When Joseph heard this, he didn't panic, he just frowned and thought about it, and then said, "Lazar, it's not convenient to talk here, go to my office and talk about it." ”

Joseph and Kano went into the office together.

Kano sat down at the table next to Joseph's desk, and Joseph went to close the door before sitting down in front of Kano.

"Lazar, has someone already bought the certificates of deposit of Clavière Bank at a discount?" Joseph asked.

"You know this? Yes, there are already people buying certificates of deposit from Clavière Bank at a 7% discount. Joseph, do you think I should sell a little? To be honest, I lost 30 percent in vain, and I was very unwilling. But I'm worried that if it continues, the losses may be even greater. Kano said with a frown.

Instead of answering, Joseph asked, "Lazar, do you have any spare money?" ”

Kano didn't keep up with Joseph's train of thought at all, he thought Joseph wanted to support him, so he said, "It's not much, but it's enough to support life for the time being." Joseph, I remember that you have several brothers in your family who have to take care of you - of course, Napoleon can help you now......"

"Lazar," Joseph smiled, "thank you for your concern, but, I suppose, maybe you misunderstood me. ”

With that, Joseph looked in both directions—the door was closed, and there was no one else in the office but them. So he lowered his voice and continued:

"Lazar, I mean, if you have any money that you can do in addition to supporting the basics, including money that you can get in other banks, take it out, and then buy the certificates of deposit of Clavière Bank as much as you can."

"What?" Kano stared at Joseph with wide eyes, and finally he reached out and wanted to touch Joseph's forehead, "Joseph, you're not sick, are you?" ”

"Don't worry, I'm not sick." Joseph said, "Lazar, if there is any place where the banks will be affected by the rebellion, who knows better than us? Don't we know the extent of the rebellions, large and small, in various places? Lazar, have there been many more rebellions in various places during this period of time than in previous months? ”

Having said this, Kano seemed to understand a little: "There have been a little more rebellions in the past few months, but not too much. ”

"yes, this situation of rebellion everywhere has lasted almost a year, right? In the course of this year, Mr. Clavière should have been quite familiar with such a market situation, although Mr. Clavière is not Alexander the Great in finance, but at least he is also a viscount of Tyrene (a French general in the Thirty Years' War. It is known as the sharpest sword in France under Louis XIV. ）。 To say that he suddenly faced bankruptcy of the bank and was unable to cash out his deposits because of the sudden risk that was already very common, Lazar, do you think it is more likely? ”

"Joseph, you mean that these legends are false? Did the Clavière Bank not experience any crisis at all? So what did Mr. Clavier do this for? Kano still didn't get it.

"Because a large part of the people who are buying those certificates of deposit are Mr. Clavier's people! You wait, and it won't be long before the purchase price of the certificate of deposit will become 6% or even 1% off. Mr. Clavier bought the certificate of deposit back at such a price, and then the certificate of deposit could be accessed normally, and then ...... Needless to say? Joseph said.

"This ...... That's okay?! Kano trembled, clenched his fists tightly, stood up and said, "This ...... Isn't this robbing the people? Is there still a royal law for this? Is there still a law? ”

Lazar...... Lazar, don't get so excited, we'...... Don't say it, it's really not against the law. Joseph also stood up and tried to comfort Kano.

"No! I can't just watch such a black-hearted thing! "Joseph, let's go to the general together, he should have a way to stop this." ”

Joseph looked at Kano's indignant look and knew that he couldn't hold him, but he didn't want to go with Kano to Lafayette. This kind of thing that blocks people from making money is quite close to blocking trains in terms of danger index.

"Lazar, calm down." Joseph said, "Do you think the general he doesn't know that such things are everywhere in Paris now?" Do you think the general will take care of these things? Mr. Clavière is an influential and decent man, and if His Excellency the General is to control the current situation, he will need the support of Mr. Clavier and a large number of people like him in many places. If the general stands up to stop this, he is standing on the opposite side of such a large number of people, and if the general really wants to do this, he will offend many people, and politically he will have to pay a great price. Your Excellency, it is impossible for him to stand up and stop this. ”

Kano paused for a moment, and could see that he was hesitant. In the end, he said, "Joseph, what you say may have a point. But I didn't try, I was still unwilling. ”

"Then I'll go with you." Joseph said.

