Make France Great Again

"What is this! It's just a little shuffle of positions! That guy Napoleon likes these trivial little maneuvers!"

The news from the Ministry of Internal Affairs had barely left Matignon Palace before Povatier Street caught wind of it. The Duke of Broi from the extreme Orthodox Faction heavily criticized Jerome Bonaparte's antics, his gaze exuding a high-and-mighty disdain.

"You can't say it like that!" Compared to the arrogant Duke Broi, Thiers appeared exceptionally cautious. He glanced at the empty spot beside him and, in a mocking tone, retorted, "Some among us have already become restless and leaned to the other side!"

"You mean Audion Barrot?" Duke Broi immediately thought of Audion Barrot, the left-wing leader of the Royalist Faction, and indignantly mocked, "Why has a group of romantics like Victor Hugo appeared one after another in our camp! Don't they know that the ideology of Romanticism will ruin them!"

"Duke, perhaps it's not romance they care about!" Thiers nonchalantly poured himself a cup of coffee, "but something tangible!"

"What more do they want? Isn't a seat on the Standing Committee enough to satisfy their appetite?" Duke Broi seemed to be questioning Thiers.

"Perhaps!" Thiers ambiguously replied.

"I can't believe I'm among a bunch of fools! It's really shameful!" Duke Broi also poured himself a cup of coffee and downed it in one go.

"No!" Thiers shrugged, helplessly countering, "It's not that there are too many stupid people in our faction, but too many smart ones! They're so smart that they calculate every single benefit meticulously!"

"Don't they understand that even if they side with that guy Napoleon, they still might not gain any benefits?" Duke Broi widened his eyes; after decades away from the Parisian political scene, he seemed somewhat out of touch with its norms.

"Duke, they'll just follow the victor!" Thiers sipped his coffee to moisten his throat and calmly said.

"Victor? Mr. Thiers, we haven't lost yet!" Duke Broi raised his voice.

"Your Grace! To be honest, we're on the brink of defeat!" Thiers smiled, saying, "Jerome Bonaparte could launch a coup at any moment! What will we do then?"

"A coup?" The Duke of Broi furrowed his brow in self-talk, then turned his gaze to Thiers: "Mr. Thiers, you must have a strategy in place!"

"No!" Thiers spread his hands sincerely: "We don't have a contingency plan! No, I should say we used to have one, but it was utterly messed up by some clever people within our party."

The internal strife within the Order Party handed Jerome Bonaparte the opportunity to grasp power, allowing him to act without the constraints of the Order Party.

Even if Thiers were to establish a Standing Committee, so what? This so-called committee was merely a paper tiger to intimidate Jerome Bonaparte.

"So we just wait for them to come and throw us in jail?" Duke Broi's expression was somewhat dejected; having had enough of "peasant life," he wasn't ready to go back to the countryside so soon.

"That depends on you! Duke!" Thiers shifted his focus and spoke to Duke Broi.

"Us?" Duke Broi was puzzled for a few seconds, his gaze filled with confusion.

"Precisely because there are too many smart people in our faction, we need to create hope for them! A hope that we can win!" Thiers accelerated his speech: "If the monarch you are loyal to can genuinely cooperate with the monarch I am loyal to, then we can completely turn the tide."

Thiers was referring to the complete merger of the Orthodox Faction and the Orléans Faction that Audion Barrot had long pursued. As long as the two successors to the throne could set aside past grievances and stop their infighting, the internally divided Order Party would undoubtedly lose many fence-sitters. Together with the united Republican Faction and the power of Changarnier, he was confident he could completely seize power from Jerome Bonaparte.

According to the constitution of the Second Republic, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly also had the authority to deploy troops. Thiers believed that, as long as he could skillfully exercise this power, he could win.

"You must understand, the monarch I am loyal to has been residing in the Austrian Empire for many years, so inevitably, he has been influenced by some outdated ideas. It's not easy to persuade him," the Duke of Broi hesitated for a moment and then explained with a wry smile.

"I can wait, Duke, but we don't have much time left!" Thiers appeared to have thought of something and hurriedly added, "Please do not let your monarch make any more inappropriate remarks, as this will cause us great trouble!"

The so-called "inappropriate remarks" referred to last year's declaration by the Count of Chambord, which directly led to chaos within the Order Party.

The leaders of the Church Faction, Falu and Montalambre, defected.

It took Thiers significant effort to bring the Church Faction back, and he didn't want to experience such a fiasco again.

"I'll do my best!" The Duke of Broi could only express his intentions to the best of his ability.

