While Achille Fuld was accepting the cheers of the MPs for the Empire and the Emperor in the Bourbon Palace, in the Tuileries Palace only a few kilometers away, the French Emperor Jérôme Bonaparte was sitting.
In the office, waiting for the arrival of Queen Augusta.
When Queen Augusta opened the door and entered the office, Jérôme Bonaparte said to Queen Augusta straight to the point, "Augusta, we may have a whole year of hard times this year!"
"Your Majesty, what happened?" Augusta, who had just entered the door and had not yet understood the situation, had doubts in his eyes after hearing what Jerome Bonaparte said.
However, Augusta was still Jérôme Bonaparte's bedfellow who had been with him for almost ten years. After only a few seconds passed, she understood what Jérôme Bonaparte meant.
Before Jérôme Bonaparte could explain, Queen Augusta spoke again and said helplessly, "Your Majesty, have you spent all the funds given to the royal family by the country on other things?"
"Yeah!" Jerome Bonaparte nodded repeatedly.
"Tell me! Where did you spend your money?" Queen Augusta sighed, with a hint of blame in her tone.
It's not that she doesn't let the emperor spend money, it's just that every time the emperor spends money, he only informs her afterwards without consulting her in advance, which sometimes makes her feel very passive.
Jerome Bonaparte told Augusta that he had used all the funds given to the royal family by the government this year for the construction of public infrastructure in Alsace and Lorraine.
"I remember that you and Minister Achille Fuld had already discussed the countermeasures at that time!
Why do we need the royal family to pay for it?" Augusta asked in confusion.
“According to calculations by Barroche and Achille Fuld, the sale of 80,000 hectares of state-owned forest could only raise 150 million francs!
To completely renovate the roads in Alsace and Lorraine, it would cost about 200 million francs!
In other words, there is still a gap of nearly 50 million francs that we need to make up!" Jerome Bonaparte explained to Augusta with a shrug.
"Then the royal family should not make up the remaining figures! Public infrastructure construction should be a job within the government!" Augusta obviously did not understand Jérôme Bonaparte's approach.
"Augusta, you are right! Maintaining and renovating public infrastructure is indeed a matter within the government!" Jerome Bonaparte first confirmed Augusta's statement, and then continued, "
But the construction of these two areas could have waited until the empire's finances relaxed a little before repairs!
And now the government, under my will, forcibly borrows money to carry out repairs!
This has something to do with us!”
"Your Majesty, I don't understand why you are so impatient to carry out renovations!" Augusta couldn't help but asked Jerome Bonaparte, "Alsace and Lorraine are really worthy of the empire's bloody renovation.
Is there local input?”
"Of course it's worth it!" Jérôme Bonaparte said firmly to Queen Augusta.
Immediately afterwards, Queen Augusta seemed to have thought of something. She first glanced at the door behind her. After confirming that there was no third party, she lowered her voice and asked Jerome Bonaparte, "Your Majesty, please
Tell me honestly!
Is your purpose of renovating the infrastructure in the Alsace-Lorraine region so that you can invade the German region more quickly in the future?"
Looking at the cautious Augusta in front of him, Jérôme Bonaparte knew that he had to reveal some information to his wife.
"Augusta, you are right! The reason why I am willing to invest in Alsace-Lorraine is not just to improve the transportation between these two regions and Paris." Jérôme Bonaparte
Augusta admitted frankly, "The Principality of Luxembourg, Metz and Strasbourg will become the three important transit centers for the French army to enter the German region!"
Speaking of this, Jerome Bonaparte excitedly waved his fist and said to Augusta, "I will lead France's millions of troops to set off from these three places and step into German territory!
Just like my uncle, Emperor Napoleon, completely defeated the army of the Kingdom of Prussia on the Elbe River, and then wiped out Germany!
To maintain the logistics needed to support a million troops, the existing infrastructure in Alsace and Lorraine must be renovated!”
"Oh my God!" Queen Augusta couldn't help shouting softly.
She really couldn't imagine that her husband's ambition could be so great.
Whether it was an invasion of Germany or a million-strong army, it was too scary for Augusta.
"My dear Augusta, why are you so surprised!" Jerome Bonaparte said to Queen Augusta calmly, "Since Prime Minister Richelieu, France's top priority has not been to maintain Germany.
Regional divisions!
A divided Germany is the best Germany for France!"
