Chapter 119 The Real France (4000 Words Long Chapter)

"Your Highness, are you saying that blood is used to transport nutrients and oxygen?" Perna's big green eyes flashed, and her pretty face was full of seriousness. "So, if you bleed patients, it should make them more... weak?"

Joseph clapped softly: "Indeed, you discovered the truth.

"Then why do we do bloodletting?"

"That was a mistake."

"No wonder you haven't accepted bloodletting treatment. Are all doctors wrong?" Perna nodded thoughtfully. As she spoke, she suddenly looked at Joseph and said with a slight hesitation, "Your Highness, if... your conclusion Isn’t it correct?”

"Studying science means having a skeptical spirit and not blindly following any authority." Joseph nodded in approval of the female doctor, and then said, "Actually, if you want to know what is right and what is wrong, it is very simple, just do a double-blind experiment."

"Double-blind experiment? What is that?"

Joseph said: “To put it simply, it is to find some patients with the same disease and similar physical fitness, divide them into two groups, and cannot see each other.

"Then one group of patients will be given bloodletting treatment, and the other group will not be given bloodletting. See which group of patients recovers first, and you will know whether bloodletting is effective."

Perna copied these contents into her notebook and nodded in surprise: "This is indeed a very feasible test method. Holy Mary, no one thought of doing this in the past hundreds of years! In case of bloodletting Therapy really only has side effects..."

Then her eyes lit up: "Your Highness, maybe we can also use this... oh, double-blind experiment to test whether a certain drug is effective, or whether certain factors will affect the condition."

Joseph looked approvingly at her analogy: "You are right, these can indeed be verified by double-blind experiments."

Perna was so excited that her hand holding the pen was shaking, and her eyes were full of light as she stared at Joseph: "You, you are so amazing! How did you come up with this?"

She looked at the notes again: "Your Highness, can I tell my father about this method?"

"sure."

While the two were talking, there was a "crackling" sound from the top of the carriage. It was obviously raining heavily outside.

Not long after, the car slowly stopped. Guard captain Kesode shouted out of the car window: "Your Highness, the road ahead is soaked by the rain. I'm afraid it's not appropriate to continue moving forward."

Joseph was helpless and had no choice but to ask him to find a place to take shelter from the rain.

This is the first time he has left Paris. He thought that even if other places were worse than Paris, they would not be too far behind. However, he did not expect that within a hundred miles of the Paris region, everything looked like a remote place. Looks like it.

For example, the section of road we are walking on now obviously had corners cut during the construction. The road surface was loose and loose, and the slightly lower areas immediately became difficult to walk when soaked by rainwater.

Especially for carriages, if they are forced to pass through, they will most likely get stuck in the mud and be unable to move.

In order to speed up his journey this time, he specially asked not to let officials along the way greet him, but he was unexpectedly blocked here by heavy rain.

After a while, the cavalry who went out to inquire reported back that there was a small village to the east. Kesode hurriedly turned the convoy and rushed to take shelter from the rain.

After Joseph's carriage got stuck in the mud five or six times, he finally came to a dozen dilapidated farmhouses with thatched roofs.

Xod chose the largest farmhouse, knocked on the door, and gave the owner 8 livres. The latter was immediately surprised and thanked him profusely.

When Joseph entered the house, he was greeted by a musty smell. The room was not spacious, with newspapers taped on the walls, and the only furniture was a wooden cabinet and a crooked wooden table. Fortunately, it was able to provide shelter from the wind and rain.

Because the accommodation fee given by Kesode was too much, the peasant woman felt that she must entertain the distinguished guests well, so she took out the best food at home, and asked her children to borrow a lot of things from the neighbors, and finally made a "summer" meal. The food was carefully brought out from the inner room.

"Oh, no, we brought food..."

Kesode stepped forward to stop the peasant woman, and Joseph saw the nervous and disappointed expression on her face. Not wanting to offend her kindness, he ordered the guard captain to let her bring the food.

Emang dutifully tasted the white bread, bacon, roast chicken and vegetable soup on the table before nodding to the crown prince that he could eat it.

Joseph took a few bites. The taste was very bland, but it was not difficult to swallow.

