Flowers, Swords and France

"So, you are unwilling to accept my terms of reconciliation?"

The Duke's question, which was full of ultimatums, made Charles feel horrified.

To be honest, before coming to visit, Charles was originally worried that the other party would fight with force rather than with literature, and use physical education instead of persuasion education. However, after careful consideration, he still felt that he should not be so angry over this matter. Get started.

Moreover, during the conversation, the distance between Ciel and the Duke was extremely short. Even if there was a wall or secret passage with hundreds of musketeers, Ciel could immediately rush forward to capture the thief and the king.

In this case, even if the worst happens, Ciel should have no problem taking the initiative to deal with his waning cousin first.

Thinking of this, Charles relaxed a little,

"You are right." Then Charles chose to show off his cards directly, "I came to visit you today just to discuss a solution with you - of course, the premise is that Miss Leolan must be welcomed back immediately, and in her own capacity Live on."

"Can."

"If you don't agree, I will..." Charles continued speaking based on what he had in mind, and then finally came to his senses, "Huh? You..."

"Okay, I don't care where Miss Leolan and I end up. She will come back if she likes. I don't care." The Duke's old face was full of indifference, as if he was wearing a delicate mask.

"But aren't you the one working hard to deprive her of her property rights?" Charles questioned.

The Duke did not answer, but continued to look at Charles with an indifferent expression.

After a moment, Ciel suddenly realized. "You mean that as long as you get the conditions you deserve, you won't stop me from letting Mademoiselle Leolan return to Paris?"

"This has nothing to do with me in the first place. I just need to complete the promised marriage and get the money that was agreed upon for me." The Duke said matter-of-factly.

"But if you can't get the inheritance, will the Leolan family still marry you?" Charles was still questioning.

After a moment he understood the Duke's unspoken subtext.

"As long as Mademoiselle Leolan agrees to transfer her inherited property to her brother..."

The Duke didn't answer, which seemed to be his acquiescence.

Ciel pondered. It seems that this is the bottom line of the negotiation raised by the Duke.

"Generally speaking, no matter how docile and kind-hearted a person is, a person would not easily give up the millions of wealth already in his pocket, right?" Charles seemed to be saying to himself.

"It seems so." The Duke nodded in agreement.

Didn't you say nothing in the end?

Anger flashed through Ciel's heart. He doesn't want to talk nonsense to the other party anymore.

"Then we have nothing to talk about. It seems I have to take my leave. By the way, starting tomorrow, the press will reveal everything about you and the Leolan family. I want to see what else you can do. Deprive her of the property she deserves!"

Ciel began to threaten, then turned and walked away.

When he reached the door, the Duke finally spoke as he wished. "Too anxious, young man."

"Do you have anything else to say?" Charles came back.

"Sir, you've got us - I don't know how you did it, but you've got it. You can make a fool of us. And, it looks like you might. Destroy my plan..." The Duke analyzed calmly. "So what do you mean, you want me to bear this loss silently?"

"Of course I didn't mean it."

"But that's what you said."

Ciel suddenly laughed.

"After all, why do you have to marry Sister Charlotte to Count Leolan? I know that he has neither talent nor looks. He is not a reliable marriage partner at all."

"But at least he has a good surname, and he doesn't want a dowry." The Duke did not refute Charles's comments about Count Leolan.

"You just said something wrong." Charles suddenly changed the subject.

"What?" The Duke raised his eyebrows.

"You said that poor Mademoiselle Léoland still doesn't know that she is the heir to a large inheritance. This is wrong." Charles said slowly.

The Duke looked at Charles.

"That's right, it was me who let her know." Charles smiled broadly, "This lady is quite scheming. Although she was rushed to the convent, she still used her private money to bribe the old nun inside. To deliver a message to her. This is how my sister received her letter for help..."

"You went to find her?" the Duke asked with interest, his taste no longer as bland as before.

"That lady has promised me that as long as anyone can save her from the terrible tragedy of fate, she is willing to pay a reward of three hundred thousand francs."

"Just a promise?"

"She wrote the IOU."

"She wrote you an IOU directly?"

"Yes, in her current situation, aren't you afraid that I will break my promise? Anyway, she won't be worse off." Charles explained with a chuckle. "I told her that now her parents are close to succeeding in depriving her of her legitimate rights. If she does nothing, she can only continue to live in the convent until her death; if she does as I say, I can let her return to Paris and live a happy life. The life of a millionaire. A girl with some brains knows how to choose, especially after suffering so much... So she followed my instructions and wrote this IOU to fund my activities - of course. , I never mentioned your name..."

"Three hundred thousand?" the Duke repeated, seeming to be thinking about something.

"You just sat here and made three hundred thousand francs in vain, so why should you hesitate? It's not like Charlotte has no other marriage partners to find. There are still opportunities, right?"

"What about you? You don't want anything?"

"Yes, I don't want anything. I just need to complete the task assigned to me by the client." Charles looked directly at the Duke. "I don't know the composition of this inheritance yet, so I can't give you an exact means of payment and payment date - after all, it is a bit troublesome to realize real estate. However, since there is an undoubted IOU, I guess the person You can’t deny it, right?”

