Chapter 225 Some Are Happy, some Are Sad

Chapter 226 Some are happy, some are sad

December 10, 1788.

The whole of Paris was shivering in the dry and cold wind, especially the news about insufficient food supply from other provinces from time to time, which made this winter seem particularly cold.

Only the news of victory in North Africa made people feel better in this difficult winter.

The French people are now on the eve of national awakening, and they can empathize with the achievements and glory of the country. For a time, the streets and alleys were all discussing this matter enthusiastically.

When the Guards Corps returned to the Paris garrison, the outside of the camp was surrounded by people, who greeted them with cheers and warm smiles.

At the same time, a grand celebration ceremony was also held in the Palace of Versailles.

Joseph got off the rail carriage a little tiredly, and immediately heard the cheers like a tsunami. Looking up, he saw thousands of nobles gathered on both sides of the road in the Square of Versailles, stretching all the way to the front of the palace.

He forced himself to cheer up and waved to the crowd, which immediately attracted warm cheers.

To be honest, he had traveled from Tunisia to Paris for more than half a month, and what he wanted to do most at this time was to sleep well on the soft big bed for a day.

However, Joseph also knew that people were always out of control, and they had to deal with the situations they had to deal with.

He looked at the carriage behind him, and Berthier, Joan, several agents from the police intelligence department, and Giralda representing Tunisia got off the carriage one after another.

Several people obviously had never experienced such a grand scene. They stood there for several seconds, and then woke up at the whispered urging of the etiquette officer, and quickly came behind the prince.

A group of people surrounded Joseph and walked through the dense crowd. The sound of the court band was heard not far away, followed by the roar of salutes.

The noble ladies of the Palace of Versailles were more enthusiastic and obsessed with the prince than ever before. This experience in faraway North Africa made Joseph's skin color slightly darker, more manly, and mysterious, which almost fascinated the girls.

And the nobles with a certain status looked at Joseph with eyes that were obviously different from before.

Before the crown prince went to Tunisia, the French were attacked everywhere, and it was a mess. The cabinet was even ready to throw away this hot potato. After the crown prince went there, the situation in Tunisia quickly stabilized. When he returned to Paris, he even brought back a new province for France!

No one would think it was just a coincidence.

Obviously, the young crown prince has talents and skills far beyond his age.

Of course, all this may be instructed by Her Majesty the Queen behind the scenes, but the crown prince can execute it without any error, which should not be underestimated.

However, the prestige of the royal family in Tunisia has been significantly improved by the means of both the queen and the crown prince. At least, no one will look at the royal family with a joke-like attitude as before. On the contrary, more and more people are praising and respecting the royal family.

In addition, the nobles who often go in and out of the Royal Palace are struggling violently at this moment.

They watched the Duke of Orleans stumble step by step, and lost the High Court, public opinion hegemony, and banking control one after another.

So should they continue to lean on the Duke of Orleans in the future? Or should they show goodwill to the royal family as soon as possible and leave a way out for themselves...

On the steps in front of the gate of the Palace of Versailles, Queen Marie looked at her son eagerly as he approached, but because of the presence of the Tunisian envoy, she could only suppress the impulse to rush forward to hug her son and only greet him according to the convention.

Hilada came up from the back, saluted the king and queen respectfully, and then handed the application signed by Haji Bey to join France to Louis XVI.

Tunisia becoming a French province had been decided ten days ago, and it was just a formality now.

Louis XVI took a deep breath, mustered all his strength, and then said loudly: "I accept Tunisia's loyalty, and in the name of the King of France, I will always protect Tunisia and give you peace and prosperity."

Thunderous cheers suddenly rang out in the entire Versailles Square: "Long live His Majesty the King!"

"The glory of my king will always shine on Tunisia."

"Praise God! Praise my king!"

But this wave of cheers made Louis XVI nervous, until the etiquette officer came close to remind him, then he raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and then invited Tunisian representatives and others to enter the Palace of Versailles.

After that, it was Queen Marie who presided over the ceremony of France accepting the four provinces of North Africa in the Hall of Mirrors.

