I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 235 Indulgence Pro+

After listening to the Crown Prince's question, Talleyrand suddenly had a constipated expression on his face: "Your Highness, I know something, but this kind of thing..."

Joseph smiled and said: "Don't worry, I don't mean any harm, I just want to give some gifts.

Talleyrand struggled in his heart again, but in the end the temptation of the Foreign Minister prevailed. He picked up a pen and paper and began to think and write.

After a moment, he handed the paper with a dozen names written on it to Joseph: "Your Highness, that's all I know. Don't ever say that I told you. As for the kind of party you mentioned..."

His expression was a little unnatural: "It is usually held on the second Sunday of every month. The meeting point in Paris is in a manor in Montmartre. The bishops of Valois and Reims also often go there. "

"The second Sunday of every month?" Joseph recalled the calendar, "Isn't it tomorrow?

"Well, I'm lucky. I originally planned to send people to invite the bishops from several nearby provinces. This can save time."

He remembered something again and looked at Talleyrand with a teasing smile: "You seem to be very knowledgeable in this matter."

"Ah? I'm not, I didn't, don't..." Talleyrand almost denied it three times, but then quickly calmed down, "Well, Your Highness, I just heard some rumors. You know, I have a bad memory. good."

Joseph nodded and put this aside, thought for a while and said: "In this case, it will be too late to go to the police academy. Let's go directly to Montmartre. Oh, and we need to buy some gifts."

According to his original plan, he planned to go to the police academy to participate in the combat readiness mobilization meeting.

This time the matter involves those guys from the military, so the army must be prepared to deal with unexpected events. In addition, if there are sporadic riots that have not been quelled, the army will have to be relied on to quell them.

At around 6 o'clock in the evening the next day, more than twenty middle- and high-ranking priests gathered at the "White Maple Forest" manor in the town of Montmartre in the northern suburbs of Paris. These even include Archbishop Beaumont of the Paris Region, Archbishop Dafleur of the Valois Region and others.

Next to them was a young "servant", all of them handsome.

The music around was soothing and the priests greeted each other warmly.

A broad-faced bishop was chatting with his colleagues in the Nemours district about recent anecdotes when he suddenly noticed the gemstone cuffs on the cuffs of the young man opposite who was leaning on the latter.

Somewhat unexpectedly, he took his "servant's" arm, which also wore the same armband.

The priest opposite asked curiously: "Asir also has one?"

The broad-faced bishop nodded: "Someone gave it to him yesterday. Where is yours?"

"It was given to Okose by an unknown person."

The two of them didn't pay much attention to it. After all, given their status, there were usually many people coming to make friends, and they often gave them gifts. And when they cannot be contacted personally, those people will approach their "servants".

As more priests communicated with each other, they unexpectedly discovered that most of the "servants" of the priests present almost had such a sleeve pin.

Everyone gradually stopped teasing the "servant", put down their wine glasses, and began to discuss who gave this and what its purpose was. The priests who took the handsome "valet" to the room on the second floor quickly stopped their "back door" entertainment after hearing the news, and walked down in their clothes.

Catholic clergy are strictly abstinent, but middle and high-ranking clergy can always find ways to "relax". Most of them have secret mistresses, but nan. "pet" is a more fashionable choice.

Although this kind of thing is already a semi-open secret in church circles, if it gets out, it will still have a very bad impact on their reputation. Especially today's gathering of "care for male servants" must not be known to outsiders.

And the person who gave them the armpins obviously knew the identity of each of their "valets"!

The bishops suddenly lost the intention to continue and left the "Bai Maple Forest" manor in a low-key manner.

As soon as Archbishop Beaumont's carriage drove out of the manicured woods of the manor, he saw a well-dressed blond young man gesturing to him on the roadside.

He hurriedly ordered the car to stop, because he recognized the man as the crown prince's valet.

Emang politely stepped forward to salute the Archbishop and said with a smile: "Dear Archbishop, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would like to invite you for a drink."

Of course Beaumont would not refuse. When he followed Eman into the villa in the center of Montmartre, he was immediately surprised to find that the Archbishop of Nemours and the Archbishop of Reims were also in the house. They were all "party friends" at the party just now. ".

