Chapter 871 "Dirty Work"
Hughes' face was heavy. "If we want to defend against the United States, we may need tanks, Your Excellency, the most advanced 'Char B1'."
"Char is willing to sell this tank?" asked Borden.
Hughes shook his head slightly:
“It may not be a question of willingness, but rather that capacity cannot keep up with demand.”
"The French army also needs this tank, after all, they are still fighting, and even the US military cannot equip it."
"And we haven't had a war yet, so..."
Boden sighed softly. If that was the case, there was no hope.
However, at Hughes' suggestion, he sent a telegram to Charles with the mentality of giving it a try.
They were somewhat surprised by Charles's call back:
"I don't think you need tanks, Prime Minister."
"You should know that the tank gun of the 'Charter B1' cannot penetrate the armor of the 'Charter B1', and the same is true for the 75mm gun."
"Do you understand what I mean?"
Hughes reacted suddenly:
"He is right, Mr. Prime Minister."
"What we need is to destroy the tanks that may approach our defense lines."
"If one day, the Americans drove a 'Char B1' close to our defense line, we would not be able to destroy it even if we were equipped with a 'Char B1'."
Boden understood, and he sent a telegram to Charles: "So, Your Excellency, Lieutenant General, what can we do to deal with the 'Char B1'?"
Charles was silent for a while, looking very embarrassed, and then called back:
"Originally I shouldn't have sold this equipment because it would pose a threat to 'Char B1'."
"But I understand your difficulties. For the safety of Canada and to prevent war from breaking out, I think we should not hold back."
"Yes, we have a way to deal with the 'Char B1'. It is a cannon that is only sold but not licensed."
Then, Charles sent the artillery data:
47MM caliber, weight 1070 kg, requires vehicle towing.
It is specially designed to deal with enemy tanks, so the gun body is low and not easily discovered by the enemy.
The armor-piercing projectile weighs 3.27 kg and can penetrate 60MM homogeneous armor at a distance of 550 meters and 50MM armor at a distance of 1000 meters.
(The picture above shows the French 1930S anti-tank, 47MM caliber, known as the best anti-tank equipment in World War II, but the French army basically had no chance to use it)
It was a new anti-tank gun produced by the Stokes Institute, model SA-16.
Hughes was overjoyed after receiving the data: "Mr. Prime Minister, the armor of the 'Char B1' is only 40MM thick, which means that this gun can destroy this tank at a distance of 1,000 meters. This is what we need."
Boden nodded in satisfaction.
Even if he didn't understand military affairs, he knew that as long as the enemy tanks were destroyed, the only thing left would be trench warfare, and the Canadian army was not afraid of the Americans in this regard.
In the end, Borden and Shire happily completed the deal and purchased 50 doors at a unit price of 6,000 Canadian dollars.
And this is only the first batch. Hughes plans to add at least 100 more after the trial is satisfactory.
What Borden didn't know was that Hughes breathed a sigh of relief when he walked out of the Prime Minister's office: he had finally fulfilled his mission and completed Charles' task.
…
It has been some time since Sharbun Hughes came on this line.
This task was personally given to Lucia by Charles in Oss Park because it did not look very "formal" and it was a "dirty job".
Charles laid some groundwork.
"You know what I'm doing, Lucia." Charles said in a deep voice.
"Yes." Lucia took Charles' arm and looked at his profile, her eyes full of smiles and a little admiration.
"I know," she said. "You are practicing the French spirit, the real French spirit, which is great. I have never been so proud as I am now!"
Charles was indeed a perfect man, she thought, who advocated universal love for humanity.
Others only used "fraternity" as a tool, including those parliamentarians who often talked about it, but only Charles truly did it.
Before, Lucia was a little worried. What if Belgium and France became enemies one day?
Does she, being Belgian, have to become an enemy of Charles?
Now, she thought it was totally unnecessary, the Ciel would bring everyone together, without war, without pain, without death.
This is awesome!
Charles felt a little ashamed. Lucia was the one who believed in him wholeheartedly without any vested interests involved.
However, the Charles in her eyes was fake, and it was all a lie.
Ciel walked silently along the gravel road, and finally spoke: "Some things are not as beautiful as we imagined, and some are even... you know, not in line with the norm."
"I understand," Lucia replied.
"You understand?" Charles couldn't believe it, he didn't even say anything.
"Yes, I understand." Lucia nodded affirmatively: "Just like revealing the routes of British merchant ships to the Germans, the result is that German submarines are hunted down."
Charles uttered a "hmm".
This did happen before, but Lucia misunderstood it.
Charles revealed the British merchant ship intelligence to the Germans in order to create panic and thus control the transportation rights under the "echo sounder".
Of course, it is also true that German submarines were hunted.
Lucia used her imagination to connect the two.
"Tell me, what is the mission?" Lucia jumped in front of Charles and stretched out her hand to straighten the collar of Charles' military uniform: "Don't worry, I will complete the mission, my lieutenant general!"
Charles didn't dare to look directly at Lucia. He turned aside and continued walking forward. "It's like this. The Canadian army is equipped with a Ross rifle. The performance of this rifle is very poor. It has seriously affected the combat effectiveness of the Canadian army."
Lucia was a little confused. She didn't understand what this had to do with the intelligence unit "Lady in White".
Charles continued, "After further investigation, we found that this rifle was purchased by Canadian Defense Minister Hughes, and the test data at that time was suspected of being falsified. We suspect..."
Lucia understood: "Defense Minister Hughes is likely to have a vested interest in the manufacturer? In other words, Hughes is likely to have accepted bribes?"
"Yes." Charles nodded.
"These bastards." Lucia gnashed her teeth in hatred: "The soldiers on the front line are fighting bravely, but they are lining their own pockets and completely disregarding the lives of the soldiers!"
Then she promised Charles: "I will expose his scandal, General."
"No." Charles shook his head: "I didn't ask you to expose his ugly deeds."
"What?" Lucia was stunned. What else could she do besides this?
Ciel straightened his chest and coughed lightly: "You have to make sure that the evidence is only in our hands, and leave the rest to me, understand?"
"I understand." Lucia answered simply.
In fact, she didn't understand.
But Charles was definitely right!
(End of this chapter)
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