I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 749: How Did He Think of That?

Green grass, blue cloud sky.

The spring breeze is slightly cool, and fallen flowers are all over the ground, it’s a perfect time for a spring outing.

Shire stands high in Osgood Park, overlooking the bustling Davaz Town below.

Today is May Day, a time for exchanging lily of the valley flowers during the holiday, but the tall chimneys of Davaz Town continuously spew black smoke, showing no signs of stopping work.

During wartime, holidays have become a topic of conversation at the dinner table, workers often joke while working:

"Happy holidays, where do you plan to go on vacation?"

"Oh, I originally wanted to go to the seaside, but the sea water is still too cold now, so I decided to come back to work."

"I don’t have a car, I plan to build a tank as my mode of transportation, that’s why I’m here!"

...

Despite the jokes, they willingly work overtime.

Because this is Shire’s factory, they believe that every bit of blood and sweat they shed is worth it, they are contributing to France, and protecting their own homeland.

Therefore, unlike other regions where strikes occur frequently, Davaz Town’s factory has never had strikes or demonstrations.

On the contrary, workers continuously flock here from all directions.

They have good vocational skills and could find higher paying jobs elsewhere, but they prefer to queue here for an interview.

"This is your charm." Lucia walks up to Shire, naturally holds Shire’s hand, and proudly gazes at the now mid-sized Davaz Town.

"Is everything arranged?" Shire asks.

"Yes." Lucia nods, "It was easier than expected."

Shire feels a bit strange:

"It shouldn’t be like this, ’Lady in White’ is a civilian organization."

"Although there are veterans and elite soldiers joining, it has only been established for more than a year."

"Yet she can crush France’s Second Bureau, which is a professional intelligence agency."

Lucia invites Shire to walk up the stone path in the park, appreciating the blooming flowers on both sides while answering, "It’s not strange, the level of Second Bureau isn’t decided by themselves, but by their opponents."

Shire suddenly understands, nodding thoughtfully.

For a long time, the opponents of Second Bureau were civilians, private armed forces of capitalists, or gang groups.

As opponents were these rabble, and they always easily won, over time their level dropped.

Although ’Lady in White’ is a civilian organization, she is prepared for war, facing the German Army and its intelligence organization.

Therefore, every member of ’Lady in White’ has high ideological awareness, psychological preparedness for sacrifice, and constantly improves under the immense pressure of war.

As a result, this newly formed civilian organization has the strength to crush the professional Second Bureau.

It seems I’ve overestimated Second Bureau, Shire thinks.

Lucia adds, "There’s also another reason, it gives us a natural advantage, which is very important."

"What?" Shire asks, he realizes he doesn’t know much about this loyal organization.

"Identity." Lucia picks a rose, smells it close to her nose, smiles and hands it to Shire, it’s the color of passionate love.

Shire takes it casually, asks puzzledly, "Identity?"

"Yes." Lucia once again holds Shire’s hand, light-footedly jumping as if flying, "The Second Bureau has to forge an identity for their spies, General, but we don’t need to."

Shire understands.

There’s a saying, "If you want nobody to know, you must do nothing."

Every identity forged by the Second Bureau for intelligence personnel, such as maid, driver, vendor, inevitably has loopholes.

With meticulous investigation, or by having someone experienced in the field interact for a few days, suspicions and inconsistencies can be found.

But ’Lady in White’ does not have this problem.

Their identities are real, unequivocal, without flaws.

Like the butler and driver around Clemenceau, unless intentionally exposed, even after years, there wouldn’t be any problems, not even Clemenceau would notice, let alone the Second Bureau.

Thus, ’Lady in White’ forms a huge advantage of "the enemy is in the open, we are in the dark" over the Second Bureau.

The Second Bureau doesn’t know ’Lady in White’, but ’Lady in White’ knows the intelligence personnel of Second Bureau inside out.

This situation leaves the intelligence unit no choice but to be crushed and eliminated.

"You should be credited the most." Lucia picks another rose and hands it to Shire, it’s pure white.

"Me?" Shire smiles gently, "You mean my command?"

"Command is just one aspect." Lucia replies:

"More importantly, it’s the victories you achieved, your rationing policy, and everything you’ve done for the French people."

"Do you know what we did with the funds you gave me?"

"We used it to buy weapons and equipment, and almost no activity funds or salaries for personnel, most of them work for us for free, which allowed us to grow to thousands in a short time."

If it weren’t for concerns of being too large and mixed, it would’ve expanded to tens of thousands long ago.

Shire responds with a "Hmm", considering it an additional benefit.

But this benefit is very important, as the ultimate struggle with the parliament depends on the intelligence units.

The victorious side can control a politician like Clemenceau today, and thus manipulate the parliament and government as desired.

"But there’s a difficulty now, General." Lucia hands a romantic pink rose to Shire.

"What difficulty?" Shire asks.

"The matter of Fidel Refinery is ongoing." Lucia walks backwards, facing Shire, "The ’middleman’ signed a contract with them, they are even willing to reopen production lines for our order."

"Very good." Shire nods.

The more gasoline sold to Germany, the greater Briand’s culpability, and simultaneously the more successful the plan to sustain Germany.

"The problem is..." Lucia asks:

"How can we transport these gasoline across the border to the Germans?"

"You know, the Eastern Front is currently engaged in conflict. It’s nearly impossible to transport such a large amount of gasoline across the front lines unnoticed by the Russian Army."

Shire answers straightforwardly, "You don’t need to transport it, Lucia."

"Don’t need to transport it?" Lucia looks puzzled.

Shire nods:

"You just need to bury it somewhere behind the front lines, and then inform the Germans."

"Then, the Germans will launch an attack for the gasoline."

"They will drive back the Russians and then dig out the gasoline!"

Lucia pauses, Shire almost bumps into her.

"You, you..." Lucia looks at Shire with admiration, "You already thought of this solution?"

God, how did he come up with this?

No risk at all yet perfectly delivering the gasoline into the hands of the Germans, while I’ve been troubled by it for days!