I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 623 Valentine's Day is coming

It was Britain's established strategic plan to use Poland to bring Prussia and Austria's interests together, so after a large number of conservative aristocrats were arrested recently, Jason immediately realized that these people had great value in being used.

So he got in touch with the Prussians in the Polish army - due to the alliance between Poland and Prussia, Poland had been imitating the Prussian military system, and there were a large number of Prussian officers in the army.

At Jason's instruction, these Prussian officers replaced the soldiers escorting Potocki and cooperated with British spies to complete the "prisoner rescue" operation.

Potocki immediately gnashed his teeth and said, "It must be those guys from the Patriot Party and Poniatowski! In order to control the parliament, they threw all the nobles who did not submit to them into prison. They are committing a crime and treason!"

Jason nodded and said in a sad tone, “But these traitors control the parliament and have control of the army.”

"No, there are still troops that are loyal to their traditions and beliefs," Potocki said. "Besides, we are sure that Russia will not allow the order in Poland to be destroyed!"

Jason's heart moved, and he asked hurriedly, "What army are you talking about?"

"We have already contacted some officers and if anyone can come forward to call for help, they will definitely respond."

"Where's the number of people?"

"At least two to three thousand soldiers can be mobilized."

"It seems there is still hope." Jason's eyes flashed with a smile, "As for Russia, I will try to arrange for you to have a secret audience with His Majesty the Tsar."

……

Paris.

A "Jewel 7L" carriage with smooth lines and luxurious appearance, surrounded by guards, drove along the wooden track towards Notre Dame de Paris.

This is the latest model launched by the Jewel Carriage Company. It can be driven freely on both ordinary roads and wooden tracks by switching the wheel mode. So although the price is as high as more than 3 francs, it is still in short supply. If you want to get the car within a month, you have to pay a premium of at least 4 francs.

In the carriage, Joseph was subconsciously flipping through the beet planting report submitted by the Minister of Agriculture, his mind deep in thought.

Currently, France has planted more than 1800 hectares of sugar beets in the area north of Valois, which is a fairly large scale. However, in the past two months, the planting area of ​​sugar beets has hardly increased.

Vergniaud is still trying his best to promote it, but the farmers are still instinctively suspicious of new things. They prefer to grow wheat to fill their stomachs, and now they are more accepting of potatoes.

This is even with the government providing tax breaks and loans from an agricultural service consulting company, otherwise it would have been difficult to achieve even 1800 hectares.

Joseph knew very well that other countries were waiting for the French government to quell the riots, but in fact the French expeditionary force was only going to deliver equipment.

The Caribbean would soon be overwhelmed by the abolitionist movement, and sugar production would decline exponentially.

Historically, during the slave rebellion, sugarcane production in Saint-Domingo dropped directly from 8 million pounds to less than 4 million pounds.

The Caribbean supplies 85% of Europe's sugar. In other words, it won't be long before Europe will face a sugar shortage and the price of sugar will soar.

The current 1800 hectares of sugar beets are far from enough to supply France, let alone export them to make money.

But he couldn't use guns to force French farmers to switch to growing sugar beets, so Joseph thought of the largest landowner in France - the Catholic Church.

法国全部耕地的10%都属于教会所有。如果能说服教会拿出部分土地种甜菜，就有可能达到他所期望的4万到5万顷的规模。历史上，拿皇到19世纪初大约也就种了2万8千顷甜菜，已能勉强满足西欧市场的糖类需求。

However, Napoleon had to compete with cheap Caribbean sugar at the time and could only offer high subsidies, so it only persisted for more than ten years before beginning to drastically reduce the scale of its cultivation.

But now, Joseph is confident that he can make money from beet sugar, so naturally the more he plants, the better.

It just so happened that he also wanted to try out the new carriage he had just bought, so he drove to Notre Dame de Paris to discuss the matter with Archbishop Beaumont.

40 minutes later, the luxurious silver-gray carriage slowly stopped at the edge of the square of Notre Dame de Paris.

Joseph looked out of the car window and saw that there were so many people in front of the church gate that the car couldn't even squeeze into the square.

He turned to look at Eman: "Is there any large mass today?"

Emman thought for a moment and said, "Your Highness, today seems to be Valentine's Day. These people should be here to grab the 'first love ticket given by God'."

Joseph held his forehead with his hands, he really forgot that today was February 2. To be honest, it was he who came up with the activity of "grabbing the first love ticket" for the church, and the reference was naturally the famous "grabbing the first incense stick" in later generations.

Thanks to the fact that Catholicism was deeply rooted in people's hearts at that time, the effect of his "plan" was surprisingly good.

With the propaganda that "the love of the recipient of the first love ticket will be blessed by God", Notre Dame de Paris made a full 19 francs when it held this event for the first time last year!
Among them, the young lady of Viscount Debré donated 4 francs to the church in order to obtain the "first love ticket" - actually it was an auction.

This year's situation seems to be even more lively than last year.

Joseph had no choice but to order the coachman to go around to the back door of Notre Dame and enter the cathedral through a special passage.

The priest who came out to greet him seemed a little hesitant when he learned that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wanted to meet Archbishop Beaumont.

Joseph immediately realized that Archbishop Beaumont was presiding over the event of granting the "First Love Voucher" at this time, so he said to the priest: "Forget it, don't bother the Archbishop, I'll wait for a while."

He would not spoil the fun by affecting other people's most profitable "business activity" of the year.

The priest bowed and thanked him, and Joseph wandered around the Notre Dame. At this moment, the crowd was gathered in front of the gate, and the church was quite empty.

After walking for a while, Joseph felt a little bored, so he sat down on a bench in a prayer room, picked up the Bible and started reading it as if it were a novel.

In the square of Notre Dame de Paris, Archbishop Beaumont stood on the high platform, opened his arms and recited a prayer, and then said loudly: "Now, let us thank God for his blessing. The Lord spread true love in the world and condensed it into a holy love voucher.

"At this moment, God will be watching us. The most pious person will get the first love ticket, and the Lord's blessing will fall on him."

As soon as he finished speaking, a noble lady in a light blue silk dress clasped her hands together and said in a prayer gesture: "I would like to donate 5 francs to show my piety."

Her voice was immediately drowned out by the girl behind her: "I will donate 7 francs..."

At this moment, a beautiful figure walked out of the crowd and whispered, "Archbishop Beaumont, your pious lamb is willing to donate 4 francs."

The long golden hair and violet eyes belonged to Camelia.

(End of this chapter)