I Became a Tycoon During World War I - Chapter 271

Chapter 271: Commercial Intelligence

If it were the old Charles, he would have known nothing about the outside world, aside from military intelligence.

Even if he knew something, it would be outdated, useless, or possibly a carefully crafted lie by the enemy.

But now, Charles has the "Lady in White."

The "Lady in White" may not be very suitable for gathering commercial intelligence, and Charles worried that she might resist this task.

After all, they demanded to be treated as soldiers, and soldiers could not point their guns at civilians.

But Lucia provided a reasonable explanation: "Your factory produces equipment needed on the front lines, Colonel, and this equipment is defeating the enemy. If anyone is harmful to your factory, it's someone preventing us from achieving victory!"

"That makes sense!" Charles nodded, calmly assigning the task of tracking Grevy to the "Lady in White."

Thus, Charles knew that Grevy had gone to Saint-Étienne to meet Rayom.

Although he did not hear the full details, anyone could guess what Grevy’s objective might be.

Additionally, Charles was aware that Grevy had been in close contact with Bonnet, the owner of Le Petit Journal.

This suddenly alerted Charles: there are many people within the alliance who have conflicting interests with him, even though the alliance was formed for mutual benefit.

Take Rayom, for example, the eldest son of Steed. He could have inherited Saint-Étienne, and he had been striving for this goal for a long time, even managing Saint-Étienne as his armaments factory.

But now, Charles’s existence might cause him to lose his inheritance rights.

To be precise, not losing his inheritance rights, but inheriting Saint-Étienne would make him a "puppet" of Charles—at least, that’s how Rayom would likely see it.

Le Petit Journal also had conflicts with The Meritorious Report.

Although Steed was willing to sacrifice Le Petit Journal to support Charles, Bonnet was not the same. Le Petit Journal was his property, and he did not want to be sacrificed as a pawn or a sidekick to The Meritorious Report, nor did he want to watch his readers be poached by The Meritorious Report without having any opportunity to resist.

Thus, switching allegiance to Schneider was the best option for Bonnet, as for political parties, it seemed not to matter much to him.

Steed listened to Charles’s explanation with a darkened face and then looked at him apologetically: "Please believe me, this is not what I wanted. I didn’t know about this."

"He came to see me as well," Dominique said. "I mean, Grevy."

"He came to see you?" Steed looked at Dominique in shock.

"Yes," Dominique replied, his expression slightly awkward. "At that time, I thought he was just trying to sow discord, but I didn’t realize it was..."

Steed grunted and gave Dominique a sharp glare.

"What do you plan to do about it?" Charles asked.

"Don’t worry, Colonel." A cold glint flashed in Steed's eyes. "I’ll take care of these matters."

Steed already had a plan in mind: Bonnet would die in a traffic accident.

At this point, Bonnet had not yet publicly announced his switch to Schneider. If he were to die in an accident, everyone would suspect Schneider's involvement, and Schneider would gain nothing while failing to achieve his objective.

As for Rayom, he would permanently lose his inheritance rights. Knowing too many secrets, he would be placed under house arrest for the time being. The management of Saint-Étienne might be handed over to a third party with no inheritance ties for greater security.

Steed simply lacked creativity, but that didn’t mean he lacked means. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have survived in a society as treacherous as this one.

After thinking for a moment, Steed slightly inclined his body to Charles. "I hope these unpleasant matters won’t affect our cooperation."

"Of course," Charles answered calmly. "However, I might have some advice for you."

Steed was somewhat puzzled. Did Charles want to vent his frustration in his own way? Then, a flash of fear crossed Steed's eyes. Would Charles ask him to commit a great betrayal?

If so, what should he do?

Steed gritted his teeth, deciding to sacrifice Rayom. After all, Rayom was insignificant compared to an entire family and Saint-Étienne!

However, Steed quickly realized that he was wrong.

"Forget about Bonnet," Charles said. "What you need to do is persuade Rayom."

"Persuade?" Steed looked surprised; this punishment seemed too light.

"Rayom could become a pawn in our hands," Charles explained. "Next time, you won’t have to transfer the blueprints to the Piteau Armaments Factory through the technicians."

Steed suddenly understood.

Schneider might use Rayom to strengthen the Piteau Armaments Factory and suppress Saint-Étienne, specifically to attack Charles.

For example, if Charles had any new inventions, the Piteau Armaments Factory could receive the blueprints in advance and produce similar equipment.

If that’s the case, Rayom could end up being used against his will.

Steed was confident about this: "I can persuade him, Colonel. If he refuses, he will lose everything!"

But Steed still refused to give up on Bonnet. "But Le Petit Journal... its influence on us is significant."

"Its influence is negligible," Charles interrupted Steed.

Steed felt somewhat troubled. It didn’t seem to matter much to Charles. Even Schneider’s Morning Post had to publish Charles’s successes and victories. Even if Le Petit Journal "defected," it wouldn’t be able to change the fact that Charles had triumphed. If Bonnet tried to sway the narrative, he would fail to turn success into failure.

But there was still the matter of the damage to the Republican Party’s cohesion and morale...

Charles seemed to see through Steed’s thoughts and added, "Even if you want to deal with him, you’ll have to wait some time."

Hearing this, Steed understood.

This wasn’t Charles being "soft-hearted," but rather, he was preparing to deal with someone else: Grevy.

Steed had guessed correctly. In Charles’s eyes, Grevy was always the most important opponent.

Grevy’s existence was like the "anti-Charles alliance," as he could unite all of Charles’s enemies, even some Charles wasn’t aware of.

Grevy was a smart man.

If Steed dealt decisively with the two "traitors," Grevy would immediately sense danger: Charles possessed intelligence-gathering abilities, and in the future, he would need to act more cautiously—some things would even be off-limits.

But if Charles appeared to know nothing, and Bonnet still switched sides to Schneider while Rayom continued to provide information to Schneider, then Grevy would keep working with the Germans in secret.

Before this, Charles might have been unable to do anything about him, but now, with the "Lady in White" watching Grevy—more importantly, Grevy didn’t know about her existence—

The future that awaited Grevy and the right-wing faction would be the charge of "collaborating with the enemy!"

What would that result in?

Suicide, or execution?

You choose!

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