Chapter 359 The Power of Life and Death
Less than half an hour after the bombing, Dejoka appeared in Schneider's VIP room again.
"Mr. James," Dejoka asked, "Have you thought about it? About selling the steel mill!"
James asked expressionlessly: "Do I have any other choice?"
Djokovic smiled and shook his head slightly.
If you don't sell it, it will be blown up and all that will be left is a pile of scrap metal. If you sell it, you can get some money.
So for James, there is no option of "selling" or "not selling", only whether to sell it for money.
James asked, "How much are you going to pay for it?"
"Ten million francs." Dejoka gave a price.
"But the Cammond Steel Works is worth at least 30 million francs," James protested.
The key point is that it has no market yet. It is not only a cash cow, but also a voice.
Djokovic calmly replied: "I believe that no one else would offer this price except me."
James gritted his teeth. Of course, no one else would make a bid. Everyone knew that it would be blown up immediately after buying it, unless it was sold to Charles.
"That's a good idea, Mr. Djokovic." James nodded slightly: "I admire Charles more and more."
"This has nothing to do with Charles, Mr. James," Djokovic replied. "This is a business between me and you."
James laughed.
It really has nothing to do with Charles. Dejoka is taking care of business while Charles is busy saving France. There is no necessary connection between the two, although everyone knows what is going on.
"What if I would rather lose 10 million francs?" James took out a cigar from his pocket and lit it. He did not share one with Djoka. There was a faint smell of gunpowder in the air.
This might be a good choice, James thought, he didn't need the 10 million francs, although it was not a small amount.
But if it delays the Shire's development it's worth it.
However, Djokovic shrugged indifferently: "You can choose that, Mr. James. But I believe Mr. Wendel would not think so."
The cigar that James was about to put into his mouth stopped in mid-air.
For Schneider, not selling would only mean a loss of 10 million francs.
But the Windel family owns more than a dozen steel mills of various sizes there, and even if they were acquired at a low price of 10 million francs, they would still be worth hundreds of millions of francs.
Is Wen Taier willing to throw this money into the water?
What's more, the competition between Wentel and Shire, which are not involved in the military industry, is not that fierce. For Wentel, it doesn't matter who controls the military industry, as long as you buy his steel.
Schneider suddenly found himself a pawn in Charles's hands.
Charles killed the chicken to scare Wendel the monkey. What Charles really wanted was the steel plant in Wendel's hands.
Therefore, even if James insists on not selling, he will not be able to achieve the goal of slowing down the development of Charlotte.
The look in Djokovic's eyes when he looked at James seemed to indicate this as well. He seemed to be saying: There are 10 million francs in front of you, just decide whether you want it or not!
After thinking for a while, James finally sighed dejectedly: "You win, Mr. Djokovic!"
…
In the riverside villa, Wells was thinking about problems as usual, enjoying the river breeze, rocking chair and sunshine.
The progress of the torpedo was very smooth. Initial tests showed that its maximum range had reached four kilometers, but the last two hundred meters was barely completed by relying on inertia after the fuel was exhausted.
But this is already a qualitative leap. Wells believes that Charles will come up with better solutions in the future to further increase the range.
On the other hand, the research and development of wire-guided torpedoes has also achieved initial success. They have already equipped the 3MM wires on the torpedoes with a range of four kilometers.
"Preliminary" means that after being equipped with wires, the torpedo can only travel at a low speed, otherwise the wires will be torn off.
The next step is to try to further reduce the wire diameter and increase its toughness, which is only a matter of time.
(Note: The wire diameter of modern wire-guided torpedoes is usually less than 1.2 mm and can be up to 46 km long)
However, Wells was far from happy.
If he continues like this, will Charles still buy into his account?
What would happen if the Shire chose to abandon Wells and its shipyards altogether?
The industrial property rights of wire-guided torpedoes, landing ships, landing craft, and depth charges used to bomb submarines are all in Charles' hands.
Losing all of this means the shipyard will fall into darkness again.
This was a torment for Wells.
If he had remained in the dark, Wells wouldn't have been so troubled.
But now that he has seen the light, it would be more painful than killing him to make him retreat back to that dark, damp, lifeless corner.
Yet Wells had to do it.
Because if you choose Charles, you will really kill him!
In a trance, Tijani pushed the door open with a bouquet of flowers in her hand. Those were Wells' favorite tulips. Tijani walked to the desk and changed them for Wells.
"What's up?" Wells asked without even turning his head. "Another holiday today? It seems like you've been quite free lately!"
“No, I just stopped by to take a look,” Tijani replied.
Wells snorted and looked out the window. He would rather believe that the river would flow backwards than believe that Tijani would come to see him.
Tijani didn't care about Wells's indifference, as if he was used to it.
Tijani threw the withered flowers into the trash can, clapped his hands, and walked up to Wells, as if talking about something insignificant: "Did you hear? We bombed the steel plant."
Wells hummed. He only learned about this from reading the newspaper this morning.
What a waste of resources! The two steel mills were burned to ashes!
Wells waited for a while but heard nothing. He turned to look at Tijani in confusion: "You came here just to tell me this?"
"That's about right!" Tijani replied, "You should know that this was done by Ciel."
"So what?" Wells smiled softly. "Are you trying to say that Charles holds the power of life and death over those steel mills?"
This was just a joke, but unexpectedly Tijani nodded slightly: "You guessed it right!"
Wells was stunned, then cast a doubtful look at Tijani: "You mean, Charles used this to force James to compromise?"
Tijani stopped playing charades with Wells and replied, "Shire just bought the Camonde Steel Works not long ago. No, it was Djoka."
Wells looked at Tijani in astonishment. This was a good thing, even though it was a steel plant located in the German-controlled area.
But as long as the French army wins, he can have both "survival" and "future"!
Tijani smiled and continued, "There are also two steel mills in Windel that are under negotiation. The reason why Dejoka does not plan to buy more is to avoid too much competition with Windel."
(End of this chapter)
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