Pope Augustus

After the cooperation was established, Faol and Gaspard had an in-depth exchange on the areas of cooperation, and they hit it off immediately.

After fully understanding Faol's abilities and plans, Gaspard became even more convinced that what Faol had said before was not just empty promises, but something he could truly achieve. So, he grandly presented Faol with a mansion, feeling very pleased.

Gaspard was already full of anticipation for a beautiful future and was afraid that Faol might withdraw midway, which would shatter his dream. This agreement did not bind Faol in this regard, so under these circumstances, strengthening the ties between the two parties seemed very necessary.

Collusion between officials and businessmen is common in any era and any place. Generally, for officials, anyone can be a front man; for businessmen, such opportunities are often rare.

This time, Faol proactively sought him out and they reached a cooperation. If he could use this opportunity to win over Faol, it would definitely be greatly beneficial for his future development.

As for who was behind this crisis, Gaspard no longer cared. Let alone there was no evidence to prove it was Faol, even if it was, so what? The fact that he couldn't even find out who his opponent was proved that his strength was beyond his ability to contend with. Moreover, compared to being able to call the shots within the Borgia Family in the future, what was this small loss?

Faol gladly accepted the generous gift from Gaspard. Compared to a greedy collaborator, a collaborator with no desires is more daunting. On one hand, it reassured Gaspard, preventing him from causing trouble; on the other hand, why refuse a free gift?

After the two of them meticulously planned again, the operation began.

The first thing they did was to make the cooperation public through the Rome Newspaper. Of course, the newspaper couldn't reveal everything; it only disclosed a small part of the most superficial information.

Only two pieces of information could be extracted from the newspaper: first, Faol would help Gaspard, and second, Gaspard would transfer the Rome Newspaper to Faol. It repeatedly emphasized Faol's identity as the Pope's Chamberlain, seemingly implying something without explicitly stating it.

As for what kind of help, how to help, why to help, and whether there were people behind it, outsiders had no way of knowing. In fact, very few people genuinely cared about these questions; others at most treated it as a topic of conversation after meals.

In comparison, the change of ownership of the Rome Newspaper was barely considered big news. Otherwise, the Rome Newspaper might even be criticized for publishing too much junk news.

In Gaspard's view, the propaganda effect was very good. It seemed that intimidated by Faol's power, the original threats gradually weakened like a receding tide, and his properties one after another emerged from their difficulties.

Those who had taken advantage of the situation earlier, seeing that things were not going well, immediately stopped and tried various ways to ease relations, most of them returning everything with interest. Gaspard accepted it all but had no intention of abandoning his plan to settle scores later.

All of this was within Faol's plan. Everything Gaspard saw was merely the result of Faol easing the pressure on Gaspard's faction.

After Gaspard recovered, the first to bear the brunt were those family members who had previously kicked him when he was down. Gaspard had been holding back his anger and immediately presented his ideas to Faol.

To make Gaspard's faction the strongest within the Borgia Family, it was simply a matter of making him stronger and making other Borgia Family members weaker. Given this, striking at other Borgia Family members to strengthen Gaspard's faction was clearly the most efficient approach. Gaspard was willing, and Faol also strongly agreed.

With Faol's strong support, the offensive and defensive positions rapidly shifted.

For Faol, his clandestine operations were originally subject to many restrictions, but now they could be brought into the open, saving a lot of trouble and providing many more available methods.

More importantly, all the blame could be shifted to Gaspard. After all, Gaspard was already unscrupulous and was very happy to cultivate such a resourceful and decisive image for himself.

Being in the same Borgia Family, they knew each other inside out. Gaspard's understanding of other family members was beyond what outsiders could grasp. Through Gaspard, Faol obtained a large amount of useful information he had not acquired before.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. With a deeper understanding of the opponent, Faol became even more adept, and all actions proceeded very smoothly. Both overt and covert approaches were used, yielding considerable results.

Faol's approach was still relatively gentle, primarily focusing on commercial competition, gradually encroaching. Even so, fulfilling Gaspard's demands would only take one or two months.

Faol was already very satisfied with this progress, but Gaspard was not so patient and was not content with such gentle competitive methods.

Taking advantage of the situation, Gaspard exposed a large number of unsavory secrets of several family members he knew, and bribed local officials, leading to some Borgia Family members being thrown into prison.

In addition to the officials bribed by Gaspard, there were also other officials who, thinking themselves clever, speculated on the higher-ups' intentions and fully exercised their subjective initiative, throwing Borgia Family members within their jurisdiction into prison.

Although one can always find an excuse to condemn someone, those who were sent to prison were not truly wronged. Among the noble capitalists of that period, you couldn't find a single clean one out of a hundred.

To say that Gaspard held dirt on other family members, while other family members knew nothing about Gaspard, was absolutely impossible.

It was just that they were at an absolute disadvantage, and Gaspard now had Faol as his protector. Local officials were masters of opportunism; those who dared to offend their superiors for a small profit would certainly not have survived until now. The dirt they held on Gaspard had almost no effect. The remaining family members could only fume in silence.

Faol did not stop Gaspard from taking radical measures and was happy to see it happen. Gaspard's actions greatly accelerated Faol's progress toward his goal. Doing so would lead to many uncertainties and lay hidden dangers for the future, but those were Gaspard's future concerns and not within Faol's consideration.

With their concerted efforts, Gaspard's faction's power expanded unprecedentedly, and Gaspard himself became unprecedentedly inflated. Under extreme pressure, other family members either went bankrupt or became dependent, and the Borgia Family showed a strong tendency towards unification, with Gaspard's faction becoming powerful for a time. However, the overall strength of the Borgia Family had already dwindled to less than one-tenth of its original.

Gaspard was very satisfied with this outcome. With the goal achieved, the Rome Newspaper smoothly completed its handover, and their cooperation ended here.

Upon farewell, Gaspard took out two oil paintings by famous artists and handed them to Faol. One was given to Faol as a gift, and the other was entrusted to Faol to be given to the Pope as a gift. Faol praised the exquisite beauty of the paintings, expressed sincere gratitude, and happily accepted them.