Flowers, Swords and France

In the quiet little house, candles were lit on the dining table, and Charles sat quietly on his seat, pondering in silence.

"What are you worried about, Mr. Treville?" Mr. Carlyon, who was sitting opposite him, asked softly, then cut off a piece of meat and put it into his mouth.

"Oh, there are so many things to worry about, sir." Charles replied softly, and then fed himself a glass of wine.

Yes, there are too many things to worry about.

Just yesterday, Charles was taken to Lucien Leflair's house for a dinner by his friend Albert. It was nothing at first, but then Lucien suddenly mentioned that he joined a small group of army officers - although he didn't know who he was. Tell him his motives, but since he is willing to tell himself this kind of thing, he won't just talk about it.

Charles certainly couldn't tell everything directly at the time, but he was indeed quite happy - if he could take this opportunity to connect with the army, it would be extremely useful not only for the present, but also for the future.

And this is not impossible - in this era, Napoleon's name is still very loud among the army, and the military exploits of the empire still make soldiers and officers very nostalgic. Moreover, the army has always been the main area penetrated by the Bonapartists. It was precisely because of the support of a large number of officers in the army that Louis Bonaparte was able to incite rebellion several times and restore his uncle's lost empire in the future.

Even if you don't think about rebellion, but only think about future glory and wealth, it is very necessary to maintain good relations with army personnel. So it's no surprise that Charles wanted to seize the opportunity.

So what exactly should be done?

According to Charles's personal opinion, Lucien is a relatively honest traditional officer who pays little attention to politics and has no political acumen. Although he is diligent in leading troops and eager to make achievements, he will not follow others casually. Walk. So the key still depends on what his wife says - maybe it was his wife who instigated him to reveal this situation to him?

That's interesting. The eldest daughter of the Dilion family is indeed not a simple person.

So the situation now is obvious.

The Dilion family pinched their noses and agreed to the marriage between the eldest lady and Lucien, and even brought their eldest grandson-in-law back to the army. For what reason?

And their second young lady Matilda came to him twice to talk about cooperation. Why?

I'm afraid they are already looking for a way out for themselves.

So after several considerations, and with the authorization from Joseph Bonaparte, Charles finally decided that the focus of his recent work was to find a way to get close to the current Chancellor of the Seal and his family, so that everyone could have a good discussion about cooperation.

"Young man, what's worth worrying about?" Karion seemed to say jokingly, "Have you fallen out of love?"

"It's much worse than falling out of love," Charles sighed softly, "I have no money."

There is really no money left.

Although his recent work and career have been relatively smooth, Charles found that he is also facing an extremely important problem - he may very well run out of money in the near future.

I can’t blame others for this. A big sponsor upstream just made a donation, and then he got beaten up by me. Now I might still be lying in bed, maybe I won’t be able to get anything from him again in the future. They helped; but the people downstream were not reliable in doing things, and a big problem was created. Now a large amount of money is still being held by others, and the two sides are attacking each other. It is strange that there is no shortage of money.

Because of this, Ciel is very worried now.

If only Baron Beauvain was really our behind-the-scenes patron! He sighed secretly in his heart. But it was just talk. He would definitely not take the risk of asking the big banker again.

In this case, we have to find other emergency measures first.

It's easy to say, but Charles still hasn't thought of a good way to quietly squeeze out a lot of money in a short period of time. Because of this, he found the current head of the organization in Paris, whose pseudonym was Karion, to discuss it.

When he heard the word money, Karion also put away his smile and became serious.

"This is indeed a big problem. Did you run out of it so quickly?"

Charles heard some reproach implicit in it, and replied, "If I had not recently made a large sum, it would have been spent sooner."

Noticing Ciel's tone, Karion quickly smiled apologetically, "Please don't mind, I'm not blaming you for anything, it's just that this problem is really troublesome. You also know that every time the money given by the superiors is Not much, and then you all come to me to ask for it, how can I directly conjure money for you..."

Ciel also knew the difficulty in the other person's heart, so he had no intention of forcing him to do anything from the beginning.

"You can give me some, and I'll find a way to make up the rest myself."

Karion was very satisfied with Ciel's humble attitude. He nodded slightly, and then fell into thinking. He spoke after a moment.

"Well, Charles, I'll squeeze in here for a while, and then I'll send you a sum of money."

"Do we still have to wait until recently?" Charles was still a little unhappy, "Can you think of a way to do it faster?"

