Fox of France

Although the king's escape was only a farce, it completely changed the situation of the country. Prior to this, although some people in society, such as Marat, were vigorously attacking the king, in the parliament, the moderate faction clearly had the upper hand. This is especially the case after the king took his oath to the constitution. In fact, at that time, even the radical Robespierre and Danton were shouting long live to Louis XVI. At that time, the distinction between radical and moderate was only a technical distinction, such as whether priests should be allowed to swear allegiance to the state, and bishops should be chosen by democratic elections. But after the escape of Louis XVI, the situation changed suddenly.

Upon discovering that the king had fled, Lafayette immediately declared that the king had been kidnapped by "enemies of the state." This statement once fooled many people. However, not long after, a letter left by the king was found in the palace. In that letter, the King declared that he had been kidnapped to Paris and that all documents signed by him after July 1789 had been coerced and therefore invalid.

When the letter was discovered, Lafayette was arranging the "rescue" of the king and other aftermath preparations. (Actually, he didn't expect that they would be able to capture the king back.) So it was too late to block the news, and in the blink of an eye, everyone knew about the letter. Although Lafayette later strongly claimed that the letter was forged and written under the coercion of the king by the kidnappers. But such an explanation lost any convincing immediately after the king and his party returned to Paris. Because in the team where the king fled, apart from the king, there was only one groom who was an adult man-this shows that the king was not coerced at all!

But the mystery of politics often lies in talking nonsense with your eyes open. Although he knew that the king was opposed to revolution and constitutionalism in his heart. But for many members of Congress, maintaining the constitutional system is still in their interests. So these people pretended not to know that the king was against the revolution and the constitutional system, and continued to support the constitutional system and defend the king.

But the king's prestige among the people was completely ruined by this incident. Angry people smashed all kinds of things related to the royal family. The irises (the symbol of the Bourbons) on the street were either smashed or covered with stuff. Because most of the members of the parliament still support the constitutional monarchy, the common people at the bottom turn their anger towards them for their unsatisfactory life. In their view, these people are in league with the king and oppress the people. It is because of these people that after the revolution, the lives of the people have not improved even a little bit.

This kind of anger has always been there, but because of two reasons, this anger has been hidden like magma. The first of these two reasons is their expectation of the National Assembly. At that time, they still believed that the National Assembly could represent their interests and was speaking for them. As long as they wait patiently, better days will surely come. However, during this period of time, this patience has been continuously consumed.

In the "Constitution of 1791" passed by the Parliament, French citizens were divided into "active citizens" and "passive citizens" according to their property status. (The law stipulates that only those who pay a certain amount of tax have the right to vote and be elected, and they are active citizens. In a sense, this is to restrict the rights of citizens based on property) Just a few days before the king fled , Parliament has just passed the famous "Lesabériere Law". According to this law, it is strictly forbidden for workers to organize trade unions and hold strikes. Offenders are fined 500 livres and deprived of citizenship for 1 year. The leader is fined 1,000 livres and sentenced to 3 months in prison.

These decrees not only failed to safeguard the interests of the lowest level, but increased their restraint, which naturally quickly consumed the confidence of the lowest level people in them.

As for the second reason, these people lack leaders.

But the king's flight solved both problems. The previous actions of the National Assembly, coupled with the impact of the king's escape, have greatly reduced the status of the parliament in the hearts of the people at the bottom. It can be said that today's National Assembly has lost the trust of the people at the bottom.

After the king's escape, the demonstrations of the people at the bottom also made some radical MPs see new opportunities. They keenly noticed that once they stand on the side of the people at the bottom, they can obtain a lot of political resources. Brissot, Bonneville, and Condorcet publicly stated that France should consider a republic.

So, all kinds of things increased.

But these messy things didn't seem to affect Joseph and Napoleon. On the contrary, because the possibility of war was increasing, their affairs were more hurried. The newly established army was lined up to conduct confrontation exercises with them. In these exercises, Napoleon used various sneak attacks, artillery ambushes and other tricks to defeat them more than once. So much so that Napoleon, who was only a second lieutenant, became famous in the National Guard in Paris.

