Chapter 479: Mara's fighting power
Chapter 480 Marat's Fighting Power
In the western suburbs of Paris.
In an office at the headquarters of the Notary Investigation Bureau, Joseph looked at Desmoulins in front of him, glanced at the work report he had just brought, and said casually:
"Is Mr. Marat not 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 Governor of Poitou, the Earl of Norfolk, was one of the two governors who opposed the abolition of the tax farmer system, and nodded slightly:
"Did he go to investigate the Earl of Norfolk?"
"No... no." Desmoulins shook his head and said, "It's... it's about the water conservancy construction department, embezzling... embezzlement of repair fees... fees."
Joseph frowned, then flipped through the work report of the Investigation Bureau in his hand, and asked:
"Has Mr. Marat arranged a lot of new investigation tasks recently?"
"Yes... yes... Your Highness."
Desmoulins helped him turn to the last few pages, and there were indeed many investigation plans.
But when Joseph glanced over, his brows furrowed even deeper - most of these investigation tasks only had one investigator assigned, and the deadline was 5 to 8 days. What could be found out with so few people and time?
Fuck! Joseph realized that Marat was just playing me. He didn't investigate seriously at all.
Joseph was a little annoyed. If the intelligence bureau was not as efficient as the notary investigation bureau in investigating corruption, and if the intelligence personnel investigating officials would cause criticism from officials, he really wanted to hand the matter over to Fouché.
He was about to reprimand Desmoulins, but suddenly remembered that doing so might have a counter-effect on the Jacobins. He sighed and got up to leave.
"It seems that we have to give Mr. Marat some strength."
Joseph got on the carriage, thought about it, and said to Emmanuel: "Go to the intelligence bureau."
"Yes, Your Highness."
...
Bourges, south-central France.
Cecilien, the second-class investigator of the Notary Investigation Bureau, was bored and flipping through the municipal revenue and expenditure accounts, and he couldn't help yawning.
As Mr. Mara said, there was nothing wrong with the municipal commissioner Baron Bassand and the municipal financial officer Mr. Comou. This investigation was just a sad political manipulation.
The accounts were very clean. Cecilien also checked the bank accounts of the two people in the past few days and visited some officials who were familiar with them. There were no problems.
"That's it." He closed the account book and stood up. "I 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 a carriage. Suddenly, a sturdy man with a hat brim pulled down very low rushed out from the left corner and bumped into him.
"Hey, you walk so elegantly!"
Cecilien protested loudly to the man, but the latter seemed not to hear it and lowered his head and disappeared into the pedestrians.
When Cecilien returned to the hotel and was about to take out the key to 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 took it out and checked it. He saw only two paragraphs on it: Go back to Paris, there is nothing you want to check here. It's still time to leave now. If you continue, you will definitely encounter an accident!
Cecilien's face flushed immediately. He was an investigator personally selected by Marat. His character and values were standard Jacobins. He gritted his teeth and growled:
"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, went into the house and wrote a letter to the Investigation Bureau. The main content was that he felt that there should be serious problems in Bourges and needed to extend the investigation time. Please ask your superiors for approval.
Then he went out again, thought about it, and followed the skills that Mr. Marat taught him before, and went straight to the residence of the most famous reporter in Bourges.
The man who bumped into him outside the city hall smiled when he saw him leaving. That night, he wrote a letter to his superiors in the intelligence agency to report that the "ignition" plan was going smoothly.
At the same time, investigators in various parts of France who were responsible for investigating the more than 40 officials also encountered various situations.
Some people were threatened with knives by bandits and asked to stop investigating. Some people were robbed and all the investigation materials they collected were stolen. Some people watched the documents they wanted to read being burned.
Soon, these investigators who were as "stubborn" as Marat were 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 have not investigated much on their side, but they are guilty first.
If they don't get to the bottom of it, how can they give justice to the French people?
Of course, these threats and other things were specially arranged by Fouché's agents according to the instructions of the Crown Prince. They are not good at investigating corruption, but they are familiar with these things.
Marat, who was conducting an investigation in Poitou, received a large number of investigation applications within a few days. When he saw what happened to his men, he was also furious.
He immediately wrote to Desmoulins, instructing him to send more people to assist the threatened investigators, even if he had to suspend some unimportant tasks, and to thoroughly investigate the officials involved!
The entire Notary Investigation Bureau suddenly entered a "mad" state.
…
More than half a month later.
Versailles Palace.
Marat stood in front of the Crown Prince with a guilty look on his face, blaming himself:
"Your Highness, I misunderstood you before. Please accept my sincere apology. As you expected, those officials did have problems."
"I never blamed you. Facts have proved that your work is as good as ever." Joseph smiled and turned over the report sent by Marat. In less than 20 days, this "piranha" fighter had bitten out 16 officials' solid evidence of crime!
Mainly corruption, in addition to abuse of power for personal gain, collusion between officials and businessmen, smuggling and even a murder case!
Joseph had a feeling for a while, should Marat be allowed to manage the Intelligence Bureau? The efficiency of the clues would definitely make Fouche's men ashamed.
However, he immediately gave up the idea. The Intelligence Bureau needs to do a lot of "dirty work", and with Marat's character, there is no need to expect him to do it. Only people like Fouche will execute any of his orders without hesitation.
Joseph raised the 16 reports and said to Mara in a deep voice:
"Please handle these termites and vampires impartially."
The Notary Investigation Bureau has the power to arrest directly, and the detention time without evidence is even longer than that of the police. After the evidence is finalized, you only need to submit an application to Joseph, and after approval, you can directly initiate public prosecution.
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Joseph nodded with satisfaction, and then looked at the investigation reports of the remaining 30 officials who had not yet obtained conclusive evidence, and couldn't help but frowned slightly.
