At Field Manor, as the situation in Paris grew more and more tense, so did the atmosphere within the estate. In the garden, Maxim Sidoluev said with a grave expression, “Tom, take your siblings to London for a holiday. You’ll leave tomorrow. I’ve already arranged the ship.” His ruthlessness was reserved for outsiders; with his children, Maxim Sidoluev was still a loving father. Seeing that France was on the verge of turmoil, he had already arranged an escape route for them in advance. The young man asked with confusion, “What about you and Mother? Aren’t you coming with us?” This world was never short on smart people. Paris’s strange atmosphere already had the scent of a storm brewing. Anyone with an ounce of sense was already looking for a way out. The rich were finding ways to flee abroad, while the well-off middle class were preparing to escape to the countryside. Aside from the few who had no choice but to stay, the rest were either destitute or foolish. Without a doubt, Maxim Sidoluev was one of those who had to stay. After a moment of hesitation, Maxim Sidoluev said insincerely, “No, you go first. The bank’s affairs can’t function without me. Your mother and I will join you after I’ve dealt with everything.” It wasn’t easy being the leader. While you got the biggest slice of the pie, you also had to bear the corresponding responsibilities. This was a critical moment, and Maxim Sidoluev had to stay behind to hold the fort. Too many people were watching him. If he were to abandon his post and run now, he would probably be finished before he even left France. Neither the capitalists nor the government would allow him to leave. The financial groups could contend with the government because of their unity. If the leader ran, morale would crumble. A fragmented financial group would be nothing more than a piece of meat on a chopping block. For the government to move against the financial groups, they first had to take down the head of the flock. It wasn’t about right or wrong; it was a political necessity. Who else had a reputation as formidable as his? Only by making an example of a top leader like him could they truly strike fear into people’s hearts. Most importantly, Maxim Sidoluev himself was unwilling to flee in such a pathetic manner. Once he backed down, the enterprises he had dedicated his life to would be gone. It wasn’t that Maxim Sidoluev hadn’t thought about transferring assets or sharing risks. In fact, every financial group wanted to diversify their investments and spread the risk. However, reality was cruel. While all the major financial groups were attempting to diversify their investments, no one had truly succeeded so far. The reasons were, of course, many, but the most core reason was that the era of globalized capital had not yet arrived. Protectionism was rampant, and this wasn’t something money alone could solve. Small-scale ventures were fine, and investments were acceptable, but trying to take root in a new place was impossible. The local “snakes” could accept an influx of capital, but they wouldn’t welcome a “dragon from across the river.” They couldn’t even do it in normal times, let alone now. Without the backing of national power, the difficulty of expanding overseas would naturally increase exponentially. Tom pressed, “But why? We have so much money already, there’s no need to keep taking risks.” “Money,”... purely judging by his paper wealth, Maxim Sidoluev was on the verge of becoming the richest man in the world. Of course, this had to be calculated based on pre-war values. If France had won the war, the alliance of financial groups led by Maxim Sidoluev would have been the greatest winners. Using the war, they had successfully gained controlling stakes in nearly one-third of France’s factories, half of its mines, and an incalculable amount of land and real estate. It’s no exaggeration to say that all of France was working for them. With the financial groups reaping such a massive harvest, Maxim Sidoluev, as the leader, naturally got the fattest piece of the meat. His personal net worth had directly exceeded 100 billion francs, something he never could have dreamed of. However, all this money existed only in theory. The assets were assets, but there was no way to liquidate them, because all of France couldn’t find a single buyer to take it off their hands. With the Anti-French Coalition on the verge of invading, the more assets one held, the more risk they held. Including Maxim Sidoluev, French capitalists had been frantically selling off their assets for some time now. Even residential properties in Paris, once highly sought-after, couldn’t find a buyer at a tenth of the price. The public had no money left in their hands. The over-concentration of wealth had exacerbated social contradictions, and at the same time, it had made Maxim Sidoluev’s tens of billions of francs virtually worthless. There was no way around it. The things he could buy with francs, he didn’t need and the things he wanted, francs couldn’t buy. A closer look at the bank branches in Paris would reveal an interesting fact: foreign currency and gold could be exchanged for francs, but francs could not be exchanged for foreign currency. Before the war, one pound could be exchanged for 25 francs. Now, one pound could exchange for 100 francs, and that exchange rate was still negotiable. If Maxim Sidoluev had the choice, he would gladly trade his hundreds of billions of francs in assets for one hundred million pounds in cash. If even that was impossible, he would accept ten or twenty million pounds. Unfortunately, there was no such fool to come and take it off his hands. There seemed to be a lot of quality assets, but in reality, how much of it would be retained after the war was unknown. For example: the mines and lands in Belgium and the Rhineland, or the factories and real estate in the Italian territories. They seemed to belong to Maxim Sidoluev, but in the future, they would certainly have nothing to do with him. These losses alone would be enough to shrink Maxim Sidoluev’s assets by half. The remaining half was equally unsafe. War was truly the biggest asset killer. There was no doubt that Maxim Sidoluev was not happy to be holding so many assets. He was a banker, not an industrialist. He naturally had no interest in factories and mines with low returns. Aside from a small number of assets that were actively bought, the vast majority of his properties