But soon, a sudden incident disrupted Joseph's work again.

On the 16th, the Parliament officially declared that the King and Queen were not guilty and that they had been kidnapped. Of course, the parliament also pretended to declare that they would severely punish those "hijackers".

Such a decision angered those sans-culottes. On the 17th, led by some republican figures, a group of sans-culottes went to the Champ de Mars near the city hall to demonstrate. There, they were suppressed by the National Guard led by Lafayette and suffered heavy casualties.

In this regard, Lafayette explained that the mobs first attacked the National Guard who maintained order. The National Guard hung a red flag on the city hall and fired three warnings to the thugs before shooting. (According to the decree passed by the previous parliament, the city hall needs to display the red flag before quelling the riot, and then issue three warnings before using deadly force.) But the republicans, as well as the sans-culottes, accused Lafayette of lying, According to them, the National Guard under the command of Lafayette just hoisted the red flag, and then shot at the crowd without even issuing a warning.

Now that the suppression has been fired, let's continue to suppress it.

Lafayette declared in Parliament that the sans-culottes were thugs with conspirators behind them. The conspirators were those of the Cordeliers Club. So the parliament passed arrest warrants for several important members of the Cordeliers Club, including Danton and Desmoulins. After Danton got the news, he fled Paris immediately. In terms of escape skills, he was much better than Louis XVI, so he ran to England very smoothly. And Desmoulins also found a place to hide.

In fact, because the police system has not yet been restored, the pursuit of things is actually very limited.

On the surface, it seems that Lafayette has the upper hand, but these series of actions have greatly affected his reputation. Especially in the National Guard there were a large number of sympathizers of the Cordelier Club. Soon there were voices against Lafayette even in the National Guard. And such a voice greatly shook Lafayette's position. Although his allies, Duboer, Barnave, and the Lamer brothers are not much different from Lafayette in terms of political views, they are also happy to see Lafayette's status damaged. Afterwards, a series of parliamentary actions were actually completed under their auspices, but people believed that Lafayette was manipulating all this. So it wasn't long before Lafayette's reputation went from hero to executioner and schemer.

Reputation is really weird. Sometimes, a spotless reputation is even more fragile than a spotless piece of paper. This is also an example of what happened to Mr. Mark Twain when he ran for governor.

One afternoon after the Champ de Mars incident, when Joseph was about to leave work, he happened to meet Lafayette who was coming back from the outside. Lafayette's face was full of exhaustion. When he saw Joseph, he called him over and told him: "Tomorrow night, the club will have an important meeting. I hope you can also attend."

Joseph knew that by "club" Lafayette meant the "Jacobin Club." Today, after the "Breton Club" moved to Paris, the location of the club was set after the Jacobin Monastery, and it was officially renamed the "Club of the Friends of the Constitution".

Regarding the activities of the Jacobin Club, Joseph has always been hiding as far as he can. Not to mention in such a chaotic time. Therefore, he hurriedly stated that he was very busy and had very important matters, so he could not attend this meeting.

"Is it about the troops?" Lafayette asked, frowning, a common excuse for Joseph's absence from club activities.

Joseph immediately replied: "No, it's my personal business." Because he knew that if it was because of official duties, then Lafayette, who was his immediate boss's immediate boss, would definitely order him to temporarily put down various official duties of.

Then he asked again: "General, can I ask, is there any important matter in the club that requires members like me who rarely go to the field to appear?"

"The club is going to be re-elected in order to elect a new club president. What on earth do you have a personal matter, can't you spare some time?" Lafayette replied.

The Jacobin Club at this time was not yet a radical organization. But the radical voices in the club are no longer small. Especially in recent times, even more so. A lot of the voices coming out of the club these days don't quite fit with Lafayette. But for Lafayette, this club is an important tool for him to gain political influence, and he cannot give up easily. Maybe Lafayette hopes to clean up the Jacobin Club through this election.