From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

"Criticism? What criticism can there be?"

Louis XV turned to look at Justice Maupe in confusion, frowned and said:

"This money comes from fair and square sources, and it is not scraped from my people. What do you think, Marquis Maup?"

Louis XV was obviously dissatisfied with his interest being disturbed. Although Justice Maupe was also a minister he valued very much, he was still staring at Justice Maupe complainingly at this moment, seemingly wanting a satisfactory answer.

"Ahem, Your Majesty"

Justice Maupe's eyes were slightly slanted, and he glanced at Lawrence fiercely. Then he immediately lowered his posture, bowed slightly and said:

"There is no criticism at all, it's just that there are some minor problems in the process. It's His Excellency Bonaparte who spoke out."

Although only Justice Maupe and Lawrence were present at the conversation in the Palace of Justice yesterday, no third person would know about their conversation.

However, Justice Maupp wisely chose to admit his interference in the operation of the Corsican National Silver Company and did not deny Lawrence's accusations in front of Louis XV.

Because although Lawrence could not prove that he said these words, he also could not prove that he did not say these words.

If the two got entangled in front of the king because of this matter, it would only make King Louis upset.

Coupled with Louis XV's admiring attitude towards Lawrence at the moment, if Louis XV is really upset, he will definitely take care of Lawrence's side without any thought.

"Aren't you fooled? It doesn't matter, Your Majesty. This is just a test."

Lawrence glanced at Justice Mopp calmly, and secretly sighed that someone who climbed to his position was indeed a master of manipulation.

If it were someone who was new to the world, he would probably deny Lawrence's accusation out of luck. After all, no third person knew about that conversation.

And that would only play into Lawrence's trap.

Seeing that Justice Mopp was not fooled, Lawrence was not disappointed. This was just a small test. Even if Justice Mopp did not fall for the trick, he could still achieve his goal.

"Procedure problem?"

Louis XV pinched his slightly raised beard and asked with some dissatisfaction:

"Let me tell you, is there any problem that you can't solve, why would you make a special trip to Versailles?"

Justice Mopu nodded sadly and told the truth:

"That's right, Your Majesty. The operation of this company involves the unfinished treaty between me and His Excellency Bonaparte, so from a procedural point of view, of course, the operation of this company must be suspended until the treaty is completed."

Although this statement would also disappoint Louis XV, it was much better than Lawrence's label of criticizing the royal family on Justice Maupe.

Moreover, in front of such superiors, one needs to be deliberately frank in order to win their favor.

Sure enough, after hearing Justice Maupe's honest report, Louis XV's eyebrows relaxed a little. In his opinion, this was also a sign of fulfilling his duties.

However, Louis XV, whose interest was disturbed, was still slightly embarrassed. He turned his head and glanced at the sea of ​​silver that Lawrence presented to him, and said slowly:

"Well, what you said makes sense, but I can't let Lawrence take the money back, right?"

"Of course not, of course not," Justice Mopu's heart tightened, but he still said with a smile on the surface.

Although King Louis certainly didn't care about these hundreds of thousands of livres, he did care about his own face. If these more than a hundred boxes of silver coins were to be carried out before half an hour after entering the Palace of Versailles, that would be a big deal for the king. A disgraceful thing.

"Besides, Lawrence was once in danger in order to escort these silver coins. If I don't accept them, wouldn't I be chilling his heart? Wouldn't I be chilling the hearts of my subjects?"

Louis XV narrowed his eyes and looked up and down Justice Maupe, then patted him on the shoulder as if he was very affectionate and asked.

Of course, Justice Maupe could not feel a trace of caring warmth. He only heard the full ambiguity in Louis XV's tone, so he smiled stiffly and nodded repeatedly.

"Damn it Lawrence. You're trying to do this to me."

Only then did Justice Maupp vaguely realize that from the moment Lawrence moved the more than one hundred boxes of silver coins into the Palace of Versailles, he had lost the power to interfere with the Corsican National Silver Company.

"Oh, right"

After warning Justice Maupe, Louis XV still felt dissatisfied, so he stroked his beard and pondered for a while, then suddenly looked like he was remembering something, turned to look at Lawrence and asked:

"How are you two negotiating the treaty? I am looking forward to the day of the coronation ceremony. I even want to change the venue to Notre Dame de Paris."

