I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1072 Hope and Illusion

The next moment, a strange scene happened.

Sandel and Les, who were originally dying, sat up from their hospital beds, and at the same time turned their stiff backs and let out long hums of comfort.

There was a white oily substance peeling off on Sander's face, revealing the normal skin underneath.

Rice pulled his left arm out of his clothes, and the "broken hand" in the sleeve hung to the side.

A doctor's assistant hurriedly picked up the severed hand and soaked it in medicine - this was a real human hand, and if it was exposed outside for too long it would probably rot and stink.

Yes, from the announcement of product progress, to the boiler explosion, to the injuries of Sander and Rice, all were pre-arranged "scripts".

Five months ago, Sander has been gradually replacing the technicians around him with security agents.

Then Dr. Brusk "accidentally" cured a strange disease that broke out among the technicians and was hired as the company's resident doctor at a high salary.

Of course, he and his assistants are also from the Security Bureau.

Sander is the company's chief technician, and together with Frank, the assistant to the general manager, it is almost no difficulty to secretly replace a group of employees.

After Joseph gave the "detonation" order, Hart, the head of the Security Agency in London, directly commanded the operation. Everything from the design of the explosion to the costumes, makeup, and lines were rehearsed repeatedly.

Until today, the Bolton-Watt Company's experimental workshop was blown up in public. When the explosion occurred, Sander and others were hiding behind the safety wall and were not injured at all. Their bloody appearance was all the effect of makeup.

The reason for making it so complicated was mainly to make it easier for Sandel, an important talent, to escape. At the same time, it could also cover up the fact that the development of the new steam engine in Britain had made no progress at all.

Yes, Sander also left a lot of technical information to Bolton-Watt, on which British technicians could continue to conduct research and development.

While this short-stroke vertical cylinder steam engine configuration has significant advantages in thermal efficiency, it cannot further increase output power. According to Murdoch and his team's previous demonstration, the power limit of this configuration cannot exceed 60 horsepower.

What Joseph wanted was a situation where the British were reluctant to give up the technology in which they had already invested a lot of money and energy, and thus continued to waste budget and time in technological traps.

A few years later, the British would be shocked to find that their steam engine technology had lagged behind France by several generations.

On the other side, Montessara, accompanied by his good friend Grabbi, rushed back to the newly renovated London Stock Exchange as quickly as possible.

There are still more than 4 minutes until the closing time of 50: p.m. He must use this short period of time before the news spreads to help his clients sell as much of their Bolton-Watt shares as possible.

Fortunately, he originally wanted to persuade Grabby to sell Bolton-Watt today, so the two of them brought all the relevant documents of the clients. Otherwise, it would take most of the day just to sort out these transaction documents.

The two were very efficient and at 4:15, they had already obtained selling authorization from the top five clients they represented.

Then they began selling Bolton-Watt shares at extremely favorable prices.

However, the stock trading procedures of that era were very cumbersome. Montes only signed four trading contracts, and the closing bell of the exchange rang.

However, this has already allowed him to help his clients sell nearly 5 pounds of stocks. Grabe has more than 2 pounds.

The next morning, the front pages of major newspapers in London were dominated by the news that "Bolton-Watt's latest steam engine exploded during an experiment, seriously injuring the chief technician."

The London Stock Exchange was in a state of chaos. In less than an hour, the share price of Bolton-Watt on the bulletin board plummeted from 1 pounds per share to 57 pounds.

Yes, the stock trading of this era was aimed at the nobility and big capitalists. An ordinary well-off family could not afford to buy one share even if they spent all their money.

Montes and Grabee had already sold all their Bolton-Watt shares at this time. They looked at the still plummeting stock price with satisfaction and discussed where to go to celebrate in the evening.

At 4 p.m., a stockbroker suddenly shouted at the door of the stock exchange: "International Standards Statistics Company has just downgraded the rating of Bolton-Watt Company. It is now A3..."

The hall suddenly became quiet.

The previous "rating war" involving Bolton-Watt Company caused a sensation and everyone knew about it.

As Bolton-Watt's performance continued to rise and new technologies progressed smoothly, France's two major rating agencies had to admit that Genoa United Credit Rating Company was right and adjusted its rating to the highest level.

At that time, the entire London securities industry felt that this was a victory for British companies and promoted it vigorously.

This also makes the three major rating agencies well known to the British.

Although I don't quite agree with their ratings, I am still somewhat affected by them.

It's just that the French were too efficient this time. Bolton-Watt had just had an incident yesterday, and the corresponding rating adjustment was made this afternoon.

The downgrade had an impact on the share price. The price on the bulletin board had jumped to 46 pounds.

The next morning, two other rating agencies also downgraded Bolton-Watt's rating, and the share price fell again, approaching the 40-pound mark.

Fortunately, the Bolton-Watt Company responded very promptly. At noon on the third day after the accident, Bolton convened a large number of reporters to publicly display the technical data of the well-preserved new steam engine, and announced that Watt, who had won the St. Louis Prize, would temporarily serve as chief technician.

The stock price finally stabilized at 40 pounds and stopped falling.

At the same time, good news came from Dr. Brusk that the injuries of Sander and Les were under control and their lives should be saved.

However, the injuries of the two were indeed very serious, and Brusk requested that no one be allowed to visit them.

In the general manager's office of the newly built headquarters building of Bolton-Watt, Bolton paced back and forth in annoyance: "Why did Sandel violate the safety regulations! This will definitely lead to a breach of contract for the delivery of the new machine."

Yes, Frank even pre-sold him the 180-horsepower model.

"Fortunately, the pre-sale volume is not large, so we won't lose much money." Major shareholder Falconer said, "As long as the existing old models can be produced stably, the situation is not too bad."

"We have to come up with a higher-powered model before the French do." Bolton suddenly grabbed his hat and walked to the door. "I have to go check on Sandor."

Watt gave him a cold glance, which clearly showed his lack of trust in his abilities.

He and Falconer also stood up and followed.

(End of this chapter)