Chapter 478: Heavy Punch

Chapter 479: Strike a Heavy Blow

The next morning.

Mara straightened his clothes, pushed the door open at the signal of Emmanuel, saluted the crown prince sitting at the table, and said concisely: "Your Highness, I'm here."

Joseph smiled and stood up: "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Mara."

"Do you have any instructions for me to come?"

Joseph was used to his attitude towards the royal family. He signaled him to sit on the sofa and nodded: "There are indeed some things you need to do."

He sat opposite Mara and handed him a list: "These officials may be involved in corruption. Please investigate them."

The list was exactly the more than 40 officials who had previously expressed opposition to the abolition of the tax farmer system.

The bureaucracy should have been a tool for the royal family to manage the country, but some people dared to openly sing against the royal family. Joseph has decided that this wave will be a heavy blow to help these guys put themselves in their place.

And to deal with bureaucrats, the Fair Investigation Bureau is undoubtedly the best knife.

Marat's eyes swept across the list, and then looked at Joseph and said, "Your Highness, is there any evidence of their corruption?"

"Not yet."

"So someone reported them?"

"No."

Mara put the list down, frowned and said solemnly, "Your Highness, then please forgive me for rejecting your request. The Fair Investigation Office is used to supervise the ethics of officials and safeguard the rights and interests of the people, not a tool for you to achieve your political goals!"

Joseph was immediately confused. Marat and his people are indeed dedicated and fearless of power and wealth, and they are also very capable, but they are too "stubborn" and don't even sell their own face. However, this is a necessary quality for the anti-corruption department.

Although he is very sure that these officials on the list can jump out at the same time to oppose the abolition of tax farmers, it would be strange if they didn't receive money behind the scenes. However, he could only helplessly say, "Mr. Marat, I just asked you to investigate. If they are innocent, then naturally nothing will happen to them."

He thought to himself that with all the current French bureaucrats, if they were all convicted of corruption without investigation or trial, there would probably not be many unjust cases.

Marat frowned again, looking like he was going against his will, and lowered his head and said, "Okay, Your Highness, I will send someone to check. Do you have anything else to do?"

"That's it, that's all."

Marat then picked up the list, touched his chest to signal Joseph, took a few steps back, turned around and left, still muttering in a low voice, "It's really a waste of the Bureau's energy..."

Not long after Marat left, Brian came in again and handed a stack of letters to Joseph, anxiously saying, "Your Highness, these are the remonstrances that were just delivered yesterday. They are all from officials from all over the country who expressed their opposition to tax reform."

Joseph glanced at the letters in his hand, at least more than 20, and immediately frowned.

Brian was well aware of the Crown Prince's determination to abolish the tax farmers this time, and said solemnly: "Your Highness, there should be more advice on the way to the Palace of Versailles.

"With so much opposition now, tax reform may not be implemented too quickly..."

Joseph knew that he was right. Now there are officials from almost all over the country who oppose tax reform. If he pushes forward against so many objections, it will inevitably cause a backlash from the entire bureaucracy.

He couldn't help but take a deep breath. He didn't expect that the tax farmer group was so powerful that it could motivate so many officials to work for them.

But the more this is the case, the more we must completely eradicate this force!

The current priority is to stop the bureaucrats' momentum against tax reform. Otherwise, the more officials join the opposition group, the more difficult it will be.

Originally, when Marat "solved" the first batch of officials who jumped out to oppose , and others, seeing that the situation is not right, will most likely not dare to accept the money of the tax farmer group to speak for them.

But there will be a time lag in between. Once the officials' remonstrances are sent to the Palace of Versailles, it means that they can no longer turn back and must grit their teeth and oppose to the end.

Of course, when it is absolutely necessary, he can directly dismiss a large number of officials and force the abolition of the tax farmer system, but that will also bring huge political turmoil. At that time, it is very likely that the royal family will form a situation of VS. the entire bureaucracy, which is definitely not what he wants.

Joseph's eyes swept over the letter in his hand, and suddenly his heart moved.

The sign that these officials participated in opposing tax reform is these remonstrances.

In other words, if there were no such remonstrances, they would still be neutral. Once they find that the momentum is not right, they can immediately turn to the royal family again.

He immediately said to Emman: "Please ask the postal director Viscount Arouet and Mr. Fouche to see me. Oh, and the head of the Intelligence Bureau's "Black Room" department..."

The "Black Room" is the department in the intelligence system responsible for monitoring mail.

Eman hurriedly bowed and said: "It's Mr. Jean Landalle, Your Highness."

"Yes, please ask him to come too."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Two hours later, the Postal Director and two senior officials of the Intelligence Bureau hurried to the Palace of Versailles.

After the three of them saluted, Joseph immediately instructed the Postal Director Viscount Arue: "I need you to immediately cause some "accidents" in the postal system, the kind that can cause the postal system to partially collapse.

"You don't have to worry about being punished for this. I will transfer you to another department afterwards, and it will be higher than your current position."

Arue was promoted by him from the bottom, and his loyalty is absolutely reliable.

Arue widened his eyes in surprise, but still responded: "Yes, Your Highness. But..."

Before he had time to ask in detail, the prince said to Fouché: "Let the 'Black Room' inspect all the letters sent by officials to the Palace of Versailles recently. Any letters involving tax reform should be 'seized' or sent back to the place of origin by the post office."

Fouché and Jean Landal looked at each other and hurriedly bowed and said: "Yes, Your Highness."

...

That night, a fire broke out in the office building of the Paris Post Office.

The fire was quickly brought under control, only burning two offices and warehouses on the third floor. There were no casualties, but some letters turned to ashes in the fire.

As the news was published, the two main leaders of the post office began to attack each other on the matter, both of them showed an attitude of unwillingness to take responsibility, and took the case to the chief minister Brian.

Immediately, the postal director Arouet was seriously ill and took leave, and the officials of the entire postal system were divided into two factions, supporting the two superiors respectively.

For a time, the postal system was in a state of disarray, and no one cared about daily mail delivery. A large number of letters were piled up or sent back to where they were sent.

However, if someone in the postal system carefully observed, they would find that ordinary mail could basically be delivered normally, but official letters were the most affected.