Fox of France

Chapter 51, Playing with Fire

By the time the militia who besieged the Bastille understood, the defenders of the Bastille had also recovered. The big explosion just now frightened them. But also because of this, they fought back even more fiercely. As a result, for a period of time thereafter, the militiamen added a lot of casualties.

At this moment, there was a burst of cheers from behind the militiamen.

"Here comes the artillery! Here comes the real artillery!"

It turned out that at this time, the National Guard team prepared by the Marquis de Lafayette finally arrived.

The arrival of this National Guard corps completely changed the situation. Although the big explosion just now caused heavy casualties to the militia, it also caused considerable damage to the walls of the Bastille. Now, this city wall, which was not considered strong, might not even be able to withstand the attack of shells.

But when the National Guard dragged the cannon over, De Launay was not too flustered. Because of the level of artillery of the militiamen, he has just seen it—at such a long distance, they can't hit anything except the earth.

But as soon as the artillery over there opened fire, De Launay knew he was in trouble, because the first shell hit the bottom of the city wall accurately.

As the shell hit the city wall, a burst of dust rose up on the city wall. Fortunately, the city wall has not yet collapsed.

"Really? Did they get lucky?" De Launay's eyes widened.

Yes, until now, De Launay still attributes this successful bombardment of the National Guard to luck. But soon, he changed his mind, because the cannon on the opposite side fired another cannon within a short period of time, and it hit again. This shot also caused the flamboyant to collapse a small piece.

"Quick, raise the white flag! We surrender!" shouted De Launay. Obviously, what is firing at them now is definitely not the so-called "militia". They can fire again in such a short period of time, and they can still shoot so accurately. This is by no means a militia. Artillery in training!

The current state of the city wall can no longer withstand several shellings. De Launay had only to look at the crack that ran through the wall, into which a fist could fit. With a few more bombardments, the city wall will definitely collapse, and then tens of thousands of "mobs" from outside will rush in, and the more than 100 people inside alone will definitely not be able to stop it. If you don't surrender before they rush in, I'm afraid everyone will die at that time.

So the white flag was hoisted, the gates were opened, and the soldiers threw their rifles down from the walls. The militiamen around immediately cheered.

The brigade of militiamen rushed in through the open gate, brought out the negotiators (who, in fact, suffered no persecution at all), and dragged out the "king's lackeys". They tied up all these people and prepared to take them to the town hall for trial.

But the team escorting them had only walked a few hundred meters before more people surrounded them. These people loudly scolded those "tyrant's running dogs" including De Launay. One of the chefs was particularly vicious.

De Launetco, who had never been insulted by such a pariah, immediately returned the abuse.

"You damn pariah, lowly worm, how dare you speak so disrespectfully to a nobleman! One day, you thugs will all be punished! His Majesty the King will hang you all on the lamppost, just Like hanging a dog!"

De Launay obviously forgot what kind of situation he was in now. He thought that as a nobleman, even if he was captured, he would receive preferential treatment. His words immediately angered the "untouchables" around, and the chef even pulled out his own kitchen knife.

"You bloody parasite!" the chef roared. "You have killed so many people, and you still want to ride on the people's heads? Do you want to continue to slaughter the people? Shall we hang street lamps? I'll hang your head up today!"

After speaking, the chef rushed forward with a knife in his hand. De Launay's hands were tied, and he could not resist at all. While dodging, he asked the militiamen who escorted him for help. But those militiamen didn't pay any attention to it at all. Instead, they took a step back to give the chef room to work.

The cook grabbed de Launay by the hair and pulled him violently to the ground.

"You can't do this, I'm a nobleman, I..." shouted de Launay. But his voice stopped immediately, because the chef stepped on his chest, making him unable to breathe.

"save……"

"Kill this bad thing!"

"kill him!"

The people around roared.

The cook grabbed De Launay's hair with one hand, raised the kitchen knife with the other...

Apparently, the chef was good with a knife, and although he was holding only a pocket knife, he quickly cut off De Launay's head. A militiaman with a spear came over and said, "Put his head on the spear and let everyone see what happens to the tyrant's lackeys!"

