Chapter 526: Rivers of Blood
The leading tax officer took a few steps forward, his face expressionless.
"You are Jacques Hétoile de Pocque of Touraine, correct?"
Touraine was Pocque's hometown. He nodded immediately.
"Yes, I am Pocque."
The tax officer produced a copper badge and displayed it to him.
"I am Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, an inspector with the Reims Tax Office. You are currently suspected of illegal taxation, assault, fraud..."
He glanced at his notes.
"Ah, the list is quite long. We'll get into the details later. Oh, and your identification number is 1037083123, correct?"
Thanks to relentless efforts by the Minister of Records, France had almost entirely implemented a national identification system, barring a few remote regions.
Pocque's expression darkened. "Yes, that's correct."
"Good, then there's no mistake." Chaumette gestured to the officers behind him.
"Arrest him immediately."
"Yes, sir!"
"What are you doing?" Pocque took a step back, trying to intimidate them.
"I'm friends with Baron Lecorny, the municipal commissioner! You'd better be careful!"
"Municipal commissioner?" Chaumette sneered. He turned and barked to his subordinates, "Move quickly!"
"Hey! Do you even know who I work for?" Pocque's tone turned desperate as he revealed his trump card.
"I work for Viscount Borollay!"
"Oh?" Chaumette raised an eyebrow, pulling out his notebook.
"Go on, tell me in detail how you work for Borollay."
Pocque froze, realizing his bluff had backfired. Changing tactics, he forced a smile and lowered his voice, giving Chaumette a knowing look.
"Let's not be so serious, sir. If you'd be willing to step outside for, say, an hour, I can offer you 2,000... no, 3,000 francs."
Chaumette's face twisted with rage. Unlike the corrupt officials Pocque usually dealt with, this inspector was a "pure-blood" Jacobin loyalist, devoted to justice, liberty, and the creation of a virtuous nation. To him, Pocque's bribe was a direct insult to his ideals.
"You dare bribe an officer of the law?" Chaumette roared.
"This adds another charge to your crimes!"
At that moment, Pocque's butler arrived with seven or eight burly men armed with weapons.
Seeing his master in trouble, the butler immediately positioned his men between Pocque and the tax officials, forming a barrier.
More of Pocque's enforcers arrived—a gang of nearly 20 tax collectors. These men, mostly former thugs, were accustomed to bullying delinquent taxpayers and had grown brazenly arrogant.
One of them turned to Pocque.
"Boss, what should we do?"
"Get rid of them," Pocque growled.
He could tell the tax office was serious this time, so he planned to drive them away and then seek refuge with Viscount Borollay.
The tax officers tried to push past the enforcers, but one was shoved back, nearly losing his balance.
As more enforcers arrived, they surrounded Chaumette and his team.
Suddenly, a deafening gunshot rang out, causing Pocque's men to flinch.
Chaumette lowered his pistol, blowing away the smoke from the barrel.
"Anyone who assaults tax officers can be executed on the spot!" he declared coldly.
The officers formed a defensive circle, pointing their flintlocks at the aggressors.
Pocque, seeing the situation escalate, ran back toward the courtyard, shouting,
"Don't be afraid! I'll bail out anyone who gets caught!"
Chaumette drew his second pistol and aimed it at the chest of the most defiant enforcer.
"Stand down!"
When the man didn't move, Chaumette pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Another gunshot echoed, and the enforcer collapsed, his chest a mangled, bloody mess.
The remaining enforcers, recalling rumors of tax officers killing attackers in broad daylight, began to connect those tales to the armed and unflinching men before them.
Some hesitantly reached for their own pistols. They outnumbered the officers, and if it came to a firefight, they could likely win.
Chaumette noticed their hesitation and shouted, "Fire!"
The six officers, though visibly nervous, obeyed the order. Their flintlocks erupted in unison, unleashing flames and lead. At such close range—only five or six paces—six more enforcers were blasted off their feet, blood spraying everywhere.
"Fix bayonets!" Chaumette commanded, drawing his sword.
The remaining enforcers, staring at the lifeless bodies of their comrades, felt their legs turn to jelly. Any thoughts of resistance evaporated as they turned to flee.
"Freeze!" Chaumette bellowed. "Anyone who runs will be shot!"
Terrified, the once-arrogant tax collectors froze in place, some even raising their hands in surrender.
Chaumette and another officer entered Pocque's villa. Minutes later, they emerged, holding Pocque and his butler at gunpoint.
Seeing the corpses sprawled across his courtyard, Pocque's legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees, his pants soiled with urine.
Elsewhere in France
In Saintienne, tax farmer Lecornu, though bound, shouted defiantly:
"You dare arrest me?
"Just wait! Within three days, someone will come to release me. When I'm back, I'll make you all pay!"
A tax officer, recalling the atrocities listed in Lecornu's records, smashed the man's face with a rifle butt, silencing him instantly.
Meanwhile, in Lyon, a full-scale battle erupted.
Tax farmer Auban's men exchanged gunfire with tax officers before engaging in hand-to-hand combat. After losing four officers, the tax bureau, with help from enraged townspeople, finally subdued or killed the violent gang.
France's Response
Across the nation, tax offices adopted a unified approach: no compromise, relentless determination, and zero tolerance.
Over the next three days, tax officers mobilized en masse, arresting nearly a thousand tax farmers and their henchmen.
And the complaints from citizens continued to flood tax offices, with long lines of petitioners suggesting many more arrests were to come.
At the Tuileries Palace
Joseph reviewed the list Robespierre had presented. His expression finally eased as he signed his approval.
Handing the list back, he said,
"You've done well. Begin the trials. Oh, and those who attacked tax officers—group their cases for efficiency."
Though furious, Joseph refrained from fully emulating the Jacobin approach from history. France still enjoyed relative stability, and he saw no need to disrupt that with rash actions.
Instead, trials would follow proper procedures. Most cases were straightforward—tax records and documents provided clear evidence of wrongdoing.
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