According to Lucien's later description of the two British counter-espionage organizations in his memoirs, both the Sixth Investigation Bureau of the Army and the Wang's counterintelligence investigation team were not particularly specialized in how to conduct effective espionage activities, at least at first. It is precisely because they are not proficient in how to effectively carry out espionage work that they often fail to grasp the key points when it comes to counter-espionage.

"There are too many traces of the police department in these two departments, and their past experience of dealing with petty theft and the like has only bound them, and they are even immersed in their own past experience, and they are very clumsy when faced with the challenge of a new style. And when they try to carry out intelligence work abroad, they often do this, so they cheapen the guys from the Ministry of Public Security - in fact, the guys from the Ministry of Public Security have the same problems as the British in many places...... (The complaint against the Ministry of Public Security that cannot be written on a whole piece of paper is omitted later)" - "Memoirs of Lucien Bonaparte"

On the whole, Lucien's assessment of the British intelligence agencies is relatively objective, at least more reliable than his assessment of the French Ministry of Public Security. In the imagination of the British, French spies would sneak into factories and inspect their equipment; Or disguise yourself as a worker or something to sneak into the factory and get information; Or even use money, beautiful women to corrupt some key people, so that these guys become traitors to the United Kingdom...... To be honest, the latter one, the French do, but it's not the main means of obtaining information for the Ministry of Truth.

The Ministry of Truth has a very open and honest approach to obtaining information. That is, through various legal means, collect all kinds of data, and then compare and analyze them. In the Ministry of Truth, the department with the largest number of personnel and the largest consumption of funds is the department that does this kind of work.

The first is information on the procurement and price of various types of materials. The British knew almost nothing about what the French could learn from this kind of information, so naturally it was impossible to keep it a secret from here, so the Ministry of Truth received the first important information from the procurement of various materials alone:

There is no evidence that the British procured any of the materials needed for experiments in the production of alkaline refractories; Therefore, it is inferred that the British may still be using acid refractories.

In addition, the spies of the Ministry of Truth also obtained some slag from the Langley Iron Works through commercial means. At that time, the slag was often used as waste for paving and other things. As a result, steel mills tend to sell this slag to companies that need it. In this way, the people of the Ministry of Truth easily obtained some slag from Langley Iron Works, and after chemical analysis of these slags, the various aspects of the British's steelmaking technology were almost completely revealed.

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

"As we had expected, the British steelmaking furnaces were lined with acid. In other words, when they make steel, they pick ore very much, and if it is the ore of our Lorraine iron mine, then they can only smelt a lot of scrap steel. However, the iron ore of England, alas......" Joseph sighed, "to say that the luck of the British is good, the iron ore in England has a much lower sulphur content than ours, so they can really rely on acid steelmaking furnaces to make steel." Judging from the things on this information, the quality of their steel will not be too good, but it can be used. ”

"And what about the cost of their steelmaking?" Napoleon asked. For now, that's the most important question.

"The cost should be higher." "Based on the amount of steel slag processed, we can infer their output, their furnace is too small, the output is small, and the cost is naturally high. Anyway, even their pig iron is just as 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, let alone our open-hearth furnaces. That's really ...... Well, the representatives of the British's business negotiators should have already come, right? ”

"Tomorrow a British business delegation will arrive in Paris. Do we need to reveal a little bit 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 at a much higher cost than us, and let him know that we want to occupy the domestic steel market in Britain through 'free trade', so that their own steel industry can only be used for military purposes." Napoleon said, "Also, Lucien, you have to keep an eye on the technological progress of the British, and our strategy is that where the English have made a breakthrough, we will put something a little better than him on the market, so that their investment will never get a sufficient return in the market."

