Flowers, Swords and France

With the whistle, the station in Giverny, a small town, ushered in a new hustle and bustle. A train rushed into the town along the endless steel rails.

This rural town was originally very quiet, full of rural elegance and sentiment. However, since the station was built more than a year ago, it bid farewell to the ancient pastoral idyll and brought in new and novel modern gadgets.

As the train slowly slowed down, it finally stopped at the platform under the cover of a white steam mist.

Unlike ordinary passenger trains, this is a special train that Charles found for himself - the reason is very high-sounding. As the Minister of Transportation of the Empire, he needs to rush to any place at any time to inspect the construction of the Empire's railways, so he has to have a special train.

This train is not good-looking on the outside, and there are not many carriages to reduce the weight, but the decoration inside is very luxurious and the speed is very fast. At the same time, as a minister of the empire, he could telegraph his itinerary to the railway bureaus and stations in various parts of France in advance, so that they could recompile the train schedule for his itinerary and let thousands of people wait for him to go first when necessary - power sometimes allows people to act so conveniently.

The door of the carriage opened quickly, and under the welcome of the station officials and staff, the minister and a group of people around him walked out of the carriage one after another and stepped into the small town.

Although there were several soldiers inside, they were all in plain clothes, and there were even two women.

Because of the fog, the air was a little turbid, and the two women took out handkerchiefs to cover their noses at the same time.

"Why is the air here so smelly?" Fran asked curiously.

She specifically asked to come here with Charles, the reason was to learn about railway operations from her brother, and of course... the more important reason was to take the opportunity to get close to her brother.

Charles didn't want to agree at first, but because she kept begging softly and the reason seemed reasonable, he finally agreed to her request and brought her here.

The other one was Agnes - she was out to relax and have fun. Although Charles knew that her purpose was definitely not so simple, since she made such a request, he had to agree to it.

"This is a burnt smell mixed with sulfur, so it's a bit pungent. You have to be patient and wait until the fog clears." Charles looked at her apologetically. "We are going to the factory later, and the smell there is much stronger. Otherwise, you all don't go?"

Yes, this is man-made environmental pollution, and it was caused by him.

Because he transformed the manor brought by Charlotte into a factory in Giverny according to the idea he had talked about with Charlotte, which resulted in very serious pollution here. In just a few years, due to waste gas and wastewater, a large area here has become a seriously polluted area, and the beautiful scenery before is no longer seen.

Although in this era, people actually don't have the concept of industrial pollution, but people can always see the consequences of environmental pollution.

Because of the serious environmental pollution, the grain production of crops here has been declining year by year. The surrounding landlords were very angry and went to various places to sue the factory, but with the surname of Treville as the basis, how could the officials dare to intervene? So over time, these landlords also gave up hope helplessly and chose to sell their properties at a low price and leave. Charles was happy to see this happen. He has been allocating funds to purchase surrounding land at a low price and taking advantage of such opportunities to expand his own factory.

Now Giverny is full of blast furnaces. Because steelmaking requires coke, the air is also full of sulfur and burnt smell.

Such air will damage the lungs and shorten lifespan if people stay for a long time, but who is not like this now? Across the Channel, the whole of London is now a foggy city, and almost all residents are wrapped in toxic gases.

Charles does not particularly care about the perceptions of the residents here. He just needs to ensure that he and his family are not severely harmed by this. At least, he has solved the employment of thousands of people - and there will be more people in the future - so that they can support their families.

"Your Excellency, you are finally here!" Just after they got off the car, a group of people gathered around him. "We have been waiting for you for a long time."

The first one was De-Smon, the chief engineer of the Giverny factory. When Charles built this steel plant, he was hired as an engineer and presided over the construction of the first blast furnace. Then he was forced to stay here by Charles, experienced every expansion here, and became the chief engineer of the factory.

After several years of recuperation here, this middle-aged man has now become fat and has become a bloated bucket waist. His two mustaches have been cultivated and are thick and thick. His complexion is also very ruddy. It can be seen that his physical and mental state is very full. Now he has hundreds of people under his command and his income is very considerable. It is no wonder that he is so happy.

For the people here, their future is tied to Charles de Treville. Every time Charles gets promoted, they cheer and jump for joy, and it also brings them real benefits. Under Charles' instructions, the Ministry of Railways used this place as the main supplier and sent orders for rails and other products to this place. After he became the Minister of the Empire, he was even more unscrupulous. The huge orders almost made this place breathless, and they worked overtime to produce various products for the Empire.

