A letter from Catherine II

Joseph glanced in Talleyrand's direction again and said to Louis XVI, "Father, if he bothers you again, tell him to come to me. I have a way to persuade him."

Louis XVI, upon hearing that he could get rid of the persistent priest, readily agreed, "Thank you very much, Joseph."

As he spoke, he recalled the glory and praise the Percussion Cap Gun had brought him that day, and looked at his son with lingering satisfaction. "Joseph, if you have any ideas for new weapons, be sure to tell me right away."

Joseph smiled and nodded, thinking to himself that he certainly couldn't let him be idle. Every extra day he was idle would be a huge loss to the modernization of France military equipment.

"For now, please teach the Craftsman how to make Percussion Cap Gun. I do have an idea for Rifled Gun, but it's not quite ready yet. I'll let you know when I've figured it out."

The principles and structure of Rifled Gun were readily available, but Joseph was worried that his father would focus all his attention on them, affecting the construction progress of the Arsenal, so he decided not to tell him for the time being.

"Rifled Gun?" Louis XVI asked, somewhat puzzled. "Haven't they been made already?"

Joseph smiled and waved his hand, deliberately lowering his voice, "Modern Rifled Gun are very difficult to load. The bullet has to be hammered into the barrel, and it can even get stuck in the middle of the barrel. But my Rifled Gun design allows for very easy loading, almost like Smoothbore Musket."

Louis XVI's eyes lit up immediately. "God, what a brilliant mind you have bestowed upon my Joseph!!"

He gripped his son's arm tightly, exclaiming excitedly, "Then you'd better hurry! Then we'll be able to build another gun that will shock all of Europe!"

"Yes, dear father."

After chatting for a while about the glorious moments of the day at the training ground, Joseph bid farewell to the King, who was beaming with pride, and went straight to the Office of the Minister of Finance.

Brienne hurried out to greet him, smiling warmly, "Your Crown Prince, it's wonderful to see that your injuries have healed! Thank God for His blessing!"

He was indeed very concerned about Joseph's injury, and had visited him almost every day, fearing that something might have happened to the Crown Prince.

Joseph quickly made the sign of the cross. "Thank God. And thank you, Archbishop Brienne."

After the two sat down, Joseph, recalling his encounter with the Minister of Census the previous day, asked, "Archbishop Brienne, I heard that Count Nicoé's trip to the United Kingdom did not go so smoothly?"

Brienne sighed and nodded. "Yes, he's not very good at those kinds of situations, slow to react to various diplomatic tactics, and often says the wrong thing... Oh, he even got the lineage of the United Kingdom King wrong in public."

He paused, then looked at Joseph and said, "Moreover, we inflicted such a huge humiliation on Vergennes, yet he reported to me about his trip to Russia as if he felt nothing at all. Not to mention his resignation."

Joseph frowned upon hearing this. He had previously agreed with Brienne to send Minister of Foreign Affairs Vergennes to Russia and to be absent from the Anglo-French Trade Negotiations, and he fully expected Verrière to resign in anger. He did not expect him to be so resolute.

In fact, Vergennes had already wanted to resign before even arriving in Russia, but the Duke of Orléans repeatedly asked him to stay. So he had no choice but to swallow his pride and continue to stay in the Cabinet.

Because he is currently Orleans' only political ally in the Cabinet. Losing him is absolutely unacceptable to Orleans.

Brienne hesitated, "Your Highness, if Vergennes doesn't leave, what about Count Nicoé..."

Joseph knew that, according to the agreement reached during the Brienne affair, Nicoé was to become the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

He shook his head slightly. "Count Nicoé is also not suited for diplomacy."

"Okay, I'll figure out a way to make it up to him."

What are you planning to do?

"Count Nicoé is more skilled in matters of household registration. We can have him begin planning the Identification Card system."

"Identification Card?"

Joseph laughed and said, "It's about giving every citizen of France a card with a unique number on it to identify each person."

"Why issue this..." Brienne, who was able to rise to the position of Chief Minister, realized the key point after only uttering half a sentence, "It can be used to levy Poll Tax."

"There are many other benefits," Joseph said, "Such as screening Spy and wanted criminals, preventing fraudulent claims of relief, facilitating identification, and preventing scams, etc."

Of course, Joseph wanted to promote Identification Card mainly for the convenience of taxation and trade, and later in the Colony, they could also be used to enhance national identity.

Brienne nodded. "Count Nicoé has always wanted to do something remarkable. And this will involve everyone in the country. He should be satisfied."

Joseph added, "They could even add the signature of the Minister of Census Registration to the Identification Card to verify its validity."

"That would be perfect."

Joseph thought of Vergennes again and frowned, "We must continue to sideline Vergennes; the Minister of Foreign Affairs must be replaced by one of our own."

Brienne nodded gratefully immediately. "Thank you, Your Highness."

From his perspective, Vergennes offended him because of the impeachment case, which is why the Crown Prince was so unforgiving towards him.

In reality, Joseph was more concerned with consolidating the political landscape and weakening the Duke of Orléans ' power as much as possible, paving the way for the future reorganization of the Old Nobles.

Upon hearing the mention of Vergennes, Brienne recalled his report from a few days ago and hurriedly said to Joseph, "Your Highness, Vergennes did bring back some news from his mission to Russia."

He got up, took a few sheets of paper from the drawer, and handed them to Joseph: "The Russia Empress is very concerned about our concerns about the Russo-Turkish War. She has repeatedly told Vergennes that it was the Ottoman who initiated the war, attempting to seize Russian territories of Crimea and Georgia, and attacking the Russia fleet. They were forced to retaliate."

"Oh, this is a copy of a letter that Empress Catherine wrote to His Majesty the King."

Joseph didn't care who was right or wrong between Russia and Turkey. His main concern was that the situation there could be used by France.

He looked at Catherine's letter and saw that the Empress had very politely expressed her views on the friendly relations between Russia and France, and then encouraged France to support her in declaring war on the Ottoman. She even said that this could be regarded as New Crusade led by France.

Brienne added, "According to Vergennes, the Russia Empress also hinted at the possibility of the Russo-French Marriage Alliance to him."

Joseph smiled. A marriage alliance with Russia would not bring any substantial benefits to France for the time being.

However, when he saw the sentence "support Russia's war against the Ottoman," he couldn't help but narrow his eyes. To be honest, although Algiers, Tunisia, Egypt, and other parts of North Africa from west to east were all independent countries in essence, they were still nominally provinces of the Ottoman.

If France allies with Russia against Turkey, wouldn't that provide a pretext for intervening in North Africa as part of the effort to defeat the Ottoman?

(End of this chapter)

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