Dena's main job was to cover the upcoming meetings of the "Socialist International", as later it became known as the "Second International". However, the conference will not be held until mid-July, so Dana's main job now is to cover the ongoing Paris World's Fair. In Armand's words, also take this opportunity to familiarize yourself with the business.

Unlike Dena, Alice's talent in language and writing is far inferior to her talent in shooting, fighting, tracking, etc., so it is impossible for Alice to find a career as a journalist and then run with Dena. However, this is not difficult for Alice, and the MacDonald consortium also has a lot of business in France. With business comes influence. So Alice easily got a job as a "guide" for the Paris World's Fair. Then Dena naturally had to "hire" her and run around Paris with her. So much so that Armand even lamented that Miss Dena is good in all aspects, but she is a bit of a road idiot.

The world's major industrial countries have used the World Exhibition in Paris as a showcase for their industrial power. Among these exhibitions, Dana paid the most attention to the German pavilion.

"Dena, look at this car, it's really like our Beetle." Alice pointed to a car in the German pavilion and said to Dena in surprise. Although relations between Germany and France have been very cold since the Franco-Prussian War, the Germans will never be absent from opportunities such as the World Expo.

"It's kind of like that." Dena also nodded, "Except that the front face is a little different, and then the car logo is also different, just looking at the line type is really a bit similar." I don't know how it's inside. ”

"Just go up and have a look." Alice said.

So Dena took out her press card, handed it to the representative of the company called Mercedes-Benz, and said to him, "I'm very interested in this car, can I go inside and see it?" ”

The representative of the company with a big beard looked at Dena's press card, and looked at Dena, as if he was surprised by her youth, but he still politely said, "This young lady, thank you for your interest in our products." And very politely opened the car door for Dena.

After the door opened, Denayue was sure that the car was indeed copied from the Volkswagen Beetle. But she didn't say anything, just sat in the cab.

The bearded representative continued to introduce their product to Dena: "Miss, you see, this is the steering wheel, and you can use it to control the direction of the vehicle while it is moving. This is the clutch pedal, this is the ......"

"Thank you, sir." With a smile on her face, Dena replied, "I'm from the United States, I can drive, and the interior design of this car is very similar to the Volkswagen Beetle I drove before." I think I can drive it out and around Paris twice in no time, if you allow it. ”

Hearing Dena mention of the "Volkswagen Beetle", the bearded man seemed a little uneasy, and he didn't know what to say for a while. But to be honest, Dena doesn't particularly care about the "Volkswagen Beetle" being counterfeited by others. Because the United States is not strong enough to stop counterfeiting in Europe, in fact, the MacDonald consortium has little to do about the counterfeiting of the Germans.

Since it can't be stopped, it makes no sense to scold or make sarcastic remarks. So Dena didn't mean to dig deeper. However, Alice didn't think so, she took a closer look at the car, and then said, "Dena, there is still a big difference between this car and the Volkswagen Beetle." For example, if you look at the headlights, the Volkswagen Beetle is round, but this one is square. Then the wheels seemed to be one size smaller than the Volkswagen Beetle. ”

"There's a lot of difference. For example, changing boxes is not the same as a Beetle. Dena added, "There's one more forward gear than the Beetle." Of course, to be honest, in this regard, it is a little stronger than the Volkswagen Beetle. ”

"Yes, the young lady has a point. In fact, the shape of this car is more similar to the Beetle, and the differences in other aspects are still very big. What's more, the car is much cheaper than the Beetle. The delegate hurried to follow up on Dena's words.

