With the sound of the whistle, the station in the small town of Giverny ushered in a new bustle, and a train rushed into the town along the endless steel tracks.

This rural town used to be very tranquil and full of rustic elegance and atmosphere, but since the station was built more than a year ago, it has given away the old idyll with new and modern gadgets.

As the train slowed down slowly, it finally came to a stop at the edge of the platform under a white mist.

Unlike ordinary passenger trains, this is a special train that Charles has found for himself - for a very high-sounding reason, as the Minister of Transport of the Empire, he must go anywhere at any time to inspect the construction of the Imperial Railway, so he has to have a special train.

The train is unsightly on the outside, and there are not a few cars to reduce the load, but the interior is lavishly decorated and fast. At the same time, as a minister of the Empire, he could telegraph his itinerary to the French railway offices and stations in various places, so that they could rearrange the train schedules for their own itinerary, and make thousands of people wait for him to go if necessary - power is sometimes so convenient for people to act.

The doors of the carriage soon opened, and the Minister and a group of people around him stepped out of the carriage one by one and set foot on the small town, as they were greeted by the station officials and staff.

Although several of them were soldiers, they were all dressed in civilian clothes, and there were even two women.

Because of the fog, the air was a little muddy, and the two women invariably took out their handkerchiefs and covered their noses.

"Why does the air smell so loud here?" Fran asked, curiously.

She had asked to come with Charles, on the grounds that she wanted to learn from her brother about railroad operations, of course...... The more important reason is to take the opportunity to get close to my brother.

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

The other was Agnes - she was there to have fun, and Charles knew that her purpose would not be so simple, but since she had made such a request, she had no choice but to agree.

"It's a burnt smell mixed with sulfur, so it's a little pungent, just bear with it and wait until the fog clears." Charles looked at her apologetically. "We're going to the factory later, the smell is much stronger, why don't you all go?"

That's right, this is the environmental pollution caused by man-made, and it was caused by him.

Because he according to the idea he told Charlotte back then, he transformed the manor brought by Charlotte into a factory in Giverny, which brought very serious pollution here, and within a few years, because of exhaust gas and wastewater, a large part of this place became a seriously polluted area, and it was no longer the beautiful appearance before.

Although in this era, everyone does not have the concept of industrial pollution, but the evil consequences of environmental pollution can always be seen.

Because of the great environmental pollution, the grain yield of the crops here is decreasing year after year, and the surrounding landlords were originally very angry and went everywhere to sue the factory, but with the surname Tréville as the foundation, where did the officials dare to care? Over time, the landlords reluctantly gave up hope and chose to sell their properties at a low price, and Charles was happy to see this, and he has been allocating funds to buy the surrounding land cheaply, and taking advantage of this opportunity to expand his factory.

Now Giverny is full of blast furnaces, because steelmaking requires coke, so the air is also full of sulfur scorching smell.

If you stay in this kind of air for a long time, you will damage your lungs and lose your lifespan, but who is not like this now? On the other side of the Channel, all of London is now a foggy capital, and almost all of its inhabitants are encased in poisonous gases.

Charles didn't particularly care about the perception of the inhabitants, he just had to make sure that he and his family weren't too badly hurt by it. At the very least, he has employed thousands of people, and many more in the future, enough to support their families.

"Your Excellency, you're finally here!" Just as they got out of the car, a crowd gathered around him. "We've been waiting for you for a long time."

The first of them was De Simon, the chief engineer of the Giverny plant, who was hired to build the first blast furnace when the charr built the steel plant, and then he was forced to stay here by the charre, went through every expansion here, and became the chief engineer of the plant.

After a few years of recuperation here, this middle-aged man has now become a bloated bucket waist, his beard has been built, thick and thick, and his complexion is also very ruddy, and it can be seen that his physical and mental state is very full. Now that he has hundreds of people at his disposal, and his income is very considerable, it is no wonder that he is so full of joy.

For the people here, their futures are tied to that of Charles de Treville, and every rise of the Charles makes them cheer and bring them practical benefits. At the behest of Charles, the Ministry of Railways used this place as the main supplier, and scattered orders for rails and other products, and when he became the Minister of the Empire, he had no scruples, and the huge orders had almost overwhelmed the place, working overtime to produce various products for the Empire.

