Fox of France

"A model? What does that mean?" asked Napoleon.

"I saw the report of that cute 'crazy'." Joseph said, "There is enough information in it. Well, suspended at a certain depth underwater, once it is hit, it will explode... Hehe, look From this description, I have a general idea of ​​what it is. This thing is very simple, and there is no difficulty at all except for the creativity. And this creativity is directly reflected in the shape. People who know how to do it, take a look If you look at the shape, you will know what it is. Or, do you have a pen and paper here? I can draw one for you right now."

Napoleon took out a piece of paper and at the same time handed over a charcoal pencil for sketching. Joseph took the pen and paper, brushed a few strokes, and drew a sketch.

"The painting is really ugly!" Napoleon frowned. "When it comes to painting, Lucien is much better than you. Besides, this thing is ugly enough."

"Look, Napoleon, under this thing is an anchor chain. To make it hide in the water at any depth, you only need to adjust the length of the anchor chain. The sphere itself is a buoy filled with explosives. These tentacles The same bump is the trigger fuze. Well, the fuze is pretty simple, too."

"Quite simple?" Napoleon said, "I remember that not long ago you postponed the development of the trigger fuze indefinitely because of the difficulty in developing the trigger fuze and its poor reliability. Now you say the trigger fuze is very simple?"

"That's because what we just postponed is the trigger fuze for the shell. Can these two things be the same thing? If this trigger fuze is placed in the shell, the acceleration when it is fired is enough to make it explode in the shell. The inside of the tube exploded. Could this be a thing? I could draw one in less than a minute for a low-demand trigger fuze like this.

Well, you see, the tentacles, which are made of lead, are relatively soft, and they will bend and deform when they are hit hard. And inside this tentacles, is a glass bottle filled with sulfuric acid. Below the glass bottle is a set of batteries lacking electrolyte, the positive and negative terminals of which are connected to a set of electric detonators. As long as the tentacles are hit, the lead shell will bend and deform, the glass bottle inside will shatter, and then the sulfuric acid will flow out, and then the battery will generate an electric current, which will drive the electric detonator, and then it will explode—— It's just too easy. "

Napoleon was not surprised that Joseph was able to come up with such a plan that sounded no problem so quickly, because he knew that the research institute of the military-industrial complex had conducted some feasibility studies on the trigger fuze, although this The feasibility study did not continue, but in the process, a series of questionable designs must have been shot down. But now, the fuze scheme drawn by Joseph in two strokes should be a certain scheme that was shot down before, at most it should be changed a little bit.

"Well, let's get the model out as soon as possible, and then we can find a way to let the British spies take a look..." Napoleon said.

"Where is the need for such trouble?" Joseph said, "Isn't the Ministry of Foreign Trade organizing the first Paris Import and Export Commodities Fair? Just drag it there, and display and sell it together with other weapons."

"Well, that's a good idea," said Napoleon. "I hope this thing will calm the British a little."

"Napoleon." Joseph looked at Napoleon in surprise and said, "I thought you were looking forward to a war?"

"War is a means to glory, not an end." Napoleon said, "I don't necessarily like war so much as long as peace brings us glory."

Of course, although Napoleon said this, Joseph knew that Napoleon is so peace-loving now because of last year's bumper harvest, which allowed Napoleon to gain wider support from farmers. And if peace can continue this year, with the improvement of the water conservancy system, a bumper harvest this year can also be expected.

The bumper harvest has given farmers a better life and urban workers more and cheaper bread, which will surely boost his popularity further. Now in France, more and more people are shouting long live to him. As long as this trend does not change, how could Napoleon not love peace?

Speaking of the Paris Import and Export Fair held by the Ministry of Foreign Trade, it was already under preparation a few months ago, and the venue was chosen outside Paris leading to Versailles. This area was originally the property of the nobles, but it was confiscated by the revolutionary government during the revolution.

In the original history, in order to become emperor, Napoleon tried to compromise with these old nobles, allowing them to return to the country, and returned part of their property to those old nobles who had returned. But in this time and space, Napoleon's line does not need to compromise with these people at all, so these lands are still public lands owned by the government.

