The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1105: Chapter 99: Splitting the Public Funds Privately (Part 3)

Schneider spoke slyly on the side: “Not only that, isn’t it a coincidence that shortly after, we discovered someone transferred a large sum to the Italians’ account? I’m sure you’ve heard of that person’s name.”

“Who is it?”

“Louis-Adolphe Thiers, the Home Secretary of France, you must have drunk with him at banquets.”

“This…”

As Schneider said, Feng Kromeier indeed drank with Thiers and they were quite familiar.

Before Thiers rose to prominence, he already knew this little man from the provinces.

At that time, Feng Kromeier was troubled by financial issues, just like today, and he even once sought advice from Thiers on how to handle wealthy women.

However, Feng Kromeier later realized he couldn’t reach Thiers’ level, so he had no choice but to give up the straightforward path of gaining wealth through women.

For someone like him, who came from nobility and thought highly of himself, taking a lover for a walk in the woods and accompanying her to the theater were fine. But he couldn’t endure spending a lot of time every day reading cheesy knight novels and writing love letters.

Not to mention, he witnessed Thiers getting scolded for trivial matters, looking as miserable as a drowned rat.

When the noblewoman was happy, Thiers was energetic too. But when she was gloomy, Thiers had to be equally down. If she had a headache, he had to endure her tantrums. If she wanted someone to talk to, he had to patiently listen and couldn’t ignore words that seemed trivial, to prevent her from suddenly posing questions.

This guy spent all his time, every minute and second, along with his precious youth, filling the emptiness and boredom of his current lover. Maybe an entire afternoon of Thiers’ time had to be spent beside her, holding meetings more solemn than high-level diplomatic conferences, to discuss which necklace matched her evening gown best.

In Feng Kromeier’s view, this was utterly ridiculous. If he had to do such things, he’d rather end up in debtors’ prison.

The ancestors of the Kromeier family worked so hard, fighting life and death for the Bohemian King, charging for the Holy Roman Empire, not for him to waste his time on such matters.

Whenever Feng Kromeier thought of that little man, besides complaining about him being unscrupulous behind the scenes, more often than not, he felt a sense of admiration: “Adolphe has indeed survived through it all! But given his temperament, it’s likely his ‘new lover’ made him do this.”

“New lover?” Schneider replied: “You mean Louis Philippe?”

“Of course.” Feng Kromeier blinked: “He submits to whoever can help him advance further, and when he climbs high enough, he kicks his former lover away. Talleyrand admired this guy for a reason, because their methods of climbing are quite similar. However, his starting point was too low, so his climbing process was much longer than Talleyrand’s. Therefore, his suppressed period was longer than Talleyrand’s, making him inevitably more despicable.”

At this point, he changed the topic: “Now I believe your intelligence. Regardless of its authenticity, at least it’s more reliable than those informant reports, and certainly worth the attention of the big players in Vienna. But I still don’t understand what Young Italy has to do with your unprofitable business.”

Arthur took a deep breath, holding Feng Kromeier’s hand: “Your Excellency, the relation is significant. If you report the intelligence to Vienna, we can firmly claim that this bank was founded by Young Italy. Since it was founded by Young Italy, it’s normal for its shareholders to abscond with funds after their uprising fails, right?

In doing so, we can brazenly swallow all the funds transferred to Young Italy, and as long as Vienna raises this issue, the French government, worried about their support for Young Italy being exposed, won’t seriously audit this bank’s accounts and equity structure.

This way, Young Italy doesn’t receive the funds meant for their uprising, their strength is consequently diminished, and Austria benefits. As for me, August, we can recover our initial investment. As for you, given your significant contribution, I think you deserve a share of the profits too.”