Fox of France

In the contract signed with Stephen Girard, the one that Joseph valued the most was that Girard would prepay all the costs of the first five large clipper ships. Considering that the cost of the flying shear ship is much higher than that of ordinary ships, this is definitely a lot of money.

With this money, plans to expand the shipyard can be implemented. Of course, this means that Joseph has more things on hand and is busier.

Both Lucien and Louis were very happy about this. Because this means that Joseph is less likely to check their homework. However, Lucien didn't feel complacent for long, because Joseph quickly found something for Lucien to do.

"Lucien, you have been doing well recently." Joseph said, "You helped me a lot in the business with the Americans. It seems that you have indeed grown a lot."

"Of course..." Lucien immediately felt complacent, "Actually, I think I've improved a lot compared to before..."

"Well, you know, Napoleon and I are very busy now, and we need someone to share our work. This person must be reliable and capable. Originally, you are our brother, and you are naturally the most reliable person. As for Ability, Napoleon and I also think that your ability is not bad. So we really hope that you can help us take on the burden of the family. But you know, you did not do well enough last time, so Napoleon and I , I have some doubts about your reliability. But recently, you have performed well. And after what happened last time, I reflected on myself. In that matter, Napoleon and I actually made mistakes. Without further training for you, we suddenly let you take on important affairs..."

Lucien was very happy at first, but when he heard the words "without further training for you", he immediately changed his face and interrupted Joseph's words very sincerely: " Ah, Joseph, I think what happened last time has nothing to do with this. The mistake last time was not because of too little training, yes, it was definitely not because of too little training... The main reason for this kind of problem is that I was subjectively paralyzed, Lack of vigilance..."

"It's very good that you can sincerely criticize yourself and find reasons from yourself. But no genius can grow without exercise. Just like Napoleon, if he didn't go through the study in the military academy, he wouldn't I will have the current command ability. So the necessary training is still essential. Well, now, I have a lot of business, and there are also many things in the research institute. I really can't handle it alone. Well, Lucien , you will follow me from now on, and be my confidential secretary for a period of time first, this way you can exercise your abilities, and in the future you will have an overall understanding of the overall operation of our family."

Hearing this, Lucien heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Joseph, when I first heard you talking about more training, I thought you were planning... well, I think this arrangement is very good, and I am very willing to do it."

Lucien thought that being Joseph's confidential secretary would be a good thing, at least better than doing math exercises, but he soon discovered that this confidential secretary is really...

"Lucien, come here to help... You see, the most critical process here is done, and now the rest is the calculation work. You take over and tell me the data."

"Lucien, come here... I think there is something wrong with this data. Please gather the relevant information. Check the calculation and see where the problem lies..."

"Lucien, these are the various things in the second half of the year, you come and combine them and come up with an optimal order of execution..."

"Lucien..."

In other words, Joseph really didn't lie to Lucien. This job really gave Lucien a better understanding of the operation of the whole family, and it also played a significant role in the improvement of Lucien's ability, especially the ability to calculate. It's just... Isn't this really a math problem?

But even so, Lucien was still basically satisfied with Joseph's arrangement, because in this position, he could get in touch with many things that he had never been able to get in touch with before, and knew many secrets that he had never been able to know before. This made him really feel the satisfaction of being valued.

With a reliable confidential secretary like Lucien, Joseph finally had some free time, so he had time to practice his French writing skills again-writing letters to Fanny.

Except for the letter to Fanny, Joseph would let Lucien read other letters of Joseph, especially his correspondence with those people in Paris. And analyze the situation in Paris with him and the countermeasures they should take. It's so much fun to be a part of something like this, the only problem is, after each analysis:

"Okay, Lucien, we have finished analyzing our response. Now, in my name, draft a reply letter..."

Then Joseph went to rest, and Lucien went to write a letter...

Generally speaking, most of the things mentioned in these letters are within Joseph's expectations, so it is not difficult to react. But a recent letter from Fouche made Joseph a little embarrassed.

"Fouche said that the government is preparing for a new round of elections and intends to elect a new parliament. After all, there were too many vacancies in the past National Assembly." Joseph said.

"That's natural. The original councilors were either cut off by Robespierre, or they had a certain Jacobin background. Of course they have to be replaced." Lucien said, "However, they are not afraid of elections at this time. Choose a lot of royalists?"

The Thermidorians have been working to destroy Jacobin since they killed Robespierre. But as far as the basis of their rule is concerned, their rule is even weaker than that of Robespierre, who was overthrown by them. The Sans-culottes were obviously not going to support them, and even, organized by the remnants of the Jacobins, the Sans-culottes had already launched two unsuccessful uprisings to overthrow them. And when they are in opposition to the sans-culottes, the petty bourgeois may not be able to support them. They can only rely on big capital.

During the Jacobin period, big capital, which has been suppressed by various means of price fixing and expropriation, of course supports a government that opposes Jacobin. However, although the big French capitals have the word "big" in front of their names, they are actually not very big. They don't have a particularly powerful force, otherwise, Jacobin would not be able to get on stage at all. In fact, one of the important reasons why Jacobin was able to come to power and become so left-leaning was that these weak "big capitals" could not suppress the feudal forces at all. What's more, in Jacobin's era, they were not weakened much less than the royal party.

