Chapter 127 You can absolutely trust my loyalty

Queen Mary was startled when she heard this, and secretly became nervous. Seeing her son's attitude being so positive, could it be that he had thoughts about the Princess of the Two Sicilies?

Oh, by the way, I heard that Maria was also a very smart girl, good at astronomy and mathematics. Maybe it was these that attracted Joseph.

She nodded reluctantly: "Of course it's good, dear, it can make the Princess of the Two Sicilies feel our enthusiasm and courtesy."

Then she immediately added: "By the way, Clementine will be coming to Paris soon. Are you going too..."

Joseph immediately smiled and bowed: "Of course, mother, how could I not greet my cousin who came from afar?"

Of course he doesn't care about welcoming the princess a few more times, and this can also cover up his attempt to set a trap for Bessonval by welcoming Maria.

The queen was relieved. It was great. It turned out that her son only paid attention to etiquette and was not more interested in the Princess of the Two Sicilies. Clementine, you have to work hard and try to capture the heart of the crown prince!

Joseph greeted the queen and immediately went to the chamberlain to discuss in detail the etiquette procedures for welcoming the Princess of the Two Sicilies and the arrangements along the way.

"Well, I think the roads here should be lined with colorful ribbons." Joseph pointed to the map and said, "Otherwise the bare trees will look too monotonous in winter. There are also these farmhouses, which the princess can see from a distance in the carriage. Just decorate it properly."

"Yes, Your Highness, I would like to follow your instructions." The chamberlain hurriedly wrote down these requests.

He knew that the princess who came this time was not just for "tourism", but was likely to become the crown prince's fiancée, so it was not surprising that His Highness attached so much importance to her and wanted to make it grand.

After Joseph finished discussing the ceremony to welcome the princess with the chamberlain, he did not return to Paris. Instead, he returned to the Dauphin's palace where he had not lived for a long time.

He walked slowly in front of a row of huge arched floor-to-ceiling windows, his eyes swept across the colorful halos reflected on the window glass, and suddenly turned his head and asked Kesoud who was standing aside: "Viscount Kesoud, will you be my captain of the guard?" How long has it been, seven or eight years, right?"

Kesode was a little surprised and immediately took a few steps closer and said: "Yes, it has been eight years, Your Highness. I was fortunate enough to become your bodyguard when you were four years old. Two years later, Her Majesty the Queen promoted me to captain. .”

Joseph turned around: "So, the person I can trust the most in this world, apart from the king and the queen, is you."

Kesode quickly raised his hat and bowed: "By God, you can absolutely trust my loyalty, Your Highness."

Joseph nodded, then looked at him seriously and said: "Jacques, my friend, I am about to face a challenge, which will have a huge impact on me. I really need your help."

Kesode immediately stood up straight and said firmly: "Your Highness, I will do anything for you, including sacrificing my life!"

…

Eastern suburbs of Paris.

Beside the road leading to a nearby town, there is a small mound more than ten meters high, with sparse shrubs growing on it.

At this time, in the bushes, there were several men wearing greasy coarse cloth coats and equally dirty felt hats, with various weapons stuck on their waists or behind their backs. They were sitting on the ground carelessly, saying something Chatting without saying a word.

"It will be dark in another hour at most." A bald middle-aged man playing with an ax looked up at the sky and muttered dissatisfiedly, "It seems like we have to wait in vain again today."

"Even if he doesn't come today, he will definitely come tomorrow." The red-haired man next to him rubbed his neck and looked under the mound. "That's tens of thousands of livres. It's definitely worth waiting a few more days!"

The man sitting on the outermost side with a sinister look suddenly spoke: "Colette, if we can't wait for that person within three days, I will beat your butt to pieces with the butt of my gun."

The red-haired man trembled and said with an apologetic smile: "Boss, it has been spread all over the town that Baron Gedeon has sold his house and all the land and is going to Paris to marry the widow.

"Oh, I saw Baron Gédéhan's servants loading boxes of luggage onto the carriage outside his yard."

A strong man next to him with a prosthetic leg on his left hand, who looked a bit like Captain Hook, nodded immediately: "That guy also posted a notice recruiting bodyguards in the town. It's obvious that he will leave in the next few days."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a hurried whisper from the top of the mound: "Hurry! That guy is coming!"

