a symbol of the French autocratic dynasty.

There were eighty-two Bastille guards, and at the beginning of July, another thirty-two Swiss mercenaries were transferred to the Bastille to strengthen its defenses. But only in terms of the number of guards, this place cannot be compared with Montmartre. And because of lack of maintenance, the trench next to the Bastille is now dry. This made the defense of this former fortress even lower. This made the militiamen feel that they should be able to take down the fortress.

So, early the next morning, a large number (how many are unknown), a disorganized armed crowd began to approach the Bastille. This incident naturally made Shire's plan to rectify the National Guard in the neighborhood had to be postponed.

The Bastille was surrounded by tens of thousands of armed Parisian citizens, but these armed citizens with only rifles actually had no good way of dealing with the Bastille. The walls of the fortress were too high, and the surrounding ditch, though empty of water, was still too wide and too deep to climb over.

But De Launay, the commander guarding the Bastille, didn't think so. Because it looks tall and strong, the impenetrable Bastille is after all just a fourteenth-century fortress. Many of its designs and concepts are far behind the times, and it can even be said: "My lord, the times have changed."

The towering walls of the Bastille were, in their fourteenth-century setting, almost invincible. But this kind of towering vertical city wall has become an obvious weakness today. The Battle of Constantinople in 1453 has proved that tall and vertical walls are very prone to large-scale collapse under the attack of artillery. Therefore, the walls of the later fortresses gradually became low and thick, and the walls of the walls became more and more inwardly inclined. In this way, the wall can be prevented from collapsing in a large area under the shooting of shells. But these improvements were invisible to the Bastille.

The walls of the Bastille are too high, up to 30 meters, completely vertical, but only 3 meters thick. Such a city wall cannot withstand the bombardment of cannons. And because after being changed to a prison, there is no longer a requirement to clear the shooting area, so various buildings were built near the Bastille, which blocked the guards on the Bastille from a lot of sight.

Therefore, De Launay was not at all sure whether he could hold this ancient fortress.

So when the citizens began to approach the Bastille, de Launay forbade the soldiers to shoot at the approaching citizens and asked them for peace talks.

It took a lot of time for the citizens to elect a group of representatives and enter the Bastille to negotiate with the defenders. However, during the negotiation process, due to poor communication and too much time consumed by the negotiation, a new rumor began to spread among the citizens.

The rumor claimed that the deputies who had entered the Bastille had been brutally and mercilessly murdered by "the lackeys of the tyrant." This rumor immediately enraged the tens of thousands of "armed mobs" surrounded outside. Then the crowd began to approach the Bastille, all shouting:

"Down the Bastille and kill the bad guys!"

"Kill them all! Kill them all!"

"Go up! Go up!"

Someone took the lead in singing the "Battle Hymn of the Slave", at first one or two people sang, and then more people sang, and the singing together formed a rushing river, rushing towards the Bastille. Tens of thousands of militiamen, with rifles in hand, were approaching the Bastille while singing "The old world is destroyed, slaves rise up". Some militiamen who moved quickly even crossed the dried-up ditch, climbed to the side of the suspension bridge, swung their axes, and tried to cut off the iron chains hanging from the suspension bridge.

In a panic, a Swiss guard fired at the militiaman who held his ax high. As a result, all peace negotiations ceased to exist, and the militiamen immediately fired back, and everyone smashed into a ball.

However, the fighting situation was not very favorable for the militiamen. After all, the predecessor of the Bastille was a fortress, even if it was only a fortress in the 14th century, it could still bring more advantages to the defenders. In the rifle shooting, under the cover of the fortress, the condescending guards easily defeated many militiamen, and those militiamen who lacked training, although there were a large number of them, could not even effectively aim. People have never even touched a gun before, and they can't even aim (but then again, whether a musket can hit or not is often not entirely dependent on aiming.), after they shoot, whether they can hit the target basically depends on by faith. So they fired wildly, and the crackling gunshots rang out. Although it seemed very lively, in the end, they basically failed to hit any targets. (In the original history, until the surrender of the Bastille, only one of the defenders was slightly injured.) But the firepower of the defensive side was much more effective, and dozens of militiamen were quickly knocked down, and the rest were also suppressed. If it weren't for the fact that there are many buildings near the Bastille that can provide them with cover, their losses will definitely be even greater.

For a period of time after that, the battle entered a state of anxiety. Commander De Launay hung up the flag more than once, hoping to negotiate a truce with the besiegers outside, but his gesture was rejected by the besiegers outside without hesitation. They believed that De Launet's actions were just deceiving everyone. After his men shot at the people, he was no longer qualified to surrender!

But it is one thing not to accept negotiations, and another thing to be able to break in. The militiamen have used various means, including some whimsical means. For example, it was suggested that burning linoleum could be used to start a fire, or even burn down defenders' cannons. However, after they ignited the linoleum, they discovered that they could not let the burning linoleum pass over the 30-meter-high city wall.

Of course, some people thought of cannons, and the militiamen did have cannons in their hands. But they lacked gunners, so several shelling attempts at a safe distance were very unsuccessful. Although in theory, the Bastille is a huge target, it is not easy to shoot at it, but these militia gunners who have never used cannons managed to keep their shells away from the sight in front of them. That huge goal. They fired several shots, but not even one hit the walls of the Bastille.