Chapter 171 A Firm Supporter

Khovd's propaganda strategy was a huge success on the front lines.

Stimulated by hot news and the deliberate guidance of frontline officers, the grenade tutorial gained popularity in a short period of time, and it suddenly became a hot piece of equipment on the frontline.

It is said that soldiers who have been rotated off the front line must successfully throw a few grenades into the enemy's trenches, otherwise they will be embarrassed to say that they have been on the front line.

The promotion of Meritorious Service News among the private sector has also been quite successful.

This is mainly because it is the only newspaper with accurate reporting from the military... All other newspapers make guesses about the battle based on reasonable associations based on existing information, and finally piece it together.

There is only "Le Merit", which is the personal account of Charles, the commander who participated in the battle. Gallieni was also on camera, and he was a supporter. It also includes interviews with officers and soldiers who participated in the war, as well as photos and experiences.

Then not only the Battle of La Fox, but also the Battle of Ypres, the Battle of Antwerp and the Battle of the Marne were all published one by one by "Le Merit".

It's like the students had all kinds of fantastic ideas because they were arguing about a question for a long time. Finally, the teacher gave a standard answer, and everyone suddenly realized that this was the case.

People would even compare the reports in "The Merit" with the reports in other newspapers and laugh at their absurdity and ignorance.

This makes the 100,000 newspapers sent to the private sector like a rat's tail falling into a rice vat. They were sold out as soon as they were put on the market, and the price of 10 centimes was sold to 25 sous on the black market. Many people even put this initial copy The military newspaper is collected as a collection.

Khovd immediately expanded the private circulation to 300,000 copies, and the next day to 500,000 copies, and the front line increased from 200,000 to 300,000 copies.

This has almost reached the limit of the 50 printing machines purchased. It will take about two hours to print all of them.

Frightened, Cobdo urgently purchased 50 more printing machines from various channels.

Kobdo was busy in the headquarters and shouted excitedly: "It's crazy, this is so crazy. It sold 800,000 copies just after it was released and is still in short supply. It took "Little Daily" decades to reach only 100,000 copies. Million sales, we are almost beating it now!”

(Note: "Little Daily" was founded in February 1863, more than 50 years ago)

In fact, it is easy to defeat the "Little Daily". All you need to do is increase military supplies, although this does not make money and you will lose money.

But Charles did not choose to do this. He felt that just increasing paper data did not make much sense.

Gallieni's newspaper reading habit naturally changed from "Little Daily" to "Le Meritorious News". This was not only because it was the military's own newspaper, but also because it was professional.

At the same time, Charles did not have to worry about the "Le Merit" squeezing out the sales of the "Little Daily" and causing Stead's dissatisfaction.

"The Meritorious Service Report" is a military newspaper. If you have any complaints, you have the guts to get angry at the military!

…

Steed just laughed it off and didn't take it to heart at all.

At that time, he was planning to expand the production scale of grenades.

"Double the size?" asked the project manager responsible for grenade production.

"No, at least double the size!" Steed said without any hesitation, "The production is 60,000 pieces per day. This is still a conservative estimate!"

"Yes, sir!" The project manager agreed with a shocked look on his face.

Steed had a smile on his face. They thought that 60,000 grenades per day was an astonishing number, but there are millions of people on the front line. On average, 16 people throw one grenade, and all 60,000 grenades can be thrown in one day. .

Once there is a war, grenades will be thrown at the enemy crazily. Each person may throw a few, a dozen, or even dozens of grenades.

Therefore, the production scale of 60,000 pieces per day is already quite conservative, and it will continue to expand depending on the situation.

At this time, the housekeeper Lucas came forward to report: "Sir, Bonnet called just now. He said that the military issued the "Leader of Merit", which caused a serious decline in the sales of "Little Daily" and lost more than 100,000 customers in one day. !”

Steed didn't take this matter to heart. He just replied casually: "I know, Bonnet should think about his own problems!"

Steed was very clear about the problem with "Little Daily". It used cartoons instead of photos. Although this had the advantage of reducing costs and publishing quickly, its weakness was equally obvious: the cartoons were drawn based on imagination and were different from the real thing. A big gap.

If it is difficult for other newspapers to obtain physical information in the first time, or it requires high cost and price to obtain it, "Small Daily News" can indeed occupy the advantage of being first and cheap.

But what if...

The opponent is a military newspaper with an official background such as "The Meritorious Service". Its reporters can easily obtain information and even physical photos that are not available to the outside world. The advantage of the "Small Daily News" will disappear or even become a weakness. "The Meritorious Service News" will A crushing blow to it.

"Sir!" Lucas leaned closer and lowered his voice and said, "Bonnett thinks this is probably the joint military of the Shire..."

Steed interrupted Lucas with a "hmm", he frowned slightly and said with dissatisfaction: "Tell Bonnet, don't think nonsense, do you understand?"

"Understood!" Lucas responded.

He turned around to send a message, but was stopped by Steed again.

Steed stared at Lucas with a cautious look: "Tell Bonnet, there is only the military, not the Ciel!"

Steed tapped his finger heavily on the table and emphasized again: "No Ciel! Let him keep his mouth shut!"

"Yes, sir!"

Steed actually knew that Charles was involved, and that Charles was building his own power and voice. He was not stupid.

But compared to the grenade and the huge benefits that might be in the future, what was the "Little Journal"?

Even if Charles asked to give him the "Little Journal", Steed would not frown and immediately offer it with both hands!

As for the voice... Steed knew that Saint-Etienne's voice and strength had long been out of sync.

The voice should be based on strength, otherwise the voice is empty.

What if the "Little Journal" has a million sales every day? It still cannot control the production rights of future rifles. It was easily handed over to the United States under the pressure of the parliament.

Steed understood that what cannot be obtained on the battlefield will never be obtained at the negotiation table. The struggle between parties is the same.

Now, between strength and voice, Steed chose strength without hesitation.

When there is enough strength to survive and develop in the future, it will make sense to consider the voice at that time.

Steed quietly lit a cigar, and in the smoke he carefully considered a question: Will Charles grow into a formidable opponent like Schneider in the future?

No, he will be more formidable than Schneider. He is a genius in both equipment development and battlefield command, and no one will be able to defeat him in the future!

A wiser choice...

Instead of competing with Charles and becoming his enemy, you should become his supporter, a firm supporter!

Thanks to Du Nai Lai for the reward, thank you very much!