1770, August 25

All the officers and men of the Wehrmacht of Corsican are ready to go after two days of rest in the Ajaccio Military Region.

It was also today that the Doge's Palace issued an official circular to the Wehrmacht and to the major cities of Corsica:

The hard-won peace is now teetering on the precipice of war, and the clouds of another civil war loom over all of Corsica.

Justin Bartley, a landowner from the town of Figari in the southern plains, and a dozen large and small landowners from the south gathered their families, recruited serfs, and in a short time formed a temporary army of 10,000 people, seized nearly half of the territory of the southern part of Corsica, and built earthen ramparts on various communication arteries in preparation for long-term resistance.

The administrative apparatus in the south was in a state of disarray, and local officials had no control over the situation, either bowing to the local landlords and clans or fleeing north overnight to Ajaccio for refuge.

The Doge's Palace symbolically issued a letter demanding that Justin and other landowners disband their army and go to Ajaccio to surrender themselves on charges of assaulting the Doge of Corsica.

Of course, in the current situation, this ultimatum was rightfully thrown into the furnace as waste paper by Mr. Justin.

The landlord group also issued a proclamation saying that the latest series of laws of the Ministry of Finance had seriously threatened their birthright, and that unless the author of all this, Laurence Bonaparte, was handed over, their army would march on Ajaccio with the goal of dissolving the Corsican government.

At the same time, they called on more landowners and property owners to join the struggle to prevent them from being plundered by the government in the future.

But the alarmist calls had little effect, except for a few small landowners close to Ajaccio who were still hesitant to take sides north or south.

The war of words between the two sides was not fierce, because the most eloquent men had to kneel before the iron and blood of the army.

The final outcome of this civil war depends on which side will eventually fall to the ground.

......

In the Ajaccio Military Region, outside the Wehrmacht station, Lawrence rode with two majors to inspect the soldiers of several battalions.

"Lord Bonaparte, now that the army is in good shape and morale is high, it is a good time to take the initiative."

After being flanked back to the command post by the frenzied and excited soldiers, Major Trefarli was still reminiscing about the parade, and as soon as he sat down, he excitedly suggested that Lawrence send troops.

Lorence, who had personally figured out a detailed topographical map of Corsica and unfolded it on the table, nodded nondeniably.

In the review just now, he did see the longing for peace and the anger of the Wehrmacht soldiers who had suffered the vicissitudes of war.

Especially in the face of a civil war in the face of those ostentatious landlords, the soldiers were even more angry and gritted their teeth.

After all, most of the people who entered the army were also poor people at the bottom, and many of them were once serfs from the countryside, and they would never forget the vicious face and cruel exploitation of those landlords and lords even if they stayed in the army for a long time.

Now hearing that these blood-eating vampires are going to provoke a civil war makes the Wehrmacht soldiers even more unable to help but hold the guns in their hands tightly.

However, Lawrence did not rush to order an attack, but pointed to an area on the map between the Southern Plains and Ajaccio, and analyzed in a slow voice:

"Morale is high, which is a good thing, but we can't rush it, every decision we make is like dancing on the edge of a cliff, and if we make a mistake, we will definitely end up in a point where we will never recover, and we must be cautious."

Major Trefalli and Major Serurier looked at the middle area of the map that Lawrence had pointed to, and asked in unison:

"What do you mean...?"

"Here, almost sixty miles south of Ajaccio, at the northern end of the Southern Plains, this is almost the edge of the landlords' sphere of influence."

Lawrence picked up a quill on the table, dipped it twice in the inkwell, and then drew a circle on the map, explaining:

"In this middle region, the power of the central government and the local clans is almost equal. In the current situation of confrontation between the two sides, local officials and landlords must also be vacillating over the issue of taking sides."

"That is to say—" Major Serurier nodded in realization, leaned over and looked at the map and analyzed:

"You're going to take control of this middle ground first? This is indeed a good decision, and from our current intelligence, the enemy is actively building fortifications and hoarding food, and it should be to defend their core area of interest, so it is unlikely that they will take the initiative to send troops to fight you for this marginal area."

Major Trefali's eyes lit up, and he added approvingly:

"That's right, as long as our army is stationed here, the local small landlords will not dare to have any dissent, and if we give them a little favor, we can definitely easily draw the local landlords to our side."

The two majors exchanged thoughtful glances, and the two sides obviously thought of going together.

In the eyes of the two of them, the safest course of action at the moment was to send troops to the middle ground to intimidate the local landlords and clans, and at the same time to make lucrative terms to win them over in order to stabilize the local situation.

At the same time, this would also make the small landlords of the landlord group understand that they still had united front value on the side of the Governor of Bonaparte, and in this way, it would also be a great blow to the cohesion of the enemy army.

A smile tipped into their faces as they looked at Lawrence in front of them, waiting for the Governor to nod and execute the perfect decision.

However, in the face of the two adjutants' proposals, Lawrence only nodded slightly, and did not seem to be very interested.

After a short silence, he slowly spoke, and said in a deep voice:

"I am in favor of sending troops to the area immediately to stabilize the situation, but... I'm not going to waste a penny of my national wealth on those vampires to woo them. Instead, I will bring the Land Edict to that land, and from there the landlords will have to spit out all the ill-gotten gains they have made over the millennia."

"This...!"

Major Trefali and Major Serurier looked at each other again, only this time their eyes were full of doubt and consternation.

"Lord Bonaparte!"

Major Trefarli took a breath of cold air, opened his mouth wide but did not say anything for a long time, and after a while he organized his words, and hurriedly admonished:

"In doing so, it will make the landlords in the south more united, and it will only make them more determined to fight with us to the death."

