Fox of France

Chapter 125 , Robespierre's Counterattack

This series of blows seems to have made Robespierre dizzy. In order to protest against the "National Salvation Committee"'s disobedience to him, he actually said that he was sick and no longer participated in the "National Salvation Committee" meeting, and his important supporter, St. But Just was once again sent to the Northern Overseer because the troops of the Anti-French Alliance were gathering in the north and tended to attack France. In this way, in the "National Salvation Committee", only Couton remained loyal to Robespierre. In the eyes of many people, this is Robespierre's madness, and he is not far from extinction.

However, those who really know Robespierre know that this man will never give in easily. He must be plotting a terrible counterattack.

Robespierre was not sick. Everyone noticed that during the day, he grinned and wandered around various slums, talking and laughing with those poor people, asking questions, learning about their living conditions, and chatting with them. In the evenings, he retreated to his little attic, wrote something, had letters sent to someone, or received some people who came to visit him secretly.

Originally, Fouche should have kept a close eye on Robespierre and his every move. If so, he would definitely be able to discover some clues in advance. And see through Robespierre's plan. However, at this most fatal moment, something went wrong in Fouché's family.

Fouché's six-year-old daughter was ill, possibly with pneumonia.

In this era, pneumonia is an extremely terrible killer, and the number of lives it has claimed far exceeds that of Robespierre's guillotine.

No matter what irony and criticism the chameleon Fouche will be used by the people of later generations-for example, Zweig once described Fouche as "a person without blood, tears and heart", but even Zweig admits that Fouche is very important to the chameleon. A good husband to his wife and a good father to his children.

Fouché was loyal to his wife all his life, although his wife was just a "poor, humble, unbeautiful, and short" civilian girl. After his prosperity, many people with status like him often had countless mistresses. They would even swap mistresses among themselves, like Paul Ballas later. But Fouche, who has been in a high position for a long time, has never had any such thing.

Fouche also carefully isolated his children from various political storms, so that these things would not touch them. He's sullen and commanding on the outside, and you never see Fouché smiling at all when he's at work. One look and one movement of his can make countless people tremble with fear, and make countless people lose sleep at night because of guessing the possible meaning in his eyes.

However, even in the most dangerous and difficult moment, as soon as you return home, the poker face that has never melted for thousands of years will immediately melt away, and in an instant, the warmest flower in the world will bloom. smile.

He would hold the children in his arms, rubbing his bearded face against their little faces to make them giggle at the tickle; They play and delight in the most childish games. He was never at home and mentioned outside affairs to his family. But as soon as he stepped out of the house, he immediately changed back to the sinister, vicious, unpredictable and terrifying head of the secret police.

His daughter's illness disturbed Fouché. His reason told him that he could not relax at this time; his knowledge told him that pneumonia might be contagious, and he should stay away from her; but emotion and knowledge also told him that his daughter Not long to live, maybe soon, he will prepare a small coffin for her.

"Perhaps there will be no drastic change," said Fouché to himself. He knew that this was actually deceiving himself, but for the first and only time in his life, he tolerated his irrational behavior.

Fouché handed over more related matters to others, and squeezed out his own time, so that he could accompany his daughter who was about to pass away soon. In order to avoid contagion, he drove his wife and other children aside and took care of his daughter alone. However, the person who succeeded him was hard to come by in terms of ability, so these actions of Robespierre failed to arouse their vigilance.

During this period of time, Robespierre met with many people in the Jacobin Club. He told them that if he collapsed, those forces that were oppressed by Jacobin before, those people and the Feyan faction, the cloth The Riso faction and even the Danton faction will fight back. At that time, will they still let go of those who are in the Jacobin Club today?

"Blood has flowed out, heads have rolled off, hatred has been deeply planted, and each of you has blood on your hands. Do you really think that you can change your family at this time? If I fail, their fate in the past will definitely be Reappear in you!"

This terrible word frightened those people, and they trembled, knelt on the ground, weeping, and confessed to Robespierre, and at the same time cursed in the most vicious language that poisonous snake called Fouche, which tempted them to sin.

A few days later, at another gathering of the Jacobin Club, Robespierre, the former chairman, suddenly appeared at the party. Then a member told everyone that he was going to expose a poisonous snake to everyone, hoping that everyone could recognize the true face of this poisonous snake.

The name of this venomous snake is naturally called "Joseph Fouche". There are a lot of illegitimate children, including the stories that Fouché and his illegitimate daughter have to tell—and don’t even think about how old Fouché is if he has an illegitimate daughter. Considering Fouché’s age, that daughter can be a little older.

Before the astonished Fouché could refute, Robespierre followed suit. He said that it is a disgrace to the Jacobin Club that a scum like Fouche actually got into the Jacobin Club. He suggested that everyone vote immediately to expel this morally corrupt hypocrite and poisonous snake from the Jacobin Club.

So the Jacobin Club voted immediately, and the result of the vote was that Robespierre's faction overwhelmingly expelled the current chairman, Joseph Fouche, from the club.

It was a thunderous blow. The advantage that Fouche gained in the previous plan was completely lost almost at this moment. The guillotine, which was far away from him, seems to be not far away from him again. Considering that Robespierre beheaded Desmoulins' wife the day before beheading Desmoulins, and that Robespierre was a witness at the marriage between Desmoulins and his wife, and their daughter's godfather. Fouche couldn't imagine what would happen to his wife and his children if he was pushed to the guillotine.

