Flowers, Swords and France

"The troops led by General de Treville have achieved a decisive victory, and victory in Rome is in sight."

When Charles received this news, it had been almost two days since his grandfather, the Marquis de Treville, won a great victory. Although it seemed very slow from a modern perspective, this speed had made him foresee it before most people in France.

After reading it, he put the note on his desk and rang the bell on the desk.

The door opened immediately.

A young man walked in quickly, his footsteps were suppressed very lightly, and then he looked at Charles with an extremely humble look, ignoring the fact that the man opposite was the same age as himself.

"Do you have any instructions, sir?"

His name is Clement Lechinski, and he is Charles' full-time secretary. Although Charles himself is theoretically a secretary in the ministry, he can indeed be equipped with his own secretary.

"Clement, as usual, please help me send this to the French News Agency!" Charles looked at the young man kindly, and then handed him the note, "I have to trouble you again, sorry..."

"Okay, sir, I'll be there in a minute." The young man took the note respectfully, and then carefully put it in his pocket, as if he didn't know that Charles was using his power for personal gain, "Do you have any other instructions?"

This young man has bright gray short hair and delicate features. He wears a long black coat and a white tie. His lips are tightly closed and serious. His figure is not so much thin as thin, like a college student who has just recovered from a long illness. His expression is between the listlessness of a person walking on the street and the thoughtfulness of a busy person. He seems to be a little worried, and he has the kind of meticulousness and rigidity that is almost harsh, which really makes people think he is an Englishman.

But his father is not from the west, but from the east - his father is a Polish exile who came to France in the 1920s. His father married a French girl and finally gave his child French nationality.

His father not only brought him into the world, but also had foresight. Although he did not earn him any wealth, he was wise enough not to let himself and his children get involved in the kind of fighting that Polish exiles usually had. Instead, he sent him to middle school and university and received a good education. After the child finally graduated, he asked for connections everywhere and finally sent his son to the government. And he passed the dangerous internship period. Then he became one of the tens of thousands of civil servants in the central department of the capital of this country.

[Since the Napoleonic Wars, Poland has completely fallen into the hands of the Russian Empire, and the Poles have always hoped to regain their independence. In 1830, inspired by the July Revolution in France, the Poles also launched an uprising, which was brutally suppressed by Tsar Nicholas I. Under the white terror of the Russian Empire, a large number of Poles who opposed the rule of the Tsar fled Poland and settled in France.

These Polish exiles were divided into two groups according to their political views. One group was the republican group, led by Professor Lelewel, and the other group was the aristocratic group, who advocated the continuation of the old system. The two groups, led by Prince Czartoryski, often argued endlessly. Sometimes they even fought. 】

However, for this young man, the protection from his father could only go so far. The young Mr. Clement Leczynski could only live on his own in this world full of flattery, jealousy, hatred and slander, and the young man also used all his talents and exhausted his heart and soul, and finally did not fall behind in this world. After a year or two of speculation and maneuvering, he finally established a firm foothold in his original ministry.

However, for a young man, what is this achievement? Slowly accumulating years of seniority, rising little by little, and finally becoming a small official who is just waiting to retire, this route is not suitable for a young man. After going through the initial polishing of entering the world, Clement Lechinsky's greatest ideal in this life is to become a full-time secretary of a minister or a big shot, and to become a big shot who has the final say in a certain ministry. For this, he is willing to do everything.

Of course, we have to explain here that in the current French political system, for a minister, the secretary assigned to him by the government or the party - whether it is a political secretary or a permanent secretary, is not a real secretary, but his political ally or even an opponent. Only his full-time secretary is a real secretary, adviser, and disciple. A full-time secretary is like a disciple to a minister, who is protected by the minister and shares the same fate with his protector. If the minister is favored by the king or emperor, or is very powerful in the parliament, he will bring this full-time secretary with him during his promotion and transfer, and let him participate in all his political plans and conspiracies, and even illegal acts. Otherwise, he will put them in a lucrative position in a certain unit of the agency - such as the accounting department, just like a shepherd herding sheep, to make a good living.

