The atmosphere in the living room became a little awkward, and Armand took over the topic understandingly.

"This can't be changed, Francis!" Armand seemed to be defending Grevi: "We all know that it may be possible to change before the call-up order is issued, but after the call-up order is issued, it is an announcement to everyone that he will become A soldier. If we try to do anything..."

Armand stretched out his hand and touched his neck, which meant that even they, the congressmen and party leaders, were going to die.

Francis sighed. He actually knew this, but he still wanted to give it a last try to see if there was a way. Now it seemed that there was no room for change.

At this moment, Nicholas intervened, his eyes were slightly dissatisfied, and his tone was slightly questioning: "You said you would give me an exclusive report afterwards, but now..."

"That's because you are lagging behind the Little Daily News, Nicholas!" Grevi interrupted him: "I can still give you exclusive reports. The question is, do you still need it?"

Nicholas was speechless, Grevi did not say "when"!

However, this was indeed Grevi's fault. He did not think that Charles could come back and therefore did not grasp the time well. This directly led to the defeat of "Le Figaro" by "Le Petit Daily".

Grevy didn't care about money, and it wasn't his money that was lost. What he cared about was the gradual suppression of the voice of the traditional aristocracy.

"Le Figaro" is one of the most important voices of the right. It could have once again reached glory and conquered a large number of politicians and military officers, but now it has done the opposite.

Francis sat down slumped, and after a while he seemed to calm down.

"A more serious problem is before us, gentlemen!" Francis said seriously: "Charles has gained a good reputation in Belgium, and now almost no one can defend his status among the military and civilians. This means , they will trust Charles’s tanks more, and his tanks will easily defeat us and trample us under their feet..."

Grevi nodded, this was the topic he wanted to hear.

Armand turned his attention to Grevi. It was time for him to solve the problem.

But Grevi didn't speak. He drank wine slowly, as if he didn't hear what Francis said.

The living room fell into an eerie silence for a moment, as if everyone was helpless.

Until a servant came in and reported: "Mr. Grevy, there is a colonel named Estiny outside the door who wants to see you. He said you asked him to come!"

Grevi nodded and signaled to the servant to let him in. At the same time, he raised the wine glass in his hand and said, "Gentlemen, I hope you will meet someone!"

Just as he was talking, a colonel with a sword on his waist and long boots walked into the living room with his chest puffed out. Different from the red army trousers of the infantry, his army trousers were blue, with only a pair of red wide trousers sewn on each side. Wire.

Francis and others easily recognized this as an artillery uniform, and doubts flashed in their eyes. Armand was no exception. They did not understand why Grevi would allow an artillery colonel to join this "family meeting."

"Welcome, colonel!" Grevi stood up to greet him, enthusiastically offered a seat to the colonel and poured him a glass of wine.

Grevi introduced everyone present to Estini, and Colonel Estini saluted them one by one politely.

Finally Grevy turned his attention back to Estini and asked: "Can you tell me what you think, Colonel?"

"Of course!" Colonel Estini nodded.

He pondered for a moment, sat up straight and leaned forward slightly, raising his glass of wine to Francis across from him: "It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Francis. The soldiers on the front line have obtained the tanks you produced. However, I This trip is not to express my gratitude to you. I think they have a lot of room for improvement. This is also the voice of the frontline soldiers..."

At this moment, everyone understood Grevi's intention. He wanted to get feedback from the frontline officers and soldiers.

Soon, they realized that things were not that simple.

Colonel Estini took out a document from his backpack and distributed it to them, saying: "This is my idea for a new tank. Of course, it is only a prototype and has many shortcomings, but we can gradually improve it!"

Francis glanced at the design drawing with some caution in his eyes: "What is the difference between it and our existing tanks?"

"The biggest difference is firepower, Mr. Francis!" Colonel Estini replied: "We need stronger firepower. Your tank only has machine guns, and we want to move the artillery to the tank!"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"What a great idea!" said Armand. "It will definitely surprise Charles!"

Everyone laughed cooperatively.

"Don't Charles know how to move the artillery to the tank?" Grevi was hesitant.

"As far as I know, there is indeed no!" Francis said with certainty: "At least not yet!"

Many of the workers at Shire's tractor factory came from Francis's factory, and it was easy for him to find a few recruits.

Grevi nodded, took the design drawing and looked at it, and said: "This is my purpose, gentlemen, we cannot be satisfied with the status quo, we also need to make progress. Only in this way can we continue to maintain our advantage. Competition is cruel and realistic. And it’s urgent, we can’t wait to be defeated by the enemy!”

Francis and Colonel Estini nodded in agreement, but Nicola and Armand had strange expressions.

Grevi has always been against such competition. He thinks it is a meaningless internal friction. He thinks that excellent products will eventually appear in production, not in the credit of capitalists' "self-fighting".

Only Grevi himself knows that it was because there was no Charles before, and he was unwilling to participate in such low-level fighting.

Now he has no choice. If he can't kill Charles, he can only face Charles' tanks!

Colonel Estiny discussed with everyone for more than an hour. Grevi said that he would support him and put it into reality, and was even willing to buy the property rights of this new tank. Of course, it must be mature enough.

"Do you think..." Armand looked at the back of Estiny leaving the window and asked with interest: "Can he beat Charles?"

"I'm not sure!" Grevi kept staring at the design drawing on the table and answered: "But it is at least better than the tanks we have, which shows that we are making progress!"

Armand nodded slightly, there is no doubt about this.

Grevy raised his head and glanced at everyone, saying: "I think our biggest advantage is that we can take into account the needs of the frontline soldiers, while Charles can only sit in the Paris Defense Command as a staff officer. He can't know what the frontline soldiers want! This is very important!"

Everyone nodded in agreement. The tanks will eventually be handed over to the frontline soldiers, and they need to be tested in actual combat.

If Charles can't do it and they can do it, then Charles will lose this battle!

They didn't realize that this is exactly the advantage that Charles has...

(The picture above shows the French artillery uniform in 1914)

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