Everyone listened to it and applauded together. The militiaman stuck De Launay's head on his spear and held it up high...

"Let us go around Paris twice more, and let everyone see what happens to the lackeys of the tyrant!" the people shouted.

"And these fellows are also lackeys of the tyrant, and we can't let them go!" Someone pointed at the other prisoners and shouted.

In the original history, after the Bastille was captured, except for the warden De Launay who was killed, the other defenders who surrendered were not killed. But this time, because of the self-defeating explosion, the casualties of the militiamen were much greater than in history. More than 300 people died in the big explosion alone, while in the original history, there were only more than 100 militiamen killed and injured .

With greater casualties comes more fear, but also more anger and rage. As a result, dozens of captured soldiers were killed, most of them Swiss as mercenaries. Because everyone believes that they came to Paris to slaughter and plunder the people of Paris.

The heads of these Swiss were also chopped off on the spot and stuck on spears.

Former Second Lieutenant of the Artillery, now Second Lieutenant Yu Lan, the artillery company commander of the National Self-Defense Forces, watched all this coldly, neither participating nor preventing it.

"There's another guy who deserves to die!" someone else yelled.

"Who?" people asked.

"Fressel! He gave us false information. He said there was a lot of gunpowder in Bastille. And yet there is so little gunpowder in Bastille! He must be a lackey of the king, and he must have something to lure us to Bastille." Conspiracy!" someone yelled.

"Then we'll kill him!" shouted more.

"He told us last time that there were a lot of weapons on the Rue Richelieu, but there was nothing there. There must be something wrong with him!"

"Kill him, kill him!"

Fresel is the mayor of Paris. Aristocratic, some say he was closely related to the Count d'Artois (Louis XVI's younger brother, one of the extreme conservatives). Of course, this rumor has no basis. It's just that at this time, everyone tends to believe this rumor.

Lieutenant Yu Lan and the others continued to watch with cold eyes. Anyway, Fresel is not a friend of the Marquis of Lafayette. It is not a good thing for such a person to control the Paris City Hall—at least for the Marquis of Lafayette who is preparing to integrate the power of Paris .

...

"What are these people doing?" Lucien looked in astonishment at the militiamen marching outside the barricade with their spears held high. There are human heads on the spears in their hands.

"They are using terror to vent their fear." Joseph said to Lucien while covering Louis' eyes with one hand to prevent him from seeing those terrible things.

"Use terror to vent your fear?" Lucien didn't understand what Joseph meant.

"Lucien, think about it. Where did the recent terrible rumors come from? Did they really come from those sans-culottes who couldn't even write their own names?" Joseph Instead of answering, he asked.

"How is this possible?" Lucien shook his head, "Those rumors are vivid and involve many things that those sans-culottes can't know at all. Many of them can only be known by people who are very familiar with various inside stories. Made it up."

"Look at those rumors again. What are these rumors talking about? What kind of emotions are they spreading?" Joseph asked again.

"It's nothing more than the king bringing mercenaries to bloodbath Paris." Lucien shook his head and said, "It's terrible, but Paris is so important to France, bloodbath Paris? That's just scaring people. If What is France in Europe without Paris?"

"But the sansculottes didn't know that. They all thought it was true. They were filled with fear and anger. They were afraid of being slaughtered and looted, but they were also angry that they were innocent enough to suffer this fate." Joseph said, "This fear and anger gives them the power to act. Some people feel that they can guide, control such power, and use this power to achieve their goals. Hehe..."

"What are you laughing at?" Lucien asked.

"I laugh that some people are playing with fire." Joseph said, "Using rumors to make people fear, and then using fear to drive others, although in terms of cost, it is indeed very low. But the power generated by fear and anger is right and wrong. The power of reason. The power of irrationality is difficult to control. It is like Mr. Lavoisier's nitroglycerin. If you are not careful, if you don't control it well, you can blow yourself to pieces with a bang."

"Then what shall we do?" Lucien asked.

"Look more, think more." Joseph replied.

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