The Most Dangerous Enemy Meddles

The Ministry of Truth's work efficiency isn't particularly high, especially when it comes to matters they monopolize and the Ministry of Police can't get involved in. Like all bureaucracies, they always procrastinate. If they can finish it in the afternoon, they'll never solve it in the morning; if they can postpone it until tomorrow, they'll never take action today.

As for propaganda targeting the United States, it was originally an area that the Ministry of Police had no say in. So, although the principles had been set by Lucien, it was still quite a long way from the actual full-scale implementation of the work until one day, Lucien received a report.

This is a report with an extremely high level of secrecy. Within the entire Ministry of Truth, and even throughout France, only a handful of people, except for Lucien, were authorized to see it. Even Napoleon and Joseph were unaware of its existence. It is said that there are only two reports of this level of secrecy in all of France: one in the Ministry of Truth and one in the Ministry of Police.

The Ministry of Truth's report is titled "A Study and Assessment of the Recent Actions of the Ministry of Police." We have reason to believe that the Ministry of Ministry of Police's report is most likely titled "A Study and Assessment of the Recent Actions of the Ministry of Truth." Generally speaking, the hostility between departments with overlapping functions is always very serious. In fact, all other enemies have to take a backseat. Like the Navy and the Army, or like the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics.

"Peterson, make a call and summon Gaiting, Victor, and Becklang immediately. Tell them to drop everything and come here to see me right now, immediately, as fast as lightning!"

Although Lucien had ordered these guys to come immediately, it would still take quite a bit of time on the way. Plus, it was rush hour (Lucien usually started work in the afternoon or even evening), so it took them a full hour to get Lucien. However, this had its advantages; Lucien had largely managed to control his emotions.

"Take a look at this." After everyone was seated, Lucien pulled out a piece of paper from the folder and showed it to them.

Everyone then passed the paper around one by one. After everyone had finished reading it, Lucien put the paper back into the file bag and asked, "Now that everyone has read it, what are your thoughts?"

Becklang, who was in charge of intelligence work in North America, immediately said, "They're trying to steal our jobs! According to the division of labor, cultural matters are our responsibility. Their interference will ruin our plans."

"They will definitely say that they also have the authority to discuss religious matters. They will definitely say that," Gaiting said.

"These guys in the Ministry of Ministry of Police are utterly shameless. They'll do anything to be shameless," Victor said. "I've never seen such brazen people."

Everyone then joined in cursing the Ministry of Police as bastards and Fouché as a shameless chameleon.

Lucien sat to one side, watching everyone hurl insults at the Ministry of Police. After they had been cursing for a while, he finally spoke up, "If you all keep cursing from this afternoon until dawn tomorrow, do you think you can kill Fouché?"

So everyone fell silent.

"Alright, now let's discuss a strategy," said Lucien.

The piece of paper mentioned that their people had noticed the Ministry of Police's agents sending a large number of spies to North America through methods like training pastors. They might even have learned of the Ministry of Truth's next move—not surprising, because just as the Ministry of Truth considered the Ministry of Police its primary enemy, the Ministry of Police had always considered the Ministry of Truth its greatest enemy. It's said that if anyone in the Ministry of Truth could get their hands on secret documents from Pitt the Younger's (Britain Prime Minister) drawer, they would certainly receive praise from Minister Lucien; but if anyone could get their hands on secret documents from Fouché's drawer, they would become Minister Lucien's most trusted confidant. Of course, the same applied to Minister Fouché.

Victor thought for a moment and then said, "The guys in the Ministry of Ministry of Police have already started moving. What we're doing is an open scheme, and it's impossible to hide it from Minister Fouché —that old fox is just too cunning. So, Your Excellency, I think we should take a two-pronged approach."

On the one hand, Your Excellency should go to the First Minister and explain our plan in detail to him, further seeking his support; on the other hand, we must also accelerate our actions. The First Minister has always been impatient, and even if we gain his support, will Minister Fouché listen when he asks us to refrain from Fouché tactics? He may outwardly agree, but he will never truly stop trying to steal our credit or even sabotage us. For example, if the First Minister asks us not to cause trouble for the Ministry of Ministry of Police or undermine them, we will only agree superficially, but we will still do what we need to do, at most doing it more discreetly. However, doing it discreetly will naturally reduce efficiency. If we accelerate a little, they will reduce their efficiency a little, and in this way, the main share of the pie will still be ours. Minister, now, I feel that this is the only way we can do."

Lucien nodded. In fact, he had already figured it out in the short time he had just spent thinking; this two-pronged approach was the only way. So he said to the others, "I'm going to find Napoleon now. You all need to get things moving quickly. Don't drag your feet any longer. Be fast, be fast, the faster the better!"

So Lucien immediately went to the Consulate and complained to Napoleon, denouncing Fouché for infringing on his rights. Napoleon, however, dismissed it, saying, "Lucien, you fool! You have far more resources than Fouché, yet you can't even manage your own affairs and have to come to me? Aren't you ashamed?"

However, despite saying this, Napoleon still sent someone to remind Fouché: "Don't ruin the whole thing."

Napoleon's meaning was also very clear: you can compete for credit, but you can't undermine each other.

After being threatened by the "Ministry of Ministry of Police," the "Ministry of Truth" immediately became more efficient. After all, if the credit for this matter were stolen by those bastards in the Ministry of Ministry of Police, then everyone else's performance evaluation would be meaningless. Therefore, at this time, the entire Ministry of Truth was closely, or pretended to be closely, united around Lucien, and began to promote a soul-searching, soul-searching critique of the evil Britain pirate culture in the United States, entitled "Uprooting the Reactionary Ideology of the England Pirate Gang."