Also, Joseph, what about your mission? Britain was able to keep up quickly, to follow us closely in terms of technology, because they had Cambridge and Oxford. I remember that you told me that we could weaken the scientific research capabilities of the countries of the world, including the British, with a little bit of scientific and technical level, by various means. Joseph, how are you doing? ”

"You still have to worry about my affairs?" Joseph rolled his eyes and said, "When will it be your turn to check on my affairs?" ”

Having said that, Joseph said: "The situation in the UK is a little better now, and other countries, hehe, the University of Paris, have increased their enrollment by more than 20 percent every year in recent years. This is especially true for some science and engineering disciplines. Where do the large numbers of students come from? With the exception of France, the rest are from other European countries. The number of international students has been increasing at a rate of 40 or 50 percent every year in recent years. Because it is impossible for other countries to offer so many employment opportunities for graduates, the vast majority of these international students who come to France, especially those studying science and engineering disciplines, will stay in France.

In addition, our companies also support education in European countries in the name of philanthropy, and we have established more than 20 universities in Italy, the Rhine region, as well as Prussia and Austria. These universities are funded by us so that we are able to provide full scholarships to gifted students whose families are relatively poor.

Well, this scholarship is even called the 'Napoleonic Scholarship'. Those who are poor, but gifted, can complete their studies without spending a penny and even get the opportunity to study at the University of Paris if they apply on their own and are recommended by their teachers. In return, of course, they have to work for a certain number of years in the companies that have funded them after graduation – now we have a tentative five-year period – taking into account the fact that, given their age at the time of graduation, they will most likely have a family in France. And once they have established a family in France, it is basically impossible for them to leave France. Besides, the guys who studied polytechnic and left France, most of them will be useless heroes. ”

Napoleon was visibly pleased to hear the name of the scholarship, but he asked again: "Well, Joseph, why didn't you tell me beforehand that this scholarship is named after me?" ”

"I'm busy with work." Joseph said, "Besides, don't you just use your name?" What does this have to do with you? Need to tell you? Can you use such trouble? If you don't want to, then change to Lucien's name. Lucien, do you have an opinion? ”

"No, no, I don't have a problem with that." Napoleon hastened to speak, glaring at Lucien and signaling him not to talk nonsense.

"Wouldn't that be fine?" "In addition, we intend to award in the name of the French Academy of Sciences to scientists from all over the world who have made great contributions to science, once a year, with a prize of 500,000 francs, which is relatively exaggerated, but certainly has a great advertising effect." We plan to divide the prize into four categories: mathematics, physics, chemistry, and medicine, well, the name of the prize is ......"

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 is a symbol of scientific exploration and the opening up of civilization, so it is wonderful to use his name." Well, Napoleon, what do you think? ”

"I ...... You ask me if I approve of it, and of course I do. Well, 'I have made death no longer known to men, I have put in their hearts the hope of the eyes, and besides, I have given them fire'" Napoleon recited two more lines from the tragedy "Prometheus Bound".

"Then it's decided." Joseph said.

Napoleon was a little unwilling, but he knew that this award, if it was really to be named after a person, Joseph was clearly more qualified than him.

"Also, I did a 'University Science Ranking'." "Basically, it is based on the number of papers published by scholars from various universities in Nature, the journal of the French Academy of Sciences, and the number of papers cited," Joseph added. - Because there are often major breakthroughs in Nature, and because the manuscript fee is very high, I don't know how high it is compared to magazines in other countries, even scholars from foreign schools are willing to publish their findings in Nature - based on this ranking, the University of Paris certainly has an overwhelming advantage, but the two schools of the British also perform well. This is a good thing, and it shows that the authority of Nature has been recognized, including by the British.

Then we put the openness, that is, the number of foreign students accepted and the number of foreign professors as a reference standard, and our French universities have an even more obvious advantage over schools in other countries. I'm sure it won't be long before universities across 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 Angsa people used this trick to rank the University of Melbourne, the University of Singapore, and the University of Hong Kong in front of the University of Tokyo, which had 11 Nobel Prize winners. Then he leaned on this fiercely and played a trick of using other countries as fish ponds.

