Fox of France

The rest of the trip went smoothly, but everyone was hungry and panicked. So considering that the British usually just lie down and don't have to work, they are relatively energy-efficient, so the French reduced the amount of food for the British by another third. In this way, ten days later, when Morrell and the others dragged the British steamer into the port of Kamare, several of the British who were locked in the cabin had starved to death. The rest, except for the technician who was locked in a cabin alone and was taken care of by someone, were too hungry to stand up.

Of course, the French would not admit that those Britons who died of starvation died of starvation. They attributed the deaths of those people to complications after injury.

Kamare Port is just a fishing port, and there is no specialized ship repair yard. But here, at least the news that the British ship was captured can be spread quickly.

Joseph got the news while having lunch. At this time, Napoleon was in Paris all day long to rectify the order of the country, trying hard to establish a military government whose tentacles could extend all the way to the village. Yes, Napoleon's government was essentially a military government. In France, only the aristocrats had previously been able to extend their tentacles to the countryside. Now that the nobles no longer exist, Napoleon hopes to take advantage of the army's recovery and make those veterans become organizers in the village.

Napoleon's thinking in this way is of course feasible. Most of those veterans, especially those who were discharged from Napoleon's army, earned a lot of money outside. When they return to the village, they can buy land cheaply under the preferential treatment of the government's policies. All of a sudden, they became the wealthy class in the countryside. Before returning, these people also joined the so-called "Veteran Association". Even after retiring, they still kept in touch with each other and maintained their organization. This is the political force that supported Napoleon.

As for Lucien, he is busier than Napoleon now. As the minister of the "Ministry of Truth", his main job now is to establish a set of propaganda agencies for "propagating the truth".

The propaganda organization in Lucien's plan includes two parts, one part is the propaganda organization directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Truth, and they are mainly responsible for external propaganda. In the last war, France won the right to conduct comprehensive free trade in the Netherlands, Belgium, the Rhine Federation, and Prussia. This "free trade" includes opening news agencies and sending reporters.

Lucien intends to set up a European Free Press Agency, which will be responsible for interviewing various news, and after verifying its truth, provide various news to newspapers in those countries, so that the people of all European countries can understand the truth of France and the first ruling’s respect for the people of all countries. kindness and love. At the same time, "Scientific Pravda" will also open branches in these countries, and issue various language versions of newspapers for various regions.

Of course, "Scientific Pravda" is too political, and sometimes it is not good for deceiving people—ah, no, it is not good for people to accept the truth subtly. Therefore, in addition to "Scientific Pravda", Lucien also intends to establish a group of "XXX Kommersant" through indirect control to spread the truth in a more euphemistic way.

As for the country, Lucien intends to use a more subtle method to control public opinion. On the one hand, establish an official Press and Publication Administration, and formulate corresponding laws and regulations—of course, these laws and regulations are used to "protect freedom of speech."

On the other hand, through the "Military-Industrial Complex" using hidden funding, create or control a group of newspapers, and then use these newspapers to unite to form a "French News Agency" to monopolize the source of news.

Of course, if it was just these things, Lucien wouldn't be so busy. But recently, a certain industry in Paris has created a new event - "Miss Paris". This also happened to be within the scope of affairs that Lucien was in charge of. As a result, this event that the majority of the people liked to see in the news took up all the little time Lucien had left.

As for Louis, he is still studying at the University of Paris. For the convenience of attending classes, he now lives in Paris. As for Jerome, he is still in middle school. Researchers in the military-industrial complex often have children who are about the same age as Jerome, or even younger, so they built a school for children near the research institute, and Jerome is here. read.

In fact, Jerome very much hopes to go to the schools in Paris to study, because it can avoid Joseph's inspection of homework. Jerome is very suspicious now that his brother will check his homework every time he is too tired to refresh his mind.

At noon that day, Joseph had been busy all morning, and was planning to check Jerome's homework to refresh his mind. Just said: "Jerome, you this morning..." Fanny and her secretary Pauline came together. Jerome immediately shouted as if he had found a lifebuoy: "Brother, I just showed Sister Fanny about my homework this morning. Sister Fanny said it's all right."

