I Am the Crown Prince in France

More than forty minutes later, the leading painter looked at the newly decorated farmhouse, nodded with satisfaction, and waved his men to leave.

The soldier guarding the room did not notice that he had an extra paint bucket in his hand and that his long-handled brush was missing.

Naturally, the paint bucket contained the military uniforms of Odolic's two "younger brothers" and the craftsmen's clothing of the three of them, while the "long-handled brush" was left in the attic.

As the painters left the area, an officer of the French Guards stopped them again, checked their credentials, and counted their heads.

There were 8 people when we arrived and there were still 8 people when we left. No problem at all.

The officer nodded and let his men go. No matter how meticulous his investigation was, he would never be able to check the status of the painters with the soldiers guarding each farmhouse.

Early the next morning, the sun shone slantingly on the broad avenues outside Paris, and the air was so warm that it almost didn't feel like winter.

Several exquisitely crafted white carriages, surrounded by more than a dozen cavalrymen, drove slowly from the south.

In the middle carriage, Princess Luisa Maria of the Two Sicilies looked nervously out of the window with her big, beautiful eyes.

Before arriving in Paris, she was deeply shocked - the "King's Avenue" was incredibly spacious, and the houses on both sides of the road were more exquisite and beautiful than the other. It seemed that all the nobles lived around Paris. 【Note 1】

However, what made her most nervous was the French Crown Prince whom she was about to meet, who was known as the "Son of the Gods".

It is said that he is just fourteen years old this year, one year younger than himself, but he has already completed courses at the University of Paris, successfully presided over the reform of the Paris police force, and is now even serving as the assistant to the French Finance Minister.

This simply cannot be described as genius! She is also studying college mathematics and knows how difficult those things are. She also understands how troublesome national government affairs are. How did he do it? !

Moreover, it is said that the crown prince also inherited the appearance of his mother. He is very handsome, with slightly curly blond hair, starry blue eyes and a face with perfect proportions like an ancient Greek statue. The girls at Versailles would be excited for months if they could just say a word to him.

When Princess Maria thought that such an outstanding crown prince might become her fiancé, her heart suddenly started beating wildly.

Just as she was thinking wildly, the carriage suddenly stopped slowly. Sitting opposite her, Timothy, the Ambassador of the Two Sicilies to France, quickly reminded him in a low voice: "Your Highness, it should be His Royal Highness the Dauphin who is here to greet you."

Princess Maria quickly gathered her thoughts, lowered her head to check her clothes, then straightened her back and showed a polite and dignified smile.

Timothy got out of the car first and opened the door.

Maria got off the carriage along the wooden steps and walked through the crowd of respectful attendants. When she raised her eyes, she suddenly saw a handsome young man wearing a dark blue thick velvet jacket, white trousers, and a three-cornered hat, looking at her with a smile.

The elegant arcs on her face and her mesmerizing eyes made her mind go blank for half a second. She could swear that the person who described the crown prince's appearance to her could not describe even one tenth of his handsomeness.

Maria stepped forward in a daze, not daring to look directly into the Crown Prince's eyes. She hurriedly picked up the hem of her skirt, bowed seriously, and said in a low voice: "I'm glad to see you, Your Highness the Crown Prince. You can come so far. It’s a great honor to pick me up at the place where you are.”

Joseph smiled and stroked his chest in return: "This is what I should do, your beautiful princess. Welcome to Paris."

In accordance with traditional etiquette, he hugged the princess cheek to cheek. Well, the waist is very thin, the skin is delicate and smooth, and the chest...

cough! Joseph was busy in his mind and interrupted his thoughts. She was only a fifteen-year-old girl, what was she thinking?

After the ceremony, he took two steps back and gestured towards the princess's carriage: "Your Royal Highness, I will lead you from the front. Their Majesties the King and Queen have hosted a banquet at the Palace of Versailles and are waiting for you."

After being polite again, Joseph turned back to his car and ordered the convoy to return to Versailles.

Maria was a little disappointed when she saw that he didn't invite her to ride in the same car. She suddenly remembered that she had a competitor - the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Clementine.

Drums and trumpets sounded all around, which was the signal for the motorcade to set off. She hurriedly got into her carriage, feeling melancholy in her heart: Could it be that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince likes Clementine more? I don’t know if I can compete with her.

…

In the farmhouse a mile away from where Joseph greeted Princess Maria, Odolik vaguely heard the sound of the trombone, and immediately kneaded his sore arms and legs - he and his two "younger brothers" were fully settled here. all night.

