Eagle’s Glory

Surrounded by the crowd, Aigron and a group of people walked towards the church in a mighty manner.

Although Aigron was caught in a frenzy on the surface, he was still extremely calm and vigilant in his heart, always paying attention to the surrounding environment and not letting go of any suspicious signs.

To him, fame is important, but the most important thing is his own personal safety. After all, fame can be slowly built up, but if he loses his life, he will have nothing.

Of course, given his current reputation, if he was caught, he might not necessarily die (but this is also possible, because King Charles X was famously reactionary, would he suddenly lose his mind and go crazy? Napoleon's son avenged the then Duke of Enghien, no one can say for sure.)

Besides, even if his life is not in danger, going to jail is not an easy life - he still has a bright future, and his wife (and future children) are waiting for him to go home. How could he waste his precious youth in prison?

So he has to do his best to keep himself safe.

Now the people around him are all the people he brought back from abroad, and a few supporters who are in France but who are easily invisible, the Marquis of Treville does not appear - unlike Aigron, General Treville After that, he has to return to his own home in Paris, so he can't appear in front of people.

Because of this, Aigron arranged for the Marquis of Treville to be lurking outside the town, staring at the road between the Strasbourg fortress and the town. If there was any trouble, he would flee according to the plan he had thought of before.

He believed in the loyalty of the Marquis of Treville, and for now at least, their fates were bound together.

After confirming that there was nothing abnormal in the surroundings, Aegron reassuredly followed the veteran who led the way to the church.

As they approached the humble township church, the parish priest felt bewildered by the sudden rush of people, and he walked out of the church to meet the rowdy fellows.

"My brothers, what are you doing? Why didn't you go to drink coffee and drink, and came to me instead?" He asked curiously.

The priest was probably in his fifties, with a rather squat and rich build. Although he was wearing a black robe, he did not appear serious. He had a gentle smile on his face, and combined with his large body, he looked naive.

However, Aigron had no interest in chatting with him at the moment. He still put on a serious face, and then directly explained his identity to the other party.

"Hello, Father. I am the king of Rome, I have just returned to France, and now I need your help."

"Huh? You...you say you are?" The smile on the priest's face disappeared instantly, his eyebrows were raised, and the wrinkles on his forehead became deeper, "What is it?"

He blinked and kept looking at the young man, not understanding what was going on.

Before waiting for Aegron to explain, he was like a rabbit with fried fur, and his whole body trembled. "King of Rome? Duke of Reichstedt? Napoleon II?"

"All, this is all me, it's really hard for you to remember them all. You can call me by any title—" Aegron nodded friendly, "Of course, I'd be happier if it was the last one."

Looking at the young man's face, the priest seemed to have seen some kind of ghost, and his face was suddenly bloodless.

"God!" he shouted, then turned to run.

How could Aegron give him another chance like this?

Without a wink from him, Andre Davout, who was beside him, directly grabbed his shoulder.

How could this poor old priest be the opponent of a young man like Andrei, who was immediately grabbed by the shoulders and could no longer escape.

"This is not the welcome I expected." Aegron said softly without changing his expression.

Of course, although the tone and words are quite polite, but his eyes have sent a stern warning to the other party - if you don't obey, you will be in danger of life.

The priest gasped for breath and slowly accepted the reality, but he still stared at Aegron with lingering fears, "You... why did you come back?"

"This is my country, why can't I come back?" Agron asked rhetorically.

At this moment, he saw that the veteran Anlers next to him seemed to have something to say.

So he nodded to the other party, indicating that he had something to say.

After obtaining permission, the veteran Anles briefly introduced the priest, "This is a good guy. During the Great Revolution, he refused to swear allegiance to the Republic, so he was included in the list of enemies of the Republic, forced to hide everywhere, and waited until the Empire period. He came out only when the society settled down. However, although he is a royalist in standpoint, he is very kind and kind to people, and he is also quite famous among us. If you can, please don't be too rough with him. "

"Of course, I don't want to be rough with any French - unless I have to," said Aegron, looking at the priest again.

The look in his eyes seemed to say 'please don't force me to do it'.

Then, Aigron spoke to the priest again, "Father, I'm sorry for causing you unexpected trouble today, but please rest assured, I won't be here for too long. So as long as you stay here for a short time. If you cooperate with me, then I will never harm your safety-although I may not have the same political position as you, but according to my identity and dignity, I will not lie to you."

Aigron's words seemed to calm the priest's emotions a little.