For a long time, almost all of the most outstanding students in the Red Rabbit Country were fished out by them. If it weren't for the fact that they themselves embarked on the evil path of deindustrialization, which led to the lack of jobs in China to accommodate engineering talents from all over the world, I am afraid that this situation would continue. And until Joseph crossed over, one of the world's largest democracies was still showing Ah Mei you as a fish pond, and was proud of how many big fish in the American corporations had fished out of their pond as the highest level of wage earners. So Joseph always has a kind of wariness from his previous life for guys who play finance. But for Ah Mei, you are full of admiration for your experience in fishing.

Napoleon listened and nodded. Joseph's plan was perfect, and in general, there was really nothing to dwell on in Joseph's business. It's just that many times, he doesn't understand how his brother's head grows.

"Generally speaking, a person's brain power and energy are limited. Especially scientific research, what a mental and even physical draining thing it is! Look at Gauss, Joseph's assistant, what a non-human guy that guy is, his mind is so fast that it's almost ...... But even Gauss was so exhausted in his research work that even the simplest problems of life often went wrong.

But what about Joseph, this guy has to do scientific research, military research, business, and political intrigue. What's more, he can play any of them to an astonishing height. Scientifically, it has been said that he is the greatest scientist since Newton; Militarily, Napoleon also had to admit that this guy changed the face of the entire war; Speaking of doing business, he now controls the largest consortium in the world, and his tentacles have reached every corner of the world; As for playing conspiracy - of course this bastard will never admit that he is playing conspiracy, he shamelessly declares that he is playing above board strategy, like playing chess, never hiding it, making every move clear to the opponent, and then letting him be checkmated in desperation - for example, the one just now, is very much in this style. Fortunately, when this guy actually played chess, he didn't have such a level, which was almost his most obvious flaw. You say, this guy, why is he so unscientific? Fortunately, this guy is my eldest brother, and his surname is Bonaparte like me......"

Just as Napoleon was bored with these silly thoughts, Joseph spoke again.

"Lucien, the selection of the first Prometheus Award is about to begin, and you have to make this matter hot, not only in academic circles, not just in the circle of decent people, but also in the whole of Europe, everyone knows about it, everyone is talking about it, even if he is illiterate who doesn't even know a word! Can it be done? ”

"If you raise the prize to a million francs, there will be no problem at all." Lucien said, "Although 500,000 is also a big number, compared with 1 million, the shock is much worse. ”

Lucien's statement certainly makes sense. Indeed, 500,000 is already a big number, and ordinary people will never 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 ever heard of "half a millionaire"? An award can turn a person into a millionaire in one fell swoop, which is much more exciting than a "half a millionaire".

"A prize of four million at once? That's not impossible, but it will require Napoleon to allocate more money to the Academy of Sciences. Joseph said.

"Ah, this question ......" Napoleon felt that it was better not to decide so hastily when it came to small money, but to think about it carefully, well, this matter needs to be carefully considered.

"You guys are stupid!" Lucien said disdainfully, "Joseph, do you remember the story you told about the Indian monkey keeper?" That is, three apples in the morning and four apples in the evening; Or give four apples in the morning and three apples in the evening? ”

Joseph paused for a moment.

"I'll tell you the story. This kind of monkey trick that Indians will do, you don't know? We can completely stagger the four awards, well, this year's mathematics and physics, next year's medicine and chemistry, so that we only have to give out two prizes every year, and the total prize money each year is originally two million, isn't that the grand prize money million? And although this has become a biennial issue, it still maintains the annual awards, and it is popular every year. Look, how good that is! You guys, you can't even play monkeys, it's so stupid, it's too ......" Lucien suddenly became proud.

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

"Lucien is just so clever." Napoleon dismisses the authentic. However, although his tone was dismissive, he did not express any objection. Apparently Napoleon himself thought it would be nice to do so.

Lucien's proposal was swiftly adopted. Then the capable Lucien immediately rushed back to his place of office, a luxurious office in the Moulin Rouge, and began to arrange things related to it.