Life of Being a Crown Prince in France - Chapter 1559 - 1465: Holy City Crisis

Helen was asking the site supervisor about the progress of the factory, when she saw a boy, about fourteen or fifteen, wearing a black coarse fabric tight-fitting jacket, running towards her. Her face suddenly showed a kind smile.

That was her grandson Friedrich, a very talented child who, at the age of thirteen, had performed precision forging with the technicians without anyone teaching him.

“Grandmother,” Friedrich waved enthusiastically and shouted from afar, “The latest results of the bending and forging tests of the newly produced grey cast iron are excellent!”

Helen was also very surprised: “Really? Those French people have been here for less than ten days.”

The boy nodded, panting: “The tests were supervised by me personally. The bending performance has improved by 70% compared to our previous wrought iron. According to the French technicians, the phosphorus content in the molten iron from the blast furnace has been reduced by more than half.”

Helen’s eyes widened: “How did they achieve this? Did they improve the blast furnace?”

“You know, there’s not enough time for that. Actually, they just used a new slag-making agent. They also said that once our new blast furnace is built, the quality of the wrought iron can be significantly improved further.”

Helen suddenly thought of something: “Wait, if there’s such a big improvement, we could totally secure the Dutch ship chain orders!”

Six months ago, a Dutch shipyard came to inspect Krupp’s products but was very dissatisfied with the bending performance.

Now, with the support of French technology, they can definitely give it a try.

That’s a contract worth tens of thousands of Dutch guilders!

Friedrich nodded, then complained: “If we had cooperated with the French people from the start, the orders would definitely be much more than now. The high price we paid for British technology at the time was just a waste of money!”

Although British assistance to Prussia was free, the Prussian government would only pass the technology to competent companies.

Of course, the British provided outdated technology, but this time the French also provided their own outdated technology.

In the steel refining field, because there is an extraordinary figure guiding the overall direction in France, they have gradually gained a generational advantage over Britain.

For example, the technology like “hot blast stoves” and “alloy steel refining,” which France already has mature applications for, Britain is still exploring.

Moreover, the steel technology association in France is advancing converter steelmaking, which has entered the concluding stage. This is truly a trump card level technology in the steel refining field.

Therefore, when France’s “old technology” entered Prussia, almost instantly it displaced all British refining technology.

Along with it arrived Prussia, the standard units set by France, the franc, and even the financial system.

A month later, the Krupp Iron Foundry clinched the ship chain order from the Dutch Amsterdam United Shipyard using high-quality and low-priced products snatched from the British steel mills.

The shipyard even additionally purchased 5,000 Dutch guilders worth of iron products such as bollards and railings.

Meanwhile, merchants from neighboring states like Oldenburg and Braunschweig heard the news and came to confirm Krupp’s quality, signing orders one after another.

In the Prussian countryside, recruitment notices from steel factories like Krupp also caused quite a stir.

Due to sufficient orders and rapid expansion, these factories offered favorable conditions, usually providing dormitories and 10 taels of monthly wages, about 25 francs.

This is definitely considered a high salary in Prussia.

As a result, many serfs who could not afford or were unwilling to pay high land redemption prices chose to abandon the land—according to the latest reform decree, this is allowed—and headed to factories to make a living.

The numerous new factories and the constantly flowing workers into the cities created a scene of unparalleled prosperity for the Prussian steel industry.

This made many nobles and investors originally holding onto money and watching, finally put down their worries, with funds beginning to flow continuously into the Prussian steel industry fund.

…

January 21, 1801.

Southwest of the Arab Peninsula, dozens of kilometers east of Mecca, in Ta’if.

The chieftain Rabi of the Dusari Tribe glanced nervously at the expansive desert behind him and bowed to Saud: “Great Imam, are we really going to launch an attack on the Holy City?”

“By occupying Karbala, we have already angered the Ottoman people. If we continue, we will surely attract the Turkic Army, and with our current strength, we are temporarily inadequate to deal with them…”

“Are you afraid?” Saud Bin Abdul Aziz glanced at him, proudly pointing westward with his whip, “Expelling apostates and purifying Islam is the sacred mission of every Wahhabi.

The Holy City has always belonged to the Arabs; we absolutely cannot tolerate foreign forces continuing to occupy it.

As for the Turkic people, their army is entirely in Armenia. If they dare to confront us, they should have come when we attacked Karbala.”

Karbala is the later southwest part of Iraq, a very prosperous area under Ottoman rule.

The Diriyah Emirate led by Saud, driven by religious fanaticism, quickly expanded from a not-too-powerful tribe to the strongest military force on the Arab Peninsula, beginning to encroach on Ottoman territories.

Now, he is directly targeting the Holy City of great religious significance.

Several major tribal chieftains around Saud immediately shouted loudly: “Expel the apostates!”

“End the corrupt Ottomans!”

“Take back the Holy City!”

Rabi hesitated for a moment, then quickly followed suit, raising his arms and shouting.

Three days later.

After slaughtering the Ottomans in Ta’if, Saud’s army surrounded Mecca City.

At the forefront were nearly two thousand camel cavalry. Behind them were more than 500 elite Mujahideen cavalry.

On the flanks and at the rear were over 10,000 cavalry and infantry from various tribes.

And the defending forces in Mecca City amounted to less than 600 men.

When the news of the massacre in Ta’if reached Mecca, Governor Sharif Galiyev almost immediately abandoned the city with his confidants and fled.

He had sent several rescue requests to Constantinople months ago, but the Grand Vizier had no intention of dispatching reinforcements; he did not want to die here.

Soon, all of Constantinople was rocked by the fall of Mecca.

…

Paris.

In the reception room of the Grand Trianon Palace, Security Bureau Director Lavallette was reporting to Joseph:

“Your Highness, as of last Wednesday, ‘Mr. Investor’ has received a total of 1.63 million taels, with another more than 500,000 taels yet to be settled.”

The so-called “Investor” is the code name for Baron Trudeun in the Security Bureau.

Joseph looked at the report in his hand, showing that all kinds of bribes Trudeun received exceeded a million taels, followed by dividends from Prussian steel mills, and the costs for purchasing various equipment and raw materials.

It is important to note that the prices for items sold to Prussians through Trudeun’s under-the-table channels were at least double compared to those in France.