In the months that followed, the days were still "quiet". Of course, this "lull" is relative to the days of the siege of the Bastille.

The order of the high community in the city of Paris has been basically guaranteed. The new National Guard patrols day and night, so that those little beetle thieves do not dare to mess around in these places at all. Today, the poor have been largely removed from the National Guard, because they have to spend a lot of their time earning a living rather than receiving military training.

But if you go out of these neighborhoods and into the poor people's quarters, you will immediately see that the restoration of order is only an illusion, and that order is even more chaotic than it was before the revolution.

According to Aunt Sophie, the streets are now full of thieves and robbers.

"I don't dare walk down the street with bread in my hand." When Joseph suggested that Aunt Sophie could take a little bread from him and go back to her children, Aunt Sophie said so.

"Monsieur Bonaparte, you don't know how chaotic it is outside the neighborhood these days! Oh, a woman like me, walking down the street with bread in her hand—oh my God, it's more dangerous than walking in a forest with tigers. Don't talk about me, even a big man like you, if there were only one person, I'm sure you'd be robbed of your bread in those places, and you wouldn't be able to walk a hundred steps. If it was Young Master Lucien, he would be shot if he couldn't walk ten steps. If little Louis had gone, ah, he would have disappeared without a trace. ”

"If that's the case, how do you bring home the bread you bought?" Joseph asked.

"Of course, several people from the neighborhood went to buy it together." Aunt Sophie said, "If you want to say that it is all caused by you men, what Estates-General, what kings, conferences, revolutions are nonsense. Originally, I thought that life was sad enough, and if I made a fuss, it wouldn't be even more sad, who knows...... Sir, they all said that the Estates-General would be held, and everyone would be able to eat their stomachs. But there are some bad people who won't let us have a three-level meeting. Let's all go and fight the bad guys. But the bad guys were beaten, the Estates-General were opened, and the bread became more and more expensive. When the Estates-General were not in session, we could not afford bread; The Estates-General were opened, and we still couldn't afford bread: wasn't the Estates-General open in vain? ”

Hearing this, Joseph sighed and said, "Aunt Sophie, the Estates-General themselves can't make bread. ”

At the same time, he added another sentence in his heart: "Moreover, those representatives have never thought about how to make the lowest level of society have enough bread." ”

The idea did not wronged those deputies. In fact, most of those delegates were wealthy people, so they didn't worry about bread. Some even compared the salaries of the French and the British, and concluded that the French wages were too high, dragging down the French economy, so the proposal to limit high wages should be used by legal means.

"But doesn't it mean that as soon as the Estates-General meet, everyone will have a good life? They can't just deceive people like that. Aunt Sophie muttered.

"It's not just you." Joseph also sighed and said, "Even I have a harder life than before. Except for salaries, everything has gone up. My days have become sad. ”

This is a half-truth, but if Joseph hadn't had some other income, relying on the school salary alone, his life would have become a little difficult now. Even a "high-level technician" like Joseph (this is Joseph's self-deprecating statement) may be in difficulty, and ordinary people will naturally have no way to live.

But in fact, if there is no Estates-General, there is no revolution, even if the life of ordinary people is a little harder, nothing will necessarily happen. To be honest, in Europe, the life of the French, even the people at the bottom of France, is actually not bad. At least, compared to the British workers whose average life span was no more than three years, or the Russian serfs who did not even have personal freedom, I don't know how high it was. As for Germany? Heine even went so far as to say: "One percent of the suffering suffered by our German people is enough for the French to launch a thousand uprisings." ”

But the problem is that the convening of the Estates-General gave a great hope to the bottom, and all the French, even the low-level Frenchmen like Aunt Sophie, knew about it and were full of hope for it. And all kinds of propaganda continued to blow this hope bigger and bigger, and more and more beautiful, as if as long as the Estates-General were convened and the king supported the constitution, all problems could be solved. It's almost "after the Estates-General, the constitution has become everything, there is foie gras on the table, and the chick hugs it at night".

However, in the face of reality, this hope that was blown up to the boss was shattered like a soap bubble. The Estates-General were opened, the Constituent Assembly was formed, the Bastille was beaten, and yet, not to mention foie gras, not even black bread was gone. The pain that such a gap can bring far exceeds the pain of not having enough to eat, and the hatred brought by such a gap naturally far exceeds the hatred brought by not having enough. So the Revolution did not break out in the most oppressive countries, but first in France.