"What...what do you want me to do?" he asked in a frightened, trembling voice.

"It's very simple, you go to ring the bell and call the nearby villagers. The more people come, the better." Aegron replied briefly.

He still hasn't said a word, but his eyes have already told the other party - if you don't obey this request, then I'll be 'forced'.

He had never served the Empire, and as a priest he had no children (at least not in name) to die for the Emperor, so Aegron certainly didn't need to be too polite to him.

The priest did not agree immediately, but looked at Aegron anxiously, then at the group of people around him, and then involuntarily looked at the direction of the fortress.

"You're right, the garrison will come, but it takes time, and I can do a lot of things during this time—" Aigron clenched his fists in a demonstrative manner, "Again, I don't have enough time, so Please don't make me talk too much."

"Can you promise not to hurt others?" the priest tried to bargain.

"Of course, as long as no one draws a gun at me, then I will never fire first—" Aegron assured with a look of pride. "I ran back to France not to kill anyone, but to see this land and its people."

"Hey..." The priest sighed, and finally nodded helplessly, "Okay."

Then, under the watch of Andre Davout, he returned to the humble church, where he rang the church bell in the small attic.

Amidst the ding dong ding dong bells, villagers in various villages and dwellings poked their heads from the houses and fields unexpectedly, wondering why the church suddenly summoned them.

Soon, the villagers gathered from all directions.

Aigron stood in the open space, listening to the bell, watching the crowd gather in front of him.

Of course, he was such a well-dressed young man from a foreign country that attracted the attention of the villagers.

Aegron's plan was going smoothly, but at the same time he felt a kind of pressure on his back - God! If they hated me, it would even take a call from a few people to swarm me and arrest me.

There are already hundreds of villagers here, and there will be more in the future, and he only has a few people and a few guns in his hands - just a little armed, facing so many young and middle-aged people, it is meaningless at all.

It was not the first time that Aigron had faced a large crowd, but at that time either those people were his subordinates, or he had enough subordinates around him to protect him. This was the first time he faced such a disparate proportion. There are so many people with different looks and unpredictable minds.

His body instinctively sensed danger, leaving him a little dry.

However, there was no fear in his heart.

If you want to accomplish big things, you have to have courage. What is such a little scene?

He adjusted his breathing, then, with a proud composure, silently watched the surrounding people, ignoring their whispers.

Slowly, the sound of the bell gradually weakened, and hundreds of villagers gathered.

Aegron felt in his heart that it was time, so he finally spoke out loud.

"Citizens of France! I, the King of Rome, have returned to see you!"

His brief sentence immediately caused a commotion in the crowd. Some people were exclaiming, some people were full of disbelief, and some people were at a loss.

Aigron knew that this was a critical moment, and he had to control the pulse of the crowd with the attitude he should have.

He walked slowly forward towards the crowd, not at all afraid of falling into the crowd.

Perhaps feeling the mental pressure, the crowd involuntarily retreated, and some people even turned pale and wanted to escape.

"I'm here to visit you." Aigron stood still, then looked at the people excitedly, "Please don't be afraid of me, don't exclude me, because I'm one of you... I'm French, I You set foot on French soil just to see you. Have you forgotten the Emperor, so that you don't want to say a few words to his son?"

His voice was as loud as ever, but it was deliberately softer.

Under his questioning, the crowd gradually stopped, and some daring people began to look at him. Although a few people still chose to escape, he had finally controlled the scene.

"I didn't come here to bring about any strife, and I never want to kill, I just want to see you, to see France..." Agron said emotionally, "I want to know that over the years, there has been no wave Naparte family, is your life better? Without the Bonaparte family, are the gentlemen in Paris more willing to listen to your voice and feel your suffering? Without us, you feel more freedom and wealth Yet?"

None of his three questions were answered, but in the eyes of the crowd, he could see that the answer was all -- no.

Aegron knew that for these villagers, it would be meaningless to shout about empires and bloodlines. If you want to mobilize their emotions, you must first start with their lives.

And it just so happens that the Bourbon royal family’s more than ten years of rule can provide him with enough shells-although the peasants have escaped from the endless military service of the imperial era, their life has not been much better, and they are even politically rejected. excluded to an insignificant position.

