Chapter 531: Lavoisier the Tax Farmer

Chapter 532 Tax Farmer Lavoisier

As the peasant on the execution platform continued to tell the story, more than 10,000 people in the square clenched their fists in anger and gritted their teeth.

Especially when he said that after his sister died, the shameless tax farmer forced him to pay the fine of that year, and the amount was as high as 80 livres with interest, the crowd could no longer hold back and burst into a tsunami-like roar:

"Execute this devil!"

"Kill him, I don't want to wait a moment!"

"Let him go to hell!"

However, the nobles who came to watch were not very excited - the pitiful life of a countryman could only make them shrug their shoulders regretfully, but it was difficult to resonate.

Even some guys with bad character, who had done such things as robbing girls from poor families, were still whispering and laughing obscenely.

After the peasant finished speaking, the supervising officer took advantage of the atmosphere in the square to reach its peak, read out the verdict of the High Court loudly, and then signaled to start the execution.

A drum sounded, and the angry people immediately quieted down, all looking at the tall execution platform.

First, the priest came to the tax farmer, made a routine prayer, and asked him to confess.

Then, the priest made the sign of the cross and stepped aside. An executioner wearing a black mask and with arms thicker than an ordinary person's legs picked up the "long-handled guillotine" placed aside and strode to the side of the criminal.

Only then did Joseph see that the "guillotine" was a very large two-handed heavy sword, which was as tall as an adult with the hilt, and flashed a dazzling cold light in the sun.

Berni, a tax farmer lying on a crossbeam with his neck caught by the yoke, suddenly became frightened and began to wail loudly, but the next moment, the executioner swung his heavy sword like a windmill. Before everyone could see what was going on, the sword had swept past the yoke, and a column of blood spurted out, and Berni's head rolled to the ground like a fallen coconut.

The executioner picked up the head and held it high to show everyone, which immediately attracted deafening cheers.

People waved their hands and screamed to their heart's content. The depression, resentment and unwillingness that had been accumulated in their hearts for a long time were released with the gushing blood.

The tax farmer system has been a disaster for the country for too long. Almost everyone has suffered from their murderous hands, and they have taken the last penny from their pockets. They hate them to the bone, but they can do nothing about them.

And from the moment this head was chopped off, people knew that the group of tax farmers would no longer exist in the future!

The future life is more and more full of hope!

Before, the peasant who denounced Berni's crime was now in tears, murmuring his sister's name, and walked down the wooden platform with the help of the executioner's assistant.

Then, another tax collector was taken to the execution platform.

Just like the previous process, the victim came to the stage first to denounce his crime.

However, this time, it was a middle-aged woman who was dressed in old but neat and decent clothes, and her gestures were quite well-educated. She was obviously a noble.

She stared at the death row prisoner behind her fiercely, and began to talk about how the latter used the trap of "delayed tax payment" to gradually make her husband bear heavy debts and eventually had to sell the family business.

Even her daughter, who was engaged to a young and handsome lawyer, was divorced because of the family's decline.

In the end, their small noble family that had been passed down for hundreds of years had to move to the slums of the Saint-Antoine district. There was foul-smelling sewage everywhere around the house. The husband had to copy documents for more than 10 hours every day to barely make a living. He was overworked and groaned in back pain every night until midnight.

This time, although the common people also shouted "execute him", their voices were much smaller than before. After all, the lady's family could at least have enough food.

The nobles present were in great anger - these dirty and shameless tax farmers actually used despicable means to persecute a decent and long-standing nobleman into such a miserable situation and into the abyss of suffering! Damn it!

They immediately cursed in the most vulgar language like other civilians, waving their arms desperately, and their faces flushed with excitement.

After the tax collector was beheaded, the nobles also jumped and cheered without caring about their image.

Next, another civilian victim came on stage...

In this way, the victims who publicly recounted the crimes of the tax farmers switched back and forth between civilians and nobles. Soon, the onlookers had forgotten their respective identities and began to unanimously denounce the tax farmers.

As the heads of the criminals were chopped off one by one, the crowd in the square became more united, and even began to dance to the drumbeats of the execution.

This was Joseph's plan. Let the victims who had been persecuted by the tax farmers for a long time accuse in public, arouse people's sympathy and anger, and directly maximize the rationality of this purge of the tax farmers.

At this time, no matter whether it was the common people or the nobles, no one would have any sympathy for the tax farmer group. The excited and crazy crowd in the square was proof of this.

In the future, no matter how he dealt with the tax farmers' association, there would definitely not be much resistance. No, it should be said that the cleaner he cleaned up the tax farmers' association, the more support and support he would get from everyone!

The execution finally came to an end until dusk, when the two executioners left the scene exhausted. Because it took a lot of time to accuse the tax farmers of their evil deeds, they only chopped off 19 heads that day, and the blood piled up in the corner of the execution platform.

Joseph also watched here for a whole day. Fortunately, he had seen more tragic scenes on the battlefield, so he could keep his emotions stable. However, even so, he decided not to participate in the subsequent executions. After all, this primitive execution method was still too bloody. He was not a pervert who would get excited by watching such things. At the current execution speed, heads might be chopped off here for more than half a month.

...

Two days later.

Joseph was looking through the assets of the convicted tax farmers submitted by the tax bureau, as well as the documents on the illegal income that were verified, but suddenly frowned.

He suddenly saw a familiar name - Lavoisier.

The documents showed that during the more than ten years when the great scholar contracted the Paris tobacco tax, he had been diluting the tobacco he handled, thereby obtaining huge illegal profits - about 80,000 to 100,000 livres per year.

Joseph couldn't help rubbing his forehead. The historical materials he had seen before said that Lavoisier's beheading by the Jacobins was a huge mistake, which caused French chemical research to stagnate for decades.

Now it seems that although his beheading was a bit too heavy a sentence, he was by no means completely innocent. The tax farmer is a big dye vat, and it is difficult for any person with noble character to keep himself clean once he enters.