This Technology, Really...
The rest of the journey went smoothly, but everyone was starving. Considering the Britain usually did little work and were relatively energy-efficient, the France reduced the Britain rations by another third. Thus, ten days later, when Morel and his crew towed the Britain steamship into the Camaret Harbor, several of the Britain confined in the hold had already starved to death. The remaining crew, except for the technician who was kept in a separate hold and cared for by a special person, were too weak to even stand.
Of course, the France would not admit that the Britain who starved to death died of starvation; they attributed their deaths to complications from injuries.
Camaret Harbor was just a fishing port and didn't have a dedicated shipyard. However, being here meant that news of the captured Britain ships could at least be spread quickly.
Joseph received the news during lunch. At this time, Napoleon was spending all his time in Paris restoring order to the country, striving to establish a military government whose tentacles could reach all the way to the villages. Yes, Napoleon's government was essentially a military government. In France, previously only the nobility had influence in the countryside. Now that the nobility no longer existed, Napoleon hoped to use the opportunity of military demobilization to make those veterans organizers in the villages.
Napoleon's thinking was, of course, somewhat feasible. Most of the veterans, especially those from Napoleon's army, had earned considerable wealth outside. Returning to their villages, they could buy land cheaply thanks to preferential government policies, instantly becoming part of the wealthy rural class. Before returning, these men had joined so-called "veterans' associations," maintaining contact and organization even after their discharge. This constituted the political force supporting Napoleon.
As for Lucien, he is now busier than Napoleon. As the Minister of the Ministry of Truth, his main task now is to establish a propaganda apparatus for "spreading the truth".
Lucien's planned propaganda apparatus consisted of two parts. One part was a propaganda agency directly under the Ministry of Truth, which was primarily responsible for external propaganda. In the last war, France had obtained the right to conduct comprehensive free trade in the Netherlands, Belgium, the Rhine Confederation, and Prussia, which included the establishment of news agencies and the dispatch of journalists.
Lucien planned to establish a European Free News Agency, responsible for interviewing various news outlets and, after verifying their veracity, providing them to newspapers in those countries so that the people of Europe could understand the truth of France and the First Consul's benevolence and care for the people of all nations. At the same time, * Science Truth Daily * would also open branches in these countries, publishing newspapers in various languages and targeting specific regions.
Of course, the political nature of * Science Truth Daily * was sometimes detrimental to deceiving people—no, I mean to subtly influencing them to accept the truth. Therefore, in addition to * Science Truth Daily *, Lucien also planned to establish a number of *XXX Businessman's Daily * through indirect control, to spread the truth in a more subtle way.
As for the domestic situation, Lucien planned to use more covert methods to control public opinion. On the one hand, he established an official press and publication administration and formulated corresponding regulations—of course, these regulations were all intended to "protect freedom of speech."
On the other hand, they would use "Military-Industrial Consortium" to secretly invest in and create or control a number of newspapers, and then use these newspapers to form a "French News Agency" to monopolize the source of news.
Of course, if it were only these things, Lucien wouldn't be so busy. But recently, a new event was launched in a certain industry in Paris —the "Miss Paris Pageant." This happened to fall within Lucien's purview. As a result, this event, which was of great interest to the public, took up all of Lucien's remaining time.
As for Louis, he is currently studying at the University of Paris and lives in Paris for convenience. Jerome, on the other hand, is still in high school. Researchers in the Military-Industrial Consortium often have children of similar or even younger than Jerome, so a school for their children was built near the research institute, where Jerome studies.
Jerome actually longed to attend a school in Paris, so he could avoid Joseph's checks on his homework. Jerome now strongly suspected that his brother would use checking his homework to refresh himself whenever he was too tired.
That noon, Joseph, who had been busy all morning, was about to check Jerome's homework to help him clear his head. He had just said, "Jerome, what did you do this morning..." when Fanny and her secretary Pauline, came over. Jerome immediately cried out, as if he'd found a lifeline, "Big brother, I already showed my homework to Sister Fanny this morning. Fanny said it was fine."
