Avoiding Napoleon's fate

The dozen or so people in the room were overjoyed; they hadn't expected such an unexpected gain today.

Pound Sterling 20,000 is equivalent to 500,000 Franc. Such a generous grant means that no matter how it is allocated, one can receive a considerable amount.

The crowd immediately surrounded Chamos and showered him with compliments:

"You are truly an ambassador of freedom and fairness!"

Your generosity brings hope to all the people of Corsica!

"On behalf of the people of Corsica, I extend my deepest gratitude to you. May God bless you..."

Chamos smiled and exchanged pleasantries with them, then suddenly put on a stern face and said:

"However, I have one condition regarding the use of this money: the recipient must sever all ties with that Paoli guy!"

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded in understanding. After all, Paoli had embezzled Pound Sterling 25,000, and no one could remain unperturbed in his place. Moreover, they had just confirmed Paoli of the organization and were already preparing to bring him down.

Girolamo took the lead in declaring, "Mr. Chamos, please rest assured, I will not stop until the day I expel Paoli from the Restoration Organization!"

Chamos nodded with satisfaction. "Excellent, Mr. Girolamo. I've decided to allocate Pound Sterling 1,500 to help you in your Corsica campaign!"

The Intelligence Bureau agent and his inside man worked in perfect unison, immediately igniting the passion of the crowd— Pound Sterling 1,500 was 37,000 Franc. With such a large sum of campaign funds, their opponents had absolutely no hope of winning. In fact, even half that amount wouldn't be enough to run a Provincial Legislator election.

Bartorio immediately followed suit, declaring he wanted to distance himself from Paoli, then Eliok, Cesare...

Before long, more than a dozen high-ranking members of the Restoration Organization received donations of 30,000 to 40,000 Franc. They were all overjoyed and satisfied, and they Chamos with praise.

However, they all overlooked one problem – Pound Sterling 20,000 would have been enough to fund many more MPs, but Chamos only allocated the money to 13 of them. As a result, their funding was excessively abundant.

In fact, this was the strategy Joseph used to dismantle the Corsican Restoration Party —to divide and weaken them, and then steer them away from their political goals.

With financial support, the 13 people in this room will soon become the "powerful group" within the organization, and will gradually become estranged from others.

Chamos, on the other hand, could use his influence over them to try and get them to break away and form another organization.

The two Restoration Organization will soon be locked in fierce competition for political resources, at which point who will remember their original goals? They will become nothing more than vying for power for the sake of vying for power.

Ultimately, these legislators had only been involved in electoral politics for about 20 years. For Joseph, who had witnessed Western elections in later generations, as long as Paoli was no longer their spiritual leader, a few dirty tricks from partisan struggles would be enough to bring them down.

It's important to know that the Corsican Restoration Organization possesses its own armed force— the National Guard —and also employs a large number of assassins. French Government officials sent to Corsica are frequently assassinated. Various riots have never ceased, the most recent one occurring at the end of last year, where nearly a thousand armed Rebellion and the army fought fiercely for over a month before the conflict was barely quelled.

If the army were to be deployed, as was the case with Louis XV, it would not only be extremely costly but also ineffective—aside from forcing Paoli into exile, there would be no significant gains.

Historically, even Napoleon suffered a defeat in Corsica.

It wasn't until Napoleon became emperor and dispatched a large army to massacre the Corsica that the problem of the Restoration Faction was finally resolved. However, this action also caused the Corsica to hate him intensely. After he was exiled, the Corsica threw his statue into the sea and demolished his old house.

Joseph did not want to deploy too many troops in Corsica. Even if he did not care about the huge military expenditure and the damage to Corsica, the fact that a military purge would make the Corsica hate the Royal House even more was a loss for him.

There's no point in expecting people who are alienated from the government to be serious about production and construction.

Therefore, Joseph chose a strategy of disintegration from within.

If we eliminate the malignant tumor of Paoli's Restoration Organization, then no one will organize or incite the Corsica people to rebel against the government.

With appropriate policies in place to improve the lives of Corsica, who would bother with Rebellion? Wouldn't it be better to be a glamorous France, surrounded by the envy and resentment of the Russia and Italy?

Without the support of the people, the Corsican National Guard naturally could not survive. Even if they were to eliminate a small number of die-hards, it would be much easier than in the past.

Currently, after several months of operations by the Intelligence Bureau, the Corsica Strategy has begun to show results, and it is only a matter of time before the final push is made.

London.

Paoli's Villa has been renovated, and there is no trace of the fire at all.

Outside the Villa gate, Mr. Paoli and Miss Isabella in the Carriage lingered for a moment, and he reluctantly waved goodbye. Just as he turned around, he heard someone calling anxiously in Italy:

"Uncle, you're finally back! I've been waiting for you here for hours."

Paoli looked in the direction of the sound and saw his nephew, Cesari - Colonna Paoli, the second commander of the Corsican National Guard, standing at the door.

"Cesari, what brings you here?" He immediately smiled with delight and stepped forward to hug his nephew tightly.

Cesari patted him hastily on the back, immediately distanced himself, and said with a serious expression:

"Uncle, things aren't looking good."

"Oh? What happened?" Paoli sensed something was wrong and quickly pulled him into the house, heading straight for the Study on the second floor.

Cesari locked the door and said urgently:

"At last week's routine meeting, Bartorio, Cesare, and others accused you of embezzling huge sums of funding and colluding with the France to betray the Restoration Organization, demanding that you be removed from leadership and expelled from the organization!"

Upon hearing this, Paoli's expression changed, but he quickly smiled again.

"No one will believe such baseless accusations."

"No, Uncle, they have evidence." Cesari recounted the properties Paoli had purchased in the United States and the leak of the riot's timing.

"They're framing me!" Paoli roared angrily. "All that money was burned, and I've never had any contact with the France!"

"I absolutely believe in you," Cesari hurriedly said, "But negative opinions about you have already formed within the organization. Last week's vote on you saw 19 people vote to expel you, another 12 agree to suspend your leadership of the organization, and 5 abstained."

"These damned bastards!" Paoli was so angry that the veins on his forehead throbbed. There were about 60 people in the Restoration Organization who had the right to vote on major events. Excluding those who were not in Corsica, there should be nearly 50 people at the meeting. And among them, 31 people opposed him.

He's only two votes away from the two-thirds majority threshold!