Having not been near the monarch for many years, his influence on the Count of Chambord was far less than that of figures like Duke Richelieu; however, the current Duke Richelieu's thoughts were not as sharp as his father's.

It's as if someone had climbed out of an 18th-century grave to serve the monarch.

Surrounded by such parasites, how could the Count of Chambord conduct politics effectively?

"Mr. Thiers, what should we do now?" Duke Broi asked Thiers.

"Test!" Thiers immediately responded.

"Test?" Duke Broi said in a puzzled tone.

"That's right! We need to test Jerome Bonaparte's ability to control the military!" Thiers explained to Duke Broi.

"Then how should we test it?" Duke Broi asked curiously.

"I will request the Ministry of War to send more parliament's direct troops in the Legislative Assembly!" Thiers said to Duke Broi.

"Jerome Bonaparte is very likely to disagree!" Duke Broi said to Thiers.

"Indeed, he won't agree!" Thiers revealed a cunning smile: "However, don't we have General Shang Jia'nie, who is the commander of the Seine Province garrison!"

"Thiers, you're playing with fire!" Duke Broi looked at Thiers with a horrified expression: "A slight mistake, and all of Paris may fall into chaos!"

"Don't worry! It's just a test!" Thiers confidently assured: "If things really get out of hand, we will immediately back off! Our President probably doesn't want to see all of Paris fall into such misery either!"

"That would be best!" Duke Broi smiled again, nodding in agreement with Thiers' so-called plan.

Of course, Thiers' actions never considered how General Shang Jia'nie, caught in the middle, would be affected; in his mind, Shang Jia'nie was also a pawn that could be sacrificed.

While Thiers and others were plotting against Jerome Bonaparte, Jerome Bonaparte was also planning the internal splits within the Order Party.

Through the promotion and demotion of Fernand Barrow, Jerome Bonaparte gained favor from figures like Audion Barrot.

Although this goodwill was not enough for Audion Barrot to side with them, at least they did not insist on opposing.

The more fence-sitters within the Order Party, the easier it would be for Jerome Bonaparte to defeat these Order Party members.

However, these were merely seeds that Jerome Bonaparte had sown in advance.

The true split of the Order Party would have to wait until King Louis Philippe of Orleans had completely passed away.

The death of Louis Philippe represented the end of the enmity between the Bourbons and Orléans, a chance for the merging of the two parties, but also an opportunity for a complete split.

Jerome Bonaparte believed that the Count of Chambord would become a sharp blade in tearing apart the collaboration between the Orthodox Faction and the Orléans Faction; as long as the Count of Chambord clearly opposed it, the so-called merger was but empty words.

The Orthodox Faction and part of the Orléans Faction, repeatedly betrayed by their monarchs, would inevitably feel disheartened; as long as he extended an olive branch, he wasn't worried they wouldn't join his side.

At present, Jerome Bonaparte needed to test the overall attitude of the Order Party towards him, so he called in Alexander Valerovsky.

"Cousin, I hope you can take me to the Legislative Assembly to file a lawsuit against them for fulfilling their promise, to raise my annual salary to 900,000 francs, and also pay me 2.16 million francs for social expenses! This is what Mr. Thiers promised me back then!" Jerome Bonaparte asserted powerfully to Valerovsky.

Valerovsky's mouth twitched slightly; a President who had extorted tens of millions of francs from bankers was nitpicking over a meager "salary."

Since the President had made a request, all Valerovsky could do was fulfill it.

"Yes!" Valerovsky responded.

Jerome Bonaparte used the adjustment of his salary and benefits as a stone to gauge the number of enemies he had in the Legislative Assembly.

On June 30th, it was rare for legislator Valerovsky to take the stage for a speech in the Legislative Assembly.

Valerovsky, with a voice reminiscent of Emperor Napoleon, raised the issue of the President's salary in the Legislative Assembly.

The "Social Democracy" factions in the Legislative Assembly continued to oppose raising the President's salary and benefits as always, and the Order Party side was also in a state of stalemate.

Some Order Party members vehemently opposed, while others believed the President's proposal was justifiable, as the Elysee Palace did indeed need some funding.

Finally, under the suggestion of an Elysée Palace Faction legislator, the Assembly proposed to grant the President an annual salary of 1.2 million francs (to make up for the missing part of 1849, as well as the salary for 1850) and a social expense of 2 million francs.

Since the proposal did not amend the constitution, it did not require adherence to the two-thirds consent rule; a majority agreement sufficed, and the Legislative Assembly agreed to Valerovsky's application with a slim advantage of 10 votes.