From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

Lawrence shrugged, shook his head and said:

"At least now I can't be sure of my attitude. After all, we have just met. Moreover, Mr. Alderman, even if I agree to recommend you, you must first make some achievements in Marseille."

Although Mayor Joseph already looked like he was taking the bait, Lawrence also deliberately controlled himself not to appear too eager.

Since the other party was able to climb up to the position of mayor of Marseille, he was not an easy person to fool. Lawrence proposed to recommend Josip to be promoted to mayor after meeting him for more than two hours, which would inevitably make him suspicious.

Mayor Joseph's expression immediately dropped, he nodded helplessly and said:

"Well, you are right. Even a small political achievement is extremely difficult for the city hall. I am not afraid of your ridicule. Such a port city is more affected by the trade market than by our management. It’s very rare that the Marseille Free Port can avoid any trouble.”

Nearly five hundred years have passed since Marseille was established as a free trade zone. If there is a more effective governance method, it is not the turn of the ordinary mayor Josip to propose it.

Other ports can also adopt policies such as tax incentives or loose supervision to expand the scale of trade in the short term. However, for a free port like Marseille Port, which has no tariffs and no customs, there is no such policy tool. The number of merchant ships is basically unlimited. Let the market decide.

As for the thriving factories and workshops in Marseille, Mayor Josip does not have enough political power to carry out drastic reforms.

After all, any new policy will touch the interests of certain interest groups. Although Mayor Yosip is the governor of this area, he is not tough enough to ignore the noble lords, business guilds, workers' unions, including bureaucrats. The system itself, and even the opinions of various interest groups such as the French Army.

Mayor Joseph had a look of loneliness on his brows, and shook his head with a wry smile.

When Lawrence mentioned the introduction just now, he thought that the day he had dreamed of had finally come, but he didn't expect that he was still overjoyed.

Moreover, Mayor Josip knew in his heart that since Lawrence had said this, it meant that it was almost impossible for him to move up to a higher level from Marseille.

Let's not talk about the recommendation by the trustee. Just giving the Duke of Choiseul a reason to promote himself cannot be done by the mayor Joseph. It is still too difficult for him to do something in Marseille with his political foundation. .

Although Mayor Yosip had been mentally prepared for this many years ago, he still couldn't help but feel sad after hearing the news from Lawrence today.

"well"

Mayor Yosip sighed, picked up the wine bottle, poured half a glass of sherry into his glass, and drank it all without hesitation.

Lawrence smiled and picked up the wine glass, observing Mayor Joseph's expression of disappointment that could not be concealed, and suddenly said:

"Actually, things may not be as difficult as you think, Mr. Alderman."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Mayor Yosip suddenly put down his glass and asked, blinking.

“It is naturally difficult to achieve political achievements from Marseille itself, but it is difficult to reach the sky.”

Lawrence shook the crystal clear wine in the glass and said softly:

"If there is outside help, it is not impossible."

"Outside help...? What do you mean?" Mayor Yosip quickly moved his chair closer and asked anxiously.

"Ahem"

Lawrence coughed twice to clear his throat, and suddenly changed the topic:

"By the way, as the mayor of Marseille, you should know a lot more about the recent situation in neighboring countries and regions than I do, right? Especially the Kingdom of Naples and the Western Mediterranean."

Lawrence and his party have been on the road for more than a month and have not had many opportunities to obtain information about Italy and the Western Mediterranean. Lawrence also does not know what the current famine situation in the Kingdom of Naples is like.

As the supervisor of a world port like Marseille, Mayor Josip will naturally have the latest information about the Kingdom of Naples in his hands.

"The Kingdom of Naples."

Mayor Joseph hesitated for a moment after hearing this term, then nodded dullly and said:

"I have indeed heard a lot about things there, from various channels. Even the day before yesterday, the Mediterranean Fleet Command specially sent someone to inform me of information about the Western Mediterranean."

"Mediterranean Fleet Command?"

Lawrence frowned and asked:

"What did they say?"

