The rest of the trip went well, but everyone was hungry. So considering that the British usually just lie down and don't have to work, and they are relatively energy-efficient, the French cut the amount of food for the British by one-third. Ten days later, when Morel and his tutelage of the British steamer entered the port of Camare, several of the Brits in their cabins had starved to death. The rest, except for the technician who had been kept alone in a cabin and cared for by a special person, were too hungry to stand up.

Of course, the French would not admit that the starving British died of starvation, and they attributed their deaths to complications from their injuries.

The port of Kamaré is only a fishing port and does not have a dedicated ship repair yard. But here, at least, the news of the capture of the British ships could be quickly spread.

Joseph got the news while he was having lunch. At this time, Napoleon spent all day in Paris putting order in order, trying to establish a military junta whose tentacles could extend all the way to the villages. Yes, Napoleon's government was essentially a military government. In France, previously only the tentacles of the aristocracy were able to extend into the countryside. Now that the aristocracy no longer existed, Napoleon wanted to take advantage of the recovery of the army and make the veterans the organizers of the village.

Napoleon's idea of this is, of course, somewhat feasible. Those veterans, especially those who were discharged from Napoleon's army, mostly earned a lot of money outside. When they returned to their villages, they were able to buy land cheaply under the preferential treatment of the government's policies. All of a sudden, they all became the wealthy class in the countryside. And these people also joined the so-called "veterans' association" before they went back, and even after retiring, they still kept in touch with each other and maintained the organization. This was the political power that supported Napoleon.

As for Lucien, he was now busier than Napoleon. As the head of the "Ministry of Truth", his main task now is to establish a propaganda apparatus for "propagating the truth".

The propaganda agencies in Lucien's plan consisted of two parts, one of which was directly under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Truth, and they were mainly responsible for external propaganda. In the last war, France was granted the right to conduct free trade in the Netherlands, Belgium, the Confederation of the Rhine, and Prussia, which included the establishment of news outlets and the dispatch of journalists.

Lucien intended to set up a European Free News Agency, which would be responsible for covering news and, after verifying its truth, to provide it to the newspapers of those countries, in order to make the peoples of Europe understand the truth of France and the benevolence and love of the First Consul for their peoples. At the same time, Scientific Pravda will also open branches in these countries and publish newspapers in various languages for each region.

Of course, Scientific Pravda is too political, and sometimes it's bad for deceiving—ah, no, for people to accept the truth imperceptibly. Therefore, in addition to "Scientific Pravda", Lucien also intends to establish a group of "xxx Kommersant" through indirect control, and spread the truth in a more tactful way.

Domestically, Lucien intends to adopt a more covert approach to controlling public opinion. On the one hand, an official press and publication administration should be established, and corresponding regulations should be enacted – all of which are of course used to "protect freedom of expression".

On the other hand, through the "military-industrial complex" using covert financing, a number of newspapers are created or controlled, and then through these newspapers, they unite to form a "French news agency" to monopolize the source of news.

Of course, if it were just these things, Lucien wouldn't be so busy. But recently, a certain industry in Paris has started a new event - the "Miss Paris Election". This also happened to be within the scope of Lucien's affairs. As a result, this matter that the vast number of people were happy to see in the press took up the little time that Lucien had left.

As for Louis, he is still studying at the University of Paris, and he now lives in the city of Paris for the convenience of his classes. As for Jérôme, who was still in secondary school, the families of the researchers of the military-industrial complex often had children about the same age or even younger than Jérôme, so a children's school was built near the institute, and Jérôme studied here.

In fact, Jérôme would have liked to go to the schools in Paris, because it would have avoided Joseph's inspections. Jérôme was now very suspicious that his brother would check his homework every time he was too tired to refresh himself.

At noon that day, Joseph had been busy all morning, and was about to check Jérôme's homework so that he could wake up. As soon as he said, "Jérôme, you ...... this morning," Fanny came with her female secretary, Pollina. Jérôme immediately shouted as if he had found a lifebuoy, "Big brother, I have just shown Sister Fanny my homework this morning." Sister Fanny said it was fine. ”

As he spoke, Jérôme turned his head and winked at Fanny.

"Yes, I've seen it, no problem." Fanny said.

"Ah, in that case, let's eat first." Joseph sat down at the table, Fanny's face still had to be taken care of for a while, "Well, Polina, are you having fun with Fanny?" ”

"What do you mean by playing? I'm serious about my work. Polina immediately widened her eyes and retorted, Joseph had always been more indulgent to his younger sisters than his younger brothers, so Polina was not as afraid of Joseph as her younger brothers.

"Joseph, Polina has helped me a lot." Fanny said, "We are not here now just for food, we have just received a report that a smuggling ship has captured a British steam warship during the battle, and has captured a number of Englishmen, including a technician. ”

The news immediately caught Joseph's attention.

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

"They asked for fifty thousand francs. I think the 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, this person is quite capable, and has a certain training value. I've had someone tell the people over there to buy the British ship. Fanny replied, "It is also said that the ship is so badly damaged that it is not convenient to move immediately." And that ship is now in Camare. Kamaré is just a fishing port and does not have any maintenance capacity. Moreover, if this matter is known to the British. The port of Kamaré is not defence-free. They could just come over and wreak havoc on the ship. So I suggest that we organize people to survey and map the ship as soon as possible to get first-hand technical information. Fanny suggested.

"Well, it's going to send someone right away." Joseph nodded, "Let's eat first, and draw up a list as soon as we finish eating......"

Morel received fifty thousand francs from the military-industrial complex, and gave the steamship and the Englishmen to the military-industrial complex, and received a medal from the government.

The Bourbon dynasty originally established various decorations of honor such as the Order of Saint-Michel, the Order of the Holy Spirit, and the Order of Saint-Louis. After the Revolution, these things were abolished by the First Republic government because of their obvious feudal and Bourbon smell. For some time thereafter, the commendation for those who established the merit became a monetary or symbolic weapon of honor.

But this kind of commendation is far less effective than medals. (mainly more expensive than medals) So after the first consul came to power, he began to restore the medal system. Some of them, especially fond of imitating Napoleon of the Roman Empire, announced the creation of an institutional "Legion of Honor" to imitate the Roman Empire, and its members were those who received medals.

Morel received only a knightly medal of the lowest rank (the knights here were not knights of the later feudal period, but cavalrymen of the Roman Empire, composed of wealthy citizens. But it was enough to make Morel proud. You know, during the Bourbon dynasty, a commoner like Morel would never get a medal like that.

After receiving the money, Morel returned to Roscoff with his ship, which was missing a mast, to repair it there and to seek compensation from the local insurance company.

Someone from the insurance company got on board and registered the damage on board. Ten days later, Morel received a reply from the insurance company that it could provide compensation for the replacement of the mast of their vessel, but with regard to the loss of cargo, the insurance company did not consider these losses to be covered by 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 deep knowledge of French and law to make Morrell's understanding of French go to a higher level, and then ...... Well...... Morel was still not compensated for the loss of the goods.

While Morel was desperate to continue arguing with the guys from the insurance company, Joseph also got the technical data about the British steam warships that had been sent back from Camare.

"Well, using two steam engines to jointly push two paddle wheels, paddle wheels are not easy to use, and paddle wheels are distributed on both sides, which is an obvious weakness...... Plus a mast for sail auxiliary power...... Well, the mast was arranged too close to the boiler and was damaged in the boiler explosion, who designed this? ”

After carefully studying the data of the British steam warships, Joseph finally came to a conclusion: "The British have spent fifty thousand francs on this technology." ”

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