Promotion and Spy-Hunting

The Paris Import-Export Trade Fair is just a month away, and this has become an important matter for the Ministry of Truth. Both domestically and internationally, the Ministry of Truth must widely publicize this event, aiming to promote it as the most important event in Europe.

Internally, we need to talk at length about the benefits that this trade fair in Pakistan can bring to people from all walks of life in the country.

"We need to promote our message to farmers because of the existence of the trade fair. No, remember, when promoting to them, we must use 'we' more often than 'they' or 'you,' and we should also add a contrast between their past hardships and their present success. For example, we can promote how, in the past, after a bumper harvest, we had more grain than we could eat, so we would take it to the market to sell. But now that everyone else has had a bumper harvest, the market is overflowing with grain, so we can't get a good price for it. If we don't sell it, storing it will cost a lot of money. If we buy it, it seems like we're losing out."

Back in the days of the kingdom, those nobles and unscrupulous merchants would collude to drive down our grain prices. Often, even with a bumper harvest and more grain produced, we'd end up with less money after selling it. Then they'd either hoard the grain to sell at higher prices during famines, or load it onto ships and transport it abroad to sell for profit. We worked so hard to grow so little grain, and all the benefits went to them!

But now things are different. The First Ruler is not like those bad guys; he's truly one of our own! He thinks about everything from spring planting to summer weeding, and he keeps flood prevention and drought relief in mind. Of course, he knows how hard it is for us farmers, so he organized this trade fair. Now we have more grain, which we can sell directly to foreign countries. Without nobles and middlemen taking a cut, all the money we get is ours.

What? You're saying foreign countries also have bumper harvests? Brother, do they have water pumps? Do they have power plants? Most importantly, do they have a first ruler like us? They have nothing, just a bunch of aristocratic lords like we used to have. How do you think they can have bumper harvests year after year? Hmm, remember that, right?"

At a meeting of the Ministry of Truth, Lucien was giving instructions to his subordinates, who were all taking notes with paper and pens.

"Also, we need to speed up the publicity efforts abroad. We need to let the Britain, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Russia, Turkey, United States... let the entire civilized world know about this grand event, that they can find opportunities to make a fortune here. You need to find ways to make this event more attractive, to make people feel that attending this event is like... like Ali Baba entering a treasure vault—no, not just the treasure vaults of a few bandits, but the treasure vaults of Alexander the Great!"

The Ministry of Truth issued instructions, and France newspapers, especially those published abroad, naturally did their utmost to repeatedly publicize the Paris Fair.

For example, in London, while Britain newspapers were still busy attacking each other, the France newspaper * London Merchant Journal* had already focused its main efforts on promoting the "Barcelona Trade Fair." In recent days, * London Merchant * had added two more pages, with almost all the content besides the front page dedicated to the "Barcelona Trade Fair" (although the front page already contained a considerable amount of related content).

Some advertisements are direct product listings, such as for various wines or metal products. These ads often don't directly state prices but instead use phrases like "high quality at a low price, beyond your imagination" to entice merchants. Others are so-called "knowledge popularization" articles, sometimes even accompanied by illustrations, to educate consumers about various products, such as the different types of wine and how to choose good wines; or the differences in materials used in various metal products and their advantages and disadvantages. Still others introduce products from different parts of continental Europe and provide basic market information.

For example, France has had a bumper harvest this year, which may lead to lower grain prices. Additionally, due to fashion trends, wool products may become popular in France this year...

The newspaper * Science Truth Daily *, however, focused more on reporting this grand event using big data. It stated that merchants and traders from almost all of Europe would gather here. Just considering the easier access to information about various goods during the trade fair, it was believed that trade costs could be significantly reduced, allowing everyone to earn more money.

News of the "Pakistan Trade Fair" quickly attracted the attention of various merchants, who all opened their eyes wide. Whether they supported peace or war, whether they were in the textile trade or the arms trade, their attention was drawn to the fair. As a result, even the mutual attacks between the England News Alliance and the England Free Press Alliance were somewhat weakened—after all, for both sides, making money was the top priority. Even arms dealers were thinking about whether they could take this opportunity to export some weapons to Europe.