Therefore, the king's agreement to convene the Estates-General was his biggest mistake. Now the anger of the citizens of Paris is still gathering, and with a little guidance, the confrontation between the whole of Paris and the king is inevitable. Hehe, having lost the support of Paris, and even gained the hatred of Paris, how can the king still wear his crown? "At the Palais Royale, the Marquis de Mirabeau was talking to the Duke of Orleans, the owner here.

The Marquis of Mirabeau was a wonderful man, and the first half of his life was either in scandal or in prison.

Mirabeau showed the prodigal factor when he was a young man, his father sent him to the army for training, but he gambled, played with girls and even tried to become a deserter. As a result, he ended up in Ray Island Prison. After his release from prison, he took part in the suppression of the Corsican rebellion, during which time he was promoted to captain and returned to Paris.

At his father's behalf, he married Emily, the daughter of the Marquis Mariani, whose father's purpose was to gain a great fortune through this marriage. But this couple is not in tune, they don't look down on each other, they both like to live in luxury, spend extravagantly every day, and owe a lot of foreign debts. The old Marquis Mirabeau, in order to prevent his son from dishonoring the family's reputation, locked him up and forbade him to dispose of his own property. Mirabeau continued to do so and in 1774 he was imprisoned in the fortress of Fort d'If. (This is the same prison where Edmund Dantès spent in The Count of Monte Cristo.) ）

In 1775, Mirabeau was released from prison. However, as soon as he was released from prison, he seduced a married woman, the young wife of the Marquis de Molière, and eloped with her to the Netherlands.

This act, of course, led the old Marquis Mirabeau to cut off all his financial resources. Mirabeau had to start writing for a living. Mirabeau came out of the upper echelons and was well aware of all kinds of bullshit in the French upper class, so he wrote something to expose the corruption of the French upper class, and soon became a famous critic of the old French system.

However, the money he earned from writing was not enough for Mirabeau's expenses, and this man had always spent a lot of money, and what he was best at was spending money. So during this time, he was once again imprisoned because of debt disputes. Mirabeau, of course, declared that it was the persecution of him by the reactionary French authorities.

Soon, however, Mirabeau was released from prison, and miraculously paid off his debts, lived a more indulgent life, and never got into trouble again because of debt disputes. In this regard, Mirabeau claims that this is because of his various successful investments, which have brought him good returns. He also said that achieving financial freedom is just a small goal. But many people say that he just found a big donor and got a lot of money from him. This big benefactor is the Duke of Orleans, who is bent on ruining the reputation of the king.

Because of his constant criticism of the French Ancien Régime, Mirabeau gained a good reputation among the third estate, which was dissatisfied with reality. When the Estates-General were convened, Mirabeau became the representative of the Estates-General. and became one of the leaders of the Constituent Assembly.

"However, Parisians have been in a similar situation many times now. Moreover, this year's wheat growth is very good, and it is generally believed that if there are no sudden natural disasters, this autumn there will be a bumper wheat harvest that has not been seen in nearly a decade. By that time, the price of grain will definitely fall. This is not subject to human will. As soon as the price of food fell, the discontent of the people of Paris would also fall, and the flame of revolution would be extinguished. If we don't hurry, the old system will continue. The Duke of Orleans frowned.

Mirabeau laughed, and the fat under his broad chin trembled.

"Your Royal Highness the Duke, don't worry, how can you support the autumn harvest in the current situation? In the past, the people of Paris were a little more patient, and it was not impossible to endure it, but now it is different. The Estates-General and the revolution gave them hope, and the anger generated by reality shattering that hope was not easy to suppress. And who else can suppress such anger today? Moreover, the countryside in the provinces is now in turmoil, and the peasants are anxious to get rid of the rent and the tithe, they cannot wait, and now there are rebellions everywhere. In order to appease them, the Constituent Assembly is preparing to pass a new decree. This new decree will certainly be blocked by the king, and then we will raise the prices a little more, and then direct the anger of the people to the king, and the situation will turn in our favor. ”