Thiers said fiercely to his old friend, "You fool! Can't you understand that this empire is about to fall? This is a great historical change. Who knows what the future will be like?"
"Paris is already sitting on a huge *bucket. Who knows what it will explode into when the time comes. You say you broke the law? Let me ask you, if the empire collapses, which country's laws are you violating?"
"Even if you violate it, who can punish you? Do you expect the current Paris police to pay attention to you? It's too late for them to save their lives!"
"Listen, just use your authority and give me all the cash you can withdraw... You know my methods. I need cash to buy important tasks, and I also need cash to maintain an armed force for self-protection. !”
"There will definitely be a place for me in the new France of the future. Taking advantage of this chaos, I might be able to reach the top! The pinnacle of power!"
"As long as I stand at the pinnacle of power in France, who can do anything else? Henry, you have to remember that it is so rare to encounter such an opportunity in life!"
Henry was tempted. He knew the methods of his good friend. His eyes rolled around, and he suddenly became cruel. "Okay, I believe you, just wait for me..."
Henry was considered a middle-level official in the Reichsbank. He was in charge of a large credit department, and the loans he had issued through his hands amounted to hundreds of millions of francs.
Going through the loan procedures is a breeze, and the people under them are all old people who have been using it for many years. These people have no idea that their superiors are ready to run away.
Forged loan certificates were issued one after another. Henry used his own and the bank's official seals to start forging massively, and the people below him had no suspicion at all.
Throughout the hall of the French Imperial Bank, the queue for the bank run stretched hundreds of meters away. Many depositors waited for three hours but could only withdraw a few hundred francs.
The bank always used the excuse of insufficient cash and being allocated, but at the window of the credit department, withdrawal orders were opened one after another like a snowflake.
I don't know when two burly men stood on the left and right doors of Thiers' carriage, with bulging tendons and flesh all over their bodies, and murderous intent on their faces.
The two men had pistols hidden in their waists and daggers hidden in their boots. These were the imperial veterans hired by Thiers, and they were also loyal subordinates whom Thiers had raised with money over the years.
"Drive the carriage to the backyard, take the withdrawal slip and let's go withdraw the money!"
The butler gave the order, and the carriage circled the square and drove into the vault of the Imperial Bank. At this time, Henry was already waiting here. "Hurry, hurry! Before my boss finds out, hurry up and transport the gold coins away..." "
"All the documents will be collected and handed in tonight. My manager will go crazy when he sees the details of the loan... I will have to escape with you soon!"
The atmosphere became extremely tense. Under the guard of two veterans, the butler and Henry began to transport bags of pure gold francs one after another.
A full two hundred and fifty thousand franc gold coins! There are no banknotes at all. This is Henry's highest authority. If there is more than one gold coin, he will have to ask his superiors for instructions.
Thiers and the others filled a carriage, and then the family sent two more. Three carriages took away 250,000 gold coins.
Before leaving, Henry took out a handful of loan receipts from his arms and tore them into pieces in front of Thiers. "Since you said the empire will be in chaos, then the banks will probably be in chaos in the future too!"
"I will destroy the original documents now. When the new government takes over, these loans will become dead and bad debts!"
"Thiers, I'm risking my life and fortune to help you! If you don't succeed, sooner or later the new government will ask me to make up for the shortfall!"
Thiers held the hand of his old friend, "Henry, don't worry! As long as I can come to power, I will definitely make you the most famous banker in France! Don't talk about the two hundred and fifty thousand, you can even get two thousand five hundred thousand." Wan Wan won’t take it seriously!”
"To live, you have to make a big gamble! Take a car to my manor outside the city, take your family to hide...Give me a year, and I will give you a rich future!"
Henry left Paris, taking his family and all his wealth with him. When the accounts were calculated that night, the bank discovered the deficit of 250,000.
"Henry! Damn bastard! Are you crazy? How did the previous meeting go? We have stopped the loan. Don't you have ears?"
At 4:30 in the afternoon, the angry boss rushed into Henry's office angrily with today's account summary in his hand. Only then did he realize that Henry had disappeared.
Henry's subordinates all looked at each other in confusion. No one knew what happened. After understanding all this, everyone was dumbfounded. Is this the usual cautious Henry? How dare you collude with others and steal 250,000 from the bank?
"Is Henry stupid? Isn't this an open robbery? It's worse than making false accounts. Then he will become a wanted criminal!"
"Only a brainless fool would do such a stupid thing. As long as he is wanted, he will not be able to escape from France. You can dig him out even if you dig three feet into the ground!"
Everyone was talking and thinking that Henry was dead, but the senior executives of the Imperial Bank opened their eyes, "I didn't expect it! Henry actually has such courage?"
"This guy is sure that the empire is going to collapse! This is a gamble with his life! I didn't expect that he is such a talented person. I really underestimated him before..."
"Even the director of a small credit department is no longer optimistic about the empire. It seems that we have to find a way!"
The Imperial Bank quickly called the police, but after the police stormed Henry's house, they found that the building was already empty!
At this time, Paris had no time to deal with a small bank loan fraud case. The entire city was already on the verge of a revolution. These military and police officers were too late to put out the fire. Henry's matter was actually hung up like this.
Late at night, Thiers' villa in the West End of Paris was brightly lit, and more than fifty retired veterans of the empire were quietly listening to Thiers' lectures.
"Gentlemen! The Empire is on the verge of collapse. The enemy is raging in our lands, and Napoleon III keeps losing battles!"
"I'm afraid the unfortunate thing is unavoidable! Look at Paris. How many powerful families are fleeing, and countless wealthy people have chosen to leave here..."
"But I don't want to escape. I, Thiers, don't want to be a deserter! I am a member of the Imperial Parliament. I must seek peace and order for the people in the chaos!"
"But... while I want to achieve my political aspirations, I also need to protect myself... You have also seen clearly that those socialists and workers' leftists have begun to attack the army!"
"The life of every one of our politicians is at stake. God knows when the thugs will come to my house!"
"At this time, it's up to you warriors! I will fight until the last moment, and I will form a new order in the chaos of the empire's collapse!"
"In the midst of blood and fire, I must at least stay alive to fulfill my ideal of saving the country! And all of this depends on everyone!"
"Gentlemen! You are not protecting me! You are protecting the new France of the future!"
