Chapter 3247 The King of Spice (3)

Bertrand Barel de Viezac was a Plainsman figure during the Revolution. Later, he began to get close to the Montagnards, who were mainly Jacobins. After he became the leader of the Plainsmen, the Plainsmen became Radical Montagnards, and with his support the National Salvation Committee and the Sans-culottes Army were established.

Although he is a reporter, he is not the kind of reporter who writes gossip about female celebrities. In short, this man went into hiding during the Thermidor coup, avoiding the same fate as Saint-Just or Marat.

In the spring of 1794, he became an opponent of Robespierre like Napoleon. After Napoleon's coup, he reappeared to report to Napoleon on public opinion in Paris.

This time he wrote a pamphlet called "Letter to the Army", which was widely circulated at the Palais Royal, but Matilda did not know whether it had reached the army.

The last time the soldiers of the Rhine Army mistakenly believed the rumor, thinking that Napoleon would send his opponents to Saint-Domingue to die, so they launched an assassination.

In fact, they should have discovered this situation long ago. They should have expected it when the Swiss mercenaries were about to board the ship in Marseille when they heard that they were going to Saint-Domingue to mutiny.

The management of the Army of the Rhine was actually very lax, partly because the officers were taken away to participate in the Saint-Domingue expedition, and many of these officers were Moreau's subordinates.

Anyway, most of the civil affairs officials didn't know about the situation in the army, and Matilda only listened to them talk a little bit.

Lucien's appointment as the "Prince Regent" of Spain was also related to the pamphlet. The pamphlet circulated for some reason. Lucien confronted the police chief Fouche, and he was later sent to Madrid.

The advantage of living in isolation is that you don't have to hear these bad things. The disadvantage is that the news comes like a tsunami, and you are unprepared.

The advantage of Matilda staying here is that she has met a lot of "friends". Through her friends, she can find out what is happening outside. She does not need to ask through Charles the Dragoon like Josephine did.

But soon Matilda no longer has to run around because Sieyès comes to visit.

Still in the greenhouse full of Phalaenopsis, Sieyes, who was not wearing a robe, sat and waited boringly alone. He did not drink or smoke, but Georgiana felt that he seemed to be deep in thought.

Perhaps feeling that someone was coming, Sieyes looked at her, but did not stand up to greet her. Instead, he waited for her to sit down opposite, with a rolled-up map on the table.

"I've always wanted to ask you, why do you want me to reconcile with Napoleon?" Sieyes said, looking into her eyes.

She actually didn't think too much, but she was staying in the pottery workshop of the Sèvres Porcelain Factory at the time, thinking that her impure existence would be "purified" along with the fire, and she would make use of the last value of her useless life. .

She learned this from Dumbledore.

"Do you still support a constitutional monarchy?" Georgiana asked.

Sieyes didn't answer.

"I appreciate the mention of a state of war and a state of peace in your previous constitution, but we need to define it, especially now that there is the term 'quasi-war'," Georgiana said.

Sieyes raised his hand and unfolded the map. It was a map of Anglo-America.

"Here." Sieyes pointed to the lower right corner of the map first. "This place is called Natchitoches. This is the first French settlement in North America."

Georgiana noticed the date in the corner of the map, which read 1758.

Sieyes then pointed to a river that ran through the place called Natchitoches and followed it north.

"This river is called the Red River, or the Red River, and it goes all the way here." Sieyes pointed to a place name.

"Little Rock?" Georgiana said.

"The Indians call this place Arkansas, which means the breeze close to the ground, from here to here." Sieyes pointed to another place name. "There is no river to delineate the middle."

"St. Louis?" said Georgiana.

"In memory of Louis XIV." Sieyes said, pointing to a river flowing through St. Louis. "This river, the Indians call it Missouri, which means the land of the big canoe. We are used to calling it the Big River. Its source is in the Rockies.”

In fact, the terrain of Louisiana is very much like a peach pit, and the Missouri River happens to be almost parallel to the border.

By "drawing the line" this way, at least two-thirds of Louisiana is west of the line, but the area from Little Rock to St. Louis...

She looked up at Sieyes.

Would he believe what she was thinking at this moment?

"If the line is drawn this way, the Americans will face an unconstitutional problem again, and their representatives still want to buy the entire Louisiana." Sieyes said.

"They also brought out Roman law." Georgiana said helplessly as she looked at the map.

"What do you think?" Sieyes said.

"I'm thinking of Athenian law. The sale is not established until payment is made." Georgiana said jokingly.

"Where did you see that?" Sieyes asked.

Georgiana looked up at Sieyes, he seemed serious.

"Don't think about it, why not get a few people together and buy this land together." Georgiana said casually.

"How many people in this world do you think can afford 80 million francs?" Sieyes said.

"The Americans can't get it out, they have to borrow money." Georgiana said coldly, "Talleyrand said 60 million is about the same."

Sieyes fell into thought.

Georgiana was also thinking. In other words, even if Talleyrand could find several buyers in Brussels, their combined bid would not exceed the 80 million francs offered by the United States. This would not be consistent with the merit-based simplicity (addictio in diem).

Its original purpose is to protect the seller. If someone offers a more favorable price, the sales contract will be automatically terminated without any guarantee, which is the so-called security deposit.

"Who thought of it?" Georgiana asked, looking at the "natural boundary" on the map.

"You." Sieyes looked at Georgiana, "Why do you think of the 97th longitude?"

"If I told you that I think the number 7 is very lucky, would you believe it?" Georgiana asked.

"Nachitoches is the closest city to that line, and there is also here." Sieyes drew a line horizontally with his fingernail. "This is the dividing line stipulated in the Missouri Compromise Act enacted by the Americans in 1790, 39th North Latitude." Spend."

This line is easy to identify because it passes through New York and is also the boundary between summer and cold in the Northern Hemisphere.

Although Georgiana was not familiar with American history, she knew that in 1820, the line was changed to 36 degrees north latitude. To the north were free states and to the south were slave states. However, Missouri was on the dividing line of this line, and it was still There was part of Massachusetts, for which Maine was split off, and Missouri joined the United States as a slave state.

In addition to long-standing problems, there was another trigger for the outbreak of the Civil War. At that time, there was a slave named Scott. He had been to a free state, so he was considered a free man. When he returned to a slave state, he thought that he was not a free man. Time to be treated like a slave.

"Who will guard this place?" Georgiana asked Sieyes, pointing to the area from Little Rock to St. Louis.

"I don't know. I'm not in charge of this. I can only tell you that this area is filled with a lot of complicated and conflicting laws. Even though the French King's Law was repealed in 1769, Spanish law did not completely replace it. it."

She felt a headache just listening to it.

Who said this is "virgin land"?

"Want something to drink?" Georgiana asked Sieyes.

Sieyes shook his head and rolled up the map. It could no longer be used for the time being.