Although this information is considered a high degree of military secret, Mayor Joseph believed that Lawrence would soon learn this information from the Duke of Choiseul, so after hesitating for a while, he still said to Lawrence:

"The British have further strengthened their military power in Gibraltar. People at the headquarters said that about 5,000 to 10,000 marines have been reinforced from England to Gibraltar. In addition, the British have also deployed some land forces in Menorca. ”

Menorca is an island located halfway between Spain and Sardinia. It is a territory ceded by the British from Spain after the War of Spanish Succession. It is also the most in-depth British outpost in the Mediterranean.

However, due to Gibraltar's more important strategic location and the incomplete infrastructure of Menorca, the British military power in the Mediterranean is still basically concentrated in Gibraltar.

"The British have strengthened their army in the Mediterranean? But their increase is very subtle."

Lawrence was a little confused after hearing this. Five thousand to ten thousand Marines were deployed from England to the Mediterranean. This number was neither too much nor too little. It would not cause a strong reaction from the surrounding countries, and it would not cause a strong reaction in the surrounding countries. Provide sufficient early reinforcements in the event of a military conflict, if a military conflict really occurs.

In particular, the British have also strengthened their army deployment in Menorca. The level of development of Menorca is unlikely to be able to provide such a large number of garrison troops. In other words, the British probably do not want to permanently station those troops in Menorca. Noka Island is just used as a springboard for offense and defense.

This made Lawrence vaguely aware that something was wrong. The straight-line distance from Menorca to Ajaccio was only more than 400 kilometers, and to Sicily was less than 800 kilometers.

"If we set out from Menorca, a light sailing ship can reach Corsica in less than two days, and a line battleship can also reach Corsica in three days."

Lawrence frowned and thought. Although he knew that it was basically impossible for the British to attack Corsica, where the French army was stationed, the feeling of having a knife pressed to the throat also made Lawrence unhappy.

In Lawrence's intuition, the purpose of the British increase in troops this time, at least the main purpose, was not Corsica, but the Kingdom of Naples further away.

"Interesting. It seems that the British are not coming to Italy to make money."

Lawrence touched his chin and closed his eyes, thinking:

"It's just that what do they want to do? It's impossible for them to intervene militarily in the Kingdom of Naples with an army of less than 10,000 people. They simply want to put pressure on the Spanish to deter the Spanish in the Americas. Colonial provocation?"

As two colonial powers, Spain and Britain naturally had many frictions over colonial issues. Historically, in the autumn of 1770, the Falklands Crisis triggered by colonist conflicts broke out between the two countries and almost led to war.

Historically, the Duke of Choiseul angered Louis XV by strongly urging France to unite with Spain to go to war against Britain during the Falkland Crisis, and was directly dismissed from Paris by Louis XV.

"There is still something wrong. The British may have this consideration, but their main goal should still be the Kingdom of Naples. This famine is really weird."

After thinking deeply for a moment, Lawrence still put the purpose of deterring Spain in the second place. After all, events like the Falkland Crisis were purely accidental, and the British would not attack this country just for a small probability event that has not happened yet. A massive surge in troops in the tense Mediterranean.

After thinking for a long time, Lawrence took a long breath, shrugged and said:

"Well, the British seem to be performing as steadily as ever. Wherever they go, there will be trouble."

Mayor Yosip nodded in agreement, but there was no worry on his face. After all, he was not a soldier and did not know much about these situations. The notification from the Mediterranean Fleet Command was just to remind him to do some necessary things as usual. Just defensive.

After understanding what the British were doing, Lawrence looked at Mayor Joseph and asked:

"So, what about the Kingdom of Naples? How is the famine situation?"

Mentioning such natural and man-made disasters, Mayor Joseph's face immediately became serious, and he gritted his teeth and sighed:

"I don't know much about the specific situation, but I also specially ordered people to collect information about the Great Famine in Naples at the port. Generally speaking, the Italians are going to suffer a lot. Sorry, Your Excellency, I just remembered you. Italian too.”

"It's okay, keep talking."

