Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 808 The Method of Suppressing Through Desperation
Of course, for Princess Jeanne, it wouldn't be too surprising if these cities played some tricks. After all, she grew up in Paris, and she'd seen through the petty schemes of these cities since childhood…

For nearly a century since the Valois dynasty was founded, rebellions in Paris have been constant. The royal family and Parisians have almost been educating and helping each other improve, continuously honing each other's methods. After all this turmoil, she now looks down on the level of unrest in other cities.

However, the Parisians' standards have actually declined somewhat. Perhaps it's because the king has gone mad, causing them to lose their sense of pressure.

In fact, the most serious urban rebellion was not recent, but when her grandfather, Charles V, had just taken over the country.

At that time, the riots in Paris even forced Charles to sign a decree similar to the Magna Carta, nearly causing France to become a state ruled by aristocratic oligarchs, just like England during its period of "landless monarchy." In comparison, even the recent aristocratic feuds, or the rebellion instigated by the Duke of Burgundy and the English to expel the king, were not as serious.

At that time, the French army suffered a major defeat at Poitiers, and King John was captured by the English. Prince Charles, then the Dauphin, escaped back to Paris and assumed the duties of regent.

However, this regency position is actually a tough job. To put it nicely, it means taking over the highest power of the country ahead of time; to put it bluntly, it means cleaning up everyone's messes…

Due to the two major defeats at Crécy and Poitiers, the royal prestige had plummeted to its lowest point. Charles was only 17 years old at this time, with no military achievements or political accomplishments, so no one took him seriously.

Previously, due to John's actions, the royal treasury was severely strained. To sustain the protracted war with England, the King demanded that the Estates-General raise taxes, but the war resulted in more defeats than victories, and the Estates-General, deeply dissatisfied, refused to agree. Desperate, the King resorted to his old tricks: by controlling several major mints, he deliberately reduced the precious metal content of the currency, using devaluation to plunder wealth. However, this effectively reduced the wealth of the propertied populace, naturally generating considerable resentment.

Charles, being overly serious, genuinely wanted to ransom his father, which would require raising a huge sum of money. Furthermore, the French royal army had completely collapsed due to the previous disastrous defeat, creating problems far more serious than a simple loss of military strength.

Princess Na felt a sense of déjà vu about this situation. However, the situation in France at that time was even worse than that in Wu Fan now.

After being defeated several times, the Ming army always managed to regroup and rebuild their forces. Zhu Yunwen was also incredibly mobile, constantly active and reassembling his troops. This level of organization, in Princess Jeanne's eyes, was already "above average," and in fact, it was one of the important reasons why she repeatedly suffered setbacks yet remained reluctant to leave. France, at that time, was not in such a favorable position.

After the defeat, the vassals were scattered. The mercenaries in the army were also dispersed, many becoming outlaws and looting. Therefore, a large sum of money was needed for either appeasement or suppression. The Estates-General, however, was unwilling to provide any more funds.

To break the deadlock, Charles had no choice but to first appease Parliament by announcing an end to the currency devaluation and restoring its previous gold value. However, while this move pleased the Church and the nobility, it further fueled the discontent of the Third Estate.

It turns out that while most Parisians boast about their Parisian heritage and consider themselves superior to others, they also harbor deep anxieties. Due to Paris's long-standing status as the undisputed center of France, land and housing prices have been inflated to an unrealistic level, leaving many residents without their own property. They rely on renting to maintain a "decent" lifestyle in Paris.

Now that the king has decided to restore a strong currency and increase its gold content, the nobles and the church, who receive annuities, are naturally pleased. However, the rent for Parisian citizens is calculated annually in currency. Now that the currency has appreciated and prices have fallen, the wages of citizens who produce and supply goods have also decreased. Yet, their rent remains the same, which is equivalent to an increase in their rent.

If their income can no longer cover the rent, they will inevitably become homeless, or worse, they may have to leave Paris and become miserable "outsiders," which is not just a matter of money. Therefore, the vast majority of citizens certainly cannot accept this.

This situation caught the attention of Paris Mayor Étienne Marcel, who decided to exploit it. Marcel's family, themselves "royal merchants," monopolized the Seine River's water transport trade through privileges granted by the king. They were veritable "ditchers" foremen, and thus gained a superior position in the city council, controlling power in Paris.

