Eugenie with money [Grandet]

The captain of the guards, who led the guards to block the gate of the palace, found that the army had indeed arrived, and felt a little gloating in his heart: Come on, the army is here to suppress the petitioners, will these people still believe that the crown prince is a benevolent person?

But the army didn't know what the captain of the guard was thinking. The officer leading the army just received the special military expenses from the crown prince last night, and the orders issued to his subordinates went very smoothly.A horse team of 5000 people surrounded the petitioners in a circle, and the loaded flintlocks pointed coldly at the people who questioned why the army appeared.

"Spread out and go back to your own home." Tima, an officer standing in front of the team, shouted to the people expressionlessly: "Your Majesty ordered you not to gather in front of the palace. Hurry up and go back to your home or go to the crowd." work."

It turned out to be an order from the king?The captain of the guard felt that the officer was lying, and he wanted to ask the officer if he was framing the king, but the people had already asked for him: "Isn't the king sick? Why did you issue such an order?"

"We just want the crown prince to be the master, to get back the money that was taken away by the black-hearted bankers, why should we go home."

As the voices of questioning became louder, the people felt that they were more reasonable, thinking that the army was just scaring themselves, so everyone huddled together and approached the army step by step...

The officer watched the people getting closer, and angrily yelled at them: "Stand back, or shoot if you don't back down."

Thinking that he was just scaring his own people, he ignored the officer's threat and pressed on step by step even more tightly.The officer's gun had already been raised, and he pointed it coldly at the crowd.

Another officer came to the officer's side and said something in a low voice. The officer nodded and responded a few words. The later officer commanded his horse, retreated in small steps, and gave orders to the soldiers beside him.

The leading officer looked at the people who were getting closer, with a dangerous light flashing in his eyes, he raised the muzzle of his gun suddenly, and fired a shot into the sky.The people who were approaching were stunned for a moment. They couldn't believe that the officer had actually fired the gun. They looked at the officer's still smoking muzzle and cursed loudly.

The officer looked coldly at the crowd who cursed him, leveling his gun little by little.

The people trembled at the guns pointed at them. Even though there were thousands of people around them, they still unconsciously took a step back.With the first step, there will be a second step. The people in front are slowly retreating at gunpoint, and the people behind don't know what happened, but want to go forward to see what happened. His back steps stopped abruptly.

Facing the cold muzzle, the people standing in the front row explained to the officer, "We just want the crown prince to make the decision for us."

"Yes, we want the crown prince to be the master for us, there is no malice." Others echoed his statement.

The officer's eyes stared ruthlessly at the people who spoke out, and what responded to them was to raise their guns to aim again.

Those who saw his movements clearly no longer doubted the officer's determination to shoot and kill, and turned around to flee.More people heard about the situation ahead and turned around together, cursing and trying to stay away from an officer who dared to raise a gun.

Those who wanted to escape were blocked by those who wanted to go forward, and pushing and crowding inevitably occurred.Someone fell down, but no one helped the fallen person, and everyone wanted to escape further.

But there are soldiers pointing guns at the people all around, and the people don't know which direction they should flee.The voice of abuse became louder, and some people began to curse the crown prince, thinking that his kindness was an illusion.Some people are also defending the crown prince, because the military officer has said just now that the order for the army to guard the palace was issued by the king.

Finally, someone found a gap in the encirclement of the soldiers on the opposite side of the palace, and the people flowed in this direction like flood water.Everyone wants to leave quickly, and if someone gets in their way, they push that person away.If the person is pushed down, just step on him, and no one will pay attention to the painful pleas of the person who fell to the ground.

Just when most of the people withdrew, the sound of the death knell came from the palace, and the people hesitated again.The smoke formed by bullets/bullets/explosions/explosions appeared again in mid-air, letting those who wanted to continue to gather understand that if they did not leave, such explosions might happen to them.

Eugenie heard the sound of the death knell resounding over half Paris.At this time, Pablo was reporting to her the situation of the crowd gathering: "All the people we hired have been safely withdrawn, should we let them go tomorrow?"

Eugenie shook her head: "Listen, the death knell has already sounded, and the palace itself will be in chaos for a while. Besides, those who are expelled today will not give up so easily." The revolutionary enthusiasm of the French people has always been Very high.

Pablo understood that Eugenie just wanted to make the royal family restless, and Eugenie didn't care who made the royal family restless.

Pablo began to report the next thing: "Mr. Bono's newspaper has begun to be published. The newspaper is called "Free France."

