Palace of Versailles.
In front of the Petit Trianon Palace, over a thousand nobles gazed towards the tea room balcony on the second floor where Queen Mary resided, periodically letting out piteous cries:
"Your Majesty, are you abandoning us?"
"For the love of God, please glance at your loyal servants who are begging for a shred of your mercy."
"Your Majesty, we only need that most humble traditional income that has remained unchanged for hundreds of years..."
"Your Majesty, please show us compassion..."
Since the land redemption plan had been officially announced the day before, these nobles had quickly united in less than a day, starting a massive petition.
Behind these more than a thousand petitioning nobilities were even more eyes fixated on this scene—ready to rush for reinforcements at any sign of hesitation from Her Majesty the Queen.
They were so united because the redemption plan had indeed touched their interests.
According to the plan, peasants would pay the lords the cost of redeeming eight years of due tributes.
Though this was a lot better than the two-year redemption plan that had been previously rumored, making those nobles with other sources of income reluctantly accept, many "poor" nobilities began to worry about their livelihoods.
In the reception room of Queen Mary, there were also a few nobles of high status plaintively sharing their woes with her, with even Earl Artuwa, the King's brother, among them.
Queen Mary kept comforting them, but in the end, overwhelmed by their persistence, she signaled to the maid Debreninac and whispered:
"Please go find the Crown Prince. Oh, and make sure he doesn't come here, but waits for me in the study."
She suspected it might have been her son's eagerness to quell the unrest that had caused the redemption plan to lean too far in favor of the peasants, provoking the nobility's criticism.
She needed to discuss the plan with her son first and then find a way to compensate the nobles.
It was normal for young people to make mistakes in their actions; otherwise, what would be the need for parents? Now was her time to step in and help her son clean up the mess!
It wasn't more than ten minutes after Countess Debreninac had left the reception room that she returned and whispered in the Queen's ear:
"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince has returned."
The carriage came to a slow stop in the Marble Courtyard. Just as Joseph opened the carriage door, he heard the wave-like tumult coming from the direction of the Petit Trianon Palace.
He merely smiled faintly, as this scene had been anticipated; it would have been abnormal for the nobles not to make a fuss.
The eagerly expectant Mirabeau immediately came forward to greet him. Behind him was a monk clad in black robes, around fifty years old, none other than Archbishop Beaumont of the Paris district.
Both men bowed to Joseph, then followed his footsteps towards the Petit Trianon Palace.
"Is everything prepared on your end?" Joseph asked, turning sideways to look at Mirabeau.
"Yes, Your Highness, we've ensured there will be no failures."
"You've done very well," Joseph nodded, then asked, "How many from the families of those more than three hundred 'prodigal sons' showed up?"
"At least one person from each family. There are also influential people like Count Onex in attendance."
"Hmm, that reassures me."
Joseph then turned towards Archbishop Beaumont: "Thank you for making the long journey here personally."
The latter hurriedly waved his hand with a smile on his face, "Your command, of course, shall be taken seriously. And those matters you spoke of are indeed what the Church should be doing..."
To get the Old Nobility to accept the land redemption program, relying solely on Royal pressure would definitely not work, nor was it possible to use the state finances to support them.
Joseph was very clear that in the game of politics, one must have plenty of his own people on his side.
His most solid political base was undoubtedly the Capitalist Nobility. Thus, as soon as he returned from Luxembourg, he had instructed Mirabeau to secretly contact important figures of the Capitalist Nobility to prepare support for the land redemption program.
Moreover, according to his arrangement, the redemption program inherently offered great benefits to large capital. Merely at a call from Mirabeau, a swarm of respondents gathered immediately.
As for the Church, to lessen the resistance to the land policy, Joseph had always refrained from touching the Church's "cake", so facing the pressure of the Old Nobility now, the Church naturally had to offer some support.
Similarly, he wouldn't let the Church work for nothing.
To get others to work wholeheartedly, using interests as a drive was undoubtedly the most effective method.
The three of them conversed in low voices, and soon arrived on the empty ground in front of the Petit Trianon Palace's vegetable garden.
Of course, by this time it wasn't empty in the slightest, some nobles who had come to petition were even pushed into stepping on Queen Mary's vegetables.
The nobles immediately noticed Joseph and his party, and someone immediately shouted in his direction:
"Please, Crown Prince, help us persuade Queen Mary to amend the land redemption policy."
Joseph pushed through the crowd and quickly made his way to the stone steps in front of the Petit Trianon Palace's main entrance, smiling at those people:
"Actually, I was the one who supervised the drafting of this land redemption program. I don't think there's anything that needs to be amended."
Queen Mary had just walked onto the balcony when she heard her son's words from below and immediately sensed trouble brewing. Joseph was still too inexperienced; such matters that displeased the nobles should have first been blamed on Brian and others so that he could mediate from a position of neutrality. It seemed she would have to step in to help him patch things up...
As expected, there was an immediate stir among the petitioning nobles.
Someone immediately turned their sharp words toward Joseph: "Your Highness, nobility is the foundation of France. You cannot abandon us !"
"You are being too unfair to us!"
Joseph surveyed the crowd, still with a smile on his face: "No, I have always followed His Majesty the King's teachings and have never forgotten you all."
A noble loudly said: "Your Highness, your redemption plan will leave us without a livelihood!"
"Of course not," replied Joseph, looking in that person's direction, "Actually, you will be richer than before!"
The nobles' murmuring grew louder. The Crown Prince's statement was simply an insult to their intelligence. With the annual tribute gone in eight years, how could they possibly be richer?
Joseph then spoke calmly: "Gentlemen, do not just fixate on the land itself, it yields little profit.
"You need to look further afield. When peasants have their own fields, they will undoubtedly farm with greater care than before, and the output will be higher.
"Yet, peasants wishing to improve yield lack sufficient animals and fertilizer, and are powerless to repair water conservancy. Oh, everyone should know that the most common steam pumping machine costs six thousand livres.
"Furthermore, advanced farming techniques are also very difficult to master, this requires someone to teach them.
"The grains they grow also need to be transported to large cities for sale. Even if peasants know the price of grain in Lyon is forty percent higher than in Tours, they lack the means to transport it."
He paused to let the nobles digest the content he just shared, before continuing: "Therefore, these are tasks that require someone to help them with.
"Of course, it's not something one or two people can manage, it requires companies, large-scale companies to be exact!"