The Ancestral Legacy Begins in the Wild West

Chapter 173 Redemption from the Bastille: High Pressure in Paris

Several days passed in the blink of an eye. Zhang Chang'an had no idea what exactly happened on the day of his execution. He also didn't ask how the warden had dealt with the nobles he had offended.

Anyway, he survived, and no one mentioned it again after the day of his execution. Since he had made so much effort, these things shouldn't be his concern.

In recent days, the warden's experiments have made breakthrough after breakthrough with his help. The progress is many times faster than before; what used to be a problem that took months has now been overcome in just a few days.

Even though there's still a long way to go before success, the help he can offer is only to stabilize the experimental subject's condition. Compared to before, this is still a significant breakthrough for Zhang Chang'an's authority, so naturally, the chances of success have increased accordingly.

In the beginning, when the warden was in charge, he could only stay in his own laboratory when he went underground.

Later, the warden stopped paying much attention to him, and he was able to frequently visit various laboratories.

On the ground, it goes without saying that even the curfew had little effect on him, let alone during the day. Almost every guard knew him.

It wasn't just the guards; his prolonged activities quickly made his position in the prison precarious.

Ordinary guards would address him as Mr. Zhang. Captain Antoine treated him as an equal in public, speaking to him in the same tone and manner as he would to a colleague.

In fact, Zhang Chang'an secretly held more authority than him and could make him do things for him at any time. It's just that most prisoners didn't know this.

As for the prisoners, Zhang Chang'an felt particularly emotional about this.

Because he was personally involved and personally promoted the process, he understood very well that the change in the attitudes of various prisoners towards him had little to do with resources or power.

The longer he stayed in prison, the more he understood how capable his ancestor Zhang Lan was.

Lan Gong may not have the ambition and domineering spirit to lead a region and accomplish great things, but his affability and social skills are truly outrageous.

His French speaking skills were merely a facade. With Lan Gong's social abilities, he could get along well with Italians or Englishmen who weren't fluent in French, even without much exchange of favors or benefits.

He couldn't quite explain the specifics; it was an inexplicable ability.

All he could say was that even without supernatural skills or formidable combat prowess, Lan Gong would still be a man capable of great things.

It's no wonder that in an era when most French nobles had only a vague or stereotypical impression of the East, he was able to become a sage in the eyes of the Parisian commoners, despite his Eastern identity and rudimentary alchemy skills.

"Phew—" Zhang Chang'an rubbed his neck, having finished another night of experiments.

He was coming up from the underground laboratory, preparing to go back to his cell to rest for a while.

He came out of the stairwell and walked down the corridor. Many prisoners greeted him along the way.

Some he knew, some he didn't. He wasn't actually familiar with many of them, but they all basically knew him.

Even the guards would step aside when they patrolled by and call him Mr. Zhang.

Zhang Chang'an responded calmly on the surface, but couldn't help but complain in his heart: "Even though it's been like this for several days, it still feels ridiculous. If the scene were different, I would think I was the gang leader of this area."

, 7

As he thought this, he was almost at the prison cell door.

He then noticed a young man squatting at the corner of the corridor.

When the man saw him, he immediately stood up, a smile on his face. He wanted to move closer but hesitated for a moment.

Zhang Chang'an stopped, glanced at him, and after a moment's thought, said, "I remember you." He then asked, "Which of René's brothers are you?"

The young man immediately approached, his smile widening. "Sage, yes, you remember me."

Zhang Chang'an nodded, his tone flat: "I don't remember completely, just a vague impression. What's your situation? How did you get in?"

The young man scratched his head, smiling a little embarrassedly: "Don't worry, I didn't do anything bad this time. Just like when Boss René came in last time, some criminals from Lyon were causing trouble in our area, and I took care of it."

He was caught after all, but that's fine too; he won't be locked up for long, and at least I can see you.

He looked around, then lowered his voice solemnly: "The matter that Boss Tolenne asked about last time has yielded some results. I'll just tell you about it."

"I'll take everything that happened here with me when I go out in a couple of days."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chang'an also became serious. He turned sideways, pushed open the cell door, and tilted his head towards him: "Come in and talk."

The door closed behind me. The footsteps in the corridor outside gradually faded into the distance.

"Hmm, this is quite troublesome—" Zhang Chang'an put his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling, which showed no signs of leaking.

This cell is a high-level cell he was reassigned to after gaining authority. It's like a completely different world compared to the previous one.

The walls had been repainted, the floor was covered with clean stone slabs, the bed had an iron frame and a thick mattress, and there was a low cabinet at the head of the bed with a kettle and cups on it.

The door has been changed too; it's not one of those iron bars where you can see inside from the outside, but a proper wooden door, thick and sturdy, and when closed—

The sounds from the corridor were barely audible.

At this moment, he was all alone here, because the matter was not complicated. The young man had already explained it to him, leaving him alone to think.

The task he sent René out to do was actually not complicated. The most important thing was to get a deep understanding of the social situation outside.

He had a fairly good understanding of the basic situation in Paris through his usual letters.

But many more important things, such as the undercurrents of revolution and the actual movements of various factions, could not possibly appear in the letters of ordinary people.

Therefore, when considering taking a group route to escape from here, he would need to send people to gather intelligence and then bring them to him through prison breaks to understand the situation outside before taking any action.

The situation in Paris was even worse than he had imagined.

Specifically, the issue of factions was similar to that of this period in history. Apart from the old royal aristocracy faction to which Louis XVI belonged, three other revolutionary factions were active in Paris.

Among them, the one that appears to have the most resources and the greatest power is the nobles, led by Lord Lafayette, who advocate constitutional monarchy, retain the king, but relinquish power.

This person, judging by his name and his status in France, doesn't seem to be very well-known.

However, as a French nobleman, he actually had an extremely outrageous identity: a founding father of the United States.

The American Revolutionary War was won only after a three-front war involving Britain, Spain, France, and the United States.

And the leader of the French army was this man.

But besides them, the other two revolutionaries were no pushovers either.

One group was the Girondins, whose methods were relatively moderate. They disagreed with constitutional monarchy and were basically representatives of the bourgeoisie.

The other group was the Jacobins, the most radical and ruthless. Although they were also a bourgeois revolutionary faction, their main force was actually the lower classes and workers.

All of Paris was engulfed in a chaotic four-way conflict.

To be honest, Paris at this time was much more chaotic than Kyoto during the late Edo period, where he was in his previous story.

The existence of alchemy, in particular, made the situation even more complicated, as the king and the old nobles held the most core technological resources.

Four forces are locked in a fierce struggle within the city of Paris, each trying to devour the others.