August 22, 1770, the third day of Lawrence's return to Ajaccio.

For the common people, the frenzy of the return of the beloved Doge Bonaparte had finally come to an end, and the lives of the citizens were no different than before, except for the peace of mind that Lawrence had in Ajaccio.

However, for those spies who were assigned by their masters or masters to come to Ajaccio to find out the news, their lives were not so easy.

...

On the edge of the market in Nancheng District, in an inconspicuous open-air stall, a bearded stall owner in straw sandals is lazily leaning against a wooden platform, and the urn is chatting angrily with a shirtless man in front of the stall wearing only a leather apron.

On the stalls were piles of unripe wild fruits, all small, as if they had been picked from the woods in the suburbs, and many of them were already rotting dark colors.

Presumably, no citizen of Ajaccio would have stopped in front of such a stall for too long, and no one would have bothered to pay attention to the conversation between the two men.

"Dude, you've got to be careful lately." The stall owner said to the man in front of the stall with half-squinted eyes and a low voice.

The man was stunned for a moment, then picked up two wild fruits casually and asked in a low voice:

"What's wrong?"

Both men have distinctly rustic accents, and it seems that they have only recently entered Ajaccio from the countryside.

"The fat, the thin, and the yellow-bearded men, many of the men sent to Ajaccio by the old men are missing."

The stall owner leaned forward and said in a deep voice:

"I'm afraid I was captured by a patrolman."

"Caught?! This makes sense, we didn't do anything, we just ate and drank in Ajaccio every day to inquire about the news. ”

The man's face turned pale in an instant, and he splashed the juice of the wild fruit in his hand with all his might, and then said indignantly:

"Is this against the law?!"

The bearded stall owner patted the back of the man's hand lightly, and reprimanded in a low voice:

"Don't make a fool of yourself, boy, I see, this is Bonaparte and the old man can't get along, and he is demonstrating to the old man."

The man nodded, rubbed his leather apron, and muttered:

"In this way, Bonaparte is really bold enough, and he has arrested them all."

The stall owner waved his hand, as if he didn't want to talk to the man for too long, and said impatiently:

"Okay, okay, don't worry about the big guys, mind your own business, don't be caught in by the patrolmen. That little might be staring at us right now. ”

"Little girl—" The man shuddered, and looked around with some fear.

For the legendary woman named Shadia, who was watching all of Ajaccio, the spies didn't want to get her attention.

"Thanks for the news, man, I'll go first."

As he spoke, the man hurriedly carried a few wild fruits into his arms, and then threw a silver coin into the stall with some distress, and then disappeared into the crowd.

......

Meanwhile, in the dungeons where the Ajaccio patrol is stationed.

"... Why does my head hurt so much... Where am I..."

In a cell in the middle, the fat man held his forehead in pain, slowly opened his eyes, and sat up.

The fat man only remembered that he had spent the whole night in a tavern last night, after all, it was rare to have such an opportunity to leave the countryside where birds don't and go to the most prosperous town in Corsica, and of course the fat man had to have a few more days of fun in the name of finding out the news.

However, when the fat man opened his eyes with difficulty, he realized that he was no longer looking at the warm yellow ceiling of the tavern, but a dark and damp dungeon.

"This...! Where is this?! ”

The fat man trembled, and the residual drunkenness in his brain disappeared without a trace in an instant, and he looked at the cell he was in with fear and fear.

The patrol patrolling the corridor soon spotted the fat man who had woken up, but did not say anything to him, and just left for a while, as if to inform someone.

After a few moments, a slender old man stood outside the fat man's cell, accompanied by two patrolmen.

The fat man, who was sitting in place, looked up at the old man, but the look of horror between his eyebrows became even stronger, and he said tremblingly:

"You... You are... Old Sean of the Patrol...? ”

Although the fat man had not been to Ajaccio before, since he was assigned to find out the news, the fat man certainly knew about the important people in Ajaccio in advance.

