Volume VII The Ferryman of the River Styx Chapter XVIII The Peasant Movement
The coalition troops who had temporarily received the order to return to the defense marched to the border in a mighty way, but this time they were much slower than the last time, and this time the people along the way simply collected their own food and fled with their families! So that the passing coalition troops had no food to eat at all! As a result, these soldiers, who had been tossed and turned, had to eat the daily ration of rations, and marched half hungry.
This situation caught the Coalition commanders by surprise, as the Coalition marched on a fixed route and passed through as many villages as possible to get more food, but when they passed by, most of the time they saw that the entire village was completely empty, and the food was not known where it was hidden. In some villages, the chiefs of villages and towns were beaten to death and thrown on the march of the coalition forces, with slogans of Hugo's lackeys written on them.
Immediately afterward, some of the coalition forces received a tip-off that the villagers had fled to the ravine for refuge. So some of the soldiers who were crazy by the stomach bag made an incredible move. One night, a group of about 50 soldiers quietly left the army, touched a ravine a few kilometers away from the village, slaughtered more than 300 villagers, including the elderly, children, women, and adults, and stole more than a ton of food.
I thought that there was no living thing, but it spread to all corners of the mainland almost in one day. Atrocities happen at one time, this time. People are finally outraged.
The country where this happened was Rabelais, and King Rabelais, who had always been known to Hugo as Hugo's loyal dog, suddenly declared that the Quadruple Coalition was the least persona non grata in their country, and that they had to take responsibility for the dead, and left the territory of Rabelais. And the common people, who had dared to be angry and did not dare to speak, applauded their king's decision, and the king, who had always been called a soft egg, finally hardened up!
And the most incredible person about this matter is none other than Emperor Hugo.
Valjean knew that the king of Rabelais was his own, because it was the inner line that he had planted there. He did not give Valjean any notice of Emperor Rabelais's move this time, perhaps because his country was too chaotic?
Emperor Hugo was puzzled.
Of course, doubts are doubts, Emperor Hugo naturally would not let his army leave from there, and he did not believe that the emperor would really let himself leave from there, after all, his life has always been in his own hands.
But Emperor Hugo never waited for the other party's response, and not only that, but Rabelais's country was even more chaotic.
Soon after Emperor Hugo's statement, the peasants in the country redirected their dissatisfaction with the royal family to the coalition forces, and there were countless clashes between the coalition forces and the locals. Despite the repeated orders of the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces in any conflict, in any case, everyone must exercise restraint. But sometimes, an order is an order, and it still requires the endurance of the soldier whether it can be carried out.
Obviously, these soldiers who have come from large countries to small countries have become accustomed to flying and domineering, and they absolutely cannot tolerate this kind of.
Eventually, in the midst of a series of clashes, the peasant makeshift and coalition soldiers confronted each other, resulting in a large number of peasant deaths. The death of the peasants immediately aroused strong emotions in the country, and some of the petty nobles, merchants, and the like, who were not usually very concerned with the lives of the peasants, were also angry at the king's weakness at this time, and for only saying and not doing anything. They demanded that the king immediately send his own army of his own and drive out of Rabelais the coalition that oppressed his own people.
But this time their king was silent at one time.
The only ability of the vegetable shop owner who replaced the king is to imitate others, and he can imitate everything from appearance to habits, except that memory cannot accurately imitate it, and ordinary people cannot see any difference at all. Even Emperor Hugo did not notice anything wrong, and remained silent in such a situation, waiting for the situation to settle down on its own, which was the emperor's most customary practice. He didn't think there was anything wrong with that king.
The common people of Rabelais, who had always believed that their king would stand up for the people, were outraged this time, and this time, it was not just a riot against the coalition forces. Rather, it was a peasant uprising that shocked the entire continent, and the result was unimaginable to everyone.
Feeling abandoned, the peasants banded together, led by a middle-aged village chief whose entire family had been killed, to form a united militia, shouting slogans along the way to regain lost territory with their own power.
"The king doesn't dare to do it, let's come!"
