Brian asked in confusion:
“You’re referring to the Church?”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you.” Joseph patted his forehead, “You see, I still need your help in this matter.”
When Brian heard that archbishops like Beaumont and Dafuer had agreed to use their “private grain” to fill the food shortages in the southern provinces, he was overjoyed:
“How did you convince them?”
In truth, what he wanted to ask was how Joseph knew the priests had hoarded such large amounts of grain?
When he was still in Toulouse, he had also had his subordinate priests do similar things, but after becoming Chief Minister, he disdained such meager profits.
“By establishing the Church Culture Development Company and selling new types of ‘Indulgences’.” Joseph gave a brief explanation, then instructed, “For now, go draft the orders to recall the officers, we’ll discuss the details later.”
“Very well, Your Highness.”
Although Brian felt that the military should be used to maintain order, out of absolute trust in the Crown Prince, he nodded and prepared to execute the orders immediately.
However, he had only taken a few steps before turning back and saying with a slight frown:
“Your Highness, the latter part of this order… regarding whether to charge them with the crime of rebellion, perhaps it would be more proper for the High Court to decide.”
Joseph was somewhat surprised. It wasn’t a society ruled by law now, so why be so particular about procedural justice?
Brian caught his expression and carefully suggested:
“Your Highness, if we directly charge the officers with treason in the name of His Majesty the King, it might cause the nobility to be gripped with fear. It could even lead many neutral nobles to sympathize with those ambitious men.”
Joseph understood immediately—he had indeed been too hasty. Those officers were stationed in the provinces as part of their duty, and could produce a myriad of reasons to refuse coming to Paris.
If they were thus charged with rebellion, it would give other nobles a sense that the Royal Family was acting arbitrarily, causing them to see themselves in a similar situation, wondering if they too would be charged with a serious crime if they ever slightly opposed the will of the Royal Family.
This was indeed a touch on the bottom line of the noble class.
With these thoughts, Joseph nodded:
“You are right. Then let’s just order the officers to Paris sternly, warning them to bear the consequences of noncompliance.”
He then muttered to himself in a low voice:
“It seems, I must find a way to make them actually rebel at least once…”
After Brian left, Joseph took out a list he had sifted through on the way and wrote personal letters to the senior officers on it, then had the Queen sign them before sending them out.
Next, he summoned representatives of the Capitalist Nobility like Mirabeau and Bailly, handed them a document he had prepared earlier, and gave them detailed instructions.
After completing these tasks, the sky had completely darkened. But Joseph, ignoring his fatigue, took his dinner onto the carriage and hurried to the camp of the Paris Legion.
In the rushing carriage, he gazed out at the starlight, chewing on salted beef, and sighed inwardly: How truly he toiled for the sake of France…
Montpellier.
Marquis de Saint-Veran lightly shook the reins in the hunting ground of Count Seyrelier’s estate, looking at the extensive tents of the Moncalm Legion in the distance, and said to the Duke of Orleans beside him:
“Do you think the Royal Family will agree to those terms?”
The other also urged his horse to walk slowly, casually saying:
“With such extensive unrest, the Royal Family faces tremendous financial and public opinion pressure, which would also severely damage the Royal Family’s prestige. The daughter-in-law from Austria will have no choice, she will surely agree, at least partially.”
“Which terms might we allow her to remove?”
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“Any of them.” The Duke of Orleans shrugged indifferently, “As long as she makes concessions, you and the other generals will deploy your troops to suppress the unrest.”
The exaggerated conditions he had proposed to the Queen were made on a whim, not expecting the Royal Family to accept them anyway.
It was merely a smokescreen for his real goal, which was to find a suitable pretext to get the army moving all at once!
The combat ability of those rioters was negligible, and they had all been incited by his own agents, so suppressing them would be as easy as flipping one’s hand.
Once the armies across the regions were mobilized, it wouldn’t be so simple for them to return to their barracks.
With the military carrying the great prestige of quelling the unrest, they could use the excuse of ongoing riots to converge their forces to the north, creating a semi-encirclement of Paris—if the preparations in the northwestern provinces were completed, it would be nearly a complete encirclement.
With the paltry military strength in the Royal Family’s hands, they were bound to panic. Then the Assembly of Notables would seize the opportunity to pressure the Royal Family again on behalf of the nobles.
By then, the conditions put forward would be far more complex than the previous ones.
According to the plans of the Duke of Orleans, at the very least, he should become the Regent. To achieve this, he had allied himself with the powerful Marquis of Lucenay through marriage; soon, the Marquis’s daughter would marry Philippe.
And the monarchical power would return to the state prior to Louis XIV, that is, the highly autonomous form of noble lords.
Afterward, as the Regent with great authority, wouldn’t he be able to manipulate the Royal Family as he pleased!
As the Duke of Orleans considered how to torment Louis XVI and his family, he said to Marquis de Saint-Veran with ease:
“Everything is ready from Brittany to Provence, with a total of 80,000 troops among the various legions. Generals like Moncalm in the north will also respond to us simultaneously.”
Marquis de Saint-Veran looked at him and said:
“Duke, such a large-scale troop movement, regarding logistics…”
The Duke of Orleans dismissively said:
“I will provide funds for all the legions. Furthermore, both the Duke of Durelph and the Duke of Mushi will mobilize resources to supply the army.”