Fox of France

The shortage of saltpeter has eased, and the peat day of the snow month of the republican calendar (the republican calendar does not have a one-to-one correspondence with the usual calendar months. Its months have fewer days in each month-this is similar to the Chinese lunar calendar It's kind of like - so that there are only 360 days in twelve months, and the extra five days are used as national celebrations. And it's the beginning of each month is different from the usual calendar.) That is 12 On March 21, a large amount of nitrate was discovered in the Touraine region of France.

It is not accurate to say that it is a discovery. The fact that there is Nitrogen in Touraine, in fact, when France was still a kingdom, people already knew about it, and it was recorded. It's just that the French didn't regard it as a big resource at the time.

Compared with the saltpeter from India or Turkey, the quality of the saltpeter in Dulan is very average. The saltpeter from India and Turkey only needs to be purified a little before it can be used. Even if it is only used to make bullets and shells Brown gunpowder can be used without purification. However, Dulan's nitrate soil needs a lot of purification work if it is to be used. And this greatly increased production costs, so in the kingdom era, when there was a supply of saltpeter from long-term allies, the French were stupid to dig the nitrate soil of Duran. But after a long time, they simply forgot that Dulan had this thing.

It was not until recently that someone finally rediscovered Dulan's nitric soil when soliciting Dulan's wine.

Nowadays, not to mention the ready-made nitrate mines, even the "National Salvation Committee" who can't let go of toilet pigpens certainly won't dislike the bad taste of nitrate mines and the high cost of mining and refining. Moreover, the transportation in the Touraine area is convenient, and the transportation is not difficult, so the National Salvation Committee designated 28 areas in Paris in one go for the construction of nitrate extraction workshops.

But even so, it is still not enough to equip the million-strong French army with a large number of "little melons" just by relying on the nitrate soil of Touraine. And because of the rush to produce, various accidents continued to occur in the mines in Touraine and the refinery in Paris. As a result, the increase in production has been slowed down.

"With nitrite, that's good news! But the bad news is that our enemies are slowly reorganizing, and we can't produce them fast enough. And, without enough caustic, Republic One Still can’t mass-produce.” Kano said to Joseph who was reporting to himself, “Joseph, do you know how to build a ship?”

"What?" Joseph was taken aback. "Lazar, I was born by the sea, but I really never did shipbuilding."

"I see, I'm in a hurry. Well, I got this idea because, a while ago, you published an article on how to calculate fluid resistance mathematically, right?"

"Yeah, but that was a year ago," Joseph said.

"Is there any new progress in this research?"

"No, this research has been put on hold long ago. First we fought wars, and then we made explosives. How can we care about such purely academic things?"

"Damn!" Kano said, "our caustic is still obtained by smuggling. Foreign smugglers charge too much, and we smuggle it ourselves, which is not cheap, because it is easy to get caught even people and boats. So We need a fast ship, faster than anything the English and Spaniards have! Hmmmmmm? What can you do now? Damn it! Isn't Lavoisier about the explosives? Hmmm, You find some people, take the lead, and see if you can get a faster boat out. As long as the speed is fast, other performances can be sacrificed!"

"Well, Lazar, I understand what you mean." Joseph nodded, "I will give you a list tomorrow, including the personnel and supplies you need."

"The personnel are easy to talk about, and the supplies..." Kano said, "try to save as much as possible."

There is exactly one kind of ship in Joseph's memory that is relatively suitable for Kano's requirements, and that is the last sail transport ship-the clipper ship. In his previous life, Joseph accompanied his son to make a model of a clipper ship, so he still has a little understanding of this type of ship that once competed with early steam-powered cargo ships in the Atlantic Ocean.

Joseph stood up, ready to say goodbye and leave. But he suddenly thought of one thing: "Ah, Kano, is there enough wood for shipbuilding? I'm keeping an eye on it, but other people have embezzled it to make other things."

"Get the list out first!" Kano said angrily.

Kano also had no choice, because Robespierre and the others forced the French sailors to run and smuggle. Kano felt that the loss of a large number of sailors was really distressing. Because sailors are not those infantrymen, you can't just spend a few livres and you can pull one out of the village.