"My Majesty, Germany is now divided!
There is no need for the Empire to attack them anymore!" Augustus tried to persuade Jerome Bonaparte to give up his ambitions.
"Augusta! Germany is indeed divided now, but that does not mean that Germany will never be unified!" Jerome Bonaparte said to Augusta.
"Your Majesty, who do you think has the chance to unify Germany? Austria or Prussia?" Augusta asked.
"Prussia, of course!" Jérôme Bonaparte responded to Augusta in a determined tone.
"Oh my God!" Augusta shouted again, with a hint of fear in her eyes.
For a relatively devout Catholic, there is nothing more terrifying than Protestant rule.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! No wonder after the failure of the Battle of Königschregetz, the old man Pius IX shouted "This is the end of the world"!
Seeing his terrified wife in front of him, Jérôme Bonaparte couldn't help but complain in his heart.
After the defeat of the Austro-Prussian War in history, the entire Holy See was in the same state as Augusta today.
When he was in the 21st century, he didn't understand why the Holy See had such sentiments. It was only after he was truly in the 19th century and felt the influence of religious forces that he realized the true meaning of this sentence.
"Your Majesty, we must stop the behavior of this barbaric kingdom of Prussia!" Augusta pleaded with Jerome Bonaparte, grabbing his arm.
"Calm down, Augusta! Germany is still under the influence of Austria!" Jerome Bonaparte put his other hand on Augusta's hand and spoke to Augusta in a kind tone.
responded.
Only after hearing Jerome Bonaparte's comfort did Augusta remember the reality.
"Your Majesty, we should help Austria suppress Prussia!" Augusta suggested to Jerome Bonaparte.
"Help Austria?" Jerome Bonaparte shook his head and responded to Augusta, "No, no, no! Helping Austria has no benefit at all except maintaining the status quo!
I want to ignite the ambition of the Kingdom of Prussia and let them dare to ignite the flames of war in the entire German region!
Only in this way can France successfully get what it wants in the midst of the fire!
Immediately, Jérôme Bonaparte gave an example to Augusta, "It's like you have two neighbors, they are a pair of brothers.
One of the eldest brothers has a well-off family and is an honest man. The only drawback is that he is not in good health!
The other younger brother also has a pretty good family background and is in his prime of health, but he always wants to take a peek at his elder brother’s inheritance!
As a robber who wants to rob these two properties, what you have to do is pretend to be a neutral faction when you are not sure of winning the cooperation between the two brothers!
Since the younger brother wants to peek into his elder brother's inheritance, he will inevitably choose to bribe you to make you favor him in this battle for family property!
You only need to show your intention to favor him, and then the younger brother will definitely have the courage to take action against the elder brother!
Just wait until the younger brother beats the older brother until he can barely hold on anymore.
As a robber, you jumped out and righteously accused your brother of his mistakes, and then you roped in other younger brothers in the family (German princes) to carry out a righteous gang fight against your brother (Prussia)!
By that time, your brother’s inheritance and part of your brother’s assets will not all belong to you!”
Queen Augusta understood Jerome Bonaparte's metaphor, and she said to Jerome Bonaparte again, "Then how do you guard against another robber (Britain)!"
"As long as I act quickly enough, they will only suffer the consequences of being dumb!" Jérôme Bonaparte confidently said to Augusta, "And I will not eat alone. As long as the younger brothers are willing to follow me
Together we can all share part of the assets!”
"So Württemberg can also participate in this partition!!" Augusta said to Jerome Bonaparte.
"Of course!" Jerome Bonaparte nodded in response, "As long as the Kingdom of Württemberg is willing to follow the empire, France will never treat any country that follows it badly!"
Later, Jerome Bonaparte reminded Augusta that what he just said to Augusta was just an idea of his, and the specific implementation would have to wait until the Kingdom of Prussia actually took the first step.
.
At present, Jérôme Bonaparte only wants to reveal this idea to Augusta, and he hopes that Augusta will not reveal this news to others.
Augusta agreed to Jerome Bonaparte's request.
"Although there are no expenses of 20 million francs this year, the surplus of Norinco and real estate is enough for us to tide over this year's difficulties!" Augusta said with relief to himself!
"That's right!" Jérôme Bonaparte carefully raised his hand and said weakly to Augusta, "I also took away 10 million francs from Norinco!"
