#868 - The Dauphin's day off

Chapter 864: The Crown Prince's Day Off

The wind blew the fluttering snowflakes askew.

The world seemed to be sprinkled with a layer of glittering crushed diamonds.

The marble square was covered with snow deeper than the boots, reflecting the halo of the gas streetlights, as if it were covered with smooth, sweet cream everywhere, and the ice flowers on the eaves were like icing used for decoration.

Joseph picked up a snowball, ran quickly to the already frozen fountain, and turned to throw it behind him.

More than a dozen guards and maids, cloaked in thick cloaks and pure white cashmere scarves, gathered around with laughter, like a large group of bouncing "Snow Treasures."

As soon as the snowball in Joseph's hand landed on Ksod's back, a flurry of silver shavings burst on his own shoulder.

Seeing this, the maids immediately surrounded the captain of the guard, chattering, and used a series of snowballs to "avenge" His Royal Highness the Crown Prince…

After the Iberian-Apennine Summit ended, Joseph finally had a rare moment of leisure. He had just returned from ice fishing at Blue Lake and happened to encounter heavy snow, so he took it upon himself to have a snowball fight with everyone.

After running for a long time, Joseph rubbed his frozen hands and breathed on them. Camellia hurried over, took off her gloves, took his hands and warmed them against her chest, and said with a smile, "Your Highness, I have made pine nut pumpkin soup, it will be ready soon. Drinking it will warm you up quickly."

Not far away, Veronique saw the Crown Prince talking and laughing with the maid, and suddenly felt a burst of sourness. She narrowed her eyes, pretended to avoid the snowball, and ran diagonally towards the two of them.

She estimated that the distance was almost right, and suddenly her foot slipped, exclaimed "Oh dear", and pounced on the Crown Prince.

Joseph caught a glimpse of someone "smashing" towards him, subconsciously wrapped his arm around Camellia's slender waist, and pulled her back to dodge.

Veronique originally thought she would be hugged by the Crown Prince, but at this time it was too late to stop, and the whole person almost pounced horizontally on the ground.

"Ah—"

In her scream, a white figure suddenly flashed past, and reached out to catch her just as she was less than 30 centimeters from the ground.

Veronique was still in shock. When she looked up, she saw the face of the guard Raymond.

The latter was about to ask her if she was injured, but suddenly felt two large soft sensations in his hands, and his heart began to beat wildly.

When Veronique saw Raymond blushing, she realized that something was wrong, and was immediately filled with shame and anger. She grabbed his shoulders and wanted to stand up, but accidentally used too much force, pulling the guard down, his face right on her mouth.

Laughter came from the maids around.

Veronique finally struggled to stand firm, not bothering to pat the snow off her body, and fled towards the gate of the Palace of Versailles.

Raymond groped the place on his face that had been "kissed", stared at her back, his heart beating even faster, and muttered to himself: "She, is she showing her love to me…"

Joseph was completely unaware of what had just happened. He was drinking pine nut pumpkin soup when he heard Emang say from the side: "Your Highness, according to the schedule, you are to summon Archbishop Brienne and the others in 15 minutes."

"Okay, I understand."

Joseph took a breath and handed the unfinished soup to Camellia, "Alas, even on a day off I have to 'work overtime'…"

As soon as he returned to his reception room, he saw the Palace Food Director François Benard, and then Emang walked over and bowed: "Your Highness, Mr. Benard is asking whether you would like roast peacock or venison stewed in red wine for your dinner main course?"

Joseph rubbed his forehead and shook his head: "Does he want to wipe out all the animals in the Versailles Palace zoo?

"Please tell him, don't make these expensive and unappetizing things in the future. Just stew ordinary venison."

He still remembered the peacock meat at the last banquet, which was dry and hard, not as delicious as roasted pigeon. However, for the sake of the royal family's pomp, the chef had to make such things every now and then.

The food director shrank his head and left, and Brienne, Mirabeau, and Vergniaud brushed past him and entered.

The three stepped forward and saluted: "Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Joseph nodded with a smile, and then gestured towards the sofa: "Please all sit down."

Brienne and the others were already very familiar with the Crown Prince's style. They didn't exchange many pleasantries at the moment, and went straight to the topic, placing a document on the table in front of him: "Your Highness, this is this year's financial income and expenditure forecast report, as well as the government expenditure plan for next year that you requested."

Joseph nodded, picked up the document and opened it, nodding secretly in his heart. With Brienne's continuous improvements according to his requirements, the efficiency of the French financial system was getting higher and higher.

Previously, it was not until March or April of the following year that the income and expenditure situation of the previous year could be statistically compiled. Now, most of it can be submitted to him before February.

This year, due to the outbreak of a large-scale war, he specifically requested an early statistical analysis of the financial situation. As a result, Brienne had already completed the work by the beginning of December.

Of course, the data for November and December are not included here. Joseph mainly wanted to see how much the war had affected the national economy.

Joseph was very satisfied with this number.

Last year's total fiscal revenue was 760 million. This year it seems that there has been almost no increase, but it must be known that this achievement was achieved under the circumstances of the outbreak of a national war.

According to the estimated data submitted by the intelligence agency, Austria's fiscal revenue this year will probably decrease by about 11%, and Prussia and other participating German states will even decrease by more than 17%!

Even the United Kingdom, which is in its heyday, has a fiscal revenue that is 4% lower than last year.

Joseph knew that this was still the result of the United Kingdom starting to increase personal income tax. Otherwise, the subsidies on sucrose alone this year would have allowed their income to reach Austria's decline.

The reason why France can maintain revenue growth is largely due to the high profits obtained from beet sugar production, which made up for the huge consumption of military expenses.

Of course, another important factor is that the ratio of the scale of troops France deployed to the battlefield to its national strength is much smaller than that of Prussia and Austria.

France only sent standing troops, while Austria carried out a general mobilization, which would consume a large amount of social labor in the war, and domestic production would inevitably be affected.

Moreover, this impact is not very obvious this year, because many factories still have savings and can still grit their teeth and persevere.

By next year, Austria will experience even greater declines.

As for Prussia, it has been in a state of national mobilization all year round, maintaining a standing army of nearly 200,000 with a mere 8 million people, and military expenditure even reaches more than half of fiscal revenue.

Therefore, once Prussia goes to war, it must obtain benefits from the war, otherwise the national economy will immediately have problems.