Naturally, the result was that although they defeated Jacobin, they had no power to suppress the royalist party anymore. So during the Jacobin period, the royal party, who was suppressed and hid underground without even daring to breathe, suddenly popped up. They were naturally more favored by those who opposed the Jacobins than the Thermidorians.

"Then it depends on the plans of the Thermidorians." Joseph said, "If you are a Thermidorian, what do you plan to do?"

Lucien paced around the room, walked around twice, and then said: "Oh, it's really difficult! Elections must be elected, and poisonous vegetables don't have the ability to do so. Only through elections can a legal government be barely maintained. But the King’s Party cannot be allowed to come to power. After all, the King’s Party can also sing "Everything will be fine", but the lyrics have been changed a little. ("Everything will be fine" is the great revolution One of the most popular songs of the period, the most revolutionary lyric is this: "It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay, everything is going to be okay, the nobles are hanging on the lampposts." This song has a fast rhythm The song was also loved by the royal party, but when they sang, they changed the "nobility" in the lyrics to words such as "rebellion", "Jacobin", and "mob". Rain Guo also mentioned this matter in "Les Miserables", and sighed: "Songs are like guillotines, just cut off the head, as for who is beheaded, it has nothing to do with the guillotine.")"

The Royalists have suffered a lot during the revolution, and their hearts are full of hatred. If they come back, I'm afraid they will really hang up those rebellions as they sang in the song. And the Thermidor Party members, in the eyes of the Royal Party, also belong to the rebellion that should be hanged up.

"Then how can the royal party not be able to come to power?" Joseph asked again.

"Announce that the election is flawed and illegal, and then re-election. In this time gap, find out the problems of those royalist candidates, solve them, and then re-election." Lucien said.

"If there is another election, will the royal party come up?"

"Then do it again. At worst, simply revise the election rules, as if they created 'active citizens' and 'passive citizens' back then. At the same time, use the royalist guillotine to frighten the common people and see if they can be frightened over. "

"Do you think you can?"

"It's not a big chance." Lucien shook his head and said, "Have the people of Paris never seen anything? Can this thing scare the people of Paris and make them stand on the side of the Thermidors? Hehe..."

"Lucien, your analysis is good, so how far do you think this matter will go in the end?"

"Of course, the Royal Party directly used violence to overturn the table. Well, I think this will be an opportunity, an opportunity to establish our era." Lucien said.

"Keep talking!" Joseph said.

"Everyone knows that the Thermidor government has no future. Including those 'big bosses' in the Thermidor government. A big reason why they are so corrupt now is probably because they themselves are not optimistic about themselves. Before the ship sinks, get yourself more life-saving things, even at the cost of destroying the ship. Therefore, once the royal party really violently overturns the table, most of the people who rely on the Thermidor Party will not be able to suppress it. At that time , this is our chance.”

Joseph was not familiar with history, but from the movie, he also vaguely remembered that Napoleon was able to enter the political stage because of his outstanding performance in suppressing the rebellion of the royal party.

However, in the movie, Napoleon at that time was just an underappreciated young officer, but now Napoleon is already one of the most important generals in France. Therefore, compared to that time, Napoleon and the Bonaparte family seem to have higher aspirations than just being on the political stage.

"Our chance? You mean rebuilding the Republic?" Joseph said, "Well, the Thermidorians are idiots, but even so, they should be able to last for a while. We must hurry up and do two things well First, we must be ready to enter Italy to fight and obtain a base that is truly loyal to us. Second, we must develop some forces in Paris and be ready to respond at any time. This matter can be entrusted to Fouche. He The ability to do such things is good. His relationship with Ballas is also good. Let him keep an eye on Ballas, and if something happens, let him try to bring Ballas back."

"Well, but, Joseph, is Fouché reliable?" Lucien asked.

"Fouche is not reliable." Joseph replied unabashedly, "but in this matter, his interests are the same as ours. Fouche is a person who can see where his own interests are. So in In this matter, as long as there is no major change in the overall situation, Fouché is more reliable than most people."

"Okay, I'm going to write him a letter." Lucien had already realized it.

"Yes. In addition, we can't completely rely on Fouché in this kind of matter. Although he is reliable now, it doesn't mean that he will be reliable in the future. We must have a force that can replace him and can perform tasks underground. Lucien, what do you think about this matter?"

"Me?" Lucien immediately understood that this was an important exam for him. If you perform well, you may be able to go further in the future.

"Joseph, let me think about it. Tomorrow, I will give you an answer tomorrow, okay?" Lucien thought for a while, in fact, he had already had a lot of ideas in his mind. If it was before, he would definitely not care about this method. Whether it's reliable or not, let's talk about it first. But he suddenly thought, Joseph and Napoleon, the biggest opinion of themselves, is not that they think they are frivolous and unreliable? Therefore, he must become calmer. A lot of things are better thought out before talking.

"Very good, then we will discuss this issue at this time tomorrow." Joseph nodded and said, "Okay, let's move on to the next item, well, here are the various income and expenditures for today, you can help me review a bit……"

That night, the lights in Lucien's room were kept on...

Chinese New Year is coming soon, I wish you all a happy new year in advance, good luck and good health forever. Regarding the new year's update, from today until the third day of the new year, a chapter of 4,000 words will be updated every day. (I have to pay New Year's greetings and prepare new year's goods. I am busier than going to work these days. There is really nothing I can do.)