I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1335 Couple Team

The second floor of the Palace of Versailles.

Emman bowed and said, "Your Highness, Archbishop Beaumont, Archbishop Boissi, Archbishop Asserli, and others request an audience."

“I thought they would hold out a little longer.” Joseph glanced out the window at the several luxurious church carriages parked in the marble courtyard and gestured to Emmanuel, “Please inform the Crown Princess that it’s time to ‘make her entrance’.”

"Yes, Your Highness."

Before long, Beaumont arrived at the Crown Prince's reception room with six high-ranking priests.

After the men had paid their respects, Joseph looked at Archbishop Beaumont and said calmly, "If you are here to plead for someone, I think it's better to..."

“Your Highness, this is a disgrace to the Church!” Beaumont suddenly burst into tears, pointing forcefully at Archbishop Boissi and the others, “I have already had them submit a letter of repentance to the Vatican.”

He glanced discreetly at the impassive Crown Prince and quickly raised his voice: "Of course, that's far from enough!"

"They, including the entire church leadership, should be punished most severely!"

He winked at Archbishop Aselli, who took out a list, stepped forward, and said cautiously, "The abbots, vice-abbots, treasurers, and teachers of 16 monasteries, including the Monastery of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the Monastery of Little Piccolos, and the Monastery of Saint-Denis, are all to be removed from their clergy and go to the monasteries in the south to repent."

“All embezzled funds must be returned to the church immediately, and a fine of twice the amount must be paid to the Royal Chapel.”

"The church will form an 'investigation committee' to cooperate with the Fair Investigation Bureau to audit the accounts of all monasteries and churches in the shortest possible time. If any problems are found, they will be punished in the same manner as described above."

Seeing that His Highness the Crown Prince had not yet spoken, Beaumont had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue: "In addition, the Church will allocate 200 million francs to improve the conditions of welfare homes across the country and will send people to inspect the welfare homes from time to time to ensure that abuse does not occur again."

"besides……"

To be honest, Joseph really didn't expect the church to come to apologize, and their attitude was quite sincere.

It should be noted that the amount of embezzlement uncovered by Marat so far has reached 164 million francs. The church not only has to return all of it, but also has to hand over a fine of 328 million francs to the Royal Chapel—the inner chapel of the Palace of Versailles, which is essentially a handover to the royal family.

Subsequent inspections of monasteries and similar institutions nationwide were not conducted internally by the church, but rather in conjunction with the Fair Investigation Bureau.

Even if churches in various places immediately begin to destroy evidence, Mara, with his abilities, will certainly still be able to uncover countless problems.

This indicates a firm intention to thoroughly eradicate corruption within the church.

However, this left Joseph somewhat at a loss – his original plan was to wait for the church to argue, resist, or even make a big fuss, so that his many prepared countermeasures could come in handy.

At that time, the entire church will be in a state of panic, and he can take advantage of this to promote church reform, where there will be minimal resistance from all sides.

But now the church is acting like it's admitting its mistakes and accepting punishment, so you can't just say that you won't give people a chance to reform, can you?
As he was pondering how to deal with the current situation, Alexandra, dressed in a dark red dress with eagle feathers in her hair, pushed open the door and entered.

"Your Highness, what do you think of my new dress?"

The Crown Princess curtsied to Joseph before pretending to suddenly notice the archbishops in the room. Her gaze swept over the archbishops, finally settling on Archbishop Boissi: "Oh, Your Excellency Archbishop Boissi, have you come to demonstrate your miracle to His Highness?" "Miracle?" The latter was taken aback.

"It is your educational miracle—without decades of continuous investment in teacher salaries, school building renovations, and large-scale library expansion, you can win the French National Mathematics Competition with just a small amount of 3 francs. Such an efficient and low-cost method of talent cultivation is absolutely the greatest miracle in the world."

Bomon's face flushed instantly. He coughed twice and said awkwardly, "Your Highness, regarding that incident, the Oratori Council only thought they had found a genius boy and didn't know he had been educated at the new primary school..."

Alexandra glanced at him sideways and said, "'Found a genius'? Ha, the Oratoria Society, which has been established for four hundred years, doesn't have a single student who can excel in math competitions, and has to 'try their luck' outside?"
“Oh, I see. You must be strictly following the traditions of the Vatican.”

Beaumont was also taken aback, and subconsciously asked, "What tradition?"

"Have you forgotten? The Vatican once listed Newton's *Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy* as a forbidden book, and it seems that Oratorius students are still not allowed to access it. Archbishop Boissi even had to 'sacrifice' three thousand francs for this ancient tradition."

"Oh, but you also have your own unique curriculum—Miracle Mathematics. The first chapter is the method for solving all mathematical problems—simply unbutton the purse, and the problem will be solved naturally."

Joseph suppressed a laugh, silently giving his wife a thumbs-up in his heart; she really had a sharp tongue.

Bomon and the others' faces had turned a deep purplish-red, but having been caught red-handed in the competition hosted by the Crown Princess, they could only endure it and dare not retaliate.

Well, if they really talk back, they'll probably suffer an even worse fate.

Joseph immediately seized the momentum created by Alexandra and said to Archbishop Boissi, "By the way, you promised me that I would get a top-three finish in this mathematics competition."

Archbishop Boissi was heartbroken. "You were the one who asked me to get into the top three. How did it become my promise?"
But at this moment, he dared not raise any objections and simply stood with his head down.

Joseph continued, "Yes, you failed and created such a huge scandal."

"The Oratori Society invests between 10,000 and 13,000 francs annually in each church school, while the new primary school run by that minor nobleman only costs 7,000 francs per school."

"As a result, your students are far inferior to the children in the new primary school in every aspect."

Hearing the Crown Prince's unfriendly tone, Bo Meng quickly said, "Your Highness, we are deeply ashamed of this, and we will definitely find ways to improve in the future..."

“Wait,” Joseph interrupted him, “put aside the church school for now, Archbishop Beaumont, do you remember how important I told you about public childcare?”

“I remember, Your Highness.”

Joseph said coldly, "Such an important matter has been over for so long. You and the archbishops were all there that day, right? Yet, to this day, only two kindergartens have been built."
"To be honest, I am very disappointed about this."

"This this……"

Joseph stood up, patted his arm, and said in a gentler tone, "It is clear that the church is finding it difficult to manage the new education system."

"Perhaps we should try to get others to do these things."

(End of this chapter)