Napoleon sold those lands at low prices to ex-soldiers to gain control of the countryside. In this area, more land was reserved as the land for various facilities of the future "Roman Empire". Today, the location of the Paris Import and Export Fair is the location of the Civic Square that Napoleon prepared for the future "Roman Empire".

A few months ago, this was a wasteland. However, the investment of two new technologies has made the environment here change rapidly.

The first technology is cement.

Cement technology was not first developed by the French. In 1756, British engineer J. Smeaton discovered when studying the properties of certain limes hardened in water: to obtain hydraulic lime, limestone containing clay must be used for firing; The masonry mortar used for underwater construction is ideally composed of hydraulic lime and volcanic ash.

On this basis, in 1796, the British J. Parker fired the so-called "Roman cement" with marl. However, due to the high requirements for marl, it has not been widely used.

Originally, it was not until 1824 that the British Joseph Aspodin fired the so-called Portland cement (that is, Portland cement) with limestone and clay, and cement was widely used.

However, now that there is Joseph, who is determined to be hated by future generations of students, cement, which has limited technical content, but has a wide range of uses, and has a huge effect, of course, will first be released in France.

And Napoleon is also very fond of cement, because this thing can not only be used to build a strong fortress, but also can quickly build wonders at a very low cost.

All the "great rulers" or "famous tyrants" with a little bit of aura, one counts as one, they are all spectacle fans. No race, no age, no culture. From Khufu in Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon; from Zulong in the Great Qin Dynasty to the prodigal son in the Sui Dynasty; from Suryavarman II in the Angkor Dynasty to Shah Jahan in India . All spectacle lovers. Of course, to varying degrees, they have verified a "famous saying" of later generations: Your Majesty, the spectacle is detrimental to the country!

Although Napoleon was also very fond of spectacle, he was familiar with history and naturally knew the rule of "spectacles harming the country". So I have been working hard to restrain the desire of "let's hammer a spectacle".

In the wars against England, Prussia and Austria, Napoleon captured a lot of cannon. At that time, Napoleon wanted to imitate the Rhode Islanders, using captured enemy weapons, melting them down and building a spectacle. (In the original history, this was Napoleon's triumphal column) However, this idea was ruthlessly destroyed by his elder brother. Captured enemy weapons were indeed melted down, but turned into wires or something.

But with the advent of cement, Napoleon once again saw the possibility of building wonders, and at a very cheap price. Think about it, the wonders of ancient Rome were built with huge piles of stones. Each stone had to be excavated, cut, transported, and stacked. I don’t know how much manpower and material resources it will cost. But if it is replaced by cement, it is really much easier.

The second technology is of course steel. With steelmaking technology, there is steel bar. With cement, there is reinforced concrete. Because the business of the first steel mill was very good, the second steel mill of the Lorraine Steel Company was put into operation soon. Then as long as the funds can keep up, there will be a third steelmaking plant and a fourth steelmaking plant.

Since Joseph and Napoleon mentioned the advantages of reinforced concrete construction technology, Napoleon's dream of spectacle, which had been temporarily dead, began to "spring again". It's just that Joseph kept emphasizing that steel can make money, and it should be used where it can make money, so he temporarily held down the idea of ​​​​the spectacle of Napoleon's hammer.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Trade's plan for the Paris Import and Export Fair finally allowed Napoleon to find a reasonable and legal opportunity to hammer the spectacle.

Napoleon personally took the lead, recruited a group of artists and architects, and designed a large market full of ancient Roman flavor. If there was no reinforced concrete, this design Napoleon estimated that the project would take decades to complete, but with After calculating these things, if the supply of materials can keep up, the first phase of the project can be hammered out in a few months. Of course, the more important thing is that the matter of hammering this big market has been unanimously agreed by Joseph and Lucien.

Today, the first phase of the project of the big market has basically been completed, and only the final decoration is left, and the first Paris Import and Export Commodities Fair will officially open here in a month.