Crisis

With Fouché's vote, Louis XVI's fate was essentially sealed. Fouché cast the 355th vote in favor of the death penalty, just six votes short of the 361 needed to execute Louis XVI. Several the Mountain members remained behind Fouché, their stance relatively firm, making a defection highly unlikely. The remaining Brissotins members, however, were less certain. The outcome was practically decided. Then, among the Brissotins members behind Fouché, a new defection emerged. Out of 720 votes, 387 supported the death penalty, while the remaining 333 supported a pardon. Louis XVI's execution was approved, making him the second Europe king to be sentenced to death.

In fact, there were also economic reasons for the trial of the king. With the king sentenced to death, the property of the exiled nobles was confiscated and used as collateral to issue more Assignat. If everything went smoothly, these lands and properties would have given France's finances a considerable buffer period. However, in any era, war is a bottomless pit of finances. At this time, the war between France and Austria and Prussia was not yet over.

After conquering Belgium, the France army began to regroup. With nothing else to do, Joseph took his brother out for a stroll through the streets of Aachen to relax.

Although they were just strolling around, the two brothers still noticed something different. Napoleon carefully observed the street layout of Aachen, mentally simulating street battles and dismantling the city a hundred times over. As for Joseph, he wasn't so bored; he simply noticed a small detail: prices in Aachen had clearly risen, and the shops seemed reluctant to do business with France people, especially those in military uniforms. For example, this time, he and France weren't in uniform Napoleon. They walked into a small tavern and asked in German, "Do you have brandy?" The owner immediately replied, "Yes, yes. Would you like to pay in Mark?" The owner's face lit up with a smile.

"Isn't Livre okay?" Joseph continued to ask.

"Livre? Silver? Silver is fine, but we don't accept Assignat," the shopkeeper replied.

"Silver," Joseph said, arranging several silver coins on the counter.

"Very well," the shopkeeper said happily when he saw that Joseph had taken out silver coins. "One Livre a cup."

"What? Wasn't it one Livre and two glasses before?" Joseph asked in surprise.

"That happened before the France came." A voice came from the side. Joseph turned his head and saw a red-haired young man holding a glass of foamy beer. When the man saw Joseph's gaze, he raised his glass to him and smiled slightly.

"Yes, that was before the France came. Since France came, everything has gone up in price," the shop owner said.

This is quite normal. Generally speaking, soldiers who are at the mercy of their fate are always willing to spend money. Wherever a large contingent of soldiers goes, it tends to cause certain industries, such as alcohol, and some other unspeakable industries, to boom and see prices rise.

"So, shop owner, you must have made a lot of money, right?" Joseph asked with a smile.

"No way," the shopkeeper shook his head. "It was alright at first, but now, they all come with a little piece of paper asking for drinks—hey, isn't that cheating? Of course I refused, and they beat me up. They said refusing to accept Assignat was counter-revolutionary, and they even threatened to hang me on a lamppost! Now we don't dare refuse their little pieces of paper anymore, but we have to hide the good stuff beforehand so they don't see it."

In France, to ensure the acceptance of Assignat, parliament did indeed pass laws prohibiting merchants from refusing to accept Assignat. Merchants who insisted on refusing Assignat could indeed be hung from lampposts. (Of course, France merchants had their own ways of dealing with this.) But this isn't France.

But the soldiers had no choice; they couldn't just stay indoors and relax, spending some money, could they?

Initially, when the situation at the front was extremely critical, in order to boost the morale of the soldiers, the France government spared no expense, paying the soldiers' wages in the form of real metal currency. However, after the Battle of Valmy, the government began to include Assignat in the army's pay. After the victory at the Battle of Jemappes, Assignat accounted for a larger proportion of the army's pay than metal currency. And when Louis XVI was guillotined, metal currency was completely removed from the army's pay.

Of course, this is Dumouriez's version of events. Another version says that, at this critical moment, in order to stabilize the situation, the government still sent Dumouriez military pay in metal currency. However, General Dumouriez exchanged all of these metal currencies for Assignat himself before distributing them to the soldiers.

