King's Landing in France

Page 179

Chapter 312 The Necessary Sacrifice

The venue for the duel was Mars Park.

This place was originally a holy place for Parisians to go outing. As a result, the Mars tragedy occurred in the second year of the revolution. They fired.

Since then, this place has been no longer used by young people in Paris as a place for outings and picnics. After a long time, the park's square is covered with grass, and the stone pavement is completely invisible.

On the day of the duel, An Ning brought Paulina over early.

Napoleon was unable to attend the battle, and An Ning wrote him a letter to ensure that his sister would return from the duel unscathed.

Desmoulins came early, too, and brought his witnesses.

When seeing that witness, An Ning couldn't help frowning.

Georges Jacques Danton got out of the carriage, looked around, and then his eyes fell on An Ning.

He scratched his head: "Desmoulins is my good friend. If a good friend is going to a duel, I must at least be present to witness his last moment, right?"

Desmoulins is indeed a good friend of Danton, and as the "old man" of the Jacobin Club, An Ning is very aware of this.

He took a step towards Danton and asked, "Do you know why Desmoulins was thrown with gloves?"

Danton replied: "Because he was rude to you, I know. But you should know that Desmoulins is just like this, he is not bad, and you even went to the Bastille with him."

An Ning: "It wasn't the glove I threw, it was Paulina. Although I was a little angry at the time, I haven't reached this point yet."

After all, they were the ones who fought the Bastille together, so there is still some tolerance for this.

Dandong: "Then you hold her, we Jacobins, before we fell in the battle with the enemy, we died in a duel with our own people first, and outsiders will see it as a joke.

"The Jacobins should have died at the hands of the hated enemy, like Marat, by the butcher's knife of the enemy."

An Ning: "Forget it, the contestant is grabbing Desmoulins. If he chooses the sword, I can still teach Paulina to show her mercy."

The pistol is basically to look at the face.

So An Ning was very worried. After all, he didn't have a Steinway prosthesis, so he couldn't save Paulina before the bullet hit him.

As a witness to the duel, he actually only played a role of reassuring himself. If he didn't stay at the nearest place to Paulina to watch at this time, he would definitely go crazy with worry.

Christina also came, sitting behind the table and chairs set out by Fanny in the distance, a pair of hands that had no place to rest moved nervously on the table, showing her uneasiness.

Only Paulina, who seemed to be all right, was a little girl who definitely had a big heart—carved out of the same mold as hers.

Dandong looked at Paulina, and then at An Ning: "Did you teach her some magical skills?"

An Ning almost laughed, thinking that I am a general of Fage, not a boxer, what magical powers can I have-no, I really have it, but this cannot be spread to the outside world.

At this time, Lazar Kano also appeared, and Danton and An Ning stepped forward to greet the third-party witness.

An Ning: "Thank you for your hard work. I found you for this kind of thing when I was busy organizing food, grass and ammunition to march into the Rhine."

Kano: "Actually, it wasn't too hard, so I just went out for an outing—sorry, it's a bit disrespectful to the two who may be bloody. Now that the three witnesses have arrived, then..."

At this time, another carriage stopped beside the three of them, the door opened, and Robespierre in full costume got out of the carriage.

Even An Ning was shocked, because this duel is not a salon, and theoretically speaking, no one else needs to come here except for the witnesses and the parties involved.

Robespierre doesn't even like to attend social occasions, so it's incredible to join in this kind of excitement.

An Ning took the lead to meet him: "Maximilian, why are you here?"

He hugged Robespierre while talking, and then smelled the lavender scent on Robespierre.

The former Robespierre would definitely not have this kind of smell, because he found this kind of thing boring.

Robespierre: "I heard that you and Dandong are both here as witnesses, so I thought, why don't I come to be the third-party witness, which is also a good fit."

Robespierre said and looked at Lazar Kano: "I don't know what Minister Kano wants?"

Kano bowed slightly: "You are willing to be a third-party witness, of course I am willing to give up this position."

