Chapter 174 Desperate
"Oh?" Joseph looked at Fouche and said, "Do you know who is looking for Necker?"
"This cannot be determined for the time being. However, our informant at Clasonne Bank reported that the bank has recalled all commercial spies. It should be due to other important tasks. And the Bank of Paris also reported that they are hiring a large number of private detectives. information."
"Sure enough, he is from the banking industry." Joseph nodded slightly. It seemed that Kalona was right. There must be a lot of shady dealings between Necker and the major banks, and these people wanted to find him before the government did.
He tapped on the armrest of the seat, and felt a little strange. As the spokesperson of a major bank, and also a senior executive of the Banking Association, Necker was supposed to seek help from the banking industry immediately when something went wrong, but he chose to hide it immediately. got up.
Then there is only one possibility - Necker does not trust the people in the Banking Association.
This is normal. Necker himself is a Swiss and does not have deep roots in France. Now that something happened, it is difficult for him to be sure that the French bankers will not silence him to prevent the news from leaking.
Thinking of this, Joseph was even more sure of the idea of mobilizing the secret police to search door to door, and even mobilized the army - he had to find Necker before the banking guild!
Joseph told Fouche to intensify the search, and then rushed directly to the Palace of Versailles, preparing to discuss with Brian and Robert of the secret police about launching a large-scale manhunt across Paris.
In the car, Clementine looked at the Crown Prince with a serious look and a slight frown on his face, and asked cautiously: "Cousin, have you encountered any troubles? Tell me, many things won't be solved if you tell me. So annoying."
Joseph breathed a sigh of relief and said casually: "Clementine, if you want to find a missing person, how would you find it?"
Little Loli thought for a while and said seriously: "Well, I will first go to his friends or servants and ask where he might have gone, and then..."
Joseph was suddenly startled when he heard this, and was shocked to realize that he had overlooked a very important thing before - the people in the Banking Association were far more familiar with Necker than he was!
Even Necker's staff may have been recommended to him by a major bank.
With the clues provided by these people around Necker, no matter how many people he uses, it is difficult to guarantee that he will get the upper hand...
How to do it?
Clementine talked to herself for a while, but she saw her cousin's frown deepening, and hurriedly comforted him: "Has any of your friends disappeared? In fact, you don't need to be too anxious, maybe he just has Whatever you need to do, you’ll be back after a while.”
Joseph forced a smile towards her: "Thank you for your comfort, but that person will not appear by himself..."
etc!
Halfway through, he felt like he suddenly caught something.
Since you can't beat the Banking Guild by yourself, why not let Necker show up on his own?
Just like the ancients who attacked a city, they must surround three buildings. Then the enemy will inevitably escape to the side that is not surrounded.
If Necker can block all other roads, then he can only take the path of survival left for him!
Joseph followed this idea and carefully refined it, and a plan surrounding three buildings gradually emerged in his mind.
He thanked Clementine very sincerely: "You are definitely an expert in finding people. Thank you so much!"
The little Loli blushed at the praise, took out a piece of vanilla mint candy and threw it into her mouth to reward herself, and then gave another piece to her cousin.
The carriage stopped in the Marble Square of the Palace of Versailles. Joseph got off the car and went straight to the Chancellor's office.
In this plan of "surrounding three palaces and one palace", the most critical one is "que one". The difficulty is that it requires the cooperation of the queen.
Not long after, Interior Minister Monod and Justice Minister Breteuil gathered in Brian's office, and they all looked at Joseph in surprise.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince, I don't quite understand. Shouldn't we be doing our best to arrest Necker now?"
"But why did you withdraw the wanted order and ask Her Majesty the Queen to pardon him?"
As Joseph's political team in the cabinet, these people have naturally heard about Kalona's exposure of Necker's corruption evidence.
Joseph looked around at the few people and said: "When a person faces a situation where death is inevitable, if he sees the hope of living, he will definitely choose this path without hesitation. I want to make the royal family become Necker Your only way to survive."
Bretey immediately said: "Your Highness, Necker should be subject to a strict trial for such a serious corruption crime. I am afraid it is not appropriate to pardon him."
Joseph said: "Necker himself is not important, what I want is what he knows!
