Fox of France

According to Lucien's later description of the two British anti-intelligence organizations in his memoirs, whether it is the Sixth Investigation Section of the Army or the Royal Anti-intelligence Investigation Team, they are not particularly professional in how to carry out effective espionage activities. —at least at first. Just because they are not proficient in how to effectively conduct espionage work, they often fail to grasp the key points when countering espionage.

"These two departments have too many traces of the police department. Their past experience in dealing with petty theft and the like has constrained them. When challenged, they seem very clumsy. And when they try to carry out intelligence work, they often take advantage of the guys from the Ministry of Public Security because of this-in fact, the guys from the Ministry of Public Security have the same problems as the British in many places... ... (The complaints against the Ministry of Public Security that cannot be written on a whole sheet of paper are omitted later)" - "Memoirs of Lucien Bonaparte"

In general, Lucien's evaluation of the British intelligence agencies is relatively objective, at least more reliable than his evaluation of the French Ministry of Public Security. In the imagination of the British, French spies would sneak into the factory and inspect the equipment of the factory; or disguise themselves as workers and sneak into the factory to obtain information; The guy becomes a traitor to the United Kingdom... To be honest, the latter kind, the French do, but it's not the Ministry of Truth's main means of obtaining information.

The means by which the Ministry of Truth obtains information is actually very aboveboard. That is to collect various data through various legal means, and then compare and analyze them. In the Ministry of Truth, the department with the largest number of personnel and the largest expenditure of funds is the department engaged in this kind of work.

The first is information on the procurement and prices of various materials. The British know almost nothing about how much the French can learn from this kind of information, so naturally they can't talk about keeping it secret from here, so just from the purchase of various materials, the Ministry of Truth got the first Important information:

There is no evidence that the British have purchased any materials required for the production of basic refractory experiments; therefore, it is inferred that the British may still be using acidic refractory materials.

In addition, the spies of the Ministry of Truth obtained some slag from the Langley Iron Works through commercial means. At that time, these slags were often used as waste materials for paving roads and so on. Therefore, steel mills often sell these slags to those enterprises that have such needs. Using this method, the people of the Ministry of Truth easily obtained some slag from the Langley Iron Works. After chemical analysis of these slags, the various conditions of the British steelmaking technology were almost fully revealed.

The slag from England was sent to the laboratory of Lorraine Steel, and after a few days the conclusions were sent to the brothers.

"As we expected before, the British steelmaking furnaces use acidic furnace linings. That is to say, when they make steel, they pick ore very much. If it is the ore of our Lorraine iron mine, then they You can only smelt a lot of scrap steel. However, British iron ore, alas..." Joseph sighed, "If you say the British are lucky, the sulfur content of British iron ore is much lower than ours , so they can really rely on acid steelmaking furnaces to make steel. Judging from the information on this document, the quality of their steel may not be very good, but it can be regarded as usable.”

"What about the cost of their steelmaking?" asked Napoleon. For now, this is the most important question.

"The cost should be relatively high." Lucien said, "Based on the amount of steel-making slag processed, we can infer their output. Their furnace is too small and the output is very small, so the cost is naturally high. In other words, even their pig iron, It was also surprisingly expensive, and on this basis, I guess..."

Lucien said a number, and then Napoleon leaned back, close to the thick backrest, and said: "What are the British doing? This cost is much higher than our earliest experimental furnaces, and even more Don't talk about comparing it with our open hearth. This is really... well, the representatives of the British business negotiations should have come, right?"

"A British business delegation will arrive in Paris tomorrow. Do we need to disclose some of our news to Talleyrand?" Lucien asked.

"You can tell him a little bit, but don't give him precise information. Just tell him that we know that the British can make steel, but the cost is much higher than ours, and let him know that we hope to occupy it through 'free trade'. In the British domestic steel market, it is enough for their own steel industry to be used only for military use." Napoleon said, "In addition, Lucien, you have to keep an eye on the technological progress of the British. Our strategies are that the British Wherever a breakthrough is made, we will put something a little better than his into the market, so that their investment will never be able to get enough returns in the market.

Also, Joseph, what about your mission? Britain can quickly catch up and closely follow us in terms of technology because they have Cambridge and Oxford. I remember, you told me that we can use various means to let people from all over the world, including the UK, with a little bit of scientific and technical level come to France, thereby weakening their scientific research capabilities. Joseph, how are you doing with this matter? "

"Do you still need to worry about my affairs?" Joseph rolled his eyes and said, "When is it your turn to check my affairs?"

