Flowers, Swords and France

Not bad, very good. .

After a careful inspection, Charles came to this conclusion.

He strolled through the rooms, looking at the papers and printing machines placed everywhere, quietly feeling the atmosphere. The smell of ink in the air did not make him feel uncomfortable at all, but instead gave him an indescribable sense of intimacy. Under the impetus of this intimacy, he could not help but reach out and gently touch the machine in front of him that had been worn out by time and ink and had lost its luster, without caring whether it might dirty his hands.

"Charles, how is it?" His good friend Albert de Foa-Grai followed him and asked him with a smile, "I said I can help you find it, right?"

As usual, this young man was dressed elegantly, wearing a black velvet hat, and had the kind of ostentatious and exaggerated look that is common in social circles.

However, Charles knew that, unlike this appearance, he was very reliable when doing things - today's incident was another new proof.

Whether it was from the experience of two lives or years of experience, Charles certainly understood the importance of mastering the public opinion machine. So after he made a fortune, he resolutely decided to control a newspaper that belonged only to him, so that he could seize the commanding heights of public opinion when needed in the future.

In order to achieve this goal, he had asked his friends to find out for him which newspapers were waiting to be sold recently.

Thanks to the current economic trend, all walks of life are now in a depression, and the newspaper industry is naturally no exception. Sales have been declining. So Albert didn't spend much effort to find several alternative newspapers.

And the newspaper they came to today was like this. The owner of the newspaper has fallen into financial difficulties. In order to pay off some debts that are about to expire, he decided to sell his newspaper, which is not making much money, at a low price in order to get some working funds to cope with turnover.

After Charles' observation, this newspaper has already met his requirements. The owner is eager to get money, so the price is not high; the location is also good, and the surrounding environment is also OK.

Moreover. Although the newspaper is not large, it has everything and has a team. After years of experience, this team has already mastered the skills of building word fortresses and word fogs, and is ready to wait for the boss to inject ideas. What's more, no matter what the idea is, as long as it can be sold, they don't care whether it is good or bad.

"Okay, this is it. I'm too lazy to continue to look at each one." After pondering for a moment, Charles made a decision.

"That's great." After hearing his words, Albert secretly breathed a sigh of relief. After all, he didn't want to spend his precious time on the boring things of looking at newspapers one by one.

However, in a serious and responsible attitude, he still suggested to Charles again.

"Let's take a closer look to avoid any problems. If you want to regret after paying, you won't have a chance..."

"You're right, I'll be careful." Charles replied in a low voice, "But basically, it should be here."

Then, they returned to the editorial office and exchanged a few words with the long-awaited newspaper owner.

Although Charles had made up his mind, and although the July Monarchy's originally strict newspaper control was relaxed a lot after the February Revolution, the transfer transaction of this newspaper could not be completed with just a word, and there were still many legal steps to go through. Moreover, for the sake of safety. When the transfer contract was finally signed, a notary public had to be invited to notarize it, so Charles only finalized the details of the transaction with him, but did not complete the final transaction.

Despite this, Charles was still in a very good mood when he left the newspaper office. Because this will be the first industry he has accumulated in this era!

"You seem very happy, my friend?" Albert smiled and teased as he walked along the street full of gravel.

"Of course."

"To be honest, I find it hard to understand you." Albert looked into the distance, as if waving to someone he knew, "You took so many risks. You finally got so much money, but you don't want to spend it on a good time, but you have to make yourself so much trouble. Why is this?"

"Because..." Charles gave his own response, "With the help of this tool, I can find more and greater enjoyment for myself."

"What kind of enjoyment can people get from running a newspaper?" Albert's face was getting more and more confused. "Anyway, I only see trouble."

"The fun is naturally in trouble." Charles replied.

His words made Albert frown, obviously difficult to understand, but in the end he relaxed his brows again.

"Okay, okay, since this is your money, you can spend it however you like," he shook his head to show that he had no intention of dwelling on this issue, "but it sounds like you have your own ideas on how to run this newspaper?"