"As for the pardon, haha, although His Majesty the King pardoned him, if anyone else wants to punish him, we can't control it."
Brian looked at Joseph: "Your Highness, what does Necker know?"
"It is likely that several hundred million livres of government debt will be involved!"
The room suddenly fell silent.
In the afternoon, several cabinet ministers took the lead and brought a large group of prestigious nobles to the Little Trianon Palace. They persuaded Queen Mary to declare that Necker would be exempted from the court trial and promised that he would never be sentenced to death, or even sentenced to death. Long prison terms.
The Queen had previously read the report submitted by Brian on Necker's corruption. Although she did not understand the behavior of the ministers and nobles, she could not resist being soft-spoken.
After everyone advised them to "show the tolerance and kindness of the royal family", "show His Majesty's consideration for the ministers", "recovering the stolen money is the most important thing", and "give the former minister a chance to change his ways", Queen Mary It seemed to make sense, so I agreed in a daze.
Early the next morning, Queen Mary announced in public that Necker would be given a lenient sentence in front of a large number of nobles and reporters, and showed the document signed by the king.
At the same time, several pamphlets began to circulate wildly in Paris.
Most of the content of the pamphlet is still the usual aristocratic erotic stories, but there is a piece of news in the middle: someone has offered a reward of 150,000 livres for Jacques Necker's head. Even if you provide information, you can still get 100,000.
Then, the underworld forces in Paris received an even more astonishing price: 180,000 for Necker's death and 120,000 for the information.
On the major newspapers in Paris that day, the first half of the front page read "Necker may be suspected of corruption, the royal family decided to exempt him from heavy fines", and the lower half read "Unknown forces are offering a huge reward to kill Necker." .
The secret police and the Police Intelligence Service received new orders to move a large number of people searching for Necker to the surrounding areas of Paris, and surrounded Paris to prevent Necker from escaping.
The next day, the mysterious forces raised the reward for Necker to 200,000.
Various newspapers and pamphlets also obtained information from different channels, and began to analyze who wanted Necker's life in a serious manner.
Of course, under Joseph's deliberate guidance, all the articles invariably pointed to the Banking Guild.
…
In an inconspicuous residence on the north side of Paris, Necker's housekeeper Alonck carefully observed the street through the gap in the curtains for a while to confirm that there were no suspicious people, and then came to the bedroom with a tray of food.
He closed the door and moved the bedside and dresser one after another. A slight "click" sound came from behind the closet.
Elonke uncovered the floor behind the closet, bent down and walked into the exposed square entrance.
On the second floor of the basement, under the dim candlelight, Necker took the tray with a haggard expression, and first distributed the food to his wife and two children, but he skipped lunch and grabbed the newspaper on the tray.
It was the "Paris News" newspaper. He only glanced at the article on the front page and felt his heart tightening.
Although it is not stated explicitly in the article, it is expressed both inside and outside that the person who offered a reward of 200,000 livres for his life is a banking giant, and their credit is absolutely reliable. Even if the person who killed him dies, he will hand over the reward to In the hands of his relatives.
"These devil-possessed bastards!"
Necker suppressed his voice and slammed the newspaper to the ground.
The Paris News is the newspaper of the Duke of Orleans, one of the giants behind the Banking Guild.
Even his newspaper said so, that he wanted to die without leaving any room.
These guys, who have helped them make so much money, will abandon them without hesitation when something happens!
How did he know that the "Paris News" newspaper in the past two days had been rejected by the Press and Publication Bureau for various reasons and could not be published at all.
The "Paris News" newspapers now on the market were all produced by Joseph's "Paris Merchant" newspaper and then handed over to newsboys for sale.
As for infringement? Haha, after the Necker incident is over, just go to the court to sue the "Paris News" newspaper, and the maximum compensation will be ten times the loss. Do you still want to seal up the Dauphin's newspaper?
Necker picked up several pamphlets brought by the butler and was surprised to see that the reward amount had been increased again, reaching a terrifying 300,000 livres.
He knew very well what this number meant.
Not to mention that the entire Paris underworld will go crazy for it, even an ordinary citizen will immediately turn into the most cold-blooded murderer when he sees this amount!