The few people who were extremely lazy just now suddenly jumped up from the ground. The sinister man signaled to his men: "As I said before, do it!"

"Yes, boss."

Several people gathered around the road under the mound, while the man who weighed nearly 200 pounds and was responsible for looking out on the top of the mound pulled hard on the rope in his hand.

Dozens of giant trees that had been prepared immediately rolled down, blocking the road more than ten meters wide.

The carriage that was moving leisurely suddenly came to a sudden stop. The two coachmen were so frightened that they jumped off their seats and fled towards the woods in the distance.

The sinister man fired another shot at the carriage, led his men to surround the two carriages, and shouted proudly: "Baron Gedeon, we are just poor people. I hope you can generously leave some silver coins. Otherwise, we can only give You spend a few bucks and get the money yourself.”

He was about to open the door when he suddenly heard a gunshot behind him.

He suddenly felt as if he had been hit by a giant hammer on his back, and he threw himself hard at the carriage. Then he saw that the carriage turned red, that was his blood.

Several other gangsters were startled and turned around in a hurry. Unexpectedly, two pistols were stretched out from the carriage and pressed against the backs of Captain Hook and Bald Man. At the same time, several men with guns jumped out of the weeds on both sides of the road.

The fat man's cry for mercy came from the top of the mound. Several gangsters turned around and saw a short man who looked like an ordinary farmer swinging a pistol and taking him down.

Not long after, except for the dead leader, the other four gangsters had their weapons taken away, and with guns pointed at their heads, they squatted fearfully in the open space beside the road.

A carriage drove up in the distance and stopped next to a few people. Fouche opened the door and got out of the carriage. In order to capture these gangsters alive, he personally brought people to this small town and made up the story of Baron Gedeon, and finally waited until the "fish" bit the hook.

Fouche took out his pistol and played with it. He glanced at the gangsters with his dead fish eyes and hummed from his nose: "Well, the Blood Knife gang, right?"

The fat man who was on guard before was so frightened that he started crying: "Let me go, I can tell you where the boss hides his money..."

The bald man glared at him, rubbed his neck and said, "Yes! We are the Blood Knife Gang. We are unlucky if we are caught by the army."

At this time in France, everyone agreed that only the army could deal with such vicious gangs as the Blood Knife Gang, and the police were simply not enough.

Prospell, who was holding a gun, shook his head and sneered: "Who said we are an army?"

"We are from the Lakeview Gang." Fouche continued, "We have a big deal to do recently, so we need some manpower."

Several members of the Blood Knife Gang were relieved when they heard this. It seemed that they would not be sent to the gallows, so they all looked up at Fouche: "I am willing to join the gang."

"I'll join in, too."

"And I……"

Fouche snorted coldly: "However, I only need two people. I have to see which of you is more capable."

As he spoke, he dropped the two daggers on the ground, his eyes full of excitement and madness.

The bald man and the red-haired man reacted the fastest. They immediately swooped down, grabbed the dagger from the ground, and stabbed it into the other two accomplices without hesitation.

…

Southern suburbs of Paris.

The trees on both sides of the road leading to the city were covered with colorful ribbons, as if there were beautiful corals growing there.

In the distance, the sparse farmhouses are painted in beautiful white and gold, like treasure chests dotted among the corals.

On both sides of the more than 40-meter-wide avenue between the coral and the treasure chest, a French Guard soldier carrying a gun stood solemnly every five or six meters. The vigilance team extends from the outer suburbs to the city of Paris.

The place has been under martial law since two days ago, but Bessonval still took the trouble to personally lead the officers to inspect the more than 4 miles of road over and over again - tomorrow the Princess of the Two Sicilies will Here we are, and according to the arrangements of the Palace of Versailles, the Crown Prince is also here to greet the princess, so there must be no mistakes.

At this moment, a group of craftsmen carrying paints and brushes, led by French Guard soldiers, walked towards a farmhouse on the east side.

Bessonval casually asked the officer beside him: "Who are those people?"

The latter hurriedly said: "General, they are craftsmen of the Palace of Versailles. They have strictly checked the documents and there is no problem. They always like to say that here or there is not perfect enough and make decorations everywhere. In my opinion, they just want to be able to get more Just greedy for some funds."