This was the suggestion Joseph made to the queen on his way back to Paris, to divide Tunisia into four provinces-Bizerte, Susa, Kairouan and Sfax.

Among them, the city of Tunisia was included in the province of Susa. The relatively barren areas in the south belonged to the province of Sfax. In the future, the name Tunisia only appeared as a geographical concept.

Joseph was also worried about the long-term stability of Tunisia in the future.

Dividing Tunisia into four provinces can first dilute the whole of Tunisia to prevent someone from using this to cause separatism in the future.

Secondly, the four governors can check and balance each other and supervise each other, avoiding the emergence of overseas vassal towns. After all, the Ottoman precedent is still there. When the empire's strength declined slightly, the guards immediately occupied the mountains in Tunisia.

Finally, communication and management capabilities in this era are very limited, and it is difficult for a governor to effectively manage the entire territory. You know, Tunisia has 160,000 square kilometers, more than a quarter of the total area of ​​France! However, although Tunisia is large in area, its population is relatively small, and it can basically be managed by appointing four governors.

The ceremony to receive the province ended, followed by a ceremony for the king and queen to commend those who had made meritorious services in North Africa.

Joseph stood at the head with some embarrassment. On his right were Berthier, Joan, Ishaq and others.

Queen Mary put a wreath on her son's head, looked him up and down, and finally couldn't help but hug him into her arms, and whispered with concern: "My dear, I am so proud of you! By the way, Are you injured? Are you sick? Are you used to eating in Africa..."

Joseph patted the queen's back and nodded constantly: "Don't worry, I'm fine. After all, I'm a grown man and I will travel to various parts of the world in the future. You don't have to worry about me all the time."

"Okay, okay..." Queen Mary's eyes were a little wet, but the corners of her mouth were raised, "My Joseph will definitely spread his wings and soar in the vast sky like an eagle. And I will always be here waiting for you. go home."

Louis XVI also came over and whispered: "Well, me too."

The palace etiquette officer looked at his watch and coughed helplessly.

Queen Mary quickly let go of her son, held back her tears, took the wreath from the ceremonial officer, and walked towards Berthier: "Your outstanding performance in North Africa surprised everyone, please accept my respect and that of His Majesty the King, Lieutenant Colonel Your Mightiness."

Joseph on the side turned his head in time and whispered: "Mother, it should be the Brigadier General."

The queen nodded: "Well, yes, I heard about that battle. Your contribution was enough to be promoted to brigadier general."

A smile flashed across Joseph's face. According to convention, Berthier should be promoted to colonel this time, but it is not impossible to be promoted to brigadier general. Taking advantage of the queen's happiness, setting his military rank will be of great benefit to the future development of the Guards Corps.

After all, the brigadier general can already command an entire local garrison. It will be much easier to expand the number of guards or recruit officers in the future.

By the time the queen put a wreath on the last person and made a brief speech, it was already lunch time.

Queen Mary couldn't help but walked towards the restaurant with Joseph on her arm, asking questions and greetings along the way. Clementine was so anxious that she wanted to listen to her cousin's story about the North African war, scratching her head and head, but she never got the chance to interrupt.

The royal chef specially prepared the North African-style "tagine" as the first course of the lunch. In fact, he debated for a long time whether this North African dish should be the first soup or the first dish, and finally counted it as a dish because the soup was a little short.

Joseph was very familiar with tagine, which he would eat every three days when he was in Tunisia.

This is a dish cooked in a clay pot. It uses a lot of spices and sauces, and adds beef, fish, tomatoes and various vegetables. It is a bit like Oriental maocai, and it tastes very good.

When the French chef's tagine arrived, the servant opened the pointed lid on the clay pot, and a strong aroma immediately hit his face.

Joseph picked up a piece of fish with a fork and put it into his mouth. The fish wrapped in soy sauce immediately spread on the tip of his tongue, and the sweetness of the seafood inside appeared. He chewed it a few times and swallowed it in one gulp.

It’s so much more delicious than the Tunisian version.

