I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 354 Luxembourg Steel Center (seeking monthly pass at the end of the month)
Catherine II's strategic planning was not a sudden whim.

The basis of everything is of course the capabilities demonstrated by France in the past two years. Whether it is the royal family's control over power or the profound strategy demonstrated in North Africa and the Low Countries, all of these have made her believe that this is the best partner.

However, Russia's former ally Austria fell into the chaos brought about by the reforms and its national strength continued to decline.

Especially the unsuccessful suppression of the Brabant uprising and the tough battle in Silesia made her very disappointed with Austria.

Although Prussia, another German power, signed a secret agreement with Russia to divide Poland, it was only limited to dealing with Poland.

Prussia is now in the same boat with the British, and they will definitely give priority to Britain's opinions on major issues concerning the European order.

Moreover, Prussian troops are now trapped in Silesia, and no one knows when they can be freed.

In addition, Catherine II had another important consideration for her plan to join forces with France.

Compared with Russia's goals - Sweden, Poland, and the Black Sea coast, the European powers attached more importance to France's goals - the Low Countries and the Rhine River basin.

The Low Countries were the preserve of the British, and the Rhine was the traditional sphere of influence of Germany. If France really took action against these two places, the attention of the whole of Europe would immediately fall on it.

Russia would then be able to take advantage of the opportunity to feast on the feast without having to worry about the opinions of other powers.

Of course, if France could really take the Rhine under the pressure from the whole of Europe, Catherine II would not mind cooperating in sending troops. Perhaps under their attack from the east and the west, even Austria could be swallowed up!

The next morning, diplomatic officials placed the plan submitted by Count Stroganov on the further development of Russian-French trade on Queen Marie's desk.

Queen Mary opened the document somewhat helplessly, and after reading a few pages she began to frown - she was really not very good at this kind of thing.

She was about to call Archbishop Briand, but suddenly she remembered that the Dauphin seemed to be very knowledgeable about this matter.

Didn't Joseph also open a trading company with Count Bobulinsky of Russia? It is said that the business was very good, and the trade volume between France and Russia increased several times.

Thinking of this, she summoned her maid and asked her to send the trade plan to the crown prince for processing.

……

Luxembourg.

In an open area not far from the giant open-pit iron mine “Iron Sea”, several giant tower-like blast furnaces are under intensive construction.

Viscount Olivier, the owner of Silk Steel Company, stood on a hillside, watching his new ironworks taking shape with a happy mood.

He spent less than 4 livres to acquire a large-scale iron smelting workshop in Luxembourg, and obtained more than 700 skilled workers alone.

He then began expansion and technological innovation.

Right next to the old iron-smelting blast furnace he acquired, craftsmen were building two square buildings the size of ordinary houses with refractory bricks.

The two buildings were almost completely airtight, connected only by two thick pipes as high as an adult's abdomen, the ends of which were connected to the blast furnace.

There is also a high-pressure steam engine next to each square building, which blows air into the pipes through a mechanical device.

This is the "hot blast ironmaking" technology that Joseph brought to the French ironworks.

In fact, the principle is very simple. The combustion of fuel during ironmaking consumes a lot of oxygen. Traditional ironmaking blast furnaces directly obtain air from the outside, and the temperature of this air is room temperature. After entering the blast furnace with a temperature of thousands of degrees, the furnace temperature will inevitably drop. The temperature that the blast furnace of this era can reach is just enough to melt the iron in the iron ore, but it can usually only burn into viscous molten iron and flow out from the bottom of the blast furnace.

The quality of such molten iron is definitely not very high, because it is not fully melted, impurities will be wrapped inside, and the slag-making agent cannot be dissolved evenly.

The technology Joseph brought was to use a "hot air chamber" to heat the air in advance, and then "blow" it into the blast furnace under pressure.

This prevents cold air from lowering the furnace temperature, while the pressurized air blast also increases the amount of oxygen available for combustion.

This simple measure alone can raise the furnace temperature by nearly 200 degrees.

In addition, by switching to coke with a higher calorific value, the blast furnaces of French ironworks can now completely melt the iron in the iron ore.

Completely fluid molten iron can fully come into contact with the air, oxidizing a large amount of harmful impurities such as silicon and sulfur contained therein. At the same time, by adding slag-forming agents, the impurities are further precipitated.

The quality of the molten iron produced in this way can be close to that of crude steel. By adjusting the carbon content at the end of the blast furnace, the iron ingots from the blast furnace can meet the requirements of most iron products without having to go into the crucible for steelmaking.

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

He had previously asked someone to estimate that once the factory built in Luxembourg was fully operational, the annual output would reach 2 million pounds.

The steel output of this one factory alone is higher than the total steel output of France last year!

Coupled with the convenience brought by the Seine-Rhine trade agreement, his iron ingots and steel could be smoothly sold to many countries in southern Germany, and there were no longer checkpoints and tax officials along the way as was the case when he sold goods to Germany before.

This factory in Luxembourg will bring him at least 80 livres in revenue next year!

He will become the richest man in France!

And all this started from the moment he decided to invest and build a factory in the Nancy Industrial Development Zone.

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

Not far away, his old rival Mr. Gregor came over and bowed to him.

"You said the war wouldn't affect this place, right?" Mr. Gregor stopped and looked at the ironworks he invested in on the other side, and said with some concern, "I have invested most of my wealth in Luxembourg."

Viscount Olivier smiled and said, “You should have heard that the government has begun to build a wooden track from Luxembourg to Verdun.

"If it wasn't certain, the government wouldn't make such a big investment."

"You're right. Oh, Mr. Gregor is here too." The general manager of the Wilhauri Steel Works appeared out of nowhere, saluted the two men, and continued, "And I heard that the track to be repaired this time is not a wooden track, but an iron track."

"God, how much will it cost?" Viscount Olivier was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly stopped. Yes, this is Luxembourg, there is nothing else, but there is as much iron as you want. The price won't be too expensive.

His eyes immediately lit up. If the government wanted to build iron tracks, it would definitely purchase a large number of iron ingots from its own ironworks!
Or, he should mortgage his property in Nancy and borrow money to build more blast furnaces in Luxembourg...

This is exactly what Joseph's plan was intended to achieve.

By utilizing Luxembourg's cheap iron to start trial production of rails and train track-laying craftsmen, the ironworks' sales could be greatly increased, thereby further reducing their costs.

(End of this chapter)