King's Landing in France

Berthier: "What do you mean?"

An Ning: "We need a lot of labor to repair the fortress, and the sewers in Paris should also be repaired. Let these prisoners go to serve corvée."

Berthier: "This... There has never been such a precedent. I am afraid that European countries will catch the excuse..."

"Then let them catch it. Let them exaggerate that the Republic is an evil country, and that I am a damned tyrant. In short, these captives cannot be easily released back. They cannot turn their heads and continue to fight against us."

An Ning paused, and continued: "There are also captured officers, many of whom are nobles, hand them over to the people's court established by the parliament, and punish them!

"We want to completely weaken the power of the anti-French alliance from the source!"

Berthier asked suspiciously: "Anti-French alliance?"

There is no such thing in this era, and the current alliance between Prussia, Austria, and the Kingdom of Sardinia is not called the Anti-French Alliance.

An Ning: "Yes, the Anti-French Alliance, Prussia, Austria, and the Kingdom of Sardinia formed a de facto alliance against us, I call them the Anti-French Alliance!

"Because of our progress and revolution, the reactionary forces of the whole of Europe are united. Have no illusions about them!"

An Ning paused, and then said resolutely: "So, we want to weaken the enemy from the root, so these captives are all sent to Paris, and let them dig Paris's sewers under the supervision of bayonets!

"And for these captured officers, the best place for them to go is the guillotine!"

※※※

One day in March 1793, the city of Paris was full of joy.

Today, the people in the city flocked out of their homes to watch the great gift that General Frost presented to the whole city: a total of [-] Austrian prisoners!

The citizens of Paris watched the big gift sent by His Excellency the General beamingly, praising the General's prestige.

If all the musicians and bards in the city hadn't joined the army and become military musicians, they would definitely have composed some songs in praise of the general.

It was from this day that the Parisians firmly believed that General Frost would completely wipe out the coalition forces that invaded France and bring the glory of victory to the Republic!

Chapter 243

This morning, Mara excitedly knocked on the door of Robespierre's house.

Robespierre's landlord opened the door for him.

After seeing Robespierre, the first thing Marat said was: "Shouldn't you also get a house of your own? You always live in a rented place. You are the speaker of the National Assembly. You have your own house. It makes sense.

"There are too many people in Paris who want to give you a house. In addition, there are so many properties of dead nobles waiting to be distributed. Take whatever you like."

Robespierre waved his hand: "I have never been interested in personal enjoyment, and the landlady's craftsmanship is good, I like it very much."

In this era, the landlord has to take care of the meals. He takes care of two meals a day, and the meal payment is included in the rent.

Mara: "After you have your own house, you can ask a maid to cook for you. Let's not talk about this, Frost has won!"

"I see, that's why there was a lot of noise outside." Robespierre raised his eyebrows, "Very well, now those in Paris who place their hopes on foreign powers should restrain themselves."

Mara: "Are you still talking about this? We should take advantage of the power of the victory to further clean up the traitors in Paris! We must strike hard at those moths!"

Robespierre had a hesitant expression.

In fact, Robespierre was considered a moderate among the Jacobins. It turned out that in history, after Marat was assassinated, he felt a real threat and decided to use terror to clean up all enemies.

In the end, he became the so-called "monster of terror".

At this time, Marat was not dead yet, and Robespierre was naturally still the moderate.

Robespierre, the moderate, looked at Mara, sorted out his language, and then said: "Frost won, and those speculators will temporarily restrain their small thoughts. They have always been like this. At this time, if Continuing to take radical actions may instead drive them to the road of opposing the republic..."

Marat interrupted Robespierre: "Maximilian! As long as they have two hearts, they will always rebel, either today or tomorrow! We have to take advantage of the fact that everyone in Paris supports us now. , Clean up these bastards thoroughly! Don't waste Frost's victory!"

Robespierre: "I mean, anyway, we have Frost as the biggest backer, and his military victory would have silenced everyone, so we don't have to..."

"Absolutely necessary! Before Frost comes back, we're tired of seeing the ghosts and monsters in Paris. These bastards are all the enemies of the people of Paris. It's time to wipe them all out! I'll go back and write a This article will be published in tomorrow's Friend of the People newspaper, calling on everyone to take advantage of Frost's victory and report those enemies of the people!"

Robespierre smacked his lips: "Well, if you want to do this, I really don't have much reason to stop you. Cleaning up some enemies is a good thing after all."

