Chapter 8 3. Gentlemen are also crazy

At that time, European wars were called gentlemen's wars. We think that battle is very interesting today, because the rifles used by soldiers at that time were smoothbore guns. Follow the feeling, the wind will deflect as soon as it blows, unlike today's guns with rifling, the bullets are rotated out.So you see, if your body is hit by a bullet today and you have a penetrating wound, that is, if it pierces you, the bullet must have a small hole at the entrance and a big hole at the exit.At that time, the gun had no bullets, it was projectiles, and the lethality was not that great.The method of operation is to tilt the gun that is nearly one person tall, then take out the gunpowder from the gunpowder pouch on the body and pour it in, then fill it with bullets, and then shoot it when it is solid.The most proficient shooter fires two or three rounds a minute, which is not as fast as a bow and arrow, and the gun has no aim. If a musket is fired, follow the feeling, and the aim is not good.Therefore, when the two sides shoot, the soldiers are arranged in a neat square formation, with the battalion or company as the unit, and the big ones can go to the regiment square formation. The commander walks to the front and wears a tall feather hat.

At that time, there were no mobile phones. In order for the soldiers to see him, he followed the commander, so he had to wear this kind of hat, hold a saber, and wear white gloves.Behind is the flag bearer and the drummer, the flag bearer is holding the flag high, the drummer is beating the drum, one two one, one two one, everyone walks together, and after walking a hundred or so meters, the team will be neatly organized to see if it is even, if it is not, it will not work. After walking for half a day, they stopped, and squirmed one by one.When entering within the range of the muskets of both sides, the soldiers of both sides stand face to face and start shooting. Neither of them should hide, and there is no need to hide. Don't worry, you can't hit you under normal circumstances, so basically practice your courage.

Generally speaking, wars in the 18th century were very gentlemanly. Before shooting, the two sides gave in to each other. Here they said: "Hey, British gentlemen, you shoot first." The British replied: "Oh, French gentlemen Ladies, you shoot first, let's make an appointment to fight together." Why do you need a company or a battalion as a unit to line up in a square formation and shoot?It is to guarantee the hit rate.Because this gun is for single shooting, the hit rate is too bad, it can’t hit people at 10 meters, and it can’t hit you almost face-to-face, so it can only be done together. More than 100 shots have been fired, and the opponent died three times. The hit rate too low.

When the two sides are approaching, the guns are usually fired first. Don’t be afraid, the guns are even more inaccurate, because the cannons at that time did not have recoil devices, and the guns disappeared once fired.If your phalanx is in disarray, you will lose the battle, because there is no way for an individual to compete with others collectively. Many historical dramas filmed in China are too funny to reflect the war scenes. They don’t understand how ancient wars were fought.A group of people get together, you hug me, I push you, no one can tell who is who.There beat the drums to advance, Mingjin retreated the troops, they were all fighting together, how did you Mingjin withdraw the troops, once you retracted, you took all the enemies in.In ancient wars, the emphasis was on the formation and the collective, not the individual.

The Prussian-Austrian Allied Forces fought against France because the French did not want to fight. Basically, as soon as the Prussian-Austrian Allied Forces opened fire, the French phalanx disbanded.Therefore, the Prussian-Austrian Allied Forces are extremely contemptuous of the French Army. You guys emphasize freedom. Can the army emphasize freedom?Freedom is no organization, no discipline.You guys are just a bunch of mobs with no fighting power.This time the Valmy victory was still the same. The two sides lined up, and then the Prussian and Austrian allied forces fired. As soon as the Prussian and Austrian allied forces fired, he took it for granted that the French army would collapse, so the Prussian and Austrian allied forces happily began to charge.When charging, the officers’ swords were not drawn out, and the soldiers’ guns were not loaded. Anyway, they just stood up and stood, and the drummer stopped beating. Everyone walked as they liked, sparsely, in twos and threes, like a parade. of.Rushing to the front of the French army, when they were within the range of their rifles, the Prussian-Austrian allied forces were surprised to find that the French did not run away this time. When the French saw the Prussian-Austrian allied forces, they took off their hats, which were painted with Three-color national emblem, thrown into the sky: Long live liberty, long live France.Then shoot, just for such a long time, throw a hat, then put it on, and shoot again, the coalition army has no time to load a bullet, more than 80 people were killed, more than 300 people were injured, and the 150,000 Prussian-Austrian coalition forces collapsed. This is called the Valmy Victory. In the "great victory" of 150,000 people, how could one hundred and eighty thousand people have to be wiped out, more than 80 enemies have been wiped out, and more than 300 people have been injured. Is this a big victory?Wars in Europe are particularly fun, unlike ours in China. In ancient China, wars must annihilate the enemy's vital forces, while European wars do not aim at this. They aim at seizing cities and extorting ransoms.Today you beat him away in a hurry, and tomorrow he will organize his team and come to you again.

