Chapter 355 The Nightmare of the Invader Shao Quanzhong

Chapter 355 The Nightmare of the Invader Shao Quanzhong

Chapter 355 The Nightmare of the Invader Shao Quanzhong

During the war, the Bank of France was closed and its doors were locked tightly. Its employees fought on the barricades and some died for their country.

Padlocks are used to protect against thieves. The Guards Brigade is the most powerful and effective anti-robbery unit under Shao Quanzhong, the world's best bearded man.

They usually receive high salaries and enjoy priority in promotion. They have strict military discipline and do not kill people, set fires, or rob civilians.

The robbery activities that the Guards Brigade participated in were not called robbery, but "seizure."

When the Guards Brigade robs, they don't need vassal armies like the Cossacks to share the spoils with Boss Shao. It is simply a process of carrying things according to orders.

The Guards Brigade has seen and experienced this. When they were in Nanjing, they participated in the transportation of 48 million taels of silver. Coming here is also for transportation, no matter what they are transporting.

Not to mention the main door, even the extremely solid underground vault door that was said to be able to prevent all thieves could not withstand the TNT blasting of the regular army engineers.

We are robbers, not thieves, okay? No skills are needed, just use whatever violence you can.

Well, the Bank of France is much richer than the Jinling Treasury. However, the silver in the Jinling Treasury back then required tens of thousands of horses to transport, which was quite difficult.

Now, the Guards Brigade transports the things out, loads them onto steam tractors, and the Anhui New Army will escort them away with guns.

Only warlords who controlled disciplined troops like the Huai Army were qualified to carry out such robbery. Otherwise, even if you were allowed to move freely, you would not be able to move much, and you would not be able to keep what you moved, which would only bring disaster upon yourself.

From midnight to dawn, the Bank of France was emptied, with a total of 3 billion francs in assets.

Don't be scared by the amount, most of it is useless.

Including 900 million francs worth of securities, all of which are signed and cannot be used by others.

The 800 million francs in banknotes have not been issued yet, and have not been signed by the cashier. That is to say, the serial number has not been recognized, and if you use it to spend, it is a counterfeit.

The state securities and bills of 899 million francs can only be redeemed by the state if you have a government. Who will redeem them for you now?

The banknote is worth 166 million francs. This thing is exchanged for you by the bank. If the bank is gone, it will become waste paper.

After the transportation was completed, the engineering battalion placed the explosives, and with a loud bang, the Bank of France was reduced to ruins.

The above things have high theoretical value, but the Huai Army can't use them. But they are all paper and don't take up much space, so they can be taken away. After all, the brother-in-law Alfonso XII will restore the Bourbon dynasty, so he will have to build a new bank. This thing can be used, right?

The rest was the spoils of the Huai Army's robbery, including 77 million francs of silver coins, 11 million francs worth of gold and silver ingots, 120 million francs worth of bank loan collateral, and 1 million francs worth of valuables kept in the bank by the rich.

A total of 209 million francs was the one-time harvest of the Huai Army, equivalent to about 52 million taels of silver. There would be fluctuations, depending on the final result of the sale of the valuables by the Wen Chamber of Commerce.

As the day brightened, Shao Quanzhong looked at the ruins in front of him and ordered, "Isabel, send a telegram to Gustav of the Rothschild family in Frankfurt and tell him that the Bank of France is gone."

Having achieved the main purpose of his trip to Paris, Shao Quanzhong was ready to withdraw his troops.

He didn't want to occupy all of Paris; the cost was too high.

Now the Huai Army has only fought a line from the entrance to the city to the city center. In a distance of five kilometers, they have lost two thousand soldiers. How many people will have to die if they want to capture the entire city of Paris?
The city of Paris has streets crisscrossing for hundreds of kilometers. Even if the Huai Army suffered heavy casualties in conquering it, it would not have the strength to maintain public order.

Shao Quanzhong's idea was to let the Prussians occupy Paris. They had a large population, hundreds of thousands, so the death of tens of thousands of people was nothing. In the end, the maintenance of public order would be left to the Bourbon dynasty.

The reason why Prussia allowed the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty was to have someone sign a treaty with them to pay compensation. Otherwise, it would be easy to capture French cities, but the garrison would spend huge military expenses to maintain law and order, and would be shot by guerrillas every day, which no one could bear.

"Report! Senior foreign affairs official Falfu from the pseudo-Republican government wants to see you."

This - Falve certainly came to seek peace and surrender, but he came too late, causing Paris to lose its reputation as the "city that will never fall."

We can only blame the Huai Army for attacking too quickly, catching people off guard.

He was sent out to seek peace when the Huai Army entered the city yesterday, but he didn't dare to go directly to the army and die.

After making a long detour to the rear, he finally met Shao Hengzhong, who was guarding the rear, with a white flag. However, Shao Hengzhong told him that the Marshal had followed the troops into the city.

No one knew the exact location of the Marshal, it was a military secret. After waiting for a long time, Isabel sent someone to send a telegram outside the city, and finally came back to see Shao Quanzhong.

Shao Quanzhong looked at Falfu with a smile, "Of course I welcome your surrender, but let me be frank, I support my brother-in-law's restoration."

