Flowers, Swords and France

According to the previous agreement, Charles came to a narrow street in the 17th district. Since most of the people living here are working class, it is much dirtier and noisier than other places.

After arriving at the agreed place, he took out his pocket watch to check the time.

"French citizens, stand up!"

Charles turned his head and found a young man in plain clothes standing on a corner stone, shouting loudly to the people around him. Groups of people gathered around him from the side of the street and applauded his speech from time to time.

For safety reasons, the Bonapartist secret organization usually chooses densely populated slums for gatherings, and the Saint-Antoine district where they are today happens to be such a gathering area for workers and petty citizens. It is very convenient to gather and escape here during the day. What's more, the residents here generally have some tendency to oppose the government and will not cooperate with the spies of the Ministry of the Interior.

"Citizens! Wake up! Stand up! Don't be deceived by sweet words. What have you gained after your hard work? Those nobles who thought they had escaped from the flames of revolution continue to act tyrannically, living a life of debauchery while mocking and despising you, the working people! The times have torn off all the veils, and the question before us now is this: Is it progress or reaction, is it revolution or counter-revolution, is it for the people or against the people? That's the question, there's nothing else! There's only one thing we have to do, and that is to overthrow all the ridiculous kings and courts, and make France a glorious republic again, standing at the top of Europe!"

Although the government had already shown signs of losing control of public opinion, it was really shocking that the Republicans' agitation had reached the stage of being carried out openly in broad daylight.

Charles was quite interested, so he slowly and inconspicuously walked over and listened quietly to the agitation of the young man.

"...Those who think they can destroy our doctrine, tear up our declaration, and deprive the French people of their rights through guns and prisons are really stupid and ridiculous! We once destroyed the Bourbon dynasty, and we can destroy it later!" The people next to him kept clapping and cheering. "Enough!" Suddenly, a middle-aged man with neat clothes next to him spoke up, causing silence. "Do you still need to promote revolution at this point? France has had enough." Hostile or suspicious eyes swept towards him from the crowd. The middle-aged man's face turned pale, but he still insisted on looking at the young man. Faced with this unexpected challenge, the young man was a little surprised for a moment, and then he showed a missionary smile. "Enough? No, sir, France will never have enough before achieving its goal." "Goal?" The middle-aged man laughed sarcastically. "What did France gain through the revolution? So many years of bloody storms, so many heads rolling down, most of them innocent, what did they gain after paying so much?!"

"France got a chance, from now on civilians can live with the king and do not feel ashamed, from now on nobles are just a part of ordinary people." The young man answered calmly. "From now on, although the inequality brought by blood still exists, no oppressed people will think that this is natural and accept it as God's will and fate!"

"Is this all you get after hundreds of thousands of people shed blood!"

"Isn't this enough?!" The young man laughed.

The onlookers also cheered.

"But..." Under the pressure of the crowd around him, the middle-aged man hesitated a little. He wanted to say something, but he didn't say it after all.

"So, sir, are you hoping for a bloodless revolution?" The young man sneered. "Simply naive!"

"What a Jacobin!" The other party widened his eyes, "Do you think such advocacy can bring you any benefits? Be careful not to become another Danville!"

"Becoming Danville is better than continuing to be a slave of the king." The young man answered in a matter-of-fact tone. "How can we tolerate a society that divides human beings by blood rather than ability!"

[Refers to Fouquier-Danville, the government prosecutor during the Terror of the Great Revolution. He prosecuted many "counter-revolutionaries" to the Revolutionary Tribunal. Since the government decree prohibited prisoners from hiring lawyers to defend themselves and did not need to listen to testimony, and stipulated that the death penalty was the only punishment, being sent to this court was almost synonymous with being executed. However, in 1795, Danville himself was sent to the guillotine by his political enemies. 】

The onlookers cheered fiercely again.

The middle-aged man who looked like a businessman wanted to argue something else, but he saw that he seemed unwelcome here, so he just sighed, shook his head, and turned away.

The young man, feeling victorious, shouted to his audience again. "Citizens, please remember everything I said today. France is in your hands. Don't give it up! When you need to stand up, please stand up bravely! The day of reckoning is coming. Are you ready to take on the heavy responsibility?"

"Ready!" The crowd cheered and applauded.

"Then, please wait for our call!" He shouted loudly, raised his hands, and his face was full of the glory of a martyr.

No one noticed that he glanced at Charles with his hidden eyes, and Charles nodded slightly in approval, conveying a message of "well done" with his eyes.

"The police are coming!"

"The police are coming!"

Suddenly, shouts came from everywhere. The incited people warned the young man in a low voice and deliberately created chaos to prevent the police from approaching and buy time for the young man to escape.

"Citizens, please remember what I said!" the young man shouted again, then took out a large stack of leaflets from his arms and threw them out, then got into an alley, and finally disappeared.

