I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France
Chapter 274: Revised - 274 Shire’s Toy

Chapter 274: Revised: Chapter 274 Shire’s Toy

While Gallieni was busy dealing with the members’ "palace coups" in the House of Representatives, Shire was meeting Wells in the meeting room of the Ritz Hotel.

This was the first meeting between Shire and Wells.

Wells seemed deeply pensive, he stared expressionlessly at the young Shire sitting across from him. The youth in front of him looked no different from an ordinary person, with a face that was even a bit immature.

Had he not known that this youth was the one who drove all of France mad, Wells would surely consider him an ordinary boy.

"It’s an honor to meet you, Colonel!" Wells leaned over politely to shake hands with Shire and then glanced at Tijani who was sitting beside him: "Please allow me to express my gratitude, you saved Tijani..."

"No, sir." Shire interrupted Wells: "As a soldier, it’s my duty."

Shire indeed thought that way, soldiers were meant to fight for their country, saving each other was unrelated to personal grudges.

If there was any connection, it should be attributed to France.

Wells nodded slightly, praised: "Your ideas about torpedoes are quite constructive. Recently we have been looking for explosives more powerful than TNT. That way, just as you said, we can reduce the size of the warhead..."

Wells seemed to be saying a bunch of nonsense, these were all things Shire had conveyed to Wells through Tijani, and now he was repeating them.

But Shire understood that Wells was testing him.

Clearly, Wells still didn’t fully trust Shire’s abilities, bringing up the old topic was just to test Shire’s "true skills" on the spot.

"Hexanitrodiphenylamine." Shire said a word out of nowhere.

"What?" Wells was momentarily stunned.

Tijani was also puzzled, what was hexanitrodiphenylamine?

Shire calmly explained: "A more powerful explosive, 60% TNT mixed with 40% hexanitrodiphenylamine, its power will be 7% stronger than pure TNT!"

Wells’ eyes widened instantly, he looked at Shire half-believingly, his voice trembling: "Is this, is this true? It can increase by 7%?"

Although 7% is not much, it can be considered as a breakthrough, and it can be foreseen that this would be the first step to improve the torpedo’s range.

Tijani asked: "Colonel, how do you know this? And down to the specific ratio, do you have research in this area?"

"You guessed right, General." Shire answered very straightforwardly: "I have established a research group for this purpose, and we have made significant progress."

This wasn’t true at all, he didn’t have any research group.

The reason Shire said this, one was to explain why he knew the formula, another was to inform Wells: I am in control of the torpedo’s development, whether you choose me or Schneider, it’s up to you!

This could make Wells, who was still wavering, finally make up his mind.

Wells, being in the business world for many years, wouldn’t have missed Shire’s intention.

He thought for a while, and gradually a benevolent smile appeared on his face: "That’s fantastic, with the colonel’s research group, I’m very relieved!"

Shire smiled, he knew this was Wells expressing his attitude towards him.

Tijani was still puzzled, feeling like he understood, yet didn’t fully grasp it.

Then Shire didn’t waste words, he directly took out two sketches from his briefcase and handed them to Wells: "Sir, I hope you can build these two types of boats for me."

Wells took the documents and glanced at them, his face full of confusion.

Both boats were designs he had never seen before, looking quite odd:

One had a large space in the middle, with a high protruding bow, like a clown’s boot.

The other, though called a boat, appeared more like a car.

What was the purpose of building such toys? Did Shire have a sudden desire to sail a few boats on the Seine River? Just in time as the Seine was in flood, sailing these boats on it would surely attract a lot of attention.

Tijani leaned over to look for a while and then suddenly became excited: "Colonel, surely you... want to use these boats for the amphibious operation on the Dardanelles Strait, don’t you?"

Wells, reminded by Tijani, suddenly realized that these were for an amphibious operation, military vessels!

Shire gently nodded.

Since he wanted Wells to build boats, he had to specify their purpose and requirements so that Wells would know in which direction to proceed.

"Yes." Shire explained: "As far as I know, our troops are still using wooden boats for landing, they are slow and dangerous, easily wiped out by the enemy at sea..."

Tijani, both surprised and delighted, took the two sketches and examined them excitedly, chiming in: "With these two types of boats, landing would be much faster. You, how did you come up with these? My gosh, they are so beautiful."

Saying this, Tijani picked up the first sketch: "This one can carry a large number of soldiers for quick landing, the iron plate in the front can provide cover for the soldiers, and once it hits the shoals, it can be lowered to become a ramp for soldiers to land!"

(The above image is an American LCVP landing craft)

He then picked up the second sketch: "This type of boat, if I’m not mistaken, can travel both on sea and land, supplies can be directly delivered from the boat to the landed troops!"

(The above image is a "Duck" amphibious landing craft)

Shire nodded, revealing that Tijani indeed had some eyesight for equipment, recognizing their functions with just a glance.

Wells looked at Tijani and then at Shire, finally his gaze stopped again on those two sketches he originally thought of as "Shire’s toys."

Combining the diagrams with Tijani’s words, he pondered carefully and suddenly saw the light.

Wells felt a bit moved, he had a new understanding of Shire and was convinced of Shire’s abilities.

On the other hand, Wells felt gratified, Tijani didn’t seem as useless as he thought, joining the army seemed to have taught him something.

Seeing Wells staring at the sketches, Shire asked: "Is there any difficulty in producing these two boats?"

"No no!" Wells looked carefully, confidently replied: "There is no difficulty, in fact, they are quite simple!"

Indeed simple.

The first landing craft was almost just an engine housed in a boat shell.

The second amphibious landing craft might be slightly more complex but only required solving the engine’s switching between propeller and wheel drive, the rest were existing technologies.

"How many do you need?" Wells asked.

"Twenty of each!" Shire answered: "Delivered in two weeks."

"No problem!" Wells quickly agreed, this was a piece of cake for his shipyard.

Shire added: "For the sake of battlefield surprise, it is top secret, sir!"

"Understood!" Wells responded confidently: "Before they appear on the battlefield, the involved workers will be kept in custody at the shipyard."