No matter how bitter life was, people still had to go on living. After the shabby coronation ceremony was over, Carlos's first decree was a great purge.
There were scarcely any law-abiding citizens left in Paris. Anyone who had survived was no harmless lamb. Without an internal cleansing, His Majesty Carlos would not be able to sleep soundly.
The primary targets were naturally the remnants of the revolutionary government, including the mid- and low-ranking officials who had switched sides, as well as the hooligans, thugs, and vicious criminals who had looted amid Paris's great chaos.
"Governments may flow like water, but officials stand like iron."
That no longer applied. There was a whole crowd of nobles who had supported the Bourbon Dynasty's restoration, and even the vacancies at the top were clearly not enough pie to go around.
The great nobles might disdain such sesame-seed posts, but that did not mean the minor country nobles had no interest. Besides, even if they themselves were uninterested, they still had brothers, sisters, and collateral branches to settle.
After all, these people formed the core of the noble coalition that had joined the restoration. Now that it was time to reward merit, Carlos could not produce enough prize money. Surely arranging a job for them was not too much to ask?
And so, these bureaucrats whose families had squatted in their positions for a century suffered misfortune. After lurking for so many years, they had finally caught someone's eye.
You never knew until you investigated; once you did, the results were shocking. Outside rumors claimed that "Napoleon IV had emptied out France" and "the Republican Government's upper ranks had hollowed out France." The facts proved that these were indeed rumors.
They had all fled. Even if they could abscond with money, how much