=========================

"here you go!"

On the rapidly moving carriage, Charles handed a handkerchief to the young man. "You have worked really hard."

"Everything is for career." The young man shook his head nonchalantly, and then wiped the sweat on his body with a handkerchief. "It seems like today was quite successful."

"Well, it was indeed quite successful. There were so many people who responded." Charles nodded in agreement. “I’ve never felt better.”

"Of course, the residents here like to hear this." The young man replied with a smile.

This was a demagogue within the Bonapartist organization, but Charles had only met him a few times, and had never asked his name, nor had he asked Charles.

"However, you must be more careful." Ciel warned. "The government seems to have noticed something recently, and the investigation is very strict."

"Yeah, I know." The young man nodded quickly, still looking nonchalant. "However, sometimes I am almost confused by what I said. I really want to follow them and fight with them with real swords and guns!"

"A demagogue shouldn't pay too much attention to what he's talking about," Charles replied in a low voice. “We incite revolution only to betray it, please always remember this.”

"I know."

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

For the Bonapartists, in order to achieve their final goal, it was necessary and necessary to first incite revolution among the people in order to overthrow the dynasty.

Propaganda and incitement are skills, which require distinguishing the target and understanding the other party's psychology to formulate targeted strategies. The effect of instilling the same propaganda into each group with different interests and demands will be extremely ridiculous. For the poor, the glory and glorious ideals of the empire are too far away. The only things that can inspire them to overthrow the current regime are visible interests, class hatred and republican thoughts. Therefore, Bonapartist propagandists have no scruples in appearing as republican radicals in front of the poor.

There is no doubt, however, that this Bonapartist propaganda contained from the very beginning the seeds of treachery. If they succeed in stimulating a revolution, their next task will be to suppress it. If a republic is established, they will destroy another like Emperor Napoleon. Ciel has nothing to hide about this. If he wants to carry out the conspiracy and usurp the power he covets, he should not be afraid of bearing the sewage and notoriety brought by the conspiracy.

Charles clearly knew that they were also trying to overthrow the current dynasty, but the Bonapartists were not essentially for the people in a broad sense. They were still safeguarding some "reactionary class interests," for which he did not intend to give any explanation. What a noble moral quibble.

He chose his current path based on his own position, interests and ideals, and has never regretted it.

He also knows that if his ultimate ideal is realized, many French people will pay the price with their lives, and he does not feel guilty about this.

At least, because of my efforts, compared with 1.5 million people who would die from 1914 to 1918 and achieve almost nothing, France could shed a lot less blood and reach its final glory. This is how Charles comforted himself.

And, he can do whatever he can to give his people a better life—if all goes well.

"However, sometimes I wonder, if one day we all achieve our goals, will there be the same group of people using the same means to incite these people to destroy us too?" the young man suddenly asked.

"This? It depends on the situation." Ciel answered vaguely.

"It depends on the situation?" The young man was a little surprised by his answer.

"People have a kind of laziness. They will choose to overthrow everything only after they feel there is no way out." Charles looked out the car window. "Few people have the courage to do this before they can at least survive. So as long as we do a good job in the future and let the people have something to do and food and clothing, then any incitement may not be effective."

"Really?"

"The people are more tolerant than you think. Even the French, who are full of rebellious spirit, don't want to risk being shot every day to rebel, right? Not to mention other ethnic groups, some people even When some people reach a point where others find it unbearable, they will be deceived by ignorance or habit and do not choose to resist. "

"Um?"

"Let me tell you a story. In the far east, there is such a group. The property and even personal freedom of the lower class people are all taken over by slave owners and monks. Those people treat the lower class people like domestic animals and even take their organs from time to time. and their lives as religious sacrificial objects... However, nearly a thousand years have passed, and they have not resisted. "

"No way?!"

"This is not the end of the story. The end of the story is that a group of foreigners came later, drove away the slave owners and monks, and let these people have freedom, dignity and property... As a result, one day, some of these people suddenly accused the foreigners of being invaders, deprived them of their beliefs, insulted their noble traditions, smeared oil all over their bodies, and then set themselves on fire to protest the invasion and interference of foreigners..."

"Hahahaha, you must be joking, right? It's just an oriental name." The young man suddenly laughed.

"Well, of course I'm joking, this is a joke." Charles smiled slightly and didn't say more about this topic. Then he took out a page of paper from his arms and handed it to the other party. "This is the latest material. You can print more leaflets and distribute them everywhere!"

"What is it?" The young man took it with some doubts, and then glanced at it casually. "Prime Minister Soult accepted bribes from the Duke of Praslin to help him conceal the murder of his wife? Wow... Good guy! Is this true?"

"It's enough if someone believes it."

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