Fox of France

For some time thereafter, Paris seemed to settle down. The barricades have been dismantled one after another, and some shops that were closed have also opened their doors. Except that the products are a little less than before, and the prices are a little higher than before, nothing else seems to have changed.

Aunt Sophie came back again, and Louis was finally freed from heavy housework. Louis had just learned to play chess recently, and it was the time when he was addicted to it. Because the school was temporarily closed and he couldn't go out at home, he could only play chess with Lucien.

Lucien took this opportunity to bet on the housework and bet on the chessboard with Louis, and then successfully passed on all the housework that should have been done to his younger brother. In other words, the Bonaparte family is rich in good brothers.

But now, schools are gradually returning to normal. It's funny to say that the schools of Louis and Lucien have resumed classes, but the Paris Military Academy where Joseph teaches is still closed.

But this is actually not surprising. The schools of Louis and Lucien were both private schools, but the school Joseph taught was financed by the kingdom's finances. The response speed of such institutions will always be much slower. What's more, it is now that the king is quite dissatisfied with the army.

So now Joseph is free. He saw that Sophie had just cleaned up and was free for a while, so he chatted with her.

"Aunt Sophie," Joseph said, "it's been a mess these days. Is everything okay in your family?"

"What's so good." Sophie shook her head and said, "The days are just as sad, and even more sad. The price of bread has risen again, and there is something more terrible than the price increase, that is, even if you have money , and it’s hard to buy bread.”

"It seems that some people can't sit still." Joseph thought in his heart, but asked, "Aunt Sophie, is it hard to buy bread now?"

"Sir, you're a respectable man, don't care about such things. You may not know that I ran four blocks to get today's bread. I tore my apron while trying to get bread. God, I don't understand." , What's going on here! Didn't they say that everything is fine, and everyone's life will get better and better in the future?"

Joseph shook his head. Since the start of the third-level meeting, more and more people have entered Paris. In addition to representatives from all over the country (there are actually not many people), there are also a large number of farmers and homeless people who have arrived in Paris. This made Paris's own insufficient food supply even more tense.

Under such circumstances, another revolution took place. Not only will the revolution itself fail to produce more food, but it will destroy all existing orders. When the existing order is destroyed and the new order has not had time to be effectively established, the transportation and sale of grain will definitely be disturbed, and the efficiency will definitely drop. Therefore, it is natural that the price of food has risen, and even the price has risen and it is still unavailable.

Under such circumstances, there will naturally be panic buying and hoarding, and then the price of food will rise further, and it will become unavailable. And if someone with a heart intentionally takes advantage of this situation to artificially increase panic, the problem will become more serious.

Joseph suddenly remembered a piece of history of the later generations of Dongdaeguo. At that time, the most important city in the Eastern Great Food Country had just been liberated, and similar problems of soaring prices and economic chaos occurred immediately. At that time, how did Chen Leshan, the first mayor of Dongda Eater City, solve the problem?

Mayor Chen solved the problem by using two tricks. One is economic means, if you raise the price of grain, I will import grain on a large scale from the grain producing areas, to see how much you can eat, and it will kill you; the other is political means, those guys who play securities trading wantonly buy silver dollars , Raise inflation, I don’t have so many silver dollars to play with you, so I will send troops directly to seal up your entire exchange.

With these two moves, Mayor Chen quickly stabilized the situation. However, these two tricks are difficult to implement in Paris at this time. Large-scale transfer of grain from grain producing areas requires a state machine that can control the whole country and efficiently collect various resources. If there were such things in France in this era, would there still be revolutions? During the Seven Years' War, the French may have already "held England and Prussia as their rulers and accused them of their crimes" and obtained the greatest happiness in life as Genghis Khan said. (Genghis Khan said: "The greatest joy in life lies in chasing and killing your enemies everywhere, invading their lands, plundering their wealth, and then listening to the crying of their wives and children.") Where will there be any revolution?

As for the second trick, it also requires a powerful state machine. Although the Marquis of Lafayette now controls the National Guard and part of the French army, his control over these forces is not firm, so he has no way to use such methods.

