March 31, 1770, in the Doge's Palace, Ajaccio.

"Governor, the replies from the councillors have been gathered."

Poly's secretary knocked on the door and walked into the study, neatly placed a stack of letters on the table, and said.

"Ah, yes, yes."

Paulie immediately threw aside the work at hand, and happily picked up the replies of the parliamentarians and quickly skimmed through them.

For Paulie, as long as the resolution of annexation to England is formally passed in Parliament tomorrow, the poor and backward island will have little to do with him.

He could receive a handsome annuity to buy a large homestead in the London countryside, enjoy the service of hundreds of maids and manservants, and whenever he walked the streets of London, people would nod respectfully to him and call him the Earl or Duke of Corsica.

It's much more comfortable than staying in Corsica and guarding this rotten land.

"Ahem, in general, all the members of the council have expressed their support for your bill, of course, there are a few people who are not very satisfied with their treatment, and I hope to discuss it with you after the council."

The secretary also knew that Poly did not have time to read all these letters, which were full of red tape and flattery, so he skillfully retold the main content for Poly.

"Okay, you can draft a unified reply for me, tell the dissatisfied MPs that they will interview me after the parliament is over, and warn them that I don't want to see anything wrong at tomorrow's parliament."

Poly casually took a few replies and looked at them a few times, and quickly lost interest in these hypocritical words, and ordered the secretary after sorting out the replies a little.

"Oh, yes..."

Poly suddenly remembered something, rummaged through the envelope in his hand again, and asked at the same time:

"Is Carlo Bonaparte's reply in there?"

"Yes, and there is nothing wrong with Monsieur Bonaparte's reply."

The secretary stepped forward and said, took out a very simple pure white envelope for Paulie, and handed it to Paulie.

Paulie pulled out the letter and glanced at it with a frown, the contents of which, like the other councillors, were filled with flattering praise for his wise decisions and pledges to uphold him in parliament.

"Hmph, Carlo is quite acquainted, much more reassuring than his younger brother."

Only then did Poly put all the envelopes aside with satisfaction, stretched, and said with a smug smile:

"Oh, I almost forgot, Lawrence is also a young man who knows the times now, and he has not returned since he left Ajaccio."

In Paulie's heart, he hadn't been so relaxed for a long time, everything was going quite smoothly, his worst enemy Lawrence had given up fighting him, and all the councillors had obediently succumbed to coercion and temptation.

This feeling of being in absolute power and doing everything as he wants makes Pauli feel as if he has returned to the state of power he had when he first established the Corsican Republic.

"Ahem, Lord Doge, there's something I need to tell you."

The secretary stood in place and hesitated for a moment, but still interrupted Poly's smug state, bowed his head and said:

"Didn't you let the former patrol captain take over the affairs of the team the other day? He's been in Ajaccio lately as if..."

"Huh? You mean that..."

Although Paulie, who was suddenly interrupted, was very displeased, he still rubbed his forehead and thought for a while, and said:

"That Harled? What kind of mess did he make? ”

"He..."

The secretary thought for a while with a difficult face, as if looking for a euphemism, and then shook his head and said:

"Every day, he took people to various shops to extort money, even the street vendors, and many people shed blood in the process. In addition, it is said that he also... kidnapped several girls in his residence ...

"This damn hillbilly." Poly frowned in displeasure, but he didn't say anything, just said in disgust:

"But that's fine, he didn't do it all the way he did it in the past few years."

"It was true in previous years, but—" The secretary glanced at Poly cautiously and said slowly:

"But nothing like this has happened since Lawrence Bonaparte put the patrol in order, and now Harold has acted in a perverse way, which is difficult for many citizens to accept, and they are nostalgic for Laurence Bonaparte."

"Tsk..."Paulie shook his head with an unkind face, waved his hand and said:

"That can't be helped, Lawrence's official position must be removed from my position to be relieved. As for the comments of the citizens... Hmph, they can't turn the sky over anyway, let's suffer them first, this matter is a headache for the British. ”

The secretary looked at Paulie with some surprise, if this kind of thing happened normally, the governor of Pauli would still do superficial work to buy people's hearts anyway, and now that he was about to leave Corsica, Pauli was not even willing to do such a thing to appease the citizens.

"Anything else?" Paulie looked at the secretary who was stunned and asked impatiently.

The secretary quickly came to his senses, looked at the schedule in his hand, and reported:

"By the way, and Your Excellency Pete, he'll meet you at two o'clock in the afternoon, or ten minutes later."

"Well, you go and inform him now, I'll wait for him here."

Poly nodded and said, then picked up the replies from the parliamentarians and read them with relish as reading material to pass the time.

......

"Your Excellency, your face doesn't seem to be good."

Paulie frowned and looked at Pete, who was slowly helped in by his entourage, and said with great concern.

"It's old, it's nothing."

Pete sat down in a chair tremblingly, waved his hand, and said:

"It was a little better a few days ago, but after the young man Lawrence left, there was no one to guide him to recuperate, and it got worse a lot."

Poly nodded in understanding, patted his chest and said:

"Rest assured, Lawrence has agreed to your invitation and will be back to London with you in a few days."

"Well, that's good, let's not talk about that..."

After sitting down in the chair, Pete's eyes became sharp again, and he stared at Paulie and said in a deep voice:

"Everything is arranged, right?"

"Of course." Poly also nodded solemnly, and continued:

"The parliamentarians have all agreed, and I have invited representatives from all walks of life in Ajaccio to attend the meeting, and also let them witness and recognize the legitimacy of the treaty."

"Very well, Governor Poly, I'm sure you won't let me down."

Pete nodded in satisfaction. His gaze softened and relaxed, so that his mission to Corsica was complete.

For Pete, his negotiations in Corsica were a lucrative one, and he was able to secure an extremely important Mediterranean port for the Kingdom of England with almost no soldiers, and all that was promised was some insignificant title of nobility.

After returning home, Pitt can use this feat to silence his political opponents for a while, and may even regain the respect of King George III in order to return to politics.

Paulie got up and opened the window and looked outside.

From here, you can see the bell tower of the Doge's Palace, and the Corsican flag fluttering in the sea breeze above the bell tower.

Poly looked at the flag for a moment, as if recalling that the flag was designed and hung on it by himself.

But such a thought only flashed through his mind for a moment, and Poly quickly shook his head and laughed twice, then turned around, pointed to the flag, and said to Pete:

"Tomorrow at 12 o'clock at noon, the Red Cross flag will fly here."

Pete also stood up on the table, squinted at the Corsican flag in the sun, and said flatly:

"For Corsicans, a new era is coming."

Poly nodded his head twice in a very small way, but his eyes did not move from the bell tower, and he was silent for a while before he said slowly:

"No matter what era it is, it has nothing to do with me."

Pete raised his eyebrows in some surprise and said:

"They're your people, and you don't care about their fate after that?"

Paulie shook his head slowly but firmly and effortlessly spat out a sentence:

"I don't care."

However, after Pete heard this, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but smile, and at the same time patted Paulie's shoulder, and said with a smile:

"Governor Poly, for us Brits, you can have such an awareness, in fact, what we want to see the most."

Paulie was stunned for a moment, but quickly understood what Pete meant.

"It seems that under British rule, the Corsicans will not have a good life."

Paulie glanced at Pete expressionlessly and said, before Pete could reply, he shook his head to himself, closed the window, sat back in his seat and said:

"But forget it, as I said, none of this has anything to do with me, and I don't care."