 Between 300 and 600 shells hit the centre of the city every day.Between 11 and 19 January 1871, the French armies had been defeated on four fronts and Paris was facing a famine.General Trochu received reports from the prefect of Paris that agitation against the government and military leaders was increasing in the political clubs and in the National Guard of the working-class neighbourhoods of Belleville, La Chapelle, Montmartre, and Gros-Caillou.