Fox of France

Just when Amon spread a new rumor—that he himself disappeared suddenly, maybe he was taken to the Bastille—an even more shocking news came: the king’s finance minister, Necker, was arrested. dismissed and deported.

Necker's departure is regarded as a sign that the king is about to suppress the resistance of the third level. He has served as the French finance minister twice.

When he first served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was generally well-liked by the urban bottom because he opposed the free trade of grain. (If grain is traded freely, the rise in grain prices is almost inevitable in the context of continuous natural disasters, which of course will seriously damage the interests of the bottom poor.)

He invented the method of borrowing to keep the country's finances running, thus avoiding tax increases, which also made the rich people in the upper third estate very happy with him.

However, in 1781, in order to justify his fiscal policy, he actually publicly published the French government's financial report, which revealed the budget deficit and the amount of the annual salary of the privileged class. The publicity of these two figures caused a political turmoil. Those poor people who had never even touched a Louis gold coin saw the astronomical expenses of the great nobles, especially Queen Marie Antoinette, It cost 766,000 francs just to redecorate the Petit Trianon Palace where she lived! And the queen rewarded Madame Pauline, a favorite minister around her, and gave her half a million francs in just one year! When they looked at these figures, and then at their empty rice bag, they were naturally very angry.

So Queen Mary, who won the cheers of the whole of Paris when she just became queen, had the nickname "Madame Deficit". Necker, who caused this turmoil, was naturally dismissed.

But later, the fiscal deficit became more and more serious, and it became more and more difficult to borrow money. (At that time, the interest rate on French national debt was as high as nearly 20%, but it was still unable to borrow money.) On the contrary, the pressure to repay the debt became more and more serious, and it was almost a success. The bottomless pit in fiscal expenditure. And the privileged class refused to pay taxes. (If you want to talk about this situation, it looks a bit like today's sister.) Louis XVI had no choice but to use Necker again. However, Necker is not God, he cannot say that there should be a gold louis like God, so there is a gold louis.

So Necker can only propose to tax the privileged class. Then the priests and nobles naturally used tradition as a shield, claiming that in order to tax the privileged class, they must be authorized by the "three-level conference". The privileged class thought that Louis XVI would definitely not dare to hold a three-level meeting. But they never expected that the poor and crazy Louis XVI actually held a third-level meeting.

And in the House of Representatives, Necker helped the Third Estate to successfully increase its representation and gain the power to vote by number of delegates, not by rank, on issues related to finances. Therefore, in the hearts of Parisians, Necker's resignation means that the king has made up his mind to stand on the opposite side of the third level. In everyone's opinion, this is even a signal that the king is preparing to suppress the people by force.

"We can't just sit around and wait for the king's mercenaries and the brigands to come and slaughter us, we have to stand up and take up arms and get ready to fight and wear our cap badges for identification. We're going to defend ourselves, we're going to defend our wives Children, protect your own property." In front of a cafe in the Royal Palace, a man was giving a speech excitedly.

"It's really strange. Doesn't Desmoulins usually stutter? Why doesn't he stutter today?" The person who spoke was obviously very familiar with Desmoulins who gave the speech.

"Yes, it was difficult to talk to Desmoulins before. He would rather find a piece of paper to write than speak with his mouth. Today... let's listen to what he said first?" Another person also said.

"This dismissal is a wake-up call to the massacre of St. Bartholomew by patriots! And just today, our friend Armand Lavoisier, the playwright who wrote the immortal Spartacus, disappeared We all know what happened to this disappearance, he will not be anywhere else, he must have been caught by those king's spies and those vicious dogs and taken to the Bastille!" The excited Desmoulins continued to shout. He pulled out two pistols from the pockets of his green jacket. "Follow me, let's arm!"

The crowd roared in response.

"Go together, go together!"

So go together.

Where to go? Of course the weapons store. Desmoulins led the men to the nearest arms store. The owner of the store saw so many people approaching aggressively, and immediately wanted to close the door. But Desmoulins was quicker than he was, and he jumped over with one stride, and with his hand outstretched, blocked the closing door, and they all rushed in together.

"Boss, are you a member of the third estate? Are you a citizen of Paris?" Desmoulins asked loudly.

"Of course, of course I am." The ashen-faced boss replied.

"That's good!" Desmoulins said, "The tyrant is plotting to use force to suppress the third-level resistance, looting and massacring Paris! Should you do your best to defend the people of Paris?"