"I hope my arrival has not caused any disturbance to you." Charles smiled and nodded at the other party, "The production task cannot be delayed."

"There will be no interference, sir... Now the factory director and management personnel have been supervising at the front line, and they must make sure that the production catches up with your requirements." De-Smon bowed respectfully, "Now everyone knows that you are coming to inspect, and the spirits are very excited!"

"Okay, I don't want to hear such good words." Charles waved his hand, "As long as the production is normal."

Then, under the leadership of De-Smon and others, the group got on the horse and soon arrived at the factory.

After several years of development, the originally small factory has become a huge factory area surrounded by walls. From the outside, you can only see the towering blast furnaces, like the Optimus Prime supporting the world. These pillars have been emitting black smoke outside, and the smell of burning in the air has become stronger.

"Salute!"

When the carriage drove into the factory, the factory security guards who had gathered at the door raised their hands at the same time to salute their employer, the Imperial Minister.

These people wore very conspicuous uniforms and were armed with live ammunition, just like real soldiers.

Their work was similar to that of soldiers. In addition to maintaining public order inside and outside the factory, the focus was to keep an eye on the workers and never allow them to slack off. As for forming a union in private, it was strictly prohibited.

When Charles and others came to the factory, they found that this place had become a world dominated by steel. There were steel pipes and factory buildings everywhere. The ground was not clean, and slag was falling everywhere. Waves of heat rushed towards them. The molten steel flowed out from under the blast furnace and then introduced into the factory, where it slowly cooled down and finally made into rails and other products, and these things were used to completely change the face of the world.

The temperature here was several degrees higher than outside. Charles and other men were fine, but Fran and Agnes felt a little uncomfortable. Their clothes were also incompatible with the rough furnishings here.

Workers were coming in and out everywhere. Although they were very busy, they still couldn't help looking at Charles and his group. These workers with open clothes and dirty faces looked like they were from two different worlds compared to this group of well-dressed people.

"How are they treated now?" Charles casually asked De-Smon next to him.

"With your personal care, their treatment is of course good! It's superb!" De-Smon made an exaggerated gesture to please the people of Charles. "Their salary and food are the best in the industry, so now this place has become a paradise for workers. Many people are begging to come in!"

As if to increase his persuasiveness, he pointed to a group of workers who were lifting the rails across the street, "Look, how strong they are. If they didn't eat well here, how could they have such strength?"

"That's good." Charles shrugged.

He did give the workers relatively good treatment, but in essence he was using the national budget to be generous to others - he gave these factory orders at high prices in the ministry, and of course their profit margins were sufficient to slightly improve the workers' treatment. This was just to increase the workers' enthusiasm to complete the production tasks, and it did not mean that he was more conscientious than others.

In addition, this was just a small favor. The workers exchanged their labor for a meager reward. In addition to the very long working hours and extremely intensive labor, they had to give up the right to form a union. However, even such small favors were enough to make the workers grateful - this is a glimpse of this cruel and ruthless era.

"Today there is an extra meal, work hard! There will be cod and oysters later!" At this time, the foremen who were monitoring nearby shouted to the workers everywhere, "The Minister is here to inspect in person! You must show your enthusiasm and don't let the Minister down!"

"Ha! Ha!"

The foreman's words caused a cheer, as if the temperature in the factory had risen a few degrees. Today, the Minister came to inspect in person, and the factory managers were all in high spirits, determined to let the Minister feel their loyalty and execution.

"Your Excellency, look..." De-Smon boasted with a smile on his face, "Everything is going so smoothly."

"If it can continue to go so smoothly, it will be great. You must continue to keep an eye on it, prevent it from happening, and do not allow any slacking off or disrupting the production progress. All unstable elements must be directly cleared out!" Charles gave instructions with a stern face, and then he pointed to the few people behind him, "Okay, take us to the gun-making workshop. These people are all military personnel, and they want to see the production progress of the new guns."

The so-called new gun is the Giverny 1850-style rifle. This is a rifle design he obtained before, and with his efforts, this gun was determined to be the next generation of the main standard gun of the French army. Then he also A factory was established here to produce this kind of gun. Due to the revolutionary progress of this kind of gun, the army was very satisfied with it, and the price was very favorable. It also became one of the important sources of cash for this factory.

