Sharp Sword (Monthly Ticket Request)

Joseph smiled and murmured to himself:

When I get the chance, I ought to open a bank too.

After finishing the financial documents, he pushed the file basket aside, rubbed his aching shoulders, and picked up the new Tax Law to read through it.

The bill had an enormous number of provisions, more than thirty pages from beginning to end.

The more Joseph read, the deeper his frown became. Whoever had drafted these laws was truly a great genius—stuffing all manner of chaotic, unrelated things into them. Even he, someone with a twenty-first-century higher education, found them dizzying and confusing. Expecting ordinary citizens to understand this stuff was simply a dream!

And apparently fearing that the bill would face obstruction from the nobility, its drafters had deliberately added several taxes favoring the noble class and harming ordinary people.

They simply had not expected that these nearly insignificant taxes would become the point from which the nobles launched their attack on the Tax Law. Ordinary people could not make sense of the details of the bill's provisions at all. Once public opinion claimed that the law would harm their interests, they followed along and opposed it.

In truth, the core of the bill was the abolition of the nobles' Land Tax privileges, making them bear part of the nation's financial burden.

It also stipulated the free transport and trade of Grain, as well as the abolition of Tariffs between domestic regions, all to promote economic development.

This bill fully embodied the weakness and compromising nature of Louis XVI's government...

Mixing shit into sugar—trying to please both the nobles and the commoners, only to have neither side appreciate it.

At that thought, Joseph picked up his pen and crossed out, item by item, every tax provision harmful to ordinary citizens and small business owners.

Win some over, strike others down—that was the way of politics.

After those deletions, the bill was no longer leverage the noble class could use to pin down the government. It had become a Sharp Sword to strike at them!

Joseph checked it over carefully once more. When he intended to hand it to an assistant to be recopied and organized, he realized that dusk had already fallen.

Forget it, tomorrow then. He stretched, tossed the bill into a drawer, and decided that unless there was something urgent, he would not do something so immoral as forcing his subordinates to work overtime when he himself would not want to.

The moment he stepped out of his office, he saw Eman approaching with a Maid. "Your Highness, Her Majesty the Queen is hosting a gambling game in Mars Hall and has invited you to attend."

Joseph found it a little amusing. A mother dragging her son off to gamble—why did that feel so strange?

But he also knew that this was perfectly normal entertainment at Versailles Palace. Even the Sun King, Louis XIV, had specifically called for the court to hold more such activities in Instructions to the Crown Prince, to strengthen the bond between ruler and ministers.

Joseph nodded. "All right, I'll go at once."

He first returned to his palace to change into a light yet luxurious outfit for recreation, then followed the Queen's Maid to Mars Hall.

While still some distance away, he could already hear waves of lively noise drifting from the hall amid cheerful piano music. The guards at the entrance bowed to Joseph and pushed open the towering doors, each as high as two men.

Queen Mary, who was playing Baccarat beneath a massive portrait of Louis XIV, spotted her son at once and immediately waved with a beaming smile.

"Dear, you're finally here!"

Joseph hurried over and bowed in greeting. The Queen was clearly in high spirits. "I heard you spent the entire day working with Brienne. Go have some fun and relax. Oh, do you know? I just won eleven hands in a row! I hope you have luck as good as mine!"

Hearing that the Crown Prince had arrived, the surrounding nobles all paused and bowed toward him. The young ladies in silk finery especially had peach blossoms blooming in their eyes, giggling sweetly without end.

As Joseph looked at the nobles crowding around Queen Mary, endlessly flattering her, and at the Queen herself, flushed from winning and laughing so hard she swayed back and forth, he suddenly recalled the later writer Zweig's lament—she had been too young then to know that every gift bestowed by fate had long since been secretly marked with its price.[Note 1]

Just as Joseph was sighing inwardly, Mono, his face caked white with powder, came running over with a broad smile. He eagerly gestured behind him and pulled Joseph along.

