I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 479 Strikes hard
The next morning.

Marat straightened his clothes, pushed the door open at the signal of Emmanuel, saluted the crown prince who was sitting at the table, and said concisely: "Your Highness, I am here."

Joseph smiled and stood up: "Nice to meet you, Mr. Mara."

"Did you ask me to come here for some reason?"

Joseph was used to this attitude towards the royal family, so he motioned for him to sit down on the sofa and nodded, "There are indeed some things I need you to do."

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

On the list are the more than 40 officials who had previously expressed opposition to the abolition of the tax farmer system.

The bureaucracy was supposed to be a tool for the royal family to manage the country, but some people dared to openly oppose the royal family. Joseph had decided that this time he would strike hard and help these guys put themselves in their proper place.

When it comes to dealing with bureaucrats, the Fair Investigation Bureau is undoubtedly the most useful weapon.

Mara glanced at the list, then looked at Joseph and said, "Your Highness, is there any evidence of their corruption?"

"Not yet."

"So someone reported them?"

"nor."

Mara put the list down, frowned and said solemnly: "Your Highness, 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 as a tool for you to achieve your political goals!"

Joseph was immediately annoyed. Mara and his people were indeed dedicated and fearless of the powerful. They were also very capable, but they were too stubborn and didn't even want to save face. However, this was a necessary quality for the anti-corruption department.

Although he was sure that if these officials on the list could all come out to oppose the abolition of the tax farmers, it would be strange if they didn't receive money behind the scenes. However, he could only helplessly say: "Mr. Mara, I just asked you to start the investigation. If they are innocent, then naturally nothing will be done to them."

He thought to himself that if all the bureaucrats in France were convicted of corruption without any investigation or trial, there would probably not be many unjust cases.

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

"That's it. That's it."

Mara then picked up the list, touched his chest to signal Joseph, took a few steps back, turned around and left, still muttering to himself: "What a waste of the Bureau's energy..."

Not long after Marat left, Brian came in again and handed a pile 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 expressing their opposition to the tax reform."

Joseph glanced at the letters in his hand, there were at least 20 of them, and immediately frowned.

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

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

Joseph knew that what he said was right. Now there were officials from almost every part of the country who opposed tax reform. If he forced his way through despite so many objections, it would inevitably cause a backlash from the entire bureaucracy.

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

However, the more this happens, the more we must completely eradicate this force!

The most urgent task now is to stop the bureaucrats' momentum in opposing tax reform. Otherwise, the more officials join the opposition group, the more difficult it will be to deal with the problem. Originally, by the time Marat had "dealt with" the first batch of officials who jumped out to oppose, the others would not dare to accept money from the tax farmers group to speak for them when they saw that the situation was not right.

But there would be a time lag. Once the officials' remonstrances were delivered to the Palace of Versailles, it meant that they could no longer turn back and had to grit their teeth and oppose to the end.

Of course, if 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 about 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.

These admonitions are a sign that these officials are participating in opposing tax reform.

In other words, if there were no such criticism, they would still be neutral. Once they found that the situation was not going well, they would immediately turn to the royal family.

He immediately said to Emmans: "Please ask Viscount Arue, the Postal Director, and Mr. Fouché to come see me. Oh, and the head of the Intelligence Agency's 'Black Room' department..."

The "black room" is the department in the intelligence system responsible for monitoring emails.

"It's Monsieur Jean Landalle, your Highness," said Emmanuel, bowing.

"Well, yes, please let him come too."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Two hours later, the Postal Director and two senior intelligence officials 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' to happen to the postal system, the kind that can cause a partial collapse of the postal system.

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

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

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

Before he could ask in detail, the Dauphin said to Fouché: "Tell the Black Room to inspect all the recent letters sent by officials to the Palace of Versailles. Any letters involving tax reforms should be detained by the post office or sent back to the place of origin."

Fouché and Jean Rondale looked at each other and bowed quickly, saying, "Yes, Your Highness."

……

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

The fire was quickly brought under control and only burned down two offices and a warehouse on the third floor. There were no casualties, but some letters were reduced to ashes in the fire.

As the news appeared in the newspapers, the two main leaders of the Post Office began to attack each other over the matter, both showing an attitude of being unwilling to take responsibility, and even took the case to Chief Minister Brian.

Soon after, Postal Director General Arue was seriously ill and took leave, and officials in the entire postal system were divided into two factions, supporting their two superiors respectively.

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

However, if someone inside the postal system observes carefully, they will find that ordinary mail can basically be delivered normally, but official letters are the most affected.

(End of this chapter)