Chapter 172 This Is a Cannon

Meeting room at the Ritz Hotel in central Paris.

It was still rainy and cold outside, but the stove inside was warm and comfortable.

Steed arrived at the conference room half an hour early to wait.

Today was Halloween. He walked to the window and smoked a cigar while watching with interest the pumpkin lanterns lit on the street below.

An interesting picture popped up in Steed's mind unconsciously: Ciel took other children to knock on the door and shouted at the owner: "Trick or treat if you don't give me candy!".

If so, I wonder how the owner would react?

He was probably so stunned that he even forgot to give him candy!

At this time, Steed saw a black Ford Model T car approaching the hotel door. He realized that it might be Djoka and Charles's car, and he quickly put out his cigar and opened the curtains to ventilate.

This was Steed's first meeting with Ciel, and he didn't want to leave a bad impression on Ciel.

Then Steed became nervous. He didn't know whether he should sit and wait, stand at the door, or go out to greet him.

In the end, he decided to sit back on the chair and pretended to know nothing. Suddenly he felt uncomfortable all over, and he didn't know where to put his hands and feet.

Soon, Charles and Djoka arrived.

The housekeeper opened the door from the outside, and Djoka politely called Steed, who looked strange, "Mr. Steed, I kept you waiting!"

As if he was receiving an amnesty, Steed hurriedly stood up and shook hands with Djoka. He was inexplicably excited when shaking hands with Charles: "I've heard about you for a long time, Charles, I'm glad to see you!"

"Nice to meet you, sir!" Charles replied calmly. He glanced at Steed, with some doubts on his face.

Charles didn't understand why Steed looked a little nervous. As the owner of Saint-Etienne, he should have seen big things and big scenes. What was so special about such an occasion? !

Steed looked at Charles for a while before reacting. He said "uh" and walked to the conference room. He warmly invited the two of them to sit down and said, "I'm sorry, I just officially met with my partner today. You know , this is out of caution!”

"I understand, Mr. Steed!" Charles replied.

Charles has a military background. Of course, he must avoid suspicion when meeting Steed, a capitalist, just like Gallieni secretly met Charles before. Otherwise, it will easily be seen as military-business collusion.

This is why Gallieni can discuss the price of grenades with Charles and place an order, but on the surface he is trading with Saint-Etienne.

Everyone understands what is going on, but it is necessary to do this procedurally to avoid giving others clues.

The butler served coffee to several people, and it turned out to be Algerian style.

Charles smiled softly when he smelled the fragrance. He knew that this might be Steed making a mistake when asking about his preferences, mistaking Francis's favorite flavor for Charles's.

Steed added two pieces of sugar to the coffee, stirred it gently with a small spoon, and looked at Charles expectantly: "I have a heartfelt request, Charles. I hope our cooperation project will be successful." Just a grenade!"

Charles pretended to be confused: "But I don't have any other projects, sir..."

"I mean the future!" Steed said, "If you think of anything in the future!"

Then Steed added: "Like a grenade, or something else. I hope you will only contact me, Charles! I will also give you a contract like a grenade!"

Charles replied calmly: "Such a cooperation obviously cannot be a contract. If it is just a verbal commitment, do you think it makes sense?"

"Of course!" Steed nodded seriously.

If it was someone else's verbal promise, Steed certainly knew that it would be meaningless, but Ciel was different, even if it was just a verbal promise.

Steed needed Charles to give him an attitude, otherwise he would be always on tenterhooks, worried that Charles would hand another invention into the hands of others, which would be a fatal blow to Saint-Etienne.

Djoka understood the meaning of Steed's words. He looked at Charles with a hint of anxiety, as if to say, this is Saint-Etienne, why are you hesitating?

But Charles did not reply in a hurry. He took a sip of coffee and said calmly: "Mr. Steed, the military recently plans to purchase 105MM artillery pieces from Schneider. Have you heard about this?"

"Yes." Steed nodded: "M1913 cannon."

Schneider has always had the ability to produce large-caliber artillery, but because the 75-meter gun was so successful, the military was only willing to equip the 75-meter gun and sweep all other artillery into the trash.

Therefore, Schneider had no choice but to produce the M1910 cannon and export it to Russia.

Afterwards, Schneider tried to win orders from the French military and improved it into the M1913 model, but the military was still not interested and only purchased a few symbolically for testing.

Steed looked at Charles in confusion: "But we can't stop Schneider. The military needs this artillery, and we..."

Steed said with a little embarrassment on his face. Saint-Etienne has always been producing light weapons and cannot compete with Schneider in terms of heavy equipment, especially artillery.

"I know we can't change anything." Charles replied: "In any case, the military will purchase this artillery with a range of 12 kilometers to gradually replace the 75-gun."

This is a shortcoming of the army's equipment. They need to use the M1913 to suppress the German artillery. The shortcomings of the 75-meter gun's insufficient range have made them intolerable on the battlefield.

"But..." Charles changed the subject: "I think the soldiers on the front line have other needs, but the military has not discovered them yet."

"What do you mean?" Steed didn't understand.

Charles turned his eyes to Djoka, who understood and immediately took out a document from his briefcase and handed it over.

Steed turned on the desk lamp and flipped through the document under the orange light, then stared at Charles with wide eyes, and then couldn't wait to turn his eyes to the document again and read it carefully.

"Trenches, sir!" Charles said leisurely: "Everyone has overlooked one point. The soldiers on the front line need to throw explosives into the enemy's trenches, just like grenades."

"But this..." Steed raised his head in confusion: "This is a cannon, Charles!"

"Yes, it is indeed a cannon!" Charles nodded: "But it is a cannon for soldiers on the front line. Imagine, when both the enemy and us are throwing grenades into each other's trenches, what will happen in the end?"

Steed suddenly realized.

Both the enemy and us are throwing grenades, and we will definitely hope to throw them farther, so that we can blow up the enemy while the enemy cannot blow up us.

But human arm strength is limited after all, and they will eventually need a cannon, a short-range and indirect fire cannon, which can help them throw the "grenade" into the enemy's trench, a long distance away.

After figuring this out, Steed's eyes lit up instantly. He held the document in his hand as if he had found a treasure, and laughed like a child: "Great, Charles, great! This is what we need, we can compete with Schneider in artillery!"