The old man in front of him in the uniform of a patrol soldier is undoubtedly Shaun the Elder, the second man in the Ajaccio patrol after Lawrence.

The fat man turned his head to look at the cell he was in, and he couldn't help but chuckle in his heart, basically sure that he must be in the patrol dungeon.

"The... Damn, what did I do, why did I let old Shaun come to my cell in person. ”

The fat man swallowed a large mouthful of saliva, wondering uneasily, if he didn't think that a small serf like him could attract the number two of the Ajaccio patrol to come out in person.

Old Sean, who was outside the cell, just nodded with a serious face, admitted his identity, and then reprimanded sharply:

"You shameless thug! I suggest that you confess everything you know yourself before being interrogated, so that we can all save yourself a lot of trouble. ”

"Thugs...? What do you mean? I'm just a good farmer! The fat man's mind went blank and asked subconsciously.

"Hmph, do you still have to resist when it comes to this?" Old Sean snorted coldly, glared at his eyes and shouted:

"I don't know where you got the guts! How dare you plot to attack our beloved Bonaparte! I want to shoot you here on the spot! ”

The fat man opened his mouth wide and spoke for a while.

Old Sean's words had already turned into a bullet and drilled into the fat man's head, and the sentence "Attack on Governor Bonaparte" made the fat man not come back to his senses for a long time.

"Wait... Mr. Sean, Lord Sean! I don't know how you came up with such an accusation, but I have absolutely no ill will towards Governor Bonaparte, you can investigate everything about me, I am absolutely innocent! ”

The fat man, who had come to his senses, sat up from the ground at once, clutched the iron fence frantically and shouted.

Although the fat man did not know what was happening, as soon as the charge of attacking the governor of Bonaparte was spoken, it immediately made the fat man despair like falling into an ice cave, and once such a charge was confirmed, it would be a proper capital crime, and even before he died, he would have to go through a period of torture that was worse than death.

Before old Sean could respond, a patrolman behind him stepped forward, slammed the cell door with the hilt of his saber, and shouted:

"Shut up, you wicked thug! We've searched your home, and we've found plenty of muskets and ammunition, as well as letters from you and your accomplices about your criminal plans, enough evidence to guillotine! ”

"Muskets...? Ammunition? Epistle? No way... Where do I have those things in my house?! The fat man was stunned at first, and then shouted even more hysterically.

"Enough, enough!"

Old Sean looked at the fat man with a gloomy face, then pointed to a row of cells behind him, and said in a deep voice:

"Your accomplices have all been arrested by us, and if you don't cooperate... We can always find someone who is willing to help. ”

Looking in the direction pointed by old Sean, the fat man realized that all the prisoners in that row of cells were spies who had been assigned to Ajaccio by various old landlords like himself, but he seemed to be the first to wake up.

There were even a few people in it who didn't know the fat man himself, but he didn't expect that they were all under the control and surveillance of the Corsican government.

And Old Sean's words also woke up the fat man in an instant, he knew that if he wanted to live, following Old Sean's wishes was the only way out, so he quickly nodded and said:

"I'm willing, I'm willing, I'm willing to cooperate, what do you want me to do...?"

Looking at the fat chick pecking rice-like nod, old Sean finally had a smile on his face, nodded and said:

"Okay, I'm going to ask you some questions."

"Excuse me, I would love to throw my stomach away and show you all I know." The fat man said eagerly and excitedly.

Old Sean retracted his smile and asked in a low and slow voice:

"First of all... Who directed your plan to attack Bonaparte? ”

The fat man in the prison immediately froze, he still didn't know what this so-called attack on the governor was all about, and how could he possibly know who instructed him.

"I... I... I do not know. The fat man said resignedly.

"Don't know? Hmph" Old Sean snorted coldly again, and said in a cold voice:

"We investigated your background, you were a farmer in the Southern Plains, right?"

"That's right." The fat man lowered his head and whispered.

