The peasants in the midst of the uprising immediately followed with shouts:
"Don't be afraid! Everyone, charge!"
"Let's fight those nobles!"
"We outnumber them, don't be afraid! Beat them up!"
However, it was the nobles who initiated the attack.
Two gunshots rang out from the ranks of the nobility. The leading "Commander" immediately frowned, turned his head, and shouted:
"Who's firing indiscriminately?!"
The Southern Netherlanders who had just fired the shots hid behind others, and started to agitate loudly:
"We must show these damned peasants our strength!"
"Dammit! They're rioting, use our swords to defend the city hall!"
"For His Majesty the King, warriors, teach those peasants a lesson!"
Most of the nobles who had come here were young men; stirred up by these words, they immediately felt their blood boil, and another twenty or thirty began to raise their guns and shoot.
The peasants on the opposite side initially recoiled in fright, but under the encouragement of Saint Juste and other Liberal leaders, they quickly steadied their nerves and returned fire.
Both sides then started yelling and cursing at each other from nearly a hundred paces apart on the street, continuously firing at the opposite side, and in no time, the noise and gunshots mixed with gunpowder smoke soon shrouded the nearby two blocks.
Although they made a grand clamor, both sides were greenhorns who had never seen battle, and with the distance being too great, after a long exchange of fire, hardly anyone was hit.
Just then, whistles suddenly sounded from around the streets, as more than 400 policemen, divided into two groups, closed in from behind both conflicting parties.
Reims had not been very peaceful lately, and the police were almost always on alert. However, due to the communication levels of the era, they took more than an hour to assemble a force sufficient to disperse the rioters.
The peasants were immediately thrown into disarray, some continued to "fight" under the command of Saint Juste and others, some had already slipped into the crevices between the surrounding buildings to escape, and many more were looking around in panic, unsure of what to do.
On the nobles' side, however, there was a sense of triumph as they started speaking provocatively or cursing loudly, and some even directed the police from afar to block the fleeing peasants.
In the midst of this chaotic scene, a few men in grey coats with their felt hats pulled down low emerged from a corner, showing their Intelligence Bureau credentials to the police leader, and then pointed towards the nobles.
The police immediately turned and ran towards the nobles' side, quickly surrounding the group of more than two hundred people.
A few young nobles stepped forward and gesticulated at the policemen—after the police reform, most officers were common citizens, and although they were well-trained, they were still looked down upon by the nobles—and shouted, "Don't just stand there, the rioters are getting away!"
"What are you doing? These are all nobles, the people you should be arresting are over there."
The leading security inspector looked at them coldly and said sternly, "Was it you who fired the shots just now?"
"Yes," a curly-haired noble replied proudly, "If you policemen can't handle those scum, it's up to us to teach them a lesson!"
"Did you all participate in the shooting just now?"
"That wasn't a shooting, we were maintaining..."
The noble had not finished speaking when the security inspector gave a signal to the surrounding policemen and gestured toward the nobles in front of him, "Arrest all those involved in the riot!"
The nobles were instantly thrown into panic; some cursed out loud, some revealed their prominent identities, and many more argued with the policemen:
"What do you think you're doing? The rabble across the street are the ones rioting!"
"Let me go, I came to quell the riot..."
"Let me pass, look, I don't even have a gun."
In a moment, some 200 arrogant nobles were being held down by the police, lined up against a wall that faced the street.
As an inspector from Police Headquarters walked past them, he said coldly, "Gathering in Reims to shoot civilians, no matter your status, this is a riot!
"As for those without guns, your swords can kill just as well, it's just that we stopped you in time."
A captain by his side leaned over and whispered, "Commander, they are all nobles, and some of their identities are quite significant, you see..."
The inspector glared at him, "Can nobles gather and riot then?"
"Take them all away!"
The pocket of that inspector's coat contained orders personally signed by the Chief of Police Headquarters, commanding him to arrest all the troublemaking nobles, so he felt very confident at the moment, paying no heed to their statuses.
Of course, the Chief of Police had received instructions from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince before making such large-scale arrests of the "rioting" nobles.
When Joseph heard from Talleyrand that many nobles had been incited to go to the northwestern provinces to "protect noble interests," he immediately realized it was a perfect opportunity to clamp down.
So, he had Fouche send people to watch the nobles and instructed Police Headquarters to make arrests without hesitation whenever there was evidence.
Saint Just loudly incited the hundreds of farmers before him, "Don't be afraid of the nobles, most of them can't carry a gun more than a mile. Today we almost defeated them.
"The day before yesterday, although we didn't break into the city hall, next time we will have more people, and we will definitely be able to..."
The farmers occasionally waved their arms or shouted along, very agitated. With the experience from these two riots, they had become less fearful of the police, and indeed, as Mr. Saint Just said, more and more people were gathering around them.
Next time, there should be two thousand people storming the city hall together, and at that point, who would care about a mere few hundred police?
Especially those who were the most riotous, leading the charge, had received stipends from the Committee of the Southern Netherlands, and were now even more eager.
Saint Just continued his speech, "To avoid being drained of blood by those nobles for another 50 years, we must unite and use..."
Just as he was passionately speaking, Priest Joly, panting, ran over and waved to the farmers, shouting, "Be careful, everyone, don't fall for the devious South Netherlanders!"
Saint Just frowned at him and said, "You sold-out Priest, do you think your tricks of sowing discord will work?"
More than a dozen Mounted Police following Priest Joly finally arrived at the gathering in the village square—the Mounted Police weren't all on horseback; many rural Mounted Police were on foot.
The leader gave Saint Just a cold look, jumped onto the stage where the latter was speaking, and then pulled a letter out of his pocket, showing it to the farmers present, "Take a look, this is a letter from the States-General of the Netherlands to your Mr. Saint Just.
"It says that the South Netherlanders would supply the money and guns, and Mr. Saint Just is responsible for inciting farmers to initiate riots in the cities of France. Their excuse is that the government would impose high land redemption fees.
"Oh, you can come up and see for yourselves, here's Mr. Saint Just's signature..."