From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

"So, you've made up your mind?"

In the early morning of the next day, Lawrence received a report from the guard that a girl in ragged clothes and covered in dirt wanted to see him, and he knew that this was Xia Diya's choice.

Looking at Xia Diya sitting in front of him with a slight smile, Lawrence was not surprised by her choice.

Based solely on her personal interests, accepting Lawrence's solicitation would be of no harm to Xia Diya, not to mention that she also had the interests of nearly two hundred members of the bakery on her shoulders.

Being able to receive official funding is something that almost every party member is happy to see.

Driven by these factors, Lawrence was completely certain that Xia Diya would return to his desk.

"Yes, what you said really attracts us."

Xia Diya's expression was much calmer than yesterday, but judging from her haggard and tired look, she had probably been considering Lawrence's proposal all night.

Lawrence couldn't help but look at Xia Diya with approval. It seemed that the environment was indeed a decisive factor in a person's growth. This girl was really a smart person who could fight for her own power in a place like a slum.

In the conversation with Anna, Lawrence also roughly understood that this Xia Dia was indeed a person who valued love and justice, so after he took her mother to the Governor's Mansion, he didn't have to worry about her for a long time. Loyalty is a question.

However, for Lawrence, although he has officially brought this intelligence organization under his command, there is still some way to go before truly establishing a secret police.

Their loyalty and abilities have to be cultivated over time. Before they mature, Lawrence cannot directly hand them over the vital power of violent law enforcement and direct investigation.

Therefore, the current focus of Xiadia and her subordinates is still to help Lawrence collect and organize information from various sources. After recruiting them, the Bread Society can also follow Lawrence's instructions to collect a certain aspect of information. .

"I can see the potential in you, Xia Diya, this bread society will not be able to accommodate you in the future, so do your best."

Lawrence looked at Xia Diya seriously and said, although he did not say it clearly, his words already hinted that he would give her a more important position in the future.

Although Xia Diya had never been active in the political arena, she was as smart as she was and immediately understood what Lawrence was implying, so she quickly nodded solemnly to show that she understood.

Seeing that Xia Diya understood what she meant so quickly, Lawrence also nodded happily, thinking that it was time to give them a formal task.

"Very well, Xia Diya, after you go back, I need you to collect all the information about these four people."

Lawrence said in a deep voice and wrote four names on the paper at the same time. These four people are the members of the parliament from outside Ajaccio except Carlo Bonaparte. They are all representatives of the interests of the landlord class. .

Lawrence inquired about their information in advance to prepare for his own tax reform and future settlement of the land ownership issue.

Including the recent experimental taxation in May, although it was the church power that was used by Lawrence to attack, it was impossible for the landowners not to get wind of it, and they would also have a sense of crisis that would affect the fish in the pond.

In order to prevent them from getting in the way, Lawrence decided to first grasp the situation of these four most direct interest representatives.

However, to Lawrence's surprise, Xia Diya took the paper, glanced at it, and asked aloud:

"Are these the names of those congressmen?"

"Oh? Do you still know their names?"

Lawrence said with some surprise. After all, these MPs from outside Ajaccio do not conduct elections and speeches in the city, so compared to the four MPs in Ajaccio, their exposure to the public is much lower.

"In fact"

Xia Diya nodded slightly, then took out a package she was carrying and placed it on Lawrence's table, and whispered:

"I brought you a meeting gift."

Lawrence frowned and looked at the package on the table, then opened it and saw that inside was a large pile of poor-quality straw paper, but the paper was densely covered with writing.

"What is this?" Lawrence looked at Xia Dia even more surprised and asked, vaguely feeling that he still underestimated this girl's ability.

"Most of the information, or dirty information, about the nine members of the Corsican Parliament can be guaranteed to be true."

Although there were only Lawrence and her in the study, Xia Diya tried to lower her voice as much as possible.

"Have you taken the initiative to investigate information about congressmen before?" Lawrence asked in surprise.

Xia Diya was silent for a moment. If this kind of thing was spread before today, their little bread would be destroyed in an instant. But now that she has surrendered to Lawrence, Xia Diya still answered truthfully:

"Yes, I discovered very early on that if the Bread Society just passively accepted information and became an ordinary intelligence exchange organization, then it would not be able to develop, so I decided to actively collect intelligence. Although the powerful people are aloof, They also had servants and subordinates, and we heard many interesting things from their servants and subordinates.”

"The powerful"

Lawrence narrowed his eyes and put down the documents in his hand, looked at Xia Diya and said:

"Does that mean there is information about me as well?"

