Flowers, Swords and France

Indeed, the siblings were too intimate, and they didn't look like siblings of their age.

Agnes also had a brother, and they were very intimate when they were young, but when they reached a certain age, etiquette and education began to build barriers between everyone, and property considerations also eroded the brother-sister relationship. I don't know when the relationship between her and her brother became the kind of relationship common between children of aristocratic families - polite, but lacking in enthusiasm.

She and her sister have always been very close, so she did those things after her death...

However, this brother and sister are very different. Obviously, the brother is married, but when the two hugged each other, the sister's expression was still so intimate, and her smile was so natural and joyful.

Should it be said that she was naive, or had another plot?

Seeing her smile so happily, Agnes thought it was the latter.

It seems that what Charlotte said is really possible. There may really be some private affair between the brother and sister.

When she thought of this, her heart suddenly ached, and she looked at her nephew with pain.

Charles, why are you so stupid to do such a thing? Is your brain full of mud? Have you been so successful that you are finally dazzled by power and flattery, thinking that you will not be punished for anything you do?

However, at this time, the brother and sister certainly could not feel their aunt's mood. Just like a boy showing his favorite toy to others, Charles stood beside his sister excitedly, instructing her on every detail of this gun, introducing her to special bullets, and taking her to shoot with this gun.

He was satisfying the almost innate love of machinery in his body. Although the two were very close now, they did not feel much ambiguity and **** from it.

However, Fran was different. She leaned against her brother and listened to every word of the other party attentively, but it seemed that she did not hear anything clearly, and she only felt full of joy and joy.

The two have restored the intimacy of the past, which is the best comfort for her.

It was not known whether it was because of excitement or intentional, but she became more delicate than usual. The rifle seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, and she was shaking in her hands and could not lift it. As a result, in order to help her keep steady, Charles had to hold her hand from behind several times. With her back against her brother's chest, she felt a little dizzy.

"Wow, this gun is so powerful, it feels like it can hit wherever you point it!" After firing more than a dozen shots, Fran looked at the target in the distance.

Fran had not practiced shooting seriously before, but occasionally shot old-fashioned hunting rifles for fun. However, after firing more than a dozen shots, she did feel the practicality and superiority of this new gun.

That's right, relying on the rifled barrel and special bullets, this gun can eliminate any standard rifle currently equipped by the armies of various countries. What Charles said was not exaggerated at all.

"It is indeed revolutionary, with a range several times longer and a very stable trajectory." Charles raised his eyebrows and put the gun back on the shelf.

"No wonder you want to keep this gun so secret... I understand. It's so advanced that we should keep it secret so that our soldiers can maintain their advantage."

"Secrecy is only temporary. As long as we equip the army, the armies of all countries will know that we are using this new weapon, and then they will find its superiority and seek to imitate it. We can only guarantee an advantage of two or three years at most - of course, an advantage of two or three years is already very satisfactory, but this should not be a reason for us to stop improving. We will continue to develop new guns and strive to ensure that the army always has more advanced rifles than other countries."

To be honest, he also knew that the breech-loading rifled rifle was the future development direction of military weapons, and he also ordered his men to speed up the development, but he still chose to manufacture Minié guns in large quantities to win orders from the army without hesitation - this reason is very easy to understand. It is not as easy and comfortable to make money from the army once as it is to make money twice.

"These guns are very good. I can see that you have put your heart into it. Thank you." After Charles comforted his sister, he walked to De-Smon's side, "Please keep up the good work and make more contributions to the imperial army."

"Sir, this is what we should do." De-Smon answered with his back straightened. "Please believe that every penny of salary we get is worthy of the empire."

"I believe in you." Charles smiled and nodded.

Then, he looked back at the representatives of the army and found that these people had been inspecting weapons and inspecting the production processes in various places. Their attitude seemed to be quite satisfied.

With his network of relationships in the army, as long as the army is satisfied, there will be a steady stream of orders in the future.

However, relationships are relationships, and quality must not be ambiguous. This is not only about reputation, but also about dignity. In Charles' view, it is not evil to seize orders by any means, but it is a shame to fail to do a good job after seizing the orders. He can't afford to lose such people.

Now it is just making guns, everything is relatively easy, but the challenges will become greater and greater in the future. We need to make various cannons and various new weapons... All of this depends on uninterrupted investment, strict management, and... perseverance and continuous innovation.

"In the future, I hope you will also use the same depth to cope with the new requirements of the empire." Charles looked at him seriously, "The challenges will only get bigger and bigger, the problems will only get more and more... Of course, the rewards will also get more and more generous, Mr. De-Smon, you have proved your excellence so far, and I hope you can continue to perform like this in the future."

"Yes, sir!" De-Smon straightened his waist.

