Lawrence shrugged, shook his head and said:

"At least for now, I'm not sure of my attitude, after all, we've only just met. And, Mr. Mayor, even if I agree to recommend you, you will have to do something in Marseille first. ”

Despite the fact that Mayor Joship was already taking the bait, Lawrence was careful not to be too eager.

Since the other party can climb to the position of the mayor of Marseille, it is naturally not an easy role, and Lawrence has only met him for more than two hours before he proposes to introduce and promote the mayor of Josip, which will inevitably make him suspicious.

Mayor Josip's expression immediately lowered his score, and he nodded helplessly and said:

"Alas... You're right, even a small feat is extremely difficult for a town hall. I don't have to laugh at you, but such a port city is more influenced by the trade market than by our management, and it is rare to be able to make the free port of Marseille not cause any trouble. ”

Nearly 500 years have passed since Marseille was established as a free trade zone, and it is not the turn of the ordinary mayor of Johip to come up with a more effective way to govern it.

Other ports can also adopt tax incentives or loose regulations to expand trade in the short term, but for a free port like the port of Marseille, which is already tariff-free and customs-free, there is no such policy tool, and the amount of merchant ships is basically determined by the market.

As for the thriving factories and workshops in Marseille, the mayor of Johip did not have the political power to carry out drastic reforms.

After all, any new deal would touch the interests of certain interest groups, and the mayor of Josip, although he was the ruler of the territory, was not so tough as to ignore the opinions of the aristocratic lords, merchants' guilds, workers' unions, the bureaucracy itself, and even the French army.

There was a look of loneliness between the eyebrows of the mayor of Josip, and he shook his head with a wry smile.

When Lawrence mentioned the introduction, he thought that the day he had dreamed of had finally come, but he didn't expect it to be a happy one.

And the mayor of Johip knew in his heart that since Lawrence had said so, it was almost impossible for him to climb to a higher level from Marseille.

Not to mention the matter of referrals, just to give the Duke of Choiseul a reason to promote himself, the mayor of Johip could not do it, and it was still too difficult to make a career in Marseille with his political roots.

Although the mayor of Johip had been mentally prepared for this many years ago, he couldn't help but be stunned after confirming the news from Lawrence today.

"Ugh..."

Mayor Joshp sighed, picked up the bottle and poured half a glass of sherry into his own glass, and drank it without hesitation.

Lawrence smiled and picked up his glass, observing the unconcealed look of loss on the look of the mayor of Joshit, and suddenly said:

"Actually, things may not be as difficult as you think, Mr. City Councilor."

"Huh? What do you mean? The mayor of Johip asked with a wink of his eyes.

"It's hard to do something from Marseille itself, but..."

Lawrence shook the crystal clear wine in his glass and whispered:

"It's not impossible if there is outside help."

"Outside help...? What do you mean? Mayor Johip hurriedly leaned his chair closer and asked anxiously.

"Ahem"

Lawrence coughed twice and cleared his throat, then suddenly diverted the subject:

"By the way, as the mayor of Marseille, you should know a lot more about the situation in the surrounding countries and regions than I do, right? Especially... Kingdom of Naples and the Western Mediterranean. ”

Lawrence and his party had been on the road for more than a month, and they had not had much opportunity to obtain information about Italy and the Western Mediterranean, and Lawrence did not know what the current famine situation in the Kingdom of Naples was.

And the mayor of Josip, as the governor of a world port like Marseille, will naturally have the latest information about the Kingdom of Naples in his hands.

"Kingdom of Naples..."

The mayor of Josip hesitated for a moment when he heard this term, then nodded sluggishly, and said:

"I've definitely heard quite a few things about it, from all over the place. Even the day before yesterday, the Mediterranean Fleet Command sent someone to inform me of intelligence in the Western Mediterranean. ”

"Mediterranean Fleet Command?"

Lawrence frowned and asked:

"What did they say?"

