Flowers, Swords and France

"Dad, you're back? What do you want to talk to me about?"

In Baron de Bovan's study, Laura pushed open the door and looked at her father who had just returned with a look of surprise.

It's no wonder Laura was surprised. Recently, her father has been staying at home and rarely goes out. He only handles affairs through the reports of his subordinates. Occasionally, he has to attend any activities and asks Laura to do it herself. So when she heard the servant's report, Laura thought it was fake news.

"Yes, I'm back." The baron, who was sitting in front of the desk, raised his head, then showed a plain smile to his daughter, and then made a gesture for Laura to come over, "Lola, come and sit here, Dad has something to tell you."

Although this smile looks kind, Laura shuddered slightly, because she didn't feel any warmth from this smile at all.

Baron de Bovan's originally chubby face has become a little thinner recently, but the shrewdness in his eyes has not faded a bit. Because he stayed at home all day recently, his face became much paler, and with that slightly stiff expression, he looked even more sinister.

The atmosphere in this study was also very strange. It was decorated magnificently, and all kinds of items inlaid with gold and jewels were shining, but this study gave people a gloomy and dead feeling.

When I take power in the future, I must replace everything in this study... After being stunned for a moment, Laura thought in her heart.

"Dad, do you have anything to tell me?" After walking to her father's side, Laura looked at her father with her most enthusiastic attitude. "You just came back, right? Why don't you take a rest first?"

"No, no need to rest. I feel pretty good now." The Baron waved his hand gently, as if he was a little tired. "Hey. I haven't been out for dozens of days. I have a meeting today. My brain can't keep up. Haha! It seems that I have been idle for a long time recently and I am almost rusty..."

"Don't say that, Dad. You are just not in good condition recently..." Laura hurriedly comforted her father, "As long as you recover, we can still do whatever we want."

"Really? I hope so..." The Baron still had a smile on his face, "You have worked so hard recently, child..."

"This is what I should do, Dad." Because of her father's praise, Laura was a little excited and quickly lowered her eyes, "Now if I don't share the hard work with you, who can help you?"

"Yes... yes..." The Baron's smile became more and more intense. "Now only you can inherit my business, right?"

Although this sentence would have excited Laura at any other time before, in the current environment, Laura only felt a kind of indifference from her father that seemed to have lost all hope, which made her joy disappear by half.

Since the death of her son Morris, the kind smile on her father's face, which had been a formula, has disappeared. Even if he smiled every day, he couldn't make people feel like spring breeze, but instead felt a little creepy. It was for this reason that the baron's servants and assistants have been humble and trembling these days. They were afraid that if they did anything wrong, their master would impose terrible punishment.

However, although his attitude has become increasingly gloomy. But the baron slowly calmed down from this disaster, except for the first few days when he lost control of his emotions and got angry. Later, he rarely got angry with people, and didn't even express his sadness in front of outsiders. This self-control really made many people admire it.

However, since she learned of her brother's death, Laura felt that her father had become much more depressed. Although he was still as shrewd and sharp as before when making decisions, it was obvious that he no longer had the kind of pride and confidence to look down on everything.

A man who was originally so strong could not withstand the blow!

When she thought of this, Laura could not help but feel sorry for her father. Deep in her heart, she began to doubt whether she should have children in the future, and whether she should create weaknesses for herself for no reason.

Unlike the protagonists in many dramas, until now, she still has no guilt for killing her brother Morris with her own hands and making her father so depressed, and she has not been unable to sleep at night because of this. In her opinion, this is a necessary price to pay for inheriting her father's career, that's all, she just did something she was destined to do.

Today, when her father began to decline, she was more eager to grow up and make the great career left by her father more brilliant.

At the same time, deep in her heart, jealousy was still gnawing at her remaining emotions. Laura knew very well that if it was her who died instead of her brother, her father would be sad, but not to this extent.

"Okay, there's no need to say so many polite words between father and daughter. I haven't told you yet, have I? The purpose of my going out today." After looking at his daughter with a smile, the baron talked about his itinerary, "Today I received a temporary notice from Count Argu, so I went to attend the special board meeting of the Bank of France."

"Special board meeting?" Laura's expression became more serious, "What is it for? Is there something big?"

As a well-known banker, Baron de Beauvain has always been an extremely powerful member of the directors of the Bank of France. He is also widely rumored to be a strong candidate for the next president of the Bank of France. Since the president, Count Argu, is specially appointed If you send an invitation letter, then the importance of the issues to be discussed today is self-evident.

"It's not a particularly serious matter. I just need to discuss a particularly large sum of money."

"Money? How much is it?"

"Twenty-five million." The baron raised his eyebrows and then replied leisurely. “And it was raised and delivered in a short period of time.”

"Twenty-five million!" Although the baron's tone was very relaxed, Laura was still shocked.

Because this number is so huge that it almost exceeds the financing capabilities of ordinary financial institutions. Even the De-Bowang family now has a fortune of hundreds of millions. It is impossible to withdraw so much cash in a short period of time. I am afraid that only national banks like the Bank of France can do so. Only then can we raise such a huge amount of cash in a short period of time.

"Why is the loan so large? Does the other party have such a credit line? Is it lending to other countries? What is the interest rate? What is the guarantee?" Even if you know that there must be some deep meaning, the instinct of bankers is . Laura still asked the same series of questions.