After Valmy's victory, the foreign intervention forces withdrew.Once the intervention forces were withdrawn, the main threat to France was eliminated.So the French National Convention began a trial. After the trial, King Louis XVI was executed, and Louis XVI was sent to the guillotine.This guillotine was designed by Louis XVI himself. He felt that there are two disadvantages for the executioner to chop people with an ax: one is slow and the other is tiring.Cutting people with an ax is definitely a high-tech job. If the king executes a person, especially the old minister who the king can't bear to execute, the greatest grace to him is to find an old executioner who does the job beautifully and suffers less. , I went down with the axe, I didn't feel any pain, and my head fell off.If you want to say that the king hates you very much, you can find a 17-year-old executioner who has just entered the profession. He chopped off his leg with an ax and his shoulder with another ax. Sorry, it was wrong again.Louis XVI felt that this was too inhuman, so he invented a guillotine, lying on the bed, a deck was placed at the neck, a gantry crane was hung on it, and a large guillotine was hung, which was one meter wide. Once the rope was loosened, it was said that it would die within seconds. Cut off the human head without any pain.Think about it, a big knife weighing tens of kilograms can cut your head, even if it can't be cut, it will fall off, so the executioner was relieved at this moment, and then Louis XVI went up to try it, it was really fast.

Once the king is killed, it will be a big mess, and you France dare to kill the king.So Britain, Spain, Russia, and Austria found a reason to form the first anti-French alliance to fight against injustice. The United Kingdom executed the king on the pretext of France. You are really audacious to kill the king.But the British don't think that they executed the king more than a hundred years ago, and they still chopped it with an ax, which was more ruthless than the French.Britain itself is already a capitalist country. Now France is engaged in a bourgeois revolution. Instead of supporting it, it even suppresses it. This clearly shows the exclusiveness of the capitalist system.I have developed, and I don't want you to develop too.As a result, Britain and France went to war, and many countries came, such as Spain, Austria, and Prussia, and they all joined the anti-French alliance.The formation of the anti-French alliance posed a fatal threat to France. At the same time, the French royal party followed suit and started rioting.You killed our king, the vengeance between the monarch and father was irreconcilable, and the country was in chaos, which caused various social problems, the most serious being the soaring prices.

If there is a problem with prices, the country will have a big problem.The so-called emperor does not send hungry soldiers. If you want the common people to follow you to fight, you must first fill his stomach. He can't even eat enough. What do you want to do with you?But the Girondins are most opposed to price restrictions, because he represents the interests of the industrial and commercial big bourgeoisie. Price increases cannot be better for them. He will not limit prices, but the people of the republic are living in hunger. Neither can be guaranteed, the republic is clearly illusory, and in this case, the people of Paris staged a third uprising, overthrowing the Girondists and establishing the Jacobin rule.

The people of Paris like to revolt, as long as they are dissatisfied, they will revolt, pushing the revolution to a climax again and again.Because of the old uprising in Paris, we Chinese, especially the official group, when we visit France, the favorite thing to do is to make friends with people. I know that the people of Paris are people with a revolutionary tradition. In fact, Parisians are most taboo to say this, thinking that we were Immature, we did this when we were ignorant, we all forgot, why do you keep memorizing these things in China? After the Girondists were overthrown, the Jacobins came to power.The Jacobins represented the interests of the petty and middle bourgeoisie. After coming to power, they took a series of measures to consolidate the revolutionary regime.The first measure is to allocate land to farmers. When farmers see it, they raise their hands to support it.At the beginning, the Girondins also distributed land, but it was the public land in the countryside. The Jacobins confiscated all the land of the nobles and distributed it to the peasants. Of course, their distribution was redemption, not free.As for the Jacobin faction, the division of land requires the farmers to buy it back, and the government provides loans to buy the land, thus gaining the support of the farmers.The second measure is the price limit decree, which limits prices.The Girondins were eliminated because they opposed the price limit, so the Jacobins agreed to limit prices.The third measure is to punish the suspects.The fourth is to issue a general mobilization order, calling on the French people to join the army and defend the motherland.Conscripted 420,000 troops, repelled foreign armed intervention.