After a moment, Odolik, dressed as a farmer, carefully got out of the cabinet and looked down at the attic. He immediately saw the soldier guarding the place leaning on the door frame and falling asleep.

He picked up the short stick that had been prepared under the bed, tiptoed down to the attic, and accurately hit the soldier on the head. The latter fainted immediately.

Odolic then pulled out a short knife, threw it to the bald man who followed him, and made a cutting motion towards the soldier who fell to the ground.

Baldhead immediately stabbed the soldier to death without hesitation, and then dragged the body into the house - killing him was as easy as drinking a glass of wine.

Odolik returned to the attic, pulled out a long-handled brush from under the bed, and removed the cloth wrapped around the brush handle to reveal the gun barrel inside. Then, he removed the bulging brush head and found a wooden gun butt inside.

Soon, a British-made Brown Bess 1742 flintlock gun appeared in his hand.

He found gunpowder and lead bullets from the other end of the brush handle, loaded them neatly into the muzzle of the gun, gave the musket to the red-haired "subordinate", and ordered: "When the gold carriage comes here later, you can go there." While shooting."

"Ah?" The red-haired man looked at the road in the distance and wondered, "Boss, I'm afraid I can't hit you from such a distance..."

"Idiot, we are just showing off. Letting you shoot is to remind us that we can take action."

As Odolik spoke, he leaned over and took out a French carbine with the butt cut off from under the bed - it was brought in by the painter in a bucket - he also loaded the ammunition and handed it to the bald man: "You can also fire the gun together. .”

"Leave it to us, boss!" When the two gangsters thought that they could get seven or eight thousand livres by firing two shots at will, they were both very happy to join the Lakeview Gang.

Then, Odolik picked up the Charleville flintlock of the soldier who had just died, and then found the gunpowder and bullets from the body. Then he checked the barrel of the gun and found that it had been loaded with ammunition, and took the trouble to pour out the gunpowder. Reload again.

Beside the attic window of the farmhouse, a white carriage appeared in Odoric's telescope. He knew the driver of the car very well - they were all members of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, whom he met often.

Odolik immediately asked his two men to come to the window, while he stepped back a few steps and shouted: "Shoot!"

The two gangsters were still immersed in the reverie that the Lakeview Gang had taken control of the situation, and immediately opened fire on the distant carriage without hesitation.

Two roars suddenly erupted in the silent outer suburbs of Paris, frightening the birds in the forest nearby to fly into the air.

The nearby French Guards, from officers to soldiers, felt as if they had been slapped in the mouth, and immediately looked around in panic to determine the source of the gunfire.

Besonval's face turned pale, and veins popped out on his forehead. He turned around and shouted at the herald at the top of his lungs: "Sound the horn, sound the horn quickly! Make the Crown Prince's motorcade turn around!"

"What are you doing standing still! Protect the Crown Prince and Her Royal Highness the Princess! Hurry!"

"Balthasar, Croët, let the people with you search for me!" As he said, he also pulled out his pistol and glanced back and forth, "Who is so bold?!"

The officers of the French Guards had begun to direct the soldiers to shoot indiscriminately in the direction of the gunshots in an attempt to suppress the firepower of those who had evil intentions.

In the farmhouse, the bald man heard the gunshots one after another. He thought it was his own people who had started to take action. He turned around and asked Odolik in a flattering manner: "Boss, do you think this is okay?"

The latter smiled indifferently and pulled him to the middle of the attic. He stood in the direction of the window, and the Charleville flintlock gun in his hand suddenly spurted out tongues of flame.

A bloody hole suddenly appeared on the defenseless bald chest. The whole person was knocked backwards by the huge thrust of the projectile, and he died without even struggling.

Odolik had previously deliberately reduced the amount of gunpowder, so the body that was shot was not shattered, and it was difficult to tell that he was shot at close range.

The red-haired man by the window was stunned by this scene for a moment, but Odolic hit him in the stomach with the butt of his gun without hesitation, and took advantage of his bending opportunity to hit him hard in the back of the head.

Ignoring the crackling gunfire outside, Odolik calmly loaded Charleville's ammunition, then dragged the unconscious red-haired man to the pillar of the attic, stepped back a few steps, and shot him in the throat.

After doing this, Odolik looked around the room and found nothing missing. He immediately grabbed the remains of the long-handled brush that he had packed up before, returned Charlevers to the dead French Guardsman, and ran away from the back door of the farmhouse. go out.

