I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 623 Valentine’s Day is coming

It is Britain's established strategic plan to use Poland to align the interests of Prussia and Austria, so after a large number of conservative nobles were recently arrested, Jason immediately realized that these people had great utilization value.

So, he got in touch with the Prussians in the Polish army. Due to the alliance between Poland and Prussia, Poland has been imitating the Prussian military system, and there are a large number of Prussian officers in the army.

Under Jason's instruction, these Prussian officers exchanged the soldiers escorting Potocki and cooperated with the British spies to complete the "prisoner robbery" operation.

Potocki suddenly gritted his teeth and said: "It must be those guys from the Patriot Party and Poniatowski! In order to control the parliament, they threw all the nobles who did not submit to them into prison. They are committing a crime , is treason!”

Jason nodded and said with a deep tone: "But these traitors control the parliament and also control the army."

"No, there are still troops who are still loyal to traditions and beliefs." Potocki said, "In addition, we are convinced that Russia will not let the order of Poland be destroyed!"

Jason's heart moved and he quickly asked: "What do you mean by the army?"

"We have been in contact with some officers before, and if someone can come forward and call for help, they will definitely respond."

"Where's the number of people?"

"At least two to three thousand soldiers can be mobilized."

"It seems there is still hope." A smile flashed in Jason's eyes. "As for the Russian side, I will try to arrange for you to have a secret meeting with His Majesty the Tsar."

…

Paris.

A "Jewel 7L" carriage with smooth lines and luxurious appearance, surrounded by guards, drove along the wooden track towards Notre Dame Cathedral.

This is the latest model launched by Gem Carriage Company. It can drive freely on ordinary roads and wooden tracks by switching the wheel mode. Therefore, although the price is as high as more than 3,000 francs, demand still exceeds supply. If you want to get the car within a month, you have to pay a premium of at least 4,000 francs.

In the compartment of the carriage, Joseph was subconsciously flipping through the report on sugar beet cultivation submitted by the Minister of Agriculture, and he was deep in thought.

At present, France has planted more than 1,800 hectares of sugar beets in the area north of Valois, which is already quite large. However, in the past two months, there has been almost no increase in the area planted with sugar beets.

Venio is still doing his best to promote it, but farmers are still instinctively suspicious of new things. They prefer to grow wheat that can fill their stomachs, and are now more accepting of potatoes.

This is only because the government provides tax exemptions and loans from agricultural service consulting companies. Otherwise, it would be difficult to achieve more than 1,800 hectares.

And Joseph knew very well that other countries were waiting for the French government to quell the riots, but in fact the French Expeditionary Force was there to deliver equipment.

The Caribbean would soon be overwhelmed by the abolitionist movement and sugar production would fall exponentially.

Historically, during the slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue, sugarcane production dropped from 80 million pounds to less than 4 million pounds.

The Caribbean supplies 85% of Europe's sugar, which means that it won't be long before there will be a sugar shortage in Europe, and the price of sugar will skyrocket.

The current 1,800 hectares of sugar beets alone are far from enough to supply France, let alone make money from exports.

But he couldn't force French farmers to switch to sugar beets at gunpoint, so Joseph thought of France's largest landowner, the Catholic Church.

10% of all arable land in France belongs to the church. If the church could be persuaded to use part of its land to grow sugar beets, it would be possible to reach the 40,000 to 50,000 hectares he desired.

Historically, by the beginning of the 19th century, Nahuang had only planted about 28,000 hectares of sugar beets, which could barely meet the sugar demand of the Western European market.

However, Nahuang had to compete with the low-cost Caribbean cane sugar at that time and could only provide high subsidies. Therefore, it only lasted for more than ten years before it began to significantly reduce the scale of planting.

But now, Joseph is sure to make money from beet sugar, so naturally the more he grows, the better.

It happened that he also wanted to try out the new carriage he had just picked up, so he drove to Notre Dame de Paris to discuss the matter with Archbishop Beaumont.

Forty minutes later, the luxurious silver-gray carriage slowly stopped at the edge of the square of Notre Dame de Paris.

Joseph looked out of the car window and saw a sea of ​​people in front of the church door. The car could not even squeeze into the square.

He turned to look at Emang: "Is there any big mass today?"

Eman thought for a moment and said: "Your Highness, today seems to be Valentine's Day. These people should be here to grab the 'first love coupon given by God'."

Joseph held his forehead, he really forgot that today is February 14th. Speaking of which, he came up with the idea of ​​"grabbing the first love coupon" for the church, and it was naturally based on the famous "grabbing the first incense stick" in later generations.

Thanks to the popularity of Catholicism in this era, the effect of his "planning" was surprisingly good.

Under the promotion that "the love of the winner of the first love coupon will be blessed by God", Notre Dame de Paris held this event for the first time last year and earned a full 190,000 francs!

Among them, the donation made by the lady of the Viscount Debre family to the church in order to obtain the "first love coupon" - which was actually an auction - amounted to 45,000 francs.

It seems that this year's situation should be more lively than last year.

Joseph had no choice but to ask the coachman to go around to the back door of Notre Dame de Paris and entered Notre Dame through a special passage.

The priest who greeted him couldn't help but seemed a little hesitant when he learned that His Royal Highness the Dauphin was going to see Archbishop Beaumont.

Joseph immediately understood that Archbishop Beaumont should be presiding over the event of granting the "first love coupon" at this time, so he said to the priest: "Forget it, don't disturb the archbishop, I will wait for a while."

He will not be so disappointed as to affect others' most profitable "business activities" of the year.

The priest hurriedly bowed to thank him, and Joseph wandered around the Notre Dame. At this time, the crowd was gathered in front of the gate, but the church was very empty.

After walking for a while, Joseph felt a little bored, so he sat down on a bench in a prayer room, picked up the Bible and read it like a novel.

In the square of Notre Dame de Paris, Archbishop Beaumont stood on the high platform, spread his arms and recited a prayer, and then loudly said: "Now, let us thank God for his blessing. The Lord spreads true love in the world and condenses it into a holy one." Love coupons.

"God will be watching us at this moment. And the most pious person will get the first love ticket, and the blessing of the Lord will fall on him."

As soon as he finished speaking, an aristocratic lady wearing a light blue silk dress clasped her hands in prayer and said: "I am willing to donate 5,000 francs to show my piety."

Her voice was immediately suppressed by the girl behind her: "I will donate 7,000 francs..."

At this moment, a beautiful figure walked out of the crowd and said softly: "Archbishop Beaumont, your devout lamb is willing to donate 40,000 francs."

That long golden hair and violet eyes were none other than Camelia.