Science Knows No Borders

"The spread of some things is actually inevitable," Joseph added. "Take the last mine incident, for example. Our mines used electric fuses, so what kind of fuses did the Britain mines use?"

"I haven't obtained the relevant intelligence yet," Lucien said. He then added, "I don't think this is important. Knowing this won't help us, and it's not worth the effort. Hmm, Joseph, do we need this?"

"No need," Joseph said. "I'm not asking you about information related to this thing; I'm testing your knowledge of physics."

"What?" Lucien was taken aback, then quickly said, "Joseph, I'm very busy with work right now. These kinds of things, well, we should listen to the experts."

"Nonsense! Are you busier than me? I can do anything..." Napoleon quickly interjected.

"Napoleon, don't pretend. Don't think I don't know who the real first author of your recently published paper is! You still have the nerve to put your name before Laplace's," Lucien immediately retorted.

"You? You can't even understand that paper! Mr. Laplace did provide some assistance, but I did the majority of it." Napoleon began to defend his position as the first author.

"Of course, because there aren't many truly difficult parts that require extremely high levels of knowledge and skill."

"That's because I'm inherently very strong. In mathematics, I'm only slightly inferior to Joseph, Laplace, and Mr. Lagrange," Napoleon said smugly. "If it were you, Mr. Laplace would have died, not while helping you solve your problems, but after solving them, while trying to make you understand the solution, he would have died of frustration! For one thing, Joseph's question was so simple, yet you rambled on and on for so long—it was truly embarrassing!"

"Then what kind of fuses did the Britain use in their mines?"

"The same electric fuse as in our mines," Napoleon replied without hesitation. "You can tell from the shape of the tentacles."

"That's Joseph's deduction."

"Alright, you two. Stop arguing about such trivial matters," Joseph snapped.

So the two brothers fell silent.

"Some technologies simply cannot be kept secret for long, like propellers. Even without espionage, developing such technology entirely on your own would be nothing more than a matter of brainstorming. Of course, Lucien, your brain is an exception. So Napoleon, if you want to pat someone, pat yourself, not Lucien's."

Napoleon withdrew his outstretched hand.

"Joseph is right, taking pictures of you is a waste of your energy."

"Apart from some truly core technologies, and the kind that you can't even understand just by looking at them, excessive secrecy seems pointless for other technologies right now," Joseph continued. "Besides technology, what I want to talk to you about is the issue of scientific secrecy."

As you know, we've hidden many scientific discoveries. For example, in the field of electricity, we've concealed a great deal of scientific knowledge about the principles of generators and motors. This has had some effect, but it has also brought some problems."

"What's the problem?" Napoleon asked.

"The problem of training engineers," Joseph said. "Because a great deal of the most fundamental scientific knowledge is kept highly confidential during their studies, even top graduates from the University of Paris need a considerable amount of time to be trained before they can go to our labs or factories. The cost is very high. What's worse, these people then effectively have a secure job because they have mastered these secrets—no, not even a secure job, but a golden job."

Everyone who acquires this knowledge knows how valuable it is. They also know that they can simply sell it for enough money to feed their grandchildren truffles and caviar every day. So, at this point, what we need to pay them isn't just their wages, but also hush money to keep their secrets. We impart knowledge to them, and yet we have to pay them for it—doesn't that seem absurd?

Furthermore, even with these measures, our "hush money" is still insufficient to guarantee their loyalty. We also need to strengthen secrecy by controlling their families and conducting surveillance. This incurs a significant expense. Therefore, while this type of secrecy gives us a temporary advantage, the cost of maintaining secrecy is increasing, making it increasingly difficult to continue.

In addition, there is another issue: we cannot underestimate the research capabilities of other countries. Some of our products will eventually be sold abroad. For example, where did the Britain get their electric detonator technology? Mostly, they obtained samples from battles with the Ireland and then copied them themselves.

