Lucien's justification was understood and supported by Joseph to a certain extent, but he did not escape the punishment of Joseph and Napoleon. The reason is naturally "no respect for the elders".

"For such a big matter, you didn't discuss it with us first? You say, "Are you bold?" Or is it so arrogant that you lose the right judgment of yourself? Well, you can choose one of these two judgments......"

"Joseph, I'm ......" Lucien's face turned pale.

"Joseph, Monsieur Lavoisier has sent something here." At this time, Fanny suddenly pushed open the door and walked in.

Joseph frowned, but put aside the Lucien affair first. After all, Lavoisier's sudden delivery of something must have been a very important thing. "Is it ......" Joseph's heart jumped.

"What is it?" Joseph asked.

"Right here, see for yourself." Fanny took out the hand behind her back, and a small shiny steel ingot appeared in front of Joseph.

Joseph took the little ingot, looked at it carefully, picked up a paper cutter from the table, and made sure that it was indeed steel and not wrought iron, and became more and more excited.

"You're lucky today," said Joseph, turning to Lucien, "I'm too busy with you bastard." You yourself go to Napoleon. ”

In fact, since the brothers had become their own leaders, Joseph had rarely actually punished them with "family law".

After blasting Lucien away, Joseph immediately arranged for a carriage and rushed to Lorraine.

Three months earlier, Lavoisier had completed an experiment in his laboratory near Paris in which hot air was blown into a converter and had succeeded in developing a furnace of steel. Although the quality of the steel in that furnace is not particularly ideal, especially at low temperatures. But in any case, this thing is also steel, and in any case, it is much stronger than copper and iron.

Joseph knew that and still was a problem with the phosphorus and sulfur content in steel. The phosphorus content of Lorraine's iron ore is still too high to be removed even by steelmaking furnaces made of alkaline refractory bricks. Of course, if you give more time, do more experiments, and adjust the slag raw materials and processes, you can further improve the quality of steel, but ......

"We can't wait, we're consuming too much money right now, and now we urgently need a product that can recoup the money quickly. Moreover, as long as it is not used at the limit, isn't the steel itself sufficient? After receiving the news of the initial success of the experiment, Joseph immediately terminated the follow-up experimental funding, and instead demanded that the existing technology be commercialized immediately, and that a real, commercial steel mill be established immediately.

Lavoisier also agreed with this decision, because it meant that the project was starting to make money, and he could get his own estate. So when it came to the rapid industrialization of steelmaking technology, he was even more anxious than Joseph.

Lavoisier himself went to Lorraine, where he supervised the construction of the first modern steel plant.

Obviously, the faster the steel mill is built and put into operation, the greater the benefits for the military-industrial complex. So for the sake of speed, a lot of things were difficult to take into account, and as a result, just a month later, the steel mill was built. And this is still the reason why Joseph boasted to Napoleon that he could immediately make a large pile of steel, as well as steel artillery.

However, as the so-called speed is not reached, and the rush to meet the deadline has caused a series of problems. When the furnace was first running, a major accident occurred, and the operating steelmaking converter collapsed due to a defect in construction, causing a fire.

The military-industrial complex suffered no small losses in this fire. In this fire, hundreds of workers died, more than a dozen engineers, and if it had not happened to be sick to the stomach, went to the toilet, Lavoisier himself would have almost confessed to it. Of course, as long as Lavoisier didn't have an accident, some of the workers died, and some of Lavoisier's assistants or something. It's not too much of a deal.

But in the fire, all kinds of facilities in the steel mill were basically burned down. This made a month almost completely wasted. This, in the eyes of those bigwigs of the military-industrial complex, is the real greatest loss.

Because of the delay in rebuilding, it was only recently that the plant began to be put into trial operation. Joseph also issued a special ban on Lavoisier from entering the factory during the test run. Of course, the last accident also completely discouraged Joseph from personally presiding over the official commissioning of the steel plant.

It is precisely because of these things that the steel mill has been delaying until not long ago to start trial production. Before that, the iron-making blast furnaces that had been built had been in operation for several months. And some of the supporting factories also stopped there and waited for the steel. And every minute of waiting means a huge waste.

Joseph arrived in Lorraine four days later. As soon as he arrived in Lorraine, he went to Lavoisier.

"What's the situation now, how much is the daily production?"

"It's about the same as expected." "If nothing else, we can produce about 10 tonnes a day, or 3,650 tonnes of steel a year," Lavoisier said. But you know it's impossible, because it's impossible for the various settings to work all year round. It is inevitable that it will have to be shut down for maintenance, but even so, this factory can produce about 3,000 tons of steel a year. ”

"It's still not enough, it's not enough." Unlike Lavoisier, a steel mill with an annual output of about 3,000 tons was still too small in Joseph's eyes. You know, in his last life...... And there are still too many places where steel is needed today.

Joseph did not come here to see for himself how the molten steel was poured out of the furnace. After the fire, he didn't plan to go to the steel mill at all – even if he didn't mention the danger of fire, the heat, noise and exhaust pollution would be a huge health hazard.

The dangers of these things were not known in this era, but Joseph did. But even if he knew, he didn't do much to prevent it. Some of these are technical problems, such as the treatment of waste gas and wastewater, in this era, there is really no such technology, and there is not even the basis for the scientific theory required to develop such a technology.

