Flowers, Swords and France

Seeing that his sister was in a rare good mood, Charles was quite happy. In addition, he was indeed a little tired, so after he returned to his bedroom, Charles quickly fell into a deep sleep until He woke up only the next morning.

After sweeping away the fatigue from last night, Ciel felt refreshed in the early morning, and his mind was even running much faster. After he got up, he freshened himself up, had some breakfast, and then left his home and rushed to his place of work at the War Department.

Along the way, he kept signaling to the staff he met, and then came to his office. His own secretary was already waiting here, handing over a large pile of documents that needed to be processed by him according to their importance. He handles it.

Ciel took the documents and read them one by one.

Unlike the Ministry of Railways where he could designate secretaries at will, after he arrived at the Ministry of War, his secretary was designated by the ministry. This not only made it easier for him to get involved in work, but also made it difficult for him to really get involved in work. Naturally, , this secretary is also the kind of middle-aged man with a cold and unsmiling expression. Communication with him always makes Charles feel dull and stiff, so the two of them don't say much outside of work. Charles even No one knows his family situation. This speechless interaction between superiors and subordinates suddenly made him miss his former full-time secretary Clément in the Ministry of Railways. However, now that Clément has been appointed by him as a close confidant, there is nothing wrong with him. That’s easy to say.

Although the entire office is spacious, it is also deserted. There are no female staff inside or outside to lighten the mood.

In this era, in addition to working as low-level female workers (and many also work part-time as vagrants). It is extremely rare for women to go out and do some office work. It is even regarded as a bad behavior of "stealing men's job opportunities" and is not accepted by society.

Moreover, at this time, European government bureaucracies were not yet large enough to employ an army of typists and clerical staff to handle the vast amounts of documents, so Charles had no choice but to do the same as his colleagues. Unable to endure the days without a female secretary at work, Charles had no choice but to devote himself to his work.

However, although there are mountains of documents that need to be handled by him, as a layman-turned-government worker, there are actually not many actual matters that need to be handled by him in the Army Department. Of course he does not need to deal with military personnel transfer, logistics management, weapons manufacturing and other matters. Instead, he is responsible for a lot of documents related to the government and parliament - in other words, it is an insignificant clerical work. This feeling of being intentionally restricted made Ciel deeply feel a certain sense of not being valued, a feeling he had not felt for a long time. I don’t want to continue to adapt.

………………

"I am deeply dissatisfied with the Army's xenophobia. I have shown it many times. Even if I have never served, I am still a friend of the Army. Why do I still do this?" Charles said lightly in the afternoon sunshine. He gently picked up the tea cup in front of him and drank the black tea in it. "I feel that I am not accepted by you at all. This is not okay, it is not good for all of us, and it will affect all of our work."

"This is because you suddenly gained a high position despite your junior qualifications. It is too enviable, sir." But with a malicious sneer, Viscount Alex de Lautrec calmly drank the glass of wine. Black Tea, "Besides, why should I listen to you? Are you smart? As far as I am concerned, you are just an outsider." Just a pedestrian. What you know about the army is just that you know some battle names, you know the uniforms and medals, but you don't know that the army is essentially a complicated digital job, and it's full of mud and death. If such laymen interfere too much in the affairs of the Army, it will be a disaster in itself.”…

"This layman knows at least one thing, and that is that our promising Vicomte de Lautrec is a disgusting and perverted transvestite." Perhaps he was a little dissatisfied with the other party's airy appearance, Charles suddenly laughed.

Charles's sudden taunt made Vicomte Lautrec instantly widen his eyes. His soft brown eyes and slender eyebrows formed an expression of anger. His face turned red, and he looked like he was holding his breath with the black tea still in his throat, and he wanted to cough but couldn't.

With great difficulty, he drank the remaining black tea in his mouth with a rumbling sound, and then looked at Charles quite angrily, "Didn't you agree not to mention this here?"

In such a state of desperation, he forgot to use the aristocratic title "you" and instead used the contemptuous "you", completely losing his usual proud demeanor.