Joseph, of course, knew that Lafayette already had an opinion of himself, and if he went with Carno at this time, Lafayette would most likely think that he was instigating Kano to generalize his army. But I've already offended Lafayette anyway, and Lafayette doesn't seem to be a random person who hangs a street lamp, and he doesn't care about offending him again. But by doing so, Kano must be able to see the pressure he is under - Kano is not a fool who does not understand the world, he just didn't think in that direction before, and now that he realizes the problem, then he naturally understands the value of friendship and support for him that he showed when he went with him. In Joseph's opinion, it was actually very cost-effective to gain Kano's friendship at the cost of offending Lafayette further.

But by this time, Kano had already calmed down, and he thought for a while and said, "Joseph, don't go. There are already some misunderstandings between you and the general. If you go now, the general may have more misunderstandings about you. I'll go alone. ”

"Lazar ......," said Joseph.

"I'll be back in a moment, and we'll talk about it again." Kano patted Joseph on the shoulder, then turned around and walked out.

Joseph sighed, then sat down behind his desk and got to work.

After about half an hour, there was a knock on the door outside.

"The door is unlocked, please come in." Joseph looked up from the copy and saw Kano push open the door and walk in.

Joseph stood up and greeted him, and when Cano entered, he closed the door.

"How? What did the general say? Joseph asked.

"It's the same as you estimated. Of course, his reasoning was that I had no evidence. Kano shook his head.

Both men were silent for a moment. Then Cano spoke: "Joseph, you just said that we can go and buy those certificates of deposit?" Well, how much money can you get here? ”

"Lazar, you?"

"Instead of letting those guys with a black conscience get all the money, let's keep some of it. The money is in our hands, and we can do something good, but in the hands of people like Clavier, we can only harm more people. "I used to watch 'Friends of the People', and the guy named Marat yelled that he was going to hang all those bankers on the street lamp, and I thought he was too extreme, and now it seems that what this guy said is not necessarily completely unreasonable." Our government is too tolerant of these people! ”

As for how to make money, to be honest, Kano is not proficient. However, Kano's level of mathematics is very high, and some problems, as long as he understands them a little, he understands them quickly. Finally, Kano said to Joseph, "Joseph, I can probably come up with four thousand livers." But I'm too busy now, so I'll hand over the money to you, and you can help me do it. ”

"Lazar, you're busy, am I not busy?" Joseph said.

"Come on, Joseph." "Your workload is almost half as much now as it was when you were in charge of the Red Army," Kano said. You had time to write your dissertation at that time, and now you tell me you don't have time? ”

"Maybe I'm chasing some little girl?" Joseph said.

"Really? Well, what kind of girl is it? Kanoshin thought it was true.

"No, no. I'm just talking about it casually. Joseph hastened to deny it.

"Ahh So how come you don't have time? Well, it's time for you to find a little girl. Why, a young man as good as you, has no girl fallen in love with you? Kano said, "Do you want me to introduce you to one?" ”

"Forget it." "I don't think it's time to fall in love, at least until the crisis in France really settles down," Joseph said. ”

From Carno, Joseph received four thousand livres, and then he borrowed six thousand livres from Lavoisier, well, Lavoisier the chemist, not his nephew, and five thousand livres in his own possession, and then began to devote himself to the speculation.

The subsequent development turned out to be as Joseph had predicted. In the following half a month, the certificates of deposit of the Clavière Bank were rapidly discounted in the market, first at 8 percent, then 7 percent, then 6 percent, and finally in a panic, and even fell below 2 percent, and at the most unvaluable time, the price of the certificate of deposit was only about 14 percent of the book value.

Joseph was not very greedy and killed the deposit slip when it was discounted, exchanging his 15,000 livres for 75,000 livres of the deposit receipt. A few days later, Mr. Clavier announced that he had survived the crisis and was now in full possession of all certificates of deposit. The certificate of deposit in Joseph's hand, which was expected to be 5,000 livres, has now really become 75,000 livres. Removing the twenty thousand to Carnot and the six thousand (including interest) to Lavoisier, Joseph earned himself forty-four thousand livres in silence.

"In times of chaos, it's really too easy to grab money." Joseph lamented, "No wonder anyone risked going to the guillotine to grab a handful." ”