Although this information was a high degree of military secrecy, the mayor of Josip, believing that Lawrence would soon learn it from the Duke of Choiseul, said to Lawrence after a moment's hesitation:

"The British, their military presence in Gibraltar has been further strengthened, and the command says that there are about 5,000 to 10,000 marines reinforced to Gibraltar from the English mainland. In addition, the British also placed some land forces in Menorca. ”

Menorca, an island halfway between Spain and Sardinia, was ceded from Spain by the British after the War of the Spanish Succession, and is currently the deepest British outpost in the Mediterranean.

However, due to Gibraltar's more important strategic location and the fact that Menorca's infrastructure is not yet perfect, the British military force in the Mediterranean is still basically concentrated in Gibraltar.

"The British strengthened their army in the Mediterranean? But the number of additions to them is very subtle..."

Lawrence was also a little puzzled when he heard this, 5,000 to 10,000 Marines were deployed from England mainland to the Mediterranean, which was neither too much nor too little, and would not provoke a strong reaction from the surrounding countries, and would provide sufficient upfront reinforcements in the event of a military conflict, if a military conflict would occur.

In particular, the British have also strengthened the deployment of the army on Menorca, and with the development of Menorca, it is unlikely that it can provide such a large number of garrisons, which means that the British should not want to have those troops permanently stationed on Menorca, but only use it as a springboard for attack and defense.

This made Lawrence vaguely aware that something was wrong, and the straight-line distance from Menorca to Ajaccio was just over 400 kilometers, and to Sicily was less than 800 kilometers.

"If you are departing from Menorca, it will take less than two days for a carneur to reach Corsica, and a line warship for three days."

Lawrence frowned and thought about it, although he knew that it was almost impossible for the British to attack Corsica, where the French army was stationed, but the feeling of being held to the throat with a knife to the throat also made Lawrence unhappy.

Lawrence's intuition was that the purpose of the British military build-up, at least primarily, was not in Corsica, but in the Kingdom of Naples further afield.

"Interesting... In this way, it seems that the British should not have come to Italy to make money. ”

Lawrence touched his chin and closed his eyes and thought:

"It's just what they want to do... It is not possible for them to intervene militarily in the situation of the Kingdom of Naples with an army of less than 10,000 men, simply to put pressure on the Spaniards to deter the provocations of the Spanish colonies in the Americas..."

As two colonial powers, Spain and Britain naturally had a lot of friction over colonial issues, and in the autumn of 1770, the two countries broke out in the Falkland Crisis, which was triggered by the conflict between the colonizers, and almost led to war.

The historical Duke of Choiseul angered Louis XV by urging France to unite with Spain to go to war against England during the Falkland Crisis, and was directly dismissed from his post and expelled from Paris.

"It's still not right, the British may have this consideration, but their main purpose should still be the Kingdom of Naples, this great famine is really weird."

After a moment of deliberation, Lawrence put the purpose of deterring Spain in the second place, after all, an event like the Falkland crisis was purely accidental, and the British would not have massively increased their troops in the already tense Mediterranean Sea specifically for a small probability event that had not yet happened.

After a long period of consideration, Lawrence let out a long breath, shrugged his shoulders and said:

"Well, the British seem to be playing as steady as ever, and wherever they go, something will go wrong."

Mayor Johip nodded in agreement, but there was no concern on his face, after all, he was not a soldier and did not know much about these situations, and the Mediterranean Fleet Command informed him that he was only reminding him to take some necessary precautions as usual.

After learning about the dynamics of the British, Lawrence looked at the mayor of Johip and asked:

"So, what about the kingdom of Naples, what is the state of famine?"

At the mention of such natural and man-made disasters, the face of the mayor of Joshipp immediately became serious, and he gritted his teeth and sighed and said:

"I don't know exactly what happened, but I did send people in the port to gather news about the Neapolitan famine. In general, the Italians are going to have a hard time... Ah, I'm sorry, Your Excellency, I just remembered that you're Italian, too..."

"It's okay, let's go on."

Lawrence waved his hand absently and said that he was about to set foot on Corsican soil when he woke up in this life, so he actually had no feelings for Florence and his hometown of Italy.