"I hope my arrival has not caused you any disturbances." Charles smiled and nodded at the other party, "There can be no delay in the production task. ”

"There will be no interference, sir...... Now that the plant manager and management are on the front line, it is important to make sure that the production catches up with your requirements. De Smond bowed down respectfully, "Now that everyone knows that you are coming to inspect, they are in good spirits!" ”

"Well, I don't want to hear such good words." Charles waved his hand, "As long as everything is in order." ”

Then, led by De Smond and others, the group got on their horses 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 can only see towering blast furnaces, like the optimus prime that supports the world, these pillars have been emitting black smoke to the outside, and the smell of burning in the air is a little stronger.

"Salute!"

As the carriage drove into the factory, the factory security guards who had gathered at the gate raised their hands to salute their employer, the Imperial Chancellor.

These people wore very conspicuous uniforms and were loaded with guns, almost like real soldiers.

In addition to maintaining law and order inside and outside the factory, the focus is to keep an eye on the workers, and they are absolutely not allowed to slack off their work.

When Charles and the others arrived at the factory, they found that it had become a world dominated by steel, with steel pipes and factories everywhere, and the ground was not clean, and there were slag everywhere, and waves of heat rushed towards them, molten steel flowed out under the blast furnace, and then introduced into the factory, where it was slowly cooled, and finally made into steel rails and other products, and used these things to completely change the face of the world.

The temperature here was several degrees warmer than outside, and the men were fine with the Charles, while Fran and Agnes were feeling a little uncomfortable, and their outfits didn't match the rough furnishings.

Workers were coming and going, and despite their busyness, they couldn't help but look at the Shire. These open-clothed, dirty-faced workers, and this group of well-dressed people, seem to come from two worlds.

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

"With your personal care, of course their treatment is good! It's good! "De-Sensen made an exaggerated gesture to please the Charles." Their wages and food supply are the best in the industry, so now it has become a blessed land for workers, and many people are begging to come in! ”

As if to increase his persuasiveness, he nodded vigorously at a group of workers on the opposite side who were vigorously lifting the rails, "Look, how strong they are, if they don't eat well here, how can they have so much strength?" ”

"That's good." Charles shrugged.

It is true that he gave the workers relatively good treatment, but in essence he was using the state budget to be generous to others - he gave these factory orders at high prices in the ministry, and of course they had sufficient profit margins to improve the treatment of the workers a little, but this was only to increase the motivation of the workers to complete the production tasks, and it did not mean that he was more conscientious than the others.

In addition, it was only a small favor, and the workers were paid a small amount of money for their labor, and they had to give up the right to form trade unions in addition to the very long hours and the intensity of the work. However, such small favors are enough to make the workers grateful to Dade - this is a silhouette of this cruel and ruthless era.

"I have a snack today, do a good job! Wait a minute, there's cod, and oysters! At this moment, the foremen who were watching next to him shouted to the workers everywhere, "Your Excellency the Minister has come to inspect it yourself!" Be energetic and don't let your Excellency down! ”

"Hah! Ha! ”

The foreman's words caused a burst of cheers, as if the temperature inside the factory had risen by a few more degrees. Today, His Excellency the Minister personally came to inspect the factory, and the managers of the factory were all in good spirits, so that the Minister could feel his loyalty and execution.

"Your Excellency, ......you see," said De-Smond with a smile on his face, "everything is going so well. ”

"It would be good if it could continue to go so smoothly in the future, you have to continue to keep an eye on it, prevent it from happening, and not allow any sabotage or disruption of the production schedule to happen, and all unstable elements must be removed directly!" Charles gave instructions with a straight face, and then he pointed to a few people behind him, "Okay, you can take us to the gun workshop, these people are all in the army, and they want to see the progress of the production of new guns." ”

The so-called new gun is the Giverny 1850 rifle, which is the rifle design he got his hands on before, and under his push, this gun is also determined to be the main standard gun of the next generation of the French army, and then he also established a factory here to produce this gun, because of the revolutionary progress of this gun, so the army is very satisfied with it, the price is very favorable, and it has also become one of the important sources of cash for this factory.

