Bordeaux, 10 September 1648.

Kondin (former Xu Xin's secretary Konstantin), who had taken over as the head of the merchant station and the head of the intelligence station, sat in his dark secret office and approached the candle with a stack of stationary paper in his hand. Some of these letters were written by Julien of the Pasquier family, some by Frank, son of the Baron of Toulouse, and, of course, by the staff (under the cover of commercial personnel) and friendly business associates arranged by the East Coasters in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier and Marseille.

There is nothing forbidden in the content, probably some social customs, market information, and anecdotes and political news among the aristocracy. People like Julian and Frank are old friends of the East Coast, and after more than ten years of business cooperation, the interests of the two sides have long been inseparable, so they usually collect and organize the useful information circulating in their circles and provide it to the East Coasters - of course, they only provide some information that is publicly available but requires a lot of time and money for the East Coasters to collect.

“…… The peasants hated him for the heavy taxes that Bishop Mazarin had extracted to sustain the war, the merchants hated him for the tariff system, the nobles hated him for continuing to uphold the system of sweeping away the feudal princes established by Richelieu, and in any case no one liked him, except Queen Anne, who forbade anyone to criticize Mazarin's statecraft in public. "This is a letter from an agent from Marseille, which is very general and general, with little useful information.

“…… Tallon, a member of the Paris Parliament, openly stated: 'France has been in tatters for the last ten years, and the peasants have been left to their homes, and their property has been sold out to pay their taxes...... They have nothing but their souls. And that's only because no one has yet figured out a way to sell their souls as well. "This is a letter from the north. The date must have been months ago. But it doesn't matter, this does not prevent Condin from understanding the sharply antagonistic relationship between the French court and parliament today.

Nowadays, to be honest, the parliaments represented by the nobility (the twelve local councils, including the Paris Council, whose members were nobles and held hereditary positions) demanded the restoration of the former prerogative, that any law or tax decree issued by the king must be approved by the representative body of the parliament. But there is also a limitation to this kind of council, which is that only the king has the power to order it, unfortunately. The king had not convened such a council since 1614, and it had not been held until 1789.

The aristocracy resented the centralization of power resolutely pursued by the two prime ministers (Richelieu and Mazarin), as well as the various commercial and tax policies, and they often colluded to put pressure on the young king to restore the feudal system of the past and, of course, more importantly, the privileges of the nobles. This unreasonable demand was naturally rejected by the king (in fact, Queen Anne and Prime Minister Mazaran), so the contradictions between the two sides are now irreconcilable.

“…… July 12th. Members of the Paris parliament met at the court to propose several reforms to the king. Denied. Queen Anne believed that these reforms would greatly weaken the power of the royal family, which would likely be wiped out in the chaos of the masses in the future. She thought it would be a shame for the previous king to put power in her hands, and for her not to pass it on to her children and grandchildren in its entirety. On 26 August, news of Lens's victory came that Prime Minister Mazarin ordered the arrest of the leader of the Parliament, Brossel, and others, prompting a large number of citizens to rally in front of the palace to demand Brossell's release. Many of them carried catapults, and it is said that the incoming Archbishop of Paris, Gondi, played a large role in this. ”

The letter came from Frank, the son of the Baron of Toulouse, whose family had relatives in Paris, so they were often the first to receive news about the political affairs circulating on the streets of Paris (almost all the citizens of Paris were high-minded "political families"). Judging from the contents of the letter, Paris must have been in chaos since August 26, and it is likely that an armed confrontation had broken out, and it was almost time for the news to reach France on a large scale.

As for Gondi, Condin had also heard of it. He was narrow-minded and failed in his initial bid for cardinal with Mazarin. Now that Ma Zaran is powerful and powerful, and he is still not clear with the Queen Mother, this almost makes him want to go crazy with jealousy. If you don't fight against him at this time, it won't be his style!