"Your Highness, you've come at just the right time! We were worrying about being short one person. Come play cards with us."

One of the young nobles at the table froze at those words, then immediately darted away and vanished at astonishing speed, making their shortage of players a reality.

Unable to refuse such warm hospitality, Joseph sat down beside the Minister of the Interior at the card table beneath a painting of the God of War. Servants immediately brought over alcohol and drinks.

Two 10s. Count Pappus, seated at the head of the table, played his cards.

The rules were similar to a fast-paced shedding game, except A was the lowest card, while K represented the King and was the highest.

Joseph picked up a glass of juice, glanced at his hand, and shook his head. "Pass."

Seeing the Gold Ecus and silver Livres piled on the table, he could not help recalling France's two billion in debt. Then he looked at the Cabinet ministers across from him, carelessly throwing around gold coins and playing with utterly carefree abandon, and he shook his head with a bitter smile. Perhaps a Great Revolution really is necessary...

With his mind on the Government Bonds, coupled with his poor card skills, he soon lost three rounds in a row, dropping twelve Gold Ecus.

Not far away, more than a dozen noble girls were staring unblinkingly at his table. Seeing the Crown Prince seeming distracted, they assumed he was unhappy because he had lost. At once, every one of them clenched her delicate fists, her silver teeth grinding with creaks.

Several girls immediately sprang into action.

Some circled around to stand opposite their fathers or uncles, enveloping them in looks overflowing with murderous intent and resentment.

Others went to their brothers' sides, seemingly asking about their cards, while secretly pinching a piece of flesh on their arms and twisting it hard one hundred and eighty degrees.

In fact, by French court tradition, one was not allowed to deliberately lose while gambling. But the three people seated with Joseph all chose, without hesitation, to abandon that custom at this moment.

Mono split up a straight from 6 to 10 and played a lone 8. Count Pappus looked at the 7 the Crown Prince had played, clenched the lone 10 and Q in his hand, and resolutely called out, "Pass..."

Joseph's luck immediately improved. No matter how he played, he won. In one round, his highest card was only a J, and with almost nothing but singles in his hand, he still emerged victorious.

His streak of wins greatly raised his spirits, and he lost track of time. Only when he began to feel tired did he look up at the clock and discover that it was already half past eleven at night.

He hurriedly stood and bade his card partners farewell, had Eman gather up his winnings, and dragged his weary body toward his palace.

After leaving the hall, Eman caught up to him and whispered excitedly, "Your Highness, you won a total of 156 Ecus."

One Ecu equaled six Livres. In other words, Joseph had won nearly one thousand Livres in a single evening!

Not bad. Joseph felt quite accomplished. He had not done any work all evening and had earned so much!

But then he recalled the terrifying two billion in debt and could not help calculating inwardly. At the rate he had won tonight, it would take about five hundred and fifty years to repay it all.

Joseph sighed. To repay such an enormous sum, merely setting up a few profitable ventures himself would be nowhere near enough. He had to use himself as a fulcrum to pry loose an Industrial Revolution across all of France—that was the true way to solve the financial problem.

So the Steam Engine and Textile technology had to be developed as soon as possible, along with supporting policies for finance, patents, and the like.

Thinking about the Industrial Revolution, Joseph had long since lost track of where his feet had taken him. Then he suddenly heard his stomach rumble and could not help shaking his head with a laugh. He had been winning all evening and had not even had time for a late-night snack.

Looking up, he discovered that the kitchen was directly ahead along the side corridor. Light still shone from within, so an Imperial Chef was clearly on duty.

This was quite far from the Crown Prince's Palace. If he returned first and then had someone bring food over, who knew how long he would have to wait?

He might as well have a chef make him something simple and fill his stomach here. With that thought, he strode toward the kitchen.

[Note 1: From The Beheaded Queen, a biography by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (November 28, 1881–February 22, 1942).]