Chapter 227: Taking care of everything (please vote for me)

Chapter 228: Taking care of everything (please vote for me)

Clementine also received a gift from her cousin. It's a big jar of Tunisian-style candy, which uses honey and sugar to bind cashews, argan nuts, dates, etc. together, and then presses them into short sticks. It tastes very sweet and delicious.

She was completely unable to resist the temptation of candy. The moment she smelled the sweet taste, her eyes immediately lit up and she forgot all about her reserve. She reached out and pinched a piece of candy from the jar and threw it into her mouth.

"Um--"

The crispiness of the nuts mixed with the sweetness of honey made the little Loli narrow her eyes in happiness.

"Thank you so much for your gift, my dearest cousin!" She wanted to salute Joseph again, but found that her fingers were sticky with candy and could not lift the skirt. After thinking about it, she directly grabbed a piece of candy and stuffed it into her cousin's hand. In the mouth.

Joseph was shocked and wanted to say "You don't seem to have washed your hands", but it was too late. He could only mutter silently "It's not clean, you won't get sick after eating it" and started chewing helplessly.

"Dear cousin!" Beside, the parrot standing on Charles's arm imitated Clementine and made a funny sound.

"Wow! It, it can talk!" Charles, who was nearly 4 years old, immediately widened his eyes and exclaimed.

Louis XVI and Queen Marie were also attracted by the parrot, put down what they were holding and gathered around.

"What else can you say?" Charles pouted and looked at the parrot, "Little dear!"

"!" The parrot said something in Arabic and bowed to Louis XVI.

Everyone looked at each other and laughed happily.

"It knows quite a few languages."

"It's so interesting!"

"Joseph, do you know what it says?" Queen Mary looked at her son.

Joseph spread his hands:

"I don't understand it either. However, if you teach it what you want it to say, it will get better after you teach it a few times. Cape parrots are very smart."

"Cape Parrot! I love Mr. Cape Parrot!" Charles held the colorful parrot, which was as big as a pigeon, and circled around the room happily.

Clementine shook her head and corrected:

"The Cape Parrot is its species. You should give it a name."

"That's it, what should I call it..."

Charles lowered his head and was lost in thought. Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he saw a cold light staring at this side from under the table. In a flash of excitement, he grabbed the cashmere tricorn hat that his father had casually placed on the corner of the table and blocked it forward with all his strength.

The next moment, the afterimage of the black and white flower flashed by, hitting the hat and letting out a reluctant "meow".

"Mr. Beard?" Clementine was startled and hurriedly looked for her maid, "Rosalia, what's wrong with the cat..."

She had forgotten that Princess Therese recently visited Spain, and Mr. Beard's "girlfriend" also went with her. She ran out for a walk while the maid was not paying attention.

As a result, a plump "pigeon snack" was found here.

The cat's long-prepared attack was blocked by Ciel. He glanced at the parrot greedily, bowed again, and jumped up with a "meow".

Charles had been taught about "chivalry" by Queen Mary since he was a child. Although he was a little scared at the moment, he still mustered up the courage to raise his calf and kick Mr. Bearded.

"Woo." The cat didn't know whether it was kicked or not. It screamed in fright and retreated into Clementine's arms for comfort.

Little Loli comforted the cat and protested to Charles:

"Your Highness, you almost kicked and injured Mr. Beard."

Ciel hugged the parrot tightly and retorted:

"This bad cat wants to eat Mr. Parrot!"

"I apologize for it, but you have already covered it with your hat, there is no need to add another kick!"

"I think it's necessary!"

"No need!"

"It was the one who started the trouble!"

The little loli put her hands on her hips angrily and shouted:

"There is no doubt that what you just did was very rude!"

The little boy couldn't quarrel with her, but suddenly he saw the argan nuts on her candy. He remembered the picture book he had learned before, and immediately took it into consideration, pointed at the nuts and asked:

"Do you know how to collect that?"

"Huh? Collecting?"

Charles said with a wicked smile: "The locals will drive the sheep to the fruit trees and let them eat the green fruits. This is the core in the poop!"

"I'll go!" Joseph's face suddenly turned green, and his stomach was churning.

