The Royal Guard Legions

Joseph remembered that historically, the Duke of Orléans had been sent to the Guillotine by the Jacobin.

It's somewhat jarring that a prominent Jacobin is now helping his son with a lawsuit.

Desmoulins exclaimed, "You... you are truly renowned in the legal profession. Such big cases are all being defended by you!"

Robespierre had an extremely high success rate in his defense cases over the years, especially in recent years when he successfully defended Wessel, who was embroiled in a lawsuit over the installation of lightning rods, overturning a series of previous rulings and making him famous throughout France. Historically, he was also elected as a representative to the Estates-General for this reason.

Robespierre smiled and said, "I am merely one of the Duke of Chartres ' Lawyer."

Joseph thought for a moment, then suddenly interjected, "Mr. Robespierre, do you think the Duke of Chartres should inherit the Duke of Orléans ' estate?"

"Yes, Your Highness," Robespierre nodded, "The Duke of Orléans died in a riot, and his rightful heir should inherit his estate."

"Haven't you heard that he committed treason?"

Robespierre said solemnly, "Your Highness, as you know, Versailles Palace is often the site of similar Political Conspiracy theories. I believe the Duke of Orléans would not..."

Joseph smiled and gestured to Eman, "Please return to the High Court."

"Yes, Your Highness."

An hour later, in the High Court's Records Archive, Robespierre flipped through the thick stack of evidence, his face turning deathly pale, his teeth grinding together.

As a seasoned Lawyer, he could easily tell that the evidence was not forged. His Crown Prince had said that there was still a large amount of evidence in the evidence room, but he felt there was no need to go see it anymore.

Leaving aside the Duke of Orléans' collusion with the United Kingdom to inject large sums of money into the United Kingdom industries into Bank of France, or his incitement of Nobility to refuse loans from the government, the last point alone—instructing the Maletdu Brothers to commit murder in order to force the Minister of the Interior to maliciously allocate grain reserves, leading to riots in much of France due to food shortages—deserves him to go to hell!

Robespierre felt dizzy; he'd been fooled by a schemer for so many years! And now he was even helping his son claim his inheritance...

When he emerged from the High Court looking dejected, and saw the Crown Prince still waiting for him, he immediately said in a deep voice, "Your Highness, I know what I have to do!"

"Huh?" Joseph said, "You should join the Public Notary Investigation Bureau and find out who the Duke of Orléans is as soon as possible."

Desmoulins nodded repeatedly, "I... I also hope you can join the Investigation Bureau."

"Thank you for your trust, I will consider it carefully." Robespierre bowed somewhat absentmindedly and then took his leave.

Joseph suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked, "By the way, have you seen any information about Duke of Chartres?"

Since it's a lawsuit about inheriting an estate, the Lawyer needs to know what assets are involved first.

Robespierre nodded. "Yes, Your Highness, I have seen it."

"Could you tell me the total amount of the estate involved?"

Robespierre hesitated for two seconds, then whispered, "Not counting Villa and real estate, it's about 60 Livre."

Joseph's eyes lit up immediately—he'd struck gold!

After deducting the costs of Police Reform, there's still 50 million left. Including fixed assets, well, this guy owns a considerable amount of real estate, and he also has the start-up capital for Taxation reform and industrial development.

Robespierre added, "Your Highness, I will never allow such a man who persecutes the poor to succeed."

→

After saying this, he took his leave.

Seeing that his friend's expression was not right, Desmoulins quickly bowed to Joseph and took his leave, then hurried after him.

Joseph got back into the Carriage and headed towards the Paris Police Academy.

An hour and a half later, the car stopped in front of the Police Academy's office building. This time, Joseph did not disturb the cadets who were training. He first went to listen to a Tactical Command Class, and then convened a meeting with officers such as Berthier and Friant.

"I think you've all heard about it," Joseph said, looking at the officers on either side of the long table. "According to the Military Reform plan, we will be establishing General Staff Headquarters."

"Once the General Staff Headquarters is fully operational, it will replace the Minister of War and be responsible for the overall planning and deployment of the war effort. The Minister of War will only be responsible for the final approval."

The officers were all somewhat surprised to hear this. They had previously thought that the General Staff Headquarters was like the staff officers in the corps, only assisting the Minister of War in making decisions. They never expected that it was actually the combat command department.

Joseph continued, "General Berthier has already compiled the duties and requirements of the General Staff Headquarters into a booklet, and now he will explain it to everyone in detail. Afterwards, please study carefully the new operational model under the command of the General Staff."

Of course, while it is said to have been compiled by Berthier, the main framework was actually provided by Joseph. As the historical designer of the General Staff Headquarters concept, Berthier, with the latter's help, brought the department to life six years earlier and made it much more complete.

Berthier bowed to Joseph and then gestured to the orderly to distribute the "General Staff Headquarters Functions and Requirements" to everyone. "The General Staff Headquarters is mainly responsible for studying all aspects of the war and formulating troop movement and combat plans."

"This also includes plans for mobilization and campaign execution."

"As per His Crown Prince's request, the General Staff Headquarters will also be responsible for logistics, map planning, daily training, and exercises."

It's important to understand that the outcome of wars in this era largely depended on the commander's personal experience, and even intuition. This led to a great deal of uncertainty.

Even God of War as powerful as Frederick II could make mistakes. A single error by a commander can result in the death or injury of a large number of soldiers, or even lead to the complete defeat of the campaign.

The General Staff system utilizes the professional skills of a large number of staff officers to collectively formulate operational plans, minimizing commander errors. It represents a high-level operational command model that transcends the limitations of this era.

This model first emerged with Berthier and fully demonstrated its power during the Franco-Prussian War. It can be said that the greatest contributor to Prussia's victory over France at that time was Chief of Staff Moltke.

After Berthier finished his introduction, Joseph gestured to the crowd and said, "The Cabinet Meeting will soon pass the proposal to establish General Staff Headquarters."

"General Berthier will temporarily assume the duties of Second Chief of Staff."

Berthier was historically Napoleon's Chief of Staff, a role he was better at than commanding troops.

However, his current rank is only Brigadier General, so he can only temporarily serve as "deputy Chief of Staff." But since there is no Chief of Staff now, he is actually in charge of the General Staff.

Joseph continued, "Furthermore, Her Majesty the Queen has agreed that the Berthier Legion will be officially named the ' 1st Royal Guard Legion,' and the Police Academy students will be named the ' 2nd Royal Guard Legion.'"