Arriving at the grove dozens of steps away, he put on the clothes of the Crown Prince's Guards as quickly as possible, hurriedly buried the remains of the long-handled brush, squatted behind a tree, and began to wait nervously.

At the same time as the first gunshot was fired, Kesoud reined in the army horse, waved his hand and shouted loudly: "Don't mess up! Everyone gathered near the crown prince and princess's car, beware of a sneak attack!"

The French Guards were already in a state of confusion. They immediately followed the instructions and more than a hundred people surrounded the carriage of Joseph and the Princess of the Two Sicilies.

When the third gunshot was fired from the direction of the farmhouse, Quesold winked at his officers and shouted loudly: "Clermont, over there! Take someone to catch the assassin!"

"Yes!" Clemont pulled the reins of his horse and waved, "Team 3, follow me!"

Immediately, under the shocked and admiring eyes of the French Guard officers and soldiers, more than twenty of the Crown Prince's personal guards rushed towards the farmhouse in the distance.

On Besonval's side, it wasn't until the fourth gunshot was heard in the distance that he finally determined the exact location of the attacker. He immediately pointed his pistol at the farmhouse: "Over there! Adrian, bring someone over there!"

"yes!"

Clermont and the three teams seemed to have lost track of the direction. They first ran diagonally towards the woods not far from the farmhouse. After making a small circle, they turned around as if they had a "sudden realization" and rushed towards the farmhouse again. go.

The moment they passed by the edge of the forest, Odolic rushed over in a few steps, took the flintlock handed by his teammates, put it on his shoulders, and integrated into the team.

In fact, the wasteland in the suburbs at this time was filled with gunpowder smoke due to continuous musket fire. Even if he ran directly back to Joseph, it is estimated that no one from the French Guard would be able to see him.

Clermont deliberately let his men slow down and waited for the French Guards to take the lead in surrounding the farmhouse. Then he pretended to be in a hurry and followed them.

Adrian, an officer of the French Guard, was hesitating whether to rush in directly or suppress the fire first, when he heard Clermont shout: "Cowards! Do you want to wait for them to shoot at His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?! "

Adrian was so excited that he quickly drew out his sword and waved towards the farmhouse: "Charge in! Catch the assassin!"

The French Guards immediately rushed forward and first saw the soldier guarding the farmhouse dead on the ground. Someone nervously fired a shot into the attic and then climbed the stairs cautiously.

On the other side, after Joseph heard the gunshot, he immediately locked the door of the carriage from the inside - this is very reasonable. If someone is attacked, he must first prevent the assassin from rushing into the carriage.

Then, he and Emang quickly removed the wax seals on the carriage doors, walls, wooden tables, etc., and put all the wax blocks into their pockets.

Eman took out a paper bag from under the seat, threw the wood fragments inside into the car, and finally inserted a flattened lead bullet into the damaged part of the wall on the other side of the carriage.

At this time, the carriage appeared to have two holes, one in the door and the other in the wooden table. There was a lead bullet embedded in the wall of the car on the other side, and splinters of wood were everywhere in the car.

Apparently, a bullet had just hit the carriage.

Then, Joseph stretched out his arm to Emang and gave him a confirming look: "Come on."

The latter drew a dagger from his calf and said in a deep voice: "Your Highness, I'm sorry."

As he spoke, his sword flashed, and a bloodstain appeared on Joseph's right upper arm. He immediately felt a sharp pain.

Eman put away his sword, picked up a sharp-looking piece of wood in the carriage, took out a sheep tripe filled with chicken blood from his pocket, and stabbed it gently.

The chicken blood immediately stained the wood splinter, and it looked like the splinter had cut Joseph's arm when it flew apart.

Eman sprinkled some more blood in the carriage, put away the sheep's belly, and then shouted out of the carriage in an extremely anxious tone: "Oh, God! The Crown Prince has been shot!"

"Doctor! Call the doctor quickly!"

The heartbreaking shouts floated hundreds of meters away. Everyone who heard them was struck by lightning and stood stunned on the spot. Especially Bessonval, who only felt a "buzzing" in his head and almost fell off his horse. Come down.

In the carriage following the princess, Princess Maria heard that the crown prince had been shot. She was so frightened that her face turned pale and tears burst out of her eyes.

[Note 1] King's Avenue: refers to a specially widened road funded by the French government, equivalent to the highway in the 18th century.

Thanks to: Zhenzhi and Qiuzhen Guan Xiaodaotong for their generous rewards for this book! The young author is grateful!