Eagle’s Glory

"My coal mine."

This answer made the Marquis of Treville and Edmond Dantès look at each other in astonishment.

The two of them are here to be lobbyists, who cares about coal mines?

However, since this was the marshal's invitation as the master, the two of them had no choice but to obey. After all, they could not afford to offend the marshal.

So, they hastily ended the conversation in the room, and after taking a short rest, led by the marshal and his entourage, they walked out of the house together, and then walked into the mountains near the town.

The mountain road is a bit rugged. The marshal is old and stops to rest from time to time while walking up the mountain road. Edmond Dantès is young and strong. Although the Marquis de Treville is old, his body is also weak due to his long experience in the battlefield. They were very strong, so the two of them seemed more calm than the marshal - of course, their bodies were inevitably stained with dirt and weeds.

While walking and stopping, they chatted and admired the surrounding scenery.

It was summer at this time, everything was growing, and there was green everywhere as far as the eye could see. There were also the sounds of birdsong and streams accompanying them. If it weren't for the special status of a few people, this group of people would be like travelers going out for an excursion together. .

But soon, the green scenery was replaced by another scene - when he came to a hillside, Edmund saw a huge hole on the opposite hillside, which was covered with wooden beams and shelves. It was reinforced and extended all the way to the depths of the hillside. It was so dark that it was difficult to see the scene inside. The area around the entrance was bare, with no green plants, only a mixture of yellow-brown soil and dark-brown soot. Ugly tint.

Even if the marshal didn't introduce it, the Marquis of Treville and Edmund could certainly tell that this was the marshal's coal mine.

The dark cave entrance did not interest either of them, but the marshal seemed very interested.

"Let's go together and get closer!" The marshal picked up his cane and waved it.

Therefore, the group of people could only go down the slope, and then walked to the entrance of the coal mine opposite.

From a distance, the coal mine looked like a quiet and ugly behemoth, but the closer they got, the more they could feel the noise and restlessness inside. There were various sounds coming from inside, including human voices and mechanical collisions. There was even smoke coming from inside and outside the cave entrance.

In the smoke, mine cars loaded with coal were constantly being pushed out along the tracks by workers.

It was then transported to a nearby dump.

Because it was mixed with coal ash, the smoke that spread around was light black, and there was even an unpleasant smell when asked. Although the Marquis and Edmund felt very uncomfortable, they did not dare to cover it up in front of the marshal. Mouth and nose, so I could only endure it with force, while secretly cursing the marshal for bringing them here to suffer.

However, perhaps because he had adapted to this environment, the old marshal did not show any discomfort. He stood outside the cave entrance and looked at the busy scene in front of him with interest.

"This is where I invest!" Because the surroundings were very noisy, the marshal raised his voice and said loudly to his two guests, "What do you think?!"

Of course, both of them disagreed in their hearts, but neither of them dared to show it, so they had to compliment the marshal in general terms, saying things like "unique vision" and "revitalizing the country", but in their hearts they just hoped that this trip would end soon.

The marshal patiently listened to the compliments of both of them, and then suddenly asked the Marquis of Treville.

"Victor, do you know what is most important if you want to run a coal mine?"

This question stumped the Marquis. Although he was well-informed, this was beyond his knowledge.

"Funds?" he asked tentatively.

The marshal did not reply to the Marquis, but looked at Edmund again, "Earl, what do you think?"

Edmund also looked confused. After hesitating for a moment, he could only ask tentatively, "Reliable manpower?"

"Hahahaha..." Seeing the awkward but polite look of the two of them, the marshal couldn't help laughing, "You are all right, but you are too amateurish - okay, I won't sell it to you either. Well, the answer is drainage.”

The Marquis and Edmund looked at each other in confusion again, but this time they didn't need to say anything more, they just needed to wait for the Marshal's "guidance."

"People have been using coal mines for many, many years, and they have almost exhausted the good ones. The mines are getting deeper and deeper. At this time, we have to consider the issue of drainage. If the water cannot be drained, we cannot dig. No matter how deep the mine is, it will be filled with water. In those days, the poor miners had to rely on manpower to drain the water. They dug wells in the mines and then used buckets to lift the water away... Such work It’s inefficient and dangerous because you can’t fit many people into the mine.”

As the marshal spoke, he walked towards the coal mine, while the Marquis and Edmund could only follow him step by step, "In the last century, someone invented the air compressor, which used the principle of air pressure to drive the water pump to pump water... …”

The two of them were still a little confused and couldn't figure out why the once famous marshal was now teaching them like a coal mining expert, but they could only listen silently and follow the marshal.

After they walked into the mine, the passage suddenly became narrow, and at this time, the sound inside kept vibrating back and forth in the narrow cave. The rumbling sound made both of them have tinnitus.

"However, the cost of air compressors is too high, so it is difficult to promote the technology. For nearly a century, people are still unable to develop coal mines and other mineral deposits on a large scale..." the marshal continued to explain to the two guests.

Suddenly, he changed the subject, "However, just a few decades ago, the situation was different. A great inventor appeared in the UK. He creatively applied steam engines to mine drainage, revolutionizing this problem. ! His steam pump can operate at a low cost. It is not only cheap but also fast. He has easily solved this problem that has plagued mankind for thousands of years, and also allowed our mineral deposits to be developed deeper underground!"

As he spoke, he shouted loudly to the two guests.

"Are you interested in coming and taking a look?"

We have all reached this point, and even if we are not interested, we must be interested now, so the two of them followed the marshal to the shaft in the coal mine, where a huge steam pump was placed. This machine was like Like a monster nesting in a small space, it makes huge noises and smoke, and is continuously pumping water up from the well, and then draining it along the channels dug in advance.

