Cape Town

Lucien's plan clearly originated from Joseph, carrying the flavor of what Joseph himself often boasted about as a "conspiracy." The purpose was obvious; anyone with political insight could almost immediately see the aim of this approach—to widen the divisions within the United States and increase France influence over the United States, especially over the American North, making the United States, or at least the American North, a de facto vassal of France.

However, understanding the France's goals and being able to cope with them are two different things.

You could certainly expose the France's motives in the newspapers. But that would mean blocking many people's path to wealth. And without the France even saying a word, those people would unite to smear you with all sorts of accusations. Even though they were the ones actually taking the francs, they would accuse those who opposed them of "taking the Britain pounds."

I don't know who first came up with this far-fetched prediction: that those who upheld the law of the sea would receive five pounds from Britain for every article they published in support of it. They then gave these people the nickname "Five Pounds."

Of course, those people immediately retaliated, accusing those who advocated for complete legalization of getting ten cents from the France for every article they published, thus giving them the nickname "Ten Cents".

Since the start of the war, especially after the Battle of the North Atlantic, the Britain government had resorted to short-sighted measures to prolong the crisis. One such measure was the excessive issuance of national debt and the suspension of the convertibility of the pound sterling with gold. The consequences were similar to France's excessive issuance of Assignat: the pound sterling quickly became worthless. Although theoretically one pound sterling was still equivalent to 7.32 grams of gold, the exchange was suspended. Since it was impossible to exchange, even "temporarily," this theoretical figure became meaningless.

At this time, the Britain government desperately needed money, so it issued the pound sterling, much like the France Revolutionary Government issued Assignat in 1993. As a result, the pound sterling depreciated drastically; five pounds sterlings are now worth less than ten centimes. Of course, pound sterling coins are still very, very valuable, but they are completely no longer available in the market.

Napoleon was quite satisfied with the current situation in North America. Although the United States had won the war against Britain, they had gained nothing in the process. Not only had their economy been severely damaged, but domestic conflicts had also been triggered. This meant that, in the short term, the United States would no longer pose any threat to Louisiana. In fact, in the long run, the United States might even have the potential to split apart or become France's new puppet.

"The Ministry of Truth's work over this period can be described as remarkably effective. Of course, the Ministry of Ministry of Police has also performed exceptionally well, especially in the assassination attempt, where they cooperated very well with the Ministry of Truth..."

"What the hell! Except for the first sentence, the next half hour was all about praising the Ministry of Police!" After the meeting, back in his department, Lucien said unhappily.

"Minister, I actually think we are the victors," Villefort said.

"What's your opinion?" Lucien asked.

"Minister, although the Ministry of Police received praise, their scope of operations and controlled areas have not changed significantly. Moreover, their future work in North America will focus more on overt and legal operations, especially in universities and propaganda. This means that we are the ones leading this matter. Although the Ministry of Police received a lot of praise, they didn't gain much in substance," Villefort replied.

"However, the Ministry of Police still gained the power to intervene in North America affairs. Although this power is called 'cooperating with our work.'" Lucien was still somewhat dissatisfied.

"Minister, completely excluding the Ministry of Police from North America does not align with the First Government's intentions. Forgive my bluntness, but even if Fouché performs poorly, the First Government will at most replace him, but will never allow the Ministry of Police to withdraw from North America," Villefort replied.

Lucien knew that Villefort's words made a lot of sense. Even though he was Napoleon's brother, Napoleon would not allow him to have exclusive control over the intelligence system. And North America was so important that Joseph even stated at a family meeting that, in the long run, North America was even more important than mainland France. Therefore, a large part of the Bonaparte Family's power and wealth would be transferred to North America in the future.

Therefore, he could gain the upper hand in North America, but he couldn't monopolize the intelligence network North America. Even if Napoleon suddenly resigned and made him First Consul, he would certainly maintain a balance between the Ministry of Truth and the Ministry of Police, just as he himself maintained a balance between different departments within the Ministry of Truth.

Although he rationally knew this, Lucien still felt uncomfortable.

"Minister, if you were Minister Fouché, how would you feel right now?" Villefort added.

"Ah, what if I were Fouché?" Lucien thought for a moment, and immediately felt much happier.

However, Fouché wasn't as unhappy as Lucien had imagined. On the contrary, Fouché was quite pleased. His expectations weren't actually that high, because he knew the limits of his influence. In North America, his department had cooperated closely with the Ministry of Truth, achieving a resounding success and earning praise from Napoleon. More importantly, he had successfully granted the Ministry of Ministry of Police, albeit with only a small amount of authority. And in this area, the Ministry of Truth was indeed far more powerful than the Ministry of Police. But precisely because of this, this initial step was a major victory for the Ministry of Police.

The situation in North America has essentially come to an end. The war of words between the South and the North continues, and the battles within United States academia, particularly in philosophy, literature, and law, also continue. However, given the comprehensive economic and cultural dominance of the France, the emergence of traitors within the United States legal community is almost inevitable, and the outcome of this conflict is virtually a foregone conclusion.

At present, France is truly concerned about two things: one is the new warships that Britain is building, and the other is the war at the far end of the world.

Before the war had even officially begun, but only when it was beginning to show signs of breaking out, the Netherlands, at the instigation of the France, sent intelligence agents to Cape Town to incite a local uprising. France, in turn, sent intelligence agents to support the rebellion.

In fact, the Britain felt they had been very polite to the Netherlands and Lowlanders in Cape Town and their descendants—much more so than they had been to the North America. It was just that the economic difficulties of the past two years had inevitably affected Cape Town.

But the Boers of Cape Town felt that they had been exploited by the Britain in various ways over the years. Back then, they controlled the port and everything else; merchants and ships seeking shelter had to pay them—they made money effortlessly. But after the Britain arrived, they could no longer enjoy such easy profits. The port was controlled by the Britain, and the Britain became the ones making money effortlessly.

Of course, the Boers could still engage in agriculture and animal husbandry in the countryside. Their lives were actually quite decent, even much better than those of farmers in Britain. (And for this reason, the Britain felt they should be content.) With the whole country preparing for war, the Britain also raised taxes. Anyone would be dissatisfied if money went from plentiful to scarce, and this was even more so with the tax increase.

However, since life was still relatively comfortable, the Boers initially didn't intend to make any significant moves. Some even used this as leverage to negotiate with Britain, demanding a halt to tax increases. As a result, the threatened Britain immediately launched a massive crackdown, imprisoning a large number of Boers in Cape Town under the guise of "protective control." Even the intelligence agents sent by the Netherlands were completely wiped out.

In fact, the Britain did not have a high-level counterintelligence team in Cape Town, yet they managed to wipe out all the intelligence personnel in the Netherlands in one fell swoop, which is really a bit... Some say it's because there was a traitor among the Netherlands intelligence personnel, but no one knows for sure what really happened.

Of course, the Boers in the countryside outside the city began to stir, but without a leader, they were powerless to threaten Cape Town.

At this point, the France entered the scene.