The officers frowned and turned to look at the Duke of Orleans.
However, the latter smiled and said, "The legion controlled by the Royal Family is expanding rapidly. As far as I know, after their return to Paris, they recruited nearly a thousand new soldiers in a short period of time.
"Now, including Mulan's corps that has pledged allegiance to the Royal Family and the Swiss mercenaries, the Royal Family has over ten thousand soldiers at their disposal,"𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
"You've forgotten the Flander Regiment; oh, now it's called the Paris Legion," Mono chimed in, "They've always been cozying up to the Royal Family."
"Thanks for the reminder. So, that makes 13,000 men," the Duke of Orleans glanced at the Marquis of Saint Priest, "Following this trend, it won't be long before the Royal Family has a formidable army, and you all will become worthless."
General Astou snorted disdainfully, "Just over 10,000 men, not even enough to maintain order in France."
The Duke of Orleans smiled and asked, "Do you know what kind of weapons and equipment Bertier's Corps has?"
As he spoke, he took out an Auguste-style caplock gun along with a small bag of percussion caps and threw them to General Astou. These weapons, which were beginning to be mass-produced, were not difficult to obtain in one or two pieces from the arsenal if one was willing to spend the money.
After a group of military heavyweights understood the usage of the caplock guns and took turns firing them, expressions of grave concern appeared on their faces.
"You experts can certainly see how much this kind of gun can enhance the combat effectiveness of an army."
The Duke of Orleans did not wait for the officers to object and immediately continued, "In fact, the most dangerous element lies in the new promotion mechanism that the Royal Family is implementing in the army."
"Promotion mechanism?"
"Haven't you heard?" the Duke of Orleans said with an exaggerated expression, "In the Royal Army, commoners can be promoted to officers based on their military merits, with no limitations, and they can even become generals! Moreover, promotion does not require a 'promotion fee', and they receive a substantial bonus."
The officers' expressions instantly turned cold upon hearing this.
This system was like desecrating their ancestors' graves!
They had always monopolized military officer positions through lineage and status. If now even commoners could become generals, their descendants might very well lose control over the army in the future.
What would follow was a substantial loss of income.
Mono muttered timely, "Oh, maybe in the future everyone will be taking orders from some lowborn, fighting bloody battles with the enemy. Meanwhile, he's mocking you from the command post..."
"This cannot be allowed!" General Astou roared, "The Royal Family is desecrating the traditions of the military!"
The other officers also began to curse, but the Marquis of Saint Priest watched the Duke of Orleans with a grave expression, "Your Grace, we've actually been wanting to show the Royal Family the military's stance for quite some time. However, we need an opportunity, such as an enemy the Royal Family cannot handle."
"That opportunity is about to arise," the Duke of Orleans declared loudly, "Soon the Royal Family will be in a huge predicament."
"Oh? Why are you so certain?"
Mono interjected from the side, "Because a massive famine is about to happen, and there will soon be mobs causing trouble everywhere."
"Mobs?" the Minister of War shook his head, "Those riffraff pose no threat at all."
The Duke of Orleans smiled, "If we give them a little 'push', the situation will be entirely different."
He briefly outlined his plan, concluding, "This time we also have the support of the Assembly of Notables. Yes, the recent actions of the Royal Family have gone too far, and everyone wants to correct the King's mistakes."
The eyes of the dozen or so officers present lit up.
...
"I'm so stupid, really!"
A common carriage was heading towards the Saint-Germain District in the face of the setting sun. Inside, Soleil clenched her hands together and berated herself, "I can't believe I thought those two guys were heroes coming to save Celine, and I rashly asked for the Crown Prince's help to get them off the hook!"
She shook her slightly curly black hair vigorously, "The Crown Prince must think I'm in cahoots with those two now..."
The handsome young man sitting opposite her tried to comfort her, "Tulip, you need not blame yourself too much, anyone can be blinded. Besides, we'll be able to make up for this mistake soon."
The muscular man beside him snorted, "Hmph, asking the bastards of the Royal Family for help was the wrong decision in the first place. Why worry about their misunderstanding..."
