Life of Being a Crown Prince in France-Chapter 619 - 528: Confrontation

Chapter 619: Chapter 528: Confrontation

Reve was struggling internally when the butler brought the manager of the trade caravan, Caberri.

The latter entered the room and immediately presented his resignation to Reve, citing health issues as the reason. Of course, the real reason was that the Trade Alliance had offered him too much to refuse.

t penetrated the mist, shining on the mountains of goods piled up. Meanwhile, various sizes of merchant ships were continuously docking, ready to unload more cargo.

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Old Fickman adjusted the collar of his thin, worn jacket to block the chill creeping into his neck. However, he was not worried about freezing, as he would soon be busy and the heavy goods on his shoulders would quickly make him sweat profusely.

Yet, just as he and a few fellow dockworkers reached the outskirts of the docks, they were blocked by a short man with a wide and flat nose and drooping eyes at the corners.

He recognized the man; it was Hogot, an overseer under Master Philippe Antonelle. Antonelle controlled over half of the warehouses on the west side of the docks, making him one of the largest forces in the Port of Marseille.

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Old Fickman and his companions quickly stepped forward and bowed, “Master Hogot, what can we do for you?”

The latter looked down his nose at them and commanded coldly, “Go home, no need to come to the docks today.”

The workers were momentarily stunned; one of them urgently asked, “Master, what’s happened? If we don’t work, my family will have nothing to eat…”

“Give each of them 15 sous.”

Hogot signaled disdainfully to his subordinate, who immediately pulled out a handful of copper coins and handed them to Fickman and the others, “Don’t talk back, just go home.”

“Ah, is this for me? Thank you, Master, thank you!”

The dockworkers repeatedly bowed. Although the 15 sous were slightly less than what they could earn, they were happy to take money without any fairness involved.

Then, Hogot pointed at them and said, “Don’t go to the docks for the next fortnight. Just come here to collect your money daily.”

Fickman and the others thanked him again and were about to turn and leave when a man in a dirty coarse linen coat with patches on his trousers squeezed through from behind them and whispered with a smile, “Why don’t we just circle around from the south side to the docks and continue working? We’d earn the 15 sous for free then.”

Hogot immediately glared menacingly, not recognizing who this person was—despite having been around the Port of Marseille for over a decade, there were few dockworkers he didn’t know—but judging by his attire, he was definitely a laborer. So, he grabbed him by the collar and growled fiercely, “Are you asking for a beating? Get lost; you wouldn’t want to see me enraged!”

The man glanced at the copper coin in his hand but appeared unphased, “You are disrupting the normal order of the docks.”

Hogot threw a punch at him, but the man dodged it by tilting his head.

“This is outright assault,” the man said as he broke free from the grip, addressing Fickman and the others, “You all saw it.”

Enraged, Hogot signaled his subordinates to teach this troublemaker a lesson, but he stopped in sheer terror just a few steps forward—the “laborer” had pulled a pistol from behind his back.

Soon, more people rushed from across the street and knocked Hogot and his subordinates to the ground, securely binding them.

The man with the pistol addressed Fickman and his companions, smiling, “Now, you can go to work. Oh, Gemini Trading Company has a lot of cargo arriving at the port these days, and it’s said that the wages could be at least 20% higher than usual.”

nt jobs also came, trying to grab a share of the opportunity.

In the afternoon, several confidants of the tax farmers, including Antonelle, were arrested by police on charges of inciting riot, identified by their subordinates.

The chaotic situation at the Port of Marseille, meticulously planned by Ford and others, had barely begun before it was declared bankrupt.