"Okay, take me to the processing workshop to see," Charles continued to order him.

"Okay, sir." De-Smon turned around and prepared to take him away.

However, in addition to Albert and other friends, Fran also followed behind.

"Ms. Treville, you'd better not go... It's humid and hot there, it's really not a suitable place for you." De-Smon hesitated and persuaded Fran.

"Let me go, sir. I also want to see your business." Fran hurriedly pleaded with Charles.

At Fran's request, Charles finally agreed after thinking for a while. "Okay, then I'll take you there. It's only a short while anyway... It's not a bad thing to let you see our business and feel the goals of me and my family."

Then, under Charles's instructions, De-Smon led them through the narrow corridor and finally came to a factory building.

This factory building occupies a large area and is built very high. It looks like a palace from a distance.

"It's so big!" Fran exclaimed.

At this moment, a loud "boom" suddenly reached their ears, and even the earth shook.

Fran first thought it was thunder in the sky, but when she saw that the sky was still so clear, she was not only a little surprised.

The original text is in the six # 9 @book/bar!

"This is the power of the machine, Miss." De-Smon saw her abnormality, so he hurriedly explained.

What kind of machine has such power? Fran was a little confused.

Her doubts were soon solved. After entering, she found that there were many strange machines here. Are these machines made of steel? They are square, divided into two layers, and connected in the middle by copper pipes.

These machines are distributed everywhere in the huge factory, especially the one in the middle, which is particularly huge.

"This is a steam hammer," Charles explained in a low voice beside her, "This is a machine hammer driven by water steam. The piston rod device of the hammer head and the cylinder can move up and down to hammer forgings. Many parts of our trains and machines are directly hammered out with it. It is extremely powerful."

In this era, with the progress of the times, people's means of transportation are becoming larger and more sophisticated, but when the size of transportation tools such as trains and ships reaches a certain level, many of their parts cannot be moved by manpower. Even the strongest blacksmiths can only sigh at the large piece of steel.

Therefore, people urgently need more powerful arms and hammers, as well as a new power to drive them. The invention of the steam engine provided a perfect solution to these two needs. In 1836, a factory owner named F. Cave in Paris, France, had already made a steam hammer, but it was not perfect. It was not until 1841 that the inventor James Nesmith made a new generation of steam hammers that were more precise and powerful. The steam hammer he invented was very perfect and had strong forging ability.

At the World Expo held in the UK, his new steam hammer was sent to the World Expo for exhibition. Under the sound of the whistle, many large iron blocks were molded into various shapes under the forging of the steam hammer, just like the plasticine in the hands of the artist, which aroused people's amazement.

Among these amazed people, one was Charles, who was visiting as a guest of the Queen at that time. He originally tried to hire James Nesmith as his engineer at a high salary, but because Nesmith wanted to run his own factory, he could not do so. However, he still spent a lot of money to buy his mature machine drawings and technology from him, and introduced the steam hammer into his own factory in France. At his urging, his engineers also worked day and night to improve it.

"Miss, what you see is the 'Monster'. That's right, that's what we named it." De-Smon had a proud look on his face. "It's a monster. It weighs nearly 40 tons. It's one of the largest steam hammers in the world today. It's our child, our pride, our monster!"

His tone was almost like showing off, which made Fran feel a little ridiculous. Fran looked around, but couldn't find much beauty in these weird machines.

Charles and Albert walked into these machines happily.

"Boom!" There was another loud noise, which made his eardrums hurt.

As the steam hammer fell again and again, the giant steel pieces that were hammered and forged were transported out of the factory by the workers and became the original parts of other factories.

"Charles, this is really exciting... You have accomplished such a career!" Albert exclaimed beside him, "They can make you one of the greatest industrialists in France."

"It's just France. My friend, what you see is glory, but it's also an illusory glory." Charles replied calmly, "Our steel costs are too high. If we don't use tariffs for protection, we can't compete with those factories on the west bank of the Rhine. Do you know? The Krupp factory on the Rhine is now catching up with us. Maybe soon they will be able to make the same good steam hammer and compete with us at a much lower price... Their raw materials are much cheaper."

Yes, the coal in the Ruhr area is too abundant. They can refine cheaper coke, so the German factories can produce at a cost that France can't compare with at all-this is not something that can be compensated by hard work.

"But relying on tariff protection is not a solution, right? Their costs are lower than ours, so they can market everywhere in a simpler way, and we can only rely on the domestic market... In the long run, we can't compete with them." After hearing Charles' explanation, Albert said a little depressed.

"Yes, so when necessary, we have to use necessary means to solve it-such as destroying those factories?" Charles replied with a smile, "Or force them to buy them?" (~^~)