The sudden railway construction accident disrupted Charles's itinerary, and he had to stay at the site of the construction accident to find a way to solve the accident as ideally as possible.

After a long discussion with the local authorities, and the decision was made to try to comfort the relatives of the deceased, he was finally able to escape from the troubles and return to Paris on the third day after the accident.

Before he rushed back to Paris, news of the accident had already reached Paris and had already appeared in the press.

As Charles had predicted, the media circles, which had long been dissatisfied with the recent actions of the Ministry of Railways, after receiving the news of the accident, issued various comments criticizing the actions of the Ministry of Railways -- although the severity of the criticism of the press was different according to their respective political positions, the general tone of public opinion seemed to be very unfavorable to the department in which Charles worked.

It is precisely for this reason that Charles rushed to his place of work without even going home when he returned to Paris, and because of his preoccupation, he rarely greeted the passing staff along the way, but walked briskly to his office.

When he returned to the office of the Ministry of Railways, his secretary, Clément Leczynski, was already there.

"How's the situation in the ministry now?" Charles walked over to his desk and asked without looking.

"It's not very good, sir." Because of the palpitations, Clément's face was very pale, but he still maintained the most basic composure, "The ministry is in a meeting right now. I'm talking about this, I heard...... I heard that His Excellency the Minister is now very unhappy and has been furious several times at the meeting. ”

"Really? That's normal, too. It's strange that he's not angry. Charles nodded quietly, "What about the others?" Is there any other news? ”

"Yes, there are ......," Clement lowered his head, lowering his voice, "There seems to be a rumor in the ministry that it is because you are acting too ...... Too radical, so ...... That's why the ministry is facing so many ...... now So much trouble. ”

Charles' brow furrowed.

While this is true, it must be an attack and a slander.

"Write down the person who said that. I'll get the list when the time comes. ”

"Okay."

With this order given, Charles walked straight to the conference room.

"How did you do that? How do you come up with so many problems? Now everywhere is criticizing us ......" at the door, when he heard a loud shout from the minister. A court official who had always been kind and polite. Now in the face of this crisis, I can't help but become a little anxious.

Hehe, it won't be long before he doesn't have to worry about these things. Isn't it?

With this full sneer in my heart. Charles opened the door. "I'm sorry, everybody. I'm late. ”

"Charles, you're finally back!" Seeing Charles appear at the door, Count Delion overshadowed his unconcealable joy, "How's it going, what's going on over there?" ”

"It's not great, but I've managed to deal with it reluctantly, and I've given a pension. So there shouldn't be any trouble. Charles calmly walked over to his seat and sat down, "Still. Your Excellency, I have just returned to Paris, and I seem to have heard that the opinion circles are now very much in our opinion? ”

"That's right! Now almost every newspaper is scolding us, one by one impassioned, as if they have done more for the country than we do! I don't believe it, can they write a few words in the newspaper to be worthy of our merits? As soon as he heard Charles's question, the minister couldn't help but explode again, "These reporters and gentlemen of ours are all uneducated, so they can only be reduced to making a living by shaking the pen and earning those few small sums, and they know all day long that they rely on some useless sensational articles to sow discord, and they all think that they are great, as if only they have a sense of justice and conscience, and the country has no hope without them!" Bah! If the excessively out-of-control public opinion is not corrected, no one in this country will be able to do the right thing now! ”

Then, he sighed heavily, "It's good if it's just these poor ghosts playing around right and wrong, the point is that there are too many people, too many people who are jealous of us...... If we are not careful, we will have to tell the truth. ”

He just didn't say this sentence lightly, but of course Charles understood what he meant-the newly established Ministry of Railways held such huge wealth and power, of course, it would arouse the envy of those who could not get a piece of the pie, which was usually fine, but when the opportunity was given, how could they not take advantage of the situation to attack them?

"You're absolutely right." Charles nodded slightly, "But now is not the time for us to curse them, we should find a way to solve the current trend first, and we can't let these things affect our entire work plan......"

