I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 232 Famine

The officers suddenly frowned and looked at the Duke of Orleans.

The latter smiled: "The legion controlled by the royal family is expanding rapidly. As far as I know, after they returned to Paris, they recruited nearly a thousand new soldiers in a short period of time.

"Now counting the Mulan Legion and Swiss mercenaries who have surrendered to the royal family, the royal family has tens of thousands of soldiers."

"You forgot the Flanders Brigade, oh, it's called the Paris Legion now." Monod also came over, "They have always been flirting with the royal family."

"Thank you for the tip. Then there are 13,000 people." The Duke of Orleans looked sideways at the Marquis of Saint-Priest, "According to this trend, it won't be long before the royal family will have a powerful army, and you will Became worthless.”

General Astou snorted disdainfully: "It's just more than 10,000 people, which is not even enough to maintain law and order in France."

The Duke of Orleans smiled: "Do you know the weapons and equipment of Berthier's Legion?"

As he spoke, he took out an August type flash cap gun and threw it to General Astu along with a small bag of flash caps. This kind of weapon has begun to be mass-produced. As long as you are willing to spend money, it is not difficult to get one or two from the ordnance factory.

As a group of military bosses figured out how to use the flash cap gun and took turns to test-fire, their faces showed solemn looks.

"You are all experts. You can definitely see how much this kind of gun can greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the army."

The Duke of Orleans immediately added without waiting for the officers to retort: ​​"Actually, the most dangerous thing is the new promotion mechanism implemented by the royal family in the army."

"Promotion mechanisms?"

"Haven't you heard?" The Duke of Orleans had an exaggerated expression on his face. "In the royal army, civilians can be promoted to officers based on their military exploits. There are no restrictions, and they can even be promoted to generals! At the same time, not only do you not have to pay a 'promotion fee' for promotion, , and you can also get a considerable bonus.”

The officers' expressions turned cold upon hearing this.

This system is simply digging up their ancestral graves!

They have always relied on blood and status to monopolize officers. If even civilians can be promoted to generals now, their descendants are likely to lose control of the army in the future.

What follows is the loss of a large amount of income.

Mono murmured at the right time: "Oh, maybe in the future everyone will listen to the command of a certain untouchable and fight bloody battles with the enemy. And he will taunt you in the command post..."

"This will never be allowed!" General Astu roared, "The royal family is blaspheming the tradition of the military!"

The other officers also cursed, but the Marquis of St. Priest looked at the Duke of Orleans solemnly: "Your Majesty, in fact, we have always wanted to show the military's attitude to the royal family. However, this requires an opportunity, such as An enemy the royal family cannot cope with.”

"This opportunity is about to appear." The Duke of Orleans said loudly, "It won't be long before the royal family will be in huge trouble."

"Oh? Why are you so sure?"

Mono continued from the side: "Because, there will soon be a large-scale famine, and then there will be mobs everywhere."

"Mob?" The Minister of War shook his head, "Those mobs pose no threat."

The Duke of Orleans smiled and said: "If we carry out some 'operations', the situation will be completely different."

He roughly stated his plan, and finally said: "This time we also got the support of the meeting of dignitaries. Yes, the recent actions of the royal family have gone too far, and everyone hopes to correct the king's mistakes."

The eyes of the dozen or so officers present couldn't help but light up.

…

"I'm so stupid, really!"

An ordinary carriage was driving towards the Saint-Germain district against the setting sun. In the car, Sorel clasped her hands and kept blaming herself with her head lowered: "I actually thought those two guys were the heroes who saved Celine, and I even recklessly asked His Highness the Crown Prince to help them get away with it!"

She shook her slightly curly black hair vigorously: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince may now misunderstand that I am the accomplice of those two guys..."

A handsome young man in his twenties sitting opposite her comforted her and said: "Tulip, you don't have to blame yourself too much. Everyone is blinded sometimes. Moreover, we can help you make up for this soon." Mistake."

The man next to him, who was about 1.9 meters tall and had bulging muscles, snorted softly: "Hmph, it was a wrong decision for you to ask the bastard of the royal family. Why should you worry about his misunderstanding..."

