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

Chapter 994 No choice
War House, London, UK.

When the Minister of Munitions proposed in an internal meeting that war with France was necessary, everyone was stunned by his idea.

"Are you crazy? The opponent is Charles!" Prime Minister George's eyes widened. "No one can beat him!"

Navy Minister Balfour looked on incredulously: "Didn't you see how badly he beat Germany?"

General Winter was so frightened that his face turned pale: "Your Excellency, we have almost no chance of winning. Our army is still in France, and they will immediately become prisoners of the French army once the war starts!"

The Minister of Munitions frowned and answered in a deep voice:
"Gentlemen, I think you've missed one point."

"Do you think I want France to go to war with the Charles?"

"No, I don't want to do this! But we have no other choice. Charles is forcing us to go to war!"

Prime Minister George didn't believe it: "There must be other options."

"Then," the Minister of Munitions countered, "please tell me, Your Excellency the Prime Minister, what other options do you have?"

Before Prime Minister George could answer, the Secretary of Munitions listed out all the possibilities:

"Continue to target Germany like we do today? Not only will we not get reparations, but Germany will also drain our strength."

"Lowering our negotiating standards to make peace with Germany? Our economy will collapse and our colonies will disintegrate."

"Embrace Charles and join his 'international alliance'? That means we agree with what he says, and the colonies will also leave us!"

"Now, can anyone tell me what we can do?"

The meeting room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

None of the paths seemed to lead to a dead end.

"Wake up!" The Quartermaster slammed his knuckles on the table, making a loud "bang, bang" sound.

“Charles has already declared war on us, but he’s not using planes and cannons; he’s using an invisible scalpel.”

"This scalpel is peeling Britain and its colonies away one by one, severing our arteries, while we still hesitate about whether to go to war."

First Lord of the Admiralty Balfour suggested: "If Charles uses an invisible scalpel, then we should respond with an invisible scalpel as well."

The Minister of Munitions exclaimed, "Aha!"
"It's simple in theory."

"Charles' 'scalpel' is 'freedom' and 'liberation.' What scalpel should we use to respond?"

"'Slavery'? 'Exploitation'? Or 'Oppression'?"

The politicians realized that they were no match for Charles in this regard.

No colony would endorse or accept Britain's "enslavement," "exploitation," and "oppression."

All Ciel needed to do was say, "Join me, and I'll give you freedom!"

The colonies would then defect and join the French-led free forces.

Prime Minister George was unwilling to give up: "Perhaps we should negotiate with Charles..."

“Your Excellency the Prime Minister,” the Minister of Munitions interrupted him, “you seem to have forgotten that ‘what cannot be obtained on the battlefield cannot be obtained at the negotiating table.’”

Prime Minister George was speechless.

Charles can get everything he wants; he has the advantage and could potentially defeat England.

So why did he negotiate with Britain and make concessions?
This is even worse than raising a tiger to threaten Charles.

Because once Britain is ready, it will inevitably challenge France again.

Charles wasn't that foolish; he wouldn't give Britain that chance. The Secretary of War summarized: "Therefore, this isn't a question of whether we can win, but that we must fight. Otherwise, the British Empire is finished, understand, gentlemen?"

Prime Minister George considered for a moment, sighed softly, and nodded slowly in agreement:

"The Minister of Munitions is right."

"From a strategic perspective, we have no choice but to be at odds with France, because it is robbing us of our international standing, threatening our interests, and cutting into our colonies."

"Moreover, it shows no inclination to stop, nor does it have any reason to stop."

“If we don’t stop it, we will lose everything.”

First Lord of the Admiralty Balfour had no choice but to agree: "If we do nothing, Britain will be utterly ruined. There is still a chance to rise up and resist, however slim and difficult it may be, but at least there is hope."

His voice was filled with sorrow and his tone was full of grievance.

It's hard to imagine that these words came from the mouth of the British First Lord of the Navy, who is known as the world's number one.

Upon hearing this, General Winter gradually realized that it wasn't the Minister of Munitions' "madness," but rather that Charles's methods were too clever. He was using an innocuous way to corner Britain, ultimately forcing them to defy public opinion and declare war on their "ally," France.

However, is this really the right choice?
If we are forced by the Charles to choose to go to war, it is likely that this is a mistake in itself!
This is how you fall into Ciel's trap!

But General Winter didn't say that there was no other way but to fall into this trap; there was no better option.

He put it another way:
"What should we do? I mean, how can we defeat the Charles?"

"That's almost impossible."

He believed this was not much better than waiting to die, and even thought that "embracing Ciel" was the wisest course of action, even if it would be seen as "surrender."

"Navy, gentlemen." Seeing that everyone agreed to go to war, the Minister of War stood up ostentatiously.
"Our advantage lies in our navy."

"We have 30 dreadnoughts, 40 pre-dreadnoughts, and 9 battlecruisers."

"But all of Germany and France combined have only about 60 warships, especially France, which has only 22, a significant portion of which are too old and unusable."

Balfour, quite unusually, sided with the Minister of Munitions:
"Yes, he is somewhat wary of defeating Charles."

"If we want to force him back to the negotiating table, the only thing we can do is use the navy."

Then he proposed an idea:
"We can use half of our forces to continue the blockade of the German navy."

"The morale of the German Navy is low, and they have no reason to fight us to the death for the Charles."

"Therefore, the German Navy will not choose to wage a full-scale war against us."

The political figures nodded in agreement.

Germany and France were only at an armistice; their relationship wasn't strong enough for Germany to provide France with its entire high seas fleet.

Germany, for its own national interests, may very well choose to "sit on the sidelines and watch the tigers fight."

"Therefore, our only enemy is the French Navy," Belfort continued his analysis.

"Meanwhile, the main force of the French Navy is still in the Mediterranean."

"The North Sea and the Atlantic are mostly occupied by anti-submarine and air defense destroyers, which are not worth mentioning to us."

Prime Minister George's eyes gradually regained some of their sparkle.

Balfour's analysis made him feel that Britain still had a huge advantage.

Charles is indeed powerful, but his strength lies in his army. An army can't exactly swim into the sea to fight against warships, can it?
(End of this chapter)