One hour later.
When the Minister of Transport heard that he had been given 27,000 free laborers—all strong, able-bodied men—his eyes practically lit up.
"This is wonderful, Your Highness!" After making a rapid calculation in his head, he said, "The construction progress of the Nancy Railway will increase by about 30 percent, while construction costs will be reduced by 3.5 million Francs!"
"Only 3.5 million?" Joseph sounded somewhat disappointed. "I thought we could save more."
Tressaguet hurriedly explained, "Your Highness, in reality, we can deploy no more than 9,000 prisoners of war on the Nancy Line. As you know, the construction site is only so large; sending more people there would make them difficult to put to use.
"Besides, there are some jobs with higher technical requirements that those Russians simply cannot handle.
"At the same time, managing so many people also costs quite a bit. Even if we do not have to pay them wages, we still have to feed them, do we not?"
In truth, France had already profited enormously from this. Construction would be accelerated while expenses were reduced.
Joseph frowned. There were still 18,000 prisoners of war left. It seemed they could only be sent to Tripoli to grow potatoes.
Such excellent, able-bodied labor being used that way was truly a waste.
Tressaguet glanced at the Crown Prince's expression and hesitated before saying, "Your Highness, I know the nation is currently devoting all its strength to the war...
"But I think perhaps the funds saved could be used to construct the Luxembourg-Verdun Railway. Of course, a little additional funding would still be needed.
"You see, Luxembourg is only a little over fifty kilometers from Verdun. If they can be connected by rail, the cost for the Nancy industrial zone to obtain high-quality steel will fall by