I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France
Chapter 162: Chess Player or Chess Piece

Chapter 162: Chapter 162: Chess Player or Chess Piece

Shire did not rush to contact Kobudo; he maintained necessary caution about it.

Shire knew that venturing into the press industry meant telling everyone that he was establishing his own faction, which could lead to a series of troubles.

Take, for example, Steed, who controlled Saint Etier; his relationship with Shire was still unclear: Was Saint Etier genuinely intending to form an alliance with Shire, or did they want to recruit Shire to serve them?

If it was the former, and Saint Etier already regarded Shire as a "player," then there would be no issue.

But if it was the latter, and Saint Etier only wanted to use Shire as a "pawn," they would certainly not want to see Shire form his own faction.

By then, the newly formed alliance would break, and Shire would once again find himself awkwardly facing all the capitalists alone.

This was something the military could not solve, and even winning a battle would change nothing.

Therefore, even though Shire indeed needed a media outlet now, he still believed the time was not yet ripe.

After careful consideration, Shire thought he should wait until Saint Etier could not do without him before planning in that regard.

He intended to delay calling Kobudo for a while and would arrange a job for him, using the opportunity to develop the press industry later.

However, an opportunity altered Shire’s thoughts.

The next day, Shire returned to headquarters as usual; to avoid the enthusiastic Parisians, Shire had to report an hour early.

When he arrived at headquarters, it was just after seven; General Gallieni was still in bed, as he usually woke up at eight when there were no battles.

Several people were already organizing documents at headquarters; besides the night-duty staff and communications soldiers, there was also Major Fernan.

"Good morning, Lieutenant!" Major Fernan greeted with a meaningful smile, "Congratulations, you have more business, but we have a problem!"

"What?" Shire did not understand what Major Fernan meant.

Major Fernan handed a document to Shire: "The grenades you’ve produced were greatly welcomed as soon as they were sent to the battlefield. The soldiers praised them highly, saying they were exactly what they needed, and there were many successes too. However, the ten thousand grenades we purchased were entirely used up in less than half an hour!"

Shire only then realized it was about the grenades.

"Is it about the price?" Shire sneakily glanced at Gallieni’s rest room: "Is the General dissatisfied with the price?"

"That’s just one part of it, Lieutenant!" Major Fernan, sitting and writing, turned towards Shire, his hand resting on the chair back, with a pencil spinning between his fingers, "The General will discuss the price with the capitalists, but more importantly... those ten thousand grenades indeed were used up, but I did not say they were all thrown at the enemy!"

Shire laughed out loud: "You are quite humorous, Major. If they weren’t thrown at the enemy, then... where else..."

Before he finished speaking, Shire realized the problem: the soldiers had not been trained to throw grenades properly. Sending grenades to them so recklessly was bound to lead to accidents.

Major Fernan nodded affirmatively at Shire’s insight, glancing at the document in Shire’s hand.

Shire silently opened the document, which detailed various strange incidents that occurred at the frontline:

The grenade slipped from a soldier’s hand, landing at his feet while still smoking.

Accidentally opening the safety cap too early and carrying it along, pulling the fuse while running.

Some transportation personnel simply found them interesting and curiously played with a few...

Major Fernan rested a hand on Shire’s shoulder: "General Gallieni believes you should be responsible because he knows your tank unit had undergone training before using grenades on the battlefield!"

Shire nodded distressedly; all along, he only thought about the frontline needing grenades, so he sent them.

He completely overlooked that for the armies of this era, grenades were a new kind of equipment that also required training before use, even if a considerable number of them were veterans.

At this moment, Gallieni woke up, coming out of the rest room in full military uniform, catching sight of Shire immediately.

"You came just in time!" Gallieni beckoned to Shire with a nod and walked towards his desk without looking back.

Shire sensibly went to Gallieni’s desk.

The early morning sky was quite dim; Gallieni switched on the table lamp, and the orange-yellow light instantly illuminated his desk. Shire noticed an identical accident report to his own on the table.

The attendant brought Gallieni a tray of bread and a cup of coffee. As Gallieni nibbled on the bread, he asked Shire: "You already know about the incident, right? What do you plan to do about it?"

"My deepest apologies, General!" Shire responded, "I will immediately draft a detailed user instruction and transportation protocol..."

"Just these?" Gallieni cut Shire off, clearly dissatisfied: "We can handle these too, Lieutenant. My headquarters has 32 officers who can each accomplish what you’ve mentioned."

"Then..." Shire was unsure of what else to do.

"1 Franc!" Gallieni blurted out.

"What?" Shire was puzzled.

"The unit price for the grenades!" Gallieni said, still chewing on his bread, "I think 1 Franc is appropriate!"

"No, that’s impossible!" Shire understood; Gallieni was taking the opportunity to drive down the price.

Gallieni leisurely started calculating with Shire: "A division, ten thousand grenades used within half an hour, we have 44 divisions, and the number keeps increasing. How many grenades do you think we need?"

Gallieni stared straight at Shire, seemingly saying: With such a demand, you, a greedy capitalist, can’t lower the price?

"We must consider production costs, General..." Shire said.

"I contacted Steed; you can’t fool me!" Gallieni interrupted Shire.

Shire was taken aback. If Steed had let something slip, or if their stances were inconsistent, the business would be tough to manage.

But Shire noticed Gallieni stole a glance while sipping his coffee, so he felt reassured.

"No, General!" Shire confidently replied: "1 Franc isn’t even enough for the production cost, at most... we can reduce it to 1.5 Francs, which is the best discount!"

Gallieni was somewhat frustrated; the kid didn’t fall for it.

Indeed, Gallieni had called Steed, but that old fox said it was entirely up to Shire; in this matter, Shire had the final say.

Still, reducing by 0.5 Francs was quite significant.

"Alright!" Gallieni nodded: "One million grenades, 1.5 Francs each! But this isn’t the final offer."

Currently, no one else could produce grenades, so what could he do?

"Now!" Gallieni looked up at Shire: "Tell me about your training plan; how can we enable the 44 divisions at the frontline to learn to use grenades in a short time?"

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.