Fox of France

　　 To this suggestion, Charles could not find a reason to object. Although Joseph was not a command instructor, when he was instructing everyone to build barricades, everyone felt that the military ability of an instructor who taught at a military academy was far from what his outsider could compare.

　　 "Of course there is no problem, as long as Mr. Bonaparte is willing, we are naturally very welcome." Charles laughed, "I don't know if Mr. Bonaparte is willing to help us."

"As a member of the community, I naturally have an unshirkable responsibility. But you all know that I am an active soldier. If there is a military order on it, then I must give priority to the military order. As long as it does not violate the military order, I am willing to do my part. Strength." Joseph replied.

　　 "Then, let us all thank Mr. Bonaparte!" Charles said.

　　 In this way, Joseph became a military adviser to the National Guard of the neighborhood. Then everyone agreed that the block militia would be reorganized into the National Self-Defense Force tomorrow, and military training would begin on them.

　　 But this plan fell into frustration almost immediately. Because just at noon that day, new rumors appeared.

　　 This rumor says that the Montmartre and Bastille cannons have been aimed at downtown Paris. Army loyal to the king will soon launch an attack on Paris.

　　 Of course, this is a rumor, but the vast majority of Parisians believe it. And there is no way to refute such rumors. This is not only because of "spreading rumors, and defying rumors and running off their legs", but also because at this point in time, rumors are a political mistake. Anyone who tries to refute the rumors will be regarded by the angry people as a "tyrant's running dog." They will hang these people on the street light pole without hesitation.

　　 Since no one dared to refute the rumor, the rumor naturally became more and more convinced. No one dared to mention the loopholes in the rumors, and they were even silently compensated during the spread. In short, this rumor convinced almost all the citizens of Paris.

　　 The citizens of Paris have been partly armed in the past few days, especially after capturing the unguarded Invalides. From there, people obtained more than 30,000 rifles and more than a dozen cannons. Only these guns and artillery were in the Les Invalides, but there was not enough gunpowder.

　　 So the updated rumors came out on the basis of the previous rumors, that is: there is a lot of gunpowder in the Bastille. This rumor is also "reasonable" because if the king intends to use the cannons of the Bastille to suppress the resistance in Paris, they will naturally have to store enough gunpowder in the Bastille.

　　 Attacking the heavily guarded Montmartre hill is really beyond the reach of the Paris militia. But in comparison, Bastille seems to be much easier to deal with.

　　 The Bastille was a building during the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France. It was originally a fortress built outside the city gate to defend Paris. It has 8 towers about 30 meters high. The towers are connected by a city wall 30 meters high and 3 meters wide. Later, 15 cannons were placed on the city wall; the castle is surrounded by a trench of 26 meters wide and 8 meters deep. , The trenches are connected to the Seine, and there is only a suspension bridge connected to the outside world. It can definitely be called a strong castle.

　　 But later, with the expansion of the city of Paris, the fortress of Bastille, originally outside the city gate, became a building inside the city, and its military role in guarding Paris was weakened. As a result, the Bastille, a military fortress, died, and replaced by the Bastille, a fortress of royal power.

　　 In the late fourteenth century, this fortress was converted into a royal prison, dedicated to the most important imprisonment. Many of these detainees are political prisoners. Therefore, in the hearts of French people, this prison is almost a symbol of the French despotism.

　　 There are 82 people in the Bastille garrison. At the beginning of July, another 32 Swiss mercenaries were transferred to the Bastille to strengthen the defense. But just in terms of the number of guards, this place cannot be compared with Montmartre Heights. And because of lack of maintenance, the trenches beside the Bastille are now dry. This makes the defensive ability of this former fortress further decline. This makes the militias feel even more that they should be able to lay down this fortress.

　　 So, early the next morning, with a large number of people (how many people there are no one knows), the organized and armed people began to approach the Bastille. This matter naturally made the Shire's plan to reorganize the National Self-Defense Army in the neighborhood to be postponed.

　　 The Bastille was surrounded by tens of thousands of armed Parisian citizens, but these armed citizens with only rifles did not actually have any good solutions to the Bastille. The wall of this fortress is too high, and the surrounding trenches, although there is no water, are still too wide and deep, and it is very difficult to climb over.

　　 But the commander of the Bastille, De Lorne, did not think so. Because it looks tall and strong, the indestructible Bastille is only a fourteenth century fortress after all. Many of its designs and concepts are far behind the times. It can even be said: "My lord, the times have changed."

