"Force is only a means to resort to when negotiations have reached a deadlock!"

"It’s great that you have this understanding!" Prince Monfort smiled reassuringly.

Next, Prince Monfort turned the topic back to the Paris uprising.

"By the way, what happened after the police ’escorted’ the parade to Bastille Square?" Prince Monfort continued to ask Jerome Bonaparte.

Jerome Bonaparte was silent for a moment, then reorganized his language and said to Prince Monfort, "After the police followed the parade to Bastille Square, most of the police continued to monitor silently, while a small number of police broke away to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to report everything that happened at Bastille Square to the Minister of Public Security, Mopa!

After Mopa received the news, he reported it non-stop to Percy!

By the time Percy arrived at the Tuileries Palace, Marcel Yale (Director of the National Intelligence Bureau) had already reported the news to me!"

"Since you already knew there was a parade at Bastille Square, why didn’t you send someone to suppress it?" Prince Monfort looked at Jerome Bonaparte in confusion.

Jerome Bonaparte shrugged and spread his hands, answering Prince Monfort, "I said if it was suppressed from the beginning, the situation wouldn’t have escalated to this point!

However, since it has reached this stage, let them develop further!"

"What is your purpose in doing this?" Prince Monfort blurted out.

He then suddenly thought of something and corrected himself, "You want to uncover more hidden allies?"

"That’s right!" Jerome Bonaparte nodded, a cold smile on his lips, "The parade this time surely has more than just Blanquists behind it, but only these fools would choose to provoke the Empire at this time!

The workers and Blanquists are just a bunch of pathetic puppets, controlled by rats hidden in the sewers!

If we can’t catch these rats, even if we eliminate the parade completely, it would be to no avail!

As long as the Empire’s economy does not improve, such parades will always exist!

Therefore, I must lead the snakes out of their holes!"

"So, did you catch them?" Prince Monfort asked curiously.

Jerome Bonaparte was not in a hurry to answer Prince Monfort’s question and slowly recounted the whole process to Prince Monfort.

"I first dismissed the Minister of Public Security, Pierrette, on the grounds of letting the parade develop, replacing him with the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Fleury." Saying this, Jerome Bonaparte smiled and vented to Prince Monfort, "Father, you don’t know, when Fleury arrived at the Tuileries Palace, how exaggerated his expression and actions were.

If Percy wasn’t present, I would suspect Fleury would bow down the next second and kiss my boots!"

Prince Monfort involuntarily imagined the big, broad-shouldered Fleury with tears and snot flowing, a smile also appearing on the corner of his mouth, "Fleury can be reused by you, naturally he is grateful!

However, merely replacing Pierrette with Fleury may not effectively control the huge police force!

The Ministry of Internal Affairs is the true authority governing Paris’s security!"

"Of course I know that, after Fleury left the Tuileries Palace, I had a ’friendly’ discussion with Percy, eventually Percy ’gladly’ accepted the appointment to the Senate as an Elder!" Jerome Bonaparte said calmly to Prince Monfort.

Prince Monfort understood that the confrontation between the Emperor and Percy could not be simply summarized in two sentences.

Compared to the outwardly dignified, but actually powerless role of Elder, the power of the Minister of Internal Affairs could rank in the top five throughout France.

Percy surely wouldn’t leave so willingly!

"Next, I summoned General Espinal and appointed him as Minister of Internal Affairs!

General Espinal is a loyal and reliable general, as soon as he took the position of Minister of Internal Affairs, he immediately assured me that he would suppress the Paris unrest as quickly as possible!

I told him there’s no need to rush, the urgent task is to train a batch of anti-terrorist troops willing to suppress the parade!

Then, I revealed the whole plan of leading the snakes out of their holes!

General Espinal expressed agreement with this plan as soon as he heard it and hoped that I would allow him to independently recruit members to suppress the parade!

I naturally agreed to General Espinal’s request!

After General Espinal left, I summoned Marcel Yale again, ordering him to secretly convey through our insiders among the rebels the message that I would soon be going to Fontainebleau Palace!

The next day, I took a train to Fontainebleau Palace, while some members of the Secretariat and General Staff accompanied me, besides formulating the suppression plan, they also maintained contact between Fontainebleau and the Guard Army to prevent the lead-the-snakes-out plan from getting screwed up.

In the following days, the Imperial Government continued to maintain a silent attitude, and with tacit approval from the Empire, and even its instigation, the parade gradually grew larger!

Some restless political groups also started to jump out from the shadows, promoting ’Republican ideas’ among the people.

By the way, there were quite a few members from the Orthodox Faction!" Jerome Bonaparte’s lips curved into a mocking expression, knowing that these members of the Orthodox Faction wanted to use the name ’Republic’ to unite all forces to overthrow the Empire, and then learn from his earlier coup against the parliament.

However, the tactics of this Orthodox Faction were outdated!

"Are you just going to let them go?" Prince Monfort said.

"Of course not!" Jerome Bonaparte shook his head, a smile with an evil interest at the corner of his mouth, "Since these people want to use the name of the Republican Faction to overthrow the Empire, I can also use the name of the ’Republic’ to stabilize the Empire!

Parisians love rebellion, but they equally crave stability!

Therefore, I dispatched Marcel Yale to Paris to fervently promote Blanquist ideology, claiming to establish a completely equal Republic in Paris!

This ideology immediately gained approval from the parade workers, but faced opposition from the lawyers and journalists in the parade!

Soon, the originally united parade quickly fragmented!

To increase fear and disgust for the revolution among Paris citizens, I specially ordered Marcel Yale to dispatch a loyal squad to randomly strike at various locations throughout Paris, under the guise of revolution during the quiet hours at night!

Yale’s efficiency was indeed astounding, as within a few days, dozens of shops in Paris were continuously burned down.

The entire Paris, under the random crimes by the squad, was filled with panic, Parisian people once again recalled the battle eleven years ago!

Out of their desire for order, various areas jointly petitioned the City Government to maintain Paris’s security!

The City Hall, upon receiving the petition, conveyed the plea to Fontainebleau Palace, as the King of France, how could I be indifferent to Parisian people’s cries!

So, I ordered Espinal to submit the already well-drafted ’New Security Law’ to the Legislative Corps!

As expected, the Legislative Corps passed the proposal!

Thus, the members of Marcel Yale’s squad were captured by the ’new’ police force led by General Espinal, and the next day, under the witness of the Parisian people, all wearing black hoods were executed.

(The captured members were swapped with death row prisoners upon entering prison, hence those executed were death row convicts) 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The parade teams and their behind-the-scenes leaders were also all imprisoned under the severe crackdown of the ’New Security Law’!"

[1] The ’New Security Law’ mainly strengthens restrictions on parades and expands police powers during emergencies, including exerting violence on unruly parade teams.