"An ordinary peasant came to Ajaccio without any work and spent his days wandering from tavern to tavern, living in a small two-story building near the eastern part of the city. You say there's no one behind you...? Well? ”

Old Sean looked at the fat man tightly, and coerced and seduced:

"I advise you to think again, for our patrol is determined to find out who is behind such an attack on the Governor of Corsica. And a little minion like you... No one will care what happens to you. So if you work together properly, maybe..."

Let's try it soon, everyone. 】

The fat man on the other side was already in place, his head rapidly digesting old Sean's advice.

It was only at this time that he finally reacted, it was not that he and the other spies had a big deal at all, the other party's purpose from the beginning was the old man behind him.

The spies are merely drawn into a struggle between the upper echelons.

And in this case, the fat man who has already fallen into the hands of the other party knows that if he wants to live, there is only one way to go.

"I..."

The fat man's voice suddenly became hoarse, and it took a while to get used to it, and he said slowly:

"I am a serf in the town of Figari, and I came to Ajaccio on the orders of my lord. His name was Justin Bartley, we all called him Lord Justin, and he was nicknamed 'The Little Duke.'"

"The little duke? What an arrogant nickname, Corsica has long been without a duke. Old Sean pouted.

"Yes, yes, it's been a long time gone, it's just... Most of the land in the entire town of Figari is owned by Lord Justin. ”

The fat man said cautiously:

"I've been a serf of Lord Justin for as long as I can remember, and the peasants there are basically like this, so to speak, Lord Justin is the lord of Figari, and he is said to have one or two thousand people under him, so the title of Little Duke has slowly spread..."

"Hmph, anyway, this is the one who sent you to Ajaccio, right?"

Old Sean obviously didn't want to continue to listen to the fat man brag about how rich and powerful his master was, and waved his hand and said:

"So... Your plan to attack Bonaparte's satrape was also directed by him? ”

The fat man gritted his teeth and squeezed out a trembling syllable from between his teeth:

"Yes..."

"Good, good." Hearing this word, Old Sean finally showed a satisfied smile, and said in a loud voice:

"Cooperate with us, and you won't stay here for long."

With that, old Sean pointed to the row of cells behind him and instructed the two patrolmen behind him:

"You know how to do it, right? When these guys woke up, they interrogated them about who had instigated them. ”

"Yes!" The two patrolmen replied respectfully.

...

By the evening of the same day, all the spies who had been held in the patrol's dungeon had finished interrogating.

These serfs, who had never seen much of the world, had little room for resistance in the face of the interrogating patrols, and those who were as shrewd as the fat man at first were a minority, and most of them were so frightened when they heard that they had been charged with the hat of attacking the governor that they did not hesitate to confess to the landlord who had instructed them behind their backs.

Old Sean also compiled these confessions into a report as soon as all the interrogations were completed, and immediately sent them to the governor's palace.

"The 'Little Duke' of Figari, the 'Tribune' of Sota, the 'President' of Conca... The names are quite loud, and they should be the largest landlord forces in various places. ”

In the study, Lawrence casually flipped through the freshly baked report in his hand, and said to himself with a smile:

"It's just that so many people have joined together to kill me, it's just a shame... Anna! ”

As soon as Lawrence finished speaking, Anna, who was waiting outside the door, immediately pushed the door and replied softly, "What do you command, sir?" ”

"Inform the Wehrmacht of Corsican, and demand that the Northern Corps immediately move south to Ajaccio to take command of me; The French garrison in Corsica was informed of the request for Major Serurier to hand over command on the grounds of emergency. ”

Lawrence stood up and commanded in a deep voice:

"In addition, I inform the Ministry of Finance that I have duly approved the land edict and it will take effect immediately."

"Yes, sir." Anna replied with a tapped chin and left the study quietly.

After Anna left, Lawrence slowly walked to the display case in the study, took out a ceremonial sword decorated with gold dust, held the cold hilt, and said to himself:

"It's time, moths, and I want you to vomit out all the blood and teeth you have eaten."