France has hundreds of thousands of standing troops and needs to change its equipment as soon as possible. Especially since it will soon go to war with Russia, time is even more pressing. Therefore, the production task is also very heavy, and everyone from top to bottom attaches great importance to it. Today Alex de Lautrec consciously came to inspect the production progress on behalf of the Army.

As soon as he heard that the other party was from the army, Desmond did not dare to neglect and took them directly to the factory that produced rifles in the factory area.

For confidentiality and safety, this factory is located in the deepest part of the factory area and covers a very large area. When Charles and others came here, there was also intense production.

Compared with the factory areas just now, this place is cooler and relatively quiet. There are rows of ready-made guns on the shelves, and there are many workers working next to the machine tools, carefully making this new type of gun.

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

Several military personnel immediately came forward and began to carefully examine the produced guns. Then they walked next to the workers and asked about every detail of gun production.

Charles was not idle either. He picked up a few gun barrels, then lifted them up, holding them like a telescope, and then looked at the details inside through the tubes.

Fran became curious, she moved closer to Charles, and then saw the kaleidoscope-like spirals in the barrels of these guns.

"What is this?" she couldn't help asking.

"This is the rifling, which can also be said to be the soul of the barrel. The rifling can give the bullet the ability to rotate, so that after the bullet comes out of the chamber, it can still maintain the established direction, become more accurate, and have a longer range. Of course, it must be coordinated Special bullets can also be produced here," Charles patiently explained to her, "This is why this gun is so outstanding that it is so popular. With this gun, our army will be sharper. ”

Although he was patiently explaining, Fran was a little confused and didn't quite understand. But she could tell from the cheerful expression on her brother's face that he should be very happy about it.

Boys all like to play with mechanical things, she thought to herself. But this look is so cute.

Charles didn't care about her thoughts and turned to look at Desmond, "Can the production of rifles keep up?"

"Now...it's still a bit reluctant." Desmond suddenly became cautious, "This is mainly due to the lack of manpower and lack of machinery. But don't worry, we are now planning to expand the factory and add machines. Once the plan is completed, we will be able to increase our annual production to hundreds of thousands.”

"Speed ​​up the speed to ensure that we can achieve the requirements I made!" Charles frowned slightly, looking a little unhappy, "Sir, what I want to tell you is that for our future struggle, the new rifle will Production is crucial. If the imperial army is frustrated later because of weapons, can we bear such a responsibility? Besides... we will still have to manufacture cannons in the future. If we can't even make guns well, how can we trust the army? Us? How can you maintain your current reputation?"

His scolding made Desmond's face turn pale and he could hardly stand still. "Your Excellency... Your Excellency, we will find a way and we will definitely meet the Army's requirements."

At this time, Fran also carefully tugged on Ciel's clothes, which finally made Ciel regain his composure from his anger.

"Sorry, I'm a little anxious. There are representatives of the Army here today. We can't let them down..." He softened his tone a lot, "Well, from now on, you can regard the production of new rifles as the most important thing produced by the factory. Priorities, manpower elsewhere can be used if necessary. Everything about weapons production can be reported to me, anything."

"Okay, okay... Sir, please don't worry!" Desmond nodded repeatedly, indicating that he would never be negligent in the future.

At this time, Charles turned and left.

"You... your attitude towards him is a bit harsh, sir." Fran followed him cautiously at this time. "He was scared just now."

"It's better to be scared." Charles replied calmly, "He is pampered here and no one cares about him. If I don't find some opportunities to scare him, how will he still be motivated to work in the future? Don't worry, he will learn from me. With a very high salary, a few words of curse will not hurt his heart.”

"I understand, that's how it is..." Fran nodded, indicating that she understood her brother's intentions, and she felt like she had learned another trick.

She then turned to look around and picked up a gun from the shelf.

"Hey, it's so heavy!"

"It's quite heavy." Seeing her struggling, Charles couldn't help laughing. "Want to try shooting? Consider it an acceptance test to see how good the gun is."

"Is it okay? Okay!" Fran also laughed, "I just want to try it."

Then, they came to the area in the workshop dedicated to testing guns.

Fran raised the gun with difficulty and took aim at the target.

Seeing her swaying, Ciel couldn't help it.

"Hold it steady!" He stood behind her and held her sister's hand.

"Thank you, sir." Fran smiled shyly.

Then, with the help of Charles, she raised the gun and aimed at the target in the distance, with a very satisfied smile on her face.

"Bang!"

……………………

It seems that something is wrong. Agnes, standing in the distance, watched this scene and thought silently. (~^~)