Chapter 359 The Power of Life and Death

Less than half an hour after the bombing, Dejoka appeared in Schneider's VIP room again.

"Mr. James." Dejoka asked: "Have you thought about it? About selling the steel plant!"

James asked expressionlessly: "Do I have any other choice?"

Dejoka smiled and shook his head gently.

If you don't sell it, it will be bombed, and all that will be left is a pile of scrap metal. If you sell it, you can get a sum of money.

So for James, there is no choice of "sell" or "not sell", only whether to sell it for money.

James asked: "How much do you plan to spend on it?"

"Ten million francs." Dejoka gave a price.

"But the Cammond Steel Plant is worth at least thirty million francs." James protested.

The point is that it is still unsalable. It is not only a cash cow, but also a voice.

Dejoka replied calmly: "I believe that no one else will offer this price except me."

James gritted his teeth. Of course, no one else would offer it. Everyone knew that it would be bombed immediately after buying it, unless it was sold to Charles.

"A good idea, Mr. Deyoka." James nodded slightly: "I admire Charles more and more."

"This has nothing to do with Charles, Mr. James." Deyoka replied: "This is a business between me and you."

James laughed.

It really has nothing to do with Charles. Deyoka is taking care of the business, while Charles is busy saving France. There is no necessary connection between the two, although everyone knows what is going on.

"What if I would rather lose 10 million francs?" James took out a cigar from his pocket and lit it. He did not share one with Deyoka. There was a faint smell of gunpowder in the air.

This may be a good choice, James thought. He doesn't need the 10 million francs, although it is not a small amount.

But if it can delay the development of Charles, it is worth it.

However, Deyoka shrugged indifferently: "You can choose this, Mr. James. But I believe Mr. Wendel will not think so."

The cigar that James was about to put in his mouth stopped in mid-air.

For Schneider, not selling only means losing 10 million francs.

But the Windel family has more than a dozen steel mills of various sizes there, and even if it is purchased at a low price of 10 million francs, it is worth hundreds of millions of francs.

Will Windel be willing to throw this money into the water?

What's more, the competition between Windel and Charles, which is not involved in the military industry, is not so fierce. For Windel, it doesn't matter who controls the military industry, as long as he buys his steel.

Schneider suddenly found that he was a chess piece in Charles's hand.

Charles killed him to scare Windel's monkey. What Charles really wanted was the steel mill in Windel's hands.

So, even if James insisted on not selling, he could not achieve the goal of delaying Charles' development.

The look in Djoka's eyes when he looked at James seemed to indicate this point. He seemed to say: 10 million francs are in front of you, just say whether you want it or not!

After thinking for a while, James finally sighed dejectedly: "You win, Mr. Djoka!"

...

In the riverside villa, Wells was thinking about problems in the river breeze, rocking chair and sunshine as usual.

The progress of the torpedo was very smooth. The initial test showed that its maximum range had reached four kilometers, but the last two hundred meters was barely completed by relying on inertia after the fuel was exhausted.

But this was already a qualitative leap. Wells believed that Charles would provide a better solution to further increase the range in the future.

On the other hand, the research and development of wire-guided torpedoes was also initially successful. They have already equipped the 3MM wire with the torpedo with a range of four kilometers.

"Initially" means that after the wire is equipped, the torpedo can only travel at a low speed, otherwise the wire will be torn off.

The next step is to try to continue to reduce the wire diameter and increase its toughness. These are just a matter of time.

(Note: The wire diameter of modern wire-guided torpedoes is usually less than 1.2 mm, and the longest can reach 46 kilometers)

However, Wells was not happy at all.

If this continues, will Charles still buy his account?

What will happen if Charles chooses to completely abandon Wells and its shipyard?

Wire-guided torpedoes, landing ships, landing craft, and depth charges used to bomb submarines, all these industrial property rights are in Charles' hands.

Losing all this means that the shipyard will fall into darkness again.

This is a torment for Wells.

If he had always been in the dark, Wells would not have been so entangled.

But now he has seen the light, and it would be more painful for him to retreat to that dark, damp, and boring corner than to kill him.

However, Wells had to do it.

Because choosing Charles would really kill him!

In a trance, Tijani pushed the door in with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. Those were Wells' favorite tulips. Tijani walked to the desk and changed them for Wells.

"What?" Wells asked without turning his head: "Another holiday today? It seems that you are quite free recently!"

"No, I just stopped by to see you." Tijani replied.

Wells "snorted" and looked out the window. He would rather believe that the river would flow back than believe that Tijani would come to see him.

Tijani didn't care about Wells's indifference. He seemed to have gotten used to it.

Tijani threw the withered flowers into the trash can, clapped his hands, and walked up to Wells, as if talking about something insignificant: "Did you hear? We bombed the steel plant."

Wells said "hmm". He only knew about this after reading the newspaper this morning.

What a waste of resources. Two steel mills were burned to ashes!

Wells waited for a while but saw nothing. He turned his head and looked at Tijani in confusion: "You came here to tell me this?"

"Almost!" Tijani replied: "You should know that it was done by Charles."

"So what?" Wells smiled lightly: "You mean, Charles holds the power of life and death over those steel mills?"

This was just a joke, but Tijani nodded lightly: "You guessed it!"

Wells was stunned, and then cast a half-believing and half-doubting look at Tijani: "You mean, Charles used this to force James to compromise?"

Tijani stopped playing dumb with Wells. He replied: "Charles just bought the Camonde Steel Plant not long ago, oh no, it was Deyoka."

Wells looked at Tijani in astonishment. This was a good thing, although it was a steel plant located in the German-controlled area.

But as long as the French army wins, he can have both "survival" and "future"!

Tijani smiled and continued: "There are also two steel mills in Wendel that are under negotiation. The reason why Deyoka does not plan to buy more is to avoid too much competition with Wendel."