"I can do this if your attitude is a little more cooperative." Charles replied with a smile, and his heart was filled with a sense of malicious pleasure. "It's a pity that I don't think you have felt it yet. We are people who stand together, and...I am one level above you.”

After hearing Ciel's ridicule, Alex's breathing became rapid. His slender fingers tightly grasped the tea cup in his hand, as if he wanted to pour the tea over and do something.

However, after a while, he managed to regain his composure.

"Okay, okay, sir, I understand."

"That's good." Ciel smiled and shrugged.

Ciel knew that the other party was dissatisfied with his method of "seizing the opportunity to threaten and force him onto the chariot", but he didn't care at all - it didn't matter whether the method was despicable or not, as long as it was easy to use. "So, now the situation is clear, my friend, I want to win the favor of the Army Department, but the current progress is a bit disappointing, so... you have to find a way for me, help me, this is a question for you An irresistible request."

"Isn't the current situation bad? Why do you have to do this?" Viscount Lautrec asked, "According to the current situation, you can gain qualifications and fame here. No one is against you, and no one is specifically following you. If you are against it, you can continue to do so safely. Everyone will act tacitly and will never hinder the plans of you and Mr. President..."

"But I don't accept this result. I want to do more." Ciel replied calmly. "The country needs me to do a mountain of things, and because of that, I have to have more support from the Army than..."

Charles paused, then added softly, "Just treat me as an insignificant follower of the president."

After hearing what Charles said, Viscount Lautrec opened his eyes wide again - after all, this could not be regarded as a statement of loyalty in any case.

After a moment, he finally sneered.

"Haha... After all, my surname is de Treville, so it's really extraordinary... Hahahaha..."

Ciel looked at him quietly and smiled, he was not afraid of what the other party would do.

After laughing for a while, the section chief finally raised his head again.

"Okay, okay, now that you've said that, what else do I have to say."

Then he took another sip of tea and thought carefully.

"In general, what do you want to do through us? We officials are just executors..."

"You are unfettered executors. The Army has been doing its own thing for many years." Charles's expression was as calm as ever. "No one could control you back then, and even more so now. The minister is now the prime minister, but the two He can't take care of everything, and everyone knows he won't last long. Besides, he has reached a tacit agreement with us that he will never hinder our actions, but he doesn't intend to take the initiative to do anything for us, so you can actually do it. Anything you want to do, right?

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

Viscount Lautrec was speechless by Charles' questioning, but he finally nodded.

"Well, to a certain extent you are right, but...do you want to make any changes to this? If so, I would like to advise you that this is a very dangerous move, and I think you understand it yourself. "

"Of course I understand." Ciel sighed.

Comprehensively reforming the entire military would be too big a move and currently unnecessary - at least he doesn't want to do it now.

Although this is something that must be done, if we make a declaration like "we want to hold the reins of the army" now, it will only push the entire army into the hands of their political opponents.

However, being unable to do so does not mean that he cannot and should not leave some of his own marks and some prestige in the army during this term of office, at least that is what he thinks.

"Alex, you know, under my leadership, we recently held a military exercise in Le Mans."

"Well, yes, I know." Alex nodded. "I heard the effect is very satisfactory?"

"The effect is pretty good," Ciel frowned, "but in fact I also found a lot of problems."

"Huh? What do you say?"

"There are many problems, and I will summarize them one by one later. But one of the most troublesome problems is that our army's current standard weapons are too backward and are far from suitable for this new era of great development in science and technology." Charles Looking at each other quietly, "Yes, what I mean is that I want to push the Army to adopt a new rifle, a new weapon that can greatly improve the combat effectiveness of infantry."

"Oh?" Alex looked at Ciel suspiciously.

"We already have this kind of weapon, but it's just not taken seriously. I hope that during my term of office, this kind of weapon can be included in the army's weapons procurement sequence, and at least some troops can use this kind of weapon." Ciel's tone was very firm, "This is an idea that must be completed. Until it is completed, I will never hesitate or shrink, and I will not allow you to do so. Find a way for me, Alex."