The thing called nitroglycerin, in its original history, was invented in 1846 by the Italian chemist Sobre. But the raw materials to make it, such as glycerin, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid already existed. To make nitroglycerin at this point in time was no longer technically too difficult. As a matter of fact, nitroglycerin is not too difficult to make, as long as you pay attention to the low temperature that must be maintained throughout the preparation process.
However, in the original history, it was this precaution that was mastered at a great cost, even the cost of blood. Mr. Lu Xun once exclaimed, "The history of mankind's bloody march forward is just like the formation of coal, where a great deal of wood was used in the first place, but it turned out to be just a small piece." In fact, the history of technological progress is the same. Many of the techniques that took great expense to master are actually rather simple, to put it bluntly.
Joseph, of course, did not want Lavoisier to be blown up by nitroglycerine, so the item of controlling the temperature was made explicit in his letter to Lavoisier. Starting from the theory of molecular motion, Joseph argued that more intense molecular motion would tend to make the reaction more intense, thus increasing the danger. Therefore controlling the temperature so that it remained consistently lower would slow down the reaction but greatly increase safety.
But even with this crucial pointer, it was still difficult to keep things from going wrong at all. Just two days later, Lavoisier's first explosion in the Duke of Orleans' territory occurred. An assistant did not strictly follow the operating procedures, and then injected the acid too quickly, resulting in a serious accident with one death and five injuries. This is still because of the relatively small amount of nitroglycerin produced, otherwise, the remaining five people most likely will not be able to save their lives.
The explosion frightened Lavoisier, who was also present at the time, but had left for a while because he was thirsty for a drink of water, when the explosion occurred. Of course, if he had been there, it is difficult to say whether the assistant would still not follow the standard requirements. On the contrary, Duke Phillips on the contrary appeared to be extraordinarily calm, and even more interested in this thing. Because he had seen the power of this thing with his own eyes, he immediately realized that this thing really had a great future. As for the research process, there were casualties, well, they were sacrificed for the sake of the development of science, and it was considered a justifiable death. People would always die, but the meaning of death was different. Like them, sacrificing for the development of science, that is a death heavier than the Alps. As for whether people will be blown up during production in the future, well, production accidents are hard to avoid completely, and there are people who have been hit by carriages while walking outside. Besides, even if those workers die, they died for the construction of France, so what's the problem? Anyway, no matter what, the death can't come to His Royal Highness the Duke here, just like His Royal Highness the Duke will never be hit by a carriage when he goes out on the street.
Just as the sound of explosions was coming from time to time from Duke Phillips's estate, Joseph finished his business in Calais and returned to Paris. And his brother Napoleon arrived in Paris with his brother Louis.
"I took a leave of absence from the army, went back to Corsica, and brought Louis to you. Have you any water here? I'm dying of thirst." As soon as he saw Joseph, Napoleon cried out thus.
"The water is over there, pour yourself a drink." Joseph said. Then he walked over to Louis and said, "Well, Louis, you've grown a little taller again, already taller than Napoleon, hahaha. Napoleon, I'm afraid you're going to be the shortest in our family, including the girls."
Napoleon disliked it when people made fun of his height, but he knew that the more he acted angry, the more amused Joseph, the hateful fellow, might instead become. So he simply ignored the guy and just poured himself a glass of water and gulped it down.
"How's the house?" Joseph asked again.
"Very bad." Napoleon said.
"Nothing bad, same as always." Louis said.
"The same as before is the worst kind of bad." Napoleon said.
"What's the matter? Out to see the world and not happy with Corsica? Can't see Corsica anymore?" Joseph asked as he sat down in a chair at the table and crossed his legs slowly.
"How could I not see Corsica?" Napoleon said rather disgruntled, "It's just that Corsica is so lacking in variety. In France, in Paris, you always feel change, new ideas, new science, new opportunities, every day change, progress. But what about Corsica, there is no difference between today and yesterday, between yesterday and the day before yesterday. I talk to people and there is no difference between what is going on inside their heads and what was going on ten years ago, or even a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago. Even the patriotic aspirants are like that, all they think about is that they can become independent and then close their doors and go on living the way they did hundreds of years ago. That's not good, that's not how Corsica should be."
"And what do you think Corsica should be like? Napoleon, then again it seems like you thought the same thing back then." Joseph gazed at Napoleon with a mocking smile.
