I Became a Tycoon During World War I - Chapter 182

Chapter 182: Rush to Buy

The agreement was finally successfully reached.

Francis got what he wanted and left the manor, satisfied yet anxious.

Watching Francis' car disappear beyond the gate, Armand handed Grevy a cigarette and curiously asked, "It's clear you didn't really want to upgrade the CA-1."

"That won't help us, Armand!" Grevy replied. "It’s a tool Schneider uses to control us."

Armand froze, even stopping the motion of lighting his cigarette. "Control us, you say?"

Grevy made a sound of acknowledgment, striking a match to light Armand’s cigarette, then his own, and exhaled the smoke as he explained, "We have nothing in terms of industry. If we rely on Schneider to upgrade now…"

Armand suddenly understood, nodding. "From now on, we'll always need Schneider, even for maintaining the tanks."

Grevy made a sound of affirmation, exhaling a long puff of smoke. "James is a sharp guy. He seems to be helping us, but he’s actually planning to spend our money on things that benefit him!"

Then Armand was puzzled again. "But you know all this. Why did you agree to the terms of the deal? It seems to offer no advantage to us."

If there were any benefit, it was that the CA-1 could continue to be produced, bringing some revenue to the Right wing.

But the Right wing wasn’t concerned about revenue.

"Schneider may have overlooked something," Grevy said thoughtfully. "If he invested in the CA-1 with technology similar to the 'Saint Chamond', like upgrading the CA-1 with a 'Holt 120' engine, it could become a weapon to counter Schneider."

Armand paused for a moment, then finally grasped the idea:
Although the CA-1 didn't have much technology, someday, when Schneider and Charles were locked in an evenly matched struggle, it could play a pivotal role.

At that time, Grevy could hand the CA-1 to Charles, and Charles could achieve a complete victory, giving Grevy a weapon to balance both Schneider and Charles.

Thinking about this, Armand couldn't help but silently admire Grevy in his heart. To consider such a step, Grevy couldn't be a normal person, could he?

But neither Armand nor Grevy had anticipated that Charles might not care for any of this. To him, these technologies were extremely outdated and would undoubtedly be eliminated in the future, no matter how they were upgraded!

...

In the afternoon, Charles was once again sorting through documents at the command post, as usual.

Perhaps because both sides had grown weary of fighting, reports from the front lines about attacks and defenses had gradually diminished, replaced by reports about shortages of supplies, tools, and hand grenades.

The process of sending two officers from each division back to Paris for training was underway.

The reporting time was set for one week later, allowing the frontline units time to select candidates and send them to Paris. Additionally, the Saint-Étienne Arsenal needed a few days to produce mortars before testing could begin.

At that moment, a guard came up to Charles with a message: "Major, your father asked me to tell you he hopes you'll call the factory."

As an ordinary citizen, Djoka had a telephone but couldn't directly reach the City Defense Headquarters, so he had to use this messenger to contact Charles.

Charles immediately made a call to the tractor factory to inquire about the situation.

"Eric sent a telegram back. He’s already successfully contacted the Martin company," Djoka said on the phone. "The negotiations were going smoothly at first, and they were willing to sell the full set of machines for 800,000 francs. The core technical staff is not many, just over thirty people. After talking with them, Eric is confident that most of them would accept a salary of 200 francs a month to work in France."

"Is there a problem?" Charles asked, thinking it sounded perfect so far.

Djoka continued, "But it seems someone else is also trying to buy them, and the price has gone up to 1 million francs. Eric hasn't been able to find out who they are yet."

Charles frowned. This was problematic—there was a bidding war.

This could lead to both sides raising their prices, and even if they secured the deal, it would cost much more than before.

Who could it be?

Charles' first thought was the Sopwith Aircraft Company from Britain. Historically, it had purchased this automobile company.

But then Charles thought it was too coincidental, showing up precisely when Eric was negotiating with the Martin Automobile Company.

This was clearly intentional, and the target seemed to be himself...

The next moment, Charles realized who it was: Schneider.

This was a common tactic used by powerful companies to suppress up-and-coming competitors—buying out rivals to limit their development.

Schneider didn’t need insight or to predict the future like Charles did; all they had to do was one thing: buy whatever Charles was buying and drive up the price. Even though Schneider might lose money, Charles would end up with nothing and be left to exhaust his limited resources.

Charles didn’t hesitate. He immediately told Djoka, "Tell Eric to keep raising the price, adding 100,000 or 200,000 francs slowly, and keep pushing until it reaches around 2 million!"

"Charles..." Djoka seemed to want to advise against it, clearly feeling it wasn't worth it.

Charles added, "Do not mention the technical staff, and don’t contact them directly!"

Djoka responded with a simple "Oh," seemingly understanding.

After hanging up, Charles quickly contacted Steed.

As soon as the phone was picked up, Steed’s excited voice came through: "We’ve already produced ten sample cannons, Charles. It’s surprisingly effective!"

Charles wasn’t interested in discussing this. He anxiously asked, "Mr. Steed, do you have any personnel stationed in the UK?"

"Of course," Steed replied. "I just sent a team to discuss purchasing hand grenades with the British military!"

Steed believed this would quickly expand the sales of hand grenades, as the British army was fighting in France. If they could buy the grenades, it would be a "domestic export," which didn't need to be shipped abroad.

"I need you to do me a favor, Mr. Steed!" Charles said quickly. "I want you to have this team use all their connections, even the British military, to sign up the core technical staff from the Martin Automobile Company!"

Charles added, "I want this to be done secretly!"

There was no need for Charles to say more; Steed was a skilled operator and immediately understood what was going on.

"This matter is on me!" Steed responded decisively. "Don’t worry, Charles. They won’t escape!"

After hanging up, Charles remained uneasy.

He realized he had been careless. He should have asked Eric to find an excuse to leave quietly, so there wouldn’t be any complications at such a critical moment.

If this team couldn’t be signed, was there any other automobile company with equal strength that was willing to sell?

Charles couldn’t think of one for the time being.

Moreover, no matter what he bought, Schneider might always intervene. That was the real problem!

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