18th century total war

Chapter 254 The Great Purge

Li Wei naturally saw the difficulties encountered by the Kingdom of Spain and the situation in which the Armada was driven across the Mediterranean by the Royal Navy.

Unsurprisingly, the political results of the military alliance between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Spain appeared!

The main energy of the London government, which is the most active in the anti-French alliance, has been put on the Spaniards.

Without the troubles of the British, Li Wei could then carry out a drastic cleansing of the mainland of France.

That idiot Carlos IV would agree to form an alliance with the French Republic at this time.

After all, the current French Republic is clearly hated by everyone in Europe. With the growth of the Lindenvan Brotherhood, French revolutionary ideas have spread from Central Europe to Italy and Southern Europe, and even the Balkans have shown signs of it.

It's just that the Ottomans' religious control is very strict, and it is extra difficult for revolutionary ideas to spread in the territory of the Ottoman Empire.

As for the territory of Tsarist Russia in Eastern Europe, the serfs who were bound to the land and suffered slavery could not spread revolutionary ideas at all.

Although the serf system was backward, it was indeed an effective means of controlling revolutionary ideas.

In addition to the Ottoman Empire, the religious enemy in the whole of Europe, the spread of French revolutionary ideas in Tsarist Russia has stagnated.

However, Fatis was also a man of political acumen. He found that the French revolutionary ideas could not spread in Tsarist Russia, so he sent people to establish a Davari Mutual Aid Association with Tsarist Russian customs in the big cities of Tsarist Russia. .

This Davari Mutual Aid Society no longer promotes French revolutionary ideas, but unites the poor at the bottom in the form of a gangster, so that the poor who join the association can unite and hug each other to keep warm.

Because it developed in the city and did not spread revolutionary ideas, the Davari Mutual Aid Association was treated by the local government of the Tsarist Russian Empire as an ordinary gangster. Gangsters were too common in the cities of Tsarist Russia. Some Russian nobles even took the initiative to find Davari The Warri Brothers do some shady things.

For example, helping a green-faced Tsarist nobleman assassinate his wife's lover!
The Davari Mutual Aid Association has internal statistics on all the commissions, and it is found that the business dealing with the relationship between noble men and women is the largest number, no one!

Due to the tight organization of the Davari Mutual Aid Association, the completion rate of entrusted tasks is very high, and it quickly gained a reputation among the upper class in the city. More and more Tsarist Russian nobles and government bureaucrats are willing to ask them for entrusted help.

This makes the development of Davari Mutual Aid Society very smooth.

The philosophy of the Davari Fraternity is completely different from that of the Lindenwan Brotherhood. As the Davari Mutual Aid Society grew stronger, it became more and more difficult for Fatis to control them.

Fatis once tried to send absolutely loyal brainwashing soldiers there, but found that even if the French solved the language problem, they would still appear out of place in the Tsarist Russian Empire and could not integrate into the Davari Mutual Aid Society at all.

After Fatis realized that the Davari Mutual Aid Association was at risk of falling out of control, he made a bold and risky decision. He took Wright and other team members to collectively move to Tsarist Russia and directly controlled the Davari Mutual Aid Association.

The Secret Service of Livy's government completely lost contact with Fatis and his group after Fatis and his people moved to Eastern Europe...

Before Fatis left, he handed over the Lindenwan Brotherhood developed in Central Europe to the Secret Service.

Allen, who was originally in charge of contacting Fatis in one line, took over the position of leader of the Lindenwan Brotherhood that Fatis developed in Central Europe.

Of course, these are all matters on the hidden front and have no effect on the international situation in Europe.

In the first half of 1796, the Paris cabinet government formed by Li Wei announced the banning of the Paris Commune, banning all revolutionary party clubs, and declaring that any revolutionary party in any situation was an illegal organization!

Ironically, this decree aimed at the French Revolutionary Party was unanimously approved by the French Republic Assembly, which was originally regarded as the stronghold of the Revolutionary Party!

What is more symbolic is that the Livy government directly dispatched the Prussian Legion, the first legion of the French Foreign Legion that had just completed training, to implement this decree.