Xia Diya lowered her head, deliberately avoiding Lawrence's gaze, then nodded gently twice and said:

"Yes, but your dirty information. To be honest, it is much less than other powerful people, and it is almost non-existent. Moreover, your subordinates are really loyal, and our information about you is basically direct. What you get is rarely obtained through your subordinates.”

As for Xia Diya, she also made up her mind to join him after going back yesterday and carefully checking Lawrence's information.

"Really? I kind of want to know."

Lawrence said with a smile, not caring about Xia Diya's behavior of inquiring about him. After all, as the Governor of Corsica, there would be countless pairs of eyes staring at him.

"yes"

Xia Diya hesitated for a moment before saying:

"You have entrusted us several times to exaggerate and publicize your military exploits, including those in Sheephorn Bay and Bonifacio's; in addition, the time you killed Ciro Russell and the hypocrisy with the orphanage director Mario speech, I know that old Mario is not a good person at all; and recently you asked us to promote the Kingdom of Corsica."

Lawrence still listened with a smile and was not angry at all, because these things were almost the same as the so-called black materials he himself had summarized.

On the contrary, Lawrence felt that it was a good thing that there was no dirty information that he didn't know.

"So this information...?"

Lawrence looked at Xia Dia with a smile and asked. Although he didn't care about the black information, it didn't mean that Lawrence could tolerate the leakage of this information.

Xia Diya said hurriedly:

"Don't worry, all the information about you was turned into ashes last night. Although there are still a few people who know, no one will believe their empty talk."

"You are such a smart person, Xadia."

After hearing this, Lawrence was stunned at first, and then he couldn't help laughing and said. At the same time, he was even more determined in his heart to leave the position of head of the secret police to Xia Diya.

After saying that, Lawrence turned his attention to the pile of documents on the table, picked it up and opened it with relish.

"Hmm, interesting."

After quickly browsing the documents almost at a glance, Lawrence put the documents back on the table thoughtfully, and then started thinking directly.

There is no doubt that these congressmen who are in the spotlight have more or less dark spots.

Including Lawrence's own brother Carlo Bonaparte, the documents record that he used some quite disgraceful methods as a lawyer to fight against competitors in the same industry, and may have bribed judges in some lawsuits.

These things mean that if they don’t go on the scale, they won’t weigh four ounces, but if they go on the scale, they won’t weigh a thousand pounds. Although people knew privately that it was almost understandable to do these things based on their status, as long as it was publicized, people would inevitably find something to blame.

For Lawrence, if he wanted to attack the four congressmen who were already under house arrest, all he needed was a handle.

Lawrence carefully organized the documents on the table, focusing on the information about the four representatives of the landowning class at the top, and then asked Xia Diya with a smile:

"Very good, Xia Diya, but I would like to know why you would use these as a greeting gift."

Xia Diya was still a little hesitant, but only after considering that she had fallen to Lawrence's side did she dare to speak:

"Because I know what you asked the Treasury Department to do."

"Um?"

Lawrence's brows suddenly frowned. He really didn't expect that his tax reform would be leaked out. He couldn't help but asked sharply:

"Where did you know this? Was it leaked by the Ministry of Finance?"

"No, no, it's not." Xia Diya said repeatedly:

"It was a laborer from the printing house in Ajaccio, one of ours, who smuggled a copy out while printing the draft from the Ministry of Finance."

"is that so."

Lawrence couldn't help but feel a little headache. Although it didn't matter if the tax reform was leaked now, what Xia Diya said still made Lawrence couldn't help but sigh that there really is no airtight wall in this world.

No wonder many countries in later generations will set up agencies called secrecy bureaus. If secret protection is not deliberately carried out, the entire administrative system will be as leaky as a sieve.

After silently including confidentiality work in the reform agenda, Lawrence breathed a sigh of relief, looked at the meeting gift from Xia Diya again, and then said seriously:

"In any case, you are indeed a very capable person. I will consider adjusting an appropriate allocation amount for the Bread Society. At the same time, I also hope you will remember that from this moment on you are working for Corsica."

"certainly."

Xia Diya nodded deeply and said, as for who the so-called working for Corsica is loyal to, a smart person like her will not know.

Watching Xia Diya's back disappear behind the door, Lawrence also breathed a sigh of relief.

It has to be said that the Bread Club’s intelligence capabilities indeed exceeded Lawrence’s expectations.

