King's Landing in France

Page 172

Hearing the words "the most trusted person" from Christina, Charles, who was already languid, suddenly regained his spirits: "What? I am the most trusted person? Doesn't that mean..."

Christine looked at Charles with pity, and said: "What a poor creature whose eyes are captivated by Madame Beauharnay. Don't dream. Madame Beauharnay is only interested in successful people."

General Frost: "Don't interrupt, keep talking, let the person you trust the most deliver it, what's next?"

"It's gone! That's why I speculate that there must be something wrong with this letter. After all, Mrs. Beauharnay's loyal lover will not open the letter, and can guarantee that the letter will be sent to Barras intact."

Frost: "So, you don't have any actual evidence at all, and you just catch it first based on your intuition? Then what if you open the letter and find that it contains nasty love words, and you send it to someone you trust because it's too nasty? "

Christina shrugged: "In that case, I will have to let you accompany me to Malmaison Castle to apologize to Mrs. Beauharne."

Frost: "That's it? That's all?"

Christina: "Why not?"

General Frost sighed and raised his hand to his forehead.

Charles watched the conversation between the two, and finally realized what kind of situation he had broken into.

Obviously it was just sending a letter, but tomorrow he might be labeled as an enemy of the Republic and sent to the guillotine.

Chapter 298 Mr. Charles, Xibing Depot is here

An Ning finally took the letter from Christina.

He found out that it was raining so hard that Murat was drowned, but Shin was perfectly fine.

This is not a big deal in the future, just put a plastic bag on it.

But we are still hundreds of years away from the invention of plastic.

Holding the dry envelope, An Ning felt Murat's meticulous and detail-oriented side.

Sure enough, he is different from Lasalle, even though he is also a cavalryman.

An Ning took the letter and was about to open it directly, and then remembered that opening the letter directly in this era is not ritualistic, and would be ridiculed.

So An Ning took the letter and started walking towards the study.

Murat asked An Ning, "Then what about this person?"

"We need him to testify in court that this is indeed a letter from Paul Ballas and his mistress.

"So Murat, you should use some methods to ensure that this gentleman will serve us sincerely."

For example, the powerful spirit infusion stick or something.

Murat understood, and was about to take him away when Fanny stopped him: "Actually, it's okay if you don't want to do it. You can hire a few executioners. They should be happy to correct this Charles' life trajectory."

Murat: "You are still ruthless, the executioner... Do you want them to bring the guillotine over and assemble it?"

Fanny: "In short, I've finished my words. I don't want to bear any heavy psychological burden because I personally abused the captives who surrendered."

Murat nodded, and then left with Mr. Charles and his subordinates.

An Ning didn't care about this, he returned to the study impatiently, picked up the letter opener, carefully opened the envelope, and took out the letter inside.

He started to read.

Christina came behind An Ning and poked her head to read the letter together.

Because of this posture problem, Christina's chest muscles directly rested on An Ning's celestial cap.

Suddenly, Christina said in surprise, "Look, here!"

Christina read it aloud: "Secondly there is Danton, that Danton you call the square-headed lion. He seems to have some objections to Robespierre's approach. Many gentlemen in Paris have already felt this tendency. So all those who secretly opposed Robespierre quietly contacted him.

"But now he and Robespierre are close comrades in arms, advancing and retreating in Parliament.

"In time, the situation in Paris may change a lot because of this."

An Ning: "That's right. After reading the whole article, there is only one problem here. No, this is a big problem! Paul Barras is trying to split Robespierre and Jacques Danton! This is the ironclad proof! Let's wait for the right time." When ripe, Paul Ballas will come to usurp the republic!"

Not to mention, in the original history, he really did this.

The Directory established by Paul Ballas and the Thermidorians is a combination of desperately enriching speculators.

If it weren't for Lazarcano's continuous organization of the revolutionary army, and Napoleon's killing all the way from Italy to Vienna, the Directory barely existed for a few years.

Even if Robespierre is stunned in the later stage, he is better than this kind of speculator.