Quesold and Emang also ate some, but Perna was the least picky about food and almost ate all her portion. She also went to the back room to praise the hostess's cooking skills.

Sitting there was quite boring, so Joseph started chatting with the man of the house: "Do you know that the government allows potatoes to be grown?"

The farmer bowed and nodded very restrainedly: "I know, sir. Father Marmant told me about it and said it was a gift from the Lord."

“So are you going to plant some?”

The farmer shook his head.

"Why not plant it? You only have to repay two-thirds after harvesting. It's very cost-effective."

The farmer held it in for about ten seconds before whispering: "Viscount Colbert said, it's best not to plant that thing..."

Kesode hurriedly leaned into Joseph's ear and said: "Your Highness, I just inquired that Colbert is the landowner here. Everyone around here is his tenant farmer."

Joseph nodded and asked the farmer again: "But isn't it up to the farmer to decide what to plant?"

The farmer said dullly: "But Viscount Colbert wouldn't let me."

Joseph sighed. In recent years, the tribute farmers, which are the largest type of tenant farmers, can cultivate the land freely and only need to pay rent, but in fact they are still very dependent on the feudal lords who own the land.

For example, they cannot leave their land at will, and they need to bear a lot of labor for the feudal lords. Even disputes can be adjudicated by the feudal lords - if the feudal lords live nearby.

So these tenant farmers usually don't go against the wishes of the big landlords. The old nobles' boycott of potatoes also caused a large number of annual tribute farmers to be unable to grow potatoes.

Joseph chatted with the farmer for a while and got a general understanding of the living conditions of this family.

The farmer's name is Gaizka. He planted 27 acres of land of Viscount Colbert and his annual grain income was around 200 livres.

However, after paying Colbert's rent, the family still had to pay a long list of taxes such as head tax, military service tax, eleven tax, twenty-first tax, road labor tax, etc.

In the future, they will have to pay mill taxes, press taxes, salt taxes, commodity taxes, road taxes, etc.

The remaining amount is basically enough for the family to have black bread every day.

As for the surplus, Gaizka said that the frequent droughts in recent years have led to poor harvests, and the family has no surplus for a long time, and now owes others nearly 50 livres.

Because Gaizka is relatively strong, his family is considered to be well-off in the village. According to him, one-fifth of the people in the village cannot eat enough every meal.

Joseph sighed in his heart that there are more than 20 million tenants like Gaizka in France. Once they encounter serious natural disasters, they have almost no ability to resist. At that time, in order to prevent themselves and their families from starving to death, they will definitely join the riot without hesitation.

He sighed. Whether it was France's huge debt or the livelihood of the lower-class peasants, to solve these problems, many difficult changes must be made, such as promoting industrial development, adjusting land distribution, and weakening the feudal privileges of the great nobles and the church...

He thought to himself and walked to the window. He saw Mrs. Gazka in the inner room carefully collecting the leftovers of him and others. Among them, the half bowl of vegetable soup left by Emman was poured into the pot by her, and water and a few leaves were added to make a big pot of soup. Another piece of walnut-sized bacon was carefully cut into almost transparent slices by her and sandwiched in black bread.

Two children aged eight or nine watched their mother busying around, wiping the corners of their mouths from time to time, as if they saw the most delicious delicacy in the world.

Joseph felt a little sad. In Paris, he saw the struggle for power among the powerful, the extravagance of the ladies, and the balls and salons of the nobles day and night. Today, at Gaizka's house, I finally saw what France really looks like.

Poverty, ruin, conservative, crumbling...

Just then, there was a knock on the door behind him.

Gaizka hurried to open the door, let a short man in a long gray coat into the house, and said respectfully: "Mr. Babo, why are you here?"

The man named Babo nodded to deal with him, then went straight to Emman and bowed humbly: "My lord, I am the governor here, you can just call me Babo. I wonder where you are from?"

The name of the governor sounds cool, but in fact it is the official in charge of managing the lower-level parish - that is, the village. It is equivalent to the village chief.

As Babo was talking, the priest of the parish also heard that a big man with many servants came to the village, and then rushed to Gaizka's house.

"My lord, is there anything I can do for you?" Babo regarded Emman as the core of these people and asked with a smile on his face.

