I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 779: Manufacturing Anxiety

The issue of funding is actually easy to resolve.

Shire just needs to create a bit of anxiety in Parliament.

He spent a night at the City Defense Headquarters, and early the next morning, at Clemenceau’s "invitation," he accepted a parliamentary inquiry.

"Gentlemen, let us welcome France’s greatest general, Admiral Shire!"

Shire walked up to the podium amid enthusiastic applause.

Then, Clemenceau slowly unfolded Shire’s "conspiracy" in a questioning manner.

"Admiral," Clemenceau asked, "I’ve heard your intelligence personnel have discovered that the Germans are developing a secret weapon, is this true?"

"Yes, of course," Shire answered.

"Can you tell us what this equipment is?" Clemenceau continued.

"Tank," Shire answered bluntly.

The parliamentarians did not seem nervous about this, with someone loudly asserting:

"We have the most advanced tank, Admiral."

"Yes, your ’Shire B1’, it gave the Germans a hard time in the Battle of Metz."

"We destroyed all the enemy tanks, while only a few of ours malfunctioned. Not a single one was destroyed by the enemy."

...

Clemenceau nodded at Shire, implying he should explain.

Shire straightened up and responded:

"Gentlemen, do you think the Germans will just sit idly by?"

"No, the Germans’ industry and technology are not inferior to ours; they might even be more advanced."

"So, why do you think they won’t produce a more advanced tank?"

The parliamentarians were stunned.

What Shire said was true.

Although England is the number one major power, in terms of industry and technology overall, the world’s number one is the United States, followed by Germany.

Shire continued:

"Let’s make a comparison, the ’Shire B1’ tank weighs about 25 tons."

"But do you know the weight of this tank the Germans are developing?"

"It weighs 150 tons, gentlemen!"

Instant chaos ensued in the meeting room, and the parliamentarians turned pale with fright.

The 25-ton ’Shire B1’ is already so formidable, yet the Germans are developing a 150-ton tank.

That’s six times the ’Shire B1’!

A parliamentarian shouted, "Are you sure about this, General?"

"I’m very sure," Shire nodded affirmatively, "My intelligence personnel saw this terrifying war machine with their own eyes, but couldn’t take photographs of it, so they could only sketch it from memory."

As Shire spoke, he waved his hand, and the guards immediately distributed the prepared blueprints.

Shire introduced:

"The Germans have named it the K-Wagen tank."

"We don’t know much about the intelligence, we only know that this tank costs 600,000 marks per unit, and the German military ordered 10 of them."

(Above is a comparison of the German K-Wagen super heavy tank and the A7V tank)

Upon receiving the sketches, the parliamentarians exclaimed:

"My God, it’s covered in cannons and machine guns."

"This is a monster, a war machine."

"Its cannon caliber is even larger than the ’Shire B1’, it should be 77MM caliber!"

...

Following their words, Shire continued, "Yes, it has a total of four 77MM infantry cannons, and seven Maxim machine guns."

This data once again stirred panic in the meeting room.

Someone asked skeptically, "They can’t possibly produce such a monster so quickly, can they?"

Shire spread his hands, his tone full of helplessness:

"I also wish that were the case, but unfortunately, it’s not the truth."

"They’ve been developing it for at least a year already, and it’s about to succeed."

"Now, I estimate they will rush production and deploy it to the battlefield as soon as possible."

Clemenceau timely supplemented, "You know why this is."

The parliamentarians nodded one after another:

"Yes, Shire is about to regain all of France."

"One step further, and we’re going to strike into German territory, which they will never allow."

"They hope to launch a counteroffensive with this weapon!"

...

There were differing voices among them, "Is it possible? The Germans are currently using the ’LK2’ light tank, which is only a dozen tons, suddenly jumping to 150 tons!"

But these doubts were quickly drowned out by the parliamentarians’ opposition and ridicule:

"Don’t you know how much the Germans’ A7V weighs?"

"If you think it’s impossible, think about their ’Big Bertha’ cannons, and their zeppelins!"

"Do you need to wait until this tank is right in front of you to acknowledge it?"

... 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

This was precisely the situation Shire hoped to see.

The parliamentarians’ military knowledge was pitifully scarce; they wouldn’t think about whether such a "super heavy tank" was suitable for the battlefield.

For example, whether its armor thickness could withstand enemy artillery, whether its speed was fast enough, whether roads and bridges could bear its weight.

In fact, not just parliamentarians, even generals in this era didn’t understand much about these things.

They assumed that more weapons and heavier tonnage meant it was powerful, at least battleships were like that.

Steed asked tensely, "General, can our tanks stop it?"

Shire shook his head, "Unfortunately, I don’t think they can."

Clemenceau frowned and asked, "Then you must have tactics to deal with it, right?"

Shire shook his head again, "Such a tank appearing on the battlefield will be a disaster for us, Prime Minister. It will destroy everything in its path. All our victories will turn into nothing."

Of course, what Shire said was not the truth.

As long as it was useful.

Especially since most parliamentarians had intricate links with capitalists, they would convey Shire’s words to the capitalists.

Then the capitalists would know one thing:

It turns out Shire is not invincible, France still has a risk of defeat and being pushed back.

So, is it too early to buy land?

If this information spread to society, individual investors would follow suit to sell land, pushing land prices further down.

Finally, someone asked the question Shire most wanted to hear, "Then, General, how should we respond?"

Others chimed in:

"Yes, General, you must have a way."

"We can’t let France be in danger again."

"We support you, you can certainly save France again!"

...

Shire nodded with difficulty:

"I don’t think there’s any better method right now."

"We can only develop a 150-ton tank like the Germans."

"You know, only battleships can defeat battleships, and the same goes for tanks."

"It’s just..."

The parliamentarians eagerly asked, "Is there any difficulty?"

Shire sighed deeply:

"I’ve invested too much funding in the production of war materials."

"Tanks, shells, bullets, and recently donated ten destroyers."

"Now, the Bernard Group doesn’t have extra funds to invest in development."