"Your Excellency, Secretary-General, have I passed?"
The candidate was a young priest in a white robe, eagerly looking at Rastigne, who was seated as the chief examiner.
Rastigne smiled faintly without answering the young priest’s query, then ambiguously responded, "Respected Father, I think you should devote all your energy to serving the Lord, rather than asking about whether you’ve passed or not here."
The white-robed priest smiled bitterly at Rastigne, expressing that he was actually exiled here by the Church under the pretense of training, and was now tired of the priesthood, yet without a suitable opportunity, he had not taken off his robe.
Just as the Governor’s Mansion was recruiting in Libreville, and he himself had so knowledge of various minerals, he wanted to take this opportunity to work under the Governor’s Mansion.
anwhile, the white-robed priest hinted to Rastigne that as long as he could enter the Governor’s Mansion, he would definitely follow Rastigne’s lead.
Faced with the white-robed priest’s laziness, Rastigne smiled slightly; he had long heard such hints many tis, and in previous interviews, so people even blatantly told him that if Rastigne could let them in, they would give him a large sum of money as a token of respect.
However, Rastigne ignored both explicit and implicit hints like these. In his view, people willing to sell themselves for such minor interests would likely betray him quickly for greater interests in the future, keeping such people around was akin to a ticking ti bomb.
Furthermore, Rastigne’s goal was not just to be a Secretary-General at the Governor’s Mansion; this position was rely a stepping stone, only Paris was his broad horizon.
If he wanted to return to Paris, he must assist Governor Jero Patterson in managing Gabon well.
Otherwise, Rastigne could only stay here for the rest of his life.
Therefore, in choosing the Governor’s Mansion bureaucrats, Rastigne held a determination to recruit with rigorous standards.
"Father, you just need to return and wait for notification!" Rastigne responded blandly, while the white-robed priest was already entirely out of consideration in his heart.
Hearing Rastigne’s reply, the white-robed priest’s face showed a trace of unwillingness. However, blatantly causing a disturbance here was unseemly, so he managed a smile and said to Rastigne, "Alright then! Please notify as soon as possible! I’ll make sure to co over right away!"
After the white-robed priest left, Rastigne continued to interview, keeping his head down.
After interviewing several more people in succession, Rastigne remained unsatisfied with them.
So, Rastigne halted the interview and muttered to himself, "Is it that my requirents are too high?"
After a while, Rastigne shook his head again and said to himself, "No! If they can’t even pass my assessnt, how can I expect them to explore minerals?"
Then, Rastigne continued to interview.
The interview continued until 5 PM when it ceased. An exhausted Rastigne gathered all the materials and went to the Governor’s office.
"How did it go today?" Jero Patterson, hearing footsteps, lifted his head and asked Rastigne.
Rastigne shook his head at Jero Patterson, responding, "No good!"
"None of them? Not even one that’s passable?" Jero Patterson asked once more.
"So far, everyone is a no-go!" Rastigne emphasized.
"Well..." Jero Patterson put down the pen in his hand and showed a thoughtful expression. After a while, he responded to Rastigne, "Then we might have to seek help from Paris?"
"I’ll keep interviewing for a while! Maybe I’ll find soone suitable!" Despite having no hope for Libreville in his heart, Rastigne responded to Jero Patterson.
"Alright then!" Jero Patterson nodded in agreent with Rastigne’s request; he himself was also reluctant to trouble Paris with everything.
In the following two days, Rastigne continued to interview tirelessly, seeing dozens more.
However, none of them passed Rastigne’s interview, and Rastigne had to return to the Governor’s office to inform Governor Jero Patterson of this.
"Okay!" Jero Patterson shrugged and responded to Rastigne, "Now, we can only look to Paris for help!"
Imdiately after, Jero Patterson called for a ssenger from the Governor’s Mansion, and under Rastigne’s surprised gaze, took a letter out of the drawer and handed it to the ssenger, instructing him, "You must imdiately set sail for Marseille and send this letter to Paris in the form of a telegram!"
"Yes, Your Excellency, Governor!" The ssenger received the letter and saluted Jero Patterson.
"Go!" Jero Patterson signaled the ssenger.
After the ssenger left, Jero Patterson apologized to Rastigne, saying the letter was rely a precaution for not finding a suitable candidate, an early preparation.
"Your Excellency, Governor, you did the right thing!" Rastigne replied straightforwardly to Jero Patterson, "For anything, it’s best to have two plans!"