At least Robespierre is still working with the belief of establishing a free, equal and fraternal France.

The more An Ning thought about it, the more excited she became. After carefully reading the complete letter, she went back to look at the few sentences in question.

Suddenly he was not sure, so he asked Christina, "Do you think the National Salvation Committee might send Paul Ballas to the guillotine because of this little evidence?"

Christina: "You don't have to worry about this. Don't say we have evidence. Even if there is no evidence, if you stand up and insist that Paul Ballas is treasonous, no one will refute you. Maybe the angry trousers will still Hang Ballas on the street lamp in the street."

Christina paused, read the few words in the letter again, and then sighed: "I thought you were being overwhelmed before, but I didn't expect that they really wanted to provoke Danton and Robespierre. You are here The performance of these things is almost like..."

Christina didn't continue, and An Ning didn't ask.

His attention had been completely absorbed in incriminating Paul Ballas with the black material he had.

※※※

Josephine Beauharne didn't sleep well tonight, and at night he suddenly felt flustered for no reason.

In this era, there is no understanding of what causes palpitations, and there is no specific medicine that can quickly relieve symptoms.

She could only sit up and watch the pouring rain outside on the terrace.

The wind is very strong tonight, and the wind is whistling with the rain, as if it is heralding something.

Seeing the heavy wind and heavy rain, Beauharne became even more irritable.

Her instincts are rarely wrong.

After pacing restlessly up and down for a while, Josephine Beauharnay decided to go straight to Ballas.

Because she thought about it, only this matter could go wrong.

that letter.

He called his groom to prepare the horses, then went to the table and quickly wrote several notes, and then found some gifts to attach, and asked the servants to deliver them to the homes of the gentlemen mentioned in the notes tomorrow morning.

These people included, but were not limited to, Paul Ballas' allies, and those who were privately dissatisfied with Robespierre.

If something really happened to Barras, and things got to the point of no return, maybe these people could be called for help.

When everything had been arranged, the groom brought word that the carriage was ready.

Josephine Beauharnet immediately went downstairs to the inner courtyard of the Château de Malmaison.

The carriage stopped in the already sparse rain curtain, and the wind and rain lights swayed with the wind.Josephine's groom is wearing a coir raincoat and holds a pistol in his hand.

The weapon cabinet in front of him contained a total of five layers of ten short guns, each of which was fully loaded, and could be fired just by picking it up and pouring gunpowder into the medicine pool.

After all, it is not peaceful to leave Paris now, robbers and rebels are everywhere.

With this level of armament, there is at least hope of deterring those who would seek evil.

With the help of a servant, Josephine entered the carriage, and then knocked on the front window of the carriage.

The groom immediately swung his whip, urging the horse to speed up gradually.

Josephine tapped the window worriedly: "Hurry up."

The groom shook his head and said, "With such a heavy rain, the road is covered with mud. It won't be fast at all, ma'am."

"It has to be quick, please!"

Josephine begged like this, but she didn't say why she was in such a hurry, after all, she couldn't let more people realize that there might be fatal information in that letter.

Now Josephine wanted to fly to Ballas immediately.

In his fantasy, Barras was reading the letter he wrote yesterday, and Charles was standing beside him, quietly waiting to bring back his message.

It would be fine if everything was my own unfounded worry.

Chapter 299 Mobius Ring

The next morning, An Ning specially prepared the report documents, put them together with the copies of the letters as important evidence, took a clip and put them in the carriage, and set off.

Christina originally wanted to come over to watch the fun, but was reminded by Fanny that there were two more tea parties today, so she could only say goodbye to An Ning reluctantly.

An Ning took the documents and went straight to the National Salvation Committee.

As soon as he arrived at the committee, he immediately attracted everyone's attention.

Immediately someone greeted him warmly: "Your Excellency, are you here to inspect the work of the committee?"

An Ning frowned: "I have no superior-subordinate relationship with the committee, so I can't talk about inspecting work or not inspecting work. I am reporting the enemies of the Republic."