Justice Maupp, who was on the side, certainly wanted to use a set of official accents to put this issue away. After all, the negotiations between him and Lawrence had not even begun, let alone the renegotiation of the overthrow of Duke Choiseul.

But Louis XV didn't even look in his direction. His eyes were all focused on Lawrence, obviously wanting to hear Lawrence's answer.

"Negotiation."

When Lawrence saw this, he immediately showed embarrassment, shook his head and said:

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. It can only be said that the progress is slow at the moment. Perhaps because Monsignor Maupe is busy with official duties, I only formally met with him yesterday. As for your coronation ceremony, Monsignor Maupe said that he would completely abandon the achievements of Duke Choiseul. Re-negotiation, so you may have to wait a while.”

"restart?"

After hearing this, Louis XV frowned again, and the accusation in his expression was completely undisguised. He looked at Justice Maupe and said:

"I don't think this is necessary, right? Choiseul is also a loyal and capable minister. I am reassured by the results of his work, so there is no need to overturn them all, right?"

Although King Louis' words were all questions, Justice Maupe did not dare to say a word "no" even if he had ten courages.

"Just do as you wish, Your Majesty."

Justice Maupe's heart suddenly thumped. He knew exactly what Louis XV's statement meant.

The Duke of Choiseul had already completed the main part of the treaty, and the rest were just tedious and irrelevant details.

Based on these trivial details alone, Justice Maupp and the Duke of Richelieu could no longer involve and threaten Lawrence with treaty matters.

It may even delay the signing of the treaty and be held accountable by His Majesty the King.

Lawrence stood aside, silently watching the proud King Louis and the absent-minded Justice Maupe, thinking to himself:

"Your Majesty, are you worried that your coronation will be postponed, or are you trying to prevent me from actually falling to the Duke of Richelieu and creating a balance between the two factions?"

As the confrontation between Lawrence and Mopp in the Marble Courtyard ended, the three of them returned to the dining room of the King's Suite to continue enjoying their sumptuous lunch.

Of course, Justice Maupe was not in much mood to enjoy the palace dishes.

In just a few words, Louis XV completely deprived him and Duke Richelieu of the biggest weapon they had used to restrict Lawrence.

Although the Duke of Richelieu still retained many means, and he also prevented Lawrence from further slandering himself in this confrontation, such a setback still made it difficult for Justice Maupe to accept for a while.

He said almost nothing until the end of the lunch, and immediately said goodbye to King Louis after the lunch, saying that he would return to the Palace of Justice in Paris to handle official business.

Lawrence, on the other hand, was not in a hurry to return to Paris. He had to meet an extremely important person, who was also Lawrence's major political capital and future political backer - Prince Louis.

The west wing of the Palace of Versailles, the Crown Prince's residence.

As the newest celebrity in the Palace of Versailles and the close friend and first attendant of the Crown Prince, the guards quickly led Lawrence into the palace after saluting him enviously and respectfully.

"What is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince doing? I didn't see him during lunch. He shouldn't have disturbed me, right?"

Walking in the hall decorated with gold and silver, Lawrence looked at the decoration of the palace and asked the guards casually.

"No, no, His Highness has ordered that you can see him at any time as long as you come. He is in the workshop." The guard replied loudly.

"Workshop?"

Lawrence listened for a moment, and sure enough, there were noisy jingles upstairs in the palace, which seemed to be the hammering of hammers and iron tools.

"Well, it seems that is the locksmith prince's lockmaking workshop."

Lawrence also shrugged helplessly. He heard that Louis XVI had a lock-making workshop of more than 200 square meters in the palace when he was crown prince. It seems that this rumor is indeed true.

It can only be said that habits are indeed developed since childhood.

It was not easy for Louis XVI to persist in his hobby of making locks for a lifetime.

From this point of view, the rumor that Louis XVI locked himself in a room with the lock every night and ignored the alluring Queen Mary is probably not groundless. After all, Lawrence is in this palace.

Arriving at the deepest room in the corridor on the second floor of the palace, Lawrence knocked on the door twice symbolically, figuring that the people inside couldn't hear clearly anyway, so he opened the door directly.

The area of ​​this workshop is indeed not small. It seems to be composed of several rooms connected in series. At the moment, there are about twenty people in it, lowering their heads and playing with the delicate objects in their hands.

