An Astronomical Penalty for Breach

Upon hearing this, Fuld exclaimed in shock, "Has Brienne gone mad? Does he intend to shut down the government?!"

Harper frowned slightly and raised her hand to interrupt him, "Please calm down, Brienne is probably bluffing. You often see people like that at merchants' stalls; they really want to buy, but they pretend to leave in order to bargain."

"But what if Brienne really did get 200 million Franc?" Charles asked nervously. "What should we do if that happens?"

These financial giants cannot afford to leave their assets lying idle in their accounts, because many of them are entrusted to them by other Investor for management, and most of them are long-term agreements.

In other words, they have to pay interest to others at any time. If this money cannot generate more profit, they will lose a lot of money.

Borolei scoffed, "The government has no chance of raising that much money. I bet Brienne will be back begging us in ten days at most."

"But what if the government really does abolish the Tax Farmer System? We must be prepared!"

Harper pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "You're right, we need to prepare in advance. The key issue right now is whether the government has actually raised enough money to keep things running."

Fuld immediately added, "Such a large sum of money must be kept in a bank. With the connections at the General Association, it's not impossible to find out the details."

Tax Farmers are currently a very popular investment in France. Therefore, from members of the Royal House to ordinary landowners, anyone can become a member of the Tax Farmers Guild. Even a scholar like Lavoisier once invested hundreds of Livre to contract the tobacco tax in a certain area.

This allowed the Tax Farmers Guild to extend its reach into all aspects of France society. Since it concerned their own interests, the Tax Farmers were happy to provide intelligence to the General Association if necessary, which was the source of Fuld's confidence.

Harper nodded. "Then I'll leave this to you. Make sure you find out how much money Brienne got his hands on as quickly as possible."

Upon hearing the news, all the big shots in the hunting grounds gathered around, chattering amongst themselves about the tax-farming negotiations. They lost all interest in hunting and let their Servant and hunting dogs run around freely.

London City Hall.

London Mayor Herbert stared grimly at the bowed manager of Lightning Coal Industry before him, and said angrily, "It's been two whole months, and apart from the coal storage and office buildings, there's been absolutely no progress on the installation of the important equipment at the Distillery!"

He was the direct supervisor of the London Gas Streetlight project, which had a significant impact on his career, so he checked on the project's progress every few days.

However, two months have passed, and all that can be seen now are the numerous pits dug in the streets of London for laying pipes, and the largely useless buildings in the Coal Gas Distillery.

Styler looked distressed and stammered after a long pause, "Mayor, actually, construction of the distillation still began last month..."

"But I didn't see anything."

"It's really because of a problem with the technicians," Styler shrugged. "Our Chief Technician, Mr. Hannis, eloped with his wife's sister earlier this month, taking all their assets..."

"?!"

"I heard that he invested in a shipping company and failed, owing several thousand Pound Sterling. To escape his debts, he fled to the United States, or some say Brazil, but I don't know the specifics."

"Previously, Hannis was in charge of all the technical details of the dry distillation still. After he left, the project's progress was inevitably affected."

Before Herbert could get angry, he quickly added, "But don't worry, the technical blueprints are still there. Once the other technicians in the company have familiarized themselves with them, construction can begin immediately."

Herbert took a deep breath and said, "I don't want to see any further delays in the construction period, otherwise I will have no choice but to deduct the penalty from your company according to the agreement!"

"Yes, yes, sir. I will do my best to make up for lost time."

Styler said some more kind words before turning and leaving.

After returning to his office, he simply had his Servant make him a cup of tea, and then took out a newspaper to read leisurely.

Yes, his job is to delay the project.

This is just the beginning; Captain Delaunay has already prepared numerous excuses for him—first, the Chief engineer running away to avoid debts.

Then the body was unearthed at the company's construction site. The police had already been bribed, and it would take half a month just to repeatedly examine the scene. Styler himself would become a suspect and be questioned by the Police for a month before being proven innocent.

Then, several technicians made a bet and insisted on going winter swimming in the Thames River, resulting in their collective disappearance. It's not surprising that the company would organize a large number of people to search along the river, keeping them busy for a month.

Then, Hannis's wife discovered that her husband had sneaked home to retrieve the land deed. Enraged, she tried to burn him alive, but instead Ignition the coal storage facility...

In short, Lightning Coal Industry will be plagued by all sorts of bad luck in the coming year, almost constantly making headlines. Under such circumstances, even if the City Hall has great dissatisfaction, it can only suffer in silence.

Of course, penalties for delays will definitely be imposed, and according to the contract signed with London City Hall, the penalties are extremely high.

But does Styler care about the penalty for breach of contract? Not at all. It can be deducted from the project payment; Pound Sterling 260,000 is more than enough.

He would even use the excuse of "company cash shortage" to demand that the penalty for breach of contract not be deducted from the down payment...

At the same time, because Lightning Company has not committed any serious breach of contract—such as lack of technical capability or malicious delays— the London City Hall cannot terminate the contract, otherwise the penalty for breach of contract would be as high as Pound Sterling 100,000.

Even if the London City Hall decides to take drastic measures, the subcontractors will find ways to make them reconsider. They've already advanced a large sum of money, and Lightning Company hasn't settled accounts with them yet...

Southern Suburbs of Paris.

Fuld looked gravely at the Tax Farmer Magnates before him and said in a low voice, "I've already had someone investigate, and the situation is probably a bit tricky."

Immediately, someone asked anxiously, "What happened?"

"My friend at the bank confirmed that over 100 million Franc have been transferred into the government's Finance in the last three months. And it's continuing to deposit in at a rate of 10 million Franc per week. At this rate, it will reach 200 million Franc by the beginning of December."

Everyone was immediately shocked, "Where did Brienne get the money?"

"That's impossible!"

Is the information accurate? Could it be...?

Fuld shook his head sadly. "Several of my friends at the French Reserve Bank have verified this; the accounts are clear. Furthermore, funds have been arriving in the accounts of many provinces."