Mara: "That's right! Of course, I understand your concern. You are afraid that many people who are not prepared to oppose us will be forced to oppose us. Don't worry. If these people object, then we will send them away together. Go to the guillotine! We are worried that the cleaning of potential enemies is not thorough enough!

"Then we have reached an agreement on this matter?"

Robespierre nodded: "Yes, we have reached an agreement. Are you going to Dandong next?"

"Dandon and Saint-Just share the same opinion as me, for sure." Mara excitedly turned to the door, "Then I won't disturb your breakfast time, I still have to write an article!"

Robespierre: "Okay, see you later."

After Mara left, Robespierre shook his head: "This Mara is like a gust of wind."

Among the four giants of the Jacobin Club, Marat lived the most turbulent life. He kept writing articles in the People's Friend with great energy, attacking all those who opposed the National Assembly.

Moreover, he has to attend the National Assembly as an observer every day, and he doesn't know where he gets so much energy.

Robespierre continued to eat the breakfast interrupted by Marat, muttering while eating: "Frost won again. Although I thought he would win, I didn't expect it to come so soon."

The Jacobins, including Robespierre, actually knew that as Frost's reputation grew, a de facto military dictatorship would definitely be formed in France.

When the Girondins were still there, they used this to attack the Jacobins many times.

Now that the Jacobins are in power, Frost, as the largest of the four Jacobins, can't stop him from establishing a de facto military dictatorship.

Robespierre was very contradictory at this time. As a faithful believer in the Enlightenment, he did not support such a military dictatorship. He believed even more in the concept of separation of powers, freedom and equality. contradictory.

But as a close friend of Frost, Robespierre was sincerely happy for his friend's brilliant achievements.

Just like that, "The Incorruptible" ate his breakfast in a complicated mood, thinking about what to do.

※※※

Over the next few days the Jacobins struck across the board.

With Frost's victory, the Jacobins sent many ruthless characters who could not be pried to the guillotine.

The People's Friend newspaper in Maratha is exposing all kinds of enemies of the people every day and clamoring for a complete reckoning.

For a while, everyone in Paris was in danger, because according to the standards given by the Friends of the People, most of the top figures in Paris might be liquidated.

But because Frost won the battle outside, and now Paris has gathered hundreds of thousands of National Guards waiting to be incorporated, so no one dares to fight with the Jacobins.

Those National Self-Defense Forces waiting to be incorporated worship Frost as an idol. If you dare to say a bad word about Your Excellency the General, just wait to be picked up on the bayonet and paraded through the streets by the big soldiers.

In fact, someone has been guillotined for "defying General Frost".

For example, a certain little nobleman avoided countless disasters after the Great Revolution by relying on the wind and the rudder, but this time he could not escape because someone reported that he once scolded Frost with the nobleman who was killed by Frost in a duel. Stooges.

The jury in the trial court unanimously believed that this was disrespect to the revolutionary hero, and all the way the green light sent the little nobleman to the guillotine.

These days, Paris seems to have fallen into madness. Some people even joked that there was more blood on the guillotine in Paris than on the front lines.

Frost knew nothing about this. After he commanded the troops to win the Battle of the Marne, he found that his troops had suffered very little loss, so he started the next battle without stopping.

A new vocabulary, passed back to the city of Paris from Frost's headquarters, is called "People's War".

Marat then interpreted the term as "waging a civil war against traitors" as evidence that General Frost supported the expansion of the purge.

Time passed day by day, and it finally came to the moment when the Friend of the People, Mara, called the curtain call.

Chapter 244 Mara's Death

The apartment Marla lives in has been changed several times.

In fact, Marat had been courted for a long time, and it was planned to give him the house of the nobleman who had just been executed recently, together with the servants.

But Marat didn't agree.

It's not that he is a clean freak and doesn't want to live comfortably, but mainly because Robespierre, who is the speaker, still lives in the dilapidated apartment he first rented.

The Incorruptible was still as frugal as it had been at the beginning of the revolution, living in a shabby apartment and wearing the old green overcoat that Marat had tried many times to get him to change out of that old overcoat but failed.

Frost, the leader of the four giants of the Jacobins, is a soldier who usually lives in the barracks and wears military uniforms. Although he recently moved the barracks to the luxurious palace of the Palace of Versailles, his reason is very reasonable: now there are The only place with enough space and rooms to accommodate so many troops is the Palace of Versailles, which has been vacant for several years.

With Frost and Robespierre as examples, the rest of the Jacobins could not live too comfortably.

However, Mara still improved her living conditions, such as getting herself a big bathtub.

With the technical level of this era, such a large bathtub is not cheap, and ordinary people in trousers cannot afford it.

