Intelligence

"Judging by the timeline, they should have made some progress by now." Joseph wasn't too surprised by this news. He knew that the initial breakthrough in steelmaking technology was actually achieved by the Britain, although historically it seemed to have come later. However, since the France had succeeded earlier, and inspired by their early success—despite France Lorraine Steel keeping its technology very secret, the fact that the France could rapidly and massively smelt steel using certain techniques was undeniable—this fact would greatly stimulate the Britain, prompting them to invest more resources in this research. Therefore, a breakthrough was inevitable.

Moreover, when it comes to technology, no matter how tightly confidential it is, as long as the product is still on the market and the technology is used in production, it is inevitable that some information will be leaked. In addition, the turnover rate of workers at Lorraine Steel is very high.

The labor intensity at Lorraine Steel Company was quite high, as it was all heavy manual labor. Most of those doing this work were German speakers. Their goal in joining Lorraine Steel Company was to earn enough money in the shortest possible time to immigrate to Louisiana.

The Britain, of course, also tried to learn about the relevant technologies by bribing these workers. Although these workers didn't have access to the most core secrets, they at least had the opportunity to see what a steel furnace looked like. By asking a few people, they could get a general idea of the process. While they couldn't learn the most crucial details, even these basic things were enough to give the Britain a lot of inspiration. So, it's entirely understandable that the Britain made a breakthrough in steelmaking technology at this point.

"So, which plan should we implement now?" Lucien asked.

Since it was highly probable that the Britain would achieve a breakthrough in steelmaking technology, countermeasures had naturally been prepared long ago, and more than one plan was prepared. Each plan had been carefully studied and analyzed, and each had its own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, at this point, choosing which plan to use was crucial.

"Of course, we should first see what the Britain do next. If the Britain make concessions in the recent trade dispute, then we will lower the price of steel and even pig iron that we export to Britain. With our cost advantage, we will crush them and let them know what it means to buy rather than make," Joseph replied.

"So what choice do you think they will make?" Lucien asked again.

"I'm not Britain, how would I know? And even if I were Britain, I might not know."

"But let me tell you, Joseph, if we take some action now, we can guide them in a certain direction. For example, if we open up a little loophole in our trade policy, I think we should be able to guide them toward a policy of continuing bilateral trade," Lucien said.

"But if we no longer demand that they abolish the Navigation Ordinance, then under Navigation Ordinance protection, they can sell their steel products in their colonies and use that money to continue developing their steel industry," Napoleon said.

"There won't be a significant demand for steel in the Britain colonies in the short term," Joseph said.

Joseph made this judgment because the demand for steel mainly came from industrial needs, and one of Britain's long-standing national policies was that its colonies should not have any significant industries. This was because once the colonies did have such industries, the balance of power between them and Britain would change, and then the colonies would develop serious separatist tendencies.

Napoleon nodded and said, "However, in that case, they will probably only be able to survive with the support of the army. But we can certainly sell them military steel."

Thanks to technological advancements over the years, Napoleon had unprecedented confidence in his army and was therefore less concerned about selling more advanced technology to the Britain.

"If only the Britain were willing to buy our weapons directly in large quantities," Lucien said.

"That would be good," Napoleon said, "But it must be based on accurate intelligence. Lucien, that's your job. The more accurate the intelligence your men have, the more effective our response will be."

At this point, Napoleon paused and said, "However, this time, the Britain have succeeded in steelmaking, and we only learned about it from the newspapers. Lucien, your performance this time has been truly disappointing."

"Napoleon, you can't say that," Lucien retorted immediately upon hearing Napoleon's accusation. "A month ago, I provided you with a report that mentioned the imminent breakthrough in Britain metallurgy."

"Damn it! You provided similar intelligence two months ago, and you provided similar intelligence five months ago. These intelligence reports are practically identical, just with the dates changed. It's unbelievable! Who knows how fast your intelligence is supposed to be? A few days, a few months, or even years? You've spent a huge amount of money and allocated massive funds, and all you give me is this kind of intelligence? I think if this kind of thing were handled by Fouché, he would definitely do a better job!"

"That's because Fouché's business scope is limited, so he can focus all his energy on this. I have too many things to manage..." Lucien couldn't stand people comparing him to Fouché.

"Alright, enough excuses," Napoleon said. "You keep a close eye on this matter for now. I need your men to provide us with the latest, most reliable intelligence as quickly as possible, intelligence that will be valuable for decision-making."

"I'll keep an eye on this," Lucien said.

Meanwhile, in Britain, at the Army's Sixth Investigation Section, Deputy Chief of Staff Esinger Stanton was assigning tasks to his men.

"Recently, news of the successful steelmaking furnace project, a collaboration between the military, University of Cambridge, and the Lande Ironworks, has become widely known. The France will certainly try to find out our secrets. Meanwhile, our trade representatives are about to negotiate trade issues with the France. The success of the steelworks will be one of our most important bargaining chips in the negotiations. Therefore, any information about this is top secret. We have now received orders to move into the Lande Ironworks to help them comprehensively strengthen their secrecy."

Regarding this operation, there's one principle I want to tell everyone: the secrets we must keep include not only how advanced we are, but also how backward we are. Secrecy means preserving our backwardness! What we can do, the France must not know; what we cannot do, the France must know even less. Understand?