Chapter 493: Avoiding Napoleon's Mistakes
The dozen or so people in the room were instantly overjoyed, never expecting such an unexpected harvest today.
20,000 Pound Sterling was equivalent to 500,000 Francs. Such a generous sum, no matter how it was distributed, would leave each of them with a substantial amount.
The crowd immediately surrounded Chalmers with fervent enthusiasm, launching into a flurry of effusive praise:
"You are truly an emissary of freedom and justice!"
"Your generosity has brought hope to all Corsican people!"
"On behalf of the Corsican people, I express our deepest gratitude. May God bless you..."
Chalmers smiled and exchanged pleasantries with them for a moment, then suddenly put on a stern expression and declared:
"However, regarding the use of this money, I have one condition. Those who receive funding must sever all ties with that fellow Paoli!"
Hearing this, everyone nodded in understanding. After all, Paoli had embezzled 25,000 Pound Sterling from them; no one would fail to be enraged by that. Moreover, these people had just confirmed Paoli's betrayal of the organization and were already preparing to unseat him.
Chalmers nodded with satisfaction. "Excellent, Mr. Girolamo. I've decided to allocate 1,500 Pound Sterling to help your campaign for Corsican councilor!"
The Intelligence Bureau agent and his inside man worked in concert, immediately igniting the passions of those present—1,500 Pound Sterling amounted to 37,000 Francs. With such a massive election fund, their electoral opponents stood no chance of winning. In fact, running a provincial councilor election wouldn't even exhaust half that amount.
Battorio immediately followed suit, declaring his intention to distance himself from Paoli, then Elioc, Cesari...
Before long, over a dozen high-ranking members of the Restoration Organization had received grants ranging from 30,000 to 40,000 Francs. Each of them was overjoyed and content, showering Chalmers with more praise.
However, they all overlooked a critical detail: 20,000 Pound Sterling was enough to fund many more councilors, yet Chalmers had only distributed the money among these thirteen individuals. As a result, their funds were excessively generous.
In reality, this was Joseph's strategy for dismantling the Corsican Restoration Party—divide and conquer, then lead them astray from their political objectives.
With financial support, these thirteen individuals in the room would soon become the "dominant faction" within the organization, gradually creating rifts with others.
Chalmers, in turn, could leverage his influence over them to encourage them to break away and form a separate organization.
The two restoration organizations would quickly fall into fierce competition over political resources, and then who would remember their original goal? They would simply be vying for power for power's sake.
Ultimately, these councilors had only been involved in electoral politics for at most twenty years. For Joseph, who had witnessed later Western elections, simply replicating a few underhanded tactics of partisan struggle would be enough to dismantle them, especially without Paoli as their spiritual leader.
It was important to remember that the Corsican Restoration Organization possessed its own armed forces—the National Guard—and also harbored numerous assassins. French government officials dispatched to Corsica were frequently assassinated, and various riotous incidents never ceased. The most recent one occurred late last year, when nearly a thousand armed rebels fought fiercely with the army for over a month before it was barely quelled.
Deploying the army, as had been done during Louis XV's reign, would not only be incredibly costly but also ineffective—aside from forcing Paoli into exile, there had been no significant gains.
Historically, even Napoleon had suffered defeats in Corsica.
It wasn't until Napoleon's coronation as Emperor that he dispatched large armies to violently purge Corsica, finally resolving the problem of the restoration faction. However, this action led to the Corsicans hating him to the bone; after his exile, they threw his statue into the sea and razed his ancestral home.
Joseph, however, did not wish to deploy too many troops in Corsica. Even if he disregarded the enormous military expenditures and the destruction inflicted upon the island, the military purges would only deepen the Corsicans' resentment towards the monarchy, making it a counterproductive endeavor.
A populace alienated from its government could not be expected to seriously engage in production or construction.
Therefore, Joseph opted for a strategy of internal dissolution.
By first eliminating the cancerous growth that was Paoli's Restoration Organization, there would no longer be anyone to organize and incite the Corsican populace against the government.
Then, by supplementing this with appropriate policies to improve the Corsican people's livelihoods, who would have the leisure to incite rebellion? Wouldn't it be far more appealing to live as a proud Frenchman, envied and resented by Russians and Italians?
Without public support, the Corsican National Guard would naturally be unsustainable. Even if a small number of stubborn holdouts needed to be suppressed, it would be far easier than the historical scenario.
Currently, after several months of operations by the Intelligence Bureau, the Corsican strategy was showing initial results, awaiting the final sweep.
...
London.
Paoli's villa had been completely renovated, showing no trace of having been burnt.
Outside the villa gate, Mr. Paoli spent a tender moment with Miss Isabella in her carriage, bidding her a reluctant farewell with a wave. The moment he turned around, he heard someone urgently calling in Italian:
"Uncle, you're finally back! I've been waiting for you here for hours."
Paoli looked towards the voice and saw his nephew, Cesari-Colonna Paoli, the second-in-command of the Corsican National Guard, standing at the door.
"Cesari, what brings you here?" He immediately broke into a joyful smile and stepped forward to embrace his nephew tightly.
Cesari quickly patted his back, then immediately pulled away, his expression solemn. "Uncle, things are not looking good."
"Oh? What happened?" Paoli sensed something was amiss and quickly led him inside, heading straight for the study on the second floor.
Cesari locked the door securely, then spoke urgently:
"At last week's regular assembly, Battorio and Cesari, among others, accused you of embezzling vast sums of aid and colluding with the French to betray the Restoration Organization. They demanded your leadership be revoked and that you be expelled from the organization!"
Paoli's expression changed upon hearing this, but he quickly managed a smile.
'No one will believe such baseless accusations.'
"No, Uncle, they presented evidence." Cesari recounted Paoli's property acquisitions in America and the leaked timing of the uprising, among other things.
"This is slander!" Paoli roared, instantly furious. "That money was all burned, and I've never had contact with the French!"
"I absolutely believe you," Cesari quickly assured him. "However, public opinion within the organization has turned against you. In last week's vote concerning you, nineteen people voted to expel you, another twelve agreed to suspend your leadership of the organization, and five abstained."
"Those damn bastards!" Paoli's temples throbbed with fury. Roughly sixty people in the Restoration Organization had voting rights for major decisions, and excluding those not in Corsica, nearly fifty should have been present at the meeting. Of those, thirty-one had voted against him.
The two-thirds threshold for passage was only two votes away!
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