However, the British Admiralty was thrown into a panic at this time, because an image of France weapons appeared in the latest issue of the London Merchant Journal.

This page is filled with advertisements for all sorts of France weapons, including muzzle-loading rifles that the Britain are already familiar with, various landmines, Little Melon, artillery, and something that only has pictures but no text descriptions.

"Isn't this one of our mines?" Others might not recognize it, but the guys from the Admiralty could tell at a glance what it was.

"They are very similar, but there are still some differences. Our mines have ten trigger fuses, while this one only has eight. However, the rest is really similar—the same anchor chain, even the fuses with the same installation pattern! What... what's going on?"

Indeed, the unexplained, mysterious weapon depicted in "The London Merchant" looks remarkably like a Britain naval mine. A simple color analysis would undoubtedly reveal irrefutable evidence of plagiarism. But the problem now is:

"How did the France obtain this technology?!"

The Admiralty was well aware of what it meant for Britain that this technology had fallen into France hands.

If Britain could use this to blockade the Irish Sea, the France could use it to blockade the Britain coast. Indeed, the French Navy lacked the capability to contest sea control with the British Navy, but it possessed many other means that even the British Navy French Navy n't overcome. For example, the France had high-speed warships.

To this day, the British Navy has not been able to decipher the propulsion technology of France steamships, which means that the Britain are virtually unable to intercept these ships. The France could easily use these high-speed steamships to lay mines in Britain coastal waters and even near Britain ports.

Of course, the Britain could also lay mines near France ports, whether on the Atlantic Ocean or Mediterranean Sea side, but France was far less dependent on its ports than Britain. Moreover, France could use the ports of its allies, while if Britain were to launch an offensive to lay mines in those ports, it would truly be cutting itself off from Europe.

Therefore, until efficient minesweeping technology was developed, the plan to blockade Ireland using mines had to be shelved. Minesweeping is far more difficult than laying mines. Even in the 21st century, the most primitive moored mines are still a threat to the most advanced warships, and even the most advanced minesweepers. Therefore, developing efficient and reliable minesweeping technology would be something Joseph would never achieve in his lifetime, even if he devoted himself entirely to it.

Compared to efficient mine-clearing technology, what's more important to the Britain now is figuring out how the mine secrets were leaked. The Britain certainly know that the existence of the mines was leaked because of some madman's writings, but the key technical methods weren't mentioned in those articles.

The Admiralty had been investigating the person who leaked the information to the madman. According to Admiralty deductions, this person was most likely not a France spy, because if France spy knew about this, they would have simply reported it to the France; there was no need for these elaborate methods. Therefore, they were more inclined to believe it was the Britain, who didn't want war to affect their business. But now, this deduction seemed less credible. After all, who would have thought that the France had a time-traveling individual with the special ability to impregnate someone with a single glance?

This is similar to a question on a certain website: If the entire Red Hare Kingdom were transported back to before the collapse of the Soviet Union and fought a war with the Soviet Union using conventional weapons, what would be the result? The answer is: The most direct result, of course, would be that everyone at the Sukhoi Design Bureau would be dragged out and shot by the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. Nowadays, the Britain also feel that their research institutes are full of France spies.

"We have a France spy in our Admiralty! We must dig him out and tie him to a mine for testing! Or cut him into pieces and feed him to the sharks!" Lord William, the First Lord of the Admiralty, nearly fainted upon hearing the news and then roared like this.

Lord William's anger was entirely justified. With such a scandal at the Admiralty, someone had to take responsibility. Even if that damned traitor could be found and dealt with, the leak wouldn't be over so easily. He would likely soon have to "bravely take responsibility" and go home to collect his pension.

Soon, the King also learned of this and said, "Everyone who has had access to this technical information must be investigated, no matter who is involved! Britain will not allow any traitor to go unpunished!"