Robespierre nodded, and was about to speak, when Desmoulins said, "Okay, now the three giants are all together, one is a corrupt criminal who enriches his own pockets, and the other is a big devil who kills innocent people indiscriminately."

Danton: "Desmoulins! Shut up!"

"Why? During the kingdom era, we could criticize whoever we wanted. In the Jacobin era, as a Jacobin, I can't speak anymore?"

Robespierre looked at Desmoulins with icy eyes, without replying.

An Ning silently thought that if Danton was to go to the guillotine in the future, it must have something to do with Desmoulins' mouth.

Forget it, for the sake of the unity of the Jacobin Big Three, let Desmoulins exit at this time.

It just so happened that there was a duel here.

An Ning turned her head and winked at the weapon craftsman on her side.

The pistol prepared by her own weaponsmith for Paulina is a breech-loading pistol, and Paulina has been trained to use it.

The accuracy of this gun is much higher than that of ordinary pistols.

The only problem is that before the duel, the weapons of both sides have to be inspected by the weapon craftsmen brought by the other side to ensure absolute fairness.

But this problem is no longer a problem.

Because as soon as the weaponsmith brought by Desmoulins entered the arena, when he met An Ning's eyes, he smiled silently.

An Ning looked at Desmoulins again. In the real history, one of the signs of the break between Danton and Robespierre was that Danton funded Desmoulins to start the "Vequier Driere", criticizing the actions of the National Salvation Committee. .

If Desmoulins is killed, this history may be avoided.

——It's time for you to retire, my comrade in arms.

An Ning suddenly remembered that summer four years ago, when Desmoulins wore a standard trousers outfit, jumped into the carriage in front of the cafe, drew a pistol and pointed it at his head.

"The king wants us to stop, all he has to do is shoot me!

"My countrymen, unite! Forward!"

Desmoulins' loud cry still lingered in An Ning's ears, almost making him change his mind.

But in the end, he still stabilized his mind.

This is a necessary sacrifice in order to change history.

Chapter 313

After the weapons craftsman inspected the weapons, Desmoulins and Pauline walked to the two sides of the gun table.

Paulina smiled as soon as she touched the gun. She was also a veteran, and she was quite familiar with breech-loading rifles.

The weapon craftsman on Anning's side prepared the gun for Paulina. The rifling was deliberately not so obvious, and the position of the breech loading was deliberately camouflaged by the craftsman.

But those who are familiar with firearms will know something tricky when they see the gun.

It's a pity that Desmoulins couldn't see it.

Paulina has no resistance at all to using this weapon to win a duel, or rather, she is eager to try it.

It should be said that Napoleon's sister, like Napoleon himself, has no concept of invincibility, and feels that it is good to use all means, as long as she wins in the end.

The gun that An Ning gave to Paulina has already been loaded. Because the design of the breech-loading gun is more advanced, the standby time after loading is much longer than that of ordinary flintlock guns, and it can be loaded in advance.

But Paulina picked up the gun and still pretended to perform a series of loading actions before holding the gun to her chest and taking a deep breath.

Robespierre walked to the center of the arena and began to play his part.

"Both of you, are you ready?"

Desmoulins became nervous instead at this time. He straightened the front of his clothes, then held the gun steady, took a few deep breaths before nodding to Robespierre: "I'm ready."

Robespierre turned to Paulina, who immediately said: "I'm ready to start anytime! Take your life!"

Desmoulins sneered: "Hmph, if you die, maybe we will be able to see Frost weeping. That is a scene that you in the Jacobin Club have never seen before."

Paulina: "I won't die. After all, the area I was shot in is so much smaller than yours, and the probability of the bullet hitting me is much smaller than hitting you."

Desmoulins: "Let's see."

At this time, Robespierre coughed and intervened in the conversation: "I want to emphasize one thing first, this time we are a civilized duel, as long as someone is hit, the duel will end, and no one can do anything after I say it!

"We are different from the nobles. We are all people who have read books and have knowledge and insights, so we must show the difference!"

