Seeing Joseph and his party leave, Lucien let out a long sigh. He patted his chest and said, "It's okay, Joseph is in a hurry, okay, it's time to have a holiday, it's dawn!" ”

After saying this, he suddenly turned to Napoleon and asked, "Napoleon, you said that Joseph arrived in Toulon...... The incident of Polina in Toulon, there are almost no people in Toulon who do not know, will it be ......"

When Polina heard this, she also became nervous.

"All right," said Napoleon, "Joseph was a man of prudence and obedience. He's in charge of highly confidential matters, which in itself means he can't communicate with the locals casually. The only people who can deal with him in normal times are the researchers in the research institute and the soldiers in charge of security. The researchers were outsiders, and they didn't know about it. As for the soldiers, I have ordered that they are not allowed to say anything non-working to anyone who is engaged in research. In addition, I also told Joseph that on the Toulon side, because Cudon is not doing his job well, there are still many hidden dangers in safety, so it is better for him not to leave the institute if he is fine, how ...... Joseph is You also know how cautious you are, so you have another layer of insurance. Besides, his institute wasn't even in the real city of Toulon......"

"Napoleon, you are amazing!" Lucien gave Napoleon a thumbs up, "Now I can sleep in peace." ”

"Me too......," said Napoleon, "but Lucien, don't be too relaxed. According to the current system, every ten days, Joseph will have a day off, and Toulon and Marseille are so close that he may come back suddenly to check your homework. ”

Lucien shuddered, and then said, "At least not today, ah, I'm going back to sleep......"

As Napoleon had predicted, Joseph had little chance of interacting with the locals of Toulon. He didn't even go into the city, but went straight to a manor on the outskirts of the city.

The original owner of this manor has been sent to God by Cudon, and his manor has naturally been confiscated by the government of the Republic. There are quite a few estates like this in Toulon. When the "Naval Institute" needed a place, the estate was chosen because the conditions were the most suitable.

The so-called conditions are suitable, including the following points.

First of all, the estate does not produce much, and it is not harmful to use it as a laboratory. And not only is the estate close to the sea, but there is also a small cove near it, where a small pier has been built to facilitate experimentation and secrecy.

Once the location had been determined, all that remained was to remodel the manor, put a high wall on the outside, and prepare all kinds of supplies. These things were all prepared before Joseph arrived. Joseph's task now is to get this agency up and running as quickly as possible, and to quickly come up with one or two useful smuggling boats.

Joseph jumped into the work as soon as he arrived, completing the first prototype of the world's first clipper in just one week. The model was unanimously praised by the Navy's engineers after being experimented with in the pool.

This model is significantly different from other ships of this era, the first difference being that the ship is extremely slender. The length-to-width ratio of ships in this era is generally around 4, such as the British Royal Navy's battleship "Victory", the length-to-width ratio is only about 4.3, and if you count the length-to-width ratio of the waterline part, it is even only 3.8. Even for cruisers that pursue high speed, the aspect ratio is generally only about 4.6. But the waterline part of Joseph's model of the ship has a staggering 6.5 aspect ratio.

Because according to the empirical formula obtained by Joseph in the experiment, such an aspect ratio can greatly reduce the resistance; At the same time, a longer length means that the boat can accommodate more masts, hang more sails, and more sails means more power.

Less drag, combined with more power, naturally means higher speed. If Joseph's calculations were not in question, the ship should have been at least a third faster than the British cruiser in the same wind, making it almost impossible to capture such a ship at sea.

Of course, in order to achieve such performance, the boat was done very extremely, at great cost in many other ways.

The first is volume. Anyone who has studied a little geometry knows that the more slender the hull, the smaller the ratio of its volume to surface area, that is, with the same displacement, such a ship will have a much smaller volume and can carry much less cargo.

This kind of ship is equipped with more masts and more sails, which will make the center of gravity of the ship rise, the stability decreases, and to put it more clearly, it is easy to capsize. To solve this problem, the rest of the ship had to be lowered in height and had a deep V bottom, which on the one hand deepened the draft, and on the other hand, the ship would certainly have a serious upswing - its deck must be the wettest of all the boats. At the same time, it is necessary to add an extra-large anti-sway fin to the boat, and this thing also brings another extreme deterioration in performance, and that is the flexibility of the boat.