Very well, Eugenie didn't know whether this newspaper was as good as its name, but Eugenie knew it was in line with the characteristics of this era.She told Pablo: "You have to make sure that there are two people every day, in the morning and in the afternoon, to deliver important news to Bono in Paris."

Pablo nodded to show that he understood—the most important means for local newspapers to increase circulation is to report national events faster than other newspapers, rather than the movements of local sages.As long as the impression of Liberty France's rapid and accurate coverage of current events in Paris is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, its local influence will grow.

"Maybe Bono will return to Paris to interview the petitioners and conduct an in-depth analysis of the incident." Eugenie thought of this possibility and thought it necessary to remind Bono that now is not a good time for him to come to Paris.

This kind of thing can be handled by Pablo. Eugenie saw Elemi poking her head, and felt that she should go to the kitchen to discuss with her how to fry the beef pie more tender and juicy. This is the top priority now .

Pablo also saw Elemi, and said goodbye to Eugenie with a wink. Before going out, he asked Eugenie for instructions: "Miss, do you need a cook?" After moving here, the lady seems to have lost weight. a little.

Elemi stared at Pablo viciously, feeling that the Spaniard had ruined her position in the lady's mind.Eugenie also shook her head, the less people know about her current stay in Paris, the better.

Pablo was stared down by Elemi, and quietly slipped away along the wall. Eugenie followed Elemi to the kitchen and worked together for a barely edible dinner.

In the streets where nobles live, such as Bertin Street and Saint-Lazare Street, no one can swallow the dinner carefully cooked by the cook. The luxurious mansion unfolds.

They came to the noble neighborhoods that they could not usually set foot in, demolished the flat roads, smashed everything that could be smashed, and attacked one or two mansions that had not had time to close the gates.

Even if the mansion was not attacked by the people, the master still had lingering fears, and was ordering the servants to close the heavy doors tightly, not even leaving a gap in the windows despite the heat.

There was also chaos in the royal palace. The cabinet members who were pro-French and the Crown Prince were in a quarrel. They asked the chief female officer to show evidence that the French king ordered the army to enter the city, and the chief female officer pushed everything to the coffin that had already been put into the coffin. King of France.

The queen had already put on mourning clothes, and her black dress set off her gloomy complexion. From time to time, she helped the chief female officer to argue a few words.The crown prince looked impatiently at the two or three cabinet members who were still defending the dead king, and suddenly launched an attack: "Do you think that the king really will not issue such an order? Those who come to inquire about the case of La Saunière should not Do you think so?"

Cabinet members such as Lascambe, who had been shown evidence of Lassoniere's misappropriation of military expenditures, were speechless for a while.They knew that the Dauphin meant the dead King of France, and that he had ordered the army into the city to protect La Saunière, and he had a reason for doing so.

The crown prince did not miss the opportunity to flog the corpse: "The former king's love for the Countess La Saunière obviously surpassed his love for the empire. Even in the financial difficulties of the empire, he still spent huge sums of money for La Saunière. Countess Saunière bought the castle as a birthday present, Minister of Finance, am I right?"

The Minister of Finance affirmed the crown prince's statement and silenced those cabinet members who were still defending the king.A monarch who is obsessed with beauty and disregards the interests of the country cannot be called a wise monarch anywhere.

"So, the biggest difficulty we face now is not to investigate whether the former king issued such an order, but how to appease the irritated people. Because of the turmoil in the public bond market, the former king asked the banks to bail out the market, resulting in the banks having no funds to pay the people's debts." Deposits are the reason for the gathering of the people this time." The crown prince once again nailed the dead Dharma king to the pillar of shame.

Mistakes in decision-making, harming the country for the sake of the United States, made the funeral of the dead French king very simple-until the funeral of the French king, the people would gather in front of the palace from time to time. If the army drove them away, they would destroy the neighborhood where the nobles lived.When the army ignored them, they returned to the gate of the palace and cursed the dead French king.

At this time, all the Paris banks have ceased operations, and no one dared to open the door.The public bond market is also rotten out of control. The bailout funds have brought down the banks and dragged the people away from speculating.

The gold market has ushered in a recovery, and the price of gold has risen to [-] francs, but there are not many people who sell it-the francs in everyone's hands are getting less and less, and no one knows when the bank will be able to return the money stored in it to themselves.

This is what the new Dharma king who succeeds to the throne is facing.Even if he has the army in his hands, continuing to pay the military salary has become a difficult problem for him.Want to get banks to provide funds, and now all banks have closed their doors.

