I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France

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Darius was stunned for a moment, then he laughed, glancing at his empty left sleeve and confidently answered, "I don't have higher aspirations, Colonel!"

Shire did not argue much, he calmly asked, "You should know about my passive position in the parliament, right?"

"Of course." Darius nodded, then cursed indignantly, "Those foolish guys, they're always being manipulated by the capitalists. If it wasn't for your repeated demonstrations of strength on the battlefield, they might still be spending money to buy more of that useless equipment!"

Darius was referring to the Saint Chammon and CA-1 Tank.

It's well known that the capitalists repeatedly used the parliament to defeat Shire's tanks, yet actual combat repeatedly proved that Shire's tanks were what the battlefield needed.

Darius and these old soldiers had a deeper understanding of this:

The capitalists controlled the parliament to buy this equipment to make money, but the cost was paid by the soldiers fighting on the front lines. Thousands of soldiers lost their lives or became disabled because of the capitalists' mistakes, yet the capitalists did not bear any responsibility for their errors.

Shire nodded, "If we let this continue, it will keep happening over and over again."

Darius agreed, the capitalists would not give up any chance to make money. For example, even now, the proven useless and even dubbed "mobile coffins" Saint Chammon and CA-1 are still receiving orders.

After hesitating for a while, Darius asked in confusion, "But what can I do?"

Then Darius seemed to understand, "I got it, I'll organize a protest march tomorrow. We need to make them hear the voices of us veterans and make them understand this is wrong..."

"No, Captain." Shire interrupted Darius, "They won't pay attention to those voices, they might even send troops to suppress it and blame it on me."

Darius fell silent.

Although it was absurd, it was indeed a fact. Because the veterans survived with Shire's help, people would naturally think the protest was organized by Shire.

Shire revealed the crux, "What I want is someone to speak for the veterans and frontline soldiers in the House of Representatives!"

Darius was instantly petrified.

He had considered a few possibilities, but never thought that Shire was giving him such a high position.

"Young Master Shire," Darius was so nervous that he could hardly speak, stammering, "That means, we have to establish a political party..."

"You have to establish a political party!" Shire emphasized.

Darius suddenly realized, Shire's military status did not allow him to participate in politics, unless he left the military like the Bourgeoisie.

"Yes, yes." Darius swallowed hard, "I, of course I. I will establish a political party."

Then Darius said with difficulty, "But, Young Master Shire. I, I might not be suitable, no one will listen to me, I don't have any influence, no one would follow me..."

Shire didn't answer, he just nodded towards the factory outside the window.

Darius immediately understood: It didn't matter if he had no influence, Shire had it. He just needed to organize those who supported Shire.

Thinking of this, Darius gradually became more confident, and his speech returned to normal, with a hint of excitement, "This might be a good idea, Young Master Shire. There are too many people who support you, not just in the orphanages, many citizens also admire you, we should organize them to do the right thing!"

Then Darius nodded affirmatively, "Yes, that's what we should do! We can't let those foolish, greedy capitalists manipulate us. If this continues, France will be completely corrupted by these parasites sooner or later. We must stand up and fight for our rightful power!"

The more he spoke, the angrier he got, "The frontline soldiers can't even decide what equipment to use, they have to use what the capitalists forcibly impose on them and pay with their lives just because the capitalists want to make money. It's ridiculous! We must stop them!"

Shire nodded secretly, he knew that Darius had the potential to participate in politics.

"I have nothing to do with this." Shire whispered, "This is the veterans' own decision."

"Of course." Darius nodded affirmatively, "In fact, the veterans have been discussing this, and I was inspired by them to decide to form a political party."

He spoke confidently and firmly, even Shire almost believed it was true.

After that, Shire did not stay in the factory.

With a new party about to be born, Shire thought it was better to keep his distance to avoid suspicion. Although everyone knew what was going on, at least procedurally everything was above board.

There was no law stating that Darius couldn't form a political party or participate in politics, nor any law stating that the party leader couldn't take Shire's "advice," and there was no law stating that the party members couldn't be Shire's supporters.

The reason for doing this was that Shire was very clear, in order to overpower Schneider in the House of Representatives, relying solely on capitalists like Steed and Wells was far from enough.

They had a relationship of mutual benefit with Shire.

One day, as long as Schneider offered more tempting benefits, they would unhesitatingly side with Schneider.

Among them, Steed's connection was tighter, because if things continued this way, almost everything produced by the Saint Étienne arsenal would be tied to the industrial property owned by Shire, and Schneider would almost never be able to offer more tempting benefits.

Wells's shipyard, however, was different. Its shipbuilding industry was closely linked to Schneider's steel forging, so Shire had to be cautious.

No matter the situation, relying on oneself rather than others was always the truth, seeking others' support was ultimately not a solution.

As for whether Darius would one day fly solo after growing powerful, Shire didn't think it was necessary to worry.

The reason was simple, the party was founded based on Shire, and its members were all Shire's supporters.

If one day Darius really had such an idea, he would soon realize that the result of flying solo would be truly "flying solo."

Shire's thinking seemed somewhat ruthless, he had to abandon all emotional considerations and think purely from the perspective of interests and every ally. Even an admirer like Darius, who could be considered a "confidant," was no exception.

This included Lucia and the "Lady in White."

But Shire had to do this because he understood that politics had no room for emotions, it was only about interests, naked interests.