While speaking, Jerome turned his head and winked at Fanny.

"Yes, I've seen it, and it's all right," said Fanny.

"Ah, since that's the case, let's eat first." Joseph sat down at the edge of the table, Fanny's face still needs to be taken care of, "Well, Paulina, you have fun with Fanny Bar?"

"What do you mean by playing? I am working seriously." Polina immediately retorted with her eyes widened. Compared with her younger brothers, Joseph has always been more conniving towards her younger sisters, so Polina is not like her younger brother. They were so afraid of Joseph.

"Joseph, Paulina has helped me a lot." Fanny said, "We are not here just to eat, we just received a report that a smuggling ship captured a British steam warship during the battle, Many British people were also captured, including a technician."

This news immediately caught Joseph's attention.

"They captured a British steam warship? How is the warship now? Is it under control?" Joseph asked.

"They asked for 50,000 francs. I think this price is acceptable. In fact, we can also ask the French government to come forward and give him a commendation. I checked the information of this Morel. Cultivate value. I have asked people to inform the people over there to buy the British ship." Fanny replied, "It is also said that the ship was seriously damaged and it is not convenient to transfer it immediately. And the ship is now In Kamare. Kamare is just a fishing port and has no maintenance capabilities. Moreover, if the British know about this matter, Kamare Port does not have any defensive equipment. They can come directly and completely destroy the ship .So I suggest that we organize personnel to survey and map the ship as soon as possible to get first-hand technical information." Fanny suggested.

"Well, we need to send someone there immediately." Joseph nodded, "Let's eat first, and draw up a list immediately after eating..."

Morrel got fifty thousand francs from the military-industrial complex, and he handed over the steamboat, and the British, to the military-industrial complex, and got a medal from the government.

The Bourbon Dynasty originally established various medals of honor such as the Order of St. Michael, the Order of the Holy Spirit, and the Order of St. Louis. After the revolution, these things were abolished by the government of the First Republic because of their obvious feudal and bourbon smell. For a time thereafter, the rewards for meritorious deeds became monetary or token weapons of honor.

But this kind of recognition is far less effective than a medal. (Mainly because it costs more than medals) So after the first ruling came to power, the medal system began to be restored. Some Secondary School students especially like to imitate Napoleon of the Roman Empire, so they announced the establishment of a "Legion of Honor" that imitates the Roman Empire institutionally, and its members are those who have won medals.

What Morrell got was only the lowest order of knighthood (the knights here are not the knights of the later feudal period, but the cavalry composed of wealthy citizens in the Roman Empire.), but it is enough for Morrell proud of it. You know, during the Bourbon dynasty, civilians like Morrell would never get such things as medals.

After receiving the money, Morell returned to Roscoff with his boat missing one mast, where he repaired it and sought compensation from the local insurance company.

The insurance company's men went on board and registered the damage on board. Ten days later, Morrell got a reply from the insurance company. The insurance company can provide compensation for the mast replacement of their ships, but regarding the loss of cargo, the insurance company believes that these losses are not within the scope of the policy.

Of course, Morel protested, so the insurance company took out the contract, turned to the appendix at the back, and then used his profound knowledge of French grammar and law to let Morel's understanding of French go up to a higher level. , and then... well... Morrel still couldn't get compensation for the loss of goods.

While Morrell was desperately arguing with the insurance company guys, Joseph also got the technical data about the British steam warship sent back from Kamare.

"Well, using two steam engines to jointly push two paddle wheels, the paddle wheel is not easy to use, and the paddle wheels are distributed on both sides, which is an obvious weakness... plus a sail auxiliary power of a mast... …well, the mast was placed too close to the boiler and was damaged in the boiler explosion, who designed that?"

After carefully studying the data of the British steam warships, Joseph finally came to a conclusion: "The technology of the British really cost us 50,000 francs."