Chapter 83 Public Opinion Boomerang

Joseph said excitedly:

"I have read many of your articles, and I always thought it was strange why, as a freedom fighter, you never launched an attack on the dirtiest, most corrupt, and darkest places in Paris. It wasn't until I read your article that I realized I wrongly blamed you."

Mara blinked doubtfully:

"What is the most decadent and dark place you are talking about?"

Joseph clenched his fists and said:

"Of course it's the High Court! It's full of money and power transactions, and unjust cases are being made all the time. The judges regard the suffering of the victims as a means of getting rich. That's where all the suffering of the Paris people comes from!"

He did not slander the High Court at all. There are a lot of records in later generations that the High Court at this time was the most corrupt place in France, bar none!

Because judges have gradually become hereditary, and judges have become more and more powerful, winning or losing in lawsuits has completely become a competition of bribing judges.

So much so that when many people at the bottom encounter problems, they would rather go to gangs for help instead of going to court.

It was not until Emperor Nai came to power and severely rectified the judiciary that the courts began to become cleaner.

Mara frowned. He was very well-informed and naturally knew about the dirty deeds in the High Court.

Compared with the High Court, the bureaucrats in other departments are as pure as underage girls.

Joseph continued:

"Your article was so well written. It denounced the High Court's shameless obstruction of the tax bill and exposed the dirty deal between them and the nobles!"

Mara couldn't help but feel a little ashamed after hearing this. His article only mentioned that the bill would be beneficial to the national finance. The court did not have sufficient reasons to reject it. There should be hidden reasons for rejecting the registration three times in a row.

But it is far from the level of "rebuke" that Mr. "Xavier" said.

Joseph seemed to be speaking on his own:

"Since the High Court has the power to review publications, no newspaper has ever dared to expose their ugliness, but I decided to declare war on them!

"Even if my newspaper is shut down, even if I am in jail, I will never regret it! At least the respected Mr. Marat fought side by side with me!"

Listening to his impassioned declaration, Mara suddenly felt like a coward.

Because I knew subconsciously that writing about the High Court would be difficult to pass the publication review, so I unconsciously avoided this aspect. How much ugliness and injustice had been buried under lies because of this cowardice.

Young Mr. Xavier is the real fighter!

Joseph looked at Marat's expression and thought that success or failure depended on this. He took a deep breath and said:

"Mr. Marat, I know that all this is very dangerous. Even if you choose to retreat, I can definitely understand. But I will continue to fight to the end for the French people!"

Mara felt a surge of hot blood rushing to the top of her head, stood up suddenly, clenched her fists hard, and said seriously:

"I will fight with you to expose the crimes of the High Court! Return judicial justice and dignity to the people!"

...

In the western suburbs of Paris, the police intelligence office is stationed.

Accompanied by Fouche and other senior officials of the Police Intelligence Department, Joseph quickly passed by the room with signs such as "Intelligence Team", "Operation Team", "Resource Team" and other signs, and walked into the supervisor's office at the end of the corridor.

The Police Intelligence Division is developing rapidly. Fouche had just given him a brief report. Now there are more than 400 "police officers" in the entire Police Information Division. Informants are spread all over Paris.

Important departments such as city hall, courts, and embassies have established entire intelligence networks to collect and summarize intelligence on time every day.

Now, when it comes to the ability to obtain intelligence, the secret police, which has seven or eight times more people, can't even claim to be better than the Police Intelligence Unit.

Joseph sat down at the desk, first praised Fouche and others for their outstanding work, and then began to assign tasks:

"The Police Intelligence Division must investigate clearly the corruption and crimes of the High Court justices and important officials within one month!"

In fact, he could just send someone to tell Fouche about these matters, but it was related to his political future, so he decided to come to the Police Intelligence Office in person to show that he took it seriously.

"There are also the Duke of Seville and the Count of Serulier..." He looked at the note in his hand and read out a dozen names in succession, all of which were mentioned by Soumial at the cabinet meeting and supported the removal of Brian. Great nobleman.

"These people must also be investigated carefully. Whether they are raping women, evading taxes, or even injuring servants, we will investigate everything we can!"

"Yes, Your Highness!"

Joseph named another block and house number, and said to Fouche:

"This is Mara's address."

Fouche said doubtfully:

"That Jean-Paul Marat? A stubborn anti-royalist."

Joseph nodded:

"Currently, he is considered one of our own. You can ask your subordinates to take the initiative to be his informants and hand over to him the black materials found in the High Court."

He had just successfully guided Marat, the "piranha", to swim towards the High Court. Only when the prey has some wounds will the "piranha" bite more violently.

...

Parlement de Paris.