The furnishings inside are not as messy as the workshops in the market, and they look very orderly, very much like the Swiss watch workshops that Lawrence remembered.

An inconspicuous little fat man in the crowd suddenly raised his head. After seeing the person clearly, he excitedly wiped the sweat from his forehead, stood up and said loudly:

"Hey! Lawrence, you're here?!"

If he hadn't known Prince Louis, Lawrence would not have been able to recognize this fat man among this group of craftsmen as the future King of France.

He only wore a simple shirt and trousers, and wore a leather apron on his chest like other craftsmen. He was dressed like an ordinary apprentice.

"Being approachable is one of the crown prince's few advantages."

Lawrence smiled bitterly and threw these thoughts out of his head, stepped forward and saluted and said:

"Good afternoon, Your Highness, I'm sorry to bother you."

"Anyway, you are my closest friend."

Prince Louis said with a smile from ear to ear, then took off his leather apron and carefully hung it on the clothes rail at the door, then took Lawrence's arm and came to the living room.

"I haven't seen you for a few days, Laurence. How long will you stay in Versailles this time?"

Prince Louis rubbed his hands excitedly and said:

"That's right, that design called the pin tumbler lock you told me about before. I've tried it a few times myself but I've only just gotten the hang of it. You have to stay and help me find out what's wrong."

Seeing the enthusiastic look of Prince Louis, Lawrence also smiled and said:

"I will draw a set of design drawings for you myself, but unfortunately I shouldn't be able to stay in Versailles for too long. There are many things that need to be dealt with in Paris. In fact, I will return to Paris tomorrow morning."

"This, oh, what a pity, what a pity."

Prince Louis suddenly sighed like a frustrated ball. He had no peers of the same age with whom he could talk in the Palace of Versailles. It was rare that Lawrence and himself had common interests, but there was not much time for the two of them to discuss it together. of.

The frustrated look of Prince Louis was also expected by Lawrence, and Lawrence immediately made a surprised expression and suggested:

"Wait. Maybe Your Highness, you can come with me to Paris?"

"Going to Paris?" Crown Prince Louis' eyes lit up at first, then he shook his head and said:

"I also prefer to stay in Paris, which is much more interesting than Versailles, but my grandfather would not agree. He said that the royal family should stay in Versailles."

"But I should be able to find a legitimate reason for you." Lawrence grabbed Prince Louis' hand and said with certainty:

"You may have heard of the National Silver Company of Corsica. Nearly half of its shares belong to the royal family, which currently lacks an agent in Paris."

"Agent? This" Prince Louis said hesitantly:

"My grandfather may think that it would be detrimental to the dignity of the royal family for a crown prince like me to be an agent for any company."

"Don't worry, His Majesty the King likes this company very much now, and agent is just a title. His Majesty the King will definitely give you a formal title that will not damage the dignity of the royal family."

Lawrence suggested in one breath:

"More importantly, this is an excellent educational opportunity that His Majesty the King will not refuse."

"Education?" Crown Prince Louis asked confusedly.

"Yes, there are some things you will never understand in your lifetime at Versailles. The difference between per capita tax, land tax and progressive tax, the operation of a commercial company, the reading of accounting books, how the porcelain from Guangzhou came across the ocean Paris, tariff barriers and customs union are all about money, trade, and capital.”

Lawrence lowered his voice and said:

"You will only understand these in the market, and when you become a king, these will also become the cornerstones of your governance."

"Become a king."

Prince Louis licked his lips subconsciously.

In his subconscious mind, the king was his energetic and experienced grandfather, and it seemed that he would always be the carefree crown prince he was now.

It wasn't until he heard what Lawrence said that Crown Prince Louis suddenly realized that his grandfather was already sixty years old, and the moment when he would wear the crown might not be far away.

However.

Prince Louis carefully recalled the series of questions Lawrence had just asked, and found that none of them was familiar to him.

Are you going to govern the country and its subjects without knowing anything about it?

"hiss"

Prince Louis couldn't help but take a breath and struggled in his heart.

Then, Prince Louis looked at Lawrence extremely seriously, nodded heavily and said:

"You're right, Lawrence, I need this education."

"And I will do whatever I can to help you, Your Highness."

Lawrence looked at Prince Louis sincerely, nodded and said.