That was the only slogan that the village chief raised, and they marched all the way to the imperial city, and countless peasants responded along the way. Most of Rabelais' soldiers were in the border area, and the arrival of the coalition forces this time completely isolated Rabelais's already small military territory from the imperial city, and a small number of army commanders who had been ordered to come to persuade him, after talking to the leaders of the uprising in detail, also defected and joined the rebel forces! By the time they arrived in the imperial city, the entire peasant uprising had reached a huge number of hundreds of thousands!
And the inhabitants of the Imperial City of Rabelais are no more than that!
The emperor finally got frightened, and he ordered all the gates of the imperial city to be closed on all sides, and a curfew was imposed in the imperial city. And he shouted to the leader of the rebels on the walls several times in a row, claiming that Hugo was a friend of Rabelais, a reliable ally, his own man, and he came to help them. But the more the king said this, the more angry the rebels became. As a result, some rumors of the earlier years that Emperor Rabelais was Hugo's lackey began to come to the surface in one comeback, and this time, in almost two days, the entire rebel army, including the inhabitants of the city, became aware of it. The rebels began to shoot leaflets into the city with hunting bows and arrows to let more people know the truth and call on the people of the city to help them.
Perhaps because of the sore spots, the king suddenly decreed that no one was allowed to keep or distribute the leaflets without permission, and that if they were discovered, they should be punished for treason. At first, some people didn't believe it, but a few days later, a group of more than two dozen people were really executed, and people realized that the emperor really seemed to be crazy.
Panic was formed in the country, and the emperor would kill his own people for Hugo's army, and such a thing finally led to the final result.
One night, the city defense army, who were also angry at what the emperor had done, quietly opened the city gate and put the peasant rebels who had been surrounding the city into the imperial city, no one knew who gave this order, and the gate was quietly opened, and hundreds of thousands of angry peasants rushed to the palace frantically under the instigation of some people who came out of nowhere. The sleeping king immediately ordered the city guards to attack the angry peasants, but what he didn't expect was that instead of carrying out the emperor's orders, the city guards helped the peasants attack all the way to the palace!
The Emperor had no choice but to activate the palace's ultimate defensive enchantment with the help of the royal guards. Once this barrier was activated, the rebels besieging the palace were furious and almost burned down the entire city!
This country's defense barrier has a clear Hugo mark on it! That is something that only Hugo can make! And a country's defense barrier is extremely expensive, and if there is no dirt between Hugo and this emperor, it is not worth it for the country to spend so much manpower and material resources to create a defense system for this small country.
Once the defenses were opened, the rebels had no way to continue to vent their anger. So they were led by some army generals, and those who were preparing to attack the palace began to turn their attention to the heads of the coalition forces.
On the other hand, Emperor Hugo had been following the progress of the whole situation, and he had never imagined why those honest peasants would do such a thing, nor would they have the courage to devote themselves to such a thing. But what he didn't expect was that the king would raise the defensive barrier that was used to save his life.
Although this may expose the relationship between himself and Hugo, it can also prevaricate the past for certain reasons. He didn't care what was going to happen in Rabelais, or what the peasants were going to do to their king, he had only one purpose now, and that was to find out what the man was going to do. He suspected that there was a man behind the peasants. What's more, it's the bastard who is behind it!
But in any case, he now has to make a decision. At his desk was a secret letter that had been sent to him through some means. And the person who wrote this secret letter was the king who hid in the shell of a turtle. In the confidential letter, he briefly stated his allegiance to himself, including his disadvantage in the handling of domestic affairs. It was hoped that Emperor Hugo would send their allied forces in the territory to help maintain order and repatriate those peasants.
Of course, although the language is so, the Emperor Hugo can certainly see the specific meaning of the letter, that is, he wants to help the country in its repression.
It's a matter of judgment and judgment and he has to make a decision, to do it or not to do it.
Emperor Rabelais had always been his most loyal lackey, he would never do anything against him, and that king was known for his timidity as much as his greed. The reason why he was able to live in that palace was largely because he was able to get the heavy taxes of the country. He is a rich man, a rich man, who lives in a bunch of poor people. He didn't want his money to disappear like this in an irresistible peasant catastrophe, he had to struggle.
Valjean agreed.