"Turf?" Charles thought of something. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

He wanted to ask Prince Jérôme again, but he found that now that a group of people had almost arrived, and everyone's eyes were on himself who was chatting and laughing with His Royal Highness Prince Jérôme, and now was really not a good time to say too much.

Seeing that this was the case, Charles wisely chose to remain silent first, allowing Prince Jérôme and the others to greet each other pleasantly.

I have to say that this willful, dissolute and uninhibited prince, His Royal Highness does have a kind of affinity, although the atmosphere here is already very serious, but he can still talk and laugh with everyone, making the atmosphere a little lively.

Because today is an informal gathering, everyone is sitting scattered today, and it looks like an ordinary social gathering, but even if this group of well-dressed national dignitaries talks and laughs with the prince, everyone is actually very calm in their hearts, and all they say is polite words that will not offend anyone and will not be used by anyone.

When he realized that everyone had arrived, His Royal Highness Prince Jérôme glanced at everyone and then opened his mouth with a smile.

"Oh, if it weren't for today's gathering, I'm afraid everyone else would think that we were preparing for a royal meeting, right? However, of course we are not preparing for the Imperial Council today, and I have no authority to do so, so if anyone gossips in front of His Majesty in the future, you will have to tell for me. ”

He was obviously joking, and everyone, including Charles, laughed measuredly, to be honest, this sentence was indeed a bit disrespectful, but as His Majesty's own uncle, he could certainly say whatever he wanted within the empire.

"We're here today, in fact, there is nothing particularly formal, just for everyone to contact the relationship......" Prince Jérôme continued, "Hey, to be honest, now you have all become busy people, all of you are high-ranking dignitaries, usually I have too few opportunities to meet with you, to be honest, I also want to take some opportunity to meet you again, you know, once people are old, they like to be lively, so I think you should be able to understand me, right?" In particular, now that everyone has a heavy responsibility, how can we communicate with each other from time to time? So I think we should also meet from time to time in the future, what do you think? ”

Of course, no one dared to say that they didn't want to waste time meeting with His Royal Highness, and everyone smiled and nodded in agreement.

However, in the heart, others may not agree so unanimously.

Charles was not sure whether Prince Jérôme wanted to join in the fun, or whether he was paving the way for his son to increase the influence of Prince Joseph-Bonaparte.

But it is obvious that if, as he said, he and others meet from time to time at the Pala-Lejar Palace to exchange feelings, no matter what the name is, wouldn't it be "a separate central committee" and a second imperial council? Wouldn't His Majesty the Emperor care?

And even if His Majesty the Emperor did not care, judging from his position, he would not be willing to go to the court of Prince Joseph Bonaparte, so now he agreed to only perfunctory the old prince - and many people present held the same opinion as him.

With the constant achimal, Prince Jérôme-Bonaparte smiled even more merrily, and his gray beard trembled like a contented old shopkeeper.

"Also, Alexander will soon be appointed ambassador to the UK, which is a rare promotion for him and good news for me. At my age, I especially want to see the juniors grow up and watch them become more and more manly, especially when he is still my brother's ......" Jérôme suddenly blinked as he said this, obviously realizing that some things could not be said publicly, so he immediately stopped talking, "So I am very happy with the news, although Alexander does not like to be high-profile, but I think everyone congratulates him in private, it should not be avoided, right?" ”

With that, he picked up his glass again and addressed Count Alexander Kolona Valewski, who sat quietly on the sofa in the corner of the hall. The well-dressed middle-aged man suddenly found himself in the center of attention, so he smiled embarrassedly and picked up his wine glass.

Count Valewski was the illegitimate son of Emperor Napoleon, and although he could not use the surname Bonaparte due to legal rules, he was always regarded as a member of the Bonaparte family, so His Majesty Emperor Napoleon III, who liked to promote his cronies, did not forget to promote him.

There had been rumors that His Majesty the Emperor wanted him to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and now that Prince Jérôme himself said that he would be ambassador to London, it seems that the day when the rumors will come true is very close - Britain is a big European country, and the ambassador to London is one of the most important diplomatic posts, and it can even be said to be the most important position in the current political atmosphere, and since he is going to be ambassador now, it is obvious that he is paving the way for him to become foreign secretary.

For a while, people raised their glasses to congratulate Count Valewski, and in the midst of the staggering, congratulations to this middle-aged man destined to become an imperial magnate finally came directly to the forefront.

Although he did not always pursue a career in diplomacy, Count Valewski was indeed very suitable to be a diplomat, he was calm and modest, and thanked everyone, especially when Charles congratulated him, and he also said directly to Charles: "Mr. Treville, you have served in the Foreign Office before, and you have some unique views on the diplomatic situation of the Empire, and you also have influence in various European countries, especially the United Kingdom, and Her Majesty and her wife admire you very much, so I hope that you will help me to familiarize myself with my new work as soon as possible." ”

"Of course, it's my pleasure." Charles immediately agreed, and then clinked glasses with the count.