Clementine looked at the delicious candies, then at Charles, and suddenly cried "Wow":

"It's not like that, you're talking nonsense..."

The servants and maids quickly gathered around, hugging Charles and coaxing the little Loli. The scene was chaotic.

Louis XVI looked at the royal biologist standing at the door as if asking for help.

The latter hurriedly walked over, saluted several people, and explained:

"It is true that there is such a collection method as His Highness mentioned, but the part that is eaten is the kernel in the core, and there will never be sheep dung on it through the shell. Moreover, high-end candies like this should be collected manually. "

Joseph breathed a sigh of relief, and the little Loli's crying gradually became weaker.

Queen Mary coaxed her youngest son, and then touched the little Loli's head to divert her attention:

"By the way, Clementine, haven't you always said that you want to hear stories about your cousin's adventures in North Africa?"

She looked at Joseph: "My dear, just tell them."

When the two children heard this, they immediately stopped making trouble and turned their attention at the same time.

Joseph habitually wanted to refuse, but suddenly thought that he could not let the queen treat him like a child all the time.

As France develops, it will definitely carry out larger-scale and deeper reforms in the future, and will also deal with more foreign affairs. You must gain greater authority so that you can do these things without being constrained.

Now, it was an opportunity to show off his abilities to the queen.

So, he nodded, motioned for everyone to come and sit down on the sofa, think about it, and began to talk:

"A few months ago, there was an attack on the French in Tunisia. I suspected that foreign forces were behind it. So I decided to go there and have a look..."

He then described how he promoted the "Roman Identity", how he gave the Tunisian Guards to the local indigenous people as a "gift package" to win support, and how he made the local rebels rely on him for weapons and equipment.

However, in order to avoid the objections of Louis XVI and Queen Mary, two devout Catholics, he hid the "stone man with one eye" and other pretentious operations, and only said that he had found Elder Alayi to "cooperate". In the end, the natives defeated the Tunisian Guards class who attacked the French.

Queen Mary's eyes widened when she heard this, and she kept praising:

"With almost no effort, we defeated the guys who were hostile to France. My dear, how did you come up with such a brilliant idea?"

This time, Brianne did not go to Tunisia with Joseph, so she would never mistakenly think that her son was just a follower.

She was so excited that she made a sign of the cross on her chest and said silently in her heart: Her son has really grown up, and he has outstanding abilities and strategies. Thank God, thank the Virgin Mary!

Later, Joseph talked about how Algiers sent troops to intervene in Tunisia, and he decided to take a preemptive strike and quickly maneuvered to Annaba to attack the Algiers army.

Although Queen Mary had read relevant reports before, she was not as detailed as Joseph's account.

When she heard that her son was fighting with more than 20,000 Algiers with 6,000 French troops, she was so nervous that her palms sweated, and she kept whispering:

"It's too risky. You shouldn't go with the army..."

It was not until Joseph said that he flanked Kehele south of Annaba and finally won a great victory, that the "audiences" around him breathed a sigh of relief.

Clementine took the lead in applauding:

"Cousin, you are so amazing!"

The king and queen looked at each other and clapped, with pride on their faces.

Little Charles shouted with admiration:

"Brother, take me with you next time to fight the infidels!"

Joseph rubbed his hair lovingly and said with a smile:

"Then you have to study hard and practice riding horses. When you grow up, we can command the army together."

Queen Mary waved her hands quickly:

"It's too early to ride a horse, this is not okay..."

After Joseph finished talking about his experiences in North Africa, Louis XVI's valet came over to remind him that it was dinner time, and the royal family's parent-child activities came to an end.

Queen Mary looked at the back of her eldest son walking side by side with her husband, and couldn't help but smile with relief - her hard work was not in vain, and she finally cultivated such an outstanding heir.

But she immediately remembered that Joseph had been in the North African battlefield where artillery fire was everywhere, and her heart suddenly tightened. If it weren't for the Marquis de Saint-Viran's army, how could her son be in such danger? !

Fortunately, my son performed well, otherwise he might have been injured by the Algiers army...

She didn't dare to think about it anymore, a cold and malicious light flashed in her eyes, like a lioness protecting her cubs, and she roared in her throat:

"Montcalm, you must pay for your actions!"