Even though he said this, Joseph still said: "The situation in the UK is a little bit better now. In other countries, hehe, in recent years, the number of students enrolled at the University of Paris has increased by more than 20% every year. Especially some science and engineering This is especially true for subjects of different categories. Where do a large number of students come from? Except for those from France, the others are from other European countries. The number of international students has been increasing by 4 to 5% every year The rate of growth is 10. Because it is impossible for other countries to provide employment opportunities for so many graduates, most of these foreign students who come to France, especially those who study science and engineering subjects, will stay in France.

In addition, our subsidiaries also support education in European countries in the name of charity. We have successively established more than 20 universities in Italy, the Rhine region, Prussia and Austria. These universities have our financial support to provide full scholarships to gifted students from relatively poor families.

Well, the scholarship is even called the 'Napoleon Scholarship'. Those poor but gifted students can complete their studies without spending a penny, and even get the opportunity to study at the University of Paris, if they apply by themselves and are recommended by their teachers. Of course, in return, after graduation, they must enter the companies that have funded them and work for a certain number of years—now our tentative number of years is five years—this is taking into account, considering their age when they graduate, in such a For some time, they will probably start a family in France. And once they established a family in France, it was almost impossible for them to leave France. Besides, guys who study science and engineering, if they leave France, they will probably be useless as heroes. "

Hearing the name of the scholarship, Napoleon was obviously very happy, but he asked again: "Well, Joseph, this scholarship is named after me, why didn't you tell me in advance?"

"I'm busy with work." Joseph said, "Besides, didn't I just use your name? What does this have to do with you? Do I need to tell you? Is it so troublesome? If you don't want to, then change it to Lu Sian's name is ready. Lucien, do you have any objections?"

"No, no, I have no opinion on this at all." Napoleon said quickly, and at the same time gave Lucien a look, signaling him not to talk nonsense.

"Isn't that enough?" Joseph said, "In addition, we plan to, in the name of the French Academy of Sciences, award awards to scientists all over the world who have made great contributions to science. The awards are awarded once a year. Five hundred thousand francs is relatively exaggerated, but it will definitely bring about a huge advertising effect. We plan to divide the prizes into four projects: mathematics, physics, chemistry, and medicine. Well, the name of the prize is called..."

Napoleon immediately opened his eyes wide and sat up straight.

"It's called the 'Prometheus' award." Joseph said, "Prometheus brought the fire of civilization to the world, and it is a symbol of scientific exploration and civilization development, so it is really good to use his name. Hmm , Napoleon, what do you think?"

"I...you ask me if I agree with it, of course I agree. Well, 'I have made human beings no longer able to predict death, I have put blind hope in their hearts, and besides, I have given them fire' Napoleon read two more lines from the tragedy "Prometheus Bound".

"Then it's settled," said Joseph.

Napoleon was a little bit reconciled, but he knew that if this award really had to be named after a person, Joseph was obviously more qualified than him.

"Also, I also created a 'university scientific level ranking'." Joseph said again, "Basically based on the number of papers published by scholars from various universities in the journal "Nature" of the French Academy of Sciences over the years, and The number of citations of these papers is obtained. ——Because "Nature" often has major breakthroughs, and the manuscript fees are very high, which is much higher than that of journals in other countries. Therefore, even foreign Scholars at the school are also willing to publish their discoveries on "Nature" - the ranking based on this, of course, the University of Paris has an overwhelming advantage, but the two schools of the British are also doing well. This This is a good thing, showing that the authority of "Nature" has been recognized by the British.

Then we put openness, that is, the number of foreign students accepted and the number of foreign professors, as a reference standard. The advantages of our French universities over schools in other countries are even more obvious. I'm sure that it won't take long, and universities throughout Europe, including the British, will become our fish ponds. "

This is also a very common pattern in later generations. In Joseph's previous life, those Onsa people insisted on using this method to rank the University of Melbourne, the University of Singapore, and the University of Hong Kong ahead of the University of Tokyo, which has 11 Nobel Prize winners. Then relying heavily on this, they played tricks of using other countries as fish ponds.

