Fox of France

Watching Joseph and his party leave, Lucien let out a long breath. He patted his chest and said, "Fortunately, Joseph is in a hurry, well, it's time for vacation, it's dawn!"

After saying this, he suddenly turned his head to Napoleon and asked, "Napoleon, you said that Joseph arrived in Toulon... Almost everyone in Toulon didn't know about Pauline's stay in Toulon, could it be... ..."

When Paulina heard this, she also became nervous.

"It's okay," Napoleon said, "Joseph is a cautious and well-behaved person. He is responsible for highly confidential matters, which in itself means that he cannot communicate with locals casually. The only person who can deal with him is the Institute The researchers inside and the soldiers in charge of security. Those researchers are all outsiders, and they don't know about this. As for the soldiers, I have ordered that they must not speak any non-work words to anyone engaged in research work. In addition , I also told Joseph that in Toulon, because Couton is not doing well, there are still many hidden dangers in safety, so it is best not to leave the institute if he is fine. You know how... how cautious Joseph is , so there is another layer of insurance. Besides, his research institute is not even in the real city of Toulon..."

"Napoleon, you are amazing!" Lucien gave Napoleon a thumbs up sincerely, "Now I can sleep in peace."

"Me too..." Napoleon said, "but Lucien, don't relax too much. According to the current system, Joseph will take a day off every ten days. Toulon and Marseille are so close, maybe at any time, he will take a rest." Suddenly came back to check your homework."

Lucien shivered, and then said: "At least not today, ah, I'm going back to sleep..."

As Napoleon expected, Joseph actually had very little chance of dealing with the locals of Toulon. He didn't even enter the city, but went directly to a manor on the outskirts of the city.

The original owner of this manor had been sent to God by Kudong, and his manor was naturally confiscated by the government of the Republic. There are many manors like this in Toulon. When the "Naval Research Institute" needed a place, this manor was selected because the conditions were the most suitable.

The so-called suitable conditions include the following points.

First of all, this manor doesn't have much output, and using it as a laboratory will not damage production. Moreover, this manor is not only close to the sea, but also has a small bay that is almost closed, where a small pier is built, which is convenient for experiments and confidentiality.

After determining the location, the remaining thing is to remodel this kind of manor, surround the outside with a high wall, and prepare various materials. These things were all prepared before Joseph arrived. Joseph's task now is to get this organization up and running as soon as possible, and quickly come up with one or two useful smuggling ships.

As soon as Joseph arrived at his post, he immediately put into work. In just one week, he completed the first model of the world's first clipper ship. This model was unanimously praised by the engineers of the Navy after passing the pool experiment.

This model is obviously different from other ships of this era. The first difference is that this ship is extremely slender. The aspect ratio of ships in this era is generally around 4. For example, the "HMS Victory" battleship of the British Royal Navy has an aspect ratio of only about 4.3. If the aspect ratio of the waterline is counted, it is even only 3.8. Even for cruisers that pursue high speed, generally speaking, the aspect ratio is only about 4.6. But the aspect ratio of the waterline part of the model of Joseph's ship has reached an astonishing 6.5.

Because calculated according to the empirical formula obtained by Joseph in the experiment, such an aspect ratio can greatly reduce resistance; at the same time, a longer length means that the ship can accommodate more masts and hang more sails, And more sails means more power.

Less drag, plus more power, naturally means higher speed. If there is no problem with Joseph's calculations, this ship should be at least one-third faster than the British cruiser under the same wind force, which makes it almost impossible to capture such a ship at sea.

Of course, to achieve such performance, the boat was taken to extremes, at great expense in many other ways.

The first is volume. Anyone who has studied a little geometry knows that the more slender the hull, the smaller the ratio of its volume to surface area, that is to say, under the same displacement, the volume of such a ship is much smaller, and it can hold Cargo is much less.