Immediately, she remembered the Minister of War who recommended the Marquis Saint-Villan to her, and immediately hated him as well.

…

Early the next morning, Joseph, who had escaped from trivial matters, rushed directly to the Industrial Planning Bureau of the Tuileries Palace.

When he entered the office, he immediately saw the thick pile of documents piled on the desk, and he couldn't help but let out a long sigh. It seemed that he had accumulated a lot of things after spending several months in North Africa.

Sitting down on the chair, Joseph asked Eman to make a cup of coffee without any additives, and then reached out to take the documents and read them.

As always, at the top is a report on food issues.

Quite different from what he had expected. Under the attack of drought and cold winter, despite the use of steam engine irrigation and phosphate fertilization transported from Nauru, this year's harvest was still reduced by a full 27% compared to previous years.

What's even more terrible is that after entering winter, the consumption of strategic grain reserves has greatly accelerated, and the inventory is only about 18% of what it was at the beginning of the year.

Moreover, because other countries have also experienced food harvest shortages, international food prices have skyrocketed, and it has become increasingly difficult to fill the gap with purchased food.

The documents in Joseph's hand showed that during his trip to Tunisia, more than ten places in France experienced food shortages. Fortunately, they were basically dealt with through emergency allocation of food reserves. According to the current consumption rate, the grain reserves can only last until March next year at most.

Tunisia's early wheat can mature as early as the end of April, and there is still a gap of more than a month that needs to be filled. On the one hand, we must speed up immigration to Tunisia, and on the other hand, we must also try to find new sources of food.

The situation looks very difficult, but compared with the same period in history, it is more than a little better now.

You know, historically, France had fallen into widespread famine at the end of 1788. At the same time, due to the impact of the Treaty of Eden, a large number of workers were unemployed, and the national finances completely collapsed. At his wits' end, Louis XVI agreed to convene the Estates-General the following year.

Then, in 1789, the famine became more serious, and people starved to death frequently in various places. The Estates-General failed to solve any problems, and only brought about the great fate that swept across France like a flood.

Joseph rubbed his eyebrows. After more than a year of hard work, at least the food crisis was under control for the time being, and the Level 3 meeting did not appear.

The most important thing is that there has never been a food shortage in Paris. If nothing unexpected happens, Da Ge Ming should be able to avoid it.

He took a sip of coffee and continued to open the next document, which mainly reported on the food situation of European countries in the second half of this year.

After he finished reading it, he couldn't help but frown secretly. Overall, the situation across Europe is quite bad.

Affected by the drought, traditional grain exporting countries such as Britain, Russia, and Prussia were unable to protect themselves, and famines were common in other countries.

The most intuitive data is the number of civil riots - most of which are caused by famine.

There were more than a hundred riots in Austria in a year. Needless to say, Russia has always been the champion of riots in Europe. There were also sixty or seventy riots in Prussia and Britain. Yes, the wealthy and powerful Dai Ying is not immune to this, but the situation in England is somewhat special because he is engaged in a large-scale land enclosure movement.

The Italian countries are slightly better. After all, trade is developed and the population is relatively small. Even so, there were more than thirty riots in places like Sardinia and the Two Sicilies.

In contrast, France has only had more than ten riots this year, which can serve as a model for Europe. It is impossible not to have riots in this feudal era. After all, a big and unscrupulous nobleman is messing around in his fiefdom. , will cause peasant riots.

Joseph knew very well that food problems in European countries were likely to trigger wars - wars could lead domestic conflicts abroad and rob them of money and food, which had always been a common method used by countries in this era to solve domestic problems.

This also requires him to deal with the disobedient military nobles in the country as soon as possible and unify the military power in order to effectively resist foreign enemies.

The excellent performance of the Guards Corps in Tunisia this time also gave him the confidence to deal with the military aristocrats. However, he still needs to be cautious and cautious in operation. The great affairs of the country lie in sacrifice and military affairs. These guys have an army in their hands. If one of them fails, they will cause a mutiny.

Joseph put away the reports on riots in various countries and continued to open the next document.

This was the result of Talleyrand's submission regarding France's solemn protest to the British government regarding "British incitement of the Tunisian Guards to attack the French."