High-tech industry

Fouche said with some hesitation, "Your Highness, nearly half the pro-government factions in Corsica lean toward the Liberals. I fear they may not be willing to take orders from Earl Buttafuoco."

Buttafuoco belonged to the old nobles. Compared with the Restoration Faction, he hated the Liberals, who spent all day clamoring for equality between nobles and commoners, even more. Likewise, he was one of the Liberals' greatest enemies.

At this, Joseph blinked and said decisively, "Then have Buttafuoco take orders from the Liberals. Tell him that if he and the Liberals, together with the Anti-Paoli faction, can secure two-thirds of the seats in the Corsican Parliament, I can appoint him Governor of Corsica."

In Corsica, legislation required the approval of two-thirds of Parliament's members.

In fact, it would not matter much even if they failed to win that many seats. Most of those Liberals had nationalist sentiments and were natural enemies of separatist Restorationism. Let them tear into one another, and the people Joseph backed would have a chance to rise to power.

Besides, inserting Buttafuoco among the Liberals would also allow him to keep them in check at critical moments when they tried to stir up trouble.

Corsica might have been only an island with a population of just over two hundred thousand, but it teemed with political forces of every stripe, making the situation extremely complicated. Thus, right up until the early nineteenth century, it remained a "state within a state" under French rule.

Joseph gave Fouche another instruction. "Oh, and you also need to use Mr. Chamos's influence within the Restoration Faction to get to the bottom of the Corsican National Guard as soon as possible. Ideally, plant some of our own people inside it."

He was not so naive as to believe that political maneuvering alone