All looked at the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper secretly glanced at the two pistols that Desmoulins held in his hand, then at the people behind him, and then replied in a trembling voice: "Of course...you said...of course... ...I..." Compared to Desmoulins, he was more like a stammer.

"Well said." Desmoulins patted the shop owner on the shoulder, turned his head and shouted to everyone, "You see, how understanding this citizen is! He is willing to support us, he is willing to join us Come on, everyone, arm yourself! We will fight for Paris, for freedom!"

So everyone hurriedly picked up all the weapons in the shop. This person took a shotgun, that person took a spear... The shop owner looked at everyone, trying to stop them, but he didn't dare to just watch. At this time Desmoulins stuffed a hunting knife into his hand: "Citizen, thank you for your generosity! Let's go, let's defend Paris together!"

The shop owner held the hunting knife, and under the pressure of everyone, he walked towards the block in front of him. As they walked, everyone shouted to others, inviting them to join them, and the team quickly expanded. After walking for about half a street, the shop owner gradually understood.

"Citizens, citizens! Turn to the right from here, and there is a weapon shop. Many of us don't have weapons yet. Let's go there and arm ourselves!" The hunting knife in his hand. Needless to say, the owner of that weapon shop must be his enemy.

So a group of people who had no weapons in their hands, and a few citizens with shotguns followed the shop owner.

Sure enough, he turned the corner, and within a hundred steps, he saw a weapon shop. But at this time, the gate of the weapon shop was closed.

"Open the door, open the door!" The shop owner stepped forward, knocking on the door with the handle of a hunting knife, and shouted in a series of voices at the same time.

"We don't do business today..." A trembling voice responded from behind the door.

"Open the door, open the door! Citizen, you have an obligation to support the people in defending Paris!" shouted one.

"Yes, we need weapons against the tyrant! Open the door!" shouted another.

"No... I won't open the door... it's all my hard-earned money, I can't just give it to you!" the voice behind the door shouted.

"Are you going to stand on the tyrant's side and oppose the people?" a person shouted loudly.

"Break the door down, let's break the door down!" shouted another.

So someone started knocking on the door.

"Stop!" shouted the voice inside. "If you don't stop, we'll shoot!"

However, people did not stop.

"Bang!" There was a gunshot from inside the room, and a person who was knocking on the door fell down clutching his legs.

The people who were knocking on the door immediately dispersed.

"This damned fellow must be a supporter of the tyrant!" shouted one.

"Kill this bad thing!" more people shouted.

A few shotguns shot towards the back of the door indiscriminately. Suddenly, several holes were opened on the door. Someone touched it from the side and kicked the door, and the door was kicked open-the few bullets just now broke the bolt behind it.

Everyone rushed in together and saw a middle-aged man loading his shotgun with trembling hands. It's just that his hands were shaking so badly that all the gunpowder spilled out of the muzzle of the gun. Seeing everyone rushing in, he dropped the shotgun, straightened up and turned around to run away. But a spear pierced him from behind and pinned him to the wall in one fell swoop.

"Damn the lackey of the tyrant!" A man rushed forward, grabbed the man's hair, waved the long knife in his hand, and slashed at the man's neck. It's just that his technique was really not very good. This knife didn't cut off the cervical spine and cut off his head. Maybe he felt that this knife made him lose his face, so the man swung the knife frantically and slashed at the man's neck several times before finally beheading him.

The man raised his blood-stained face, and with his blood-stained hand, he lifted the head high, just like Perseus lifted Medusa's head high.

"Look, that's what it's like to be a lackey of a tyrant!" cried the man with a drunken ecstasy.

"Damn him!"

"That's what a lackey of a tyrant should do!"

Everyone responded in the same tone.

In fact, to get drunk, you don't necessarily need to drink alcohol or use some other things. You only need to have a large group of people with you and have a noble reason.

"The whole family of this lackey should be killed!" Another person shouted.

"Here, there seems to be someone here!" Someone yelled again.

Everyone went to the back room, but the shop owner stayed behind. He heard someone shouting inside: "God, help us!"

Then someone shouted: "This kind of running dog also has women and children!"

"Kill them all! They deserve it!"

Then there were a few screams, and then a few people proudly came out of the back room with bloody faces, shouting: "Arm up and defend Paris!"