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

Chapter 51: Bargaining for a Good Price

The morning light is bright and the autumn wind is just right.

Grevi and Armand, dressed in tight hunting suits and riding tall horses, carrying double-barreled shotguns, rode in their exclusive forest farm.

The servants were lined up at the other end, trotting forward with their hunting dogs in hand, howling. Their job was to drive the prey to the area in front of the two men for their entertainment.

"This may be the last hunt of the year, Armand!" Grevi skillfully controlled the horse to step in small steps, his eyes wandering on the withering leaves on both sides, and sighed with regret: "Once winter comes, the prey will hide in their dens, and we can't find them even if we dig three feet into the ground!"

Armand followed lazily on his horse, yawned in boredom, and replied: "This is why I prefer prey in bed, Grevi! They will be there waiting for me at any time and let me do whatever I want!"

Grevi burst into laughter, and suddenly a strange noise caught his attention. Grevi quickly stopped laughing and looked towards the bushes vigilantly.

A tired elk came into view. Perhaps it was tired from running, and it was panting heavily to rest. Grevi quickly stopped the horse and skillfully took off his hunting rifle and aimed at the target...

Just as Grevi was about to pull the trigger, the sound of horse hooves approaching from afar scared the target away.

Grevi put away his shotgun in annoyance and cursed "bastard", then turned his head to look at the servant who came over. If it wasn't something important, he would be beaten!

"Mr. Grevi!" The servant pulled the reins and controlled the horse to stop beside Grevi. "As you expected, Deyoka went to the city hall today to apply for industrial property rights for the sidecar. We were just about to discuss the purchase of the property rights with them, but someone else got there first!"

Grevi's face darkened. "Being beaten to the punch by someone else? Someone on the left wing?"

"No, Mr. Grevy!" the servant replied, "It was Gallieni. He didn't buy the property, he placed the order on behalf of the army!"

Grevi looked up in shock. If the military placed an order, purchasing the property rights would not be an easy task.

Armand beside him showed a secretive smile. The military placed the order so quickly and bypassed the Senate. This showed that Gallieni had included sidecars in the wartime procurement regulations. This was the second equipment to be included in the regulations.

"Galieni is very courageous!" Armand said. "He dares to offend both the left and the right!"

The Saint-Etienne machine gun was the equipment of the left wing, while the sidecar was what the right wing wanted, but both were interfered with by Gallieni.

Grevi asked expressionlessly, "What is the purchase price? Have you reached an agreement?"

"Yes, sir!" the servant replied, "I heard it was 550 francs!"

Grevy exclaimed: "550 francs, are you sure?"

"Yes, sir!"

Without saying a word, Grevi pulled the horse's head and galloped towards the villa.

Armand, not knowing what was going on, rode up to catch up. On his bouncing horse, he shouted, "What happened, Grevy? About the 550 francs?"

"Yes!" Grevi answered amid the sound of horse hooves.

"What does this have to do with us?" Armand was puzzled: "Anyway, we didn't buy the property rights!"

"Think of the tank!" Grevy turned around and replied: "We are planning to sell it to the military for 6000 francs a piece!"

Armand was still confused. In his opinion, tanks and sidecars had nothing to do with each other. They were different things.

"Think about it, Armand!" Grevi explained, "The money for a tank can buy 10 sidecars. Which one would you prefer?" Armand was stunned, and the horse stopped unconsciously and fell far behind.

10 sidecars can be equipped with 10 Maxim guns, while tanks can only be equipped with one machine gun. Tanks also have many disadvantages such as slow speed and high failure rate. Of course, the military would rather choose 10 sidecars.

Grevy didn't care about Armand. He rode his horse back to the villa at full speed. When he reached the door, he jumped off and ran into the house. He dialed the phone as fast as he could and ordered anxiously: "5000 francs, sign the contract immediately, immediately!"

……

The military representative looked much more relaxed when he came back, and there was even a smile on his face.

Francis felt something was wrong, but he pretended to be calm: "You are lucky, Louis, they don't want to waste time, so they plan to give you 5000 francs per unit. Sign the contract!"

"Sorry, Francis!" Louis smiled and said, "Perhaps, a unit price of 3000 francs is acceptable!"

"This, this is too much!" Francis instantly lost his previous calmness: "This is an insult to us. This is a tank, Louis, you need it..."

“I know!” Louis interrupted Francis. “But we have a replacement, and it only costs 550 francs!”

Francis immediately understood what was going on. That guy Dejoka actually sold the sidecar at a low price of 550 francs!
……

This was something Charles had not expected.

In his opinion, there should be no price competition between tanks and sidecars.

So, when he heard Deyoka say that the military borrowed sidecars to lower the price of the tanks to 3000 francs and reached an agreement, he found it a little unbelievable.

After thinking for a while, Charles understood.

The army at that time had no concept of armored warfare or mobile warfare. In their eyes, there was probably no difference between a tank and a sidecar:
Both are armored, both carry machine guns on the road, and both can inflict heavy casualties with a small force...

Since they are similar, why would the military choose tanks at a high price instead of sidecars which are cheaper, faster, and have far fewer problems?

Did General Gallieni really not know the difference between the two, or was he pretending not to know in order to keep the price down?
Charles thought that Gallieni might not know, after all, tanks had just appeared and there was no combat theory. The same was true for sidecars, they did not know that each had its own advantages and disadvantages and neither could replace the other.

"And this!" Deyoka handed Charles a telegram: "This is from Joseph in England. The British agreed to sell the 'Holt 75' production line and provide all technical support, but the price is 50 francs!"

There was a hint of anxiety in Deyoka's eyes. 50 francs was beyond their purchasing power unless they received the money from the military to purchase the sidecar immediately.

But Charles was not in a hurry. He said calmly, "Let Joseph negotiate the price with them again!"

"We've discussed this many times, Charles!" Djokovic said helplessly, "Joseph said he has tried his best, and this may be the lowest price the British have offered!"

Charles replied softly: "Tell Joseph, 25 francs, no more!"

"This is impossible!" Djokovic looked at Charles in disbelief.

Charles added: "Otherwise, we will wait for 'Holt 120' to come out and tell the British this!"

Djoka was stunned. Is “Holt 120” coming out?
This means that the "Holt 75" is a product that will soon be phased out, and the British actually want to sell it at a high price? !
(End of this chapter)