Soleil immediately glared at him, "How can you talk about the Crown Prince like that! You have no idea; the Crown Prince and the rest of the Royal Family are completely different, he is kind and has a strong sense of justice!"
The muscular man shrugged and turned his head away, "Fine, have it your way..."
The handsome young man opened the curtain and glanced outside, "Let's all review the operation plan, we're approaching the Bastille."
The carriage fell into silence.
A few minutes later, two carriages stopped one after the other on the street corner opposite the Bastille. Soleil and five young men alighted, gazing at the formidable fortress.
"This is probably the most dangerous mission I've undertaken in years," a wiry redhead said softly.
"For the sake of fairness and justice, no danger is too great!" the handsome young man immediately replied.
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Soleil nodded, "Twilight is right! The Brotherhood is always with justice!"
These few individuals were members of The Brotherhood, which Soleil belonged to[Note 1]. This Brotherhood had nearly twenty members, all of whom were nobles' sons that enjoyed playing heroes in Paris, and although they were quite melodramatic, they indeed helped many of the poor.
A young man carrying a bow and arrows looked at the sky and said to Soleil, "It's about time, now it's all on you."
The girl nodded, lifted her veil, and strode towards the Bastille with long steps.
She moved with extraordinary agility and speed, using the cover of twilight to quickly reach the wall of the Bastille. With simple tools, she climbed like a gecko to a lookout window more than ten meters high that was out of sight of the patrolling guards.
She easily opened the window—it was clearly not her first time doing this—and then flipped inside, lowering a rope from her waist down the window.
Soon after, three Brotherhood companions climbed up the rope into a ready room inside the Bastille.
Soleil urged in a low voice, "We have only three minutes until the routine check, change clothes quickly!"
The group quickly put on the military uniforms they had brought and followed Soleil down the corridor into a storeroom. Then, they climbed out of a window into another room on the third floor, took advantage of the shift change of the guards to get to the officers' lounge, and once more climbed through a window...
In the heavily guarded Bastille, Soleil had managed to carve out a path with her innate talent.
About ten or so minutes later, despite the many dangers along the way, the three people safely reached the cell on the west side of the third floor where the Maletude Brothers were imprisoned.
Soleil, who was hiding behind the protrusion of a pillar at the end of the corridor, peeked at the two guards in front of the cell door and withdrew, saying to the red-haired man beside her, "Hunter, you need to lure those two guards away."
The latter also glanced at the cell and swallowed, "It looks very dangerous."
Nonetheless, he covered his face and muttered "for justice" before running towards the two guards. It wasn't that he was fearless in the face of death, but because his father was a very prestigious Earl, and even if he were captured, a sum of money would set him free.
Upon seeing a strange figure, the guards immediately drew their swords and chased after him, shouting, "Alarm! There's an intruder!"
Soleil immediately went up to the unguarded cell door. This time she didn't try to pick the lock but signaled to the most robust companion, "Leishi, it's your turn."
The man nodded, took an iron spike from his waist, and swung it high, striking the lock on the door.
There was a heavy "thud". His strength was immense, and a crack appeared on the cast-iron lock, which looked like it would break with another strike.
A small window on the cell door was lifted, and a man with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks looked out, saying, "Brother, they are smashing the door; they don't seem like guards."
"Move aside." The face behind the small window changed, and with suspicion, said, "Who are you?"
The "Hunter" immediately deepened his voice, "The boss sent us to get you out."
This was the plan that Soleil and her companions contrived to make amends.
Upon learning that Mono's son could not be convicted due to insufficient evidence, they decided to pretend to break into the jail, to gain the trust of the Maletude Brothers and coax useful evidence from them. Of course, if they couldn't fool the two, kidnapping and interrogating them was also an option.
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However, the people in the cell were surprised, "Did the Duke change the plan?"
"The Duke?" Soleil, who was closest, couldn't help but be taken aback. Shouldn't the leader of the Maletude Brothers be Mono's son? How had it become the Duke?
Before she had time to think, a rapid succession of footsteps suddenly came from the stairs on the west side.