The boat's large aspect ratio would have made steering difficult, and with the huge sway reduction fins, its steering performance was reduced a bit, making the boat look particularly clumsy when turning. These defects have also been verified in pool experiments. All in all, it's an extreme design, and the pros and cons are obvious.

But, "Anyway, this thing is not for war, and it doesn't matter if it doesn't steer well, as long as it can run at a high speed, those things that are a third slower than it can still stop it?" ”

So, at least for the time being, if this boat can really achieve the performance that the model shows in a pool, it is the boat that France needs most. Because it could easily get rid of the interception of the British and Spaniards, and quickly smuggle in what the Republic needed most.

The model of the ship is completed, and then the real shipbuilding begins. The first ship, of course, will not be too big, only about two hundred tons. The carrying capacity is even more pitiful, only a mere 100 tons. Considering that it also needs to be loaded with people and living supplies, the real usable load capacity is even smaller.

In order to test and finalize the shape as soon as possible, the ship was inevitably a little shoddy when it was built. But even then, the boat could not be built well in less than a month.

Joseph really didn't understand much about shipbuilding. So at this time, Joseph was idle.

Although there were still many rebellious things hiding in the vicinity of Toulon, Joseph was a little frightened, and he did not dare to go into the city to relax.

On this day, the weather suddenly cleared, which is quite rare in rainy months, especially near the Mediterranean. Joseph looked at the rising sun, and suddenly wanted to go outside, and he thought, if he can't go to the city, then it would be good to walk around the place where the army is stationed and relax. Then he remembered that when he and Napoleon came to France together, they used to take a boat together to play in the sea near the fortress of Margrave, where the scenery was very good, and it was now a military restricted area, and no one else could enter, wouldn't it be nice to take a rest there, and fish in the reef-lined bay or something?

Thinking of this, Joseph could not stand still, he had a pass signed by Fouché, Napoleon, and Davout, and could go anywhere in the Toulon area, so he took a few men, under the pretext of inspecting the terrain, to take a carriage, escorted by a troop of cavalry, to go fishing at the fortress of Malgrave.

It is very close from the "Naval Institute" to Fort Mulgrave, but it is only about half an hour away. When Joseph came to the vicinity of Fort Mulgrave, he was confronted with a flag-raising ceremony taking place there.

The flag-raising ceremony at Fort Mulgrave was different from the others, with a high flagpole at the top of the fort, and a soldier dressed in civilian male clothes with a long lady's wig raised a tricolor under the watchful eyes of the soldiers.

"Huh? How is the flag hoisted here? Looking at this scene from afar, Joseph could not help but feel a little strange. But now, there is no one around him who can give him an answer.

When the carriage reached the outside of the fort, Joseph's orderlies showed his pass to the soldiers guarding the gate, and in a short time the horse was removed, and a major greeted him.

Joseph got out of the car and walked inside, accompanied by the major named Andrea, and asked casually as he went: "Ah, Major, I just saw your flag-raising ceremony, it seems to be different from other places, can you tell me why there is such a flag-raising ceremony here?" ”

The major paused for a moment, then replied, "Mr. Brigadier General, General Bonaparte has given an order, and he says that all your work is a top secret, and that we are not allowed to talk to you for the sake of secrecy. I'll just have to bring you in, and then I'm going to shut my mouth. ”

When Joseph heard this, he was also stunned for a moment, and an idea suddenly popped up in his heart: "Napoleon's order is very wrong, it is full of fake public and private interests, what kind of fame is he doing?" ”

However, he knew that he would not be able to ask anything directly, so he stopped talking.

After circumnavigating the fort, Joseph told the major that he did not need to accompany him, and when the major had left, he sent his orderlies to inquire about the strange flag-raising ceremony. Then he took his fishing gear, sat down on a large reef behind the fort, and caught fish.