"The people who are ruled by him are not even aware of his existence? How is this possible? Napoleon was taken aback, "And how else can he give orders?" How to manage and rule a country? ”

Joseph asked and smiled, "Let's make a hypothesis, suppose that now we replace Lucien with Fouché and you with Barras, will our family still be able to exert influence on French politics?" ”

"Of course, the army is still in my hands, and the money and factories are still in your hands. Although we are not directly in charge of the situation ourselves, we still have the ability to influence the overall situation of French politics. Napoleon thought for a moment and replied.

"You see, in this state we hypothetize, in the eyes of ordinary people, we are completely hidden, and many people at the bottom can't even see our existence, isn't this just that the people don't know about it?" Joseph replied with a smile.

"But in doing so, it will reduce our control over the regime, and it is easy for something to happen outside of our control." Napoleon said with a frown.

Joseph smiled, he knew that this younger brother of his liked to show off in front of the people, and liked people cheering at him, so he would never want to be an old silver coin hiding behind. So he instinctively has an aversion to this way of hiding behind the scenes.

"It is true that there is such a disadvantage in doing so, but there is also an advantage, and that is that the resentment of the people will not be concentrated on us. O people...... It's always greedy and insatiable, and when you get tired and don't have even a piece of black bread to eat, and you let them eat brown bread, they will be satisfied at first, but after a long time, they will feel dissatisfied, and they will ask you to say, 'We want to have enough brown bread for us to eat.' Then they would ask for white bread to be filling, and then they would eat it with milk, and then they would put butter on it, and they would put foie gras on it, and then they would ...... And when we can't satisfy them, they get resentful.

Of course, that's human nature, and in fact, we do — we ourselves — and even more. In this way, when they are dissatisfied, we change to someone who stands in the foreground, or an agent, and then those people will be satisfied, and they will feel that their votes have worked, and they will not be too angry in the face of the fact that their wishes have not been fulfilled. At this time, the government on the stage actually played the same effect as the pressure relief valve on our steam engine.

Of course, our foundations are not strong enough now, and all three of us are still there, especially since the people still worship you, Napoleon. So we don't need to go behind the scenes now, because like you said, it's going to be less efficient. Now is the time when we need to expand efficiently, and we must not tolerate inefficiency. And this rapid expansion will solve a lot of problems on its own, so the general resentment against us is not so easy to emerge. So now we don't need to go behind the scenes.

But anything can only succeed if you are prepared first. If you don't prepare for anything until the end of the day, and you deal with it in a hurry, then it's no wonder if you don't fail. Therefore, even if it is a high-speed expansion, when it is a high-speed advance, we must prepare for the retreat in advance. ”

"That's your style, Joseph." Napoleon couldn't help but interject.

"It's not a matter of style or not, it's about doing things the way they should be." Joseph shook his head and said, "Well, where did I talk about it just now?" ”

"You said we had to prepare in advance." Lucien said.

"Good. Then I'll go on. "We need to prepare now for how to control the situation behind the scenes." For example, government officials and parliamentarians of the republic should be elected. We need to adopt appropriate ways to raise the cost of elections and make them a game for the rich, even for the super-rich.

We make laws that make political power hereditary – we defend democracy; We defend freedom by enacting laws that make private property sacrosanct. And this means that wealth can be hereditary. Then we find ways to make the wealth available for control of political power. Elections are the best way to go.

Napoleon, do you know what is most important in elections? Not the final vote, but the initial election rules. For example, we stipulate that if the number of voters in the first consul election is less than 70 percent, it will be invalid, and the caretaker government will maintain order until the next round of elections and the total number of voters reaches the standard.

In this way, the votes of the French peasants became very important. And Napoleon, do you know what that means? ”

"That means the candidate has to curry favor with the peasants?" Napoleon replied with some hesitation.