Talleyrand had a guilty conscience and did not dare to come here. After all, he was the one who leaked the news about the party.

Beaumont realized something was wrong, but he still pretended to be nonchalant and bowed to the Crown Prince.

Joseph called the archbishops to sit down, playing with a sleeve pin in his hand, and coughed slightly: "Ahem, you must have heard about the riots in more than ten provinces in the south, right?"

Beaumont and others looked at the cuff pin of the same style as their "valet" and nodded uncomfortably: "Yes, Your Highness, I heard about it."

"May the Lord calm the violence in the hearts of those thugs."

"May the Lord forgive them..."

Joseph motioned to Eman to distribute the wine to the archbishops: “Everyone knows that the cause of the riot was food shortage.

"And you are all God's spokespersons, representing God's mercy. I hope..."

Archbishop Beaumont reacted immediately and said first: "Your Highness, I am willing to donate 10,000 livres for disaster relief!"

Archbishop Dafleur of Valois nodded: "I will also donate 10,000 livres."

Joseph smiled and shook his head. He was aiming at the "bottom of the box" of the church. Who would he give away the ten thousand?

"Thank you for your generosity." He didn't mince words, "I ask the church to take out the stored food and distribute it to the victims."

Several archbishops looked at each other and laughed dryly: "Your Highness, the church's little food is of no use at all."

"Yeah, that's probably not as much food as 10,000 livres can buy."

Joseph smiled calmly: "No need to be modest. I know that there is at least enough grain in your cellar to feed the victims of the disaster for more than half a month."

The eyes of the archbishops were full of shock, "Who did you hear this from?"

"Your Highness, there is absolutely no such thing..."

"Your Highness, if you don't believe it, you can ask Archbishop Brian..."

Joseph knew that most of the church's grain reserves were privately deducted from the tithe tax or the church's land harvest. Although these revenues belonged to the church, they were collected into the public account, and the public account needed to be used to pay for education. , charity, religious activities and other expenses.

As for those in the church cellar, they were "saved" by the middle- and high-ranking clergy based on their abilities and belonged to their private wealth. So these guys don't want others to know what's in the cellar, especially the royal family.

In fact, not many people know about this part of the church's private property, and due to cautious operations, it is not easy to find out even if it is checked. It wasn't until he was forcibly dug out at the time of his death.

Joseph raised his hand and made a downward movement, still smiling and saying: "In the name of His Majesty the King, I assure you that no one will investigate the origin of this food."

He glanced at his arm pins as he spoke: "Of course, I hope you won't be reluctant to give up food. I still know something about the amount of grain and wine in the church cellar."

Of course, this is to deceive the archbishops. He only knows that the "hamsters" have a lot of food.

However, when Beaumont and others heard that the crown prince knew that there was wine in their cellar, they immediately believed it.

Several archbishops looked at each other again, and finally Beaumont, as the representative, said: "Your Highness, if you really need food, we can sell it to you at the market price."

Joseph secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this. This had already reached his minimum requirement. At least we can use money to solve the riot problem.

But that's not his ultimate goal.

This is not a small figure for the food supply of the entire western and southern provinces of France. Moreover, how much food the church distributes depends entirely on their mouths, and they will easily suffer losses.

He took a deep breath and continued: "I hope the church can donate this food."

"This, how can this be done..." Several archbishops suddenly became anxious, the crown prince was trying to rob him openly!

Joseph signaled to them to calm down: "If the church donates enough food for the rioting provinces for a month, I can let the church start selling 'indulgences' again."

Catholic doctrine holds that all human beings are guilty of original sin. Since the Middle Ages, the Holy See has invented indulgences, telling believers that if they buy these coupons, they can reduce the time of suffering in purgatory.

This invention made the Vatican a lot of money, but it also made the secular class hate it. Finally, under pressure from all parties, the Vatican announced that it would stop selling indulgences in the 16th century.

Dafleur's eyes suddenly lit up: "Are you telling the truth?!"