Robespierre's words were cheered by the Parisians who came from all directions to watch at some point.

At least at this time, Robespierre was still a positive figure in the eyes of most Parisians.

Robespierre took out his pocket watch to confirm the time, and then shouted: "Duel, start!"

Next to it, the soldier band was ready to start playing drums.

An Ning was speechless: "Is this using drums to coordinate the pace of the two? I didn't have this step when I was dueling before."

Dandong, who is also a witness, nodded: "At least in terms of formality, this duel has crushed the duel of the year."

Desmoulins and Pauline walked to both ends of the square, beating drums.

The moment the drum beat stopped suddenly, Desmoulins turned and raised his gun.

But Paulina was quicker, turned faster, and her gun fired first.

Then the accident happened.

An Ning racked her brains to equip Paulina with a breech-loading gun, obviously the accuracy should beat contemporary flintlock pistols.

However, Paulina fired a shot at this distance and missed at all, and the bullet went nowhere.

Anning Khan has come down. If Polina breaks here, Napoleon should turn against him.

Polina immediately started reloading, not looking at Desmoulins at all, as if she was not at all worried that Desmoulins would shoot her down.

Desmoulins fired, and the bullets went nowhere.

He immediately lowered his head and started reloading, and because he lowered his head, he didn't see Paulina opening the locking mechanism on the rear of the gun to reload from behind——

But at this time, Robespierre shouted: "Stop!"

Pauline and Desmoulins looked up at Robespierre.

Robespierre: "Miss Bonaparte, how do you load the gun from the rear? No, it's not fair. Either you two use ordinary flintlock pistols together, or you both use breech loading together. arms."

At this time, An Ning said: "Maximilian, do you think a person who is used to front-loading firearms can adapt immediately after getting a breech-loading gun? A person like Desmoulins who has no military experience can get used to it with a breech-loading gun. Guns are probably at a greater disadvantage."

Robespierre was not persuaded: "No, I also heard that your muzzle-loading gun has a rifle in it, and the shooting accuracy will be higher, which is obviously unfair!

"Since Desmoulins can't use breech-loading guns, so be it: you both duel with old-fashioned, standard-issue pistols."

Paulina: "I have no objection. I originally planned to use my cleverness and luck to defeat him. I never considered using a double-threaded gun at all."

Robespierre looked at An Ning with a comprehending look, and did not hide his anger at all.

An Ning pouted.

If An Ning had known that the third-party witness to this duel was Robespierre, he would definitely not have done such tricks.

Robespierre is a person who can't tolerate sand. When he discovers the fraud, he will definitely ignore Frost and his Excellency General, and justice will be done first, and the rest will be discussed later.

A moment later, both Pauline and Desmoulins had replaced their old pistols.

Robespierre deliberately ordered that the gun be served empty, so that the interrupted duel could start from the moment of loading the bullet.

Robespierre personally threw the inspected gun at the feet of the two, and he said loudly, "You can start!"

Desmoulins and Pauline flung themselves on the gun and ammunition packs on the ground.

Paulina started loading with ease. After all, she came out of the Brienne Military Academy, and this is her old profession.

Desmoulins was obviously not as sloppy as Paulina in reloading, and he was also influenced by Polina, and he would glance at Polina's reloading progress from time to time.

Seeing Paulina's smooth play, Desmoulins visibly tensed up.

Then he shook his hand, and the gunpowder and bullets that should have been poured into the gun barrel were scattered outside the paper bag.

Desmoulins made a decisive decision and immediately took out a new pack of prefabricated paper ammunition packs, tore off the seal on the top, and poured the bullets mixed with gunpowder into the gun——

By this time Pauline had finished reloading, raised the gun, took careful aim at Desmoulins, and pulled the trigger.

Desmoulins was shot in the right chest before dropping the gun in his hand to the ground.

He clutched his chest and knelt down in pain.

Robespierre waved his hand: "Okay, that's it! The winner is Pauline Bonaparte!"