As he spoke, Jerome turned his head and winked at Fanny.
"Yes, I've checked it, it's fine," Fanny said.
"Ah, in that case, let's eat first." Joseph sat down at the table, wanting to give Fanny some face. "Well, Pauline, did you have fun with Fanny?"
"What do you mean by playing? I'm working very hard," Pauline retorted immediately, her eyes wide. Compared to her brothers, Joseph had always been more indulgent towards his sisters, so Pauline wasn't as afraid of Joseph as her brothers were.
"Joseph, Pauline has been a great help to me," Fanny said. "We're not here just for a meal. We just received a report that a smuggling ship captured a Britain steamship in battle, along with several Britain, including a technician."
This news immediately caught Joseph's attention.
"They captured a Britain steamship? How is the ship now? Is it under their control?" Joseph asked.
"They're asking for 50,000 francs. I think that price is acceptable. Actually, we could also have the France government step in and give him a commendation. I looked up Morel's information; he's quite capable and has some potential. I've already sent someone to inform them to buy the Britain ship," Fanny replied. "Furthermore, I've heard that the ship is badly damaged and not easy to move immediately. And it's currently in Camaret. Camaret is just a fishing port with no maintenance capabilities. Moreover, if the Britain find out about this, Camaret harbor has no defenses whatsoever. They could easily come and completely destroy the ship. So I suggest we organize personnel to survey the ship as soon as possible and obtain firsthand technical information," Fanny suggested.
"Yes, we need to send someone immediately." Joseph nodded. "Let's eat first, and then we'll draft a list..."
Morel received 50,000 francs from the Military-Industrial Consortium, handed over the steamship and the Britain people to the Military-Industrial Consortium, and received a medal from the government.
The Bourbon Dynasty had previously established various honorary medals, such as the Order of Saint Michael, the Order of the Holy Spirit, and the Order of Saint Louis. After the revolution, these medals, because they bore a distinct feudal and Bourbon flavor, were abolished by the First Republic government. For a period thereafter, the awards for meritorious service became money or symbolic weapons of honor.
However, this kind of recognition was far less effective than medals (mainly because it cost much more money). So, after the First Consul came to power, he began to revive the medal system. Some immature people, who particularly liked to imitate Napoleon of the Roman Empire, announced the establishment of an organization modeled after the Roman Empire, the "Legion of Honor," whose members were those who had received medals.
Morel received only the lowest rank of knighthood (the knights here are not the knights of later feudal times, but rather cavalry composed of wealthy citizens in the Roman Empire), but it was enough to make Morel proud. It's important to understand that during the Bourbon Dynasty, commoners like Morel would absolutely never receive such a thing as a medal.
After receiving the money, Morel took his ship, now missing a mast, back to Roscoff, partly to repair it and partly to seek compensation from the local insurance company.
The insurance company representatives boarded the ship and registered the damage. Ten days later, Morel received a reply from the insurance company that they could compensate for the replacement of the mast on their vessel, but regarding the cargo loss, the insurance company believed that these losses were not covered by the policy.
Morel protested, of course, so the insurance company took out the contract, turned to the appendix, and then used their extensive knowledge of French grammar and law to further enhance Morel's understanding of French. And then... well... Morel still failed to receive compensation for the loss of goods.
Just as Morel was desperately continuing to haggle with the insurance company guys, Joseph also received the technical data about the Britain steam warships transmitted back from Camaret.
"Hmm, using two steam engines to jointly drive two paddle wheels... paddle wheels are not very reliable, and their placement on both sides is a clear weakness... plus a mast for auxiliary power... hmm, the mast was positioned too close to the boiler and was damaged in the boiler explosion. Who designed this?"
After carefully studying the data on the British Army steam warships, Joseph finally came to the conclusion. "The Britain technology is really a waste of 50,000 francs."