I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 99: Revised - The Brilliance of "Little Daily

Lauren drove Shire back home and then drove alone to the factory. On the way, he pondered whether to strengthen the defense around Shire’s house.

Also, it’s time to clear out those anti-capitalist guys in the guard battalion!

If Colonel Durand could be used by the capitalists as a tool to persecute Shire, then these guys in the guard battalion could certainly become "unstable elements."

The general at the headquarters no longer pretends, and there seems to be no need to keep pretending in the guard battalion either. Keeping these "unstable elements" is always a hidden danger; they should be decisively transferred away!

Just as he was thinking, suddenly a car came driving against the sun; Lauren quickly turned the steering wheel and hit the brakes to avoid it, narrowly missing and causing his car to stall. Major Lauren was about to get angry, but the other driver started cursing first: "Look at the road, you idiot!"

Lauren turned his head and his eyes followed the gradually disappearing car; it didn’t take much effort to recognize that it was Pierre of Francis’s family, Shire’s uncle.

Surely, this guy had spent the whole night playing in Paris and was just now returning home.

Lauren then remembered about the conscription recommendation that Shire had suggested two days ago. Lauren had been under house arrest and didn’t have time to deal with it, almost forgetting. He didn’t expect this guy to bring himself right into the line of fire!

Lauren raised his eyebrows, took the crank, started the car, and drove back onto the road.

Once at the factory, Lauren immediately called the conscription office:

"Hello, this is Major Lauren from the City Defense Headquarters!"

"Check on someone. I want to know if his exemption is forged!"

"Pierre Bernard from Lava Town!"

"You know, the military is currently lacking soldiers, and the phenomenon of evading conscription with forged documents is increasingly serious. We plan to catch a few typical cases!"

"Yes, urgent!"

...

Major Lauren had been in the military for years; he knew how to speak to get their attention.

After hanging up, Major Lauren suddenly felt that he didn’t need to kick out the anti-capitalist guards. After all, they had been following him for years and stood by him after his propaganda. Their loyalty wasn’t a problem; they were just a bit dull.

If he transferred them to other units or sent them to the battlefield, it would be unfair to them. Lauren wasn’t that heartless.

They were still useful, for example... sending them to "protect" Francis’s factory. After all, Francis’s tractor factory produced tanks, which also required monitoring and special attention.

Lauren lit a cigarette, puffed out a cloud of smoke, and muttered, "Everything is under control!"

...

In Lava Town, the reporters surrounding Shire’s house suddenly drove away disgruntled. One moment, they were eagerly crowding, the next, they vanished without a trace.

Camille and Dejoka were baffled. Did something else happen?

They were now somewhat neurotic from Shire’s antics. After what just happened, even if Shire told them he had traveled back from a hundred years in the future, they wouldn’t doubt it.

It didn’t take long for them to find out the answer...

As soon as the reporters left, neighbors gathered one after another:

"Mr. Dejoka, we heard that young master Shire saved Antwerp? He’s incredible!"

"Yes, he went to Antwerp alone without even a guard and defeated the Germans!"

"I heard he also received a Kingdom Crown Medal, the highest honor in Belgium!"

...

Dejoka opened the door and asked in confusion, "How do you know?"

Someone raised the Little Daily: "It’s all written in the newspaper! You don’t know?"

Dejoka rushed over and said, "Sorry, can I have a copy?"

"Of course!" The neighbors handed him newspapers.

"This one..."

"And this one, it’s from yesterday!"

"This one’s from the day before yesterday!"

...

Dejoka was shocked looking at the three newspapers of different dates, which completely recorded Shire’s every move in Belgium.

This was the brilliance of the Little Daily.

While the media was controlled, the Little Daily had been following Shire’s actions in Belgium and printing an extra newspaper each day.

Control?

No issue, all those newspapers stored in the warehouse wouldn’t be distributed.

Controlled as many days as stored days, Bonnet knew these newspapers would sell without trouble, just wasting a bit of warehouse space.

Once the military lifted the control, Bonnet instantly flooded the market with all the stored newspapers, covering every detail from start to finish, complete with imagined cartoon pictures.

Meanwhile, other newspaper reporters were still lingering at Shire’s house, frustrated at the lack of interview opportunities.

This was why reporters suddenly left; once Little Daily hit the market, interviews became meaningless. Everything was covered by Little Daily; if one wanted to know anything, they just needed to buy the newspaper!

Bonnet thus became a life’s winner, and the circulation of Little Daily doubled, becoming a sought-after publication.

The French people went crazy from Shire’s huge success in Antwerp; his heroic deeds were praised everywhere in Belgium.

This was different from saving France; Shire brought glory to the country from Belgium, single-handedly overshadowing the British army of more than ten thousand. They were insignificant compared to Shire, their only commendable act being freeing the imprisoned Shire.

All of France basked in pride, people proudly saying, "See, this is the power of France!"

But the contents of the newspaper frightened Dejoka and Camille.

Dejoka read the paper with difficulty: "Three ’Big Berthas,’ German heavy artillery, caliber... 420 mm!"

Camille instinctively measured her waist with a tape, 581 mm.

"My God!" She exclaimed, "That gun barrel is nearly at my waist!"

"No, Camille!" Dejoka, knowing more about the military, answered, "420 mm is the inner diameter, adding the thick barrel, it could be 600 mm!"

Camille turned pale with fear; such a large heavy artillery, unheard of! But they were destroyed by Shire, three of them!

The airship details were even more astonishing; the newspaper gave the approximate data: length 144 meters, diameter 25 meters, a speed of 75.6 km/h.

"Did I misread, 144 meters?" Dejoka looked at the newspaper incredulously, "Did they miss a decimal point?"

Camille, having no concept of length, hesitated and asked, "How far is 144 meters?"

Dejoka thought for a moment and answered, "From the town entrance to our house, that’s about the distance!"

Camille was stunned, then angrily and fearfully said, "They made Shire face such a monster? Such a colossal thing, flying in the sky!"

People using military equipment wouldn’t deeply consider which equipment was more important or harder to deal with; they’d just see which was larger and more intimidating!

"The point is Shire is back!" Dejoka comforted, "Shire defeated them, and he’s upstairs now!"

But this didn’t stop Camille from wanting to hold the military accountable; she believed this could prevent similar incidents from happening again.