"Hurry up?" Carlyon sighed slightly, "I also want to hurry up, but there are so many good ways to make money? Mr. Treville, the first factor we should consider is safety, and then It’s fundraising!”

"But if we only have safety, we can't achieve our goals, right?" Charles said sharply.

Carrion looked at Charles, but he was unmoved, and finally Carrion could only sigh.

"Okay, okay, I'll find a way for you."

"I knew you had a way." Charles breathed a sigh of relief.

Carrion walked to a room next door and came back after a long time. He held a small object in his hand, and then walked to Charles and handed it to Charles. "My friend, what is this?"

Charles took it, a piece of porcelain?

He looked at it carefully, and then asked tentatively, "A piece of Sevres porcelain? Judging from the style, it should be almost a century ago..."

[Sevres is a famous ceramic production area in France. Since the beginning of the 18th century, Europeans have cracked the secret of ceramic production, and monarchs of various countries immediately competed with each other in porcelain manufacturing. Everyone was poaching the porcelain experts of their opponents. In the end, the ceramic utensils of European countries have been greatly developed, and soon reached a level comparable to the quality of China, the place of origin. 】

The original text can be found in the Six # 9 @Books/Bar!

"Yes, you have a good eye. It is porcelain made in Sevres, and it was made for the king at that time." Carrion nodded, then took back the disk and explained it carefully to Charles, "All masterpieces from those famous places of origin have a mark. The base of the Frankenthal porcelain is marked with an abbreviation of heodore), two letters crossed together, and there is an elector's crown on it. Saxon porcelain is marked with two swords, and the number is gilded. Vincennes porcelain is marked with a horn pattern. The base of Vienna porcelain is marked with the letter v, with a horizontal line in the middle, which is closed. Berlin porcelain is marked with two horizontal red lines. Mainz porcelain is marked with a wheel. The one I gave you is Sevres porcelain. You see, there are two e's at the bottom), and And there is a crown on it..."

"Then this is indeed an antique, it can be worth some money, but it's just a drop in the bucket. What are you giving this to me?" Charles was a little surprised, and then looked at Carrion, until the other party showed a strange smile, Charles suddenly realized, "You mean... you mean, this..."

"That's right! Although this was fired in the porcelain kiln in Sevres, it is not an antique at all, and it has nothing to do with the poor beheaded king..." Carrion smiled very happily, with the kind of smile full of accomplishment that is common among cultural relics lovers and fraudsters, "You have to be careful, this is a good thing we spent a lot of effort to make, the price is not cheap!"

Cultural relics fraud! Good guy! So that's what happened.

Charles understood it in his heart all of a sudden.

In this era, it can be said that France is the leader of European fashion, and France's cultural influence is extremely high. Therefore, its artworks are naturally very famous. Not only does it have a large number of collectors in the country, but even wealthy people from all over Europe are flocking to it. Especially the wealthy people in the **, who like to buy some "French antiques" to take home to show off.

But where can there be so many antiques to sell? Moreover, isn't it more worry-free and labor-saving and more profitable to forge antiques?

So the business of forging antiques also came into being in France. In view of the huge profits and hidden names, the Bonapartists naturally used it as a way to generate income without hesitation. There were special people responsible for forging antiques, and other special people were responsible for selling them, realizing a one-stop service of manufacturing, distribution, and transportation.

Charles took the disk again and observed it carefully, and found that... it was indeed quite realistic.

"Good stuff!"

At this moment, Charles even felt that if the rebellion failed, the organization could also make a small fortune in this way.

"Thank you for your compliment!" Carrion nodded, "Look, this can be used as a little money, right?"

His meaning was obvious, he was going to give Charles a batch of such forged porcelain antiques to sell as activity funds.

Well... it's better than nothing...

Charles nodded reluctantly, but he was not completely satisfied.

He stood up and glanced around, and then found a good thing.

A fan.

A fan in the style of Louis XV, with a gorgeous landscape painting on the fan, smooth and beautiful, as if it was painted by Watteau. The wooden fan ribs are smooth and have a soft luster, just like Madame Pompadour touched it.

Although it is definitely fake, it is beautiful enough, and Fran will definitely like it.

"Hey! Put it down! That's a replica I made by myself. I spent a lot of money to buy the materials, not to sell it!" Carrion's voice was a little exasperated.

"This is my reward." Charles turned around and looked at Carrion firmly, "She is mine." (To be continued)