King's Landing in France

Chapter 55 The Decline of Kingship

An Ning was chatting with his friends when a tall, horse-faced gentleman suddenly came over to talk to them: "How are you doing today?"

An Ning saw that the person who came was Bai Yi, the current mayor of Paris. This person's surname always reminded An Ning of Lord Bai in Avanti.

But Master Bai in Avanti is a fat man, but this one is tall and thin, with a long face.

Bayi was later a core member of the Peiyang faction, but now he appears in the Breton Club.In fact, the clubs in the French revolution era are very different from the parties in later generations. It is really mainly a club where everyone chats and plays bridge. The Peiyang faction and even the royalist party can play in the same room as the Jacobin faction .

Danton said: "Mara was not selected because he was too ugly. He is planning to use his savings to open a special newspaper to supervise the work of those of us who have been selected. What about you, Mr. Bai? You must have been selected, right?" ?”

Bayi is the mayor of Paris, and the staff for electing representatives is mainly arranged by the Paris municipality. He thinks it is a bit difficult not to be selected.

Bai: "Of course I was elected, so that I can be in the parliament..."

An Ning interrupted Bai and asked a crucial question: "Which level did you choose as a representative?"

Bayi: "Do you still need to ask, of course it is the third level."

"You are a nobleman."

This time in the three-level parliament, many nobles who should have gone to the second level also came to represent the third level. These people are basically new nobles who have transformed into capitalists.

Later, with the development of the situation, many people from the original first class and second class also joined the Constituent Assembly composed mainly of the third class.

Bayi: "I'm just a small nobleman with a title of nobility. I'm not only the representative of the third class, but also the Marquis of Lafayette. Let Your Majesty do what you want."

Marat: "Just now Andy has been yelling, saying that this time the three-level parliament, everyone will work hard to turn France into a constitutional monarchy, like Britain."

"Is that so?" Someone new joined the conversation.

Lafayette, wearing a military uniform, came to Bayi.The 32-year-old "Founder of America" ​​has begun to bald, and the wig can't hide his shiny forehead.

An Ning: "Mr. Lafayette, don't you intend to promote constitutionalization? I thought that everyone except the priests of the first rank should think about starting constitutionalization."

Lafayette: "Don't exclude the priests. In fact, many priests also feel that the system of vesting all rights in the king is outdated."

"Do you mean the Messrs. Talleyrand and Sieyès?" asked Marat.

Lafayette: "Not only them, many people think so. In short, this parliament..."

While Lafayette was talking eloquently, An Ning saw the waiter of the club pushing a cart covered with a cloth and walking towards the gate of the club.

An Ning was curious, so she said sorry, and then temporarily left her friends to see what the waiters were doing.

He went out of the gate of the club, and saw dozens of beggars gathered outside the club—no, not only beggars, but also many ordinary civilians were mixed among the beggars.

The waiter is chasing a hunchbacked lady away: "Go away! These breads are for beggars. Are you a beggar?"

The lady burst into tears: "Please sir, we have children at home! Bread is too expensive, even if we work hard, we can't make enough money. My family has been drinking wild vegetable soup for days! Don't eat any more bread , I don’t even have the strength to work!”

The waiter wanted to chase her away, but An Ning stepped forward and said, "Send it to her. In my opinion, people who work hard are more admirable than those who lie flat and wait for relief!"

The waiter showed a embarrassed expression: "This... the abbot of the monastery asked us to only help beggars..."

An Ning: "Open your eyes and take a look. Bread has risen to 50 sous a piece. Ordinary workers can't even earn half a loaf of bread. The difference between them and beggars is that they are still working. If it is not the year No, who would let go of their self-esteem and beg forever?"

The waiter hesitated, then thrust a piece of moldy bread into the woman's hand.

The woman immediately devoured it, as if it was not bread covered with mold, but some delicacy.

An Ning: "Give her another piece and let her take it to the child."

The waiter did it.

The woman thanked repeatedly with tears in her eyes: "Thank you! Kind sir! May the Lord bless you!"

An Ning complained in her heart that as a Chinese, I probably don't belong to the supervisor.

Then he stood at the door and watched the waiters distribute the bread equally to all the beggars and commoners gathered in front of the monastery, and then he returned to his friends contentedly.

Danton: "Why did you go?"

"Look at the waiter giving." An Ning briefly talked about the situation outside.

Everyone fell silent.

Suddenly Mara slapped the table hard: "This is the title of my first article! The people are still starving, and our King is still thinking of raising taxes to add skirts to his mistress!"

Lafayette reminded: "Mary is a queen, not a mistress. In fact, if His Majesty Louis had a mistress, many people would be relieved."

An Ning: "He has a mistress."

Everyone looked at An Ning in amazement, and Lafayette frowned: "I've been going to palace balls all these years, haven't you heard of it?"

An Ning spread her hands together: "I mean those locks."

Everyone laughed, and there was a cheerfulness in the air.

Lafayette finished laughing and said, "Actually, it's not just locks. Our locksmith king is now obsessed with playing with execution devices. He fiddled with something that can quickly cut off someone's head..."

An Ning was startled, what's the matter, was the guillotine in this world invented by Louis XVI himself?In the original time and space, Louis XVI improved the guillotine by himself, which was already very dark and humorous. Do you want to double the black humor now?

An Ning: "So what is His Majesty the King planning to do? Use the device he invented to behead all those who oppose him?"

Mara said contemptuously, "Hmph, I don't think he has such courage."

Indeed, what courage can a locksmith have.

Everyone said a lot of mocking and contemptuous words about Louis XVI. In the era of Louis XIV, An Ning and his group would have been sent to the gallows long ago.

But now is the era of Louis XVI, an era of declining royal power, and Louis XVI, the locksmith king and his deficit queen, undoubtedly greatly accelerated the decline of royal power.

The French are no longer in awe of their king.

(End of this chapter)