This kind of ship has more masts and more sails, which will increase the center of gravity of the ship and reduce its stability. To put it more clearly, it is easy to capsize. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to reduce the height of other parts of the ship and adopt a deep V bottom, which makes the draft deeper on the one hand, and on the other hand makes this kind of ship sure to suffer from severe waves—its deck must be all The wettest of the boats. At the same time, it is also necessary to add extra-large fins on this boat, and this thing will also bring about another extreme deterioration of performance, that is, the flexibility of this boat.

The large length-to-width ratio of this boat would have made it difficult to turn, and with the addition of the huge stabilizer fins, its steering performance will be reduced by a certain amount. Extra clumsy. These defects have also been verified in the pool experiment. In short, this is an extreme design with obvious advantages and disadvantages.

However, "Anyway, this thing is not used for war, and it doesn't matter if the steering is not good. As long as it can run at a high speed, those things that are one-third slower than it can stop it?"

So, at least for now, if this kind of boat can really achieve the performance that the model shows in the tank, then it is the boat that France needs most. Because it can easily get rid of the interception of the British and Spaniards, and quickly smuggle in what the Republic needs most.

The model of the ship is completed, and then it is the actual shipbuilding. Of course, the first ship will not be too big, only about 200 tons. The carrying capacity is even more pitiful, only a mere 100 tons. Considering that there are still people and daily necessities on it, the real usable load capacity is even smaller.

In order to test and finalize the shape as soon as possible, the ship was unavoidably shoddy when it was built. But even so, without a month, the boat is not well built.

Joseph really didn't know much about shipbuilding. So at this time, Joseph was idle instead.

However, there are still many hidden rebellious things about Toulon, which made Joseph a little scared, and he didn't dare to go to the city to relax.

On this day, the weather suddenly turned sunny. In rainy months, especially near the Mediterranean Sea, such sunny days are quite rare. Looking at the rising sun, Joseph suddenly thought of going outside for a walk. He thought, if he couldn't go to the city, it would be good to take a walk in the place where the army was stationed and relax. So he remembered that when he and Napoleon came to France together, they used to take a boat together to play on the sea near the Margrave Fortress. Come on, wouldn't it be nice to take a break there and go fishing or something in the reef-lined bay?

Thinking of this, Joseph couldn't stand it anymore. He had a pass signed by Fouché, Napoleon and Davout, and he could go anywhere in Toulon at will, so he took a few people with him to inspect the terrain. The carriage, escorted by a detachment of cavalry, went fishing at Mulgrave Fort.

It is very close from the "Naval Research Institute" to Fort Mulgrave, but it takes about half an hour. When Joseph came near the Mulgrave Fortress, he happened to meet the flag-raising ceremony being held there.

The flag-raising ceremony of the Mulgrave Fortress is different from other places. At the highest point of the fortress, a tall flagpole, and then a soldier dressed in civilian male clothes but with a long lady's wig, is standing by the soldiers Under his gaze, a tricolor flag was hoisted up.

"Eh? Why is the flag raised like this here?" Looking at this scene from a distance, Joseph couldn't help but feel a little strange. But now, there is no one around him who can give him an answer.

When the carriage arrived outside the fortress, Joseph's orderly showed his pass to the soldiers guarding the gate. After a while, the rejected horse was moved away, and then a major greeted him.

Joseph got out of the car and walked inside accompanied by the major named Andre. While walking, he asked casually: "Ah, major, I saw your flag-raising ceremony just now. It seems to be different from other places. Same, can you tell me why there is such a flag-raising ceremony here?"

The major was stunned for a moment, and then replied: "Mr. Brigadier General, General Bonaparte gave an order. He said that all your work is top secret. In order to keep it secret, we are not allowed to talk to you. I can only tell you Bring it in, and then shut up."

After hearing this, Joseph was stunned for a moment, and a thought suddenly popped up in his mind: "Napoleon's order is very wrong, it's full of fake public affairs, what is he up to?"

However, he knew that he would not be able to ask anything directly, so he stopped talking.

After walking around the fortress, Joseph told the major that he was not needed to accompany him. After the major left, he asked his orderlies to find out what happened to the strange flag-raising ceremony. Then he took the fishing gear himself, sat down on a large rock behind the fort, and caught fish.