However, a large part of this is due to the fact that Lawrence is in charge of the patrol. Since Corsica does not have a serious intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, the Ajaccio Patrol, as the de facto police, is responsible for most of the counter-intelligence. Responsibility.

If Lawrence had not turned a blind eye to the development of the bakery, it would be difficult for them to grow to the point where they are today.

Of course, Lawrence is not worried that the bread will be too strong and will backfire on him. Not to mention that he is holding Xia Diya's relatives as hostages. Just if their behavior of inquiring about the information of the congressmen is exposed, I am afraid it will lead to the whole world. The Corsican dignitaries unanimously blocked it.

With Xia Diya's intelligence, she would not do such a stupid thing.

After Xia Diya left, Lawrence read the document twice, then called the guard, handed the piece of paper he just handed to Xia Diya to the guard, and asked to bring the four people on it.

In a short time, four congressmen appeared in front of Lawrence.

And when these four people entered the study room with uneasiness and nervousness, and after looking at each other for a while, they suddenly noticed something was wrong.

As congressmen who also came from the countryside, the four of them were very familiar with each other. When they found out that they were brought to Lawrence together, a bad idea immediately appeared in their minds.

"Please take a seat, everyone."

Lawrence chuckled and stretched out his hand to signal them to sit down. After glancing around at the slightly uneasy expressions on their faces, he said directly in a deep voice:

"I have received some news, news that may not be very friendly to you."

"Not very friendly?"

The uneasiness on the faces of several congressmen became more serious. After looking at each other, someone asked with an apologetic smile:

"Ah haha, Governor Bonaparte, the news you mentioned only concerns the four of us?"

Lawrence chuckled and looked at the person who was speaking. It seemed that he was also a master at playing with words. The word "only" was testing Lawrence's attitude.

"Of course," Lawrence said with a shrug.

"hiss"

The four congressmen couldn't help but take a breath of air. They were certainly not fools to climb to this position. They all understood how Lawrence could have only gotten the dirty information about the four of them. He must have deliberately targeted the four of them. .

"Haha. So what is the bad news you are talking about?"

The smile on the face of the congressman who spoke was almost unbearable, but he still forced himself to ask.

"Some possible criminal behavior regarding the four of you."

Lawrence said, his tone lowered a bit and became serious.

Even though the congressman knew that none of them might end well today, he still struggled and said:

"We are all law-abiding Corsican citizens. Although I don't mean to offend, is your information really accurate?"

Lawrence snorted coldly and said directly:

"I would like to remind the four of you that as members of the public eye, in order to prevent bad publicity, I will conduct strict investigations on you even if the information I have is not 100% accurate."

After hearing this, several people suddenly looked bitter. Who can sit in their seat and dare to say that their hands are completely clean?

"Nothing"

Lawrence then said again, and the smile returned to his face:

"If you were not in such a prominent position, there would be no need to conduct an investigation. After all, we do not have enough resources to investigate every piece of groundless news from every Corsican."

"You mean?"

The hearts of several people suddenly trembled. Lawrence's words had made it very clear. They would either accept the investigation and be imprisoned in the dungeon after the black material was exposed, or give up their status as members of Congress in exchange for Lawrence not being held responsible for the black material.

In the eyes of several people, since Lawrence dared to make such a threat to them, he must have the corresponding evidence. If they really took the chance and accepted the investigation, it would definitely be accurate.

The four people sat there in agony. Although their reason told them that immediately giving up their status as members was the best choice at this time, it was not acceptable for them to completely give up their greatest political position all of a sudden. of.

Lawrence also knew this psychological effect, so he did not urge them, but just pretended to remind them unintentionally:

"Oh, I almost forgot. A council member's resignation requires a formal written statement. Maybe you can prepare it after you go back?"

"Of course. Governor Bonaparte."

The four of them said dejectedly, and walked out of the room under the supervision of the guards as if they had lost their souls.

Lawrence didn't even look at the four people who walked out. In Lawrence's eyes, these four people had lost their status as members of Congress the moment they walked out of the door, and they were no longer worthy of his attention.

"Then it's time to stuff your own people into the parliament."

A gleam flashed in Lawrence's eyes, and he began to consider candidates silently.

No matter which four people were added to the Parliament by Lawrence, including the original Carlo Bonaparte, this means that Lawrence already holds more than half of the seats in the Parliament.

Not to mention that the remaining four people had a tendency to fall towards Lawrence.

Today, the Corsican Parliament has been completely controlled by Lawrence, and the landowners have lost their greatest political support.