France has hundreds of thousands of standing troops and is demanding a change of equipment as soon as possible, especially since a war with Russia is coming soon, and the time is even more urgent. Therefore, the production task is also very heavy, and both up and down attach great importance to it. Today, Alex de Lautrec came to inspect the production progress on behalf of the Army.

As soon as he heard that the other party was from the army, De-Smond did not dare to slack off, and took them directly to the factory that produced rifles on the factory premises.

For the sake of confidentiality and security, the factory is located in the deepest part of the factory and occupies a large area. When Charles and the others arrived, production was also underway.

Compared to the factories just now, it is cooler and quieter. Rows of ready-made guns are already on the shelves, and there are many workers working next to the machine tools, carefully crafting the new guns.

Several military personnel immediately greeted them, began to carefully inspect the produced guns, and then walked up to the workers and asked about every detail of the gun production.

Charles was not idle, he picked up a few barrels, then lifted them up as if they were telescopes, and looked through the tubes to see the details inside.

Curious, Fran leaned over to Charles, and saw the kaleidoscopic spirals inside the barrels.

"What is this?" She couldn't help but ask.

"This is rifling, which can also be said to be the soul of the barrel, rifling can give the warhead the ability to rotate, so that after the warhead is discharged, it can still maintain a given direction, become more accurate, and have a longer range. Of course, it must be combined with special bullets, which can also be produced here. Charles patiently explained to her, "That's why this gun is so good that it's so popular, and with it, our army will be sharper." ”

Although he was patiently explaining, Fran listened a little confused and didn't quite understand. However, judging from her brother's expression on his face, he should be very happy about it.

Boys love to fiddle with mechanical things, she thought to herself. But it's so cute.

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

"Now...... It's still a bit reluctant. De-Sensen suddenly became cautious, "This is mainly due to the lack of manpower and the lack of machinery. But rest assured, we are now planning to expand the plant and add machines, and when the plan is completed, we will be able to increase the annual production to more than 100,000 units. ”

"We need to speed up and make sure that what I ask will be met!" Charles frowned slightly, looking a little displeased, "Sir, what I want to tell you is that for our future struggle, the production of new rifles is crucial, if the Imperial army is frustrated by weapons in the future, can we bear such a responsibility?" Besides...... In the future, we will have to make artillery, and if we can't even make guns, how can the army trust us? How will you maintain your current reputation?! ”

His reprimand made De-Mask's face turn a little pale, and he could barely stand on his feet. "Your Excellency...... Your Excellency, we will find a way, and we will definitely catch up with the requirements of the army. ”

At this time, Fran also carefully tugged at the hem of Charles's clothes, allowing Charles to finally regain his composure from his anger.

"I'm sorry, I'm in a bit of a hurry, we can't let them down with representatives of the Army here today," he slowed down a bit......, "Well, in the future, you can make the production of new rifles the highest priority in factory production, and if necessary, you can use manpower from other places." Everything about the production of weapons can be reported to me, anything. ”

"Okay, okay...... Rest assured, sir! De-Slim nodded repeatedly, indicating that he would never slack off again.

Only then did Charles turn to leave.

"You...... You've been a little harsh with him, sir. Fran cautiously followed him. He was frightened just now. ”

"It's good to be scared." Charles replied calmly, "He's pampered here, and no one cares about him, I don't look for some opportunity to scare him, how can he still be motivated to work in the future?" Don't worry, he received a high salary from me, and a few scolding won't break his heart. ”

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

Then, she turned her head to look around, then picked up a gun from the shelf.

"Eh, it's so heavy!"

"It's pretty heavy." Charles couldn't help but laugh when he saw how hard she looked. "Want to try shooting? Let's take it as an acceptance and see how the quality of the gun is. ”

"Is that okay? All right! Fran laughed too, "I just want to try it." ”

Then, they went to the workshop where they tested the gun.

Fran lifted her gun with difficulty, then took aim at the target.

Seeing her staggering, Charles couldn't help it.

"You have to hold it up!" He stood behind his back and took his sister's hand.

"Thank you, sir." Fran smiled a little shyly.

Then, with the help of Charles, she lifted her snatch and aimed at the distant target, with a satisfied smile on her face.

"Bang!"

……………………

Looks like something is wrong. Agnes, who was standing in the distance, watched this scene and thought to herself silently. (To be continued.) )