I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1444 Queen Mary's Scheme
Paris.

In the first-class dining room of the French Engineering Design Institute, Queen Marie Antoinette glanced at the fish soup in front of her, then looked up at Louis XVI sitting opposite her:
"Well, Joseph told me to exercise more, so I just jogged here from the Little Trianon Palace."

The king nodded with satisfaction: "That's quite a distance. Thank God, your health is much better than before."

"Especially after going to Brest," Queen Mary said boastfully, "it's simply paradise, with beautiful beaches and humid air, and crabs and clams everywhere. I go beachcombing every day."

"By the way, do you know what beachcombing is?"

"Uh, what's that?"

"Receiving nature's bounty at the beach! It's so much fun..."

A little over ten minutes later, Louis XVI poked at the grilled oysters on his plate with a fork and asked somewhat casually, "So, you just catch crabs and shrimp like fishermen?"

"There are also octopuses, catsharks, barnacles, and so much more. And you can barbecue freshly caught seafood right on the beach, feel the sea breeze, and watch the sunset paint the sky red—oh, it's so wonderful!"

"Sounds... well, not bad," Louis XVI replied casually, his mind already racing with ideas for improving the forging machine's gearbox.

Queen Mary seemed to have anticipated her husband's reaction, and instead of being discouraged, she leaned forward and smiled, "Do you know about automatic edge-rolling machines?"

Louis XVI's fork stopped: "It sounds like a mechanical device."

“You guessed right,” Queen Mary said, recalling the knowledge she had gained about the sealing machine on the return journey. “It’s a machine used to seal cans; it’s amazing.”

"Oh? Tell me about it quickly."

"You know, canned food has to be kept out of the air. Well, that's to prevent bacteria from coming into contact with the food inside. In the past, tin cans were soldered together to do this, but solder contains lead, which can cause poisoning in people who eat canned food."

Louis XVI nodded: "So, the hemming machine is?"

“This machine can seal a tin can without soldering!” Queen Mary said, picking up two napkins and folding the edges together. “Like this, there’s a tenon here that holds the tin can in place on an iron post, and a steam engine drives it to rotate.”

"And on the upper side, there is a uniquely shaped wedge-shaped iron block pressing down on the edge of the iron sheet..."

After she finished speaking, Louis XVI's eyes lit up: "What a brilliant design! It makes ingenious use of the mechanical structure and the ductility of the sheet metal. Where did you see such a machine?"

“Brest, the Saint-Malou Coast Cannery,” Queen Mary deliberately slowed her tone, “and there are steam oil presses there that can produce several large barrels of very clean rapeseed oil in just over ten minutes.”

"By the way, Joseph said that the machine was originally used to improve urban environmental problems, ah, actually it was to compress 'unclean things'."

She then described the structure of the oil press, at which point Louis XVI forgot all about his meal and began repeatedly asking about the details of the machine, praising its ingenious design.

As a result, this lunch lasted a full hour and a half.

Queen Marie Antoinette went through the perfunctory post-dinner etiquette, rose, took her husband's arm, and continued, "Yes, there are canneries in Paris, and perhaps oil presses as well, but there is another enormous machine that I swear can only be seen in Brest."

"what is that?"

"Steam warships. Warships that can still move very fast even without sea breeze."

For the first time since taking up his post at the engineering design institute, Louis XVI took leave from the workshop and instead listened to his wife recount the story of the "Decisive Battle" in his lounge. "It is truly the greatest engineering feat in the world!" the king exclaimed sincerely. "I really want to see it with my own eyes."

“You’re right, Brest is definitely an interesting place.”

Queen Mary smiled like a smug little fox: "It's not just about looking; you can even participate in the design of that ship."

Upon hearing this, Louis XVI sighed: "But I can't leave Paris so easily... Perhaps, if there's a major diplomatic event in Brest sometime."

He was even more discouraged after he finished speaking. Brest is just across the Atlantic Ocean, with no neighboring countries, so what diplomatic activity could it possibly have?

He thought to himself, "It seems the only possibility is that a rebellion has broken out there, and after it's quelled, I can go and appease the people... Forget it, it's better if that happens."

Queen Marie Antoinette glanced at his expression, then leaned close to his ear and said, “If someone takes on the duties of the king for you in Paris, you can enjoy life freely.”

"Huh? Someone's planning a coup?"

Queen Mary gave him a reproachful look: "You must be joking. What I meant was that Joseph could be made regent."

Without even a second's hesitation, Louis XVI nodded immediately and said, "That is indeed a good idea. However, I am not old enough, so it may not be in accordance with the rules."

Queen Mary proudly raised her chin: "We just need to put on a show. Actually, I started planning this back in Brest."

……

In a spacious suite in the South Wing of Versailles Palace, the Duke of Levis sat by the window, reading a copy of the Paris Commercial Daily in the afternoon sunlight.

The news at the bottom of the front page caught his attention—

The renowned medical scientist Dr. Petit published his latest research paper in the journal *Nature Science*, demonstrating that the head of a freshly caught forked snapper can effectively treat typhus. This discovery is of great significance in the history of medicine…

Duke Levis put down his newspaper and couldn't help but marvel at the rapid advancements in medicine over the years.

He had fought on the battlefield with his father when he was young, and he remembered that back then, if a soldier was wounded, it was almost always a matter of life and death. Now, the mortality rate for wounded soldiers has dropped to less than 20%.

A while ago, he overheard his servants chatting, saying that even in some remote villages, a new "inoculation" technique could cure smallpox, a very dangerous disease. And a child only needed 5 su (a unit of weight) to be inoculated.

Well, he still doesn't understand the difference between immunity and treatment.

Just as he was sighing inwardly, his personal male servant strode in, bowed, and said, "Master, Madam has returned."

Duke Levis hurriedly stood up and, together with his servants, went to the front door, where he met his wife, who looked exhausted.

“My dear, you’re back.” He stepped forward and embraced his wife, then asked eagerly in a low voice, “Did this trip increase Her Majesty’s trust in you?”

Queen Marie Antoinette has been back in Paris from Brest for two days, but the Duchess of Levis has only just finished the handover and was able to go home.

The Queen's maid nodded: "I have indeed gained His Majesty's trust this time... but perhaps I have trusted him a little too much."

(End of this chapter)