"I don't have any ideas, but I do have some ideas..." Charles immediately talked about his ideas to his friends, "Now is an era of extremes. Whether it is speech or newspapers, it must be extreme. It must be extreme. This way Only then will there be people paying attention and applauding. If you want to be conservative, just be conservative. It makes people want to go back to the Stone Age. If you want liberalism, you have to be so liberal that you want to burn all the political axes right now! I plan to let me preach some extreme remarks every day. The more people can quarrel with each other, the better! , this way I can build my own reputation, and then I will slowly..."

"Come on, okay, it's up to you, you can torture those poor editors and reporters as much as you want!" After hearing his old friend's long talk again, Albert immediately stopped the topic, "Let's go have a few drinks first. ?”

"Not today, I have somewhere to go in the afternoon." Charles rejected the other party's proposal, then took out his pocket watch and checked the time.

"Ha, my friend, you have become a very busy man!" Albert exclaimed exaggeratedly, "Now the country can't help but be without you?"

"Not yet." Charles replied seriously, "But after a while, I won't be able to say for sure."

"Hahahaha, Charles..." His answer made Albert couldn't help laughing, "I just like your serious sense of humor!"

Smiling, he seemed to suddenly remember something.

"By the way, Ciel, there's something I forgot to tell you."

"What's going on?"

"Do you remember that Mr. Andrei Bezukhov?" Albert lowered his voice, "He came to see me the day before yesterday, hoping to see you again..."

"Want to see me?" Charles frowned, "What's the matter? If it's what happened last time, then you can help me reject him. I don't want to do it now, and I don't have time to do it."

Charles had only done it twice in partnership with the Russian gentleman to sell fake antiques. Now that he could devour the national wealth, he no longer needed to use this method to raise small amounts of money. Moreover, Karion and others have stopped doing this work due to the political situation, so even if he wanted to, he couldn't do it.

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

"You are really a busy man! However, he is looking for you not just for that one thing..." Albert's voice lowered, "Listen to what he said, he has recently found a new path. , I want to sum it up with you.”

"Huh?" Charles was a little surprised, "What does he want to do?"

"When he told me, he didn't go into great detail." Albert leaned into Charles's ear, "But it seems like he wanted to take advantage of the loopholes in the law."

"What do you mean?" Charles' curiosity became more and more serious.

"It's grain imports." Albert gave the answer and then explained, "According to what he means, he found a loophole in the law that can make us all make a lot of money!"

"Importing grain?!" When he heard this, Charles couldn't help but trembled.

He quickly pulled Albert to the corner of the street, and then asked more questions.

"What does this mean?"

No wonder he was so alarmed.

In order to protect the interests of farmers, successive French governments have actually implemented protectionist policies, using tariffs and legal weapons to restrict the import of grains. In some years, they even completely banned the import of wheat to maintain the stability of the domestic agricultural product market. And behind the forcibly maintained high prices, there is one thing hidden - profit.

"He told me that he had carefully studied the laws of our government—thank you for his care, as a Frenchman I have never even glanced at our code!—and then he found a big loophole..." Albert whispered. He explained, "He discovered that the gentlemen of the government banned the import of grains, not grain products... In other words, as long as the grains are processed - such as starch, they can be imported into the country. , and it’s not illegal.”

Charles listened quietly to his narration without saying a word.

"You also know that Count Bezukhov's family is a famous big landowner in Russia. They can harvest countless crops in a year. If they sell it locally, they can't make much money, so he plans to find us, and then... ..." Albert paused intentionally, "He plans to open a factory next to his family's manor, and then turn all the wheat into starch, and then ship it directly from Odessa and sell it all here! "

"So, he just wants to find someone in France to take over his goods?" Charles asked calmly.

Albert shrugged slightly.

"My friend, why did you remember to tell me?" Charles complained in a low voice.

"Uh, sorry..." Albert was a little embarrassed, "I drank too much that night."

"Okay, okay, it doesn't matter, there is still time." Charles sighed softly, "Where is he now? I must see him."

"I knew you had time again now..." Albert also sighed.