“`
Second floor of the Palace of Versailles.
The thunderous cries from the square penetrated the Minister of Industry’s office, “It’s these scoundrels who killed Count Dimonzo, please put them on trial immediately!”
“No need for a trial, just hang them!”
“Yes! Hang these bastards!”
“Thanks to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, it was his police who caught these murderers…” Find exclusive stories on empire
“Thank the Prince for bringing peace and order to France.”
“Long live His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!”
These were the nobles surrounding the Guard Corps as they escorted the rebellious insurgents in the square. At that moment, they completely forgot their breeding and status, shouting crazily like pantless rouges in the street, venting their fear and anger.
Joseph glanced at the window and couldn’t help but smile wryly; he had schemed to suppress the Old Nobility, and now they were singing praises to him as the hero who quelled the riots.
However, this was good too, at least no one would interfere with the police reforms anymore.
He signaled to Eman to close the window, then turned to Mirabeau, “Then please submit this proposal to Her Majesty the Queen as soon as possible, so it can be discussed at the Cabinet meeting the day after tomorrow.
“Now that the attention of the nobility is focused on the trial of the rioters, the proposal should not encounter too much resistance.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Mirabeau said, carefully gathering up the freshly organized “Grain Production Proposal” documents from the table.
Joseph continued, “The position of Minister of the Interior is now vacant. Due to the heavy responsibilities of the Minister of the Interior, I plan to divide it into three ministers: Agriculture, Police, and Commerce.”
He looked at Venio, “I will nominate you to be the Minister of Agriculture during the Cabinet meeting. However, due to your limited political experience, His Majesty may only appoint you as Acting Minister of Agriculture.”
“Ah, me?!” Venio was startled, quickly rising and placing his hand over his chest with excitement, “Thank you! Thank you for your trust, Your Highness! I swear I will do my utmost to ensure the thriving development of the nation’s agriculture!”
He was previously a plantation owner, and among Joseph’s associates, he was the most familiar with agriculture.
And he himself had never imagined that a chance encounter with the Crown Prince in Bordeaux would catapult him straight up to becoming a Cabinet Minister.
Joseph reiterated, “You must cooperate closely with the Church in agricultural matters, as in the rural areas, only the Church can truly influence the peasants.”
“Yes, Your Highness, I will keep your instructions in mind.”
Joseph nodded at him and then turned to Bailly, “And I hope you’ll accept the position of Minister of Commerce; I hope you won’t decline.”
“Of course,” Bailly appeared much more composed than Venio, bowing slightly, “I will always follow your commands and certainly will not let you down.”
The reason Joseph “chopped up” the Minister of the Interior role was indeed due to its broad scope of responsibilities, which was too much for one person to manage effectively, but he also wanted to bring more of the new nobility into the Cabinet.
In the current Cabinet, aside from the Finance Minister, the Minister of Civil Registry, and the Justice Minister, nearly all were new nobility—including Archbishop Talleyrand, who was actually part of the enlightened thought camp.
With this arrangement, the various policies he needed to advance the Industrial Revolution in France could be passed very smoothly.
The future contest in Europe would be a test of industrial strength!
…
The public trial of the insurgents launched extremely quickly.
“`
Of course, this was also because Joseph had instructed the Police Affairs Department to attach extensive investigatory results on these gang members, as well as the records procured from the local Police Headquarters, when they were being escorted.
Even the witnesses were brought to Paris.
The public trial took place in the square in front of the town hall. Due to the large number of people involved in the case, the High Court was almost fully mobilized, with six temporary courts presiding over cases simultaneously.
The number of ordinary citizens who came to watch wasn’t high, but over a thousand nobles from the Palace of Versailles arrived—it seemed they wanted to personally ensure that the mob who had brought them such terror had indeed been sentenced to death.
What the watching nobles did not expect was that these ruffians nearly unanimously confessed that they were incited to riot by someone who paid them a high price.
Afterward, the spies that the Duke of Orleans had sent to the provinces were brought forward to face identification by the gang members—in the early action of the Police Affairs Department, quite a few such spies were caught.
Without exception, the rioters confirmed they were instigated by these individuals. The presiding judge announced in court that these behind-the-scenes culprits would be tried in a separate case.
As for the agents from the Police Affairs Department who later gained control over the gang members, they were treated as subordinates of the former “boss” due to their habitual way of thinking.
Therefore, during the trial, although some rioters mentioned that the masterminds behind them had some “agents,” since these individuals had not been captured, the judges didn’t pay much attention to it.
The pace of the trials was fast; every half hour or so, a gang member was sentenced to hang.
Their crimes were far more than just the offense of rioting; murder, kidnapping, robbery, and the like—almost every one of them had a multitude of charges.
As a result, some citizens who had initially thought they were rioting because they were starving, and who had felt a bit of sympathy for them, now joined in the chorus of cursing them as well.
Therefore, each time a judge sentenced a rioter, there would be a burst of enthusiastic cheers from the crowd—both the nobles and the citizens were in unprecedented agreement on hanging these scoundrels.
When Joseph arrived at the square in front of the town hall, the trials of fifty or sixty rioters had already been carried out.
He was merely passing by on his way to the Paris Police Academy and wanted to see the reaction of the nobles.
After he heard the unending shouts of “Long live the judge,” “Well sentenced, they deserve to be hanged,” he nodded silently and prepared to leave.
Just as Joseph was ordering Eman to head to the Paris Police Academy, he suddenly heard a commotion coming from ten or more meters away.
He turned his head and saw that a few nobles from the Palace of Versailles had dragged a young man who was speaking from atop a stump and started punching him.
The young man did not show any weakness, fighting back four against one, he managed to give as good as he got.
The nearby police quickly blew their whistles and rushed over, using their batons to separate the two parties: “What are you doing!”
The nobles angrily pointed at the young man and shouted, “This outsider dares to say that those rioters shouldn’t be sentenced to death!”
“This bastard, he must be an accomplice of the rioters!”
“Arrest him quickly!”
The police asked them to be quiet, and then turned to the young man, “What’s your name? Where are you from?”
The young man, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth and speaking with a bit of a northern accent, said, “I am Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre. I am a lawyer from Arras.”
Before the police could say anything, Joseph stopped in his tracks not far away and turned his gaze toward the young man.
Robespierre? The lawyer from Arras?
Had he unexpectedly encountered here today the Jacobin “Tyrant” and “Murderous Demon,” who was also known as “The Incorruptible,” Mr. Robespierre?