"That's what you can do, Charles?" Count Delier looked at Charles expectantly, "We've been in a meeting for a long time today, but......" He glanced viciously at the surrounding officials, causing them to shrink back, "but no useful conclusions have been drawn. ”

Of course, they can't come up with a useful conclusion, what does that have to do with them? Besides, who dares to tell you unequivocally that "the resignation of His Excellency the Minister now is the best solution"? Charles replied coldly in his heart.

Then, he made a somewhat hesitant look.

"Let's all go out first!" His Excellency understood immediately, and waved his hand heavily.

The officials, who had been disciplined for a long time, hurried out of the conference room as if they had been granted amnesty. Soon, the room was filled with only two people, Charles and Count Delion.

"Charles, can you say it now? What are your good ideas? Perhaps the hope was mysteriously ignited by Charles's pretense, and now the minister's eyes were full of anticipation, "The two of us are on the same side in this ministry, and if we don't support each other, we will be in trouble." ”

"Don't be in a hurry, Your Excellency." Charles was still very calm, "Yes, the outside world is very unhappy with us right now, and there are those unjust attacks everywhere, so because of this, we can't panic and mess up our own pace." ”

"You're right, we can't mess around." The minister nodded. "As long as we don't move, those people can't really do anything to us......"

"During this time, I will try my best to calm down the tide of public opinion." Charles once again gave his assurance, "Isn't that the matter of public opinion?" At most, people's interest can only last for a short period of time, and if we don't mess up ourselves, we can survive such a difficult time, and as long as we get through it, the next thing will not be so difficult. ”

"The matter of the public opinion is easy to handle...... the minister still looked at Charles, "although the form of public opinion is really bad for us, but I am not really worried about them, I am more worried about ...... The one at the Élysée Palace. ”

"Mr. President?" Charles was a little surprised.

"Yes, Charles, and now Mr. President has not said anything, and this is what disturbs me the most." Count Delion sighed softly, "Shouldn't he continue to support us?" But he never said anything about it...... That's a bit worrying. ”

After hearing his words, Charles fell silent.

The minister's words reminded Charles that Louis Bonaparte had not made any statement on the matter so far, and what was his attitude? Do you want to calm things down, or are you just barely suppressing the anger in your heart and waiting for the opportunity to erupt?

"Charles, can you inquire more about Mr. President's intentions lately?" The words of the Count of Delier broke his musings, "See what he intends to do with these things, if he has no opinion, if there is any...... You should be careful to tell him about our position, now that the situation is really serious, we can't deal with it lightly. ”

"Okay, I'll go meet Mr. President, and tell him about the difficulties on our side," Charles nodded, "There are all kinds of accidents in construction, even if the accidents are relatively large?" Who can avoid it entirely? Besides, we can't be blamed for all other problems, as a newly established department, we can have the results we have now, it is already very good, and it is completely unfair to attack us with these things! ”

"That's it!" The Earl also chimed in, "So you can tell the president these things as well, you have such a good relationship with the president, he should listen to you......"

"Well, don't worry." Charles laughed, "As you said, we are on the same side, we are on the same front, what can we do but help each other?" ”

Charles's words deeply touched the minister, and he stretched out his hand and patted Charles' shoulder heavily, "Charles...... Don't worry, as long as the two of us work together, there is no crisis that we can't solve! ”

Then, he frowned, "Let's focus our work here in the near future, let's keep our positions first, and then slow down other things." ”

"Well, everything else can be delayed, but the new round of bond issuance on the railways can't be delayed! We can't just stop all the railways because of an accident, right? We need money to continue construction, and if we want money, we have to issue bonds, and we can't delay this. Charles seemed to be a little excited, "These railway planning and construction are my hard work, even if there are so many people attacking and slandering, I must continue to carry it out, and I must not stop!" ”

Seeing that Charles was so resolute, the minister had no choice but to nod, "Okay, then do as you say, Charles...... Go to the president early and tell him what we think. ”

"Yes, Your Excellency." Charles bowed his head and replied respectfully. (To be continued......)