"I can let you, the fake government, surrender, but if the Bourbon family investigates your murder of Louis XVI and refuses to forgive you, I can't do anything about it."

"It's okay, it's okay. It will be easy if you don't continue the attack. We can send someone to continue the talks with Prince Alfonso."

There is no problem that money cannot solve. The Spanish Bourbon royal family and Louis XVI are just relatives.

The royal families of Europe are all relatives. As long as we pay enough money, the Bourbon royal family will definitely be willing to pardon us. After all, the royal family depends on us, the French financial capitalists, to maintain their economic order so that they can collect compensation for the Prussians and the Qing people, right?
If the other side is willing to surrender, then there is no need to recruit the Prussians. The Huai Army conquered Paris alone and made a great contribution. When signing the treaty, they will be more confident to get more benefits.

The Huai Army had already adopted a defensive posture. After Falfu reached an agreement with Shao Quanzhong, he ran back to organize a ceasefire and surrender.

"Brother Shao, the brothers haven't moved enough yet. Look, the Louvre is across the river. There must be a lot of treasures there. We can take them all away."

It was Song Lao San who proposed to rob the Louvre. Shao Quanzhong touched his chin and said, "Well, the French robbed our Old Summer Palace and extorted some silver for compensation. We retaliated by burning Fontainebleau and bombing the Bank of France. We took away more silver than they robbed. That was good enough. If they do anything else, we will have no legitimate reason."

"I don't think that's right. The Old Summer Palace was so big, and the two places we robbed are only that big. The treasures in Fontainebleau must not be all they robbed. Half of them must have fallen into private hands, right? We can get some compensation from the Louvre. I don't think it's too much."

It was rare that the honest Song Laosan wanted to contribute to the country. Shao Quanzhong thought for a moment and said, "Go ahead, but don't kill or burn people. This will ruin military discipline and the reputation of our Huai Army."

"I have promised Farf a ceasefire. No more killings. We must seize the spoils in a civilized manner. Do you understand?"

"okay!"

Song Laosan happily obeyed the order and left.

Shao Quanzhong stretched and yawned. He was a little tired after not sleeping all night. He had to let his brothers take turns to rest. The Huai Army soldiers were not made of iron.

I looked up and saw that Song Lao San was still leading people to the Louvre on the other side of the river and they hadn't entered yet.

The efficiency of the Guards has dropped? Is it because they have not slept all night and are running out of energy?

Shao Quanzhong and his men strolled over and saw Song Laosan scratching the back of his head in worry.

An old man with a white beard was standing alone at the entrance of the Louvre, with a righteous look on his face and a rapier used by nobles in his hand.

If we open the door, we can't get around the old man. If we catch the old man, he might fight hard and someone might die. Shao Quanzhong told us not to kill anyone, and the weapons we seized were civilized, so Song Laosan was in a dilemma.

Oh, the French are full of individual heroism. The reason why Elisson alone drove away 6,000 Cossacks was because he had the national gift porcelain I gave him.

You want to learn too? I don't owe you anything. I have many ways to deal with you without killing you. Song Lao San is still too honest.

"Someone—eh?"

Isabel ran over, her eyes sparkling, and spoke to the old man in French.

Something is wrong. Why is Isabel looking so adoring? This old man is more handsome than me? It's impossible.

"Shao, this is Hugo, the great writer I admire."

Hugo glanced at Shao Quanzhong and said, "The British and French forces looting the Old Summer Palace was a human atrocity. But if you fight violence with violence and want to loot the Louvre, you will also be nailed to the pillar of shame in the history of civilization."

After listening to Isabel's translation, Shao Quanzhong asked with a smile, "Then should we just swallow our anger?"

"No! You burned Fontainebleau and blew up the Bank of France. That's enough. The Louvre is a common treasure of mankind. I beg you not to destroy it. I'm here, on behalf of the French people, to apologize to you."

Hugo bowed deeply to Shao Quanzhong, and Isabel beside him also looked at Shao Quanzhong with a pleading expression, "Mr. Hugo denounced the banditry of the British and French coalition forces in his "Letter to Captain Butler."

"He used his prestige to expose the ugly faces of the British and French robbers worldwide, exposing their ugly deeds to the eyes of the civilized world. I have read that article."

Really? This is another person who has done a favor to China. Shao Quanzhong hesitated.

Suddenly, there were noisy shouts from afar, and then a song deeper and more passionate than the Marseillaise was sung.

Although Shao Quanzhong didn't understand French, the melody made his heart move.

"Isabel, what are they yelling?"

"They were shouting, 'Down with the traitor Falve,' 'Paris belongs to the French,' 'Never surrender to the invaders.'"

Shao Quanzhong raised the telescope and saw that on the other side of the barricade facing the Huai Army in the distance, Falve was tied up by a group of people and was being taken to the front.

The group of people were holding guns in their hands, shouting slogans of "Down with the traitors", and were setting up barricades, preparing for a decisive battle with the Huai Army.

The flag on the other side is no longer the tricolor flag of the pseudo-republican government. The color -

Shao Quanzhong suddenly felt a chill in his heart and cold sweat broke out on his back.

(End of this chapter)