"Really? Thank you so much, we must take it seriously! Mr. Robespierre is in the office, and I will lead you there."

An Ning hesitated for a moment. He originally thought that he was here on business, and he didn't think about visiting Robespierre through a personal relationship through the back door or something.

But the clerks have said so, and I'm afraid it's wrong not to visit Robespierre. I'm afraid there will be a bunch of gossip in the afternoon.

So An Ning nodded, "Lead me there."

A moment later he saw Robespierre as the head of the National Salvation Committee.

Robespierre was a little surprised: "Andy? Why are you here? Did something happen?"

An Ning shook the folder in his hand at him: "Come to report the enemies of the Republic to you. You would never have imagined that someone is consciously sowing discord between you and Dandong."

Robespierre was furious: "What? There is such a thing? Although Danton and I often quarrel to the point of flushing, it is just a normal disagreement between comrades, and it is a friendly exchange! Andy, get your hands Give me something, I want to see who is so ignorant!"

An Ning handed over the folder in her hand.

Robespierre immediately put on a pair of thicker-soled glasses and began to read the contents of the document, muttering as he read: "Josephine Beauharnay, and Paul Ballas, I should have thought of it earlier, I should have thought of that earlier!"

He raised his head and looked at An Ning: "I'm afraid you don't know that when you were fighting in Italy, this Mr. Ballas has been trying to integrate into the small circle formed by me, Danton and Marat, but it has not been very successful.

"Because we can all see that he is not a firm changer. He didn't join the ranks because he wanted to build a republic of freedom, equality and fraternity. He is not!"

An Ning thought that was not the case. Barras had two sides in French history. On the one hand, he was indeed a speculator. He seized the opportunity to rise to the top. He once became one of the five governors of the Directorate, and finally monopolized the power.

On the other hand, his personal strength should also be recognized, at least when he put down the rebellion in Nice and Toulon, he showed quite good talent.

In fact, several representative speculators and fence sitters during the Great Revolution were not bad in their abilities.

For example, Fouché, he established a modern police system for France, which has been benefiting France until modern times.

And Talleyrand also single-handedly promoted the development of the revolution at several key nodes.

It's not that An Ning didn't think about turning Ballas and the others into subordinates.

But now, in order to keep Robespierre and Danton, they must act first, and they cannot wait for Ballas to sow dissension to achieve their goals.

It is a pity that An Ning came up with the idea of ​​influencing the course of history too late, otherwise he could have become Barras' mentor and beacon in advance like he did to Napoleon.

However, An Ning's idea at that time was to sit on the wall and become a rich man, and just sit and watch the situation change.

The matter has come to this point, and Ballas can only leave early.

Robespierre finished reading the "black material" submitted by Anning, and slapped down the table decisively: "The evidence is convincing! But basic procedural justice must be followed. Let's start. First, send the subpoena to Paul Ballas. send it."

An Ning nodded: "That's right, procedural justice is to ensure fairness at the bottom line, so let's do it that way."

However, An Ning thought that as long as he showed his intention to send Ballas to the guillotine, the gentlemen of the jury would "understand the righteousness".

It is not bad to give Balas a chance to defend himself at this time, which can highlight the fairness and greatness of the Republic.

At this time Robespierre stood up: "But why did you suddenly think of targeting Paul Ballas? I think you have a good relationship, don't you?"

An Ning: "Your impression is wrong. My previous contact with Mr. Ballas was only because he was a commissioner of the Parliament."

Robespierre: "But I always feel that you seem to know Mr. Barras very well."

——Isn’t that understanding? I’m a history buff.

An Ning: "That's just because I heard some rumors."

Robespierre shrugged, and then thought of another thing: "By the way, we have to let Danton know about this. Let me write a note to Danton."

※※※

"I object to sending Paul Ballas to the guillotine!" Georges Jacques Danton rushed into Robespierre's office angrily, and this was the first sentence he said.

An Ning and Robespierre were drinking tea, and they looked at Dandong together.