I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 240 The Second Lieutenant of Corsica (recommended, please give me everything!)

At this time, Second Lieutenant Bouwanaba only remembered the previous order issued by Paris. When he was quelling the chaos, he did not need to obtain the consent of his superior officers.

More importantly, as long as he can successfully resolve the riot in front of him, he is likely to be promoted.

He was only from a minor noble family on the island of Corsica. If there were no accidents, becoming a second lieutenant would probably be the pinnacle of his military career.

You must seize the opportunity in front of you!

He looked at the crazy rioters, squeezed the hilt of the sword hard, and thought to himself: It would be great if the cannon could be dragged here.

But their company's cannon is still in Valence, and the regimental commander will definitely not agree to him dragging the cannon to this town. With the regiment leader's ambiguous attitude towards the riots, he would not even agree with him to quell the rebellion.

Soon, the rioters discovered the army, but they were not afraid. Instead, they began to stone the small group of soldiers.

Second Lieutenant Buwanaba turned his head to avoid a stone, and heard a scream of "Ah" from the soldier behind him.

He looked at the arrogant rioters, could not help but frown slightly, turned his head and whispered a few instructions to the sergeant beside him. The latter immediately circled around the back of the team and ran across the street against the wall.

Seeing that the soldiers behind him had already formed a formation, Buyanaba took a few dozen steps forward and raised his hand to give the order:

"Stop!"

Then, he asked a non-commissioned officer to come out and shout a warning to the rioters as usual, asking them to leave immediately.

They were answered with more rocks.

The second lieutenant walked to the left end of the queue and shouted loudly:

"Prepare!"

"Fire shots in the air!"

"Bang——"

The rioters were startled by the sound of gunfire, but then they realized that it was not aimed at them, and they immediately regained their momentum:

"These soldiers don't dare to hit us!"

"They are just a few people, don't be afraid!"

"Drive them away and go to Baron Lorette's house."

"Smash them to death!"

Just at this time, another group of rioters appeared at the corner of the street. The two sides merged into one. There were already more than 500 people. They shouted and threw stones and rushed towards the soldiers.

The second lieutenant looked back and saw the soldiers whose movements were distorted because of nervousness - they were artillerymen after all, and they were really not very good at using flintlocks to fight the enemy - but he was calmly commanding the soldiers:

"Don't stand still, reload!"

Just when five soldiers in a row were injured by stones and the rioters were only sixty or seventy steps away, the sergeant from before finally arrived on the other side of the street.

Without taking a breath, he immediately fired a shot at random according to the second lieutenant's instructions, and then shouted loudly:

"Second Lieutenant, Captain Renald is here with 1,000 people!"

His voice was loud and clear, and the rioters heard it very clearly. They suddenly panicked, stopped and looked around.

Second Lieutenant Buwanaba seized this brief gap, turned around and urged in a low voice:

"Reload quickly! Hurry!"

The rioters were just a mob after all, still looking for "Commander Reynard". The 50 artillerymen here finally completed loading.

Buwan Napa waved his sword and pointed at the rioters:

"Five steps forward!"

"Prepare!"

"aim!"

"shooting!"

At a distance of more than fifty steps, the artillery fired a full salvo. Although only six people were hit, the huge gunshots and screams suppressed the rioters.

At the same time, the sergeant on the side of the street fired another shot and shouted:

"Run quickly, there are many soldiers coming!"

"Ah, there are thousands of people. If we don't run away, it will be too late!"

Lieutenant Buwanaba decisively ordered:

"Fire the bayonet!"

"dash forward!"

He took the lead and led a line of soldiers towards the rioting crowd.

That momentum made the thugs feel that there were really many troops coming, and they were so frightened that they retreated repeatedly. When the two sides were still more than twenty steps away, they turned and ran away...

…

While the riots in the southern provinces were calming down, an entirely different propaganda was going on in Paris.

The front page of "Paris Business" every day read "The riots are still spreading in the south" and "The troops stationed in various places are cowardly and allow the rioters to wreak havoc" and so on.

Other newspapers followed suit, describing the southern provinces as horrific and the military too timid to protect local security.

Any news about the riots that differed from this tone was intercepted by the Press and Publication Bureau.

With the speed of information dissemination in this era, even if someone investigates the matter in the future, it will be difficult to determine whether the riot ended more than ten days earlier than what the newspapers said.

Starting from January 25, major newspapers began to focus on reporting on "The Crown Prince personally led the troops south to quell the riots" and "The Paris Legion went to the western provinces to deal with the riots."

In fact, the Guards Corps was only two days away from Montpellier.

The citizens of Paris, who had been nervous for a long time, finally saw the light of day and looked forward to the good news about the Dauphin putting an end to the chaos every day.

…

A secret salon is being held in Madame Abel's villa in the Saint-Germain district of Paris.

The participants are all today's very influential capital aristocrats, as well as a small number of old enlightened aristocrats.

Mirabeau was giving an impassioned speech:

"Traditional aristocratic privileges are no longer suitable for this world! Those bloated, greedy and lazy aristocratic gentlemen only know how to use their privileges to exploit poor tenant farmers year after year. What they bring to this country is only misery, backwardness and shame!

"How many people went bankrupt, lived on the streets, or even died of starvation or disease because of their extravagant and worthless life! Yet they indulged in balls and drinking parties in the Palace of Versailles.

"The privileges of the old nobles must be abolished! No one can become a parasite of the country!"

Bai stood up immediately and raised his arms excitedly:

"Abolish the old privileges of the nobility!"

Venio, Jeansonnet, Varenne and others also stood up:

"Even sharecroppers have the right to live well!"

"Abolition of serfdom completely, farmers need freedom!"

"Yes! Freedom and the right to live!"

Mirabeau signaled to the excited crowd to quiet down and continued:

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that the riots in the western and southern provinces have brought us a rare opportunity! We must unite and attack those parasites! Create a promising future for France!"

Venio's eyes flashed:

"What does His Highness want us to do?"

Mirabeau took out the document that Joseph gave him, and dozens of people around him immediately gathered around:

"Abolition of all corvées on tenant farmers and all obligations to their lords."

"Abolish the hunting, pigeon-raising, rabbit-raising, and fishing privileges of the nobles. Abolish the mill tax, oven tax..."

"Abolish the lord's courts and any disputes should be heard by the courts..."

"The 'Grain Yield' decree is enacted. If you own more than 10 hectares of land, you must meet the prescribed yield per mu."

Bai looked at Mirabeau in confusion: "What's going on with this grain production decree?"

"His Royal Highness said that this is the necessary foundation for the development of industrial industry..."

…

January 27, 1789.

Montpellier.

On a mound 6 kilometers west of Earl Serulier's estate, Joseph was giving a speech to a group of reporters and nobles.

Some of these reporters had come from Paris, and some were natives of Montpellier who had been summoned by the herald two days ago.

"Look at this majestic army!" Joseph gestured to the Guards in the distance and said firmly and confidently, "They will use the fastest speed to quell the riots and restore order to the southern provinces."

At the same time, next to the dense forest in the distance, a group of three to four hundred people, who looked like farmers, but were carrying old-style flintlock guns, were quietly advancing towards Count Serulier's manor...