Flowers, Swords and France

After explaining the remaining matters to Charles, Joseph Bonaparte also left directly. Charles sent him to the door of the small courtyard with great courtesy. Before leaving, he told Charles the last words, and his expression seemed very satisfied with the gains of the night.

"Charles, I have finished all the things I want to do in France this time, and the rest is up to you. It's up to you!" He patted Charles's shoulder gently to show his affection, "My cousin and I absolutely believe in your ability."

"Thank you for your support." Charles seemed to answer respectfully, and then watched Joseph Bonaparte leave with satisfaction.

Charles kept looking at Joseph Bonaparte's back expressionlessly, until he confirmed that the man had disappeared in the shadows on the corner of the street, he slowly retracted his gaze.

It was already early in the morning, but Charles was not tired at all.

Although it was late autumn and the night temperature had dropped a lot, Charles, who was wearing thin clothes, didn't notice it. He slowly walked back to the place where the three of them had just gathered, and then sat back quietly, thinking about everything he had experienced tonight.

The arrogant and resolute speech of the banker Baron Bovan still rang in his ears at this time, making Charles deeply feel the power of the French financiers of this era.

Charles could not stop his plan, and had no intention of stopping it. He even agreed to participate and share some of the leftovers between banks, willingly being bought by the bankers. He had already abandoned the subconscious hesitation just now - Baron Bovan had ridiculed this hesitation as a "ridiculous moral obstacle" - he knew that his position at this time could only take this path, and he did not regret it.

Joseph Bonaparte's proud and complacent look as he talked to himself about the "art of ruling" and "emperorship" just now still lingers in Charles' mind, making him smile bitterly and look down on him.

Yes, perhaps because the lesson of his genius uncle's stubbornness and arbitrariness that led to his betrayal and the fall of the empire was too profound, the next generation of the Bonaparte family paid special attention to playing tricks, fearing that they would accidentally ruin the empire they had finally regained.

To a certain extent, it can be said that they did follow Machiavelli's teachings as a guideline for action, so they were too particular about tactics and flexibility, but lacked a real "purpose".

This characteristic was even more vividly reflected in the future when Napoleon III ruled the country.

In the later imperial rule, on the surface, his administration had the color of "republic" conceived by the early Enlightenment thinkers, and was even scolded by some opponents as "republicans wearing crowns." His dynasty was the one with the most referendums in all European countries at that time. His biggest hobby was to play himself as "the executor of the government", "the friend of the people", and "the merciful emperor of the French people".

However, in reality, he secretly implemented an extremely cunning way of governing, using the skin of "government" to promote his delusional (sometimes even fanciful) policies. What he said was completely different from what he did, and what he did today was often different from what he did yesterday. Therefore, people often confused and couldn't figure out whether he was really smart or confused.

Former British Prime Minister Palmerston once secretly ridiculed him: "The ideas in his mind multiply as fast as a nest of rabbits."

Various ideas multiply like rabbits, but they often fail to grasp the key points. This is the biggest shortcoming of Napoleon III.

To be fair, a ruler who wants to govern a country sometimes has to have some tricks. In this sense, Napoleon III is indeed a great hero of his generation.

However, the goal of politicians playing tricks should not be for the sake of tricks themselves, but to use tricks to consolidate their political position and implement the policies they want to implement. Napoleon III did a good job in playing political conspiracies and tricks and balancing his ministers, but when countries really clash, national strength is the most basic and important weight.

The tragedy of Napoleon III is that in the second half of the 19th century, he still only wanted to play Machiavelli's tricks. Although sometimes he needed to play, he relied purely on tricks and ended up with a defeat at Sedan and the demise of the empire in front of the surging German army of millions (of course, Bismarck himself was also a master of tricks, so there is no need to elaborate).

But unfortunately, except for the time traveler, no one knows what will happen in the future.

Therefore, the future Prince Joseph Bonaparte can complacently show and brag about the "art of ruling" in front of Charles, and also want to pull the Treville family into his loyal subordinates.

When Charles thought of this, he couldn't help laughing again, but soon he couldn't laugh anymore. He wisely realized a more serious problem, a problem that must be worried about.

He would become rich because of the decision of the Bonaparte family, but he would become a "villain" in the eyes of the people because of the decision of the Bonaparte family. Although the actual situation is indeed so, the biggest barrier of villains is to hide in the sun like Baron Bovan. It is not a good thing to rashly become the target of public criticism.

What did Joseph Bonaparte say?

