089 What does it mean to lose money and lose your daughter?
It stands to reason that in this era, when nobles visit each other, they must first send a servant to deliver a message, but An Ning can't care about that much. I'm not a noble anyway, so I can go directly.
He returned to the Royal Palace with ease and went straight to the main residence.
The butler of the main house was also very sensible and immediately went to notify the Duke when he saw that it was An Ning.
After a while, An Ning saw the Duke himself in the Duke's study.
"Why are you here? I thought you were busy preparing to go out to suppress the bandits." The Duke came up to An Ning, gave An Ning a solid hug, and then lowered his voice and whispered, "I think Lafayette is interested in you."
He seems to be very unconvinced by his reputation, so be careful of fraud."
An Ning smiled bitterly, thinking that I also knew there was a scam: "Your Majesty the Duke, I already know there is a scam. Guess how many people Lafayette gave me?"
"How many?"
"There are less than two thousand stragglers. This group of people can't even line up. And the entire army only has fifteen trained non-commissioned officers. These people will retreat after the first round of firing."
The Duke frowned: "Isn't this too obvious? You should protest to the Congress and ask Lafayette to give you more troops."
"Lafayette will say that we are just going to serve as a front line for the main force."
"So what do you plan to do? Use these troops to fight the rebels to the death?" the Duke asked.
An Ning: "How is that possible? Of course I will wait and see the situation when I get there. If Lafayette's troops still don't come out, I will come back and file a complaint."
The Duke nodded: "Very good, I will also help you urge Lafayette to send troops. Is that why you came today?"
"No," An Ning shook his head, "I came here today for another thing. I hope His Excellency the Duke can sponsor a military fund."
The Duke frowned: "Sponsorship funds? Didn't Lafayette give you money?"
"I gave it, but it's a token. I'm afraid the token won't be useful in a rebel area. I need silver coins, crowns, and livres."
The Duke frowned and looked embarrassed: "Because of the revolution recently, my territory can't collect taxes..."
An Ning pouted. Sure enough, the Duke was not that easy to talk to when it came to money. However, this excuse was a bit too deceptive.
It is true that the Duke cannot collect taxes from farmers, but he has mines and factories in his territory, and he also owns many business houses.
Relying on the Duke's reputation, the Duke's business was able to obtain tariff reductions and exemptions in many feudal territories, and could make a net profit by transporting goods from southern ports such as Marseille.
Therefore, it is impossible for the Duke of Orleans to have no money - rather, for a new aristocrat like him who has become bourgeois, the peasants' land tax is only a small amount, so if you give up, give up.
It was precisely because of this that the Duke of Orleans pushed so vigorously when the decree was signed last August - for him, it was just a sacrifice of a small benefit in exchange for a great reputation, but it was an unprecedented good thing.
An Ning: "Your Excellency, although I'm just pretending this time, what if I get a good opportunity and wipe out the rebels in one fell swoop? Isn't this possibility worth your risky investment?"
"If your army were stronger, I would be willing to give it a try." The Duke shook his head, "But as you just said, it's just a ragtag team, so I would naturally worry that my investment would be in vain."
An Ning: "You can't think like that. In fact, tomorrow you can announce that you funded the counter-rebellion and gain great prestige. Now in the National Assembly, as a noble noble, you have less say than Mirabeau. I don't think you should
Do you want to do something to increase your influence in parliament?"
When the Duke of Orleans heard Mirabeau's name, his face darkened.
Mirabeau was originally a writer he funded, mainly hiring him to write dirty stories about the Queen. Unexpectedly, the miscellaneous fish he raised now relied on his flexible social skills to thrive in the Parliament. Of course the Duke was not happy.
Already.
An Ning deliberately mentioned Mirabeau to stimulate the Duke, reminding the Duke not to miss this good opportunity to increase his reputation.
The Duke stood up, paced back and forth in the study twice, then pointed at An Ning and said: "I can only give you a one-time grant of ten thousand livres, all converted into crown silver coins, no more."
An Ning immediately saluted the Duke respectfully: "Thank you very much for your generosity."
Duke: "I will write to the bank and ask them to prepare silver coins. Tomorrow... no, probably the day after tomorrow, the silver coins will be delivered to your manor."
The Duke said "your manor" here. In fact, the manor where An Ning lived was also the Duke's property. If you think about it carefully, he was just grabbing the Duke.
An Ning bowed to the Duke again: "I don't have any doubts. I'm just waiting for the silver coins to arrive."
Duke: "Yeah. By the way, have you eaten? If not, please stay and eat together."
An Ning: "Sorry, I have another important thing to do tonight."
"What's more important?" the Duke asked half-jokingly, "more important than having dinner with your sponsor?"
"I need cavalry to march and fight. Without cavalry as reconnaissance and cover, it is impossible. An army without cavalry is like a blind man. It is easy to run into the enemy and annihilate them."
An Ning paused: "Based on what the captain from Libreville said after escaping, they didn't have cavalry to conduct reconnaissance. As a result, they met the rebels head-on and hurriedly responded to the battle before being slaughtered."
The Duke nodded: "Indeed, cavalry is very important. But as far as I know, the entire National Guard does not have cavalry troops. Where are you going to get cavalry? Are you going to get cavalry from the old army stationed in Verdun?"
What the Duke said is indeed true. The cavalry is expensive and requires time to develop. Therefore, all the cavalry in France are from the Old Kingdom Army, and the National Guard has zero cavalry.
Lafayette also thought about hiring the hussars of the Royal Army and turning them into the cavalry of the National Guard.
But most of the hussars are Hungarians. These people think that their employer is the king, and they look down on the National Guard composed of trousers.
As for the cavalry units composed of the French, most of the cuirassiers were nobles, and most of the lancers were of noble origin. Although the dragoons were known as infantrymen who fought on horseback, most of them were either rich or noble.
The main skill is horseback riding. Except for the nomads, other ethnic groups can basically only master the leisure class.
If a tanner in An Ning can ride a horse, he will arouse a group of people who are inexplicably surprised.
In short, it is really difficult to get these people to join the National Guard, which is composed entirely of trousers.
No wonder the Duke wondered where An Ning would find cavalry.
An Ning: "Indeed, there is probably no way to borrow the cavalry unit of the army. However, there is a cavalry unit, and I think I can try to borrow it."
Duke: "Which cavalry unit?"
"Her Royal Highness the Queen's Knight Guards. Those girls are also cavalry. If they are only used for reconnaissance missions, they should be enough. Don't you think His Majesty the King is willing to show his presence now?"
The Duke's mouth opened in an O-shape: "Are you talking about Christina and the others? Sometimes I really think that you are quite whimsical and dare to think of anything."
An Ning: "Don't you think this is the most feasible way to obtain cavalry under the current circumstances?"
"Only if His Majesty can really be persuaded by you..." The Duke hesitated mid-sentence, "Fuck, His Majesty was probably frightened half to death when he saw you, and he didn't dare to say no. Since you want to go to His Majesty, you can
Set off quickly, I wish you immediate success... If you borrow cavalry, remember not to send my daughter to dangerous places."
An Ning: "Don't worry, I won't really let a group of noble ladies charge into the battle. I can't afford if anything goes wrong with this group of people during the charge. Then, I'll take my leave."
An Ning stood up, bowed to the Duke, and then left the room backwards.
As soon as he left, the Duke snorted: "Humph, you are asking me for money and a daughter again. You'd better remember your investment in countering the rebellion this time."