The Crown Prince of France - Chapter 143

Chapter 143: A Letter from Catherine the Great

Joseph glanced once again in Talleyrand's direction and said to Louis XVI, "Father, if he bothers you again, just have him come to me. I have ways to convince him."

Louis XVI, upon hearing that he could rid himself of the persistent priest, readily agreed, "I truly appreciate it, Joseph."

As he spoke, his mind wandered back to the honor and praises the firelock rifle had brought him earlier that day, and he couldn't help but look at his son longingly. "Joseph, if you have any new ideas for weapons, you must tell me right away."

Joseph smiled and nodded, thinking to himself that there was no way he would allow his father to have any idle time. Every extra day of idleness was a huge loss for the modernization of France's military.

"Why don't you first teach those artisans the process of making firelock rifles? As for my concept of the rifled gun, it isn't fully developed yet, but once it's more refined, I'll definitely let you know."

The principles and structure of rifled guns were already well-established, but Joseph feared that if his father became too focused on that, it might affect the progress of the armory's construction. Thus, he decided to keep the idea to himself for now.

"Rifled guns?" Louis XVI asked, somewhat puzzled. "Hasn't this already been invented?"

Joseph laughed and waved his hand, lowering his voice intentionally, "The current rifled guns are very difficult to load. The ammunition has to be hammered into the barrel, and sometimes it gets stuck halfway. My design, however, makes loading the rifle very easy—almost like a smoothbore gun."

Louis XVI's eyes lit up immediately. "My God, what kind of mind has my Joseph been gifted with?!"

He grabbed his son's arm tightly and said excitedly, "You must hurry with it! Soon, we will have a weapon that will shock all of Europe!"

"Of course, dear father."

After chatting for a while about the glorious moments at the training field that day, Joseph bid farewell to the delighted king and headed straight for the office of the Minister of Finance.

Brienne hurried out to greet him, smiling warmly. "Your Highness, it’s so wonderful to see that your injury has fully healed! Thank God for His protection!"

He had indeed been very concerned about Joseph’s injury and had visited him nearly every day, fearing something might happen to the prince.

Joseph quickly made the sign of the cross on his chest. "Thank God. And thank you as well, Archbishop Brienne."

The two took their seats, and Joseph remembered his encounter with the Minister of the Interior the previous day. He asked, "Archbishop Brienne, I heard that Count Nicoll's mission to England hasn't gone very smoothly?"

Brienne sighed and nodded. "Yes, he's not very adept in such situations. He's slow to react to various diplomatic methods and often misspeaks... Oh, he even got the British royal family’s genealogy wrong in public."

He paused, then looked at Joseph. "And, after we gave that great humiliation to Viren, he came to report about his mission to Russia as if nothing happened. He didn't even think about resigning."

Joseph furrowed his brows at this. He had previously arranged for Viren to be sent to Russia, expecting that he would resign due to missing the Anglo-French trade negotiations. He hadn't expected Viren to be so composed.

In fact, Viren had wanted to resign even before reaching Russia, but the Duke of Orléans had repeatedly asked him to stay on. He had no choice but to endure the situation and remain in the cabinet, as he was the Duke of Orléans’ only political ally left.

Brienne seemed uneasy. "Your Highness, if Viren doesn't leave, then Count Nicoll..."

Joseph knew that according to the earlier agreement, when Brienne was removed from office, Count Nicoll was supposed to take his place as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

He shook his head slightly. "Count Nicoll isn't suited for diplomacy."

"Let me think of a way to compensate him."

"And how do you plan to do that?"

"Count Nicoll is better suited for work related to the registry. We can have him start planning for a national identity card system."

"Identity cards?"

Joseph smiled. "It’s a card that each citizen of France will carry. It will have a unique number to identify each individual."

"Why would we issue such cards..." Brienne started, but then, as one of the top ministers, he quickly realized the key point, "To levy a poll tax."

"There are many benefits," Joseph said. "For example, it can be used for screening spies or wanted criminals, preventing fraudulent claims for welfare, facilitating identification, and preventing scams."

Of course, Joseph's main purpose in promoting identity cards was for easier taxation and trade. Eventually, they could even use them in the colonies to foster a sense of national identity.

Brienne nodded. "Count Nicoll has always wanted to do something noteworthy. This will involve everyone in the nation. He should be pleased."

Joseph added, "We can even add the signature of the Minister of the Interior on the cards to verify their authenticity."

"That would be perfect."

Joseph thought for a moment about Viren, his brow furrowing. "We still need to further diminish Viren’s influence. The Minister of Foreign Affairs must be replaced by someone from our side."

Brienne immediately nodded in gratitude. "Thank you, Your Highness."

From his perspective, Viren had offended him because of the dismissal incident, and that was why the prince was so resolute in sidelining him.

In truth, Joseph was more focused on consolidating the political landscape and weakening the power of the Duke of Orléans as much as possible, to pave the way for reforming the old nobility in the future.

Speaking of Viren, Brienne then recalled a report from a few days ago and hurriedly said to Joseph, "Your Highness, Viren did bring back some news from his mission to Russia."

He stood up and retrieved several sheets of paper from a drawer, handing them to Joseph. "The Empress of Russia is quite concerned about our stance on the Russo-Turkish war. She repeatedly told Viren that it was the Ottomans who initiated the war, attempting to invade Russian territories like Crimea and Georgia, and attacked the Russian fleet. They were left with no choice but to retaliate."

"Oh, this is a transcript of a letter from Empress Catherine to His Majesty the King."

Joseph wasn't particularly interested in who was right or wrong in the Russo-Turkish conflict. What mattered to him was whether the situation there could be leveraged for France's advantage.

He looked at Catherine's letter, where the Empress was very polite in offering diplomatic niceties and encouraging France to support her in declaring war on the Ottomans. She even described it as a new Crusade led by France.

Brienne added, "According to Viren, the Empress also hinted at the possibility of a Franco-Russian marriage alliance."

Joseph smiled. Marrying into Russia didn't bring any substantial benefits to France at the moment.

However, when he read the line "support Russia in fighting the Ottomans," he couldn't help but narrow his eyes. If France were to ally with Russia against the Ottomans, wouldn't that provide a pretext for intervening in North Africa? From west to east, places like Algiers, Tunis, and Egypt, although independent in practice, were still nominally Ottoman provinces.

If France and Russia were to fight the Ottomans together, it would make perfect sense for France to get involved in North Africa as part of the effort to weaken the Ottomans.

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