Lawrence waved his hand nonchalantly and said that he had almost set foot on the land of Corsica when he woke up in this life, so he actually had no feelings for Florence or his hometown of Italy, Lawrence.

Only when he needed to unite those Italians, Lawrence would use this background to play some emotional cards with them and become a pan-Italian nationalist.

"Thank you for your indulgence, Monsignor Bonaparte. I meant no offense."

Mayor Yosip then said:

"As for the situation in southern Italy, we can only say that it is as bad as in previous weeks. The price of bread is still high. More and more people are joining the ranks of people fleeing the famine. Most of them are Sicilians, which is also the most affected area. There are even many people who have fled abroad. There were some Italians who fled during this period in Marseille, and I basically got the news from them.”

"What about the government and the royal family? Didn't they send anyone to provide disaster relief?" Lawrence asked with a solemn expression.

"It is said that there is." Mayor Yosip shook his head and said:

"But the effect can only be said to be negligible, and it has almost no effect on the spread of the famine. And to be honest, the official behavior of the Kingdom of Naples is also a bit abnormal. Not only did they not ask for assistance from the sovereign state and other countries, they even increased the Tariffs on imported grains were imposed. Their officials explained that this was to prevent the large influx of foreign grains from overly impacting local farmers and affecting unaffected areas.”

"In order to protect the interests of some farmers, they chose to let tens of thousands of people starve to death?"

Lawrence also scoffed at this statement, shook his head disdainfully, and made no comment.

At the same time, another abnormal behavior of the Kingdom of Naples also deepened Lawrence's vigilance. Not only did they refuse to accept foreign aid, they even set up tariff barriers for normal grain trade. Lawrence felt that a stupid king alone could not do it. So much stupidity.

"In addition, Your Excellency Bonaparte, I also heard some special news from the Italians who fled to Marseille."

Mayor Yosip lowered his voice a bit, looked at Lawrence and said:

"Those Sicilian farmers said that in the months before the famine began, the Naples tax collectors imposed heavy taxes on their grain reserves several times in the name of tribute to the sovereign country, Spain. After the wheat harvest was completed in July , the tax collectors levied less than half of the farmers’ grain for the same purpose.”

"You mean"

Lawrence frowned and asked:

"The source of this famine is the Spanish's excessive expropriation and the exploitation of the Kingdom of Naples?"

"Your Excellency Bonaparte, this is not something I can make up my mind about." Mayor Joseph said with a wry smile:

"However, this is a common reaction among the victims, so I suspect it is somehow related."

"Spain anyway, thank you for the information, Mr. Alderman."

Lawrence nodded solemnly and thanked Mayor Yosip.

In his heart, Lawrence silently denied:

"No, the source of this famine is not the Spanish"

Although it seemed that Lawrence had a breakthrough to find out about the famine in Naples, this actually only increased Lawrence's doubts.

Because in Lawrence's impression, it is basically impossible for the current King of Spain, Carlos III, to expropriate the Kingdom of Naples. He himself was the former King of Naples and was deeply loved by the people of the Kingdom. When he left Naples to inherit the Spanish throne, the local people People even cried along the street to send him away.

And more importantly, whether it was from the historical trend in his memory or from the intelligence of Duke Choiseul, Lawrence was sure that there was no food shortage in the Kingdom of Spain at this time, let alone the need to send hundreds of thousands of people from the Kingdom of Naples to The people are in crisis below the food and clothing line.

In other words, it is impossible for King Carlos III of Spain to force the Kingdom of Naples into this situation, both publicly and privately.

However, Mayor Yosip would not provide false information to Lawrence. He indeed heard the information from the people who were fleeing the disaster.

Moreover, it has been several months since the Kingdom of Naples confiscated grain, and the Kingdom of Spain has not jumped out to object to this matter, indicating that the grain was indeed transported to Spain.

Such contrasts and anomalies made Lawrence's mind feel confused.

"Carlos III of Spain and Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples, who among these father and son pairs are playing some shady tricks?"

Lawrence's face was gloomy, he looked up and thought:

"Or, there is someone else who is playing tricks."