Chapter 379 Crisis is not just “danger”
Joseph gestured to Fouche: "You can go with me in my carriage."
As the director of national intelligence, Fouche is not yet a cabinet minister, but this matter will inevitably require the intelligence system to speak at the cabinet meeting.
In fact, Fouche reported to Joseph a few days ago that there were unusual activities by liberals in northwest France.
However, as soon as Joseph's order for the Intelligence Bureau to investigate and handle the matter arrived in the northwestern provinces, within two days farmers' protests and riots broke out.
On the speeding carriage, Joseph could not help but frown slightly as he listened to the latest information brought by Fouche: "You are saying that it is the 'Tennis Club' organization that is instigating this time, and there is support from foreign forces behind them. ?”
He knew that this so-called tennis club was an organization of French radical liberals. It's just that a large number of the backbones of the Jacobins and Girondins in history were obtained by Joseph. In addition, there was no factor of starving to death in the great famine, so the liberals have been silent in recent years.
But this time they suddenly made such a big move, Joseph also guessed that there might be foreign intervention.
Fouche nodded and said: "They have sufficient funds, and the rioters in Lille and Reims also have a large number of flintlock guns. According to our investigation, these should be provided by the Parliament of the Southern Netherlands."
The Southern Netherlands sent more than 200 people to France to incite trouble. It is inevitable that some of them are good and bad, and more than a dozen of them have been caught by the Intelligence Bureau. After interrogation by the Intelligence Bureau, more than half of them confessed.
Joseph's face darkened instantly. Vandernott was so courageous. He was really not afraid that he would let the Guards directly destroy his parliament?
Fortunately, Lille and Reims have basically completed police reform this time. The police resisted the bullets of the rioters and dispersed the rioting crowd in just one day. Otherwise, there is no telling how much trouble there would have been.
If this matter happened in the eastern provinces that have not yet implemented police reforms, I am afraid that the army would have to be mobilized and many people would die before it could be resolved.
However, even with the new police force, we must not take it lightly - once a riot occurs, even if the situation subsides later, it will cause huge damage to the city.
Moreover, farmers in more than a dozen cities were protesting. Although no violence occurred, the impact on order was also very serious.
Fouche saw the expression on the crown prince's face, sat up straight and said:
"Your Highness, please give me another chance. I promise to arrest all Southern Netherlands people with evil intentions within a month!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Fouche said hurriedly, "The intelligence agency has launched operations in the northwestern provinces and has collected a large amount of intelligence. It is even possible to arrest all the people in the 'tennis club'."
Joseph briefly asked about his deployment and confirmed that it was not exaggerated. He was relieved. Just as he was about to nod, he suddenly felt something in his heart.
If the Intelligence Bureau can quickly catch the people who incited the trouble, then the riots will be nothing to worry about. In this case, the "opportunity" in this crisis can be taken advantage of.
He tapped his fingers on the armrest of the seat and carefully sorted out the current situation in his mind. Soon, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth:
"Vandernot, speaking of which, I have to thank you this time."
Fuchet looked over in surprise: "Your Highness, what did you say?"
"Don't touch those people yet." Joseph raised his hand and ordered, "But we must monitor them closely so that we can arrest them at any time."
Although Fu Xie was surprised, he immediately nodded and said: "Yes, Your Highness."
Joseph continued: "In addition, you must find out as soon as possible how the funds and materials of the Southern Netherlands people enter France, obtain absolutely sufficient evidence, and keep a close eye on all the people involved."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
The carriage stopped in front of the gates of Versailles. Joseph quickly came to the cabinet meeting hall. The guard at the door immediately bowed and opened the two golden doors for him. All cabinet ministers are in place. When Queen Mary saw the crown prince coming, for some reason, her heart, which had been in panic just now, suddenly felt more at ease.
She hurriedly waved to her son and asked him to sit next to her.
After Joseph sat down, Archbishop Brian immediately stood up, coughed lightly and said:
"You may have heard about the recent peasant riots in Lille, Reims and other northwestern provinces."
He bowed slightly towards Queen Mary:
"Her Majesty the Queen hopes that we will come up with countermeasures to calm the situation as soon as possible."
As soon as he finished speaking, most of the cabinet ministers looked at His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
It wasn't that they all expected Joseph to make up his mind, but they subconsciously felt that the crown prince might have a way.
Queen Mary looked at the scene in front of her with some confusion, and suddenly remembered what her son had said to her before:
"You all need the Crown Prince to give you some advice, right?"
"Cough——" The ministers then noticed that their behavior was very inappropriate. They coughed suddenly and looked away in embarrassment.
However, Joseph stood up directly and said to his mother: "Your Majesty, the reason why this riot developed so fast is mainly because there were instigators from the Southern Netherlands behind it."
He immediately summoned Fouche into the hall and introduced the information held by the Intelligence Bureau to everyone.
After Fouche finished speaking, Joseph looked at the crowd and said:
"The top priority right now is to get the protesters out of the city and back home as soon as possible."
Archbishop Brian frowned and said: "Your Highness, the root cause of farmers' dissatisfaction is that some people are spreading rumors that the government requires them to pay 30 years of land income and major taxes before they can redeem their land.
"Unless we can enact a redemption plan immediately, they will definitely continue to make trouble."
People are like this. When there is no hope at all, they will be numbly oppressed for a lifetime without feeling anything. But once there is hope, people want more.
This is not greed, but they finally realize that they can be a human being - a real human being, not a feudal beast that looks like a human being.
In fact, the reason why Joseph wanted to break the feudal tax system was to increase France's population by more than 20 million.
Yes, in the past, only a few hundred thousand nobles in France were truly French, and the people at the bottom were unwilling to do anything for this country.
Only when they get land and get rid of feudal shackles will they realize that they are also French and willingly pay for the country.
Historically, after the Great Revolution, why could France easily deploy 600,000 troops and maintain logistical supplies at the same time? It was because at that time 30 million French people were vying to serve their country and were proud to be French.
In addition, land privatization is also an inevitable requirement for the industrial revolution.
The whole country is occupied by feudal lords, and tenant farmers all pay rent on the lord's land. Where is the labor force to support industrial development?
No matter how many factories you build, if you can't recruit workers, it doesn't mean you can't even produce a single screw.
(End of chapter)