In fact, these measures should be extraordinary measures in extraordinary times. If they are adopted in peacetime, something may happen, but the leaders of the Jacobins, like Robespierre, are obsessed with violence and feel that this kind of East and west are the most effective in managing the country.Robespierre was a lawyer, and it is said that he borrowed all his travel expenses to attend the three-level meeting. This kind of person is often the most harmful to society, because he is underappreciated.Look at the thief who steals the guardrail of the park and makes a manhole cover. This is also harmful to society, but it is not that big, because he can’t do big things. He will never think that one day I will stop stealing and I will overthrow the government. He absolutely did not think so.

Robespierre is different. This kind of person is the most terrifying. There is also Hitler, who is a middle-aged intellectual and a middle-class background. It is impossible for a real poor person. No one said that I have a good education, a college degree or above, and a relatively rich background. It is absolutely impossible for them to engage in dictatorship and kill people.I am used to seeing money so I don’t take money as money. Why are corrupt officials basically from poor backgrounds?It’s not easy to have today, when not to fish now?Robespierre believes that violence conquers the world and governs the country with violence, and he thinks this method is the most effective. You can see that among these four measures, price restrictions are the most unusable in normal times.Whether this measure is good or not, and whether it promotes social progress, mainly depends on whether it promotes the development of productivity. Therefore, restricting prices is obviously the most inappropriate for the development of productivity. If you restrict prices, the economy will not develop.I make a piece of bread and sell it for five yuan. The cost is three yuan. The government asks me to sell it for seventy cents. If I sell it for eighty cents, I will be arrested. I will pay two yuan for one piece of bread, and two yuan for another one. , Whoever loves to do it.Therefore, restricting prices is the least suitable for the development of productive forces and cannot be used.Of course, punishing the suspect is also useless. If you suspect that he is an enemy of the Republic, let him go to the guillotine. Is this appropriate?Obviously not suitable. Whether it is the "Declaration of Human Rights" or the "Constitution", it is stated in it that people's private property is sacred and inviolable.Since property is inviolable, can life be taken away at will?If you say that he is an enemy of the Republic, he will go to the guillotine. Even if he is an enemy of the Republic, whether he deserves to die or not, his curse should be different from throwing a bomb. But Robespierre didn't care about this. He suspected that you were a member of the Republic, so you went to the guillotine. In the end, even Robespierre's personal enemies were all sent to the guillotine.When he was a lawyer, he lost the lawsuit, you won, okay, the enemy of the Republic, go to the guillotine.Anyone who beats me will be guillotined.He chased a girl and failed to catch up, and then he sent the whole family of the girl's husband to the guillotine, and let the girl watch from below, you regret it, how nice I am.So the guillotine in France at that time was the busiest machine in France.The year of Robespierre's terrorist dictatorship was the most terrifying year in France. According to the statistics of the number of people killed in this year, some say 5,000, some say 40,000, and some say 60,000.Later, a French thinker said, "Revolution, how many crimes have been committed in your name."The revolutionary trend starts as soon as it is mentioned, and the masses are out of control when they are incited. After you have incited the masses, it is difficult to calm them down.This kind of terrorist dictatorship is obviously impossible to last for a long time, otherwise France will be finished. Therefore, under such circumstances, the Thermidorian coup broke out in 1794.After the Thermidor coup, the rule of the Jacobins was overthrown, and Robespierre went to the guillotine.The French are very humorous, and engraved this line of text on the Robespierre monument: I, Robespierre, will be buried here. Passers-by, please don’t mourn for me. If I live, none of you will want to live. The Thermidor coup ended the Jacobin Terrorist Reign.The Jacobin dictatorship has gone too far. Should this be the task of the bourgeois revolution?Restricting prices, this is not a bourgeois revolution, it has become a planned economy, he has played it.After playing this game, you have to come back and get back to the normal track where the revolution should take place. Therefore, another party emerged—the Thermidor Party, which still represents the interests of the big bourgeoisie. Like Yang Pai, it is equivalent to turning around and going back.In fact, it should be ruled by the big bourgeoisie, because it is the most powerful economically and the most mature politically.The second is the Directorate.They established a government to correct some radical behaviors and measures of the Jacobins, and at the same time maintain the achievements of the bourgeois revolution.However, the Governor-General is weak and incompetent, and he has always lost battles with the outside world, and he can't solve the rebellion of the royal party inside.There are five governors in the government, and the highest governor is a banker named Burroughs, until the Brumaire coup in 1799, he was taken down.As soon as Burroughs was brought down, the Directory ended, and Napoleon, who overthrew Burroughs, established the Consulate. 04 The Thermidor Reaction: The coup that overthrew the Jacobin Robespierre regime in the French Revolution.It was named because it happened on the ninth day of the thermidor month in the second year of the Republic of China (July 27, 1794).