Joseph’s carriage had just stopped in front of the Industrial Planning Bureau’s office building when a disheveled figure suddenly sprang out of the street corner and strode toward him.
“No closer!” Two guards immediately stepped forward to stop the man.
When Joseph saw the deep nasolabial folds on the face of the newcomer, he couldn’t help but smile. Wasn’t this the “Piranha,” oh no, wrong, Mr. Mara? You’ve finally come.
He hastily leaned out the window and signaled to Kesode, “Please let Mr. Mara come over.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Before long, in the visitor’s room of the Industrial Planning Bureau, Mara sat down opposite Joseph, his eyes full of anger, “Crown Prince, you actually used me with such disgraceful tactics! I will definitely make this public!”
After toppling the President of the High Court Vergniaud, Mara was indeed happy for a while, thinking he had done a great service for the Parisians.
However, half a month ago, when he happened to see the portrait of the Crown Prince, he felt it looked familiar, then it struck him, wasn’t this Mr. Xavier, the young owner of the “Paris Commercial News”?
He immediately pieced together the events, and realized that the Crown Prince approached him to eliminate his political enemy.
He had been used!
So, he stormed off to the Palace of Versailles, only to be told that the Crown Prince was recently working in Paris, and then he rushed to the Industrial Planning Bureau, learning that the Crown Prince had gone to Bordeaux…
He had waited at the Bureau for several days, and today he finally “caught” Joseph and immediately came to confront him.
Joseph knew he would definitely come and had already been waiting for him.
Joseph rested his right hand on the arm of the sofa, revealing a relaxed smile, “How can you say that, Mr. Mara? It wasn’t exploitation, but fulfillment.”
“Fulfillment? Hmph, a pale excuse.”
Joseph said indifferently, “Pray tell, have you not always desired social justice, wanted to help the oppressed?”
“Of course, that’s the case.”
“Precisely. Together, we brought the most corrupt President of the High Court to justice, vindicated a large number of people who suffered from wrongful cases, and even caused a significant reduction in the corruption within the entire judiciary. Isn’t that what you wanted to see?”
“That…” Mara hesitated; indeed, it seemed so. If it weren’t for the Crown Prince’s guidance, the High Court might still be accepting bribes, manipulating the law, persecuting the common people.
Joseph didn’t give him time to reflect further and immediately continued, “Mr. Mara, please believe that in punishing corruption, reducing injustice, and improving the lives of the French people, our stances are very much aligned.”
He thought to himself: Only if the people’s lives are better can the monarchy be stable…
Mara looked at Joseph in surprise, these words sounded like the claims of someone from the liberal camp, yet they were coming from the Crown Prince.
“You, are you serious?”
“Time will prove everything,” Joseph looked at Mara earnestly, “If, after a few years, the lives of the French people have not improved, then it will not be too late for you to condemn me.”
Mara opened his mouth then frowned,”Regardless, Your Highness, you shouldn’t have deceived me. You didn’t even give me your real name!”
“You misunderstand me,” Joseph said with an innocent look, “Xavier is indeed my middle name—Louis Joseph Xavier Francois.”
“But…”
“I did not tell you that I am the Crown Prince, but surely you don’t introduce yourself to everyone as ‘I am a reporter,’ do you? It’s just a little personal privacy regarding one’s profession.”
After this conversation, the anger Mara felt upon arrival had unwittingly dissipated, leaving him feeling as if there was nothing left to say, and he prepared to rise and take his leave.
Naturally, Joseph was not going to let him leave just like that.
He had been planning the Anti-Corruption Bureau for some time now; bureaucratic corruption was a major problem plaguing France.
It was difficult for people to resist the temptation of various interests on their conscience alone.
Not to mention those old-style bureaucrats, even the newly reformed police system, if not supervised, would inevitably end up like the old police force.
While administrative reform was the cure, establishing a supervisory body was also necessary, at the very least to make the officials think twice.
The reason Joseph hadn’t pushed forward with building the Anti-Corruption Bureau was largely that he couldn’t find the right people to investigate corruption.
Using existing officials was like having them supervise themselves, which would inevitably lead to collusion and cover-ups. Training new personnel from scratch, on the other hand, was too time-consuming.
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Then he thought of Mara, Demulan, and others—sharp-witted and with a wealth of investigative experience. Most importantly, they should be among the least likely in France to collude with officials.
Moreover, using these “Jacobins” to establish the Anti-Corruption Bureau had two advantages.
One was that these people couldn’t sit still; if you don’t give them something to do, they would find their own affairs, and they might just trigger the start of a major conflict at some critical moment. So, it’s better to incorporate them into the royal system and keep them busy.
The second was that based on the experience of dealing with Vergniaud, Joseph found that if people like Mara were used well, they were indeed capable of tearing political enemies to shreds. In the process of his bureaucracy reform and the weakening of the Old Nobility, they could prove to be helpful.
Joseph gestured for Mara not to hurry off, and said gravely, “Mr. Mara, do you want this country to be more just, more equal, to help more of the common people?”