Emman opened the door behind the priest and saw that the rain outside had stopped. He pointed to the direction of the road that had been damaged before: "Mr. Babo, the road outside the village has been damaged by the rain. Can you trouble someone to repair it?"

"Oh, of course, of course."

Babo nodded repeatedly, then turned to the priest and said: "Father Marman, please entertain the guests. I will lead people to repair the road."

He took two steps and turned back to signal Gaizka: "Did you hear it? The road is going to be repaired, you come too."

"Oh, yes, Mr. Babo."

Gaizka responded and went to get the coat hanging on the wall.

Joseph asked casually, "Mr. Gaizka, how much can you get for a road repair like this?"

"Wages?" Babo immediately answered attentively, "This sir, it's just a road repair, there is no wages."

"Oh?" Joseph frowned slightly, "The road outside the village also belongs to Viscount Colbert?"

Babo shook his head: "That's not the case."

"Then did Mr. Gaizka pay the road labor tax?"

Babo was stunned and nodded: "Paid, paid."

"Since the road labor tax has been paid, and it is not the lord's labor, then why not pay him for the road repair?"

"This..."

Joseph smiled at him and said, "Mr. Babo is not unfamiliar with the laws and regulations, right?"

Babo was shocked. As a French official, you can be incompetent, but you must not be unfamiliar with laws and regulations, otherwise you will lose your job!

He shook his head: "No, no, you are right, we should pay the workers. Ah, 2 sous per person, is that okay?"

"Just follow the rules."

"Oh, yes, yes. Follow the rules."

Gazka bowed to Joseph gratefully, and hurriedly followed the consul out.

Three hours later, Joseph's convoy drove back toward Bordeaux along the road paved with branches and gravel.

Gaizka and his wife watched on the roadside as the cavalrymen disappeared before returning home.

Mrs. Gazka was about to cut some black bread to satisfy her husband's hunger after he had been busy for a long time, but suddenly she found a small cloth bag on the stove.

She hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward to carefully open the cloth bag, and immediately exclaimed: "God! Adam! Come and see!"

Gazka ran into the inner room and saw his wife holding a cloth bag and a handful of silver coins.

He took the bag and found a note inside, and he quickly opened it and read it: Mr. Gaizka, thank you for telling me another side of France. Please don’t refuse these thoughts.

He looked in the direction Joseph was leaving, crossed himself on his chest, and murmured: "May God bless you, kind-hearted young master."

Madame Gazka quietly counted the silver coins and found a total of 50 livres. She excitedly pulled her husband and jumped up and down, with tears in her eyes: "Adam, we can repay our debt!"

You know, they borrowed a debt with an interest rate as high as 15%. If they can't pay it back quickly, given their family's situation, they may never be able to pay it off in the future...

Eight days later.

On the avenue north of the Bordeaux Exchange Palace, a large number of people gathered on both sides of the road, eagerly waiting for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to drive by.

Soon, several carriages with elegant shapes and luxurious workmanship came from a distance, and people immediately burst into shouts and waved their arms vigorously.

In a car in the middle, the Governor of Bordeaux, Count Moncelot, said respectfully to Joseph: "Your Highness, most of them arrived last night. If you really need it, you can indeed hold a meeting at any time. However, the banquet is already prepared. Or you can first..."

Joseph smiled and nodded: "Thank you for your hard work, Count Monslow."

He looked at his pocket watch and saw that it was now half past one in the afternoon, so he said, "Then let's start at three o'clock."

"As you wish, Your Highness."

The carriage drove through the crowd, and Joseph waved to the citizens who welcomed him from time to time. The person arranged by Eman was on a carriage behind, throwing change, candies, etc. into the crowd as usual.

The heart of Bordeaux, the Place de la Bourse, has been taken over by the guards led by Quesaud. Joseph did not even go to the villa prepared for him by Monslow to rest. Instead, he went straight to the Exchange Palace to prepare for the three o'clock meeting.

The potatoes would be arriving soon, and he didn't want to delay for a minute.

Thanks to: Tianwu and the Arbitration Agency for their generous rewards for this book! The young author is grateful! mwah!