“…… On 27 August, barricades were erected in the streets of Paris, and more than 160 parliamentarians marched to the palace with their supportive soldiers, demanding the execution of Mazarin. In desperation, the panicked Queen Mother Anne agreed with Mazarin and ordered Brose's release. But the Queen Mother felt that Paris was full of enemies, that the nobles looked at the young king with ill will, and that the noble ladies - the Duchess of Bouillon, Madame de Langueville, etc. - looked at the Queen Mother with jealousy and mockery, so she soon fled with the king to Ruet, where she took refuge in an army loyal to the king, while Prime Minister Mazarin remained in Paris to deal with the nobles. Well, well, this is an "artistically processed" letter, also from Frank, a prodigal who vividly portrays the chaotic situation in Paris today and the positions of the parties.

An armed rebellion has already broken out! Kang Ding was in high spirits when he saw this, he didn't think that the soldiers who followed the noble councilors to the palace to "petition" were all going with the purpose of peace, otherwise they would not have carried a lot of weapons and catapults, this is the forced palace! It is no wonder that Queen Mother Anne fled Paris with the young king, a place now surrounded by the nobility and the citizens they had instigated. Brussel, Talon, Prince Conti, Prince Gaston, etc., were not good at it, and they were concerned with weakening the power of the king, reforming the centralized system, and restoring their privileges as feudal nobles. As for accusing Mazarin of corruption and extravagance, that is only a by-the-way purpose, who called him an Italian with weak roots!

After reading each letter carefully, Condin began to sort out the information in it, transcribe it, and then write it into an encrypted code letter to send to his henchmen in the hands of Mo San in Spain. Mo San is the highest official in charge of all the foreign affairs of the East Coast Republic of China in Europe, and he is Kangding's top boss, so such important information must be handed over to Mo San as soon as possible.

The letter was delivered in late September to Mo San, who was living in Valladolid. After translating it and reading it carefully, Mo San suddenly felt mixed feelings. The good news is that the Kingdom of France has finally broken out into a civil strife that may destroy its hegemony, no, it may not only be civil strife now, it may soon evolve into a civil war, which should be a great blessing for the East Coast Republic of China, which is always concerned about the situation in Europe, after all, they do not want France to beat countries and dominate in Europe, which is a very unfavorable thing for the East Coast both politically and commercially.

While rejoicing at the outbreak of the crisis in France, Mo San also felt a trace of worry, that is, whether the Kingdom of Spain would misjudge the shape of the form! That is, they believe that France is now on the brink of civil war, and it is likely that they will no longer have time to attack the Spanish kingdom, and that the Spaniards may even be able to go one step further and unite with the French nobles who have been in cahoots with them until now, and march their own armies into French territory, which in turn will weaken France so that it will no longer be able to invade other countries. Compared with this kind of thing, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria and other major European powers will be happy to see it happen.

However, after thinking about it carefully, especially after Alessandro of the Doria family also gave his opinion, Mo San was inclined to think that the Spaniards were now sincere in their desire to end the war with the people on the east coast. The reason is simple, the rebellious French nobles are not new to the Spaniards today, in fact, some of them should have been in collusion with the Spaniards as early as a year or two ago after the situation in France became tense. But at that time, the Spaniards still insisted on ending the war with the east coast, and their attitude could even be said to be slightly eager and impatient, which is very telling!

"The Spaniards, after weighing the pros and cons, decided that it was in their country's interest to end the war with the east coast and then quickly reverse the march into France." Mo San made his own judgment at this moment.

After all, many of the nobles who colluded with them were generals in military power, and even many of the armies were simply their private soldiers, and if they were willing to cease fire with the Spaniards on the front line and then march into Paris together, then theoretically the Spaniards still had a good chance of winning. Especially today, when they are increasingly in domestic and foreign difficulties, they have no other way to go, and they will definitely not refuse this opportunity to turn the tables in a decisive battle!

Thinking of this, Mo San finally let go of his mind slightly. Since there is no obvious change in the situation, it is better to sit still and watch the play. Soon the Spaniards and the French will be playing a dog's head, and the East Coasters will have a greater chance of profiting. However, before that, it was necessary to move around more with the Spanish negotiators, and the diplomatic pressure exerted by the Netherlands and England on the East Coast Republic had been increasing recently, as if they were going to resort to force if the East Coast refused to stop the war any longer, which was a real headache. (To be continued......)