"We must ascend the throne with a clear conscience, and we must rule France with a clear conscience. Only the emperor's servants can squeeze the people, not the emperor himself."

So who will be the "Emperor's evil servant"?

It can only be the great annihilator Treville, the evil boss Xia, who can't escape these titles.

Charles is not worried about his bad reputation. What would a bourgeois fighter be afraid of?

He is worried about such a difficult problem - will such a great annihilator Treville, who has a bad reputation, become a victim of the emperor's manipulation of power in the future? Will he become the emperor's tool to quell the rebellion?

He put himself in the shoes of others and thought about it for a while, and then came to a conclusion.

Yes.

In the future, when it is necessary to make a decision to sacrifice Charles, the Bonaparte family who likes to play tricks - whether it is Louis Bonaparte who has not met yet, or Joseph Bonaparte who has met several times and has become a good ally - will hesitate for a few seconds for the loyalty of the Treville family for many years?

Charles continued to put himself in the shoes of others and thought for a moment, and then came to the same conclusion.

Maybe there will be some hesitation, but at most it will be only a few seconds.

Is the Bonaparte family's hesitation of a few seconds of time of any value to Charles de Treville?

No, it is meaningless.

He gave himself a direct answer.

To be fair, it is too early to worry about this situation now. No matter how outrageous the Bonaparte family is, they still need Charles' "loyal" supporters to support them, and they will not do it in a very ugly way before that. And after taking office, no matter what, they still have to give these supporters some carrots first, so as not to disappoint the people who helped them to the position. Therefore, in the near future, what Charles is afraid of will probably not happen.

But what if we consider the long term?

Reason tells Charles that in the long run, the probability of such a thing happening will be very high.

At least Charles himself does not have the confidence to gamble his own wealth and glory on the future prosperity of the Bonaparte family.

The original text is in the six # 9 @book/bar!

Therefore, Charles also strengthened his previous determination. He must not completely rely on his loyalty to the Bonaparte family, but needs to make other preparations for his future as early as possible. At least he should make himself reach the point where the Bonaparte family cannot easily abandon him.

However, no matter what, "making plans for yourself early" and "making a fortune first" are not contradictory, and it can even be said that the latter is a necessary condition for the former. Moreover, the trust of the Bonaparte family is still indispensable to Charles at this time. Therefore, Charles believes that he should not only participate in the banker's plan, but also do it well and try to accumulate more capital for his future.

Even if the worst-case scenario occurs, at least it is better to have a large sum of money when escaping abroad than to have no money at all, right? Charles is not interested in learning to repair shoes for ten years in a foreign country like his grandfather - well, this is a cold joke...

In this way, in the cool breeze of late autumn, Charles carefully sorted out his current situation, then thought about the future, and made a decision for the future.

Then he walked out of the small courtyard, and then walked along the rather dilapidated street for dozens of meters, and came to the entrance of a deep alley.

"Albert, come out, I'm fine!" He called softly.

Charles's friend Albert de Foa-Gray slowly walked out from the depths of the alley.

Seeing that Charles came alone and was dressed neatly, he smiled easily.

"My friend, it seems that you are just a false alarm."

"Yes, a false alarm." Charles nodded.

Because he was afraid that Baron Bovan had set a trap for him and secretly pitted him, Charles not only brought people with him when he made the arrangements in advance, but also secretly arranged Albert as a helper for safety - although Charles thought that Baron Bovan would not do this, it was still right to be cautious.

And Albert was really nice. When he heard that it was a request related to Charles' life, he immediately followed Charles here without saying a word, and waited quietly in the cool breeze for several hours. However, even if he came to do this kind of thing, he was still dressed elegantly tonight, as if he was attending a banquet. He really has the professional spirit of a playboy...

The two young men slowly walked along the street and left the block.

"That Mr. Andrei Bezukhov is really good. Yesterday he told me that he had asked someone to transport the things to **. It seems that he will make a fortune this time." Albert suddenly muttered in a low voice, "This guy is so happy now. He even invited us to a class yesterday."

"It doesn't matter, Albert, I will be rich soon." Charles replied in a low voice, "Then you will be rich soon."

"Really?" Albert replied without comment, "I hope so."

It must be so.

Charles did not continue the topic, but changed the direction. "My friend, how about we go to Mr. Leflair's house for dinner tomorrow?"

"Okay!" Albert agreed, "I had a great time that day. It was delicious. I miss it." (To be continued)