Sorel immediately stared at him: "How can you say that to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince! You have no idea that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is completely different from the rest of the royal family. He is kind and has a sense of justice!"

The strong man spread his hands and turned away: "Okay, whatever you want..."

The handsome man opened the curtains and looked out the window: "Let's recall the action plan. The Bastille is coming soon."

The carriage immediately fell silent.

A few minutes later, two carriages stopped at the intersection opposite the Bastille. Sorel and five young men got out of the carriages and looked at the terrible fortress in the distance.

"This is probably the most dangerous mission I have performed in recent years." A thin red-haired man whispered.

"For fairness and justice, no matter how dangerous it is, it's worth it!" the handsome man immediately answered.

Sorel nodded: "Dusk is right! The Brotherhood will always be with justice!"

These people are all members of Sorel's brotherhood [Note 1]. There are nearly twenty people in this brotherhood, all of whom are noble children. They like to do chivalry in Paris. Although they are very middle-class, they have also helped many poor people.

A young man carrying a bow and arrow looked at the sky and said to Sorel: "The time is almost up. It's up to you now."

The girl nodded, pulled up her veil, and walked toward the Bastille with her long legs.

She was extremely dexterous and quick. She took advantage of the cover of dusk and quickly arrived at the wall of the Bastille. With the help of very simple tools, she climbed up like a gecko in the blind spot of the patrolling guards on the top of the wall. A lookout window more than ten meters high.

She opened the window with a few simple moves, obviously this was not the first time she had done this, then she turned over and entered the window, hanging the rope around her waist along the window.

Not long after, three fraternity companions climbed along the rope into a preparation room in the Bastille.

Soleil urged in a low voice: "There are only 3 minutes until the routine inspection, change clothes quickly!"

Several people quickly put on the military uniforms they brought, and under Sorel's leadership, they slipped into a utility room along the corridor, then climbed out of the window into another room on the third floor, and took advantage of the changing of the guards to go around. Officer's lounge, and then climbed through the window again...

In the heavily guarded Bastille, Sorel relied on her talents to find her way out.

About ten minutes later, after a dangerous journey, the three people safely arrived at the west side of the cell where the Maletdu brothers were detained on the third floor.

Soleil, who was hiding behind the raised pillar at the end of the corridor, glanced at the two guards in front of the cell door, then retracted and said to the red-haired man next to him: "Hunting Fox, you have to lure away those two guards."

The latter also looked at the cell and swallowed: "It looks very dangerous."

However, he still covered his face, muttering "for justice" and ran towards the two guards. It's not that he doesn't care about death, it's just because his father is a very famous earl, and even if he is caught, he can get out for a sum of money.

When the guard saw the unfamiliar figure, he immediately drew his sword and chased after him, shouting at the same time: "Alarm! There is an intruder!"

Sorel immediately came to the unguarded cell. This time she did not pick the lock, but signaled to the strongest companion: "Thunder Stone, it's up to you."

The latter nodded, took out the iron awl from his waist, swung it high, and smashed it on the door lock.

"Boom" a muffled sound. His strength was so great that a crack instantly appeared on the cast iron lock, as if it would break if he hit it again.

The small window on the cell door was opened, and a man with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks looked out: "Brother, they are breaking down the door, they don't look like guards."

"Get out of the way." A different face appeared behind the small window and asked suspiciously, "Who are you?"

"Hunting Fox" immediately said in a rough voice: "The boss sent us to rescue you."

This is Sorel and others' plan to make up for their mistakes.

After they learned that Mono's son could not be convicted due to insufficient evidence, they decided to pretend to be a prison robber, defrauding the trust of the Mallet brothers and extracting useful evidence from their mouths. Of course, if you can't deceive those two people, kidnapping and torture is also an option.

The people in the cell were surprised and asked: "Duke, has he changed his plan?"

"Duke?" Sorel, who was nearest, couldn't help but be startled. Shouldn't the eldest brother of the Mallet brothers be Mono's son? How did he become a duke?

Before she could think about it, there was a sudden rush of footsteps on the stairs on the west side.