Some time ago, the Britain also organized an operation to steal electric motors. Although this operation was thwarted by the Ministry of Police — Fouché did a really good job. In terms of the ability to do these things, I think no one in all of Europe is better than him. Lucien, you still need to learn a lot from him."

Lucien nodded immediately. "Fouché is indeed very strong in this area, but that's partly due to his talent, and he's also extremely hardworking. Besides, it's difficult for me to be as focused on one thing as he is... but he really does study."

"Fouché might succeed once, but he can't succeed forever. Electric motors are everywhere; if you want to get one back, you can always succeed," Joseph continued. "With a sample, reverse engineering isn't particularly difficult, given the Britain scientific level. Therefore, continuing to keep scientific secrets is becoming increasingly costly. So I think there are some scientific knowledge we should no longer keep secret."

Napoleon and Lucien remained silent. After a while, Napoleon said, "That is indeed a problem. But after making this public, will it greatly accelerate their research progress? Will we be able to maintain our lead?"

"This will certainly promote scientific progress in Europe countries, including Britain. But you should know that this includes Europe country. First of all, we can save a lot of unnecessary costs, and these savings can be used for scientific and technological research."

Secondly, even if these scientific discoveries were made public, for a period of time, only our universities in Europe would be capable of teaching this knowledge, and only we would have the conditions to widely apply it. The advancement of any knowledge is inseparable from practice; theory must be combined with practice to have vitality. No other country has the conditions in this regard as we do. If we can still allow them to surpass us under such conditions, then even if we don't make these discoveries public, they will eventually surpass us sooner or later."

"That makes sense," Napoleon said. "However, we can't just open everything up all at once. We have to do it little by little, step by step. Also, we need a plan and a justification for what should be made public first at each step. We can't just make decisions on a whim; we need a plan and a justification."

At this point, he glanced at Joseph and added, "Joseph, your time is precious and you have many things to do. We can't waste it on such trivial matters. Hmm, how about letting Lucien do this? You can take a look when you have time and teach him."

"Do you think I have so much free time?" Lucien was a little unconvinced.

"Of all of us, you're the one with the most free time," Napoleon said. "You think I don't know that for the past two weeks, you've been spending every night at the Moulin Rouge until dawn?"

"Nonsense, that's what Fouché said, isn't it? He's just jealous, it's slander! The Moulin Rouge is the flagship entertainment venue in Paris, and the entertainment industry is an important part of the Ministry of Ministry of Truth's jurisdiction. Under my leadership, the France entertainment industry is thriving, and in these past few months, a large number of wealthy people from other countries have been attracted to Paris to spend money. And Napoleon, as you know, the entertainment industry is heavily taxed. Every month, the Moulin Rouge alone pays your government more than 100,000 francs in taxes. The entire Montmartre Heights entertainment district pays more than a million francs in taxes every month."

Moreover, the Matt entertainment district leads the fashion world of Europe; any luxury brand that can't be considered prestigious without a presence in Matt is simply not up to par. How much revenue has this brought to our various industries? Napoleon, I'm not boasting, but I owe a great deal to the current prosperity of France and the many smiling faces of the people of Paris and France.

Why am I able to do such a good job? Because I know that without in-depth field investigation and research, you can't come up with truly effective measures. Without personal practice, you won't have a correct understanding, and without a correct understanding, you won't make the right decisions. You think I'm having fun? I'm working, working day and night! I just said that Minister Fouché works very hard, but if you ask who the hardest-working minister in France is? It's definitely me! You don't acknowledge my hard work, and instead you slander me like this, which really hurts me..."

Napoleon stared wide-eyed at Lucien, and after a moment said, "Lucien, I never imagined you'd go through so much hardship."

"Of course, you all are..."

"How about I set up another department for Lucien and assign them matters related to the entertainment industry, so you can get some rest?" Napoleon interrupted him.

Lucien's eyes widened immediately, and he stood up, saying, "How can that be? It won't be easy for them to take over my work. It will take time, and it will also take... In short, although it's very hard work, for France, for the family, I'm willing to endure the hardship."