This time, however, he decisively betrayed his benefactor, using the overwhelming public opinion to intimidate Charles, demanding that the king's private treasury also be handed over to Parliament for control, ensuring that the entire financial system was under the jurisdiction of the Estates-General. This was to prevent the king from, as before, finding various excuses to circumvent the rules and regulations to embezzle his "private funds."

This was essentially an attempt to establish a supervised monarchy. However, Charles was too weak at the time to refuse. Therefore, he signed the document, agreeing to their demands. Marcel and other wealthy merchants then entered the court and began to take over financial affairs.

However, the parliament soon found itself in an awkward situation.

Regent Charles compromised with them mainly because the royal court was struggling to collect taxes and hoped the Estates-General, composed of wealthy individuals, would contribute funds to maintain its finances. However, after Marcel and others seized power, they discovered that no one was willing to pay.

The wealthy merchants of Paris were stingy, and even those who held official positions were unwilling to contribute any extra revenue to the state. As for other places, it was even worse—local order had collapsed, and people didn't even respect the king, let alone any kind of parliament. As a result, the king couldn't collect the money, and neither could the parliament…

At this awkward moment, the elderly King John, who was "studying" in England, also expressed his dissatisfaction. He believed that the decree was a challenge to his authority, and that Prince Charles was not qualified to sign it. Therefore, he issued a remote order declaring the decree invalid and that he would not recognize it. The Parisians were greatly alarmed and summoned a potential throne contender—King Charles of Navarre—preparing to directly oust the Valois family and hand over France to a better partner.

This action greatly displeased John. Charles of Navarre was his old adversary, and he knew the man's character all too well. Thinking, "Why should only you be the one to betray your country?", John directly signed a treaty with the English, ceding a third of the kingdom's territory in one fell swoop. The English were very satisfied and immediately began preparations to send him back.

This news, in turn, enraged the Parisians, and the conflict escalated through a series of mutual provocations. Seeing that he could win the hearts of the people, Marcel openly launched a revolution.

He led thousands of citizens into the palace, killed several of Charles's close noble associates in front of him, and forced him to re-sign the previous decrees. To demonstrate his stance, he also made Charles wear a red and blue hat—a tradition of Parisian rebellion, as red and blue were the colors of Paris, and this symbol represented support for the revolution.

To counter John, Marcel led the people in enthrone the Dauphin, making him the official king. This way, their king could stand against the English king. Power was also redistributed: at Marcel's request, Charles signed a pledge of innocence for the previous riots, with Paris retaining control of the treasury and Charles of Navarre taking command of the military. However, although the Dauphin remained compliant, such a significant matter required the approval of the Estates-General. In the previous riots, the citizens of Paris had already offended the nobility and the Church, who were unlikely to agree to this arrangement.

Mayor Marcel then invited the nobles to come into the city for negotiations. However, the nobles scoffed at this, believing the Parisians were treating them like peasants and wouldn't trust them. Since the nobles resolutely refused to enter the city and were even mobilizing troops to pressure Paris, the mayor had no choice but to concede, sending some of his trusted men to kidnap Charles and go out of the city for negotiations.

However, Mayor Marcel's confidants were too incompetent in battle; they were disarmed by the nobles as soon as they left the city, and the crown prince, who was being held hostage, was also taken away by the nobles. Afterwards, Crown Prince Charles regained his freedom and was able to handle state affairs according to his own wishes.

Although he had been mistreated in the city, no one expected that Charlie was actually very smart and very calm, able to control the pace and deal with the enemy in an orderly manner.

This time, his approach to dealing with the Parisians was to do nothing.

Charles reconvened the Estates-General and began reforms, arresting corrupt officials and implementing a new tax system to ease the burden on the people. These policies were generally welcomed, and cities outside of Paris came to him, indicating that they too belonged to the Third Estate and that the Estates-General could not function without Paris.

Charles then established his headquarters and a new parliament in Compiègne, and began to focus on domestic affairs, merely sending troops to intimidate Paris and ignoring them.

Meanwhile, a large-scale peasant uprising broke out in northern France.

