Chapter 473 Huang Liang Yi Meng
Pauli said with a smile on his face: "Of course, as long as I can do it, I will definitely serve you."
Just kidding, 20,000 pounds is 500,000 livres. Such a large amount of money is enough for him to sell hooks.
"I want to make sure that the funds donated are used for the great cause of Corsican independence, so I hope to know the specific use of the funds."
Chalmers showed an apologetic expression: "Please forgive me, this is by no means a distrust of you and your companions."
He looked around and lowered his voice: "Actually, I gave a lot of money to the Irish Republicans in the past few years, but those guys put more than half of it into their own pockets!"
The so-called "Irish republicans" are the Irish independence movement. After the British occupied Ireland, they had been secretly resisting, reaching its peak at the end of the 18th century. Historically, they even took advantage of France's fate and prepared to unite with France to declare war on Britain.
Pauli and his three subordinates looked at each other. Although they were not very happy, since the sponsor's father made the request, he could only nod and agree.
After the salon, Chalmers followed Paulie directly back home and listened to him arrange the use of the funds.
"Half of your funding will be used to purchase weapons and organize public protests and riots." Pauli patiently explained, "The rest will mainly be used as campaign funds to help members of the Restoration Organization get more parliamentary seats.
"You know, the Parliament is the heart of Corsica's politics. If you can control the Parliament, you can marginalize the French government, which is an important part of our independence plan."
Chalmers nodded repeatedly after hearing this: "You are indeed a great freedom fighter with rich experience. I feel much more at ease now."
He paused and continued: "But based on my experience in Ireland, rioting is far less effective than controlling the upper-level power. Therefore, I think more money can be invested in supporting members of Congress."
The three members of the Restoration Organization next to them suddenly lit up when they heard this, because they were Corsican parliamentarians, or were preparing to compete for this year's parliamentary election.
If they can get a large amount of campaign funds, their probability of winning will increase exponentially.
Paulie was troubled by his father, a patron who liked to point fingers, so he had to explain to him carefully why funds should be allocated in this way.
Chalmers suddenly waved his hand impatiently: "You just said that more than 20 members of the organization will face competition. How can the 9,000 pounds be enough? Well, you listen to me, and I will sponsor 5 more Thousand pounds."
Paulie was stunned by the wealthy man on the spot. After a quick weigh in his mind, he agreed to his proposal - 17,000 pounds would be distributed to the MPs of the Restoration Organization to help them win the election.
Chalmers was also very cheerful. The next afternoon he solemnly handed over two heavy suitcases of banknotes to Poly, which were witnessed and verified by three senior officials of the restoration organization who came with him.
"Your cause of freedom will succeed!"
Chalmers took the receipt from Pauly, and then said with great enthusiasm: "After the dividends of my East India Company shares are distributed next year, I will provide you with another 25,000 pounds."
After seeing off the benefactor, Paulie looked at his watch. It was already past 5 o'clock and the bank was closed. It is best to exchange these banknotes for gold coins to make it easier to purchase weapons in the United States, Northern Europe and other places.
So he had no choice but to lock the cash box in the safe in the study, and repeatedly told the housekeeper to send someone to guard the door today to ensure that nothing went wrong.
At night.
The maid in Mrs. Pauley's living room got up quietly, took out a bag of tools from the box under the bed, and then walked towards the study on the second floor in silence.
She met two servants on guard duty along the way, but both of them glanced at her and turned away as if nothing had happened.
Yes, they are all agents sent by the French Intelligence Service. After obtaining Pauli's whereabouts from the British government, the Intelligence Bureau had infiltrated Pauli's family into a sieve in the past six months. Currently, less than half of the servants in this villa receive their salaries from the Intelligence Bureau. If it weren't for the fact that killing Pauli would do more harm than good, he would have died dozens of times.
The maid came to Pauli's study, opened the door with the key she had already assigned and entered the house, then took out the tools and started lighting fires everywhere...
At two o'clock in the morning, Paulie was awakened by a woman's scream.
He rubbed his sleepy eyes and vaguely heard his servants shouting, "Fire!"
"Quickly put out the fire!"
Then the housekeeper knocked hard on the door and said anxiously: "Master, there's a fire! You and your wife should go out and take shelter!"
Paulie jumped up from the bed with a bang, threw on his clothes and rushed out of the bedroom. He smelled the choking smell. When he looked up, he saw that the stairs leading to the second floor were full of smoke, and there were servants carrying buckets. Run up and down.
The three senior leaders of the Nationalist Organization living in the guest room were also awakened. They looked at each other and exclaimed, "Money!"
Several people were about to rush towards the second floor where the flames were rolling. The housekeeper hurriedly asked someone to hold them tightly.
Two and a half hours later, with the combined efforts of servants and London fire police, the fire was finally put out.
Regardless of the large amount of remaining smoke, Pauli and others ran up to the second floor like crazy, but were stunned on the spot - including the study, half of the rooms on the second floor were burned to black.
Paulie walked into the study while coughing. He only saw the safe that had been burned through. Most of the safes in this era were made of wood wrapped with iron sheets. The iron bumps that were common in later generations would not appear until the 19th century. —and a dark mass inside.
The person next to him stepped forward and took out the contents of the safe. He could still vaguely see a black object in the shape of a piece of paper, and his face suddenly turned pale: "Damn, this is 25,000 pounds..."
…
More than ten days later, at a secret meeting of the Corsican Restoration Organization, Bartolio banged the table and roared: "Originally, we had hoped to win more than two-thirds of the parliamentary seats! It's all because of the fire!"
He was one of the three people who witnessed £25,000 being burned that day.
Others in the room also looked gloomy. They already knew that the Scottish rich had provided them with a large amount of funds, and each of them could receive close to 1,000 pounds, or more than 20,000 livres.
But now, because of an accident, everything is gone.
Suddenly someone asked: "Mr. Bartolio, why did the fire suddenly happen?"
"I don't know about that. The fire police said it might be a rat."
Everyone fell silent again.
Later, Giuseppe, one of the top leaders of the organization, clapped his hands and said: "Everyone cheer up. Mr. Paoli has sent an order to organize a riot in Calgès, and we have to discuss this matter now."
At the same time, an American lawyer came to London and knocked on Pauley's door.
(End of chapter)