1770, February, Ajaccio, Corsica, East Town, residence of Carlo.

"Dear Lawrence, your tea."

Carlo's wife, Maria, enthusiastically placed a set of white porcelain cups and saucers on the table in front of Lawrence, and then picked up the teapot and poured the black tea from Carlo's cup.

"Thank you." Lawrence smiled and took the teacup and took a sip from his lips.

Carlo looked at Lawrence holding the teacup, laughed twice and said:

"Hey, Lawrence, if you want me to say you've learned to enjoy life."

Lawrence smiled wryly as he put the teacup down and nodded.

Since killing Ciro two years ago, Lawrence has not had any strong opponents in Ajaccio.

Politically, there is the protection of Carlo and Paulie, there is a patrol team that is completely subordinate to him, and financially he has the huge amount of money confiscated by the gangsters.

This also made Lawrence's life finally less stressful, and he could occasionally be invited to Carlo's house for afternoon tea in addition to completing his work.

Of course, such a leisurely life is also because of Pauly, who paid attention to it after Ciro's death and no longer gave Lawrence a chance to increase his authority, which made Lawrence have to wait silently for a suitable time.

After all, in such troubled times, the opportunity to turn over is not uncommon.

In addition to this, Lawrence did not forget to maintain his current influence. He would give regular speeches to the citizens, lead his subordinates to visit orphanages and other welfare institutions, and often personally lead patrols to mediate disputes between people.

And for the army, Lawrence maintained a correspondence with the soldiers of the 4th Battalion.

At the same time, he did not forget his promise to the soldiers, and a year earlier, in 1769, Lawrence had sent all the wealth promised to them by mail and remittance.

Such generosity caused quite a stir in the army at the time, and gave more soldiers a glimpse of how Lawrence Bonaparte treated his subordinates.

"Father would be very happy if he knew what you are like now."

Carlo sighed suddenly, and said a little lonely.

Lawrence sighed and patted Carlo on the shoulder as a sign of comfort.

It was also a year earlier, close to the time in history, that Lawrence and Carlo's father, the old Count of Bonaparte, had died.

Although Lawrence had not seen his father since he crossed over, he followed Carlo to the funeral.

Carlo, as the eldest son, inherited the title of count of Bonaparte the Elder, and Lawrence, as the second son, was granted a non-hereditary knighthood in his will.

Although both titles were appointed by the Archbishop of Pisa and were historically certified by the French Bureau, they were only empty titles of nobility and had no substantive territory.

After comforting Carlo, Lawrence was about to pick up the teacup, but felt the corner of his clothes gently tugged.

Lawrence turned his head to look, and saw a two-year-old boy on the ground staring at him with wide eyes, and said with a slurred smile:

"Uncle, uncle, story, story."

Lawrence also looked at the child with a smile, took a sugar cube from the table and fed it to his mouth, touched his head and said:

"Alright, Joseph, good, I'll tell you a story next time."

Joseph Bonaparte, the eldest son of the Carlo family, was just over two years old when Lawrence arrived in Corsica.

When Joseph heard this, he stomped his feet vigorously, and his hands were so disgruntled that he was about to cry.

And as soon as his mother Maria heard this, she hurriedly ran over and took Joseph in her arms, slapped him lightly, and scolded:

"Joseph! You don't learn from your brother, you see how well-behaved Napoleon is, well, don't bother your uncle! ”

Seeing this, Lawrence couldn't help but take a sip of tea, his second nephew, Napoleon Bonaparte, was born last year, which is not much different from the birth time in history, and is now only six months old, and fortunately he is still a boy.

When the Carlos named him, they still named Napoleon in honor of one of their young-dead children, named Napoleon.

Lawrence couldn't help but sigh, fortunately, the butterfly effect he appeared was not so strong, otherwise if Napoleon became a girl, I am afraid that he would be quite uncomfortable every time he came to Carlo's house.

Maria carried Joseph back to the bedroom and placed him beside the sleeping little Napoleon, leaving Carlo and Lawrence to continue their small talk.

"This kid pesters me to tell stories every time he comes."

Lawrence glanced at Joseph on the bed and said with a helpless smile.

Carlo laughed and responded:

"Hahaha, that can't be helped, I can't even listen to your personal experience, it's like a knight's novel, it starts with an escape from an exploding ship."

"I'd rather not be so irritating if I could." Lawrence touched his nose and shook his head with a smile.

Knock knock!

Just as Lawrence and Carlo were about to continue enjoying their free time, there was a sudden knock on Carlo's door.

Lawrence and Carlo frowned and looked at each other, it stands to reason that the people who live in this area are polite gentlemen and would not knock on the door so rudely.

As the owner, Carlo put down the teacup and got up to open the door, only to see a sturdy young man outside the door, who was panting and holding on to the door frame, as if he was running all the way.

Lawrence glanced outside the door and found that this person was his subordinate Ya'an, so he quickly got up, walked up to Ya'an and asked:

"Ya'an? What's so urgent? Is it from the port? ”

During these two years, Lawrence continued to send Ayan and Grosso to the West City in order while maintaining the orderly operation of the docks.

And Ya'an worked so hard to go from Xicheng District to Dongcheng District to find Lawrence, I am afraid that something major happened that made him and Grosso unable to decide.

Ya'an held on to the door frame and gasped for a while before he spoke:

"I'm sorry, my lord, it's the port, and there's a ship."

"Boats? What ship? ”

"Warships, warships of the British."

"British?"

Lawrence frowned, a British warship ran to the port of Ajaccio to do something, but Lawrence still had to get to the scene quickly anyway.

"I'm sorry, Carlo, see you next time."

Lawrence said to Carlo hurriedly.

Carlo nodded understandingly, and said:

"Wait, I'll let my coachman take you there."

After a while, in Carlo's carriage, Lawrence asked Ya'an:

"What's going on in the harbor?"

"The warship was not stopped by the navy, and after docking in the harbor, their sailors disembarked. Our men approached and asked them not to carry weapons on the docks, but they refused, and a clash broke out. ”

"Conflict? Did they fire at each other? ”

Lawrence asked solemnly, feeling a little headache, he didn't want such a conflict to end up in a diplomatic incident, or even a war.

You know, Britain in this era has just won the Seven Years' War and taken a big step towards the empire on which the sun never sets, and if a small island nation like Corsica fights with British sailors, the consequences are unimaginable to Lawrence.

Ya'an hurriedly shook his head and said:

"No, the two sides are just pushing and scolding, but now they are confronting each other with guns. The rest of the people on the dock were also evacuated by us. ”

Lawrence breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly instructed the coachman to speed up.

However, Lawrence also always had a question in his heart about what it meant for the British warships to come to Corsica at this point in time.