Life of Being a Crown Prince in France-Chapter 567 - 478: Strike with Full Force

The following morning,

Mara straightened his clothes and, at Eman’s gesture, pushed open the door. He entered, bowed to the Crown Prince, who was sitting at the desk, and said concisely, "Your Highness, I have arrived."

Joseph smiled as he rose to his feet, "I am pleased to see you, Mr. Mara."

"Did you summon me for any instructions?"

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Joseph, who was accustomed to his attitude towards the Royal Family, gestured for him to sit on the sofa and nodded, "Indeed, there is a matter that requires your attention."

He sat across from Mara and handed him a list, "These officials may be involved in corruption, please investigate them."

The list was precisely the more than 40 officials who had previously expressed opposition to the abolition of the Tax Farmers system.

The bureaucratic class should have been the tool of the Royal Family to manage the country, but some dared to openly contradict the Royal Family. Joseph had decided that this was the time to strike hard and to put these fellows in their place.

And to deal with bureaucrats, the Bureau of Fair Investigation was undoubtedly the best tool.

Mara’s gaze swept over the list, and then he looked at Joseph and said, "Your Highness, is there evidence of their corruption?"

"Not at the moment."

"Then, has someone reported them?"

"Neither."

Mara put down the list and, frowning sternly, said, "Your Highness, then I must refuse your request. The Justice Investigation Department is meant to oversee the integrity of officials and protect the rights of the people, not a tool for you to achieve your political goals!"

Joseph was immediately at a loss for words. Mara and his ilk were indeed dedicated and fearless of power and their competence was strong, but they were also too rigid, not even giving face to him. Yet, this trait was indeed necessary for an anti-corruption department.

He was quite certain that the officials listed, who had all come out against the Tax Farmers’ abolition at the same time, would have been odd if they hadn’t taken bribes. But he could only helplessly say, "Mr. Mara, I’m merely asking you to begin an investigation. If they are innocent, they naturally won’t be treated unfairly."

In his heart, he thought to himself that with the way things were with France’s bureaucrats now, not investigating and convicting them all of corruption would probably leave few miscarriages of justice.

Mara frowned again, clearly against his will, and looking down, he said, "Very well, Your Highness, I’ll have someone look into it. Is there anything else?"

"That’s all, nothing more."

Mara then picked up the list, gave a bow to Joseph, backed away a few steps, and turned to leave, muttering under his breath, "What a waste of the Bureau’s resources..."

Not long after Mara left, Brian hurried in, handing a stack of letters to Joseph, anxiously saying, "Your Highness, these are admonitions just delivered yesterday. They are from officials from all over opposing the tax reform."

Joseph glanced at the letters in his hand; there were at least twenty or more, his brows instantly furrowed.

Brian was well aware of the Crown Prince’s determination to abolish the Tax Farmers, and so spoke with a grave expression, "Your Highness, there should be even more admonitions on their way to the Palace of Versailles."

"With such widespread opposition at present, it might not be wise to push ahead with the tax reform too quickly..."

Joseph knew he was right. Nearly every region had officials opposing tax reform. If he pushed ahead against so much opposition, it would certainly provoke a backlash from the entire bureaucracy.

He took a deep breath, surprised by the power of the Tax Farmers’ group, which could mobilize so many officials to act in their interest.

But the more that was the case, the more necessary it was to completely eradicate this influence.

The urgent matter now was to stop the bureaucrats’ momentum against tax reform. Otherwise, the more officials who joined the opposition, the harder the task would become.

The plan had been to have Mara’s department "deal with" the first batch of officials to come out against abolition, hoping others would see the tide changing and no longer dare to take the Tax Farmers’ money to speak up for them.

But there would be a lag time. Once the admonitions reached the Palace of Versailles, it signified the officials could no longer turn back and would have to oppose staunchly to the end.

Of course, he could always dismiss a large number of officials in the last resort, forcibly abolish the Tax Farmers system, but that would also lead to significant political turbulence. At that point, it could result in a situation of the Royal Family vs. the entire bureaucratic class.

Joseph’s gaze passed over the letters, and a thought suddenly struck him.

The officials’ participation in opposing tax reform was marked by these admonitions.

In other words, without these admonitions, they were still neutral. Once they spotted an unfavorable trend, they could immediately switch back to support the Royal Family.

He immediately spoke to Eman, "Please have the Postmaster General Viscount Arrois and Mr. Fouche come see me. Oh, and the head of the Black Room department of the intelligence bureau..."

The "Black Room" was the department within the intelligence system responsible for monitoring mail.

Eman bowed and replied, "That would be Mr. Jean Randere, Your Highness."

"Yes, that’s right, please bring him along as well."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Two hours later, the Postmaster General and two intelligence bureau officials hurried to the Palace of Versailles.

Once the three had paid their respects, Joseph immediately instructed the Postmaster General Viscount Arrois, "I need you to cause some ’accidents’ in the postal system immediately, the kind that can partially collapse the system.

"You need not worry about being punished for this. After the event, I will transfer you to another Ministry, to a higher position than your current one."

Arrois had been personally promoted by him from the bottom up and was absolutely reliable in terms of loyalty.

Arrois widened his eyes in surprise but still responded, "Yes, Your Highness. However..." Discover hidden stories at novelbuddy

Before he could ask in detail, he saw the Crown Prince then say to Fouche, "Have the Black Room inspect all recent official letters sent to the Palace of Versailles. Any that involve tax reform admonitions, have the postal bureau ’hold’ them or send them back to their place of origin."

Fouche and Jean Randere exchanged a glance and hurriedly bowed, "Yes, Your Highness."

...

That very night, a fire broke out in the operations building of the Paris postal bureau, neither too big nor too small.

The fire was quickly controlled, burning just two offices and a storeroom on three floors, with no casualties, but some of the letters turned to ashes in the fire.

As the news hit the press, two key figures in the postal bureau began to publicly blame each other, both putting on an act of refusing to take responsibility and eventually taking their dispute all the way to Chief Minister Brian.

Subsequently, Postmaster General Arrois took a leave of absence due to a severe illness, and the postal system’s officials split into two factions, each supporting their own superior.

For a time, the postal system was in utter disarray, with no one managing the daily mail service, and a great many letters were either backlogged or sent back to their place of origin.

However, anyone within the postal system who observed carefully would notice that ordinary mail was mostly delivered as normal, while it was the official correspondence that was most affected.