Fox of France

On June 5th, the Vendée rebels were only a day away from Le Mans. Also in the afternoon of this day, Fouche appeared in front of Napoleon.

"Master Bonaparte, I need the cooperation of your army." Fouche said.

"Tell me, how do you want me to cooperate with you?" Napoleon was also very straightforward.

Fouche took out the Le Mans map from his pocket and spread it on the table.

"Mr. Bonaparte, have you seen these houses marked with red crosses?" Fouche said.

"Is this the house of a traitor?" asked Napoleon.

"Yes," said Fouché, "they are plotting a rebellion, and are cooperating with the rebels in the Vendée."

"What do you want me to do? To arrest people?"

"No, you don't have to worry about arresting people." Fouché showed a tiger-like smile, "You only need to be responsible for killing people. You see, you and your subordinates are both officers and not locals. Arresting people You may not be proficient in things, you just need to let your fighters control these most critical positions, and enforce a strict curfew in the city. You can order, except for our own people, that anyone who sees the Walking on the street, you can shoot at them. Le Mans is such a good place, it has a complete city wall... Just watch those key places, and none of those traitors can escape!"

Napoleon lowered his head, looked at the map carefully, and said, "Where might the strongest resistance of the rebels be?"

"At this location." Fouche said, "I know that they have hidden a batch of weapons here, and gathered about a hundred people."

"The streets in this place are too narrow and tortuous. If we do it here, we will suffer unnecessary losses." Napoleon rested his chin on his hand and stared at the map. "I suggest you do it here first, they will definitely be killed." Alarmed. Then they have two options, one is to support here."

Napoleon pointed on the map with his hand: "I will arrange a company and two cannons here. If they want to come, they will definitely pass by here. At that time, we will kill them here. Of course, they still have another choice." is to escape, then they will go like this..."

Napoleon's finger moved slowly along the street on the map, and then stopped at a bend in the street, and said heavily: "Here, I will arrange two more cannons and twenty cavalry here. , After running forward for a while, I was suddenly bombarded from behind...hehe."

"Very well, Monsieur Bonaparte, that's what we'll do!"

After nightfall, Le Mans City quickly quieted down. Because the war was approaching, Le Mans had already imposed a curfew. After nightfall, no one was allowed to go outside.

At about one o'clock, there was a sudden sound of footsteps in the street, and the clang of the wheels of the loaded carriage on the stone road. Many residents facing the street were awakened by these sounds. They looked out through the gaps in the windows and saw groups of soldiers holding torches running along the road.

"What happened?" These people were thinking in their hearts, and at the same time they woke up their families, ready to respond at any time.

The mayor of Le Mans, Constantin de René, was awakened by the sounds on the street outside. As soon as he sat up from the bed, he heard a noisy sound from outside. Then there was an argument at the gate, and then there was a hasty knock on his bedroom door.

"My lord, my lord, it's Commissar Fouché. He's leading a group of soldiers, and he wants my lord to go down and preside over the arrest of rebels with him."

René was startled, he was closer politically to the Brissots. A few days ago, the changes in Paris made him very frightened. Now that something like this happened suddenly, he didn't know how to deal with it for a while.

"Master, Commissioner Fouché is still waiting below." Seeing that the master had not opened the door, the servant outside said again.

"Ah, you tell him, I'll come down after I change my clothes, let him wait for a while." Rene woke up and said hastily.

The servant went down. René got out of bed and his wife hurriedly helped him get dressed.

"Konstantin, are you all right?" said the wife.

"Julie, don't worry, nothing will happen." René kissed his wife on the forehead, opened the door, and walked down the stairs.

Arriving in the living room, he saw Fouché waiting with a group of soldiers.

"Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry to disturb you at this time." Fouche said, but no matter from his expression or tone, he could not see or hear any embarrassment.

"The situation is urgent. Some traitors want to launch a rebellion. We must act to stop them. Now please go to the city hall with me to preside over the situation."

"Ah...there..." René said.

"Mr. Mayor, I will leave a team of soldiers to protect your family. Please come with me now, our time is very precious."

The two went out. Just as they walked out of the door, there was a gunshot from over there, and then there was a burst of gunshots.