Peasants were already oppressed by nobles and tax collectors, and subjected to various forms of exploitation by the kingdom; but even more terrifying than the kingdom's unjust order and harsh exploitation was the collapse of the order itself. After the nobles' defeat, Englishmen, bandits, and defeated soldiers all flocked to the countryside to plunder. Instead of reducing taxes, the nobles, in areas still under their control, intensified their collection of wealth and conscripted people into the army.

So, some angry peasants killed the officers who came to conscript them, elected a retired mercenary as their leader, and began a rebellion. In France at the time, peasants were derogatoryly called "jacquerie," roughly meaning country bumpkins or hicks. Peasant rebellions were all called "jacquerie movements." This one, however, was the largest and most intense, hence the proper noun "La Grand Jacquerie"—which roughly translates to "Super Jacquerie"...

Because the conflict was so intense, the peasants were extremely agitated and directly shouted the slogan "Kill all the nobles!"—although this was clearly an overreaction born of anger, and seemed unlikely to unite more people, much like the edict issued by the King of Wu. However, for European peasants, having a unified slogan was already a significant step forward.

However, the people most afraid of the "super fugitive" were not the Crown Prince, but the citizens of Paris.

The nobles were already quite familiar with appeasement and suppression. In their current state, they might as well fight another group. But the wealthy merchants of Paris were heavily reliant on trade with the Low Countries. For example, one of the most powerful guilds at the time, the Woolen Guild, relied on trade with the Low Countries' wool textile industry for its survival; and Mayor Marcel himself dominated the city directly through river transport. The peasant uprising disrupted trade routes, causing extreme discontent among the citizens, who naturally harbored deep hatred for these "jacrés."

However, Marcel did not directly confront them. Instead, he cleverly stated that they were all against the king and the nobles and should unite. The peasant army believed him and followed his advice, deploying troops along both banks of the Seine to clear out local bandits and mercenaries, thus reopening the river trade route.

However, once the trade routes resumed, Marcel immediately turned on them. He partnered with Charles of Navarre, swearing to uphold the alliance, to lure the peasants into negotiations. When the peasant leader actually arrived, they launched a surprise attack, tortured him to death, and then commanded mercenaries to begin a large-scale massacre of the peasants, suppressing the uprising.

After the deed was done, the Parisians were very satisfied and bestowed upon Charles of Navarre the title "Capitaine Universel"—which roughly translates to "Universal General."

However, this operation also caused Paris to completely lose credibility. Because the massacre was too bloody and treacherous, even some nobles and knights in the Navarre army could not bear it and fled to the Dauphin.

After suffering losses, Marcel and his men had no choice but to find new thugs, eventually bringing in the English. However, the English army was extremely brutal and unrestrained, frequently clashing with civilians. Eventually, the situation escalated, and the English massacred hundreds of civilians. This caused even the lower and middle classes to begin to resent the mayor and the council.

At this point, Marcel made the last mistake of his life: faced with the increasingly unfriendly atmosphere, he became paranoid, feeling that everyone was plotting to harm him. As a result, he began to secretly mark and list all those who opposed him.

However, the matter leaked out. Everyone in town knew he was making a list, probably to get the English to help with the cleaning. Worse still, the contents of the list weren't fully leaked, so no one knew if they were on it.

So the other wealthy merchants banded together and promised Marcel an opportunity to negotiate face-to-face with the lower classes. But when Marcel arrived, they immediately led the citizens to kill him and then sent a message to the crown prince, indicating their surrender.

And so, while Prince Charles spent half a year holding meetings and farming outside the city, Paris suddenly surrendered.

This kind of passive-aggressive repression was unprecedented before and since. But upon reflection, it makes a lot of sense. It seems simple, but in reality, it requires a ruler with strong willpower and judgment—qualities that Sigismund and others certainly lacked.

Princess Jeanne grew up listening to these stories, so her attitude towards these cities, even if not to the point of dislike, always carried a hint of mockery and contempt.

In particular, the Wu Fan regime was the first peasant-based government she had ever seen, and it was quite an eye-opener. The current state of Wu Fan proved to her that peasants weren't incapable; rather, their previous organization had been terrible. Similarly, if peasants could achieve this, then the situation in the cities was even less of a concern.

(End of this chapter)