French chefs really live up to their reputation!

Joseph suddenly came up with the idea of ​​​​promoting this dish in France to promote French acceptance of Tunisians.

When he raised his eyes, he suddenly found that except for himself, everyone else was staring at the tagine without moving.

Could it be that this dish is not to the French’s liking?

Joseph was muttering in his heart, but he saw the palace etiquette whispering something to the queen, who then awkwardly picked up the fork and put it into the clay pot.

The nobles below looked at the queen and started eating in the same way.

Joseph couldn't help but raise his forehead when he saw this, but he had forgotten that eating anything in the Palace of Versailles must follow etiquette. There are strict rules on which tableware to use first and which tableware to use later, which part to eat first and which part to eat later.

So just now everyone encountered North African food that they had never eaten before, and they didn’t know where to start...

After the banquet, there was a celebratory ball - a Tunisian-themed ball.

The nobles dressed in North African-style clothing, played exotic music, and began to dance.

Joseph stood in the corner as usual, looking at the Tunisian clothes that were integrated into the fashion, and secretly estimated how much the Paris fashion designers had earned this time.

Some people were happy and some were worried. While everyone was celebrating happily, the military aristocracy seemed to be worried.

"Who said last time that Berthier's troops couldn't even enter the city of Tunisia?" A middle-aged officer complained in a low voice, "As a result, he not only stabilized the situation in Tunisia, but even defeated Algiers. people!"

"I didn't expect those Algiers to be such useless people. If I had known this was the case, we should have gone to Tunisia then!"

General Astu frowned and said: "Now Berthier's reputation has greatly increased. You know, he is a member of the royal family. If this continues, the royal family's influence in the army will become greater and greater!"

"That's right, didn't the Mulan Army surrender to the royal family?" said the middle-aged officer. "It was another direct order from the Queen. Without going through the Minister of War, Duke Villar's army headed for North Africa!"

The Marquis of Saint-Véran, who had just returned to Paris yesterday, immediately said bitterly: "We must not let this trend continue! When the royal family no longer relies on our army, they will abandon us like throwing away rotten boots!"

Someone whispered: "But what can we do? We have no means to control that Berthier."

Someone else made a smaller voice: "In fact, it is not impossible for us to cooperate with the royal family..."

The other officers immediately glared at the person who spoke fiercely. This is a tacit understanding. If they monopolize the army, it means that they can squander France's military expenses.

If the military command is handed over to the royal family, then the hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of livres of empty salaries, equipment purchase kickbacks, and additional funds for expeditions will all be gone.

More importantly, their descendants may not be able to inherit their senior military ranks.

Their family may no longer be famous.

This is absolutely unacceptable!

General Astu said in a stern tone: "We must unite. That Berthier is not untouchable.

"Have you forgotten? His troops were originally part of the French Guard, and the other part has now become the Maret Corps. We can try to restore the structure of the French Guard, return these two corps to the French Guard, and set up a senior commander for the Guard.

"In this way, if the royal family wants to mobilize Berthier's Corps, they have to give orders to his superior commander."

"This is very feasible!" Marquis Saint-Veran immediately agreed, "As for the Moulin Corps, I remember that it was commanded by Major General Villars before, and then the Duchess of Villars suddenly took it back."

The Major General Villars he mentioned is the uncle of the Duchess of Villars Marie-Emilie.

"We must use our influence to support Major General Villars. His niece who is sixteen or seventeen years old is not a concern."

"We must also try to make an enemy that Berthier cannot deal with appear somewhere, so that the royal family will compromise with us."

"You are right, but something like Algiers is definitely not okay..."

...

Costentinier.

Although Tunisia's decision to secede from the Ottoman Empire did not cause any substantial losses to the Empire, it still caused a great uproar in the Ottoman Empire.

Especially when the war with the Russians was extremely unfavorable, this news was simply the last straw that broke the camel's back for the people of the Empire.

People on the streets were whispering about the defeats on both the northern and southern fronts, and pessimism was spreading everywhere at a very fast speed.