"It means I've progressed beyond the others." Napoleon replied instead, "As for what Corsica should be like. I think the future Corsica should be a land of freedom, equality, justice, and the rule of law, just as Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu portrayed them."
"Napoleon, you have indeed made progress!" Joseph laughed, "So what are you going to do about it?"
"I've been thinking about that during my time back home. First of all, I feel that the most fundamental problem in Corsica is not so much the French occupation, but the people's inability to awaken. To truly change Corsica, we must first educate our people and awaken them."
"What?" Joseph was taken aback and stared at his brother with wide eyes. "What's wrong with this guy? Could it be that because of the butterfly effect brought about by us crossing over, this guy doesn't intend to be a famous general anymore, and instead intends to go as a Lu Xun who awakens the people?"
Joseph hesitated for a moment and asked, "Napoleon, what are your specific plans?"
"I intend to write a history of Corsica, something like The Gallic War." Napoleon said.
Hearing this, Joseph sighed in relief, it seemed that Napoleon was still Napoleon. The Tale of the Gallic War was the work of Julius Caesar of ancient Rome. This showed that the role model in Napoleon's mind was still a statesman-military like Julius Caesar. And creating the history of Corsica was just a means he used to achieve his political ends.
"I'm not too optimistic about your intentions." Joseph shook his head, "As you know, Corsica has a higher percentage of illiterates than either France or Italy, and very few people can read."
Napoleon opened his mouth, ready to retort, but Joseph didn't give him the chance, instead continuing, "Napoleon, don't be in a hurry to argue, I know what you want to say. You want to say that although there are few people in Corsica who can read. But as long as these people recognize the problem and learn about the new and correct ideas out there, they will not only be able to change themselves, but they will be able to motivate the rest of the people who are supposed to be the leaders of the Corsican people. That's what you think, isn't it?"
Napoleon stared at Joseph for a moment before answering, "Yes, that's what I think, what's wrong with that?" The answer was a bit reluctant because he figured, based on Joseph's old habits when dealing with him, that Joseph would immediately take a snarky jab at him.
It also turned out that this prediction of his was very accurate. Joseph immediately spoke, "O my foolish brother, you are so young and naive! You actually believe that one can be convinced with reason! This is truly laughable."
At this point, Joseph suddenly leaned forward, close to Napoleon's face, and stared him in the eye, "My brother, you must remember that it is never their heads that dictate the actions of most people, but their asses! It's not what's right or moral that counts, it's what's good for them, what their asses actually sit on! Understand?"
After saying this, he straightened up again and said, "Think about it with your head, what kind of impact does a 'free, equal, just and lawful country' have on the people you have to rely on to make things happen together? Is it favorable, or is it harmful? Forget about morals, ideals and such, just think of them all as people like Machiavelli portrayed them, and then think again, would they support a 'free, equal, just and lawful state'? Elsewhere, in France, as you can see, who are those who are most opposed to what you call 'the kingdom of liberty, equality, justice, and the rule of law'?"
Napoleon was silent for a moment, then spoke anyway, "But, Joseph, they are not all Machiavellian. Realize that we are among them." Only, perhaps because he himself realized that this idea of his was perhaps indeed a bit of wishful thinking, this rebuttal of his, however, was in a low voice, and appeared to be lacking in gravitas.
"Napoleon, there is a difference between an individual and a group. There are individuals who betray their own interests, but there never have been - and never will be - groups who betray their own interests." Joseph said, "Napoleon, if you want to change Corsica, that will inevitably lead to a redefinition of the way interests are distributed, and that would be starting a revolution. And in all revolutions since the beginning of time, what is the foremost issue, do you know?"
Napoleon shook his head.
"Who are our enemies? Who are our friends? That question is the foremost question of the revolution." Joseph again shamelessly adopted the great man's thoughts as his own, "The revolutionary struggles of the past, which had so little success, failed for many reasons, but the most basic reason was because of the inability to unite the true friends in order to attack the true enemies. The revolutionaries are the guides of the masses. There has never been a revolution in which the revolution did not fail if the revolutionaries led the wrong way. If we want to have the certainty of not leading the wrong way and of success, we must not fail to pay attention to uniting our true friends in order to attack our true enemies."
Napoleon bowed his head in thought for a moment before looking up, the look of defiance in his eyes gone, and instead a gleam of thirst came into them.
"And how do we determine who is our friend and who is our enemy?" Napoleon asked.