"Cheaper than the Beetle? It's unlikely, right? This statement surprised Dena. However, she reacted immediately and continued to ask, "You mean after the tariffs are calculated?" ”

"Tariffs aren't the point." The bearded man smiled bitterly and replied, "How can the French give us lower tariffs?" It's just that the U.S.-made cars have to be shipped from the United States, and the freight is not a small amount. Moreover, the tariffs to be paid by the Americans are not at all lower than ours. Of course, the more important thing is that our salary costs are lower. So, we were able to sell the car at a lower price than the Volkswagen Beetle. Moreover, I can assure you that the quality will definitely not be worse than that of American goods. It won't even be worse than the British goods. ”

In Europe at that time, Germany, a newly industrialized country, was far less famous in terms of product quality than later generations, and when people of this era heard "Made in Germany", they would never think of the tall "oil paper bag", although at this time, the Germans had already begun to build the particularly conscientious sewer in Qingdao, which was said to be buried everywhere with "oil paper bags". Strangely, however, the Germans were particularly unconscionable when building sewers for Hamburg, which often accumulated water when it rained. (In fact, a thousand years ago, the Chinese were also very conscientious when they built Chongqing, and Chongqing never worried about waterlogging, for the same reason as Qingdao, because they are all cities built on hillsides, they can all accumulate water, and the surrounding area should become the sea.) In short, at that time, German goods were almost synonymous with low-end bargains. At least compared to the UK, absolutely.

It is no longer news that European workers earn lower wages than in the United States. However, Dena couldn't help but inquire about the wages of the workers at Mercedes-Benz. She was surprised to find that Germany, which had won the Franco-Prussian War, had significantly surpassed France in industrial strength, and Germany, which had the best coal mines in Europe and high-quality iron ore mines in Alsace and Lorraine, paid its workers much less than the wages of French workers.

Leaving the Mercedes-Benz booth, Dena took a casual stroll and found more imitations on the booths of other German companies, some of which were imitations of American products, such as almost any McDonald Electric product after the patent expired, you can find the German version of the twin brother here. However, the most imitated products are British products. What surprised Dena the most was that she actually saw a model of a steam turbine at the Siemens booth.

The patents related to the steam turbine have expired, but because of the huge role of this machine in industry and defense, both the Americans and the British have adopted a very secret approach to this thing. These machines are not allowed to be sold to foreign countries, and those units that use them, such as power plants, are not allowed to have employees from foreign countries. And now this thing actually appeared on the booth of the Germans.

"Damn it, and the German thief! Damn American stupid! Beside Dena, a stocky middle-aged man, about five feet tall, stared at Siemens' model of a steam turbine with fierce eyes, and spat out such a sentence from between his teeth.

The "damn" in the front was nothing, but the "damned" in the back intrigued Dena, so Dena asked, "This gentleman?" Do you think the technology of this machine was stolen? ”

"Of course!" The man replied, in a native English language, "With the current level of technology of the Germans, it is impossible to drive this thing out on their own." It must have been stolen, or sold to them by the Yankees who only recognized the money. Those Yankees are money fans, as long as you are willing to give money, they are willing to sell anything! ”

At this time, another person hurriedly came over and shouted to the stocky middle-aged man, "Mr. Fisher, come here and see what I see!" ”

When Fisher heard this, he didn't bother to talk to Dena, he nodded to Dena, and said, "Miss, please allow me to be absent for a while." I'm going to go and see. ”

Dena followed curiously, and she saw Fisher staring at a model of a warship displayed in a German shipyard.

"Steam turbine power, unified main gun and fire control, height, high defense, what is this to do!" Fisher couldn't help but say something like, "What do the Germans want to do?" What are they designing such warships for? ”

At this time, Dena had already guessed the identity of this person, this person was the director of the British Naval Ordnance Bureau, Baron Fisher. A fanatical supporter of absolute superiority at sea. It's just that he didn't know that in history, this man was still the initiator of the dreadnought race.

He is an innovator, strategist, and promoter of naval shows, not an admiral involved in major naval battles. In 19o4 he took office as First Sea Lord. He then decommissioned 15o obsolete warships and began building replacements for modern warships. [2]

Fisher believed that it was necessary for the Navy to improve the range, accuracy, and firing of artillery. ，…… After serving as First Sea Lord, he was responsible for the construction of the first battleship HMS Dreadnought with "full heavy artillery".

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