Besonval nodded and said with a straight face: "Don't be careless, keep an eye on everyone."

"Yes, General."

As they were talking, they saw several officers approaching with twenty or thirty soldiers in uniforms that were obviously more majestic and straighter than the French Guards.

"Force?"

Besonval frowned, and when he got closer, he could see the appearance of the person clearly. He quickly put on a smile and raised his hat to say hello: "Viscount Kesoud, why do you have time to come here?"

Kesode sat on the horse and raised his hat in return: "Nice to see you, General Besonval. You know, I can't make any mistakes in an occasion like tomorrow, so I have to familiarize myself with the environment in advance."

"Who says it's not?" Besonval smiled, "Look, I've been here more than a dozen times today."

Kesode looked at the wasteland on both sides of the road: "Oh, I'll go over there and take a look. You can continue to do your work. After the incident of welcoming the princess is over, I'll treat you to a drink."

"Ha, I look forward to your invitation."

The two of them passed each other, and Kesode seemed to be very serious. He took the people to look at both sides of the road carefully several times.

The officer next to Besonval glanced at Kesoud's back and said disdainfully: "Huh, just pretending. There are our people everywhere here. What's there to see?"

Besonval waved his hand indifferently: "The Crown Prince is coming here, and it is normal for his guards to do routine inspections."

On the other side, Kesoud's team passed by a bush, and at the same time, seven or eight palace painters came towards them.

When Kesode saw the appearance of the leading painter, he hurriedly reined in his horse and signaled behind him. A healthy soldier with a high nose immediately nodded to him and pulled the other two people into the bushes.

Kesoud's team stopped on the spot, completely covering the three people's figures.

The soldier with a high nose and his two subordinates took off their military uniforms very neatly, revealing the painter's clothes they had already worn underneath, with a few traces of paint on them.

The three men stuffed their clothes into the empty paint buckets, handed the weapons to the soldiers behind Kesode, then picked up the paint buckets and followed the painters as if no one else was around, and walked away.

On Kesode's side, it was as if nothing happened. He circled the area a few times and then returned the same way.

No officer or soldier of the French Guard noticed that three men were missing from the more than twenty-some members of the Crown Prince's personal guard.

The painters walked happily towards a farmhouse not far away.

In the team, a red-haired man looked around nervously and asked in a low voice the "painter" with a high nose next to him: "Boss, why are there so many soldiers? What are we going to do? Is it dangerous?"

The tall-nosed man smiled relaxedly: "You have just arrived, so you don't know the strength of our Lakewe gang. Let me tell you, half of the soldiers around are ours."

He said, waving to a soldier in the distance. The latter waved his hand perfunctorily and responded with a smile. These craftsmen are all from the Palace of Versailles, and who knows which big shot they will work for, so the soldiers at the bottom are very polite to them based on the principle of not offending them if they can.

"You are really one of our own." The middle-aged "painter" beside him exclaimed.

If you take off his felt hat, you will find that he is actually bald.

Yes, this man and the red-haired man are the surviving members of the Blood Knife Gang. The tall-nosed man who led them was Kesoder's confidant named Odolik.

The matter was so important that Joseph did not even involve Fouche. After the latter caught the members of the Blood Knife Gang, they handed them over to Kesoud, and all subsequent matters were presided over by Kesoud.

The red-haired man was still uneasy: "Boss, what are we going to do this time?"

Odolik answered according to the "script": "Robbery. Tomorrow a noble will pass by with several carts of gold, which is discount bank money. They have some relations with the military and have hired these soldiers to be bodyguards.

"But how did he know that there is a big shot behind our boss, who has already packed our people into the army.

"As you all saw just now, no one came to question us at all."

He continued to encourage the two gangsters: "And our mission is just to show off in the distance. When we grab the gold, we will hide in the woods behind there. There is no risk, and we will get at least seven or eight thousand livres by then."

While talking, the painters had arrived at the farmhouse. The owner of the house had long been "invited" by the French Guards to go elsewhere, leaving only one soldier to guard here.

The painters greeted the guards and spread out to work.

Odolik took his two "younger brothers" and casually entered the attic and hid in a wooden cabinet.