I was a tycoon in World War I: Starting to save France

Chapter 33 Smart Approach

At the Armand Manor, Grevy opened a bottle of champagne amid cheers, and Francis also felt the glory of the victory.

"Great speech, Armand!" Grevi praised Armand sincerely while pouring him a glass of wine.

Armand smiled and replied, "Compared to giving a speech, I would rather see Steed's face. Did you see it? He can't do anything but sit there stupidly!"

"I saw it!" Nicholas raised his glass. "I was sitting not far from him. He was like a statue, completely stunned!"

Several people burst into laughter.

Francis laughed along, looking a little embarrassed; he was the only one who did not attend the meeting and had no idea what was going on.

After hesitating for a while, Francis mustered up the courage to ask, "So, we won, right?"

"Of course, Francis!" Armand replied proudly, "We got a big order in the first batch: 5000 tanks, with a unit price of ...!"

Grevi interrupted Armand with a "hmm" and winked at Armand, saying, "You idiot, Francis doesn't need to know this."

Armand smiled indifferently. In his opinion, Grevy's reaction was a bit excessive. Even if Francis knew about it, what would happen? He was just a farmer who made his living with a tractor!

Francis' eyes widened in surprise. He knew what had happened. They sold the tanks for 5000 francs each.

And the unit price of the tanks they got from themselves was only 1360 francs, which also included a machine gun!
Multiply the price difference by 1500 vehicles, my God, they can make more than 500 million francs just from this batch!

Charles only earned 110 million francs from selling the patent, and he himself only made a tiny profit!

These filthy capitalists, hateful vampires, parasites of the country, this is how they take away the taxes we pay!

"Is there any problem?" Armand asked with a raised eyebrow when he saw that Francis looked unhappy.

“No, no, no problem!” Francis quickly put on a smile and raised his glass: “Gentlemen! For our victory…”

But the others did not respond. Armand said expressionlessly: "It's too early to celebrate the victory now, Mr. Francis. It won't be too late to say this when we receive the money!"

"You are right, Mr. Armand!" Francis withdrew his hand holding the wine glass awkwardly.

After a moment of silence, Nicholas asked, "So, what should we write now?"

Nicola's full name is Nicola Kocher, and he is the owner of Le Figaro.

Unlike Le Petit Journal, Le Figaro was a newspaper targeting the nobility and upper class. A copy of the newspaper cost one franc, a price that ordinary people could not afford.

Therefore, Le Figaro also has aristocratic characteristics: it disdains to contact with ordinary people, and usually reports on national affairs and topics debated by parliamentarians. Another point: its information and intelligence are often seriously inconsistent with the facts. After all, it is separated from the common people.

For example, before the Franco-German War, Le Figaro thought that France could reproduce the glory of sweeping Germany 14 times in the past and easily win the war, so it called on readers to continue enjoying brandy and cigars and wait for victory.

The result is...

"Victory, Nikolai!" Grevi said, "You just need to report the victory, the victory of the tank, let everyone go crazy about the tank, and let everyone know its inventor Charles! Then, we can wait for the wealth to roll in to us!"

Armand was a little confused: "Aren't we going to report on our patents on tanks?"

"No!" Grevi replied: "It's not the time yet! I hope... Steed will copy it!" Armand was stunned, and understood the next second.

Grevy hoped to mislead Steed into thinking that the patent was still in Charles' hands.

Once Steed copied or circumvented the tank patent, the right wing could slam the patent in Steed's face, and then use the media, law and other means to occupy the commanding heights of public opinion to slap him in the face, and even demand compensation from him.

"Smart move!" Armand gave Grevi his approval, and the wine glasses of several people clinked together, making a few crisp sounds.

……

When Francis returned to his villa, he was still confused. Why could those arrogant guys make millions with just a few words, while he only made a few hundred thousand francs by doing everything he did?

But no matter how angry I am, I still have to do business, otherwise I won’t be able to make hundreds of thousands of francs!

Francis comforted himself: Now is an extraordinary period, money is not so easy to make, and many factories have gone bankrupt because of the war. He can not only survive but also make a profit, so he should be content!

"Simon!" Francis called the butler, "Send Joseph over!"

"Master!" replied the butler, "Joseph has resigned!"

"Resign?" Francis frowned.

"Yes!" the butler replied, "I think it's because of his son. His son lost a leg on the battlefield and needs someone to take care of him!"

Francis said "hmm" and didn't take it to heart.

"Then call Thomas!"

The housekeeper was stunned: "Thomas seems to have resigned as well. During the few days you were in Paris, more than 70 people resigned one after another. I put the list in your study! Thomas should be one of them, but I'm not sure!"

Francis felt that this was a bit unusual and asked, "Where did they go? Why did so many people resign?"

They did not resign even when there were rumors that the Germans were going to attack, but chose to resign at this time.

Simon was stumped by the question, and he could only give an unconfirmed answer: "It is said that they were frightened by the number of casualties, and they were worried that they would receive a conscription order in the near future, so they planned to go to England to find a job, so that they could..."

Francis nodded. This explanation made sense. Indeed, more and more people were receiving conscription orders, causing panic among the people.

They may not be able to avoid going to work in the UK, but at least the French government doesn't know where they are and cannot send them conscription orders in the short term.

Then Francis laughed: "These fools, didn't they expect that we would switch to producing tanks? As a factory that provides important equipment for the army, they will not receive a conscription order!"

The butler sighed: "If they were smarter or resigned later, they wouldn't have to suffer this. This is their loss, sir!"

Francis soon forgot about this matter. After all, the tractor factory had more than 2,000 employees, and it could still operate without these seventy or so people. Besides, he had to hurry to produce tanks.

What Francis didn't expect was that this was exactly what Charles wanted!
What the butler knew was the "rumor" that Charles deliberately let Joseph spread in the factory.

Charles didn't want Francis to realize his plan too soon and prepare himself!

(End of this chapter)