Chapter 51: Bargaining for a Good Price

The morning light was bright and the autumn wind was just right.

Grevi and Armand rode tall horses in tight hunting suits and carried double-barreled hunting rifles in the exclusive forest farm.

The servants lined up at the other end, holding the hunting dogs and trotting forward. Their task was to drive the prey to the area in front of the two for their entertainment.

"This may be the last hunting this year, Armand!" Grevi skillfully controlled the horse to step on the withering leaves on both sides, and sighed with regret: "Once winter comes, the prey will hide in the nest, and you can't find them even if you dig three feet in the ground!"

Armand rode lazily behind, yawned boredly, and replied: "This is why I prefer bed prey, Grevi! They will be there waiting for me at any time, and let me do whatever I want!"

Grevi laughed, and suddenly a strange sound caught his attention. Grevi quickly stopped laughing and looked at the bushes vigilantly.

An exhausted elk came into view. It was probably tired from running and panting for a rest. Grevi hurriedly controlled the horse to stop, skillfully untied the shotgun and aimed at the target...

Just as Grevi was about to pull the trigger, the sound of horse hooves from far away scared the target away.

Grevi put away the shotgun angrily and cursed "bastard", turned his head and cast his eyes on the servant who came. If it wasn't something important, he would be beaten!

"Mr. Grevi!" The servant took the reins and controlled the horse to stop next to Grevi: "As you expected, Deyoka went to the city hall today to apply for industrial property rights for the sidecar. We were about to discuss the purchase of property rights with them, but someone else got there first!"

Grevi's face sank: "Before someone else? Someone on the left wing?"

"No, Mr. Grevi!" The servant replied: "It was Gallieni. He didn't buy the property rights. He placed an order on behalf of the military!"

Grevi raised his head in shock. If the military placed an order, it would not be easy to buy the property rights.

Armand beside him smiled in a veiled smile. The military placed an order so quickly and bypassed the Senate, which meant that Gallieni had included the sidecar in the wartime procurement regulations. This was the second equipment included in the regulations.

"Galieni is very courageous!" Armand said, "He dares to offend both the left and the right!"

The Saint-Etienne machine gun is the equipment of the left wing, and the sidecar is what the right wing wants, but Gallieni intervened.

Grevy asked expressionlessly, "What is the purchase price? Have you reached an agreement?"

"Yes, sir!" The servant replied, "I heard it was 550 francs!"

Grevy exclaimed, "550 francs, are you sure?"

"Yes, sir!"

Grevy said nothing, pulled the horse's head and galloped towards the villa quickly.

Armand, who was confused, followed him on his horse. He asked loudly on the shaking horse: "What happened, Grevy? Because of the 550 francs?"

"Yes!" Grevy answered in the sound of horse hooves.

"What does this have to do with us?" Armand was puzzled: "Anyway, we didn't buy its property rights!"

"Think about the tank!" Grevy turned his head and answered: "We are planning to sell it to the military at a unit price of 6,000 francs!"

Armand was still confused. In his opinion, tanks and sidecars have nothing to do with each other. They are different things.

"Think about it, Armand!" Grevy explained: "The money for buying a tank can buy 10 sidecars. Which one would you prefer?"

Armand was stunned, and the horse stopped unconsciously and fell far behind.

10 sidecars can be equipped with 10 Maxims, while tanks can only be equipped with one machine gun. Tanks also have many disadvantages such as slow speed and high failure rate. Of course, the military would rather choose 10 sidecars.

Grevy didn't care about Armand. He rode his horse back to the villa at a faster speed. When he reached the door, he jumped down and ran into the house. He dialed the phone as fast as he could and ordered anxiously: "5,000 francs, sign the contract immediately, right now!"

...

The military representative was much more relaxed when he came back, and there was even a hint of a smile on his face.

Francis felt something was wrong, but he pretended to be calm: "You are lucky, Louis, they don't want to waste time, so they plan to give you a unit price of 5,000 francs, sign the contract!"

"Sorry, Francis!" Louis smiled: "Perhaps, a unit price of 3,000 francs is acceptable!"

"This, this is too much!" Francis lost his previous calmness in an instant: "This is an insult to us, this is a tank, Louis, you need it..."

"I know!" Louis interrupted Francis: "But we have a substitute, and it only costs 550 francs!"

Francis instantly understood what was going on. Deyoka, that guy, actually sold the sidecar at a low price of 550 francs!

...

This was something Charles had never expected.

In his opinion, tanks and sidecars should not compete with each other in terms of price.

So, when he heard Deyoka say that the military borrowed sidecars to reduce the price of tanks to 3,000 francs and reached an agreement, he felt a little incredible.

After thinking for a while, Charles understood.

At that time, the army had no concept of armored warfare or mobile warfare. In their eyes, there was probably no difference between tanks and sidecars:

Both were armored, both carried machine guns on the road, and both could inflict heavy casualties with a small force...

Since they are similar, why did the military choose tanks at a high price instead of sidecars that are cheap, fast, and have fewer problems?

Did General Gallieni really not know the difference between the two, or did he pretend not to know to lower the price?

Charles thought Gallieni might not know, after all, tanks had just appeared and there was no combat theory. The same is true for sidecars. They don't know that each has its own advantages and disadvantages and neither can replace the other.

"And this!" Deyoka handed Charles a telegram: "This is from Joseph in the UK. The British agreed to sell the 'Holt 75' production line and provide all technical support, but the price is 500,000 francs!"

Deyoka had a hint of anxiety in his eyes. 500,000 francs was beyond their purchasing power unless they received the money from the military to buy sidecars immediately.

But Charles was not in a hurry. He said calmly: "Let Joseph talk to them about the price again!"

"We have talked about it many times, Charles!" Dejoka looked helpless: "Joseph said he has tried his best, this may be the lowest price given by the British!"

Charles replied softly: "Tell Joseph, 250,000 francs, no higher!"

"This is impossible!" Dejoka looked at Charles in disbelief.

Charles added: "Otherwise, we will wait for the 'Holt 120' to come out and tell the British this!"

Dejoka was stunned, "Holt 120" is coming out?

This means that the "Holt 75" is a product that is about to be eliminated, and the British actually want to sell it at a high price? !