The huge sound was extremely uncomfortable to hear, and even the marshal could not help but feel tinnitus, but even so, he walked to the side of the machine and looked at the giant beast with a complicated expression.

"This is the heart of the coal mine, we can't operate without it."

"This is a lesson that impressed me deeply, Marshal!" The Marquis of Treville complimented the Marshal with polite words.

"No, you are not impressed enough, Victor." The marshal said goodbye to the Marquis, and then shook his head, "You still don't understand what this means - this is a machine I bought from England and asked British engineers to help Well done, using their latest technology, you know? British! All British, without them I couldn't build the mine, and almost all the coal mines on their damn island are using this now Plant steam machinery! They can dig deeper than us, dig out more coal, and then use coke to make steel and make more steel than our country. Do you understand? My friend, we Not only did we lose to the British on the bloody battlefield, but unknowingly, we also lost to them on the silent battlefield and the industrial battlefield!"

The marshal spoke very loudly, with a sense of helplessness and irritability, "We have lost so completely that we don't even know how to regroup. However, at the same time, the lords of Paris are completely unaware of this and are completely displeased." The same thing, they thought that we were so strong in the past and would be just as strong in the future, but they never thought that we had already been completely defeated!"

Upon hearing the Marshal's words, Edmund and the Marquis of Treville looked at each other in shock again.

None of them thought that when the marshal was developing the coal mine, he actually regarded himself as an industrialist, and then felt sad for the British achievements in mining.

They hoped that the Marshal was being alarmist, but the look on the Marshal's face and his image all along made people feel that his words were extremely convincing.

"Is the situation so bad?" Marquis Treville still didn't believe it.

"It's just that bad, my friend." The Marshal shrugged, "We can destroy everything, maybe destroy everything better than the British, but the world does not run by destroying, but by building. .The emperor said that the pen is more powerful than the sword, and I can also tell you that in the future world, machines will be more powerful than the pen. But now, unfortunately, the British have the best machines and the best coal, The future of the world is in their hands. Although I make this judgment with a hundredfold helplessness and reluctance, we are all smart people. Smart people should not replace reality with fantasy, but should acknowledge reality and then find ways to change it. If If things continue like this, the British will enjoy the most powerful industry and the most powerful army in the next few decades or even a century. They can do it, and even have done it."

The Marquis of Treville knew that the marshal's words were inevitably filled with personal emotions - during the Peninsular War, the marshal was disgraced in front of the Duke of Wellington, so anyone can despise the British army, but not him. He must recognize the British The strength of the army.

Besides, even the Marquis of Treville himself now has to admit that the British are no longer unbeatable at sea - during the long war, the British continued to fight against powerful enemies from all walks of life, and their powerful navy suffered heavy losses. They defeated the fleets of France, Spain, Denmark and even Russia, but their losses were so small that every enemy had to admit that they could no longer defeat them at sea.

"The British fleet was not built overnight. We can also build a fleet that keeps pace with them or even surpasses them. Maybe not in one generation, but in two or three generations. As long as we have such will, one day we will It’s done!” the Marquis replied loudly.

However, although he spoke impassionedly, if you listen carefully, you will find that this is already a guilty conscience - for two or three generations, one day, the true meaning of similar words is "We have no choice now."

Of course, the Marshal could hear the guilty conscience behind the tenacity, so he curled his lips and sneered, "Really? Victor? Can we really do that? If the British can always have better machines than us, dig out more More coal makes more steel, so everything you say is just empty talk, and it will be the same in three generations."

The Marquis of Treville was choked to the point of being speechless.

Whether he was a nobleman of Versailles or a general of Napoleon, he was full of hostility towards Britain and wished he could cross the strait and turn that island country into a sea of ​​fire.

However, his reason told him that the marshal's words were somewhat reasonable, so he did not have much confidence to refute the other party.

"You must be very sad. I didn't expect that the former Marshal Soult turned into a defeatist... Has he been frightened by the British and turned into a coward?" Seeing the Marquis's speechless appearance, he felt guilty. , the marshal smiled even more happily, "But, Victor, I have never been a triumphalist, nor a defeatist, I am just a realist - the reality is that we are not only defeated on the battlefield. The British, it would be great if it was just on the battlefield. We have a larger population than the British. It only takes one generation for us to gather a larger army than the British. But what is the point? If we are more advanced in industry and technology They lost to the British, so no matter how many soldiers they gathered, they would just gather sand into a tower. The British could still smash it to pieces with a heavy punch - so instead of thinking about how to take revenge and how to gather more troops, it is better to think about How can we make our country have more powerful machines and industries? When we accumulate more wealth than the British, we will be qualified to truly compete with them. Otherwise, we can just accept our fate and live honestly. Under the sunshine of the British century, just admit that you are just a poor nation suppressed by it!"

After finishing speaking, the marshal tapped his cane gently, which also meant that he wanted to leave.

The Marquis and Edmund felt as if they had been granted amnesty. They had long been unable to bear the noisy, humid and hot environment, and hurriedly followed the marshal out of the mine.

Only then did they realize that because they had just been in the steam mist next to the machine, they were now soaked to the skin - the soot and mud originally stained on their bodies had now turned into larger particles on their clothes through the steam. Blocks of stains make it even more ugly.

But Edmund was not in the mood to pay attention to such trivial matters at the moment.

He was still thinking about what the marshal had just said.

Unlike the Marquis, he does not have so much arrogance in his heart, so he is more able to look at problems objectively.

"Your Majesty, Marshal, do you want to say these words to His Majesty..." he asked in a low voice.

"Smart man." The marshal smiled and nodded, "Tell that little guy, if he can understand!"