Of course, fortunately, in this day and age, theories about the harm to human health caused by various kinds of pollution have not yet emerged. Even the basis for the emergence of these theories, whether in the sociological or natural sciences, has not yet appeared. Therefore, Joseph can be regarded as not knowing, and he is free to pollute as much as he wants.

Of course, there are some means of prevention, even with the technology of this era, which can be achieved. For example, masks to block dust, earplugs to protect hearing, etc. But this is to increase the cost, if it is for some valuable skilled workers or something, if it is only for general, you can recruit a worker on the street at any time, and prepare such a whole set of things, just from an economic point of view, it is really not necessary at all. Of course, there can be masks and earplugs for sale near the factory, and you can't buy them or not.

There are also all kinds of security training, which are really essential. Without this, some workers' honey manipulation could damage valuable machinery. However, too much training content will also increase the cost. Therefore, only the more advanced, have the opportunity to break the machine, and at the same time relatively stable workers working in the factory can be trained, and the main content of the safety training they receive is first of all how to protect the machine.

As for the general dry trailer and other strenuous work, although there are many risks in their work. But considering that they are free workers through and through, they are in this factory today, and they may go to that factory tomorrow, so even if they are trained in security, it will be a waste of increased costs. So, these people don't need any security training.

Joseph came here first to see that the factory was functioning efficiently and that the products could be produced with quality and quantity. Then, according to his plan, it was used where it was urgently needed.

The most urgent need for steel is, first of all, all kinds of machinery. Many of today's machines are made of cast iron for their moving parts. For example, the crankshaft of the steam engine, as well as the transmission parts of the loom and pumping machine, are all made of cast iron. Cast iron is much less strong than steel, so if it is not strong enough, it is easy to break and other problems, and if it is made strong enough, it will be too bulky and reduce mechanical efficiency. If you replace it with steel, there will be a huge improvement in reliability and efficiency.

But the production of steel was rather limited, and considering the speed of recovering costs, Joseph decided to use them first on steam engines, as well as on ore grinders. Then there were farm tools, and then all sorts of civilian things that could make money. As for the steel cannons and steel guns that Joseph had promised to Napoleon, it would be enough to build one or two seven or eight guns, and then make a military-technical fair, to scare and scare foreign governments, and by the way, to get enough money from foreign governments, of course, mainly foreign governments that do not pose a direct threat to France.

"The days when the British made a lot of money in Europe with the steam engine and textiles were coming to an end." Having determined that steelmaking had reached the point of mass production, he said to Napoleon, "Now is the time for us to begin to prepare for an economic counterattack against England." ”

"And how are you going to fight back against the British?" Napoleon said, "As soon as we have the upper hand in the steam engine and textiles, the British will immediately tear up the contract, and you will not immediately apply the latest technology to the army." By that time, how would you fight back against the British? ”

"You, Napoleon, you still have a lot of lessons to make up for financially." Joseph said disdainfully. "Let me ask you, in the previous period, the same business was very good, so what kind of social situation will arise?"

"Don't take me for a fool, I've read Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations." Napoleon said, "If this happens, there will naturally be more resources invested in the industry, and then there will be more and more companies that manufacture steam engines, as well as factories in the textile industry, and more and more people will participate in this industry and invest in this industry." Then the supply increases, the price will naturally fall, then the industry will not be so profitable, and then the capital will gradually leave the industry......"

"What are you talking about?" Joseph said, "I have said so much, but I don't get to the point at all. ”

"Then you say." Napoleon said.

"We first ceded the manufacture of steam engines and the textile industry," Joseph said, "to make these two industries the most important source of income in Britain." And then we're gradually knocking out their other industries. In this way, we have an advantage in other industries, and if they do not have a large deficit, they will have to increase their dependence on the manufacture of steam engines and the textile industry.

In such a situation, the situation will gradually become that they can only rely on these two industries, and all their economy is pressed on these two industries. In the meantime, those who have insight in England will surely discover the danger involved. They will surely speak out and try to stop this from happening, these people will try to sabotage the trade agreement with us, but what will those who are making money from the steam engine and the textile industry do? ”

Napoleon laughed, "Joseph, this is really a despicable and shameless conspiracy full of your taste. How can those who can afford to make money tolerate them to sabotage their own money? Machiavelli said that a man can easily forget who killed his parents, but he can never forget who deprived him of his wealth. In your words, it's 'to stand in the way of someone else's enrichment, and bring more hatred than killing their parents.' ’

And those who can make a fortune through these two things must be people with status and power. Where is their financial road so easy to block, and they are about to block hard, and we don't need to do it, and the British themselves will have internal problems first. But if it is not blocked. Once they're really done with these two things. Then let's tear up the agreement again, and their economy will be finished! ”

"Napoleon, why are we tearing up the agreement? All we need to do is threaten to tear up the agreement from time to time. "Also, do you know why I left the manufacture of textiles and steam engines to them?" ”

Napoleon thought for a moment and replied: "Textiles employ many workers, and if something goes wrong, it will lead to large-scale social unrest, and the steam engine, as long as we keep the secrets of steelmaking, they must rely on the raw materials we provide." When the time comes, any turmoil in the relationship with us will be fatal to them. ”

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