I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France
Chapter 176: The Bourgeoisie Incident

Chapter 176: Chapter 176: The Bourgeoisie Incident

The next day was the day Shire had to serve at the command center again, and he originally planned to linger in bed for a while longer.

Ever since he arrived in this time and space, he kept switching between the roles of a strategist and capitalist. Despite having holidays, he was never really idle, always busy either for the war or his business.

At that moment, he wanted to be lazy, hiding in the warm blanket to have a good sleep during this chilly autumn.

But Camille lightly knocked on the door outside and reminded, "Shire, Major Laurent has been waiting downstairs for half an hour!"

"I’ll be right there, mom!" Shire replied helplessly.

The sky was gloomy, with rain seeming to fall intermittently, feeling oppressive. A cold wind pierced through the leaking sides of the T-shaped car, making Shire shiver and tighten his military coat involuntarily.

Major Laurent manipulated the car while saying, "In the future, we might not need to avoid crowds anymore, Lieutenant!"

"Why?" Shire was puzzled, wondering if he had been ruthlessly abandoned by fans.

Major Laurent explained, "It’s due to another hotspot. Everyone is thinking about where the Speer Fleet will be and where the next naval battle will take place, so..."

Shire nodded with an "oh".

Perhaps it wasn’t just the citizens of Paris; governments of various countries were the same.

At that moment, the land battlefront had temporarily stabilized, with neither side able to gain the upper hand, so both sides shifted their focus to the sea.

Germany was looking to see if they could open up a new battlefield at sea to delay Britain’s reinforcement to France.

The Allies were hoping to crush the few German warships that emerged and also to see if they could break the land stalemate with their strong naval superiority.

Hence, everyone’s focus and attention shifted to the sea.

That was good, Shire could worry a little less.

Indeed, when the car arrived in Paris, there were only a few scattered groups of people on the street waving and shouting at Shire, a stark contrast to the previous bustling scenes.

Shire sighed inwardly: Speer Count was truly a good person, even a self-sacrificing one.

What surprised Shire was that, as soon as he stepped into the command center, he was startled by the cheers from the staff:

"Welcome, Major Shire!"

"Salute to Major Shire!"

"Congratulations, Major Shire!"

...

"Major?" Shire looked at the cheering crowd with a confused expression.

Major Fernan directly pushed Shire in front of Gallieni and said, "Come on, Shire, your promotion review was approved yesterday!"

Gallieni handed Shire a stack of documents with a smile, saying, "The military uniform is already prepared. Along with your promotion, some members of the First Flying Squad also got promoted. Take a look and see if there’s anything to supplement!"

"Yes, General!" Shire responded, standing straight, and took the documents handed by Gallieni.

It turned out that the pilots of the First Flying Squad were all newly enlisted and held the rank of Lieutenant, making command during operations very inconvenient.

Gallieni decided to promote Shire, the squad leader, to Major by crossing levels, Deputy Captain Carter to Captain, and then appointed several Lieutenants as squad leaders, forming a hierarchical command from top to bottom.

Actually, the squad leaders of the Flying Squad should correspond to Majors or Captains, while there were still Lieutenants as team leaders below, but due to the newly established unit and generally low ranks, they could only make do for now.

Shire returned to the dormitory and put on his Major uniform. This time he didn’t even bother to look in the mirror, seemingly accustomed to all this.

He walked out of the dormitory and headed to the office, greeted again with congratulations from colleagues, and even someone jokingly said:

"Will you be promoted to Colonel next month?"

"We are promoted by the year, rank by rank, while Shire is promoted by the month, two levels at a time!"

"In no time, you’ll be a General, right?"

...

Kobudo was even holding a camera, taking several pictures of Shire "click click", tomorrow morning’s "Merit Newspaper" was sure to have another headline: Shire promoted to Major beyond the regular ranks.

There might even be a section commenting: Shire might be the fastest rising and youngest officer in France, but most people think he isn’t rising fast enough...

A bunch of "blah blah blah", Shire was somewhat worried that Kobudo would refocus attention on him again.

Gallieni nodded to Shire before walking silently into the lounge.

Shire understood, and followed Gallieni, closing the door behind him.

"Have you heard of Bourgeoisie?" Gallieni asked, leaning on the chair seemingly casually.

"No, General!" Shire answered, "I haven’t heard of him!"

"It was more than twenty years ago, you weren’t born then!" Gallieni briefly recounted the events: "Bourgeoisie was a General, he was injured multiple times during his service, making countless meritorious contributions, gaining high esteem among the military and civilians. Later, he hoped to enter politics, so he left the military and moved to the political arena. He even managed to win a majority of votes in the parliament, but the final result was... after some scandals were exposed, he chose to commit suicide!"

Gallieni’s tone was steady and without any emotion, as if recalling some trivial matter.

Initially, Shire thought so too, but later he learned more and found that Bourgeoisie’s earlier actions were somewhat similar to his own...

After entering politics, Bourgeoisie implemented a series of reforms, such as improving soldier rations, allowing soldiers to have beards, supporting worker strikes, canceling noble privileges, etc., gaining people’s support. This support could even be described as "fanatical".

When he was disgracefully dismissed from the position of Army Minister by capitalists and had to leave Paris, 150,000 citizens surrounded the train station and nearby areas, embracing him fervently, vying to shake his hand, and shouting:

"You cannot leave!"

"You are our hope!"

"France cannot do without you, Mr. Bourgeoisie!"

...

But his opponents were capitalists, and they excelled at digging out and widely publicizing an opponent’s disgraceful matters, ultimately causing ruin and the loss of everything.

Although Shire didn’t fully understand the matter, he could still comprehend that Gallieni was using this event to warn him, urging caution and not to be lost in the support of the public, ignoring the hidden opponents.

"I understand, General!" Shire said, "I will be mindful of my actions and words!"

This was a society with double standards, even if big capitalists committed serious offenses, they often get away with it, such as the Panama scandal.

On the other hand, an ordinary person’s career could be completely destroyed and end up deceased if exposed to even a slight scandal.

Although Shire was a capitalist, in the face of Schneider, he was just an ordinary person and could not afford to lose.

Gallieni nodded satisfactorily and continued, "Another issue, Major, have you heard that the Germans are developing tanks?"

"German tanks?" Shire was startled and immediately thought of the A7V.

"Yes!" Gallieni answered, "However, the information is not confirmed, it’s from the capitalists."

This was normal, capitalists were more sensitive to such information, sometimes even knowing more than the military or the country.

"The news suggests..." Gallieni’s eyes flashed with worry, "German tanks are aimed at your ’Mark I’, and they plan to equip them with artillery. Do you still consider not installing artillery on it?"

Shire replied firmly, "No, General, I don’t think it’s necessary!"

With the Renault Tank, there truly wasn’t a need for ’Mark I’ to be armed with artillery!

(The above illustration depicts the suicide of Bourgeoisie)