Chapter 133 Grenade
After the family had dinner under candlelight, Djokovic persuaded Charles while Camille was washing dishes in the kitchen.
"I don't object to your persistence in tanks, Charles!" Djoka said, with a little anxiety: "I don't even object to your 'not participating in competition', but you seem to need allies. You can't fight the whole world alone, even if you are excellent!"
Then he added: "The means the enemy can use may be beyond your imagination. They are hard to defend against. Sometimes you have to choose a side!"
"I understand, father!" Charles picked up the prunes from the plate and put them into his mouth.
Camille said that prunes are almost out of season and we should try them while they are still ripe, otherwise we will have to wait until next year.
"And..." Djokovic said hesitantly, "Sometimes we shouldn't dwell on the past, but should look at the present situation and the future!"
Deyoka was talking about the incident where Charles was deceived into Antwerp. Grevi did want to harm Charles before, but there were too many cases of alliances in the business world, and he thought that it was beneficial to form an alliance with Grevi now.
More importantly, Deyoka knew that nobles like Grevi were very good at power struggles and infighting; it was in their blood.
If you form an alliance with them, you won’t have to worry about “accidents” happening like last time.
This is a fear-based identification, similar to Stockholm syndrome!
"I will not form an alliance with Grevi!" Charles said without any hesitation: "They will eventually be eliminated by the times. It is not a wise choice to form an alliance with them!"
"Then, who else can we form an alliance with?" Djokovic asked.
It was obviously impossible to form an alliance with Schneider. It was well known that Joffre and Gallieni were at odds. If Gallieni was chosen, Joffre could not be chosen. At the same time, arms giants like Schneider would not take Charles seriously. If they wanted to form an alliance with him, they would only get humiliation.
Charles hesitated for a moment, then said calmly, "Don't worry, father, I will ask my allies to come to me!"
"What?" Djokovic didn't understand what Charles meant.
"You will understand, father!" Charles stood up and ended the conversation, grabbing a few prunes.
He found that the taste was good, but he had not included it in the options before. Sometimes you should be more open and expand the range of choices.
Back in his room, Charles took out a pen, paper and ruler and drew a sketch.
The wooden-handled grenade has a very simple principle and can be made by hand. It can be divided into offensive and defensive types according to the different amounts of explosives.
It didn't take long to finish the painting. Although it's not very standard, it doesn't need to be so precise.
Then he added a page of text to make simple annotations, made a copy for himself, and when he was finished, he pinned them together and went downstairs to hand them to Djokovic, who was still sitting at the dining table in a daze.
"Father, send this to register industrial property rights tomorrow!"
Dejoka took the document and flipped through it, seeming to want to say something, but finally nodded and said nothing.
Charles understood what Djokovic meant:
"What we lack is not industrial property, Charles, nor money. We have a lot of money now! But there are some things that money can't buy!"
Charles didn't explain, but he would understand when the time came.
…
The next day, it was a rare sunny day in Paris. The sky was a deep blue and the sun tore through the clouds, shining its light freely and casting long shadows on the speeding cars.
"Can you believe it, Lieutenant?" Laurent said, "It's raining heavily in Ypres right now!"
"Oh?" Charles asked curiously, "Have you received the information from Ypres?"
"Of course!" Laurent nodded: "Every detail, the general hopes that you can understand the battlefield on the way back! But now everything is normal, nothing happened."
It dawned on Charles that this was Gallieni's way of dealing with Charles's vacation.
Intelligence on the battlefield will continue to be transmitted to Laurent, and if there is any special situation that requires Charles to deal with, it will be sent to Charles immediately.
Very good practice!
Nothing much should happen in Ypres in the near future.
If the problem of air supremacy was not solved, the German attack would undoubtedly be defeated by the French 75mm gun.
On the other hand, the German army had the advantage of hilly terrain. If the French army, which was located in the plain and muddy area, launched a counterattack, it would be tantamount to seeking death!
Charles found that he seemed to have saved many people.
In this historic battle, the German and French armies fought back and forth on the Ypres Plain, each suffering more than 100,000 casualties (130,000 German casualties and 100,000 Allied casualties), but now it ended with only more than 10,000 casualties.
The outcome was the same, but the casualties were more than 200,000 less!
Is it ironic to end war by fighting and kill people to save lives?
…
Perhaps because the battlefield was basically stable, the headquarters was no longer as busy as usual. Gallieni sat at his desk, munching on bread and staring at a map, his consciousness having flown to the front line.
This had been his habit for many years, and he rarely went to the cafeteria to eat, even though it was just downstairs.
"General!" Charles handed over the backup grenade sketch and said, "I think we need this kind of equipment!"
Gallieni glanced at the sketch, but didn't take it seriously. He immediately turned his eyes back to the map and asked, "What is this?"
"Grenade!" Charles answered. "To replace the explosives thrown by the grenadiers!"
Gallieni said "Oh" and raised his head, and a cautious look immediately appeared on his face.
Soon he threw the bread aside and held the picture in one hand and the text description in the other.
After looking at it for a while, he raised the document in his hand and asked Charles half-doubtfully: "You mean, it doesn't need to be ignited, just pull the string to detonate?"
"Yes, General!" Charles replied. "Delay a few seconds, so that the soldiers have time to throw it out!"
Gallieni immediately understood the importance of this thing. He nodded affirmatively: "You are right, Lieutenant! We do need this thing. Do you have a sample?"
"No, General!" Charles replied, "I have just designed it and am in the process of registering the industrial property rights. I think if the army needs it, I can start production right away. It is not difficult..."
"Yes!" Gallieni nodded repeatedly: "Of course!"
Gallieni was a practical general. He would send his staff to the front line from time to time to understand the actual situation. He believed that this would ensure that his command was not out of touch with reality.
Therefore, he knew that at this time the soldiers on the front line were digging out the explosives from the grenadier era and throwing them at the enemy between the trenches.
But explosives have many disadvantages, such as being easily affected by moisture and requiring ignition.
And Charles actually designed a grenade specifically for throwing, which does not require ignition and is easy to throw... It is simply designed specifically for trench warfare!
"We need at least 10,000 of them..." General Gallieni nodded affirmatively.
Charles couldn't help laughing. Ten thousand?
France has an army of one million on the front line. If each person is equipped with five missiles, it would require five or six million missiles. Ten million missiles would probably not be enough, and this does not even take into account the subsequent consumption!
(The picture above shows a simple hand grenade made from cans by the Allies in the early days of World War I. The German army already had the prototype of a hand grenade, such as a ball grenade with a clockwork or a pull-type grenade, but the Allies were initially in the state of making their own grenades, and it took more than a month before they urgently produced grenades to supply them to the front line)
(End of this chapter)
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