In the end, the new French king had to bring together cabinet members, the Ministry of Finance, and major bankers to discuss how to solve the problem.

The first thing the bankers demand is that the empire repay the funds they invested in the bailout. If these funds are not returned, their banks will not be able to operate, and no matter what orders the Ministry of Finance issues, they will not be able to implement them.

And the Ministry of Finance can't come up with so much money.The new King naturally wanted to ask about the whereabouts of the gold from the treasury, but the answer was that the previous King had withdrawn a large amount of gold, and no one knew where he used it.

Now, the treasury's gold reserves are less than five tons.Converted to the current gold price, it is only 5000 million, barely reaching the amount invested in the bailout funds of various banks.

Nucingen was very worried. He wondered whether Count Niegelang, who was asked to go home to reflect, would tell that the former French King had deposited a batch of gold in the Nucingen Bank, and that gold was also sold by them to save the market. up.

Of course, the new King of France will not let Earl Niegelang go. He has already been asked about the whereabouts of the gold proposed by the former King of France. His caliber is consistent.

Even though the new French king threatened to review his personal finances, the former Minister of Finance and Earl Niegelang did not change their words, declaring that what they said was the truth, and their finances could withstand any review.

The new Dharma King who threatened him could not immediately examine the former Dharma King's confidantes, because some people already questioned that the timing of the former Dharma King's death was too coincidental, as if the order to let the army enter the city consumed all his vitality.

If the new French king cannot stabilize the situation in Paris as soon as possible, doubts will grow louder, which will definitely threaten the stability of the new French king's throne.In the end, the new French king accepted the proposal of the Ministry of Finance to issue a new franc to replace the old franc.

Just at this time, Nucingen received a letter from Saumur from Eugenie asking him about the situation in Paris.Because Eugenie learned from the local newspaper that there was a large-scale mass gathering in Paris, and the most severely impacted by such a gathering was the area where the nobles gathered.In the letter, she greeted Nucingen and Annette kindly, and hoped that they were all safe.

Nucingen finally found someone to complain about. In his reply, he expressed his relief that Eugenie escaped the shock in time, but he was also very pessimistic about the prospects of Nucingen Bank.Because when Liede Bank issued the new franc issued by the King of France, it proposed that the Ministry of Finance should make mandatory regulations on the price ratio of the new franc to the old franc, and then the Ministry of Finance would decide the ratio of the new franc to each bank.

In every respect, this was bad for the Nucingen Bank.In the letter, Nucingen expressed his anger towards the crown prince, thinking that although he accepted his surrender, he did not really put himself in the position of his confidant.

Sitting in the apartment and reading the letter, Eugenie felt that Nucingen had been assimilated too naively by Annette, and she even wanted to compare with Lieder Bank, who accompanied the new King of France to fight for the throne.However, she still wrote back to Nucingen, from the perspective of the partners of the Nucingen Bank who cared about the bank's property.

In the letter, Eugenie suggested that Nucingen ask him to unite with all bankers except Leeds Bank to jointly request the allocation of new francs among banks according to the proportion of each bank's capital contribution in the bailout.As for the exchange between the new franc and the old franc, Eugenie did not give any suggestions.

But before sending this letter, Eugenie only left 40 francs in cash before the new franc was issued, and the other 400 million francs were handed over to Pablo to buy gold:

Everyone knows with their toes that the issuance of the new franc is nothing but a plunder of the wealth of the people.In order to make up for the loss of the treasury and the bank, the new franc must be exchanged for the old franc at a multiplier rate, and the franc left in the hands will be greatly devalued.

"Miss," Pablo, who bought back the gold, was a little unhappy: "The price of gold has risen again, and it has reached fifteen francs."

In the gold standard monetary system, when paper money collapses, the price of gold will naturally rise.Eugenie didn't feel that she had lost money because she had a total of twelve hundred kilograms of gold under her bed.In addition to the purchase this time, even if the new franc is issued, it will be enough to resist the government's fleece.

Such a truth, Eugenie would not tell Pablo.She just took out more money and asked Pablo to stockpile food as much as possible to prevent an economic crisis due to currency depreciation.

At this time, the turmoil in the streets of Paris became more and more serious. Even if the new French king directly sent La Saunière and his daughter to the guillotine, it did not stop the public's grievances: Everyone has no interest in the confiscated property of the La Saunière family. I am very concerned about when my deposit can be withdrawn.

