I Became a Tycoon During World War I - Chapter 171

Chapter 171: Steadfast Supporters

Kobdo's propaganda strategy achieved great success on the front lines.

Stimulated by breaking news and the deliberate guidance of front-line officers, grenade tutorials quickly gained popularity, becoming the most sought-after equipment on the front.

It was said that soldiers returning from the front had to successfully toss a few grenades into the enemy trenches, otherwise, they would be embarrassed to claim they had been on the front lines.

The "Meritorious Report" also achieved significant success in civilian promotion.

This was mainly because it was the only newspaper with precise reports from the military… All other newspapers would speculate based on existing information, putting together reports with a reasonable degree of imagination.

Only the "Meritorious Report" featured firsthand accounts from the battle commanders, Charles included, and Gallieni even appeared on camera, lending his support. The paper also included interviews with soldiers who had participated in the battles, along with photos and insights.

Following this, not only the Lafox battle, but also the Ypres battle, the Antwerp battle, and the Marne River battle, were all sequentially reported by the "Meritorious Report."

It was like a class of students coming up with various creative ideas after debating a single question, and then the teacher gave the correct answer, and everyone suddenly understood: "So that's it."

People even compared the "Meritorious Report" with the reports from other newspapers, mocking their absurdity and ignorance.

This caused the 100,000 copies of the paper sent to the public to be like a mouse's tail falling into a rice barrel—once it hit the market, it was quickly sold out. It was priced at 10 centimes but was being resold for 25 sous on the black market. Many even collected the first issue of this military paper as a collector’s item.

Kobdo immediately expanded the civilian circulation to 300,000 copies, and the next day, it grew to 500,000 copies. The front line’s circulation went from 200,000 to 300,000 copies.

This was almost the limit of the 50 printing presses they had purchased; it would still take around two hours to print the entire batch.

Alarmed, Kobdo urgently acquired another 50 printing presses through various channels.

In the command center, Kobdo was both busy and excitedly shouting, “It’s insane! This is crazy! After just releasing it, 800,000 copies were sold, and we still can't meet demand. The 'Le Petit Journal' took decades to reach a million copies, and we’re about to surpass it!”

(Note: "Le Petit Journal" was founded in February 1863 and had been around for more than fifty years by then.)

In fact, surpassing "Le Petit Journal" was easy—it only required increasing the military supply, though this would not be profitable and would even incur a loss.

But Charles did not choose to do that. He felt that simply increasing the circulation numbers didn’t have much significance.

Gallieni’s habit of reading newspapers had naturally shifted from "Le Petit Journal" to the "Meritorious Report," not just because it was the military’s own paper, but because it was professional.

At the same time, Charles did not worry about the "Meritorious Report" taking away sales from "Le Petit Journal" and angering Steed.

After all, the "Meritorious Report" was a military paper. What complaints could there be? If anyone had an issue, they could take it up with the military!

...

Steed merely smiled at this and did not take it to heart.

At the time, he was busy planning to expand the production of grenades.

“Double the output?” asked the project manager responsible for grenade production.

“No, at least triple it!” Steed said without hesitation. “We need to produce 60,000 a day, and that’s still a conservative estimate!”

“Understood, sir!” The project manager replied, looking stunned.

Steed smiled to himself, knowing they thought 60,000 grenades a day was an astonishing number. But with over a million soldiers on the front line, with an average of 16 soldiers tossing one grenade each, they would run out of 60,000 grenades in a single day.

Once a battle broke out, grenades would be thrown at the enemy in a frenzy, with each soldier tossing several, even dozens, of grenades.

Thus, a daily production of 60,000 grenades was already a conservative estimate. The production scale would likely need to be expanded further.

At this moment, the butler Luka came forward to report, “Sir, Bonnet just called. He said the military’s release of the ‘Meritorious Report’ has caused a severe drop in the sales of ‘Le Petit Journal.’ They lost over 100,000 customers in a single day!”

Steed did not care about this. He casually replied, “I see. Bonnet should think about his own issues!”

Steed clearly understood the problem with "Le Petit Journal." They used cartoons instead of photographs, which, while reducing costs and allowing for quick distribution, had a major weakness: cartoons were drawn from imagination and differed greatly from actual objects.

If other newspapers struggled to acquire physical information or needed to pay high costs to do so, "Le Petit Journal" could indeed take advantage of its speed and affordability.

But if...

The opponent was the "Meritorious Report," a military paper with official backing, whose reporters could easily obtain information and even actual photos that others couldn’t access, "Le Petit Journal" would lose its advantage and even become a disadvantage. The "Meritorious Report" would crush it.

“Sir!” Luka leaned in again and whispered, “Bonnet thinks this is likely a collaboration between Charles and the military…”

Steed cut him off with a grunt and furrowed his brow, clearly displeased. “Tell Bonnet not to overthink things, understand?”

“Understood!” Luka responded.

He turned to deliver the message, but was called back by Steed.

Steed looked at Luka seriously and said, “Tell Bonnet: Only the military, not Charles!”

Steed pressed his finger heavily on the table and emphasized again, “Not Charles! Tell him to keep his mouth shut!”

“Yes, sir!”

Steed knew very well that Charles was involved and that he was building his own influence and authority. He wasn’t foolish.

But compared to the grenades and the potential enormous benefits, what was "Le Petit Journal"?

Even if Charles wanted to take "Le Petit Journal" for himself, Steed wouldn’t bat an eye and would hand it over willingly.

As for the issue of influence... Steed understood that Saint-Étienne’s influence was no longer matched by its power.

Influence should be built on power, or it’s just empty words.

So what if "Le Petit Journal" had a million copies sold every day? It still didn’t have control over the production rights of future rifles, and under pressure from the parliament, it easily handed them over to the United States.

Steed understood: Whatever can’t be gained on the battlefield will never be gained at the negotiating table. This was the same for political struggles between factions.

Now, when faced with the choice between power and influence, Steed unhesitatingly chose power.

When there was enough power to survive and grow in the future, then it would make sense to think about influence.

Steed silently lit a cigar, carefully contemplating one question amidst the smoke: Would Charles grow to become a fearsome opponent like Schneider?

No. He would be even more dangerous than Schneider. He was a genius in both equipment development and battlefield command. In the future, no one would be able to match him!

The wiser choice…

Was not to compete with Charles and become his enemy, but to become his supporter, a steadfast supporter!

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