From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

At about 9:30 a.m., the MPs and participants were almost all present. Carlo also dressed up carefully to attend the meeting. When he entered, he waved to Lawrence, who was sitting next to Pauly, to indicate that his letter had been received.

Corsica has a total of nine members of parliament, all representatives from their respective cities.

However, since Ajaccio's population accounts for half of the entire Corsica, each of the four urban areas of Ajaccio will have one deputy.

Before the meeting began, Lawrence also took the opportunity to take stock of this group that could influence the fate of Corsica.

Judging from their chats, those MPs from areas outside Ajaccio, except Carlo, are all wealthy local farmers.

This is not surprising. The population of those cities is often only a few thousand people. In Lawrence's eyes, they can only be regarded as larger villages. The elected representatives are naturally these farmers.

There are three deputies in Ajaccio who are wealthy businessmen or powerful people who live in Dongcheng District and have their own properties. There is no doubt that they all exerted their "influence" during the election.

Only the congressman from Xicheng District was very strange. He had an unshaven beard and seemed to have not groomed himself for a long time. The brown coat on his body has been washed and turned white, which is incompatible with the dressed-up MPs around him.

Especially in a venue like the Parliament, he took out his cigar box and started puffing away, completely ignoring the people around him who covered their faces and looked sideways.

However, for some reason, Lawrence still smelled a dangerous smell from him, like a poisonous snake in the gutter.

“I really don’t know how a place like Xicheng District elects members.”

Lawrence held his head and thought wildly, waiting for the meeting to begin.

Of course, while observing others, Lawrence also faintly became the focus of the meeting.

This young man who has become famous in Ajaccio has actually done a lot of things that amazed them, especially the recent distribution of One-Eye's property to his subordinates, which made many smart people vaguely see Lawrence's ambitions. .

After all, spending money to win people's hearts must be rewarded.

What shocked many attendees even more was that Lawrence's seat today was right next to Pauly, which was the most eye-catching position in the audience.

Many people present regarded Lawrence as Pauly's right-hand man and put his name on the list of people not to be messed with.

"By the way, I heard that you did another big thing in the patrol team." Pauly also heard people's whispers and took the opportunity to say.

Lawrence coughed twice and said:

"It's not a big deal. I happened to get a sum of money and just sent it out to boost morale."

Paulie sat on his seat, turned his eyes and glanced sideways at Lawrence, with a mixture of appreciation and fear in his eyes, and said:

"Two thousand gold coins is not a small amount."

For this young man who has only been in Corsica for a month, Pauli can be said to love and hate him.

Fortunately, the current situation in Corsica is very critical, and Pauli has no choice but to temporarily put away his fear and attack on Lawrence, hoping that Lawrence can use his abilities on the right path.

As for how Pauli would treat him after the situation stabilized, Lawrence knew without even thinking about it. It would be endless suppression and restraint, ensuring that Lawrence would be kept in his current position without taking any further steps.

Therefore, this crisis for Corsica is an opportunity that Lawrence must seize.

Lawrence laughed twice and changed the subject carelessly. He knew that Pauli would not continue to care about his little unruly behavior at this time.

The hour hand of the clock tower of the Governor's Palace turned ten o'clock, and the low and melodious bells resounded throughout Dongcheng District.

"Quiet, quiet."

The bishop who served as speaker stood on the speaking table and waved to indicate that the meeting had begun.

The participants stopped chatting in a tacit understanding and sat upright facing the bishop. Only the West City Councilman, who had attracted much attention from Lawrence, still leaned back lazily on his chair after putting out his cigar.

"Who is this person? Should I say he is eclectic or wanton?"

Lawrence glanced at the congressman and thought strangely.

There are two thick books in front of each congressman. The black cover is the Greek version of the Bible, and the white cover is the Corsican Constitution promulgated by Pauli.

According to the procedure, each participant needs to swear an oath on the Bible and the Constitution respectively, indicating that they will reasonably use the power given to them by God and the law.

As an engineering man from a later generation, Lawrence was a staunch atheist, but he still pretended to go through the entire process. After all, in this era where the power of the church was still deeply rooted, unbelievers were considered a sin.

"Ahem, let's start today's agenda." After the leader took the oath, the bishop cleared his throat and began to preside over the council:

"Item 1. Regarding the ownership of some grasslands in the southern plains."

Although this was Lawrence's first important meeting, he couldn't help but feel sleepy after a while.

In fact, the speeches of these congressmen are all clichés, and each of them talks endlessly, which makes people wonder how their voters can endure it.

The issues discussed were all trivial in Lawrence's opinion. There was even a bill about two sons competing for their father's inheritance, which caused the farmer councilors to argue for a full hour.

Several times, Lawrence saw that his brother, a lawyer, wanted to give legal opinions, but he was completely suppressed by the shouts of a loud-voiced congresswoman.

Fortunately, there were still people who had the same ideas as Lawrence. Several Ajaccio MPs obviously did not care about these rural chores and abstained from voting on several motions.

The elderly bishop almost fell asleep standing up. It was not until the bell rang at noon that the bishop woke up. He clapped his hands and interrupted a member of the Council who was speaking at length, and announced that the meeting would be adjourned and resumed at 2 p.m. second half.

As usual, the agenda in the second half basically involves Ajaccio, and there is an extremely important proposal on withdrawing troops from the north. It seems that it will not be so boring.

Next to him, Governor Pauli sighed slightly. As the leader of Corsica, he must pay attention to even these messy and small proposals. Just listening to these nonsense attentively is quite tiring.

"well."

Lawrence sighed sadly.

"Huh? What's wrong Lawrence?" Paulie turned around and asked.

"I suddenly felt a little emotional, Mr. Governor." Lawrence shook his head, his face full of sadness, and said:

"I realized that these nine MPs present are actually the ones who influence the fate of Corsica."

Paulie frowned, not understanding what Lawrence meant, and said, "Is there any problem?"

"Of course there is no problem." Lawrence waved his hands exaggeratedly, then held his forehead and sighed, saying:

"They are all very good, but among this group of people, there are no diplomats, no economists, no soldiers, no philosophers, no scholars, and no workers. A few self-styled farmers and a few profit-seeking businessmen turned out to be determines the fate of our country.”

Paulie was silent. As experienced as he was, he now fully understood what Lawrence wanted to say, but he would not take the initiative to say it.

Lawrence also knew what Paul was thinking, so he said for him:

“Are the decisions these people are making really going to be good for Corsica?”

Paulie was silent again for a while, until all the attendees in the auditorium were almost gone, but he still didn't speak.

Lawrence didn't urge him or make any other moves, he just sat like this.

"But" Pauli finally spoke, his voice low but serious: "This is the decision of the people."

“This is not really the people calling the shots.”

Lawrence stared directly into Paulie's eyes and said word by word:

"When Corsica was occupied by the French, these businessmen packed up their money and flew away. These farmers will still own their land, but the people of Corsica will always become slaves of the French! And these people will not care about this. Take some responsibility! They enjoy the power given to them by the people, but they will not fulfill their obligations to the people!"

Paulie closed his eyes, as if he was tired, and seemed to be avoiding Lawrence's eyes. After a long time, he spoke:

"Dear Lawrence, what do you want to say?"

Lawrence clenched his fist and slammed it on the table:

"Governor, we cannot let the Corsican ship leak from the top."