For quite a long time, almost all the best students in the Chitu Kingdom were scooped up by them. If they hadn't embarked on the evil path of de-industrialization later on, there would not be enough jobs in the country to accommodate engineering talents from all over the world, I'm afraid this situation will continue. And until Joseph crossed over, the largest democratic country in the world was still showing me a fish pond, and it also regarded how many big fish were taken from their pond by American companies as the most senior wage earners And proud of it. Therefore, Joseph always has a kind of vigilance from his previous life for guys who play finance. But for Amei, you can admire her experience in fishing.

Napoleon listened and nodded. Joseph's plan is quite perfect. Generally speaking, within the scope of Joseph's business, there is really nothing that requires him to be long-winded. It's just that most of the time, he doesn't understand how his brother's head grows.

"Generally speaking, a person's brain power and energy are limited. Especially scientific research, it consumes brain power and even physical power! Look at Joseph's assistant, Gauss, how smart that guy is. Human guy, his thinking is so fast... But even Gauss almost exhausted his brainpower in research work, so that even some of the simplest problems in life often have problems.

But Joseph, this guy wants to engage in scientific research, military research, business, and political conspiracy. What's more terrible is that he can play anything to an astonishing height. In science, people have said that he is the greatest scientist since Newton; in military affairs, Napoleon has to admit that this guy has changed the face of the entire war; The consortium, his tentacles have extended to every corner of the world; as for playing conspiracies - of course this bastard will never admit that he is playing conspiracies, he shamelessly declared that all he plays are fair and honest strategies, just like playing chess, Never cover up, every step can be clearly seen by the opponent, and then let him be checkmate helplessly—for example, the set just now has this style. Fortunately, when this guy really played chess, he didn't have such a level, which was almost his most obvious flaw. You said, this guy, why is he so unscientific? Fortunately, this guy is my elder brother, and his surname is Bonaparte like mine..."

Just when Napoleon was idly thinking about these silly thoughts, Joseph spoke again.

"Lucien, the selection of the first Prometheus Award is about to begin. You need to make this matter popular, not only in the academic circle, but also in the circle of respectable people. Let’s do it, let’s get the whole of Europe, everyone knows about it, everyone is talking about it, even if he is illiterate and can’t even read the words! Can it be done?”

"If you increase the bonus to one million francs, there will be no problem at all." Lucien said, "Although five hundred thousand is a big number, compared with one million, the shocking effect is not so good." Too much."

Lucien's statement is of course reasonable. Indeed, 500,000 is already a big number, and most people will not be able to get such a large sum of money in a lifetime, or even a few lifetimes. But when people describe a person as rich, they still like to say that he is a "millionaire". Has anyone heard of "Half a Millionaire"? An award can turn a person into a millionaire at once, which is much more exciting than "500,000 millionaires".

"Issuing a bonus of four million yuan at once? That's not impossible, but it requires Napoleon to allocate more funds to the Academy of Sciences." Joseph said.

"Ah, this question..." Napoleon felt that it was better not to make a hasty decision when it comes to petty money, but to think carefully about it. Well, this matter needs to be carefully considered.

"You are so stupid!" Lucien said disdainfully, "Joseph, do you still remember the story about the man who raised monkeys in India? It was the one who gave three apples in the morning and four apples in the evening; or four apples in the morning?" Apple, three apples tonight?"

Joseph froze for a moment.

"Is this a story or do you tell me the story? You don't know how to play monkeys like Indians? We can completely stagger the four awards, um, mathematics and physics this year, and medicine next year And chemistry, so that only two bonuses are issued every year, and the total annual bonus is originally two million, isn't this the grand prize bonus of one million? And although it becomes a two-year bonus, it still maintains the annual bonus. There are awards every year, and there is enthusiasm every year. Look, how good it is! You guys, you can't even play monkeys, you are so stupid, so..." Lucien suddenly became proud.

"Napoleon, Lucien's trick seems really good. What do you think?" Joseph asked.

"Lucien is so smart." Napoleon said dismissively. However, although his tone was dismissive, he did not express any objection. Apparently Napoleon himself thought it was a good idea to do so.

So Lucien's proposal was quickly passed. Then Lucien, who was able to do more work, immediately rushed back to his office - a luxurious office in the Moulin Rouge, and began to arrange matters related to it.