I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 503 You have such high-speed machinery entering the UK, remember the principle I gave

After the British MPs left, the R&D department of Lightning Coal Company instantly ended its busy state, and the "technicians" began to chat or drink tea.

These 30-plus people were sent by the French Intelligence Agency. They had memorized a large number of technical terms in advance just to impress.

The remaining workers were temporarily recruited locally. They usually clean machines and move files, and they just need to appear busy.

……

A few days later, Councillor Mordaunt shook his head and walked out of the workshop of Andrew Chemical Company in London, muttering softly:

"You don't even wear shoe covers. The machines here must not be sophisticated enough..."

The company manager escorted him to the door with a flattering look on his face and asked carefully:
"Baron, you see, our company's distillation equipment will be ready for use by the end of the year. I hope you can let us undertake the gas production part."

Mordaunt suddenly remembered his previous visit to Lightning Company, and immediately said indifferently:
"Excuse me for being blunt, but your company can't even align the granularity, let alone require the workers to connect the underlying logic and form a closed loop. I don't think you are suitable for this high-tech project."

“What did you say? Granularity… what are you connecting…” The company managers were stunned.

Mordaunt raised his head and smiled proudly:
“These are all necessary for a successful company. I suggest you learn them well.”

Sitting in the carriage, he glanced at the mottled gate of Andrew's Company and couldn't help shaking his head.

During this time, Mordaunt inspected all the companies that were interested in participating in the gas streetlight project, and finally found that only Lightning Coal Industry was the most outstanding. He had already decided in his mind to let them undertake the project.

He even felt that even without the £1 kickback from Lightning Company, he would still have to hand over the gas street lighting business to them.

After that, the British Parliament held two consecutive discussions on the gas streetlight project, and Mordaunt and his faction always supported Lightning Coal Company to take charge of the project.

However, there are always different factions in the parliament. After some members proposed other plans, Mordaunt threw the Lightning Company's promotional materials on their desks.

Then, the voices opposing him disappeared - judging from those exquisite brochures, Lightning Company was at least 10 years ahead of other competitors!
On August 8, London City Hall signed a contract with the little-known Lightning Coal Company, which would be responsible for the construction of gas street lights in London. The project would last for one year and the total amount would be 3 pounds.

Yes, in order to ensure that he could defeat all competitors, Joseph specifically instructed Styler to lower the bid to 26.

Anyway, he had no intention of really doing it, so he didn't care even if the price dropped to 20. But for other companies, this price would mean no profit.

On the third day after the contract was signed, in a club in the southern suburbs of Paris, more than a dozen London factory owners and company managers gathered in the spacious concert hall and were whispering:

"I thought it was just our company, but he brought everyone here?"

"What does that guy want to do? Humiliate us?"

"Maybe it's because Lightning Company stole our business and wants to gain our forgiveness."

"Hush—he's coming."

The door of the concert hall was pushed open, and Stellar walked in with a smile on his face. He greeted everyone one by one, then stepped onto the stage and said loudly:

"Gentlemen, I think you have all heard that we, the Lightning Coal Company, have just been awarded the contract to supply London with gas streetlights."

Someone said coldly: "You asked us to come here just to show off, right?"

"Oh, you misunderstood." Styler waved his hand and said sincerely, "Our company will continue to develop in London in the future, and this requires dealing with you all." The dozen or so people sitting there stared at him silently - they were all companies that had participated in the competition for the gas street lamp project before, and naturally they were not in a good mood when their business was snatched away.

Styler continued: "So, I want to share the benefits with everyone so that you can also make money."

Everyone was a little surprised to hear him say this.

"What are you going to do?"

"Subcontracting." Styler said with a smile, "You see, for such a large project, there are many aspects that our company is not good at, such as making gas pipelines, excavation and landfill, and even the shell of the gas lamp, we need to buy new machines to produce it.

“So I want to divide these tasks among you. Please rest assured that you will not suffer any loss in terms of price.

"This way, everyone will benefit equally, and I hope everyone will support Lightning Coal Company in the future."

When everyone heard this, they were overjoyed. They didn't expect that the stolen cake could be returned. They immediately rushed to say:
"Mr. Styler, our company can produce gas lamp shells. According to the plan, London will install 2 street lamps. Can you..."

"We at Sawyer-Riverhill have the best excavators and can lay the pipes at a very low price."

"If you need to manufacture gas pipelines, our company can help you. You should have heard of our products..."

"And we..."

Styler made a downward gesture and smiled:
"Okay, okay. Lightning Coal is very sincere and will definitely subcontract as much as possible to you."

He immediately confirmed the subcontracting intentions with several companies, then returned to the stage and coughed lightly, saying:

"But everyone should know that this project involves a huge amount of money, and we don't know when the down payment from the city hall will arrive, so for the subcontracting content, you will need to advance the funds for the time being."

Everyone looked at each other and said they could accept it.

Although advance payment is something that no company is happy about, it has happened before. Moreover, the gas street lamp project is so large that if it is missed due to unwillingness to advance payment, the loss will be too great.

In the following week, Lightning Coal signed subcontracts with a large number of British companies, almost accepting everything from excavating roads to building coal depots, from manufacturing retort shells to street lamp shades.

At this time, if a company looked through the contracts in Steller's safe, it would find that more than half of the work in the gas street lamp project had been subcontracted out, but the connections between all links were still in the hands of Lightning Coal.

Joseph wanted not only to try to delay the London gaslight project, but also to delay the British companies that were capable of doing this, to prevent the London City Hall from reluctantly cutting ties when it found that something was wrong, and then investing money to set up a new company.

……

India.

Mysore.

In the main hall of the Seringapatna Palace, Tipu Sultan looked coldly at the British negotiator Sir Seely, and suddenly glanced at the Prime Minister of Hyderabad and said:
"We can give up Vijayanagar, but it must belong to Hyderabad."

Vijayanagar is the northernmost city of Mysore. It was occupied by the British army half a year ago and it is definitely impossible to take it back. However, according to the instructions of Marquis Lafayette, he must try his best to use it to win over the two British vassals, Maratha and Hyderabad.

(End of this chapter)