Chapter 568: Fighting fraud with fraud

Chapter 569: Using deception to counter deceive

Joseph clenched his fists and said:

"These stupid guys!"

Archbishop Beaumont's face was full of embarrassment—His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was just talking in a low voice just now, and now he was about to shout out. This is above the temple...

He had no choice but to raise his voice desperately, trying to cover up His Highness's "blasphemous" act.

Mirabeau was even more worried:

"Your Highness, there is no concrete evidence in this report. It is just Viscount Carlona's speculation that there is a problem with the order.

"Based on these alone, I'm afraid it will be difficult to convince those factory owners. After all, they are all waiting to make a lot of money...

"Moreover, at present, the transaction procedures and orders are very formal. I mean, it is difficult for us to confirm which orders are problematic and which ones are normal.

"If factories are forced to reduce production, I'm afraid it will also affect a large number of normal orders."

Joseph was startled when he heard this. He really ignored this problem.

No one can identify all fake orders, so if forceful measures are used to stop it, even if only one out of ten orders is genuine, it will severely damage the credit of French factories and interrupt the rapid growth of French industry.

And if you leave it alone, you will face catastrophic consequences.

This is all a conspiracy.

No matter who came up with this plan, Joseph had to admit that that guy was indeed smart and vicious enough.

So, how to avoid the harm of fake orders without harming real orders?

Mirabeau in the back row listened to Archbishop Beaumont reciting prayers loudly in a hoarse voice. He couldn't help but cross himself and murmured:

"Almighty God, please help France survive this crisis."

He immediately shook his head and sighed: "Right now, unless those scammers cancel the orders themselves, there is nothing they can do..."

Joseph was thinking hard about countermeasures, but when he heard Mirabeau's complaints, he couldn't help but feel moved.

That's right, as long as the person who placed the fake order can cancel the order on his own.

But how to get them to back off on their own?

Their company, qualifications, procedures, and even the deposit are all real, but only the balance must be fake. Otherwise it would not be a fake order.

Therefore, we must firmly hold on to the final payment.

It happened to be the time for the Holy Communion to be distributed, and everything suddenly became quiet. Joseph's brain was running rapidly in this silence. After a while, a smile suddenly appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Since the other party is going to pull such a big scam, don’t blame me for cheating him!

He grabbed the Holy Communion and Holy Wine from the deacon's hands, made the sign of the cross hastily, said a prayer, turned around and motioned for Mirabeau to come over, and said in his ear:

"Please immediately let people screen out all foreign orders with an amount of more than 50,000 francs, and then let the factory owners do this, and then do this..."

Mirabeau's eyes suddenly widened: "Your Highness, this... although it should be feasible, but what if the factory owner is worried about his reputation and is unwilling to cooperate?"

"It doesn't matter. As long as one-tenth of the factories are willing to do this, others will understand immediately after seeing it."

Mirabeau immediately leaned forward and said, "Yes, Your Highness, I will do it immediately after the mass."

Joseph thought for a while and asked again: "By the way, you mentioned before that most of the deposits for those orders have been received?"

"Yes, Your Highness. If this is a scam, they are obviously trying to lure factory owners into taking the bait."

Joseph nodded: "But the goods we produce have greatly exceeded the amount of the deposit, so we must make up for it as much as possible."

"What do you mean?"

Joseph waved directly to Fouche, who was sitting further back. Seeing that Archbishop Beaumont didn't pay attention to him, the latter quickly slipped over.

"Your Highness, what are your orders?"

"That liar, what's going on with Metz..."

"It's Mesmer, Your Highness."

"Oh, yes. I remember Viscount Carlona's report said that he is now a well-known businessman in Vienna?"

"That's right, Your Highness."

"Okay, you tell him to do this in Austria...and find a few factory owners who are willing to cooperate and go to Vienna..."

"Yes, Your Highness." The intelligence chief nodded and quickly jotted it down in his notebook.

Joseph continued: "Also, we need to focus on investigating the guy named Clay Steele. He may be the key point of all problems!"

…

More than ten days later.

vienna.

In the office of the general manager of Mannhart Trading Company, Baron Graz looked at the letter sent by the trading director in surprise and said in disbelief:

"How is this possible? Have you confirmed it?"

"Yes, Lord Baron." The trade director nodded, "This was sent personally by the assistant manager of Gregor Brothers Steel Company. I met him when I signed the order contract."

"But, this..." Graz frowned and looked at the notification letter, "They produced more than 720,000 florins in less than three months?!"

720,000 florins is 1.8 million francs. If used to buy iron products, it can already pile up a hill.

And just this morning, Gregor Brothers Steel Company told him that all orders placed by Manharts Trading Company had been completed.

Graz suddenly panicked. According to Krestier's previous instructions, he had to pretend in Vienna until October. Only when the production funds invested by the French factories could no longer be withdrawn would he withdraw.

And now it is only mid-May, and the Grigor Brothers Steel Company is about to deliver the order. What should he do?

He had already prepared a way to flee to the United States, but if he left Vienna at this time, all the fake orders might be exposed-

He had set up 6 shell companies in total, and entrusted other caravans to order 11 goods from France, with an order amount of 3.5 million florins. That is more than 8.7 million francs.

If he ran to the United States at this time, the subsequent orders might be interrupted, and Mr. Chrystil's mission could not be completed, and his commission would be greatly reduced...

No! If he ran now, he would not even complete one-third of the mission, let alone the commission, and Chrystil might come to settle accounts with him.

But how could he deal with the Grigor Brothers Steel Company if he didn't run? Where would he get the money to pay the balance?

Gratz was scratching his head anxiously when he heard the trade director say:

"Baron, according to the order agreement, we must pay half by the end of the month, that is, 360,000 florins, and the other half before July..."

"I know, get out!" Gratz roared.

In order to stimulate the French factory to invest as much money as possible to expand production, he even added a clause in the order agreement that "delivering goods in advance can get a reward of 3% of the order amount."