She was about to urge Leishi to hurry up when the door of a distant cell suddenly burst open, and seven or eight fully armed guards rushed out, obviously having been lying in ambush there.
Soleil and the others were shocked and quickly drew their weapons, engaging in fierce combat with the guards.
All of them came from reputable noble families and had practiced swordsmanship since childhood, managing to push back the guards, who were twice as many, again and again.
Just as the trio reached the end of the corridor, preparing to escape through the window as they had come, they heard a series of gun mechanisms being cocked, "click-clack," from behind.
Soleil slowly turned her head, and what met her eyes were more than thirty dark gun barrels.
A man with dead fish eyes parted the guards and stepped forward, sneering, "I've been waiting for you for a long time. Take them all!"
Three hours later.
In the interrogation room of Bastille, Fouche frowned as he tossed aside the confession in his hand and glanced at the beautiful young woman opposite him, "Soleil? From the Freys Family?"
Soleil nodded nervously.
Fouche sighed, "So, you were trying to break the prisoners out?"
"No, sir, we just wanted to fake their confessions..."
Fouche suddenly exploded in anger, pounding the table and shouting, "Do you know how long I have worked to catch those behind them? You've ruined everything!"
His expertise told him that the young nobles he had just interrogated were not lying.
He waved his hand irritably at the guards and turned to leave, "Lock them up for now."
As Soleil was dragged up by two guards, she suddenly remembered something and hurriedly said to Fouche, "Wait, sir, I heard those two guys say that their boss seems to be a duke."
"Oh?" Fouche immediately turned back.
...
Royal Palace.
The Duke of Orleans looked grim as he turned to his butler, "Someone is trying to break the Maletude Brothers out? Who is it?"
"Well, that's still unclear," the butler replied, bowing his head, "We only got word from Bastille that there were four people involved. Oh, and they overheard the word 'Duke' mentioned during the interrogation."
The Duke of Orleans's eyes narrowed momentarily, and after a moment of contemplation, he suddenly stood up, "Quick, start the operation everywhere immediately."
The butler was taken aback and cautiously reminded him, "Master, the provinces to the northwest haven't been set up yet..."𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
"They might have already sensed something. We can't delay any longer."
The Duke of Orleans paced anxiously back and forth, then ordered, "Prepare to leave Paris. Go inform Mono to leave quickly as well.
"Oh, and for the military funds, use drafts from the Paris Discount Bank, there's no time to go through England."
As the Bank of France Reserve began to firmly establish its position as the "central bank," it started to exercise necessary oversight over the major banks in France. The huge amount he promised to the military was bound to attract attention.
He had initially planned to make a transfer through a bank in England, but the situation had changed and it probably wouldn't be timely now.
...
Province of Provence.
Nice.
A few ragged craftsmen, fighting against the biting cold, arrived at the nearest strategic grain reserve, only to find nearly a thousand people already there—they had all been told by government ration points that the reserve hadn't delivered grain, so they had come all this way to inquire about it.
The officials of the grain store had no choice but to repeat over and over again, "Our grain was sent to Montpellier, and there really is no grain in the warehouse right now. However, in a few more days, the grain from Grenoble will arrive..."
A tall man with scars on his face immediately interrupted loudly, "That's what you said five days ago, where's the grain now?"
The person next to him chimed in immediately, "The government has always said there is enough grain, telling everyone not to worry. It seems we have all been deceived!"
An emaciated old man in a thin flax jacket, leading a child of about ten, squeezed his way to the front of the grain store officials, bowed his head and clutched his chest, "Sir, bread in the city is sold for 22 sous a pound, we truly cannot afford it... Please have mercy, dispatch some grain."
Normally, bread in Nice would not exceed 10 sous per pound. For the citizens who are struggling to survive on every last sou of their wages, this means more than half a month without money to buy food.
[Note 1] The Brotherhood was originally a type of guild organization and gradually evolved into an association. It is generally composed of members with the same interests or beliefs, or even established for social purposes. Members support and help each other and also elect officials for internal management. It was very common in the 18th century.