To be honest, when hearing about Carnot and Joseph's introduction to Joseph's brother Napoleon, Lafayette's first reaction was that "Joseph wanted to use his power for personal gain". But Lafayette was not offended at all. Even a little happy.

This is first of all because, in this day and age, this is a very common thing. On the other hand, if someone doesn't do it, it's something out of the ordinary. Moreover, Joseph's willingness to follow his path was, in a sense, at least in Lafayette's view, a clear move towards him. Of course, Joseph's movements to move closer to him were too slow and too hesitant. It wasn't until now that the big picture was settled (at least in Lafayette's view) that he moved closer. Lafayette, however, felt that he should embrace him with enthusiasm. Because, Joseph is really talented. Generally speaking, people are always a little more generous to talented people.

As to whether Joseph and his brother would spoil the matter, Lafayette was not particularly worried. First, he felt that Joseph's abilities could still be trusted. Even if he really wasn't very good at military affairs, he wouldn't be better than the large number of aristocratic officers in the French army who were mixed with qualifications and gilded gold. Moreover, it is only a matter of a small army, even if it is taken out to gild the Bonaparte brothers, it is not a big deal. And so the matter was settled.

After approving the matter, Lafayette put it behind him, because there were more important things ahead of him.

For Lafayette, the first thing that was most important was to put the French army in order. Lafayette is indeed very prestigious in the French army, but prestige does not mean that the army will follow you. Feng Fengxian in later generations had such prestige in the Northwest Army, but as soon as he encountered Chang Dashuai's silver bullets, his subordinates followed Chang Dashuai one by one. This Northwest Army was pulled up by Feng Fengxian one hand and one foot.

Today's French army is in a very strange state, the royal party can't trust the army, the parliament can't trust the army, and what's worse, the army itself can't trust the army. The middle and upper officers of the French army were all nobles, but the lower officers, as well as the soldiers, were all of the third estate. Now they don't trust each other either.

Lafayette knew that if such a situation developed, the army would be divided. And the division of the army will completely collapse the foundation of his rule, and with it, civil war and chaos will follow.

"It's going to ruin France." Lafayette thought.

However, there are those who would rather ruin France than contribute to this division. Because in their opinion, this France today is not their France at all.

Some of the nobles of the past were dissatisfied with the present of France, including some of the nobles who had joined the ranks of the Third Estate in the Estates-General; And when the Parliament, at the suggestion of the Bishop of Talleyrand, confiscated all the wealth that had belonged to the Church, some of the clergy who had joined the ranks of the revolution, and at the time of the Estates-General, the clergy who had stood clearly on the side of the Third Estate also stood in opposition to what is now France.

A group of clergy and noble councillors, including Bishop Maury and Councillor Çanes, organized a club called the "Black Party" (because of the large number of black-robed clergy in this club). Oppose the revolution as much as possible. They created newspapers such as the Friends of the King, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Petit Gaultier, which indiscriminately abused "those in power," including Lafayette, and blamed France's difficulties on the "rebellious careerists" in Parliament. They even preach to the people at the bottom, pretending that they don't care about their own interests, but are sympathetic to the people at the bottom of the relationship.

Such a trick is not very useful, but it cannot be said that it is completely useless. Because the new regime really didn't take much care of the people at the bottom. Whether in the cities or in the countryside, there are people everywhere whose living conditions are not as good as they were before the revolution. Many of them are asking the question: "If you can't eat enough before the revolution and still can't eat enough after the revolution, isn't the revolution a white revolution?" ”

These people gave an answer to this question, that is: revolution is better than no revolution, if we can return to the era of the king, the world will be peaceful. This argument is not very popular in Paris, but in some rural villages in the provinces, it can deceive some people.

In addition, some mid- and high-ranking officers in the army are also in frequent contact with these people, and they may be engaged in some kind of conspiracy, which makes Lafayette very worried.

On the other side, some of the comrades-in-arms who used to be on the same side as Lafayette have also changed. Perhaps they felt that their brilliance was overshadowed by Lafayette, so some of them also distanced themselves from Lafayette. Perhaps to attract attention, these people have also become more radical than before. Some of his old friends from the past, like Dupol, Ramer and others, began to become more radical. And some of the new friends are more radical than the old ones. Well, the main thing here is Bishop Talleyrand.