This cheerful atmosphere seemed to make Prince Jérôme even happier, and his face became more and more rosy.

"I have no doubt that Alexander is capable of doing his new job well, and certainly of keeping the empire and the British in harmony as it should be, but......" he cleared his throat and hinted emphatically about what was going on, "diplomacy is a very important and expensive job, and he needs to have a solid and reliable livelihood to ensure that the interests of the empire can be served, isn't it?" ”

His words caused a small commotion, and everyone stopped whispering to each other, and then looked at His Royal Highness the Prince with a little confusion.

Count Valewski originally owned a lot of land and property in Poland because of his mother's relationship, but later he fell out with the tsarist government, fled Poland, and lived in France for more than ten years, so the property left in Poland suffered a lot of losses, so before the re-establishment of the empire, he can say that life was also quite tight.

There is no doubt that in this day and age, being a diplomat meant spending a lot of money, even if the salary was very high, and only a very wealthy nobleman could afford such expenses, but His Majesty the Emperor had money, and he could support his cousin, who could not be openly recognized—and since he was going to carry the count, it was naturally a small matter to give him some financial support.

Therefore, His Royal Highness the Prince must have some other profound meaning when he mentioned this, so as soon as he said this, everyone else suddenly quieted down.

This silence did not affect His Royal Highness Prince Jérôme, who picked up his glass and took another sip, then exhaled a long breath.

"Young people, as we all know by now, each of you occupies important positions - some of you are already intimidating, some of you are inconspicuous but you have a lot of resources, so you all have your own territory, or kingdom. In your respective kingdoms, you are sacrosanct, and you can move your budget as you please, rebuke your subordinates, and do whatever you want. In the midst of a look of astonishment, His Royal Highness Prince Jérôme said with a smile, "Friends, I am not accusing anything, the empire belongs to His Majesty, and of course to everyone who is loyal to His Majesty, and you should enjoy such a status when you were born and died for Bonaparte. However, I think that in order to preserve the power and benefits that we have so hard won, we should be enterprising and united, right? Instead of staying with our cronies and subordinates and indulging in our own kingdom, we should work together to make the empire thriving and keep us alive and strong. ”

His words were emotional, but everyone's faces were a little ugly.

Indulging in one's own power, arbitrarily mobilizing resources, calling on subordinates, and setting up an independent kingdom -- this is already a very serious accusation, which is tantamount to saying that everyone is doing their own thing and exercising their power at will.

Even if it wasn't in front of His Majesty the Emperor, no one dared to admit that they were doing such a thing, although everyone did have such tendencies to a greater or lesser extent, including Charles himself.

Charles only now understood what Prince Jérôme meant by what he had just said.

Since the re-establishment of the Empire, in order to repay the merits and control the Empire, a large group of original henchmen have been appointed to important positions by His Majesty the Emperor, and Charles has become the Minister of Communications of the Empire because of his merits, and he is in charge of the transportation of the entire Empire.

But this kind of reward also seems to have brought about an uneven distribution of resources, so His Royal Highness, or the royal family of Bonaparte, wanted to hold a conference to redistribute the spoils.

Although everyone took advantage of this opportunity to get power from the empire and got huge benefits, but in the end, there is a difference between benefits and resources, and the so-called not suffering from a small number of people suffers from unevenness, and I think there are also people who are a little dissatisfied with this slowly formed distribution pattern.

Damn it...... Am I the one who has the most budget and money in my hands? If it's a redistribution of spoils, doesn't that mean that you want to average it from me?

Charles suddenly came to his senses, and then became a little annoyed. Prince Jérôme was tantamount to a surprise attack on him, trying to get him to spit out the benefits to satisfy the selfish desires of the others.

But after the initial anger, he suppressed the urge to refute His Royal Highness Prince Jérôme on the spot, and he also knew that he was so hot now that he must have some eyes in the hearts of his comrades, didn't His Majesty the Emperor ask him to pay for the rebuilding of the Palace of Fontainebleau?

If he were to oppose it now, he would probably become a man among the ministers who was unwilling to help his colleagues for his own self-interest, and although he was indeed unwilling to help them, he could not show it clearly, and he still needed to unite his comrades.

He also didn't want this spoils to become a criticism meeting against him alone, which was not fun.

So, even though some people were secretly observing his reaction, he remained silent, as if he hadn't heard anything.

But he made up his mind in his heart that he would never let himself be forced to give in again this time.

I can't fight His Majesty the Emperor, but I'm not afraid of you at all.

Looking at Prince Jérôme and Prince Joseph-Bonaparte, father and son, Charles thought to himself. (To be continued.) )