Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

```

Catherine II's strategic planning was by no means a whim.

The foundation, of course, was France's demonstrated capabilities over the past two years—whether it was the Royal Family's control of power, or the profound strategy displayed in North Africa and the lowland countries, all convinced her that this was the best partner to work with.

Meanwhile, Austria, Russia's former ally, had fallen into chaos due to its reforms, and its national strength was on the decline.

Especially since the suppression of the Brabant uprising had been unsuccessful, and they were bogged down in a tough fight in Silesia, she had become very disappointed in Austria.

Another German powerhouse, Prussia, had indeed signed a secret treaty with Russia to partition Poland, but that was only aimed at dealing with Poland.

Prussia now was practically wearing the same pants as the British. On matters concerning the order of the European Continent, they would definitely give precedence to the British point of view.

Moreover, Prussia's troops were currently stuck in Silesia, and who knew when they would be able to extricate themselves.

In addition, Catherine II had another important consideration for planning to collaborate with France.

Compared to Russia's targets—Sweden, Poland, the Black Sea coast—the European powers were more concerned with France's targets—the lowland countries and the Rhine River basin.

The lowlands were forbidden fruit for England. The Rhine was even more the traditional sphere of influence for Germany. If France really made a move on these two areas, then all of Europe's attention would immediately fall upon it.

At that time, Russia could take the opportunity to feast without worrying about the opinions of other great powers.

Of course, if France really could withstand the pressure of the whole of Europe and capture the Rhine, Catherine II wouldn't mind cooperating with a military offensive. Perhaps with their pincer attack from east and west, even Austria could be swallowed up!

The next morning, the diplomat placed Count Stroganov's submission, which was about further developing Russian-French trade, on Queen Mary's desk.

Queen Mary sighed as she opened the file and began to frown after reading a few pages—she was truly not adept at these matters.

She was about to call for Archbishop Brienne, but then she remembered that the Crown Prince seemed to be quite proficient in such affairs.

Joseph had even started a trading company with Russian Earl Bobrinsky, hadn't he? It was said the business was doing extremely well, even multiplying the volume of trade between France and Russia several times over.

With this thought, she called for her maid and instructed her to take the trade plan to the Crown Prince for handling. Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire

...

Luxembourg.

Not far from the giant open-pit iron mine "Iron Sea," several tower-like blast furnaces were under intense construction on an open field.

Viscount Olivier, the owner of Hilker Steel Company, stood on a hillside, watching his new ironworks take shape with a content heart.

For less than 40,000 livres, he acquired a large ironwork shop in Luxembourg, and with it, over 700 skilled workers.

Afterward, he began expanding and innovating the technology.

Next to his newly acquired old blast furnaces, craftsmen were using firebricks to construct two square structures about the size of ordinary houses.

Those two constructions were almost entirely enclosed, save for two thick pipes reaching the height of an adult's waist connecting them, with the ends of the pipes attached to the blast furnaces.

Next to each square building was a high-pressure steam engine, blowing air through a mechanical device into the pipes.

This was the "hot blast" iron-smelting technology that Joseph had brought to the French ironworks.

```

Actually, the principle is quite simple. When smelting iron, the combustion of fuel requires a lot of oxygen, and traditional iron-smelting blast furnaces get air directly from the environment, which is at room temperature. Once that air enters the thousand-degree blast furnace, it inevitably lowers the furnace temperature.

The furnace temperatures that could be reached during this era were just sufficient to melt the iron in the ore, but usually, it could only produce a thick, viscous iron slurry that flowed out from the bottom of the blast furnace.

Such iron slurry definitely wouldn't be of high quality. Due to insufficient melting, impurities would be trapped inside, and fluxing agents could not dissolve evenly.

The technology Joseph brought was to use a "hot blast stove" to preheat the air and then blow it into the blast furnace under pressure.

This would avoid the cooling effect of cold air on the furnace temperature and the pressurized blast would also increase the amount of oxygen available for combustion.

Just this one simple measure could raise the furnace temperature by nearly 200 degrees.

Additionally, by switching to coke with a higher calorific value, the blast furnaces in France's ironworks could now completely melt the iron in the ore.

Fully liquefied iron slurry could fully contact the air, oxidizing a large amount of harmful impurities such as silicon and sulfur, while further precipitating impurities by adding fluxing agents.

The iron slurry smelted in this way could nearly match the quality of rough steel. By adjusting the carbon content at the end of the blast furnace, the iron ingots produced scarcely needed to go through a crucible for further steelmaking and could meet the requirements of most iron products.

After trial production in the Nancy Industrial Development Zone, the iron ingots produced by Viscount Olivier's ironworks sold for three-quarters the price of fine steel and were in high demand.

He had previously estimated that once the factory he was building in Luxembourg was fully operational, the annual output could reach 20 million pounds.

This one factory alone would surpass France's total steel output from last year!

With the convenience brought by the Seine-Rhine Trade Agreement, his iron ingots and steel could smoothly enter the markets of several states in southern Germany without encountering the checkpoints and tax officers that were previously ubiquitous when selling goods to Germany.

This factory in Luxembourg would bring him at least 800,000 livres in revenue next year!

He would become one of the top tycoons in France in one fell swoop!

And all this started the moment he decided to invest in the Nancy Industrial Development Zone.

He always told people that it was the most correct decision he had ever made in his life.

Not far away, his old rival Mr. Gregoire came over and gave him a nod.

"You don't think the war will reach here, do you?" Mr. Gregoire stopped and looked worriedly at another iron smelting factory he had invested in on the other side, "I've invested most of my fortune in Luxembourg."

Viscount Olivier smiled, "You should have heard that the government has already started to build a wooden railway from Luxembourg to Verdun.

"If they weren't quite confident, they wouldn't make such a big investment."

"You're right. Oh, Mr. Gregoire is also here." The general manager of Vere Haury Ironworks suddenly appeared from somewhere, greeted both men, and followed up, "And I've heard that they are planning to build not a wooden railway, but one made from iron."

"Good God, how much would that cost?!" Viscount Olivier had just started speaking when he suddenly paused. Ah right, this is Luxembourg, and if there's anything to spare, it's iron. The price wouldn't be too high.

His eyes immediately lit up; if the government were to build an iron railway, they would surely buy large amounts of iron ingots from his ironworks!

Or perhaps, he should mortgage his assets in Nancy, take out a loan, and build more blast furnaces in Luxembourg...

This was precisely the effect Joseph's plan sought to achieve.

By leveraging the low-cost iron of Luxembourg to start producing iron rails, they could train railway craftsmen while also significantly increasing the sales of the ironworks, further reducing their costs.