Chapter 243 The Best Strategy (Asking for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 244 The Best Strategy (asking for monthly votes)

Joseph raised his hand and said:

"Who are 'you'?"

The Marquis of Saint-Véran was stunned for a moment, but the fear of being exiled to Seychelles immediately overwhelmed everything:

"Yes, uh... Marquis Luckner, General Astu, General Morne..."

Joseph turned his head and signaled his secretary to record.

In fact, he knew that it was basically the more than 20 people who signed the names to force the royal family to abdicate, but the rebels still had to say it themselves.

Afterwards, the Marquis of Saint-Véran detailed the plan of the military nobles to threaten the royal family. Of course, the wording was changed to "I hope the royal family can pay more attention to the military."

"In addition, the Duke of Mushi, the Duke of Seville, and the Count of Sérurier were also involved in this matter." Since he chose to confess, he might as well drag more people into the water, and perhaps he could make it so that the law did not punish everyone. "It was mainly when the military asked His Majesty to refuse to send troops to quell the rebellion, they mobilized public opinion in the Palace of Versailles and used political influence to win over more nobles to put pressure on him..."

Joseph sneered and nodded. It seems that those people in the meeting of dignitaries are still unwilling to give up. But it's good this way. They will hand the handle to me, and it will be much easier to deal with the things later.

Marquis Saint-Véran had just finished explaining their affairs, and suddenly he said with a look of gloating and seeking credit:

"Your Highness, you must want to know the movements of the Duke of Orleans, right? Yes, he is the mastermind, you must arrest him quickly!"

"Oh?" Joseph raised his eyebrows immediately, "Where is he?"

"He went to Auvergne two days ago to find Marquis Luckner." Marquis Saint-Véran said, "Marquis Luckner wants to set up a "alliance front" to unite the most nobles in order to ask the royal family not to pursue the riot. Most likely it is to discuss this matter. Oh, they are also married..."

Joseph was relieved immediately. Fortunately, the Duke of Orleans was not here, otherwise Marquis Saint-Véran would have to arrest him after accusing him.

Then he could only follow the normal process, trial, pleading, collusion, and finally at most exile.

And as the first-class nobleman under the royal family, this guy has money and influence, and he has the energy to continue to make trouble even in exile.

So Joseph had only one solution to deal with him, that is to kill him directly.

Not only could it reduce a scourge for France, but confiscating his property could also greatly subsidize the treasury.

But as mentioned before, this guy's influence was too great, so how to kill him was definitely a big question.

After the Royal Guard took the Marquis of Saint-Véran away, Joseph ordered Berthier to let the whole army rest for a day, and then set off to Auvergne.

He was not going to find the Duke of Orleans, but to drive the army to the face of the Marquis of Luckner, so that it would be convenient to communicate with him.

This time, he relied on a surprise attack to solve the Marquis of Saint-Véran, who had jumped the most happily before, and pushed the situation in a favorable direction. But what followed was how to appease the military.

That's right, it was appeasement.

Joseph didn't think that he could command the Guards Corps to sweep all the way, beat all the military nobles who had ulterior motives, and then throw them to the border provinces where rabbits didn't shit like the Marquis of Saint-Véran.

Doing so would only lead France into the chaos of civil war and waste huge war funds. If he was not careful and suffered another defeat, he would be doomed.

Let's take a step back and say that if he really got rid of all the old troops, he would not have so many troops to fill the garrison gaps in various places.

You know, the local security in France is now maintained by the army. Unless all provinces can complete the police reform like Paris, otherwise without the army, bandits will immediately rise everywhere and people will suffer.

So the best strategy is to make the most of the power of defeating the rebellion of the Montcalm Corps and incorporate the existing army for your own use.

At present, those military nobles must be trembling when they hear the news of the royal victory. This is the best time to set rules for them.

After solving the problem of the army, you can start to implement your big plan!

Joseph looked at the names on the confession of the Marquis of Saint-Veran in his hand, and a sneer flashed in his eyes. These guys have made most of France in chaos, and they can't mess it up in vain.

Sometimes chaos, when used well, is a more powerful weapon than order!

Of course, the premise is that you have to be able to control it - chaos when it is necessary, and order when it is necessary.

The next morning, Joseph gave the task of guarding and reorganizing the Montcalm Corps to the Moulin Corps - the latter had already shown signs of being unable to move after this period of high-intensity marching - and then ordered the entire Guard Corps to break camp and march northwest.

The Corps moved a large amount of food, wine and other supplies from the warehouse of Count Sérurier, and happily loaded them onto the carriages with the help of the servants of the manor, and set off on the journey with the military music singing "Glory and Victory".

Three days later, Joseph rode to a high ground, and he could see the dense town buildings in Auvergne without a telescope.

He did not take it lightly, and still asked Berthier to arrange for the reconnaissance cavalry to advance more than ten kilometers and stay vigilant at all times. Although the possibility of the Marquis of Luckner jumping off the wall is very small, it is better to be safe than sorry.

However, seven or eight kilometers away from the city, Joseph unexpectedly saw dozens of carriages parked on both sides of the road, and more than a hundred servants gathered around the carriages.

Those people held wreaths, food, drinks, etc., and when they saw the Guards from afar, they immediately lined up in an orderly queue.

Then, Marquis Luckner came up with a smile on his face.

In Joseph's carriage, the old marquis eloquently boasted about the exploits of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in suppressing the rebellion of the Montcalm Corps, and then scolded the Marquis Saint-Vran, and finally beat his chest and stamped his feet, saying that he didn't see that this guy wanted to rebel long ago, otherwise he would have led the army to fight against him personally.

In fact, Marquis Luckner was panicking at the moment - the Montcalm Corps was specially strengthened when the Queen transferred them to North Africa to rescue the Crown Prince. It was said to have 25,000 people, but the actual strength was more than 17,000. He only had 7,000 men, and their fighting power was far inferior to that of the Montcalm Corps.

According to the news from Montpellier, the police force of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had beaten the Marquis of Saint-Viran without any chance to fight back, and the manor of Count Sérurier was almost flattened by artillery.

Seeing that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was just smiling, Marquis Luckner was slightly relieved and asked carefully:

"Your Highness, what important matter did you come to Auvergne for this time?"

Joseph didn't expect this guy's attitude to change so quickly, and some of the words he had prepared before were useless.

He thought for a while and said directly:

"I am here to quell the riots in Auvergne."