were collateral seized due to defaulted bank loans. Even the mines in Belgium and the Rhineland were mortgaged to them by the French government. No matter how unreliable these assets were, they were at least more useful than francs, which were depreciating every day. Since they couldn’t be converted into foreign currency or gold, he could only continue to hold them. “Alright, Tom. Time is running out. You should go say goodbye to your mother now. As for other things, you will understand them in time. If something happens to me, you must take on the responsibility of being the man of the house, take care of your siblings, and raise them to adulthood. Here is a list of our assets abroad. They are all in your hands now. It’s mostly stocks and real estate. There’s not a lot of cash, so you must use them wisely. There was nothing I could do. Those idiots lost too quickly, messing up all my plans. This is all I could prepare for you now. As for the financial group’s overseas assets, you should pretend you know nothing about them. I just want you all to be safe. That is not something you can hold on to.” Looking at his naive son, Maxim Sidoluev deeply regretted his own wild youth, which resulted in his eldest son being only fifteen years old. At such a young age, it was simply unrealistic to expect him to scheme with a bunch of old foxes. As for everyone else, unfortunately, having seen his share of plundering, seizing, and magpies taking over a cuckoo’s nest, Maxim Sidoluev now trusted no one. … While the capitalists were looking for an escape route, the nobles were not idle either. Although Europe had a tradition of not killing nobles, revolutions were the exception. Based on past experience, every major revolution in Paris saw heads roll. Whether they were nobles or not, they only had one life. If France had only one royal family, not three, the nobility would have stood with the emperor for their own benefit, and Napoleon IV’s chances of winning would have been very high. Unfortunately, modern France not only had three royal families, but the Bonaparte dynasty’s prestige among the nobility was the lowest of the three. Without this European War, Napoleon IV could have secured his throne, and by the next generation, the Bonaparte dynasty could have shed its parvenu label and been truly accepted by the noble class. Alas, there were no “what ifs” in reality. In the eyes of the ancient nobility, the Bonaparte dynasty was the source of disaster that would bring endless trouble to France, so they would never support them. The more bizarre the atmosphere in Paris became, the more active the nobles supporting the Bourbon and Orléans families became. Many were preparing to emulate Napoleon III and use the revolution to seize power. At the Palace of Versailles, looking at the intelligence pouring in, Napoleon IV gritted his teeth in fury, but was utterly powerless to act. The risk of going to war with the financial groups was already enormous. If he were to act against the nobles as well, the Palace of Versailles would truly be getting a new master. In this world of nobles, emperors also had to play by the rules. As long as they didn’t openly rebel, the emperor had no reason to move against them. Putting down the documents, Napoleon IV said viciously, “Take action immediately. Don’t let those bastards run off with France’s wealth. If anyone resists, kill them on the spot!” Getting caught was inevitable. Not everyone was as cautious as Maxim Sidoluev, who not only kept himself in the spotlight to draw attention but also arranged his children’s escape with minimal fanfare. Some of those brazen fools, while trying to flee, didn’t forget to raid bank vaults, attempting to escape with gold and silver. It was frankly ridiculous to even think about. Escaping with a few tons of gold might be possible, but those trying to flee with hundreds of tons of silver were just asking for a death sentence. Even if the emperor didn’t find them, such an enormous fortune would attract the greed of customs officials. They would either be swallowed up in France or blacked out in Britain. And then, naturally, there was no further development. If such a huge commotion couldn’t be detected, Napoleon IV would have been ousted from power long ago. This very scene was playing out at a dock in Paris. A line of luxury carriages was intercepted by customs officials before boarding a ship. A middle-aged merchant roared aggressively at the officials, “Why won’t you let us board? I have legal documents! Who gave you the right to detain my goods? Bring your director here immediately! I’m going to file a complaint! Did you hear me? If you’re slow, I’ll rip your skin off you!” In recent years, capitalists had been on a sharp rise in France, and the social status of the wealthy had been elevated immeasurably. Shouting at staff was child’s play with the most influential among them even dared to slap people directly. After all, they had money and weren’t afraid of lawsuits. Even if they lost a case, a civil dispute would only result in a fine. Most of the time, the compensation wasn’t enough to cover the legal fees. Against this backdrop, let alone ordinary people, even most government officials had lost their deterrent power in the face of money. A young official explained apologetically, “My sincere apologies, sir. According to the latest decree issued by the government, in order to combat the outflow of gold and silver, all gold and silver are prohibited from leaving the port, effective immediately. Your documents were approved previously and have now lost their legal validity. If you have any questions, you can file a complaint with the relevant authorities. However, I advise you not to waste your time. The official who signed your documents has now been suspended and is under investigation. It won’t be long before someone comes to question you.” Just as the middle-aged man was about to explode in rage, a troop of soldiers appeared on the dock. Under the command of an officer, the soldiers immediately took over the caravan. The moment the merchant stepped forward to protest, he was pinned to the ground by two soldiers, given no chance to defend himself.
*** https://postimg.cc/gallery/PwXsBkC (Maps of the current territories of the countries in this novel made by ScH) Support the translation and read more chapters at https://ko-fi.com/dragonlegion
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