"Yes, Lord Bonaparte." Major Serreux frowned similarly, and tapped the table with his fingertips anxiously, echoing:

"The most important thing now is to defeat the rebels first, and the reform plan you are talking about can be carried out slowly after the war."

In the Majors' view, the implementation of what Lawrence called the Land Edict in this swinging area would mean the complete expropriation of the land prized by the local landlords by force.

If such news reached the south, it would only bring the landowners closer together to resist the expropriation from the Corsican government.

And in the face of such a war that is about the future fate of Corsica, the outcome of which is uncertain, how can we deliberately give up those forces that have united front value and can be united?

In the face of the persuasion of the two adjutants, Lawrence shook his head slowly but firmly:

"Two, from a military strategy point of view, your plan can get full marks. However, from a political point of view, this package is unacceptable to me."

Major Serurier and Major Trefali were stunned for a moment, as natural soldiers, they really did not understand the political perspective of Lawrence's mouth.

Looking at the blank looks of the two, Lawrence didn't explain much, just doing it on the map on his own

marker, while explaining succinctly:

"This war... On the surface it was a civil war between the central government and the local powers, but in reality it was a class war against the entire landlord class."

"Class War..."

Major Trefali and Major Serreier were stunned again, and could not help repeating the word in their mouths, as if they did not fully understand its meaning.

"Since it is a class war, then we must know who our enemies really are, and what the forces we should unite are."

Lawrence said, clenching the quill in his hand and drawing a large cross at the end of the middle area on the map.

Although Major Serurier was still a little ignorant, he quickly sensed something keenly, and hurriedly asked:

"Wait, Lord Bonaparte, what do you mean by the forces that can be united...?"

Before Lawrence could reply, a herald suddenly trotted into the command post.

After his routine salute to the three chiefs, he reported aloud:

"Report to the Governor, Minister Cojero of the Ministry of Finance has arrived at the camp with his subordinates and is waiting outside."

Major Trefali frowned a little when he heard this, and muttered in a low voice, "Someone from the Ministry of Finance? What did they do when they came to the barracks..."

As a soldier, Major Cifali had a natural resistance and distrust of those civilian officials, and he was a former quartermaster of the Wehrmacht and had a lot of dealings with the Ministry of Finance, so he felt that these greedy bureaucrats were very unpleasant.

Hearing the herald's message, Lawrence straightened up from his map table, inserted the quill back into the inkwell, and waved for the soldier to bring Mr. Cogiro in.

Soon, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Cogello, was led by the heralds into the command post.

He hunched slightly, looking a little cowering and restrained, as if he was restrained in front of these heavily armed soldiers and soldiers.

It wasn't until he walked into the command post and saw Lawrence that he breathed a sigh of relief, and raised his hand to greet the three of them with some stiffness.

"Here you are, Mr. Cojero." Lawrence gestured to a nearby wooden chair for Mr. Coggero to sit down, then looked at him and asked:

"How's it going?"

Listening to the Governor's inquiry, Mr. Coggero did not dare to slack off, and as soon as his butt was next to the chair, he quickly stood up and replied neatly:

"In accordance with your orders, I have personally selected a group of reliable and excellent officials of the Ministry of Finance, and they are all packed and ready to go with the army."

Major Trevary looked at Lawrence with confusion and interjected:

"The bureaucrats of the Ministry of Finance are going south with the army? Lord Bonaparte, is this going to...?"

After all, in the eyes of Major Trefali, he was going to lead his army to fight the rebels, and these bureaucrats from the Ministry of Finance were a complete burden in the barracks.

Major Serreux did not speak, but stared thoughtfully at Mr. Cogiero, as if still recalling Lawrence's words.

"As I said, Major Trefary, this is a class war."

Lawrence did not blame Major Trefali for his contempt, but patiently explained:

"To destroy the enemy on the battlefield, it takes violence, and it takes muskets and daggers; But by destroying the enemies of the class, we can shed less blood."

"You mean...?"

"These Treasury officials will measure the land in the areas under our control, census the population, and ultimately make sure that the peasants who work with sweat are spilling their blood on their land, and not the wine and preserves of the hereditary vampires. That is the fundamental purpose of this war."

The sonorous words echoed in the command room, and both majors could not stop falling into deep thought, and even Mr. Cojero, who knew and always carried out the plan, could not help but swallow his spit.

In the land of Corsica, no, even in the land of all Europe, so far

No ruler dared to puff up his chest and say:

"My people will never be bound to the field because of the land beneath their feet"

In the last vestiges of the feudal era, the aristocracy remained a major force in continental Europe.

And as long as this class still exists, it means that the thousands of serfs who have been trampled under their land deeds and leases are still alive.

It was now clear to several people in the command post that Governor Bonaparte was going to break the invisible shackles that had bound the Corsican peasants for hundreds of years.

Major Trefarli only felt a bubbling heat in him, as if his blood was boiling.

Born in the countryside, even after decades in the army, he still can't forget the feelings he felt when he worked in the fields in his early years:

"All the laborers are like a skinny walking corpse, while the non-laborers are all oily with a big belly."

Won't such a sight henceforth be seen in Corsican land?

Major Trefarly didn't know.

But all he could do was put all his faith in the young man in front of him, on Lawrence Bonaparte, the Doge who had performed countless miracles.

"Well, if there is no objection..."

Lawrence glanced at the expressions of the crowd around the week, pointed to the markers on the map, and ordered:

"Tell the whole army to march on Propriano at once."