Just as she was about to urge Lei Shi to hurry up, the door of a cell in the distance suddenly opened, and seven or eight fully armed guards poured out of it. They had obviously been ambushing there for a long time.

Soleil and the others were shocked. They quickly showed their weapons and started fighting fiercely with the guards.

Several of them came from prestigious aristocratic families and had been practicing swordsmanship since childhood. In one moment, they were able to overwhelm the guards, who were twice as many in number, and retreated.

Just when the three of them arrived at the end of the corridor and were about to jump out of the window the way they came, they heard a "click" of a gun being pulled out behind them.

Sorel slowly turned her head, and what came into view were more than thirty black gun muzzles.

A man with double fish eyes pushed aside the guards and came forward, sneered: "I've been waiting for you for a long time. Catch them all!"

Three hours later.

In the interrogation room of the Bastille, Fouche frowned and dropped the confession in his hand, glancing at the beautiful young woman opposite: "Sorel? From the Fraise family?"

Sorel nodded nervously.

Fouche breathed a sigh of relief: "So, you want to kidnap the prisoner?"

"No, sir, we just want to defraud their confessions..."

Fouche suddenly slapped the table angrily and shouted: "Do you know how long I have been setting up to catch the mastermind behind them? You have messed it all up!"

He could tell from experience that the few young nobles who had just been interrogated were not lying.

He waved to the guard irritably, turned and left: "Lock him up first."

Sorel was dragged up by two guards, but suddenly remembered something and hurriedly said to Fouche: "By the way, sir, I heard those two guys said that their boss seems to be a duke."

"Oh?" Fouche immediately turned back.

…

Palais Royal.

The Duke of Orleans looked at the housekeeper with a gloomy face: "Someone wants to kidnap the Mallet brothers? Who is it?"

"It's not clear yet." The butler lowered his head and said, "There was only news from the Bastille that there were four people. Oh, and they also said that they vaguely heard someone mentioning 'the Duke' during the interrogation."

The Duke of Orleans suddenly stared, pondered for a moment, and suddenly stood up: "Quick, let all places start to move immediately."

The housekeeper was startled and reminded him carefully: "Sir, the northwest provinces have not yet been arranged..."

"They've probably noticed something and can't delay it any longer."

The Duke of Orleans paced back and forth anxiously, and then ordered: "Get ready, let's leave Paris too. Go and inform Monod and ask him to leave quickly.

"Oh, and also, the money given to the military was directly paid with bills of exchange from the Paris Discount Bank, and it was too late to leave the UK."

As the Bank of France's "central bank" status is gradually established, it has begun to carry out necessary supervision of major French banks. The "funding" he promised to the military is huge and will easily be noticed.

He was planning to transfer it from a British bank before, but now that the situation has changed, it may be too late.

…

Provence.

Nice.

Several craftsmen in shabby clothes braved the biting cold wind to arrive at the nearest strategic grain storage depot, only to find that nearly a thousand people had gathered here - they were all informed by the government grain sales point that no food had been sent from the grain storage depot. Only then did he come all the way to inquire about the situation.

The officials at the grain depot had to repeat over and over again: "Our grain has been transferred to Montpellier. There is really no grain in the warehouse now. But in a few days, the grain from Grenoble will arrive." …”

A tall man with a scar on his face immediately interrupted him loudly: "That's what you said five days ago. Where is the food now?"

The man next to him immediately answered: "The government has always said that there is enough food, so that everyone does not need to worry. It seems that we have all been deceived!"

A skinny old man wearing a thin linen coat, dragging a ten-year-old child with him, struggled to squeeze in front of the grain depot official, lowered his head and stroked his chest and said: "Master, all the bread in the city is sold for 22 sous a pound. We really can’t afford food... Please be kind and send some food."

Generally speaking, bread in Nice does not exceed 10 sous per pound. For citizens who are barely surviving on every sou of wages, this means that they will have no money to buy food for more than half a month.

[Note 1] Brotherhood was originally a guild organization, and later gradually evolved into a society. Generally composed of members who share the same interests or beliefs, or even formed for social purposes. Members support and help each other, and will also elect cadres internally for management. Very common in the 18th century.