Every day, Mara would take a comfortable hot bath and enjoy the beauty of life.

This day too, Marla soaked in the hot water and picked up the papers on the chair by the tub.

Yes, even at this moment of enjoying life, the Rakyat still keeps working.

At this moment, the voice of the landlady came from downstairs: "Mr. Marat, a lady is going to report to you the remnants of the Girondists in Conn!"

Mara: "Another free man who came to report? Let her in! Oh no, I'm taking a shower now, it may not be convenient to see her, let her wait with you for a while..."

As soon as the words fell, Mara heard someone shouting downstairs: "You can't go up, miss!"

It was the guard Frost sent to Marat.

For some reason, Frost always felt that Marat was in danger, so he personally appointed trusted soldiers to serve as his guards.

But Mara doesn't like the big soldiers sent by Frost very much, and thinks that these people have nothing to praise except for their blind worship of Frost. They don't even understand how great Frost's things are.

So Marat snapped: "If the lady doesn't mind that I'm taking a bath, let her come up! I'm a friend of the people, and I won't refuse people's visits because of personal inconvenience!"

The voice of the soldier downstairs fell silent, and was replaced by a lady's voice: "Did you hear that? Mr. Mara asked me to go up to see him!"

Then came the sound of heavy footsteps, and the lady went upstairs and pushed open the door on the second floor.

Marla looked towards the door.

A beautiful lady in a long blue striped dress came in. The moment she saw this lady, Mara's expression softened: "It seems that those Girondists are really unpopular, and they let you Elegant and beautiful ladies would not hesitate to meet me in such indecent circumstances in order to report them."

The lady nodded: "Yes, I hate them so much! My name is Charlotte de Corday, and I am from Almond in Normandy."

Mara: "You are still a noble lady. In the current situation, it is best not to say the 'de' in your name."

The German in a French name is generally a symbol of a noble title. Of course, some big nobles don't care about this title, so they will be omitted to save trouble.

But now, the nobles are eager to hide the fact that they used to be nobles, bury them underground, and never let others know.

Charlotte de Corday nodded: "Thank you for your suggestion."

"Are you here to report the remnants of the Girondins?" Mara went straight to the point, "Do you have a list?"

Corday nodded: "Yes, I brought it, here it is."

She took out a list from the hidden pocket of her clothes, spread it out and handed it to Marat.

Marat put the documents aside, took the list and unfolded it and said, "I hope you can forgive the rudeness of the soldiers downstairs. That guard was not my intention, but my friend Frost insisted on sending me a guard.

"He seemed very worried about me, really, completely unnecessarily."

Corday responded somewhat absent-mindedly: "Well, it's okay. The guards just stopped me from going up, and didn't make any rude actions."

"That's good. Let me see who you reported... My God, there are eighteen! You have made a great contribution to the revolution! Today, France lost eighteen enemies! It must be arranged immediately Trial, and then send them to the guillotine!"

Corday asked: "That's it? Just because I reported it, because I gave a list, they are determined to be guilty? Shouldn't there be more evidence?"

Marat nodded: "You are right. Under normal circumstances, more evidence is needed, but now is an extraordinary time. Every Girondist is a traitor. As long as they are Girondists, they must take resolute action!"

"Haven't they done enough bad things? Look at what they have ruined our country! If it weren't for them, how could things have become so bad!"

After finishing speaking, Marat picked up the pen placed on the stool by the bathtub, and wrote a note on the list given by Corday: "These remnants of the Girondists must be sent to the guillotine immediately."

Looking at all this, Corday seemed to have finally made up her mind.

She took a knife from her pocket.

Marat's attention was all on the list, and he didn't see the cold light of the knife at all. While signing his name, he said to Corday: "Madam, don't worry, these traitors will be punished as they should, They won't live for a few days..."

"Damn it, it's you!" cried Corday, and plunged the knife into Marat's chest.

Mara looked at Corday in astonishment.

Corday let go, stepped back, leaned against the wall of the room, panting heavily.

Mara stared blankly at the knife stuck in his chest, and then squeezed out a sentence: "No wonder Frost keeps stuffing me with bodyguards..."

Then his hand holding the pen slid down, drooping on the edge of the bathtub, and the quill in his hand slipped to the floor.

Corday looked into the eyes of the dispirited Marat, trying to catch her breath.

"Forgive me," she said. "I share the ideals of the republic, but I think it's gone too far. I'm sorry...really, I'm sorry..."

As she spoke, Corday covered her face with her hands and began to sob.