Moreover, this claim even has some basis, because there were always small vendors doing a special business near the French Army camps, exchanging coins for Assignat. Of course, this exchange rate was much more shady than in France. Soldiers who were unwilling to be exploited were furious and beat up a merchant, also snatching the two hundred or so Silver Livre next to him, and finally throwing him four hundred paper Livre.

General Dumouriez, who usually didn't concern himself with such matters, was furious. He declared that such lawless behavior was a heinous crime, causing widespread resentment among the people, and that only execution could appease public anger. He then had the soldiers hung up, thus upholding military law.

However, many soldiers suspected that General Dumouriez, who usually didn't care much about such matters, was so furious because he was the backer of the merchants who exchanged the Assignat. This irresponsible speculation quickly spread throughout the army, causing morale to plummet.

Joseph tossed two Livre to the shopkeeper, took two glasses of brandy, and then called over a man who was still watching the street corner, considering how to ambush Napoleon there and then fire the Napoleon to blast him to hell. He sat down by the window facing the street.

The two had just sat down and taken a couple of sips of their drink when they heard a commotion outside, followed by gunshots, then screams and cries, all mixed together in complete chaos.

"What's wrong?" Joseph stood up and looked outside.

A man rushed in, his face pale, shouting, "The France! The France are robbing people and killing people!"

In a very short time, the France lost the hearts and minds of the Belgium people. Initially, at least most ordinary people in Belgium genuinely looked forward to the arrival of the France army. However, the actions of the France army turned their dreams into nightmares. Many of those who had flirted with the France during Austria rule were now colluding with Audi. It could even be said that once Austria launched a counter-offensive, the whole of Belgium might rise up against France.

However, in order to resolve its financial difficulties and prepare for the upcoming second round of intervention—the war had cost so much money that simply confiscating the lands of the royal family and some nobles was no longer enough— the France government needed to obtain more funds from Belgium.

The National Assembly sent a large number of special envoys to Belgium in order to extract more money from those places.

Direct plunder is clearly inefficient and troublesome, and may even be counterproductive economically. Therefore, the leaders of the National Assembly came up with this idea.

Everywhere, war should be accompanied by revolutionary measures. Everywhere, all the property of the church, nobles, and all their lackeys who are hostile to the revolution should be confiscated for the revolutionary cause (primarily as collateral for Assignat). Furthermore, the tithe and territorial sovereignty of the liberated territories should be abolished, and old taxes should be eliminated, replaced by increased taxes on the wealthy. The administrative systems of all liberated territories should be reformed, and only those who have sworn to freedom and renounced all privileges should have the right to vote and be elected. At the same time, to prevent the influx of coins into these territories and their subsequent outflow from France, the use of coins should be prohibited, and Assignat should be mandatory.

They believed that doing so would separate the common people in the occupied territories from the feudal lords.

MP Cambon, who proposed the suggestion, declared, "Fire at the palace, give peace to the huts. That way we can stand firm anywhere."

The proposal received the support of most members of parliament and was passed smoothly. However, Robespierre privately told Danton, "Cambon's idea is beautiful, but I'm always worried that it might go awry in practice. And we actually lack the ability to ensure this law won't be distorted. I fear this seemingly beautiful law will become a nightmare in its implementation. Moreover, even domestically, not many people are willing to accept Assignat..."

"The road to hell is often paved with good intentions," Danton said. "However, for now, this is all we can do."

In order to effectively implement this decree, Parliament sent thirty special envoys to Belgium, including Cambon, who proposed the plan.

But just as Robespierre feared, policies often become completely distorted once they reach the implementation level. These special envoys wielded immense power, able to make decisions unilaterally and without prior approval, wielding even more power than the so-called imperial commissioners of the past. However, not every special envoy was as "incorruptible" as Robespierre. In fact, it could be said that the vast majority of special envoys used this opportunity to enrich themselves.

Within just a few months, the Commissioner Cambon alone raised as much as 64 million Livre for the Republic in Belgium. However, the whole of Belgium, including the lower classes living in "huts" whom the France were trying to win over, were filled with resentment towards the France.