In order to make the action sudden, the decree was not promulgated when the Prussian Legion launched a surprise attack on the Paris Commune. When most Parisians knew the news, all clubs in the Paris area were closed, and a large number of people were reported by members of the French Republic Parliament. Revolutionaries arrested...

In just one day, thousands of members of the Paris Commune and members of the Revolutionary Party were arrested in the Paris area, and all of them were imprisoned in labor prisons.

Almost all the people in the Paris Commune were arrested, and the banning of the Paris Commune was a matter of course. Without the Revolutionary Party Club, the citizens of Paris were like flies without a leader, unable to do anything except dare to speak out.

At this moment, members of the Parliament of the French Republic with high reputation among the people stood up and comforted the Paris citizens. In the end, the Paris citizens did not even show up for demonstrations!
The thousands of revolutionaries arrested in Paris, together with the revolutionaries arrested in the previous purges in southeastern and southern France, except for the elderly, were all sent to military camps and brainwashed into a million people. Division troops.

After the brainwashing ended, the Li Wei government began to expand the purge of the revolutionaries, and the knives fell on the capitalists in the Paris area who had ties to the revolutionary party.

The sacred and inviolable law of private property was regarded as waste paper at this moment. The Wallace Business Alliance controlled by the Minister of Industry and Commerce Wallace ushered in a carnival. They accepted a large number of Paris industries without paying any price.

All are property confiscated by the government.

At this time, the land reform policy had been carried out throughout France, and the French peasants had no idea of ​​rebellion under the land reform policy of the Li Wei government.

After the Great Purge of Paris broke out, the countries in the Anti-French Alliance originally thought that France would once again trigger a revolutionary wave. However, the vast rural areas were very stable. The revolutionaries in the big cities were killed before they could organize mass demonstrations. The local French Defense Forces prepared to arrest and imprison him.

In just one month, more than 1 revolutionaries throughout France were arrested and sent to labor camps. Before the entire revolutionary party in the French Republic could recover, it was systematically dismembered by the Livy government. , did not cause any social unrest.

And among these revolutionary party members from all over France, the young and strong were selected into the barracks and trained into the second division-level force of [-] people.

At this point, the size of the Guards infantry under Li Wei officially exceeded the 20 mark!
These brainwashed revolutionaries turned soldiers returned to their hometowns to speak out and praise the Livy government.

Even though these brainwashed revolutionaries have lost their original eloquence and wisdom, they still achieved great results.

This purge killed very few people. The arrested revolutionaries eventually changed their minds and loyally supported the Livy regime. The French people were confused and their revolutionary enthusiasm was extinguished before it could rise...

The implementation of the land reform policy has allowed most French farmers to have land to cultivate again, and the number of people who died of starvation is rapidly decreasing. Except for small-scale battles that still break out at the border of the Rhine area from time to time, which is relatively chaotic, the whole of France has entered a stable state. development period.

After solving the problem of the Revolutionary Party, Li Wei began to attack the domestic aristocracy again.

All the aristocratic fiefs were taken back and distributed to the local people for cultivation, but the power of these aristocrats did not disappear. The Li Wei government promised them twice the land area of ​​the original fiefs, but all of these required foreign wars to obtain them.

In other words, the Li Wei government used a bunch of empty checks to take back the fiefs of the French nobles...

However, the Li Wei government even wiped out the Revolutionary Party silently. Naturally, these French nobles did not dare to blow their hair, not to mention that their privileges have not been banned, and there is still hope for the future.

Based on the record of the French Defense Forces, these French nobles who had taken refuge in Livy felt that the French Defense Forces could definitely defeat the anti-French alliance.

At that time, they can arrange a group of small nobles by randomly cutting a piece of land from the countries of the Anti-French Alliance.

The French nobles who took refuge in Li Wei were actually big landlords, and the truly powerful French nobles would never take refuge in Li Wei.

After settling the affairs of the nobility, Li Wei promoted many bills that would help consolidate his own power through the French Republic Assembly.

The most important points are:
Livy's consulship was changed to a life term.

