I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France
Chapter 268: Revised - 268 Fueling Tactics

Chapter 268: Revised: Chapter 268 Fueling Tactics

What made Steed fortunate was that Bonnet had never publicly declared his separation from the Republican Party.

Steed guessed that Schneider hoped Bonnet would continue to lie dormant within the Republican Party until the critical moment when the Little Daily would suddenly change its tone, exposing some remarks against Shire, thus throwing Shire into chaos.

Since Bonnet had made no moves, Steed pretended not to know and was happy to see him continue to "play the fool."

As for Layom, Steed secretly went to the Saint-Étienne Armory under the arrangement of security captain Klein.

When Steed suddenly appeared in Layom’s office and took control of the entire staff, Layom realized that the plan had been exposed.

"Father!" Layom’s face instantly lost its color, and he stood up from his desk in panic.

Klein placed a chair in front of Layom and Steed slowly approached, sitting down and squeezing out a few words from between his teeth: "What conditions did Schneider offer you?"

"Father, I didn’t..." Layom seemed to want to argue, but Klein’s gun was already pressed against his head.

Rather than being a security captain, Klein was more like the commander of Steed’s private armed forces. He had been protecting Steed’s safety for many years, including eliminating dissent for him.

"Careful." A flash of murderous intent flickered in Steed’s eyes: "I don’t want to hear any lies. You know what I would do for family interests and the future of Saint-Étienne."

Layom decided to stop pretending and sternly retorted: "The family interests and the future of Saint-Étienne that you speak of, is it by handing it over to Shire? What do we get out of it?"

Seeing Steed remained silent, Layom gathered his courage and continued: "Father, without Shire, at least Saint-Étienne belongs to us, to our family..."

"Really?" Steed coldly refuted, "So many years under your management, what new equipment has Saint-Étienne invented? All I’ve seen is it being chipped away little by little."

Layom argued: "Even so, that doesn’t mean we should surrender to Shire..."

Steed suddenly stood up and slapped Layom hard to the ground, angrily scolding:

"Fool! Without Shire, we might even be defeated by the Pito Armory!"

"Do you think Shire can’t rise without our support?"

"Do you think Shire needs us? Do you think we are irreplaceable?"

"Can’t Shire produce grenades, mortars, or aerial bombs and 37MM cannons?!"

Layom was stunned.

As the manager of the Saint-Étienne Armory, he certainly knew the production of these equipments was extremely simple, especially grenades, which only required grabbing a few workers and giving them some training.

Hence, it was Saint-Étienne that needed Shire, not Shire that needed Saint-Étienne.

Without Saint-Étienne, Shire could easily find another armory or even set up his own. Then, these equipments would still spring up like mushrooms after rain.

By that time, the largest armory in France would be Shire Armory, while the outdated Saint-Étienne would be quickly eliminated under the siege of several forces, and no one could save it.

Steed looked at the dazed Layom on the ground and shook his head gently: "You never understand, the future of an armory lies in creativity. Whoever masters creativity has the right to speak. And all you see are factories, workers, and machines. Why don’t you think about this: all of these can’t compare to a grenade that Shire casually sketches?"

Layom felt he had done something foolish, and maybe the path his father chose was the right one.

Factories, workers, even machines could easily be replaced, but creativity couldn’t.

Shire possessed such creativity, each piece of it capable of shaking Saint-Étienne, and possibly more in the future.

Therefore, Shire was undoubtedly the king of military industries.

His father realized this and chose to fully support him, the only way to gain the greatest benefit and lead Saint-Étienne to glory.

But he treated it as surrender without a fight, and even wanted to cooperate with Schneider to drive away this threat, Shire!

...

At the City Defense Headquarters, Shire received a call from Steed, knowing he had successfully convinced Layom.

Shire didn’t care much about this. Since Grevy was tracked, Layom’s matter was destined to be exposed. And once exposed, Layom had only one option: to be "convinced."

After all, Layom was in Saint-Étienne Armory. After this incident, Steed would surely keep Layom "protected" tightly.

Shire’s attention was mainly focused on the Dardanelles Strait, with intelligence being delivered to General Gallieni from Shire’s hands one after another.

Gallieni summarized the battle:

"The battleships have increased to 18, along with dozens of cruisers and destroyers, but it seems to be of little effect, they don’t even dare to enter the strait to fight."

"Can’t these battleships force their way through?"

Gallieni was inexperienced in naval warfare, thinking battleships could use speed and armor to force their way through the Dardanelles Strait, gaining the upper hand in the broader Marmara Sea.

"The main issue is the mines, General." Shire replied, "Just one mine can sink a battleship, and the Ottomans have filled the narrow strait with mines."

Gallieni raised the document in his hand: "They have brought numerous minesweepers and destroyers. Minesweepers and destroyers can clear the path ahead, while battleships follow behind..."

"The Ottomans found a clever way to counter this." Shire explained, "Their artillery can’t do much against battleships, but is enough to sink minesweepers and destroyers. Hence, they concentrate their firepower on the minesweepers."

Gallieni uttered an "oh" and said no more.

Warfare should indeed be fought as Gallieni suggested, with battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and minesweepers all advancing, minesweepers and destroyers clearing mines ahead, and the main battleships following behind.

Though there would be casualties and costs, as long as they pushed forward courageously, the fleet could soon pass through the Dardanelles Strait and enter the Marmara Sea.

However, Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Carden had always been cautious, worrying that fighting a small country like the Ottoman Empire might turn his command into an international joke if the fleet suffered heavy damage.

Therefore, Vice Admiral Carden had continually adopted what he thought to be a safer combat strategy: bombarding coastal defenses from a distance during the day and secretly sending minesweepers into the strait to clear mines at night.

This approach seemed prudent but actually gave the enemy more time to react, turning into a "fueling tactic": after spotting the pattern, the enemy adjusted immediately by hiding artillery during the day and coming out at night to destroy minesweepers and quickly replenishing torpedoes.

Vice Admiral Carden naturally assumed the enemy to be unadaptive fools!