"It is not a loan to a certain country, but a loan to a person... to be precise, our President." The Baron explained to his daughter slowly, "At the request of the President himself, France The bank is ready to lend Mr. President 25 million francs to meet unexpected needs. Today, a group of directors have been meeting to discuss this..."

Having said this, Baron de Beauvain's face obviously twitched, and he was obviously laughing at something. "Hey, what's the unexpected need? Everyone knows it! This is a special fund used to hang the Republic. He wants to use the French people's money to seize the French crown..."

"Does he want the money to bribe his henchmen and help him launch a coup?" Laura understood what her father meant.

"It's obvious. We're just curious whether he plans to do it this year or next year." The baron replied coldly, "However, I didn't expect that he has such a big appetite and wants to take so much from us at once!"

"Then what do the people on the board of directors think? Do you disagree?" Laura asked in a low voice. "After all, this amount of money is too big..."

"Don't agree? Why not? Quite the contrary. Without much discussion, we unanimously decided to approve the president's personal loan request and send the money to him within a few days." Baron de Beauvain waved his hand, " So. I dare say that it will not be long before we shout to another person, "Long live the Emperor!" Oh, the Bonaparte family will once again bring great glory to France!"

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

Although it seems to be a compliment. But the baron's tone was very frivolous and sarcastic, and it was obvious that he had no respect for the future emperor in his heart.

"But...Dad. Since you don't like Mr. President, why do you want to help him..." There was a trace of hesitation on Laura's face. "In this age, we...why do we need to put an emperor on our head? Isn't the Republic very good? The more decentralized power is, the easier it is for us to find agents in the political circles, and it is easier to exploit loopholes. It is better to have seven hundred people quarreling in the Palais de Bourbon than to have one man giving orders. Why do we need an emperor? This emperor is neither noble nor talented, and he is not even French! Why can we be so inferior?"

"Being inferior to him? No! You only saw one aspect." The Baron shook his head, "Yes, we may indeed have to respect this man and flatter him, but this does not mean how tall he will be... He is just a product born out of necessity. We need him and he needs us.”

"Need it?" Laura asked in surprise.

"Yes, everyone has had enough of the endless turmoil and turmoil for decades. We need a strong person to unite all forces, lead a centralized country, order the army and government, and let him protect the entire country. To maintain order and maintain everything we have worked hard for! Whether this person is wise, great or ridiculous is irrelevant. The key is that we need such a person! What's more, Mr. President deserves our respect. He The surname Bonaparte is not just for nothing..."

"In other words, do we need an emperor to maintain order, confirm everything we already have, and eliminate any new revolutionary risks?" Laura gradually understood what her father meant, "Will he rely on us to govern the country?"

"Who else can he rely on besides us?" There was a hint of cunning on the Baron's face. "He relies on the army to seize the country, but the army is a gold-eating monster. To maintain the army, he needs money, countless money. Don’t you have to rely on us in the end? Besides, there is a more important reason why we need him.”

"What's the reason?" Laura asked in a low voice.

"We need him and his empire to rush out and seize our country's due place in the world! Also seize more wealth and profits for us..." The baron raised his head and looked at his daughter, "France is too small, even if everyone is here The small France bites each other and cannot make much profit. We must rush to the whole world in the future era! In an era in which we are accelerating our foreign aggression, an era full of violent conflicts with foreign countries, we need a strong man to lead the empire to do this. A weak republic cannot achieve this necessary step, whether it is France. Or other European countries, I am convinced that we will eventually expand in the world and then have violent conflicts.”

"Expansion abroad?" Laura finally understood.

"Yes, Laura, haven't you noticed? I have already started to expand our family's business overseas a long time ago...and I am not the only one doing this, our colleagues are also exporting capital to seize the market. "The Baron smiled and nodded, "As time goes by, this kind of undertaking will become bigger and bigger, and eventually we will find that we need an empire to safeguard our interests so that no one dares to threaten us overseas. Assets - since sooner or later it will be So, why don't we just prepare early? The empire may lack freedom, but it is powerful enough! We can't imitate the British. The Straits can let them sit back and relax, but France must face the dilemma of being attacked on several sides. If you want to maintain the suppression of enemies on the mainland and expand overseas territories, then no empire is absolutely impossible. As for who the emperor is, it doesn't matter. People like it to be called Bonaparte, so let's call it Bonaparte. , we don’t care.”

"That's it...that's it..." Laura murmured to herself.

"Laura, I'm very happy that you have such an attitude of not looking up to anyone, but sometimes you have to learn to look at problems from a long-term perspective." The baron looked at his daughter indifferently.

Laura lowered her head and said nothing, her heart filled with admiration for her father.

Only now did she understand that even if her father had reached this stage, he was still a big man that she could only look up to. She had to continue to look at her father with wide eyes and learn the essence from his every move. Only then could she understand. Only in this way... will I be qualified to inherit my father's career and even carry it forward.

"By the way, daughter, are you still painting recently? Show your latest painting to Dad..." Suddenly, the Baron changed the topic, "Dad hasn't seen it for a long time. It's rare that I'm in a good mood today... …”(To be continued...)