With the words of the Marquis Lafayette, a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a black bishop's robe, walked in and bowed to the others.

"Bike Talleyran!" Several people in the small reception room recognized the priest at once.

This bishop is a popular man in various salons in Paris and places for fun. He was born into a declining noble family and was sent to the seminary since he was a child. This is also the path that many children from aristocratic family often take.

Generally speaking, the children of noble families often have these ways out.

First, inherit the property of his ancestors and then become a happy fat man who sits and eats and waits for death. However, the property mentioned by Talleyran has been consumed by the happy fat man of previous generations.

Second, go to be an officer and then live a good life with His Majesty the King's salary, but the army does not need a cripple officer.

Third, go to be a civil servant, and then live a good life with His Majesty the King's salary, embezzled public funds and bribes from others. However, to get the position of a civil servant, you need to bribe them first. However, Talleyran's family could not provide this money.

So Talleyran had only one last way to go, which was to be a priest.

The way to be a priest is actually good. In theory, all believers are God's people and are equal before God. But in fact, there are always some people who are more equal before God than others. Generally speaking, priests from ordinary origins, at most, in the church, priests who are priests and bishops or above are all noble.

The church has a lot of assets, can become a bishop and live a good life.

There is a story in Boccaccio's "December" that said a Catholic advised his friend, a Jew, to convert to Catholicism. The Jew was a little moved and told his friend that he was going to visit Rome, the capital of the Christ world.

His friend was shocked after hearing this decision. He felt that his mission would definitely fail, because no one could see the Catholic Church's extravagance and debauchery after arriving in Rome. There was no virtue at all, only various sins.

However, the Jewish man went to Rome and was immediately baptized and converted to Catholicism when he came back because he felt that: "The Catholic Church is so corrupt and depraved, but it still stands tall, it must be because there are real gods behind it."

Talleyran was different from that Jew. He was originally Catholic and studied theology for five years at St. Sulbis Theological Seminary. These five years of study did not bring him "close to God", but instead made him an atheist. However, for the sake of the church's money, he still pretended to be very pious.

By this pretended piety, when Louis XVI ascended the throne, he received the position of president of the Monastery of St. Reims in Reims, and an annuity of up to 18,000 livres (a silver coin that later developed into francs).

With this money, Talleyran lived a secular aristocratic life in Paris. Because the position of the dean was a beautiful man who only paid a salary and did not do anything, he had time. He bought a comfortable little house in Paris, lived in Reims and the capital in turn, drank and gambling, and sought flowers and would ask for help.

Taking this opportunity, he met some bankers, who helped them get news from the church and even the kingdom government, and those people provided him with various opportunities to make money. He made a lot of money by making various securities speculation.

Talleyran is not a wealthy miser. The money comes quickly and spends it simply. With the help of his friends, after the necklace incident, if it weren't for the queen's obstruction, he would have almost succeeded in replacing the position of Cardinal of Roang.

Although he failed to become a cardinal, he still brought the position of Archbishop of Orton District into his hands.

Because Talleyran climbed up step by step with the king, in the eyes of most people, he should be a hard-core conservative, royal party, but now he appears here.

"Sir, it's an honor to see you," Bishop Talleyrand said.

"His Excellency Bishop, do you suddenly come to our assembly. Do you have anything to say to us?" asked Sieres.

"The Earl of Artuva is ready to take his family out of France and go to Italy," replied Bishop Talleyran.

"Earl of Artowa" was Louis XVI's younger brother and the most determined conservative school. Later historian Tocqueville once commented on him:

"We have seen many leaders in history, whose knowledge structure, cultural level, political judgment and value choices will stay at a certain stage of their adolescents. Then no matter how long he lives or how many changes happen in the world, he will appear as a zombie at a certain moment.

If there is a certain opportunity to make him ascend to the throne, he will definitely look for resources from the moment when his intelligence and knowledge development stops, construct his political philosophy, value choice and governance strategy. Such people are generally stubborn, paranoid, stupid and confident, foolish and self-use, thinking that he has defended a certain value and can open up a new direction for national development.

In fact, they often wear ancient costumes and perform on modern stages, like ghosts in graves suddenly appear in broad daylight. Everyone knows that he is a ghost, but he thinks he is a true god. However, the ideas he chose and the policies he implemented were all moldy old goods."

"Is the Earl of Artova going to exile?" Siers smiled contemptuously, "He is going to run away? Aren't he going to suppress us? Now he is going to run away?"

"He ran away, I'm afraid that a certain highness will be even happier." But Barnoff frowned.

"But this is also a good thing, isn't it?" said the Marquis of Lafayette. "The king's power has been weakened, and now his Majesty has no power to rely on except us."

"But we have no choice but to use the mob that His Highness incited." Barnoff said.

"Then let him continue his performance. We can't give the things that the mob wants, can the Lord give them? When he set fire to his brother's house, he did not consider whether his own house was connected with his own brother's house?" said the Marquis Lafayette.

"Our house is also adjacent to their house," answered Barnoff.

"Mr. Barnoff, you are right. In fact, the third level is a false concept." Bishop Talleyrand said, "Three levels, this division is nonsense, but some fools actually believe it."