Bishop Talleyrand and some of his religious friends introduced a Law on the Organization of Priestly Citizens in Parliament. By this decree, France established eighty-three bishoprics (one in each department) under ten archdioceses. There are dioceses under the bishopry. Like State officials, clergy, bishops and archbishops are elected by the citizens. Those elected shall be ordained by the faculty at the next higher level, and the bishop shall be appointed by the Archbishop. The new bishop or above only needs to write to the pope to express that they belong to the same faith, and they do not need to go to Rome to buy a belt from the pope, nor do they need the approval of the pope. In addition, the decree abolished the "first-year endowment" (i.e., new teachers were to pay their first year's income to Rome). It also stipulates that the salaries of the clergy are paid by the State, and that the Synod of Bishops' Bishops replaces the prerogatively privileged Synod and participates in the administration of the diocesan of the diocese.

This is tantamount to completely severing the vast majority of the ties between Catholicism and the Holy See in France, and is a huge split in Catholicism. The pope reacted almost immediately, condemning the bill and declaring Talleyrand excommunicated. But Talleyrand disdained this, and he still wore the archbishop's robes and practiced various religious activities. Even as a counter to the Pope's actions, the Parliament was ready to pass a new bill again requiring all French clergy to swear allegiance to the French motherland. Any clergy who refuses to take the oath of allegiance will be dismissed.

This is a requirement that is completely contrary to the Catholic tradition. He almost turned the Catholic clergy into ordinary state servants. And doctrinally speaking, the clergy's only allegiance can only be to God. This decree provoked tensions between the church and the council.

At one point, Lafayette tried to get Parliament to be more moderate and not to be overly aggressive on such matters. But parliamentarians need such bills to show their "firm stance", and the clergy who have turned to parliament need such an opportunity to control the church. (If you don't get those guys down, when will Lao Tzu become a bishop?) ）

So Lafayette's efforts were fruitless, and the bill was passed. After that, things almost got out of control, and most of the bishops and archbishops in the country insisted on not taking an oath of allegiance to the government and the Constitution, so they were forcibly dismissed from their clergy, while most of the parish priests at the bottom chose to swear allegiance to the government and the Constitution, and then were promoted to be bishops and archbishops.

However, the Parliament's orders of appointment and dismissal were ignored in many dioceses outside Paris. On the contrary, many diocesan bishops outside Paris began to openly accuse the council of blasphemy and encourage the faithful to fight these "antichrists".

The addition of these ecclesiastical forces also greatly increased the power of the black party, and in places such as Lyon, they de facto controlled the local area, and organized their own militia, and the local garrison also fell to them, and civil war was almost imminent.

Lafayette believes that the key now lies with the king. If the king is willing to stand firmly on his side and firmly support the constitution, then the activities of the royal party will not become a climate at all. If, on the other hand, the king is shaken and falls over to the side of the king, then the problem is very troublesome.

To this end, Lafayette constantly visited the king, trying to convince him to genuinely support a constitutional monarchy. He tried to make the king and queen understand that times had changed and that the autocratic rule of Louis XIV's "I am the state" was no longer possible. And a British-style constitutional monarchy is the best choice for the country and the royal family. And those royal parties, in fact, are not really loyal to the king, their approach, in fact, is fundamentally only for their own interests, the king is just a plaque they use to call on their followers. In a sense, the royal party, like the radical republicans, is the one who wants the king to have something happen to him.

To be sure, Lafayette's point is very plausible. And he also felt that he had succeeded in convincing the king.

"In fact, our king is still a very rational and learned man." As he came out of the Palazzo Saint-Croix, Lafayette said this to his adjutant, Pierre.

This assessment is actually not bad, the reason why King Louis XVI has not resorted to harsh repression before this is precisely because he knows that the times are no longer the same as when his grandfather did. But can reason necessarily triumph over emotions and desires? What's more, the queen doesn't have that much knowledge.

But Lafayette did not notice that shortly after he left the Saint-Crowe Palace, a messenger left the palace with the queen's secret letter, addressed by the rather radical-looking MP Mirabeau.