In order to realize this rather ambitious ideal, the young man opened his eyes wide and kept looking for opportunities to climb up. The chaotic year of 1848 did not wear out the ambition of the young man. Finally, he finally found a ray of hope for his own success after the election of President Louis Bonaparte at the end of the year.

At that time, the new government decided to establish a Ministry of Railways to be in charge of railway affairs. Naturally, this new department urgently needed to recruit a large number of manpower from other departments to enrich its own department. And because of the newly established relationship, many old officials had doubts and were reluctant to go. However, Clément felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so he used all his connections to squeeze into this ministry. In the end, after exhausting a lot of effort, I finally achieved this wish.

What made him even more excited was that as soon as he entered this department, he had great luck. He was spotted by one of the heads of the department, Mr. Charles de Treville, the Secretary of State, and was hired by him. Selected as his full-time secretary. This was a good thing that he had never dreamed of. I wonder how many people in the ministry envied his good luck!

In his excitement, he had privately guessed that the reason why Mr. de Treville chose him might be because he was the youngest and least established, but he would not reduce his respect for this young man because of this. respect and gratitude, because his future actually now depends on this person's care.

Yes, Charles de Treville is not a minister yet, but so what? He rose to great heights at such a young age and became a big shot in the ministry. What else could he not do? His surname is de Treville. He is a shrewd person and has a very good relationship with the minister. It is said that he is also appreciated by the president! If a person has so many things, will he still be afraid that he will not be able to achieve success in the future? ! Everyone said he had a great future, and Clement thought so too.

In short, this young man has regarded him as the foundation of his future development and the protector of his future. To a certain extent, he has even regarded him as an irresistible master who is willing to execute all his orders, regardless of whether they are reasonable or not. Although this kind of thing seems unbelievable, in fact it has happened frequently in governments at home and abroad in ancient and modern times - who said that cliques and personal allegiance are the most popular in the government?

"I have no other instructions for the time being." Charles still looked at his secretary very gently, "However, when I was chatting with your other staff recently, did you get any news?"

Like other departments, the staff and handymen of the newly established Ministry of Railways quickly formed their own work culture and places for private communication. They drank tea in a hall downstairs at noon every day, and then They exchange gossip about the ministry or scandals about their superiors. In order to roughly grasp the trends of people in the ministry, Charles often asks his subordinates to spy on the news.

"Not yet, sir." Clement replied still respectfully. "The minister is going to defend his case in parliament tomorrow, so his people have been preparing materials all day long and are very busy."

After hearing his answer, Charles picked up the coffee on the desk and took a sip gently, "So, where is Mr. Jean-Calvert?"

This Jean-Calvert was the director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce who severely swayed Charles at that time. He is now another big figure in the ministry who occupies the position of permanent secretary. When he first learned the news, Ciel was almost furious. It took him a while to calm down.

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

However, although he was very dissatisfied with this person, Charles could not do anything about this person for the time being - the reason why he was able to get this popular position unexpectedly seemed to be because he had a good relationship with a relative of Prime Minister Barrow. Because of this, with such a backer blocking the road, the Bonapartists who are not ready to fall out with the Cabinet of the Party of Order will certainly not have any conflict with him head-on.

After hearing this surname, Clement's face became more serious. Although he didn't know what his boss had to do with Calvert, but since he was Mr. de Treville's enemy, it was him. of enemies. So he has been secretly paying attention to information about the other party.

"They seem to be planning to revise the ministry's salary subsidy regulations now..." Clément lowered his voice, "It seems that they are going to raise salaries for the people in the ministry. The ministry has been rumored for a while, and everyone is worried about it." Very happy."

"Do you want to win people's hearts?" After hearing the news, Charles raised his eyebrows.

Then, he said nothing and waved slightly.

Clément understood and walked out quickly with the note given to him by Charles.

After Clement left, Charles sat in his seat and pondered for a moment, then stood up and walked out of the office, walking straight towards the office of the minister, Viscount Dilion. (To be continued...)