Chapter 479 Strikes hard
The next morning.
Mara straightened her clothes, pushed the door open at Eman's signal, saluted the crown prince sitting at the table, and said concisely: "Your Highness, I'm here."
Joseph stood up with a smile: "Nice to meet you, Mr. Marat."
"What's your order for calling me here?"
Joseph was used to his attitude towards the royal family. He motioned for him to sit down on the sofa and nodded: "There are indeed things that you need to do."
He sat opposite Mara and handed him a list: "These officials may be involved in corruption. Please investigate them."
On the list are the more than 40 officials who had previously expressed opposition to the abolition of the tax farming system.
The bureaucracy should be a tool for the royal family to manage the country, but some people dare to openly oppose the royal family. Joseph has decided to strike hard this time to help these guys get their positions right.
When dealing with bureaucrats, the Bureau of Impartial Investigation is undoubtedly the best tool to use.
Mara glanced at the list, then looked at Joseph and said, "Your Highness, is there any evidence of their corruption?"
"Not yet."
"So someone reported them?"
"No."
Mara put down the list, frowned and said solemnly: "Your Highness, please forgive me for rejecting your request. The Impartial Investigation Office is used to supervise the conduct of officials and safeguard the rights and interests of the people, and is not a tool for you to achieve your political goals!"
Joseph suddenly had a dark idea. People like Mara were indeed dedicated and not afraid of the powerful, and they were very capable in doing things, but they were just too "shabby" and didn't even sell their own face. However, this is also a necessary quality for the anti-corruption department.
Although he was sure that if all the officials on the list could oppose the abolition of tax collectors at the same time, it would be strange if they did not collect any money behind them. However, he could only say helplessly: "Mr. Mara, I just asked you to start the investigation. If they are innocent, then naturally nothing will be done to them."
He secretly thought that among the current bureaucrats in France, all of them were convicted of corruption without investigation or trial, and there were probably only a few unjust cases.
Mara frowned again, looking like he was going against his will, lowered his head and said: "Okay, Your Highness, I will send someone to check. Do you have anything else?"
"That's it, gone."
Marla then picked up the list, stroked her chest as a gesture to Joseph, took a few steps back, turned and left, still muttering in a low voice: "It's a waste of the energy of the Investigation Bureau..."
Not long after Marat left, Brian came back in a hurry, handed a pile of letters to Joseph, and said anxiously: "Your Highness, these are the remonstrances that were just sent yesterday. They are all expressed by officials from various places who oppose the tax reform."
Joseph looked at the letters in his hand, there were at least 20 of them, and immediately frowned.
Brian was very aware of the Crown Prince's determination to cancel the tax collectors this time, and he said with a solemn expression: "Your Highness, there should be more remonstrances on their way to the Palace of Versailles.
"Now that the opposition is so strong, I'm afraid it's not advisable to implement the tax reform too quickly..."
Joseph knew he was right. There were officials from almost all over the country opposing the tax reform. If he pushed ahead against so many objections, it would inevitably cause a backlash from the entire bureaucracy.
He couldn't help but take a deep breath. He didn't expect that the tax collector group was so powerful that it could mobilize so many officials to work for them.
But the more this happens, the more necessary it is to completely eradicate this force!
The top priority now is to stem the momentum of bureaucrats' opposition to tax reform. Otherwise, the more officials join the opposition group, the more difficult things will be. Originally, they were waiting for Mara's side to "solve" the first batch of officials who jumped out to oppose, but when others saw that the situation was wrong, they probably did not dare to accept money from the tax collector group to speak out for them.
But there will be a time lag in between. Once the officials' remonstrances were sent to the Palace of Versailles, it meant that they could no longer turn back and had to grit their teeth and oppose it to the end.
Of course, as a last resort, you can directly remove a large number of officials and forcibly abolish the tax collector system, but that will also bring huge political turmoil. At that time, a situation between the royal family and the entire bureaucracy is likely to form, which is definitely not what I want.
Joseph's eyes glanced at the letter in his hand, and suddenly his heart moved.
The sign that these officials are involved in opposing tax reform is these remonstrances.
In other words, without these criticisms, they would still be neutrals. Once they find that the momentum is wrong, they can immediately turn to the royal family again.
He immediately said to Emang: "Please ask the postal director Viscount Arouet and Mr. Fouche to come see me. Oh, and the head of the Intelligence Bureau's 'Black Room' department..."
A "black room" is the department in the intelligence system responsible for monitoring emails.
Eman bowed quickly and said: "Mr. Jean Langdale, your highness."
"Well, yes, please let him come too."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Two hours later, the postal director and two senior intelligence officials rushed to the Palace of Versailles.
After the three of them saluted, Joseph immediately ordered the postal director, Viscount Arouet: "I need you to immediately cause some 'accidents' to occur in the postal system, the kind that can partially collapse the postal system.
"You don't have to worry about being punished for this. I will transfer you to another department after the incident, and you will be in a higher position than your current position."
Arue was promoted from the bottom by himself, and his loyalty is absolutely reliable.
Arue's eyes widened in surprise, but he still responded: "Yes, Your Highness. But..."
Before he could ask in detail, he saw the Crown Prince saying to Fouché again: "Let the 'Black Room' unpack and inspect all the recent letters sent by officials to the Palace of Versailles. If they involve tax reform, let the Post Office try." Detain it or send it back to the place of origin.”
Fouche and Jean Langdalee looked at each other, then hurriedly bowed and said: "Yes, Your Highness."
…
That night, a small fire broke out in the office building of the Paris Post Office.
The fire was quickly brought under control and only burned two offices and a warehouse on the third floor. There were no casualties, but some letters were reduced to ashes in the fire.
As the news hit the newspapers, the two main people in charge of the Postal Service began to criticize each other over the matter. They both showed an attitude of unwillingness to take responsibility and took the lawsuit to Chief Minister Brian.
Immediately, Postmaster General Arue was seriously ill and took leave, and officials throughout the postal system were divided into two groups, each supporting his two superiors.
For a time, the postal system was in dire straits. No one was taking care of the daily mail delivery business. A large number of letters were backlogged or sent back to the place of origin.
However, if anyone within the postal system observes carefully, they will find that ordinary mail can basically be delivered normally, but official letters are the most affected.
(End of chapter)