Chapter 480 Marat’s Combat Power
The western suburbs of Paris.
In an office at the headquarters of the Notary Investigation Bureau, Joseph looked at Desmoulin in front of him, glanced at the work report he had just brought, and said casually:
"Isn't Mr. Marat here?"
"Yes...yes...your highness." Desmoulins, the second-in-command of the Investigation Bureau, said, "He...he went to Poitou the day before yesterday."
Joseph remembered that the Earl of Norfolk, the governor of Poitou, was one of the two governors who opposed the abolition of the tax farming system, and immediately nodded slightly: "Is he going to investigate the matter of the Earl of Norfolk?"
"No...it's not." Desmoulin shook his head and said, "It's...it's the water conservancy construction department that embezzled...the repair fees...expenses."
Joseph frowned, then looked through the investigation bureau work report in his hand, and asked:
"Whether Mr. Marra has been assigned a large number of new investigative assignments recently."
"Yes...yes...your highness."
Desmoulins helped him turn to the last few pages. Sure enough, there were many investigation plans.
But when Joseph glanced over, his frown suddenly deepened - most of these investigation tasks only assigned one investigator, and they were all within a period of 5 to 8 days. What could be found with such a small amount of people and time?
grass! Only then did Joseph realize - this old boy Mara was playing me, and he didn't even check it seriously.
Joseph was a little annoyed. If it weren't for the fact that the Intelligence Bureau was far less efficient than the Notary Investigation Bureau in investigating corruption, and that intelligence personnel's investigation of officials would arouse criticism from officials, he would have really wanted to leave the matter to Fouche.
He was about to reprimand Desmoulins a few words, but suddenly remembered that doing so might have the opposite effect on the Jacobins. He sighed, stood up and left.
"It seems that we need to give Mr. Mara a little more strength."
Joseph got on the carriage, thought for a while, and said to Eman: "Go to the Intelligence Bureau."
"Yes, Your Highness."
…
South-central France, the city of Bourges.
The second-class investigator of the Notary Investigation Bureau, Cecilian, was looking through the municipal revenue and expenditure accounts out of boredom and couldn't help but yawned.
Sure enough, as Mr. Marra said, there is nothing wrong with the city commissioner, Baron Basanti, and the city's financial officer, Mr. Kemou. This investigation is just a sad political maneuver.
The accounts are very clean. Cecilian has also checked the bank accounts of the two people in the past few days and visited some officials who are familiar with them. There are no problems.
"That's it." He closed the ledger and stood up. "You can go back to Paris in two days. This time it's like a vacation."
He left the city hall and was about to call for a carriage when suddenly a strong man with his hat brim low came out from the corner on the left and bumped into him violently.
"Hey, you walk so gracefully!"
Secilian protested loudly to the man, but the latter seemed not to hear him and lowered his head and disappeared into the crowd of pedestrians.
When Cecilian returned to the hotel and was about to take out the key and open the door, his fingertips touched a piece of paper in his pocket.
He remembered that he had never put anything like this in his pocket, so he quickly took it out to check, and saw that there were only two paragraphs on it: Go back to Paris, there is nothing you want to check here. It’s too late to leave now, if you continue, you will definitely encounter something unexpected!
Secilian’s face suddenly turned red. He was an investigator personally selected by Marat. His character and outlook were all standard Jacobin. He gritted his teeth and roared:
"Shameless guy, do you think you can scare me like this?! For the benefit of the people, I must make your dirty deeds public!" He tore up the note and went into the room to write to the Bureau of Investigation. The main content of the letter was that I felt that there should be serious problems in Bourges and that the investigation time needed to be extended. I asked my superiors for approval.
Then he went out again, thought for a moment, and followed the techniques taught to him by Mr. Marat before, and rushed straight to the residence of the most famous journalist in Bourges.
The man who bumped into him outside the city hall couldn't help but smile when he saw him going out. That night he wrote to his superiors in the Intelligence Bureau to report that the "ignition" plan was progressing smoothly.
At the same time, investigators across France who were responsible for investigating the more than 40 officials also encountered various situations.
Some people were threatened with knives by gangsters to make them stop investigating. Some people were robbed and all the investigative information they collected was stolen. Others watched as the documents they wanted to review were burned.
Soon, these investigators who had the same "axis" as Mara became furious!
They used to think that these officials were innocent and were just victims of political struggles. But now it seems that none of them are clean. They felt guilty before even doing any investigation on their part.
If you don't get to the bottom of it, how can you give justice to the French people?
Of course, these threats and other things were specially arranged by Fouche's agents in accordance with the instructions of the Crown Prince. They are not good at investigating corruption, but they are familiar with doing these things.
Marat, who was conducting investigations in Poitou, received a large number of investigation applications within a few days. When he saw what happened to his men, he was equally angry.
He immediately wrote a letter instructing Desmoulins to send additional manpower to assist the investigators who were threatened, even if some unimportant tasks were suspended. The officials involved must be thoroughly investigated!
The entire Notary Investigation Bureau suddenly entered a state of "crazy".
…
More than half a month later.
Palace of Versailles.
Mala stood in front of the Crown Prince with a guilty expression, and said with great self-reproach:
"Your Highness, I wrongly blamed you before. Please accept my sincere apology. As you expected, those officials did have problems."
"I have never blamed you. It turns out that your work is as good as ever." Joseph smiled and opened the report sent by Mara. In less than 20 days, the "piranha"-like fighter bit out Conclusive evidence of crimes committed by 16 officials!
Mainly corruption, but also including abuse of power for personal gain, collusion between officials and businessmen, smuggling, and even a murder case!
Joseph had a feeling for a moment that Marat should be allowed to manage the Intelligence Bureau. The efficiency of detecting clues would definitely put Fouche's men to shame.
However, he immediately gave up the idea. The Intelligence Bureau needs to do a lot of "dirty work", and with Mara's personality, there is no need to expect him to be able to do it. Only a person like Fouche would carry out any of his orders without hesitation.
Joseph raised the 16 reports and said solemnly to Mara:
"Please deal with these moths and vampires impartially."
The Notary Investigation Bureau has the power to directly arrest, and the detention time without evidence can even be longer than that of the police. After finalizing the evidence, you only need to submit an application to Joseph, and if approved, you can directly initiate a public prosecution.
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Joseph nodded with satisfaction, then looked at the investigation reports of the remaining 30 officials who had not yet obtained conclusive evidence, and couldn't help but frown slightly.
(End of chapter)