But Robespierre said that unless there was something new about Cano, if Cano wanted money, there really would be no money.

Joseph returned to the institute, spent two days working out a plan, and then came to Kano's office again.

After closing the doors and windows, Joseph handed his plan to Kano.

"Look, Lazar, this is the basic plan." Joseph said.

"Ah, let me see..." Kano looked at it seriously.

Joseph turned around: "Lazar, where's your coffee here?"

"No more, supplies are tight." Kano said without raising his head.

"Oh. I'm going to go back from you."

"There's already a lot of rations for you... Now, except for scientific researchers, there is no coffee ration."

"Damn it, Lavoisier let go of mine. I thought I could recover a little loss from you..."

"Okay, drink water by yourself, I'm busy!"

After a while, Kano put down the document in his hand.

"How about it?"

"The idea is okay... But Joseph, we are friends... Don't you think that in your idea, you ask for too much money?"

"What? I want a lot of money. Lazar, let's speak with conscience." Joseph immediately widened his eyes, and retorted with spittle, "Look, which one of our plans is right? Necessary? Which one is not calculated according to the best cost-effectiveness? Well... the relevant calculations are in the attachment, have you read it?"

"I saw it, of course I saw it."

"Then is there something wrong with my calculation? Can I still make such a simple math problem wrong?"

"Of course it is, but..."

"Since it's true, what's the problem?"

"The only problem is ... we can't come up with that much money," Kano said.

"So can the progress requirements be relaxed?"

"This...how is this possible? Joseph, don't bargain, okay?"

"Tsk tsk... Lazar, you want the horse to run, and you want the horse not to eat grass! We are people who study science, and we want to talk about science! You can't expect me to say that you need new technology, just say There's new technology. I'm not God! Technology takes time and money. Get it, Lazar?!"

"Okay, okay..." Kano made a retreat, but said again, "But Joseph, when we talk about science, we should also know how much an outstanding scientist can do to scientific research." They can greatly reduce the time required for scientific progress and save a lot of money. Joseph, I think you are such an excellent scientist that you may even be a great scientist in the future. But look, your In this plan, you completely treat yourself as an ordinary researcher. This is not acceptable, I think that with your ability, progress and cost should be at least 50% off!"

"Do you understand science?" Joseph immediately became anxious. "Sometimes you can't tell clearly about scientific matters. There are a lot of luck in it. It's like Archimedes, if you put him in the bath water How long do you think it will take for that servant to discover the law of buoyancy? How can you say a 50% discount? If Robespierre and the others believed your nonsense, then my luck would It’s not good enough, the money is gone, the technology hasn’t been developed yet, how many people would accuse me of sabotage, or even vandalism?”

"Ah... ah... I understand..." Kano laughed loudly, "Joseph, you are really... you are so steady, hahaha... Well, don't worry, if you are unlucky then, I'll help you with it."

"Fart! You stand up for everything, who do you think you are? Atlas? (the Titan god who propped up the sky in Greek mythology) Do you need to stand up for this kind of thing?" Joseph said with a face full of disdain , "You just throw this plan to them, and put the pressure on them first!"

"Then they will definitely retreat. Because they really don't have that much money."

"At that time, you said that this plan can be divided into stages. First, verify the most critical and most likely successful plan. If it succeeds, then you can get a 50% discount. If it is not successful...they will also look at the plan. After it has been passed, discussed, and approved, we have no responsibility, understand!"

Kano was stunned, and after a while, he nodded and said, "That's not bad, let's do it like this! Well, where do you think the new shipyard should be placed?"

"It's better to put it on the Mediterranean. Anyway, Spain is also one of our smuggling targets. Moreover, the speed of the ship we envisioned will definitely affect other performances. Including part of the nautical performance. First use these things in the Mediterranean, Relatively speaking, it is safer."

...

A day later, at the meeting of the National Salvation Committee, Kano sprayed all the misers including Robespierre, and finally let the National Salvation Committee pass the new research plan. Immediately afterwards, Joseph received an order to go to Toulon to build the "Naval Technical Branch of the Military Technical Research Institute" there.