"What do you mean?" Sieres frowned. His famous work was "What is the Third Level". Now Talleyrand actually said that "the Third Level" is a false concept, which naturally made him unhappy.

"Gentlemen, please take a look at the neighboring country to the west, the most successful country in the world today. Think about it again, what is the privilege?" said Talleyrand.

"I don't understand what you mean," said Siers. He failed to keep up with Talleyran's thoughts, which made him even more dislike Talleyran.

"Privacy, in the final analysis, is to gain priority for a good life." Talleyran said, "Traditional aristocrats enjoy this priority by their origin. But in modern times, this priority for such origin has been largely unworkable. Even without a revolution, the priority for origin must be, and even the priority for which it has been converted into property."

Seeing that Sieres seemed a little dissatisfied, Talleyran smiled again and said, "Take me as an example. I was born in a small aristocratic family. When I was born, I didn't catch up with the good times, and the family had long been gone. The wealth of the past had long fallen into the hands of those Jews. Apart from affix (referring to the word "de" in the name that represents their aristocratic identity), there was nothing left. Our family's life is no better than a decent person of the third level, and it is even far less than them. Because they are richer. Money is privilege."

Speaking of this, Talleyran paused for a moment so that everyone could digest his words. After a while, he continued, "Let's look at the British. Are there any nobles in Britain? Yes, are there any decent people who are not nobles? There are also. So are there any thugs in Britain who have nothing? Of course, there are also, which country will not have those poor people who have nothing and therefore have nothing to fear? Then why can there be a bloodless "glorious revolution" in Britain?"

"Why?" asked Sieres.

Talleyran smiled and said, "Because the British understand that money is power, and power is money. These two things can be transformed into each other. A person can be a noble, a priest, and a rich man at the same time. There is no chasm in this."

"Like you, Lord Bishop?" Siers asked with a sarcastic smile.

"Yes." Talleyran smiled disgustedly, "Only poverty has a deep gap with privileges. The nobles should realize this and open the door to power to those decent people. Those decent people should also be combined with the nobles, allowing the nobles to share power and let the nobles share wealth. In the end, everyone got what they wanted, which is why Britain is strong and stable.

I have been trying to convince the king and other nobles, hoping that they can follow the British and allow all decent people to reach an alliance.

But in France, there are too many fools. Among the nobles, there are zombies like Count Artowa who are still alive in the medieval era. He thought he could rule France according to the medieval practices, and he was not willing to give up any interests to those rich and decent people, but he did not know that money is power. How could those rich, more accurately, those powerful and decent people at his mercy?

There is also a self-righteous idiot like the Duke of Orleans. He overestimated his ability and opened the bottle sealed with the devil at will, but did not consider how it ended in the future! Do we really want to share rights and wealth with those uncondoms? Although France has a lot of wealth, it cannot be distributed evenly to these gangsters. But now, the Duke of Orleans has released them and allowed them to see their own power. Once they realize their power, they will not use it to seek benefits for themselves. But we cannot give what they want, because they want to live the same life as us! This is absolutely impossible!

Whether it is a noble or rich, they should naturally reach a sacred alliance. However, because of their stubbornness, stupidity, and damn arrogance and ambition, they all embarked on the evil path. One stubbornly refused to move forward, even if it should have brought them a better life; the other released the devil without regard for the consequences.

Now France is in great danger because of these idiots. I think the king can no longer save France, and the only ones who can save France are here. This is why I appear before you now."

Siers stared at Talleyrand with wide eyes for a long time, and then he said in a tone: "Sir, you are Machiavelli of France, a man of no faith."

"No, Mr. Siers," said Talleyrand with a serious look on his face, "You are biased against me. I do not really believe in God, but I love France."

"His bishop," said Barnoff, "I am not interested in your beliefs. I know that you have been reprimanded for taking the initiative to visit Voltaire (Voltaire was expelled from the church because of his fierce opposition to Catholicism). And you confessed to the Cardinal, and it is said that the confession is sincere. But we don't care about these things. What I care about is that now the devil has been released from the bottle, how can they be put back? Is there anything you can teach us about this?"

"There are only two ways to put the devil out of the bottle back since ancient times." Talleyran replied immediately.

“Which two?”

"The first is King Solomon's method, relying on his own strength to overwhelm the devil and force them into the bottle. Another method is the fisherman's method, using lies to deceive them and lure them into the bottle."

"As a bishop, you actually used the story of the pagans as an example." Sieres couldn't help but interrupt again.

"Seeking the truth, even if it is far away in the East." Talleyran replied.

"This is another pagan saying."

"It's not been a day or two since France formed an alliance with paganism."

"Let's get back to the point, Mr. Siers, His Excellency Bishop," said Barnoff. "What kind of method do you think we can use?"

"Two-pronged approach," replied Talleyrand. "However, before we prepare to put the devil in the bottle, we must first find a way to deal with the guy who put the devil out of the bottle for our own ambitions. Otherwise, although this highness has limited ability and is probably not good at anything he wants to do, he has been making trouble with the king for many years. There are not many people who are more proficient in how to make trouble in France. If we cannot deal with him first, it will be difficult for us to succeed."

"How should we deal with him?"
Chapter completed!