If one's own wallet is not safe, the hearts of the people will not be safe.There have been many robberies on the street, and some shops have been smashed and robbed because they are reluctant to sell. The new Wangfa had to agree to the demands of most bankers such as Nucingen to reduce friction and speed up the pace of issuance of new francs.

Just when Eugenie was guessing what the exchange rate between the old and new francs would be, the banks finally reopened, announcing that from this day onwards, people could withdraw their deposits in the banks again.

However, according to the regulations of the Ministry of Finance, the people can withdraw no more than a quarter of their bank deposits, and all of them are in new francs.The price ratio between old and new francs is one to two, that is, if you deposit one hundred francs in the bank, you can only withdraw twelve francs and fifty centimes at a time.

Eugenie also learned from Nucingen's letter to Saumur that the issuance of new francs this time is [-] million, which can indeed meet the requirements for short-term use of the kingdom's funds, but a gold standard country has less than five tons of gold in stock. , but issued [-] million coins, Eugenie would have to admire the new French King for his courage.

This is equivalent to shrinking the people's funds eight times!

People who don't know the truth for the time being will think that their funds have only doubled, and because of the government's credit guarantee, the purchasing power of the new franc will not be affected.But waiting for a steady stream of new francs to be invested, the disadvantages of declining purchasing power will become more and more apparent.

Will the people of Paris, temporarily appeased, succumb to the flintlock of the army?

Pablo was summoned by Eugenie and continued to send a letter to Bono. The next day, "Free France" published a comparison of the old and new francs.The banks in the non-Paris area were shocked. They found that they did not participate in the bailout, and their funds were directly reduced by half.

This made the bankers in other provinces extremely uneasy. Even if they didn't know that the government's new francs were seriously overissued, they were sensitively aware that the more francs they saved now, the more serious the losses would be.

The price of gold began to rise everywhere, and Grandet couldn't sit still anymore. He wrote to ask Eugenie if she wanted to sell gold at the high price.This made Eugenie dumbfounded, and quickly wrote a reply letter to Grandet, telling him the truth that the government had already issued.

Eugenie believes that Grandet will definitely make the right choice.

Grandet, who is rich and powerful, can of course exchange his francs for gold like Eugenie, but ordinary people have to line up in front of the bank on the first day the new francs are issued, cursing and proposing to issue new francs. Francs, while withdrawing all the funds that they can withdraw.

Even the banks in the provinces were being run on, and the people who were running on it found that they had no new francs to withdraw from.This makes people angry. Originally, my funds were about to shrink, and then you told me that I still can't get the funds after the shrinkage?

Banks in other provinces had to ask the Ministry of Finance for help, hoping to convert their old francs into new francs first.Unexpectedly, the Ministry of Finance proposed that the provincial banks must exchange the equivalent gold to the Ministry of Finance for new francs.

Eugenie was stunned by the shamelessness of the Ministry of Finance, did she really treat bankers from other provinces as another crop of leeks?

"Free France" immediately published Bono's in-depth analysis article, from why the Ministry of Finance required the provincial banks to exchange gold for new francs, and analyzed how many new francs the Ministry of Finance printed and issued this time, and whether there was enough gold for the support.

This is a question that no one has ever thought about, or will not explain if they know the inside story, and it has aroused the vigilance of the provincial bankers.They would rather the people continue to withdraw the old francs from their own banks and wait for the new francs in Paris to slowly circulate locally, rather than go to the Paris Ministry of Finance to exchange their gold for the new francs.

But the people in other provinces are not as calm as the bankers. They heard that on the black market in Paris, the exchange rate between old and new francs has risen from [-]:[-] to [-]:[-], and they went out of their homes to petition the local district and city governments , requiring the local bank to pay itself new francs.

The confrontation between capital and the public has spread from the streets of Paris to all parts of France.Bono's analysis is still going on, from the issue of the new franc to his favorite issue of military embezzlement and embezzlement.

This time he pointed his sword at the senior commander of the army, thinking that Earl La Saunière, who had already been guillotined, was able to embezzle and embezzle successfully, which was inseparable from the acquiescence and connivance of the senior commander of the army.

He also analyzed that the soldiers at the bottom are the ones who suffer the most from misappropriation of military funds.Because the high-level commanders will share the embezzled part, and the middle and lower-level commanders, especially the soldiers at the bottom, have to hold insufficient equipment, eat food that has been deducted, and deal with compatriots who are also exploited—— Isn't that how the soldiers who shot at the people in front of the palace were blinded?

The provincial garrisons looked at such an article, and some people began to think about it.