All armed forces in the French Republic, the supreme commander in chief is the chief consul.

"La Marseillaise" was declared a forbidden song in the French Republic.

All opposition parties are banned. From now on, parties and any non-governmental organizations will not be allowed in the French Republic.

In addition, Li Wei also closed more than 100 newspaper offices in France, making all the newspapers in France praise Li Wei...

And Li Wei asked the National Bank of France to print a new version of franc banknotes, using gold and silver as reserves, that is, the gold and silver dual standard system.

This is naturally not as good as the gold standard system, but France's gold reserves are too small to support the paper currency exchange system, so the gold and silver dual standard system can only be temporarily adopted.

On the front of the new version of the franc is a profile portrait of Li Wei in the military uniform of the Marshal!
In addition, Li Wei also made a move that made the French people angry and disappointed. The flag of the French Republic was changed from the red, white and blue tricolor flag to the black dragon flag!

In fact, during this political reform, except that Li Wei did not ascend the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, he was no different from the real French emperor...

The reason why he did not ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor was mainly because the Papal State was a member of the Anti-French Alliance and was an opponent of Livy's government. Naturally, it was impossible for him to crown Livy as emperor.

As for randomly catching a bishop in the French region, Li Wei felt that the force was too low, so he might as well crown himself by himself.

Life requires a sense of ritual, let alone proclaiming oneself an emperor?
Li Wei did not proclaim himself emperor not only considering the legitimacy of European countries, but more importantly, he felt that proclaiming emperor without a sense of ceremony was not perfect.

It will not be too late to proclaim the emperor after conquering the Papal State.

Anyway, the next strategic plan of the French Defense Forces is to attack the Italian region and turn Italy into a European colony of France.

It is undoubtedly correct for the Li Wei government to destroy the revolutionary party first, use the land reform to appease the French peasants who account for the majority of the population, and finally carry out political reforms.

When the red, white and blue tricolor flag was lowered and the black dragon battle flag was banned, many French citizens in the cities wept bitterly. Under the threat of bayonets from the French Defense Forces, they dared not speak out except to swallow the bitter fruit in their stomachs.

Without the revolutionary party taking the lead, what else can ordinary people like them do?
On the other hand, rural areas in France, which are relatively ignorant and have not been greatly affected by revolutionary ideas, did not have deep feelings about the incident of changing the national flag. The new government's land reform policy has already won their support.

The state-owned land system allows French farmers to own the land they can control. In addition to being unable to buy, sell and transfer, it is many times better than before!
Of course, if there are French farmers who don’t want to farm land, they can find the local land bureau. This department is a local department under the Li Wei government’s Land Management Department, which is responsible for land reform and French farmers’ land applications, exchanges, and transfers.

Li Wei has broken his heart for the land reform policy, and even set up a special land department...

As long as French farmers can guarantee that the land will not be abandoned after the transfer, they can go to the local land bureau for certification, but they need to pay a certain amount of handling fees.

Of course, this kind of private transfer is actually a money transaction.

However, after the transfer, both parties must ensure that the land will not be abandoned, otherwise it will be a violation of the law!
Since the land is owned by the state, French farmers who cultivate the land have to pay an additional state land tax in addition to the original tax.

In fact, it is the cost of land lease.

Not too high, generally only about 5% of land output.

Well, anyway, the Li Wei government thinks it's not too high.

Of course, compared to the previous landowners, they were very tolerant. You must know that the original feudal nobles took 100% of the grain harvest, because French farmers were the serfs of the nobles!

Even some free people's cultivated land will be exploited in various ways, and the land cultivated can only meet basic ration needs at best.

Now after the land reform, the French government only took half of the harvest. Comparing the two, the French farmers are naturally very satisfied.

The local land bureau is not a small department. They need to check the cultivated land in their area every quarter to ensure that no land is abandoned or wasted.

At the same time, it is also a kind of supervision of land harvests to prevent French farmers who cultivate the land from concealing their harvests and reducing the land rental fees they pay.

If you want to evade taxes, it won't work here in Levi!

(End of this chapter)