Thinking of this, Joseph said to Sophie: "Aunt Sophie, I estimate that the price of grain will probably be even higher in the future. If you still have savings, try to exchange it for more grain as early as possible." Bar."

"Oh, sir, as you know, people like us don't have any savings." Aunt Sophie said with a sigh.

...

At the same time, there was a person who, like Aunt Sophie, was worried about the rising food prices. This person is the Marquis de Lafayette who had gained the upper hand in the previous political turmoil.

The Marquis of Lafayette had considerable influence in the army, which gave him a considerable upper hand in the revolution. But his power in the economic field is quite limited. The title of the Marquis of Lafayette is not low, but he is not the kind of deep-rooted old nobleman. I don't have much financial resources, and I don't have many channels for making money. In this respect, the gap between him and the Duke of Orleans is as great as the gap between the Duke of Orleans and himself in military affairs.

However, as a famous general, the Marquis de Lafayette remained quite calm even in the face of such troubles. Years of war experience made him understand that when victory cannot be resolved, he should consider how to retreat.

"All kinds of atrocities in Paris must be brought under control. We can no longer tolerate those innocent blood flowing. Some people, they are not revolutionaries, they are just thugs! What they are talking about is democracy, but what they are really interested in However, what they are really doing is looting and massacre! In the name of revolution, they arbitrarily accuse others of being 'enemies of the people', and then kill and rob. On the street lamps. And the purpose of those thugs has nothing to do with democracy at all. They just want to rob other people’s legal property. This kind of chaos must be stopped! Marquis, the people of Paris have entrusted you to serve as the commander of the self-defense army, with a purpose It is to prevent possible looting. Could it be said that the plundering of mercenaries is looting, but the looting of those thugs is not looting?" In a lounge next to the meeting hall, he waved Folding his arms, he said this to the Marquis Lafayette sitting opposite him.

"You're right, but this matter shouldn't be too hasty." The Marquis of Lafayette leaned back a little, "You know, there are still a lot of weapons in the hands of those thugs. There are also A certain group. Even in the National Guard, there are still many people who are their sympathizers, or even members of them. Now we have not had time to completely remove all these people from the National Guard.”

"How long will it take to get rid of all these guys?" Sies on the side also asked.

"Soon. I don't want to use violent means to clear these people, but the economic conditions of these people do not allow them to participate in military activities without working for a long time." Marquis Lafayette said, "The National Guard has established discipline, Those who are constantly absent will be expelled, so that the rascals themselves will not be able to stay in the National Guard for a long time."

"These people, even if removed from the National Guard, are a threat to order," Barnave said.

"Don't you want us to suppress them immediately?" Lafayette said, "That's really in the hands of some people. The real threat to us has never been those sans-culottes."

"Then we just let it go like this..."

"Don't do what we can't do, it will only weaken our strength in vain." Lafayette said, "It is not unacceptable to back down a little when necessary. Ladies and gentlemen, His Majesty the King is still hesitant , he was neither willing to give up the old and accept the new system; nor did he dare to resolutely follow the path of Charles I. Speaking of which, we think that His Majesty the King is a Majesty suitable for constitutional government, isn't it also because of this? But, Someone will deliberately send His Majesty the King to the guillotine. But that His Highness, although he looks very revolutionary, is not a king suitable for constitutional government."

After hearing this, several people nodded secretly. They knew who the Marquis Lafayette was talking about.

"Under the current situation, that person may be more restless than us. Let's just watch him perform quietly. While we can use him to put pressure on the king, we can also use the king to stimulate him. I know him, he There will definitely be flaws. We will take measures at that time, which will be much better than taking action rashly now."

After the Marquis de Lafayette said this, he looked at his friends again. Seeing that they were silent, as if they were persuaded by himself, he nodded and said: "Actually, I invite everyone today, and there is still one more time left." thing."

"What's the matter?" Siez asked.

"Introduce a new friend to everyone." Marquis Lafayette said, "an archbishop who tends to be progressive."