The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 826: Burning Versailles
November 1867, 11, will be remembered in history.
Comrade Raoul Rigaud, a member of the Security Committee of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of France, stepped on the military boots in front of the main gate of the marble courtyard of the Palace of Versailles. Under his feet was the red granite laid during the Louis XIV period. Every brick seam was permeated with the extravagance and sin accumulated by the French feudal dynasty. He looked up at the main building of the Palace of Versailles, which was about to be reduced to ruins in the flames, without a trace of joy or anger on his face.

"Quick! Move the last batch of paintings!" Varlan's voice came from the main building of the Palace of Versailles, accompanied by the crisp sound of shattering glass. Twelve Red Guards were using bayonets to pry open the gilded frames and roughly rolled up Rubens's "Life of Marie de' Medici" series of paintings. A freckled young man accidentally broke Louis XV's enamel clock, and the gilded fragments bounced on the parquet floor.

Rigaud strode into the main building of the Palace of Versailles. He passed through the War Room, where the tapestries on the walls were torn to pieces. In the Apollo Room, he saw two Red Guards using glue explosives provided by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to stick to the base of the bronze statue of Louis XIV. The scepter in the statue's hand had been broken, revealing the lead core filled in the broken end.

"Comrade Economic Commissar!" A Red Guard came running over breathlessly, "We found this on a Swiss farm—" He unfolded a yellowed parchment on which was a map of the underground pipe network of the Palace of Versailles drawn with gold powder.

Varlan took a quick glance and said, "Sure enough, there is a secret passage, but I wonder if there is treasure inside?" The commissioner in charge of managing the economy of Red France was just about to send someone to search again when suddenly, "BOOM BOOM BOOM" the sound of thunder-like artillery was faintly heard. The Red Guards who were responsible for blocking the Prussian army were being bombarded.

"Comrade Raoul," Varlan immediately ran to Raoul Rigaud upon hearing the sound of the cannon, "It's time to retreat, our comrades can't hold on for much longer!"

"Okay!" Rigo nodded heavily, then raised his voice and asked, "Red Guards, what is your mission today?"

"Report to the Security Committee comrade, our mission is to protect the Palace of Versailles, the jewel of French culture!"

Rigaud asked again: "So who set fire to the Palace of Versailles?"

"It's the Prussians!" the Red Guards shouted. "It's the Prussians who set fire to our Versailles!"

Although the Palace of Versailles, the den of evil built by the Bourbon dynasty with the blood and sweat of the French people, should have been burned down long ago, the Supreme Revolutionary Committee, after serious discussion, still felt that the responsibility for burning down the Palace of Versailles should be borne by the Prussian invaders. After all, there are still many French people who regard this den of evil as a treasure of French civilization.

Rigo shouted, "Okay, let's evacuate now. Take away all the treasures that have been collected. Comrades who have the task of setting fires must pay attention to safety and wait until other comrades have evacuated before setting fires!"

"Yes, Comrade Security Committee Member!"

The fire first started in the closet of the Mercury Salon. The 800 pieces of Chinese porcelain collected by Louis XV had been packed and shipped away, but the closets used to display the porcelain and other precious furniture could not be shipped away in time and had to be burned - revolutionary France could not leave any valuable treasures to Prussian imperialism!
This is not only to avoid aiding the enemy, but also to show the determination of French revolutionaries to resist to the end!

When the first wisp of black smoke came out of the dome of the Palace of Versailles, Rigaud was standing by the organ of the Royal Chapel. He personally poured light crude oil on the oak pipes, and then took a torch and threw it into the Royal Chapel when he left the Royal Chapel. The flames quickly jumped along the curtains and onto the stained glass windows, and the faces of the saints were twisted into the appearance of the devil in the heat.
As Rigaud rode through the Orangerie arcades, he saw the Red Guard Pompidou leading twenty of his men in smashing the carved spout of the fountain with sledgehammers.

"Comrade Pompidou," Rigo pulled the reins and waved to the young revolutionary fighter who had experienced the baptism of war and gradually grew up, "Retreat. The destruction has been thorough! Now, all of Europe will remember the ugly faces of the Prussians!"

Pompidou wiped the sweat off his face and showed his white teeth: "Okay, comrade, we will evacuate now!" He paused and asked, "We will come back later, right?"

Rigo nodded: "Of course!" He looked around and saw that the fire was getting bigger and bigger. "We will definitely come back and rebuild a Versailles Palace belonging to the French people. Maybe it will be renamed the Workers' Palace!"

Watching Pompidou and his comrades leave, Rigaud turned around and asked the secretary beside him: "Have you memorized everything?"

The young man wearing round-framed glasses was recording quickly: "Prussian shells hit the oil depot where lamp oil was stored, igniting the fire on the east side of the Hall of Mirrors. The Red Guards risked their lives to rescue a large number of paintings and artworks."