René was taken aback, but Fouché didn't seem to hear at all. He opened the door of the carriage he brought and said with a smile, "Mr. Mayor, please get in the carriage. Don't worry, my coachman is very experienced, this carriage will not overturn."

By the time the two arrived at the city hall, there were already gunshots everywhere. Looking out from the second-floor windows of City Hall, flames can even be seen rising to the west.

"Over there, isn't that over there..." Rene pointed to the west.

"Yes, those are some of the richest fellows in this city. The French people have given them a good life, but they are not satisfied enough, and even try to trample the French people under their feet forever. So they It's really ridiculous to collude with the Royalists, don't you think, Mr. Mayor? Rich people are always unreliable." Fouche still spoke in a calm and polite voice, which terrified René.

"Mr. Commissioner, do you have evidence?" Rene asked.

"There is some evidence, although it is not enough to form a complete chain of evidence, but it is enough to show that they are suspicious. As for more evidence, there will be some soon. And at a time like this..." Fouché laughed , "At a time like this, is evidence still needed? In order to protect the interests of the people of France, isn't suspicion enough?"

"Aren't those people the people of France?" René asked courageously.

"They are the people of France?" Fouche smiled, shaking his head slowly and said, "Mr. Mayor, you have a problem with the word people. The revolution is carried out for the people, and the so-called people should not Conceived as the class that, by virtue of its wealth, possesses privileges, enjoys all the joys of life and all the wealth of society. The people is the sum of all the citizens of France, but he above all defends the frontiers of our country with his life and feeds the whole society with his labor If our revolution only focuses on the wealth of a few hundred people and leaves 24 million people in poverty, it will be a political and moral atrocity—the greatest atrocity in the world! This atrocity must be corrected, if necessary, by revolutionary atrocities. Do you understand? Today we are correcting this atrocity, with our own atrocities."

It seemed that in response to Fouché's remarks, there was a sudden rumble of cannons outside.

"What's going on here? Does the arrest operation still need to use cannons?" Rene's face was as pale as a dead man.

"Don't you understand? This is not an arrest, but a war, a war of one class against another!" Fouché smiled frighteningly. "In essence, the rich will never become a real revolution." Those who are rich will never become real republicans! Because the foundation of a republic is the equality of citizens, and those rich people will always consider themselves a special kind of people. No citizen should possess more than his own survival needs. Any man who has such wealth, if he is a true republican, should give it to the state to fight against the enemies of the people."

Speaking of this, Fouche paused for a moment, and then said to René: "Mr. Mayor, do you understand what I mean now? You must know that rich people are unreliable. Many of them, in order to possess A lot of money is in contact with our enemies. And the rich are also very united, and they have a lot of connections. Even Mr. Mayor, you have a lot of connections. But now, you have to choose, It’s on our side, it’s still on their side.”

At this time, there were several cannon shots outside. It's just that the gunfire seems to be coming from another direction.

"The rebellion has been crushed!" Fouche said with a smile. "I'm going to interrogate the traitors myself in a moment. These unscrupulous fellows sometimes like to talk nonsense-you must make a choice as soon as possible."

"I..." Rene was on the verge of falling, almost unable to stand still. He stretched out his hand and supported the table next to him to prevent himself from falling down like this. His face turned blue and red for a while, and finally, as if he had made up his mind, he raised his head and said to Fouche: "I am loyal to the republic."

"Very well, I'm glad to see that you made the right choice." Fouche said with a gentle smile.

Early the next morning, the city hall rang the bell and gathered the citizens who had been frightened all night. Fouche gave them an impassioned speech, and then erected His Majesty's improved invention on the municipal square, and cut off more than a hundred noble heads in one breath, making many families complete together.

Inspired by Fouche's speech, led by the mayor René, a group of rich people loyal to the republic donated their excess wealth and helped Fouche find out more treasures hidden by the rebels. wealth. Using a fraction of this wealth, Fouché quickly organized the sans-culottes of Le Mans into a national guard of 5,000 men.

(Note: Fouché’s rather sickle-like remark was not planted by the author, but was directly published in his “Work Order” when he was the Nantes commissioner during the Great Revolution. Individual words may be a little different because the written language has changed to the spoken language, but the meaning has not changed.)