"No, I saw the answer in your eyes - after the emperor left, the gentlemen who came back did not give you a good life." Aegron said in a slightly exaggerated tone, "They forgot their wealth, their Where the **** did the power come from, they thought they were born to crawl on you to be intimidating, they had fun and forgot about you, made you suffer and burdened - none of you forgot about that Billion Bill , isn't it? After they came back, did the taxes and debts on your head increase again? They brought no glory to France, but they had the face to ask you for food, and take the money you have finally accumulated to enjoy yourself. Is it fair? Are you born to be bullied by them? No... not so! Didn't you give the loudest answer thirty years ago?"

When Louis XVIII died in September 1824, his younger brother, the Count of Artois, succeeded him as King Charles X. He and his assistants were obsessed with extreme orthodox policies and were determined to make amends. The trauma of the old ruling class over the past few decades in the frenzy of the Great Revolution.

In order to achieve this goal, after he ascended the throne, he and his prime minister, the Count of Villers, passed a number of laws, the most famous of which was the "billion francs" bill, the main content of which was to confiscated and sold property during the French Revolution. The nobles offered compensation, totaling billions of francs.

In France, which has just experienced decades of turmoil, of course, the government cannot have so much cash. These billions of francs have become long-term public bonds, which are held by the exiled nobles for a long time. The government will allocate funds from the national treasury to repay.

In other words, in the name of law, the royal government stipulates that the citizens owe a debt of one billion francs to the exiled nobles and must bear a huge amount of principal and interest.

One billion francs is roughly equivalent to 300 tons of gold at the value of the franc at the time.

The introduction of this bill immediately aroused public anger.

Those aristocrats who followed the Bourbon royal family into exile and finally returned to China, of course, took it for granted - after all, they almost lost their lives in the revolutionary wave back then, and even if they escaped abroad by chance, their net worth was lost by the revolutionary government. It was confiscated and auctioned, and the legal property suffered heavy losses and should be compensated.

However, most people at the bottom do not agree with this reason at all - after all, isn't the property of the so-called lords and gentlemen obtained by the continuous oppression of the lords and tenants?

For thousands of years, the peasants have shouldered the heavy taxes of the lords and the lords, and from time to time they have to do hard labor for the lords. After so many years of heavy oppression, it is still too light to be liquidated by the Great Revolution. In the case of a huge state machine, an additional huge debt of one billion francs?

Both sides have their own "reasons" and are almost irreconcilable. For the lower working people, the resentment naturally concentrated on King Charles X and his government.

For Aegron, King Charles X's implementation of such a rebellious and reactionary policy is tantamount to sending himself a propaganda cannonball.

He can not only accuse the Bourbon royal family of disregarding public opinion, but also take the opportunity to extend and question their "political morality".

After all, just to please a very small group of people, King Charles X can make such a bold move, is he still qualified to rule this country?

Taking it a step further, perhaps this was not an isolated reactionary measure, but the beginning of a larger plan to bring France back to pre-1789?

Aigron doesn't care what King Charles X thinks, but in short, he is trying desperately to exaggerate "the king just wants to bring the country back to 1789."

Only in this way can the deepest fears of farmers be inspired.

The peasants had little resonance with the freedom and equality preached during the Great Revolution. Those beautiful words seemed to them to be the stuff of the city people, but they regarded the land they got from the lord during the Great Revolution as their lifeblood. Son - a piece of land, a piece of land that can be passed down from family to family, is everything to a farmer.

Property changes, especially land changes, that occurred during the Great Revolution were taboos that could never be touched again, just like the ark of the covenant that could never be opened again.

And Aigron deliberately used this taboo to show off, as if the bullfighters were waving red cloth to stir up the most sensitive nerves of the villagers.

"This billion francs will be the noose for you and your descendants, burdening you with burdens that have no legitimate reason at all, suffocating you in peace! You are burdened with taxes, you are the bedrock of the kingdom's finances, you have not Any right has to bear the heaviest burden, then and now! The salt you eat and the wine you buy are equivalent to filling the bill for the splurge of these shameless people!"

Aigron said to the crowd, word by word, "And that's not enough, their desires never end, because their ability to spend money is handed down from generation to generation, and nothing can fill their missing bills! You think paying this Once is enough? No, once you give in, you give in forever, once you give in, you give in endlessly, you have seen how many rights you have been taken away, and then in your silence, the rest of the rights will only be taken away more and more , until one day, there will be a gentleman's butler riding a horse into the country and telling you that this land belongs to them since ancient times, to these gentlemen who are always in awe, tell me, have you accepted such a fate? Are you really willing to be their tame sheep, providing your own wool without complaint?"

Then he repeated it aloud. "Are you willing?!"

"Do not!"