"This inheritance mainly consists of bank deposits, long-term treasury bonds and bank notes. It would be quite convenient to pay or transfer..." The Duke fell into thought.

[French long-term government bonds are bearer and are very easy to transfer. 】

As expected, this old guy has already completed the investigation!

Ciel stopped talking and allowed the other party to think about it.

Not long after, the Duke smiled, and his old face showed the kind smile that an elder would have when seeing an outstanding nephew.

"Good job Ciel."

This was the first time he called Ciel that.

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

"I hope I can be of help to you, cousin." Charles smiled back at him like a nephew would for his elders.

"Now that the big deal has been decided, it's time to hurry up!" The Duke's smile quickly faded. "I will contact the court immediately to confirm Miss Leolan's inheritance rights as soon as possible..."

Charles took out a piece of paper from his pocket and put it on the Duke's desk.

For this piece of paper, he will be more active than Charles in implementing Miss Leolan's property inheritance.

"Very good." The Duke put the note into his drawer, then raised his head and looked at the tall, thin and gentle grandnephew in front of him. "Char, you deserve the name Treville."

Charles bowed and bowed. "Thanks."

"Would you like to stay for dinner tonight?" the Duke suddenly asked, "Actually, Charlotte looks pretty good..."

Has this guy turned his target on me?

"I have an appointment with someone tonight, let's talk about it next time..." Charles declined with a smile, "Then, I'll take my leave now."

"Be careful on the road."

In this way, under the slightly blurred moonlight, Charles left the residence of Duke Treville.

What Ciel wants is not some kind of reward, or in other words, his sister's gratitude is already the best reward for him.

Moreover... there is a deeply hidden reason.

Relying on the relationship he built this time, Charles felt that the realization of the plan to "win over Duke Treville and others" previously agreed upon in secret talks was no longer out of reach. Using someone else's 300,000 yuan to buy himself a big favor, Xiaer suddenly felt that his recent luck had been extremely good. Could it have started to change?

If France can be used as a reward, the risk taken this time is actually negligible, right?

In the future, in order to realize our dreams, there will definitely be many life-and-death moments that need to be overcome. We will also have to overcome difficulties and obstacles that are more risky than this.

However, the dream of leading the French nation through the doomed fate of 1870 is getting closer and more promising.

May God bless France!

Ciel looked up at the hazy night sky.

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After reading the book reviews, I found that some readers thought it was too rash for the protagonist to go to the Duke for a showdown. He thinks that the two people have different positions and are enemies. If this happens again, their lives may be in danger.

It is good to have discussions, but we must reject abusive remarks.

In fact, the problem is not that serious.

First of all, the book has explained that the Duke has basically withdrawn from politics, and is now equivalent to the role of a state advisor - he no longer has decision-making power, is far away from the core political leadership, and is not able to kill anyone he wants because of money. status (even regardless of kinship).

As for the assassination and the like, I can only say that I have watched too many gangster movies. If you really want to be the protagonist, you will have no party or friends? If the Bonapartists are all soft persimmons who can be killed if they want, how can they still rebel? People’s hearts are not all gone…

In addition, it is true that the protagonist and the Duke have opposing political stances, but it is not to the point of life and death.

The bloody turmoil of the French Revolution gave the upper class too terrifying memories, so later on, the upper class became naturally wary of the rebellion of the poor.

Later, in the political struggle, the French upper class formed a situation of fighting but not breaking, and you are among me and you are among me (some of the aristocrats support the Bonaparte family, while some of the bourgeoisie support the king. In the book This is the case with the Treville family. ), the power struggle within the upper class has become much more restrained and less bloody than during the Revolution.

In the revolution of 1830, the Orleans faction that seized power did not exterminate the Bourbon family, but only announced their exile from France; in the revolution of 1848, the power-seizing faction did not exterminate the Orleans faction, but only expelled the Orleans royal family from France and let them Their important figures lost their power and became idle. For example, several leaders of the Orleans faction (Thiers, Guizot, etc.) lived well through the Second Empire; the new revolution of 1870, Bonaparte The royal family just left France.

However, please do not misunderstand. The internal compromise of the upper class does not mean that the upper class has given up the sword. On the contrary, they are more willing to raise the butcher knife and unite to suppress the lower class.

The Second and Third French Republics were both oligarchic republics established after the massacre of the poor. Especially in 1871, they bloodbathed Paris street by street and district by district, slaughtering tens of thousands of people. In order to get 100,000 soldiers to suppress and massacre the proletariat, they surrendered to Prussia and paid 5 billion francs in compensation, which is more than 650 million taels of silver converted into huge compensation (because the value of silver fluctuated violently in the 19th century, this is the lowest value, and it can actually be much higher than 650 million taels), and higher than the "Xin Chou Treaty" - the French also have their own political logic of "preferring to be friendly with foreign countries rather than domestic slaves".

Therefore, in the eyes of the current duke, although the protagonist is the annoying Bonapartist, it is still the "internal contradiction of the people" of the upper class, and it will not rise to the height of life and death struggle.

If the protagonist says "I am a die-hard revolutionary party, long live the great proletarian union!", then his uncle who has a blood feud with the revolutionary party will really do everything he can to get rid of him, because this is a "life-and-death class struggle".

Well, the word count is successful =. =