　　 The towering walls of the Bastille were almost unconquerable in the 14th century environment. But this kind of towering vertical city wall has now become an obvious weakness. The Battle of Constantinople in 1453 proved that the tall and vertical walls are prone to large-scale collapse under the attack of artillery. Therefore, the walls of the fortresses gradually became low and thick, and the walls of the walls became more and more inclined inward. In this way, the wall can be prevented from collapsing in a large area under the shot of the shell. But these improvements are invisible to the Bastille.

　　 The walls of the Bastille are too high, as high as 30 meters, completely vertical, but only 3 meters thick. Such a wall cannot withstand the bombardment of artillery. And because after it was changed to a prison, there was no longer a requirement to clear the shooting boundary, so various buildings were also built near the Bastille, which blocked the sight of the guards on the Bastille.

　　 Therefore, de Lorne is not at all sure whether he can hold this ancient fortress.

　　 So when the citizens began to approach the Bastille, de Lornet prohibited the soldiers from shooting at the approaching citizens and asked them for peace talks.

　　 It took a lot of time for the citizens to rush into the Bastille and negotiate with the defenders. However, during the negotiation process, due to poor communication and too much time spent in the negotiation, a new rumor began to spread among the citizens.

　　 This rumor claims that the representatives who entered the Bastille have been killed by the "tyrant's running dogs" in a brutal and uncompassing manner. This rumor immediately made the tens of thousands of "armed mobs" surrounding them angry. So the crowd began to approach the Bastille, everyone yelled:

　　 "Lay down the Bastille and kill those bad things!"

　　 "Kill them all! Kill them all!"

　　 "Go up! Go up!"

　　 Someone took the lead to sing the "Slave's War Hymn". At first, one or two people sang, and then more people sang. The songs gathered together to form a rushing river and rushed toward the Bastille. Tens of thousands of militiamen, holding rifles in their hands, sang "the old world is falling, the slaves get up", and they approached the Bastille. Some fast-moving militiamen have even crossed the dried-up trenches, climbed to the side of the suspension bridge, raised their axe, and tried to cut the chain that hung the suspension bridge.

　　 In a panic, a Swiss guard fired a shot at the militia holding the axe high. As a result, all peace negotiations ceased, and the militiamen immediately fired back, and everyone crackled into a ball.

　　 However, the fighting situation is not very beneficial to the militias. After all, the predecessor of the Bastille was a fortress. Even if it was only a fourteenth century fortress, it still gave the defenders more advantages. In the rifle shooting, the guards were protected by the fort, and the condescending guards easily defeated many militiamen. Although the militiamen who lacked training were large in number, they could not even take effective aiming. People have never even touched a gun before, and can't even aim (but then, whether a musket can hit or not, in many cases does not completely depend on the aim.) After they shoot, can they hit the target~www.novelmtl .com ~ basically depends on faith. So they fired indiscriminately, and the crackling sound of gunfire became a whole, although it seemed very lively, but in the end, basically failed to hit any target. (In the original history, until the Bastille surrendered, only one defender was slightly injured.) But the defensive side’s firepower was much more effective, and dozens of militiamen were quickly brought down, and the rest were suppressed. If it weren’t for the fact that there were many buildings near the Bastille that could provide them with cover, they would have suffered even greater losses.

　　 For a period of time after that, the fighting entered a state of anxiety. Commander de Lorne hung the flag more than once, hoping to negotiate a truce with the besiegers outside, but his expression was rejected without hesitation by the besieges outside. They believed that De Lorne's actions were just deceiving everyone. After his men shot at the people, he was no longer eligible to surrender!

　　 But it is one thing not to accept the negotiation, and it is another thing to be able to get in. The militiamen used various methods, including some whimsical methods. For example, it was suggested that burning linoleum cloth could be used to cause fires and even burn down the defenders’ cannons. However, after they ignited the linoleum cloth, they discovered that they couldn't make the burning linoleum cloth cross the 30-meter-high city wall.

　　 Of course, some people also thought of cannons. The militias do have cannons in their hands. But they lacked gunners, so several shelling from a safe distance were very unsuccessful. Although in theory, the Bastille is a huge target, it is not easy to shoot at it, and it is not easy to fight it, but these militia gunners who have never used cannons successfully managed to get their shells out of sight. That huge goal. They fired several shots, but even one shot could hit the walls of the Bastille.