At the same time, this also means that everyone he meets is no longer trustworthy. Those who had arranged to help him escape must never have contact with him again. 300,000 livres would allow them to betray him at any time.
You know, although he has tens of millions of assets, most of them are deposited in various banks using anonymous accounts, most of which are foreign banks. He only had 2,000 Ecu gold coins in his hand - it was impossible for him to carry too much heavy cash with him.
So he was simply unable to bribe those greedy people who wanted to offer rewards.
And even if he could come up with a large sum of money, he wouldn't dare to gamble - who knows if those guys would turn around and cut off his head in exchange for 300,000 livres after receiving his money.
After all, that’s 300,000!
All credibility and morality will become a joke in the face of this huge sum of money.
Mrs. Necker looked at the newspaper in her husband's hand and asked in a trembling voice: "My dear, are we still leaving tomorrow?"
Necker suddenly grabbed her arm and said angrily: "Go! You know how to leave! Do you want to kill us?!"
He pointed towards the entrance of the basement: "I swear, before I even get on the carriage, the driver will stab me twice from behind! It's over, everything is over..."
He slumped down on the bed, but the corner of his eye happened to glance at the open newspaper. There was a piece of news that he had read yesterday - the queen announced in public that he would save his life and would not even be sentenced to more than five years in prison.
The newspaper also speculated that as long as Necker handed over the stolen money and paid some fines, he would probably be sentenced to exile.
He began to struggle fiercely in his heart. After a long time, he suddenly stood up from the bed, his eyes filled with hatred.
Since those people in the Banking Guild want me dead, then don’t blame me for cooperating with the French royal family!
That night, housekeeper Elonke quietly disappeared into the night...
About an hour later, hundreds of police intelligence and secret police officers surrounded the hut where Necker was hiding.
Fouche personally led people to break in, but found that there was not even a single person in the secret basement.
Just when he was extremely anxious, several of his men ran in and reported to him that Necker had been captured.
"Where did you catch him?" Fouche glanced at the empty basement and asked doubtfully.
"He got out of the sewer on the street by himself."
Fouche didn't know that the 300,000 reward made Necker unable to trust even his most trusted housekeeper. He was afraid that he would bring the killer back, so he left the house early and hid.
Fouche finally completed his mission and immediately escorted Necker to the Bastille himself.
…
Palais Royal.
All the big guys in the banking guild looked at the Duke of Orleans anxiously.
Originally, their people had inquired about Necker's whereabouts, but unexpectedly, a sky-high price bounty suddenly appeared in the past two days, disrupting their steps.
"I didn't expect that the royal family would pardon him." The Duke of Orleans also frowned. "With the 300,000 reward, Necker is likely to surrender to the royal family."
Earl of Cape Fear said: "We have to let Necker know as soon as possible that the reward is not ours!"
Earl Isaac glanced at him with disdain: "If we can find him, why bother?"
The Duke of Orleans shook his head: "Publications are now controlled. Even my newspaper has been counterfeited. It is difficult to convey the news to him."
At this moment, the Duke of Orleans' butler trotted in and whispered a few words in his ear.
"What? This idiot was actually caught!" Duke Orleans stared at the butler, "Is the news reliable?"
"The news came from our people in the secret police that he is now on his way to the Bastille."
Everyone in the room suddenly panicked.
The Duke of Orleans stared at them and shouted: "Calm down! Before we couldn't find Necker, we had to let the royal family spread rumors. Now that he has appeared, it may be a good thing."
He thought for a moment and said to the butler: "Go to Lieutenant Colonel Laviere immediately and ask him to try to see Necker and tell him..."
Two hours later.
Necker got his wish and was imprisoned in a cell in the Bastille.
Unlike what people imagined, this cell was a suite with a toilet and dining room. It was very clean and tidy, and even had a sofa and a large cushioned bed.
Fouche was afraid of another accident, so he personally led more than a dozen of his men to keep an eye on the Necker family at all times, even when they went to the toilet.
At this moment, a tall officer led the guards over, exchanged polite greetings with Fouche, and signaled to Necker: "You know, prisoners who come here must be inspected routinely, I have to go." A cutscene."