...
Leaving the Governor’s Mansion, the ssenger embarked on a cargo ship bound for France that very evening.
After about a week’s voyage, the cargo ship arrived at the head of Marseille Port.
The ssenger disembarking from the cargo ship ran all the way to the telegraph office in Marseille.
"Where should it be sent? To whom?" The telegraph operator asked the ssenger as he ripped open the envelope.
"Sir, to the Tuileries Palace! To His Majesty Emperor Jero Bonaparte!" The ssenger said without hesitation to the telegraph operator.
The telegraph operator’s hand imdiately stopped, his eyes widened in astonishnt, and he asked, "I didn’t hear clearly, can you say that again!"
"Sir, please send the contents of the letter to His Majesty Emperor Jero Bonaparte at the Tuileries Palace!" The ssenger responded word for word to the telegraph operator.
"God!" The telegraph operator couldn’t help but moan, he returned the letter to the ssenger, telling him it would be better for City Hall to convey it instead.
The ssenger understood the telegraph operator’s concerns, he hurried to assure the telegraph operator: "Don’t worry! The contents of the envelope are not anything disgraceful, you can send it with full confidence!"
"Really?" The telegraph operator asked the ssenger anxiously.
"Of course it’s true!" The ssenger replied to the telegraph operator with a confident tone: "How could I deceive you!"
"Alright then!" The telegraph operator nodded, then opened the envelope, unfolded the folded letter paper, carefully read it once, and proceeded to send it.
anwhile, far away at the Tuileries Palace, a hundred kiloters away.
Jero Bonaparte was looking worriedly at the docunt jointly submitted by Eugène Schneider and William Siens.
It turned out that a while ago, William Siens heard a rumor from sowhere that adding spiegel iron (manganese iron) to steel could effectively remove sulfur.
Thus, with the help of Eugène Schneider, William Siens began conducting experints.
After nurous attempts and comparison experints, William Siens surprisingly succeeded in using manganese iron to control the phosphorus and sulfur content in steel.
William Siens hurriedly applied for the patent in France, then jointly submitted the docunt to Jero Bonaparte with Eugène Schneider.
[PS: This discovery should originally have been made by William Siens in 1866.]
Looking at the plan before him, Jero Bonaparte felt both joy and worry.
The joy was that the steel utilization rate in France would greatly increase, and so high-phosphorus iron ore in the Lorraine Region could also be effectively utilized.
While the worry was that the manganese mines in France were truly too few.
In this era, and not just in France, the entire Europe had few manganese mines.
[During this period, Ukraine and Hungary were not yet developed, and like France, England had scarce manganese mines.]
Refining steel precisely requires manganese ore, which ans that France would have to use a large amount of foreign exchange to import manganese ore, thus the original steel cost reduced by William Siens would hardly decrease much.
This technology was virtually a chicken rib for France unless France could find a cheap manganese ore supply.
"Manganese mines... manganese mines... let think where there are manganese mines!" Jero Bonaparte closed his eyes, silently chanting.
After a while, a knock on the door was heard, Jero Bonaparte opened his eyes and asked, "Who?"
Basilio’s voice ca from outside the room, "Your Majesty, it’s Basilio!"
"Please co in!" Jero Bonaparte said indifferently.
Basilio pushed the door open and entered, Jero Bonaparte asked again: "What’s going on?"
"Your Majesty, there’s a telegram for you!" Basilio said to Jero Bonaparte.
"A telegram for ?" Jero Bonaparte reached out to Basilio, "Hand it over!"
"Yes!" Basilio handed the telegram to Jero Bonaparte.
Jero Bonaparte glanced at the contents of the telegram, a faint smile appeared on his face, "What could it be! Turns out they want to send them geologists!"
Suddenly, Jero Bonaparte seed to realize sothing, he turned to Basilio and asked, "Basilio! If I’m not mistaken, Jero Patterson is serving as governor in Gabon, right?"
Basilio was montarily flustered by Jero Bonaparte’s sudden query. After a mont of contemplation, he decisively responded to Jero Bonaparte, "Your Majesty, Jero Patterson has indeed been dispatched by you to Libreville as governor of the Gabon Region!"
"Such a coincidence! It’s such a coincidence!" Jero Bonaparte got up and paced back and forth twice, then raised his head again and handed the telegram to Basilio: "You should take a look!"
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