"Stupid!" Lucien immediately exclaimed, "Napoleon, you are such a fool!" This clearly means that the poor will not be able to get votes at all. Because even if they want to curry favor with the peasants, they can't let the peasants know! Think about it, France is so big, the peasants live so scattered, how much manpower and material resources do you need to publicize one village and one village, even if it is just a name? How could those poor bastards do that? ”

Obviously, being able to find an opportunity to satirize Napoleon in the open and honest made Lucien very proud.

Napoleon glared at Lucien, but in the end he decided not to meet the villain for the time being. Because, it seems that what this guy said is indeed something he didn't expect, and it makes a lot of sense.

"Lucien, you've done a good job in the council and the Ministry of Truth, where high-level lying is most needed!" Napoleon finally praised it with great sincerity.

"Napoleon, that organization of veterans that you organized is a very good organization. With it, we can reach out into the countryside. And if we increase the level of elections in the countryside, we use small constituencies at the bottom. If a village is a constituency, then political opinions will have less influence on the election results, and the people in the village who speak well will almost certainly get the votes of the village. And your veterans' organization can control the votes at the rural grassroots level almost perfectly, and you can do it, and you can get them to vote for whoever we need them to vote for. ”

"That's right, even if we want a donkey to come out and run for the first consul, we can make it successful." Lucien seized the opportunity to satirize Napoleon.

"Hehe......" Napoleon said. At the same time, Napoleon was already thinking that he must find some opportunity to get rid of Joseph and then repair Lucien.

"Lucien, watch your words and deeds." It was Joseph who spoke.

So Lucien stopped talking.

"We don't need that trick yet. But Napoleon, you must pay attention to the construction of such institutions. Joseph continued.

"I know." Napoleon replied briefly.

"In addition, now the funds of the veterans' organization are allocated directly from the country's military spending, right?" "It's not good, Napoleon," said Joseph. It is better to let the money come out not of the state, but by our 'military-industrial complex'. Let it become a 'civil society' through and through. In the long run, whoever holds the financial power of an organization controls the organization. In this way, our children and grandchildren will no longer be the commanders of the army, and they will no longer have the same appeal as you in the army, and even the soldiers will not even know his name, but he can still use this system to control the votes in the countryside. ”

"But if we pay for it ourselves, it's a lot of money." Napoleon said, at the same time, he was thinking in his heart whether it was time to give full play to his strengths and find someone to give generously.

"It's very simple, you pass a law that encourages philanthropic behavior, and then tax incentives for some corporate donations, isn't that okay?" Joseph replied disapprovingly.

"Hey, there's this kind of operation, it's a shame, I didn't even expect it!" Napoleon began to wonder a little that he was not in the right place today.

"Lucien, we have spent so much effort on propaganda and invested in controlling so many newspapers." Joseph turned to Lucien, "and this is also the key to ensuring that in the future, when our generation is old, the new generation will still be able to firmly control the power behind the scenes." You've got to find a way to squeeze out the other newspapers. Do you know how? ”

"Yes." Lucien said, "Wouldn't it be enough to find some reason to seize them?" Simple! ”

"Stupid! How can you be so simple and rude? Joseph shook his head, "First of all, in the news, our newspapers, have an inherent advantage. Use the resources at your disposal to keep our opponents constantly showing real deviations in the news coverage, and then ...... Don't talk about seizures, don't be so simple and rude, and then their credibility will decline. On the other hand, our own newspaper can help our own business advertise, and we can also accept the advertising of other enterprises. That's where the newspaper really earns money. With this, our newspaper can be sold at a price well below cost and is also guaranteed to make money. Our newspapers are bigger, more reliable, more in-depth, more incisive, and cheaper. If that's the case, you're going to be foolish if you're going to use something that is simple and crude, but it's going to be honest! ”

"I see." Lucien nodded as well.

"It's a good routine. Alas......" Napoleon sighed, "I have to say, Joseph, that this of yours is more beneficial to the family than mine. It's a pity ......"

"What a pity?" Joseph said, "I didn't say you can't be emperor. ”

。