Facing the questioning eyes of everyone, the soldier-born Cafenak was not intimidated.
"After the coup, power will be concentrated in Jerome Bonaparte’s Elysee Palace, and I have deeply experienced this!" Cafenak said confidently, "They wouldn’t want to concentrate power in that Italian boy’s hands!"
"General Cafenak, do you mean that their military maneuver at this time is not intended for a coup?" Lamartine, feeling relieved inside, asked again.
Lamartine, who also served as a governor of the Republic, compared to Cafenak, was like a rookie entering the political arena.
"The purpose of their military parade is to demonstrate to us!" Bastide, who also served as Foreign Minister, sharply pointed out the root of the problem: "The purpose of publicly reporting the military parade is also to disrupt our army!"
"Then how should we respond?" Lamartine continued to ask Cafenak.
Bastide and Cafenak looked at each other, Bastide spread his hands helplessly and said, "There is no way!"
Cafenak also added, "Changarnier and Audion Barrot obviously have the support of their party and the president, we cannot defeat them procedurally!"
"So are we just going to sit here and do nothing?" Lamartine shouted in despair.
"Mr. Lamartine, no matter how much you shout, it won’t help!" said Cafenak, who had lost power, with a tone of bitter disappointment, "We have lost everything! The army, the police, the National Guard, now we can only pray that they will be a bit merciful when taking action!"
If it weren’t for these guys opposing fiercely, I would have already cooperated with the Order Party to become the first president of France.
With control over the army and the police, he was fully capable of clearing out the Order Party and giving the National Assembly a clean cabinet.
Unlike now, where remnants of the monarchy brazenly sit in the cabinet seats, while these revolutionaries have been kicked out.
"Right! The president, we can influence the president! As long as the president disagrees, then everything can still be saved!" A voice came from behind Lamartine, and everyone noticed the guy behind Lamartine, he was Charles Hugo, son of Victor Hugo.
"My father once supported the president, he should be able to persuade the president to abandon the military parade!" Charles Hugo said excitedly, "I believe the president will not want to see the Order Party dominate alone, this does not fit his choice for balance!"
Everyone pondered Charles Hugo’s answer, from the perspective of maintaining balance, the National Assembly with no trace Jerome Bonaparte indeed cannot wipe out the Republican Faction completely.
[PS: The Republican Faction still sees Jerome Bonaparte as a transient passerby due to step down.]
"Will this cause trouble for Mr. Hugo?" Lamartine hesitated, as a friend of Hugo’s, Lamartine really did not want to see his old friend in a difficult position; the Order Party and the Republican Faction belong to two different camps!
"No, it won’t!" Charles Hugo immediately replied, "Although my father is in the Order Party, his heart has always been with you! My father will certainly be willing to help!"
With Charles Hugo’s assurance, Lamartine and others placed their hopes on Victor Hugo.
Lamartine personally went to Vosges Square to visit Hugo, and after a brief discussion, Victor Hugo decided to help the Republican Faction "weather the storm."
Victor Hugo took a public carriage to the Elysee Palace.
At this time, Jerome Bonaparte was sitting in a square hall at the Elysee Palace, with empire-style wall panels and white wood decorations. Paintings and sculptures hung on the walls, and although the works were not by famous people, they still had a unique charm.
President Jerome Bonaparte sat on a red velvet-upholstered armchair, with a beautiful and charming young woman sitting just to his left; she was the Marchioness Aile.
Mornay and another reserved middle-aged man sat directly across from Jerome Bonaparte.
"Mr. President, it’s presumptuous to disturb you at this time!" The middle-aged man, with his hands clasped tightly on his lap, said nervously.
"Alfred Picard, right?" Jerome Bonaparte showed a kind smile and said in a gentle tone, "It doesn’t matter! I am always willing to talk with front-line workers like you!"
The man in front of him was one of the members of the Railway Commission that Mornay was preparing to set up, and was also a national engineer of the bridge and road corps.
He and Mornay had come today to report to Jerome Bonaparte on the tasks assigned to the Railway Commission.
"Mr. President, all the materials are here!" Alfred Pierka handed a stack of sorted documents to Jerome Bonaparte.
Jerome Bonaparte, taking the materials, did not look through the thick documents, but directly asked Pierka, "Mr. Pierka, I would like to ask whether France has the ability to complete the planned projects at this stage!"
Pierka stuttered, "If... I’m saying if we don’t consider funding issues..."
"No need to consider funding issues, I only need to ask if there are any technical difficulties!" Jerome Bonaparte said to Pierka.
"There are no technical difficulties! For those railways, we started surveying and calibrating more than ten years ago!" Alfred Picard explained to Jerome Bonaparte.
"Very good!" Jerome Bonaparte nodded slightly, picking up the materials and flipping through them while asking, "Mr. Picard, do you have confidence to complete these lines within 5 years?"
"Mr. President, we have the confidence to complete them! But..." Pierka hesitated without speaking.
"But what?" Jerome Bonaparte looked up at Pierka.
"But it might cost over a hundred million francs!" Alfred Picard gritted his teeth and said, "We roughly estimated the required expenses, just the main lines of Lyon-Marseille, Paris-Nancy-Strasbourg, Paris-Brussels, Paris-Bruges-Toulouse, Paris-Nantes-Brest, would conservatively cost 1 to 2 hundred million francs per year!"
"My God!" The numbers from Alfred Pierka did not frighten Jerome Bonaparte, but instead shocked the Marchioness Aile beside him.
In 1848, the gold content of one franc was 0.29 grams, so 1 to 2 hundred million francs annually was equivalent to an annual investment of 29 to 58 tons of gold.
"Don’t worry about the expenses! Trust in the market’s confidence in railways!" Jerome Bonaparte tried to reassure Alfred Picard.
PS: I revisited the Constitution of the Second French Republic and found that the president’s power under the Second Republic Constitution is already close to that of an autocratic emperor. The National Assembly, without forming a two-thirds absolute advantage, cannot harm the president in any way. The president can reorganize military power by replacing the Minister of War. In other words, as long as the president and the Minister of War are strong enough, they can entirely sideline parliament. I really don’t know what the Constitutional Assembly was thinking, giving the president more power than the King of Orleans.