As long as the issue of farmers' land was resolved, the flock stripped of everything would not take desperate risks like city people once they had property of their own. With a knife at their throats, not every nobleman was as unwilling as that marquise to give up the dignity and wealth of the past. Some agreed not to collect rent, and so the countryside became a refuge for many nobles, including the Duke of Liancourt, once a close confidant of the king.
Many privately called him His Majesty Napoleon, while the faction surrounding Lucky Cook called him First Consul, the title Octavian had used before becoming emperor.
This liberal nobleman had been deeply inspired by America's farming system and hoped to launch an "agricultural revolution" in France. After touring France, he abandoned the plan and was then sent to Rennes, chiefly to deal with the rebellion in Brittany.
The lords only returned when their tenants were repaying debts and paying rent; the rest of the time, they stayed in Paris. Naturally, they did not care about rural security. Officers drawing high salaries became leave-taking regiments, eating, drinking, and making merry in Paris while neglecting their subordinates. By the day they returned to the battlefield, no one would follow them.
The rank-and-file soldiers of the regiment Napoleon had served in before he became famous had also mutinied, demanding that the senior officers hand over their illicit income. Many people would not part with a single penny for those who did not belong to their world. Rural security was in chaos. There were not only genuine bandits, but also vagrants who occasionally moonlighted as bandits, making vagrants the most terrifying scourge of the countryside.
Under the old regime, light cavalry were used to capture them. Beggars were released only after swearing