It was only when it was necessary to unite those Italians that Lawrence used this origin to play some emotional cards with them, incarnating himself as a pan-Italian nationalist.

"Thank you for your leniency, Your Excellency Bonaparte, I have no offense intended."

The mayor of Johip then said:

"As for the situation in southern Italy, it can only be said that it is as bad as in previous weeks, with the price of bread still high and more and more people joining the ranks of the famine, most of them Sicilians, which is also the hardest hit area. There are even a number of people who have fled abroad, and there are some Italians who fled during this time in Marseille, and I basically got my news from them. ”

"What about the government and the royal family? Didn't they send people out for disaster relief? Lawrence asked with a solemn face.

"It is said that there is." The mayor of Johip shook his head and said:

But the effect was insignificant, and it had little effect on the spread of the famine. And to be honest, the official behavior of the Kingdom of Naples was also somewhat abnormal, not only did they not ask for assistance from the suzerainty and other countries, but even raised the tariff on imported grain. Their officials explained that it was to prevent the influx of foreign food from over-impacting local farmers and affecting unaffected areas. ”

"In order to protect the interests of a part of the peasants, they chose to starve tens of thousands of people to death?"

Lawrence also scoffed at this statement, shook his head disdainfully, and did not make any comments.

At the same time, Lawrence's vigilance was further deepened by another anomaly in the Kingdom of Naples, who not only refused to accept foreign aid, but also erected tariff barriers to the normal grain trade, and Lawrence felt that a mediocre king could not do so many stupid things.

"Also, Lord Bonaparte, I have heard some special news from the Italians who have fled to Marseille..."

The mayor of Joshipp lowered his voice a little, looked at Lawrence, and said:

The Sicilian peasants said that a few months before the famine began, the Neapolitan tax collectors had levied several heavy taxes on their grain reserves, in the name of paying tribute to their suzerain, Spain. And after the wheat harvest in July, the tax collectors collected the peasants' half of the grain under the same name..."

"You mean..."

Lawrence frowned and asked:

"The source of this famine was the expropriation of the Spaniards, the exploitation of the Kingdom of Naples?"

"Your Excellency Bonaparte, this kind of thing is not something I can do." The mayor of Johip smiled wryly and said:

"However, there is a general reaction to this situation among the victims, so I suspect it has something to do with it."

"Spain... Anyway, thanks for the information, Mr. City Councilor. ”

Lawrence nodded solemnly and thanked Mayor Jospp.

And in his heart, Lawrence silently denied it:

"No, the source of this famine should not be the Spaniards..."

Although it seems that Lawrence has a breakthrough in the Famine in Naples, this has only only added to Lawrence's doubts.

Because in Lawrence's impression, it is basically impossible for the current King Carlos III of Spain to conquer the Kingdom of Naples, he himself is the former King of Naples, and is deeply loved by the people of the kingdom, when he left Naples to inherit the Spanish throne, the local people even cried on the streets to see him off.

And more importantly, whether it is from the historical trend in memory or from the intelligence of the Duke of Choiseul, Lawrence is sure that there is no food shortage in the Kingdom of Spain at this time, let alone a crisis that needs to push hundreds of thousands of people in the Kingdom of Naples below the subsistence line.

In other words, King Carlos III of Spain could not have forced the Kingdom of Naples into such a situation, either in public or private.

However, the mayor of Johip did not give Lawrence false information, and he did hear it from the people who had fled the famine.

Moreover, it has been several months since the Kingdom of Naples expropriated grain, and the Kingdom of Spain has not jumped out to oppose this matter, which shows that the grain was indeed delivered to Spain.

Such contrasts and anomalies made Lawrence's mind feel a pang of confusion.

"Carlos III of Spain, Ferdinando IV of the Kingdom of Naples, who the hell is father and son playing some shady tricks..."

Lawrence's face was gloomy, and he looked up and pondered:

"Or is there someone else who is playing tricks..."