If the royal family allowed the church to sell indulgences, the little money they could make from harvesting grain would not even count as mosquito legs.

Beaumont and others showed hesitation, "Your Highness, even if the royal family agrees, I'm afraid the opposition will be huge..."

Joseph nodded: "You are right, so we must be innovative.

“The old rhetoric of ‘you won’t have to go to hell once you buy it’ has already fooled, ahem, people can no longer be persuaded.”

The archbishops couldn't help but look at each other, "What do you mean?"

"First of all, we need to change the name. For example, 'Prayer Card', 'Longevity Coupon', 'True Love Talisman' and so on.

"The functions must also keep pace with the times. Just like the names of these coupons, some can be used to increase your lover's feelings for you, and some can be used to pray for your parents.

"Everyone must know that going to heaven is too far away and elusive. But parents and lovers are right in front of you, which will create a lot of expectations and helplessness for them. Only if the problem at hand can be 'solved' immediately, will everyone be willing to pay.

"Oh, you should also pay attention to the price. In the past, those indulgence coupons were too expensive. If someone buys you a coupon, you will not be able to eat meat for two years, and there will definitely be dissatisfaction. If you sell a coupon for 4 sous, everyone will treat it as I just bought two newspapers, even if it has no effect... well, with God's blessing, it will definitely have an effect."

"In short, we must have the concept of small profits but quick turnover, and we cannot kill the business at once..."

As he continued to talk, the eyes of several archbishops gradually lit up. There seemed to be a scene in front of them of a young couple coming to the church and spending a small sum of 4 Su to buy a 'true love charm' for their relationship, so that God could witness their love and bless them.

Archbishop Nemours hesitated and said, "Your Highness, is this possible?"

Joseph said in his heart, you are guarding the big IP of God, and you have to rely on tithe tax every day to earn living expenses. In the 21st century, you will be laughed to death. Do you know how much money Shaolin Temple and Wudang Mountain make just by doing it?

He smiled slightly: "I can guarantee you that if you do as I say, Paris will be able to sell at least 500,000 livres every year just from various coupons. And this is the minimum."

"500,000! Are you telling the truth?!"

"Of course, we still need some publicity and hype methods." Joseph said, "For example, the 'True Love Talisman' should be combined with St. Valentine's Day. Well, the name is too confusing, just change it to Valentine's Day."

There was already a February 14th festival at the end of the 18th century, but it was far less popular than later generations.

"First of all, we need to strengthen everyone's willingness to celebrate Valentine's Day. For example, we should promote the concept that 'if you don't celebrate this day, you don't love him', and 'buy the first true love charm of the year and you will definitely get perfect love.' Then we create some concepts that 'only the church can give you love'. There are legends like the true love talisman that makes the love between two people never change."

Joseph briefly recounted the operations of those merchants in later generations: "Spend money to hold some celebrations, dances, blind dates, etc. on that day. The rest is to wait for the men and women to collapse the church door.

"As for the specific operational methods, I suggest that the church and I set up a 'Church Culture Development Company' to specialize in packaging planning and publicity. As for the specific investment and share division, we will discuss it in detail later.

"Oh, it's similar to the True Love Talisman. The longevity prayer coupons correspond to Father's Day and Mother's Day. These two holidays have not been set up yet. The church will discuss which day is suitable.

"The prayer coupons correspond to the business festival, and the prayer cards correspond to Easter. This is probably the idea... After the company is established, there will be a full set of plans."

The archbishops never expected that indulgences could be used in so many ways, and in the end they even created a company...

However, when they thought about it carefully, they felt that the Crown Prince's method was indeed extremely feasible.

Joseph was not afraid that they would do it in private without him after hearing this. These business routines are simple to say, but people who have never experienced them really can’t figure them out.

Several archbishops briefly discussed for a while, and Archbishop Beaumont, as the representative, said: "Your Highness, the food for this disaster relief should be regarded as our investment in some development company of the church."

According to their estimates, if the prince's words are followed, the food invested this time can be earned back in two years at most. From now on it will be pure profit.

In addition, there is no need to worry about today's special party being exposed.