In the justice lounge on the second floor, Justice Vezinier threw a wad of newspapers at the face of the official in front of him and said angrily:

"What on earth are you doing? You let this kind of thing pass press censorship!"

The official carefully picked up the newspaper and unfolded it. He saw that it was a copy of "Paris Business Journal", and the front page headline was "The Harm of Hereditary Judges of the High Court".

He frowned and looked at the "News and Pictures" at the back. The front page was "Discussion on the Scope of Power of the High Court."

He hurriedly defended:

"Count Vezinier, there is nothing wrong with these articles. I read them carefully yesterday. Although there are some suggestive or misleading contents..."

The judge with a hooked nose next to Vezinier frowned and said:

 "you sure?"

The official in charge of news censorship muttered:

"Maybe I can ask them to change the title."

Vezinier said with a sullen face:

"Your review standards can be stricter!"

The official immediately lowered his head and responded:

"Yes, sir, I will definitely not let similar articles appear again."

Vezinier turned to the judge beside him:

"Let Rene take people to this newspaper office and find any reason to shut him down."

"You are right, I will give him instructions right now."

Two hours later, more than 30 publishing policemen armed with sticks and shields surrounded the front and back doors of the Paris Commercial newspaper.

Although the publishing police are called "police", they are not under the management of the police station. They are like bailiffs and are dispatched by the court.

René, the leader of the publishing police, led a few people, strode into the newspaper office, pulled over a worker, and asked sternly:

"Who is in charge here?"

The worker pointed gingerly to Denico's office. Rene pushed him away, rushed straight into the office, pointed at Denico and shouted:

"Are you the person in charge here? Let everyone gather in the open space over there immediately. I want to conduct a comprehensive inspection!"

However, before Denico could answer, René heard a whistle coming from outside the newspaper office.

Rene turned around and saw more than a dozen policemen in blue uniforms running in in formation with whistles blowing.

He went up to him in confusion and raised his hat in salute to the leading policeman:

"Excuse me, are you trying to arrest criminals?"

The policeman glanced at him and said coldly:

"What are you doing?"

René took out the court documents:

"There may be contraband in this newspaper office. I have been ordered to come and search!"

The leading policeman turned a blind eye and said:

"Have your people leave the newspaper office immediately."

René blinked and held up the court documents again:

"I am executing the order, please..."

The leading policeman waved his hand, and the policemen behind him immediately lined up in two lines. The front row pointed at the publishing police with anti-explosion crotches. The people in the back row opened the bolts of their muskets.

René looked at the black muzzle of the gun, shrank his neck in fear, and still shouted inwardly:

"What do you want to do?!"

The leading policeman smiled:

"My mission is to prevent any outsiders from affecting the operation of the newspaper. Please get out immediately!"

Rene still wanted to struggle, but saw another group of police officers arriving and surrounding the publishing police at the door.

The publishing police under him usually do things like search for banned books and seal newspapers. They don't dare to be aggressive with the security police. They all stick together very obediently.

Rene nodded hurriedly:

"Okay, okay, let's just leave."

Immediately, he led dozens of subordinates and retreated from the newspaper office in despair.

Joseph expected that the High Court would use despicable means to deal with the newspaper, so he had already said hello to Besançon.

The latter built a security booth directly opposite the newspaper office, and doubled the number of patrol police in nearby blocks, asking them to ensure the normal operation of the newspaper office.

After René went back to report the situation and was scolded by his immediate boss, he had no choice but to bring more publishing police to the newspaper office. However, he found that there were already police outside the newspaper office with guns drawn, and they could not even get close to the door.

The next day, several articles in "Paris Business" and "News and Pictures" failed to pass the review, so they had to temporarily fill the empty pages with some innocuous articles.

In the afternoon of that day, a large number of pamphlets published articles that failed to pass censorship, accompanied by a commentary article titled "The High Court tramples on the freedom of the press."

The title on the front page of another brochure is "Shock!" Publication Police violently broke in! The purpose is..."

The main contents of the two pamphlets were wonderful and refreshing articles, and the price was very cheap. Tens of thousands of copies were quickly sold and spread throughout the streets of Paris.

Two days later, after the content in the pamphlet had fermented, journalists and people in the publishing industry appeared in front of the High Court to protest, demanding that freedom of the press not be interfered with. The article of "Paris Business" did not contain prohibited content and should pass the censorship.

Another reporter began to give speeches on the streets, criticizing the High Court for using violence and threatening a newspaper that had no problems.

The people of Paris have long been extremely dissatisfied with the corrupt High Court. Many people gathered around the speaker, enthusiastically agreed and discussed, and cheered loudly from time to time.

Although according to regulations, Paris prohibits unapproved speeches, the Paris police were ordered to turn a blind eye and not interfere with any speech involving the High Court.