There was another burst of rapid artillery and gunfire in the distance. The Prussian vanguard was very close to the Palace of Versailles. Rigaud took a last look at the burning palace, turned around and said to the signalman: "Send a telegram to Paris and all of France: The Prussian bandit army is burning down the treasure of human civilization - the Palace of Versailles!"

Standing on a church tower and commanding his troops to attack the Palace of Versailles, Prince Karl Friedrich, commander of the Second Prussian Army, was staring at the sudden fire through a telescope. He was stunned for a moment, then put down the telescope and turned to ask the staff officer beside him: "I seem to see the Palace of Versailles burning!"

"It's not as if," the staff officer replied in the same shocked tone, "Versailles is really burning"

"Who did this?" the prince asked with a guilty conscience. "It's definitely not us Prussians," the staff officer was very sure. "How could they set fire before they even robbed the place? How can they rob after setting fire?"

That's right! Looting and then burning can cover up the evidence, why would you burn without looting?
"You mean the French burned down the Palace of Versailles themselves?" Prince Karl Frederick asked. "Why?"

The staff officer said: "It is obvious that they don't want to leave anything to us, and would rather burn it down, just like the Russians did in 1812."

Prince Karl Friedrich's face darkened: "Same as the Russians. How can they be the same as the Russians?"

Moore stood on the rooftop terrace of the Tuileries Palace, with black smoke billowing in the southwest sky. The smoke column from the burning Versailles Palace was a kilometer high and could be clearly seen even in Paris, 40 kilometers away.

"The third edition of the leaflet has been printed." Baudier came over holding a piece of paper that still smelled of ink. The headline on the front page was "From the Bastille to Versailles: The French will never be intimidated!" The accompanying pictures used the scenes of the Parisian people capturing the Bastille in 1789 and the burning of the palace in Prussia today.

Blanqui was observing the Seine through a telescope: "Rigod's cavalry is back!"

Twelve Red Guards escorted the fully loaded carriages across the Pont Neuf. The most eye-catching thing was a flatbed cart with an iron cage, in which was a statue of the goddess of victory wrapped in linen. When the carriage passed through Saint-Germain Street, the cloth was blown away by the wind, revealing the goddess's gilded wings.

"Look! The workers in Paris have taken back the cultural relics from the Prussians!" Members of the workers' association on the street immediately began to guide public opinion.

At the Town Hall Square, Varlin directed his Red Guards to transport the treasures of French culture that they had risked their lives to rescue into the warehouse of the Town Hall, while loudly recounting the atrocities of the Prussians: "It was all done by the Prussians. They were unable to defeat the heroic Paris, so they took out their anger on the undefended Palace of Versailles."

The citizens of Paris roared: "Down with Prussian imperialism!"

In the evening, all the church bells in Paris rang together, mourning the burning of the Palace of Versailles. It was also a reminder to every Parisian that if the Prussian army was allowed to enter their city, Paris would also become a ruin!
Moore looked at the crowd waving red flags in the square and whispered to Baudrillard, "Tomorrow we will start serializing "The Diary of the Fall of Versailles". We must make Victoria and Alexander II fully realize that today is Versailles, and tomorrow may be Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Winter Palace."

The day after the fire at Versailles.

In the forest outside the Palace of Fontainebleau, the Red Shirts and twenty soldiers of the "Victory Battalion" who were having dinner together also learned the news that the Palace of Versailles was burned down by the Prussians.

Garibaldi was holding the Paris Journal he had just received, his face full of shock.

"Listen!" Workers' representative Duval jumped onto an ammunition box and held up a newspaper. "The Prussians burned Versailles because they killed 30,000 people under the gates of Paris!"

Suddenly there was a roar in the forest.

"Down with Prussian imperialism, defend the French motherland"

Garibaldi slammed the Paris Journal against the ammunition box and then stood on a high ground. "See?" He drew his saber and pointed it to the north. "The Prussians thought that burning Versailles would destroy the backbone of France and scare all Europeans who were unwilling to be ruled by Prussia."

"Bah!" Bernard, a railway worker from Paris, stood up and waved his fist. "We must let these Prussian devils know the courage of us French people! France will never be a slave!"

With the slogan "France will never be enslaved", 3,000 Red Shirts and 20 "Victory Battalions" were divided into two columns, front and back, and left the Fontainebleau Palace where they had been hiding for almost a week, and began to march towards the Seine River in big strides. Leading the way were the experienced Red Shirts who were best at mobile warfare. Their task was to annihilate the Prussian squads deployed on both sides of the Seine River as quickly as possible, while the "Victory Battalions" were walking behind. Their task was to march to the east of the Seine River and plant the red flag of France on the land "occupied" by the Prussians!
(End of this chapter)