Chapter 171: The Steadfast Supporter

Chapter 171: The Steadfast Supporter

Cobb's promotional strategies for The Honor Gazette were a huge success on the front lines. With the appeal of headline stories and guidance from frontline officers, the grenade training guide quickly gained traction. Grenades became an indispensable piece of equipment at the front, so much so that returning soldiers felt obliged to boast about having thrown a few grenades at enemy trenches.

The civilian reception of The Honor Gazette was just as enthusiastic. This was largely because it was the only newspaper offering precise, direct reporting from the military. Other papers pieced together battles from limited information, often making speculative guesses. Only The Honor Gazette presented firsthand accounts directly from Charles, with appearances from Gallieni himself to support it. The reports included interviews with officers and soldiers, photos, and personal insights.

In addition to covering the Battle of Lafouques, the newspaper featured key battles such as Ypres, Antwerp, and the Marne. It was like students endlessly debating a difficult problem only to have the teacher finally provide the correct answer—suddenly, everything made sense.

People even began comparing The Honor Gazette with the usual newspaper reports, laughing at the absurdity and inaccuracy of other sources. With just 100,000 copies available to civilians, the paper was snatched up immediately, selling at ten centimes but resold for twenty-five sous on the black market. Many people even treated the first edition as a collector's item.

Seeing this demand, Cobb quickly expanded civilian distribution to 300,000 copies, and then to 500,000 the following day. The supply for the front lines increased from 200,000 to 300,000 copies as well. This nearly reached the output limit of the fifty presses they had bought, requiring two hours of continuous printing to fulfill demand.

Alarmed, Cobb urgently ordered fifty additional presses from various sources.

Working tirelessly at headquarters, Cobb couldn't contain his excitement. "This is madness! Absolutely insane! We just launched and already sold 800,000 copies, and there's still more demand! Le Petit Journal took decades to reach a million in circulation, and we're already close to beating it!"

(Note: Le Petit Journal was founded in February 1863, over fifty years ago.)

In truth, surpassing Le Petit Journal's numbers would be easy—simply by printing more copies for the army, even if it meant incurring losses. But Charles chose not to pursue this. He felt that inflating numbers on paper served no real purpose.

Even Gallieni's morning reading habit had shifted from Le Petit Journal to The Honor Gazette. It wasn't just because it was a military publication but because it provided reliable, specialized information. Meanwhile, Charles didn't have to worry about Steed feeling displeased over any drop in Le Petit Journal's circulation. The Honor Gazette was a military gazette—if anyone had complaints, they'd have to take it up with the military.

...

Steed simply shrugged off the matter with a smile, giving it no further thought. At that time, he was focused on expanding grenade production.

"Double production?" asked the project manager in charge of grenade manufacturing.

"No, at least triple it," Steed replied firmly. "We're looking at a conservative estimate of 60,000 grenades per day."

"Yes, sir!" The project manager responded, visibly shocked.

Steed smirked. They considered 60,000 grenades daily a staggering figure, but with over a million soldiers at the front, they'd use them up quickly if each soldier threw just one grenade every few days. And in times of active combat, soldiers would launch grenades by the handfuls—sometimes even dozens.

Therefore, a daily target of 60,000 grenades was cautious; further expansion might be necessary.

Just then, his butler, Lucas, approached. "Sir, Bonnet just called. He said The Honor Gazette has cut Le Petit Journal's sales drastically, with over 100,000 readers switching overnight."

Steed paid this little attention and casually replied, "Noted. Bonnet should perhaps reflect on the newspaper's own issues."

Steed knew exactly what plagued Le Petit Journal. They relied on illustrations rather than photographs—a cheaper, quicker approach but with clear drawbacks. Illustrations, based on imagination rather than reality, often missed the mark.

If other papers struggled to gather firsthand information quickly or needed to incur significant costs to do so, Le Petit Journal could still boast timeliness and affordability. But if the competitor was The Honor Gazette, with its military backing and access to real-time information and actual photos, Le Petit Journal's advantages would evaporate and even become weaknesses, leaving it crushed under the weight of The Honor Gazette's credibility.

"Sir!" Lucas lowered his voice and stepped closer. "Bonnet believes this might be a collaboration between Charles and the military…"

Steed interrupted with a grunt, frowning slightly. "Tell Bonnet to stop his wild speculations. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Lucas replied.

As Lucas turned to deliver the message, Steed called him back.

With a serious expression, Steed looked directly at Lucas. "Tell Bonnet it's only the military—no Charles."

Steed tapped his fingers heavily on the table and repeated, "No Charles! Make sure he holds his tongue."

"Yes, sir."

In truth, Steed was well aware of Charles's involvement and his moves to build influence and a following of his own. Steed wasn't naive. But compared to the future profits from grenades and other potential ventures, what was Le Petit Journal worth?

Even if Charles asked for the entire paper as a gift, Steed wouldn't hesitate to hand it over.

As for influence… Steed understood that Saint-Étienne's influence and its power were no longer in alignment. Influence should be built on true strength; otherwise, it was hollow.

Le Petit Journal could sell a million copies daily, but what good was it if it couldn't secure future rifle contracts, which were now given away to America under parliamentary pressure?

Steed understood that what couldn't be won on the battlefield could never be won at the negotiating table. The same applied to political struggles.

At this moment, faced with a choice between strength and influence, Steed chose strength without hesitation.

When he had enough power to grow and thrive, only then would pursuing influence be worthwhile.

Steed lit a cigar, silently reflecting through the smoke on one pressing question: Would Charles one day grow into an adversary as formidable as Schneider?

No. He would be even more formidable—a genius of both equipment design and battlefield command, destined to be unrivaled.

The wiser choice…

Would not be to compete with Charles and become his rival but to become his steadfast supporter.

(End of Chapter)

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