After regaining control of the Jacobin Club, those committee members who had seen that Robespierre seemed to have lost power and had "own opinions" went to visit Robespierre one by one and asked him Confess and ask his forgiveness.

Some people even simply suggested that Robespierre deserves the title of heaven and earth, and his mighty township is incomparable in ancient and modern times. , nominated by the Senate, served by the consul, the power in the hands of the poison vegetable officer surpasses and overrides everything, including all administrative, military, legislative, judicial, cultural and educational powers.) to ensure the democracy and freedom of France . Of course, such a proposal was rejected by Robespierre. But at the time, Robespierre was almost a Dick Tudor.

Fouche is now back to his past life again, although before that, his report has been passed by the "National Salvation Committee", (Robespierre was pretending to be sick at that time), but after being expelled from the Jacobin Club, Once again his situation became dangerous. He could no longer be at home with his dying daughter, who died of pneumonia at the age of six while he was in hiding. When the child was buried in a coffin, her father was not with her.

Fouche had never really hated a person as much as he did now. Before and after that, he had cut off countless heads, but that was just a routine for him, and he didn't have any hatred for those people. But now, he has the only real enemy in his life.

Robespierre did not stop pursuing those "traitors" because of the current victory. He also clearly realized how many people hated him; and he clearly knew that his foundation was not stable. He didn't trust anyone else, not even those who knelt at his feet and confessed to him with tears--whether from the Jacobin Club or from the "National Salvation Committee." He knew that if he showed any flaws, these people would definitely betray him again-as long as a person has been a traitor once, he cannot be expected to not be a traitor a second time!

Therefore, Robespierre needs a truly reliable basic disk. Today, Robespierre feels that the only possible bases for him are the sans-culottes.

As a result, Robespierre controlled the National Assembly and continued to pass more extreme laws that were more beneficial to sans-culottes. He strictly limited prices, and did not hesitate to disrupt the operation of the entire economy. Some laws and regulations were not even proposed by Ebel back then.

These laws are often economically wasteful and very harmful to the interests of all "respectable people". Robespierre also knew that these measures of his would only make those in the National Assembly and even the Jacobin Club hate him more and more. But these people are already unreliable, so even if he takes care of them again, will those people be loyal to him? What he was really worried about was whether the sans-culottes really trusted him because of this. Did they really forget how he chopped off the heads of Ebel and others who represented the sans-culottes?

"You have betrayed Robespierre once, and Robespierre will never trust you again, otherwise, he would not please those sans-culottes like this. The reason why he hasn't cut off your heads is that It's because he's not sure if the sans-culottes are really on his side the way they used to be. But I'll tell you, people are forgetful, especially when they're being bribed. The sans-culottes just need to stand When you get to his side, you, , and you will definitely follow the old path of Danton!" Fouche said facing Congressman Paul Barras.

"But everyone was too scared to do anything about it," Ballas replied.

"Then, let's find a way to make them more afraid. This kind of fear will eventually make people act." Fouche whispered, and at the same time showed a vicious smile like a jackal, "Mr. Barras, you Is there anyone in your hands who is as reliable as Charlotte Corday?"

"You want to assassinate Robespierre?" Ballas said in horror.

"No, I don't want to adopt such a method. Even if such a method can succeed, the consequences will be too unpredictable." Fouché shook his head. At the beginning, Corday assassinated Marat, but it could not prevent the emergence of the reign of terror. Even, in a sense, her behavior added a martyr to Jacobin and made the Jacobin rule more stable.

"So what do you want to do?" Ballas asked.

"Find someone and assassinate Couton. The assassination must be carried out in a crowded place, the operation must fail, and the person who fails must commit suicide," Fouche said.

Ballas was silent. When Fouche said this, he naturally understood what Fouche meant. The assassination was not successful, so it would not trigger a stormy reaction, but the assassination was in broad daylight, and if the assassination failed, the assassin would immediately commit suicide decisively. It is impossible not to investigate such a thing. As long as there is an investigation, everyone from sans-culottes to members of Congress will be in danger, and there will be many gaps to exploit.

At this time, it is only necessary to go over and say to people, "The public security committee is already investigating you, and you will be on the list of the next batch of people to be arrested", which is enough for many people to fight Roberts for their own lives. Pierre was desperate.

"You can go to Talian, he may know such a person." Ballas said.

Talyan was from the lower classes, by birth, a sans-culottes man. He was originally a member of the Hébert faction, and when Robespierre purged the Hébert faction, he was serving as a special commissioner in the Bordeaux area.

After Ebert and others were killed, he was recalled. Robespierre accused him of killing innocent people in Bordeaux and embezzling public funds, and expelled him from the Jacobin Club. If nothing else changes, his next step will definitely be the guillotine. But at this time, Fouche was elected as the chairman of the Jacobin Club, which disrupted Robespierre's rhythm, so Talian survived.

Talian had contacts with some low-level criminal gangs before the revolution, and he was Ebel's confidant. He would definitely find someone who was loyal to Ebel and hated Robespierre and others. It would be best to find him for this kind of thing.

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