Chapter 494: Chapter 494: Cooperation
Antwerp Airport.
Shire glanced at the BAR design sketch left by Browning for a while, then threw it to Tijani.
"It’s yours." Shire said.
"What?" Tijani stared blankly at Shire, not understanding what he meant.
"Didn’t you complain that your troops don’t have submachine guns?" Shire stood up and made himself a cup of coffee: "This rifle can be prioritized for your troops."
Tijani’s eyes instantly lit up: "Is this, is this real?"
This was a surprise. He originally thought this new gun would also be equipped for armored troops first before the mechanized troops, as armored troops need to charge at the forefront and fight tough battles.
"Of course it’s real." Shire stirred his coffee and sat back at the table, with a tone of slight disdain: "Do you think it’s a good thing?"
"Of course, General." Tijani nodded heavily with the treasure-like sketch in hand: "It’s definitely a good thing!"
Shire casually asked: "Tell me your understanding of it, how do you plan to equip your troops?"
Tijani stared at the sketch for a while, then said slowly:
"I think we should choose physically excellent soldiers to use it."
"One rifle per squad, or maybe two."
"I’m not sure, we need to try it out first after getting the gun."
Shire nodded, Tijani’s understanding was quite correct, he did not blindly say: "I want everyone to use this gun, use it to eliminate all rifles!"
This idea was tempting.
Imagine the scene: a barrage of automatic rifles crazily firing at the enemy, the enemy positions covered with flying bullets.
But the reality was most soldiers couldn’t handle this gun.
The heavy gun body, the recoil during continuous firing, and at least 200 rounds of ammunition, all of which would cause great trouble for the soldiers using it.
(Note: A standard load of cartridges for a bolt-action rifle is around 100 rounds, but the BAR is an automatic rifle. Opening fire with it, even 200 rounds might not be enough for a battle. Modern automatic rifles usually need to carry 300 rounds.)
A guard came in and reported: "General, Mr. Browning and Mr. Bo Yata are back again. They wish to see you."
Shire nodded, unfazed as he continued to sip his coffee.
"You seem to know they would come back?" Tijani looked at Shire with suspicion.
Shire gently shook his head. He didn’t know this, but he knew why Browning came back.
The moment Shire saw the sketch, he should at least think for a while or ask a few questions, making Browning suspicious.
Sure enough, Browning quickly walked to Shire, gasping for breath and asked: "General, you... you know about this gun, don’t you?"
Shire hadn’t figured out how to respond.
"I mean." Browning explained: "You also thought about designing a similar gun, right?"
Shire was stunned and nodded along with the situation: "You can say so, Mr. Browning. I indeed thought about it, but you were faster, you even made a prototype."
Browning laughed heartily: "I knew it, I knew it!"
Saying this, he pulled up a stool and sat in front of Shire, his movements smooth and natural as if chatting with an old friend.
Bo Yata was shocked. How could he be so casual in front of the General?
Just about to remind him, Shire stopped him with a look.
Browning, completely unaware of Bo Yata’s little action, sat down and eagerly said:
"General, I was actually inspired by you, specifically by ’Saint-Étienne 2’."
"Since I can think of this, you certainly can too."
"After all, you transformed the heavy machine gun into a light machine gun, giving it better mobility."
What Browning said was somewhat abstract, disjointed, and logically messy, but Shire understood, he went along with it:
"Oh, yes."
"Since a heavy machine gun can be converted to a light machine gun, a light machine gun can be converted to a rifle."
"Hence the BAR!"
Browning laughed excitedly again, the laugh loud and unpleasant, like a pig’s squeal:
"I thought the same; incredible, such a coincidence!"
"But it’s not surprising, is it? Because it’s a development trend."
"We just saw its trend!"
Browning naturally used "we", considering Shire as like-minded.
Nobody knew how lonely someone like Browning was, nor how hard it was for him to find someone with similar interests and chat even a bit.
But Shire didn’t respond, he quietly looked at Browning.
"Is something wrong?" The smile on Browning’s face gradually turned to puzzlement.
Then Browning suddenly realized:
"You know something, don’t you? Something different from what I thought!"
"Yes, I knew it."
"Although I was ahead with execution, you were ahead in thinking. You know how to avoid BAR’s flaws."
Shire agreed, otherwise, Browning would consider it disrespectful and an insult to his intelligence.
"But I can’t tell you, Mr. Browning." Shire said directly: "Because of many reasons."
Browning nodded understandingly: "I see, General, it’s your creativity, belongs to France, and I..."
He turned to look at Bo Yata standing behind him, a trace of helplessness in his eyes: "I belong to FN, to Belgium."
Browning sighed softly:
"You’re right; you shouldn’t tell me the answer."
"I’m sorry, I just... I just wanted to know."
Shire nodded understandingly. It was a thirst for knowledge, not a malicious theft.
What they didn’t know was that Bo Yata, standing behind Browning, immediately felt cold like falling into an ice cellar after hearing these words.
This was no good, Bo Yata thought.
Anyone could see Shire was Browning’s best partner; putting their thoughts together would certainly design the world’s best gun.
More seriously, they... they empathize with each other like old friends!
Although they had just met and had a significant age difference, they could magically think alike.
I can’t be an obstacle between them, Bo Yata thought, otherwise FN would definitely lose Browning, no doubt.
Thinking this, Bo Yata hurriedly stepped forward to persuade: "No, no, I think these are not problems, General."
Then Bo Yata looked at Browning: "I have a suggestion!"
"What?" Shire asked, although he could guess a bit.
"Why don’t we cooperate?" Bo Yata said excitedly: "FN and ’Saint-Étienne’ cooperate, we have a common enemy, we both hope to produce the best equipment, we both have..."
Bo Yata waved at both, meaning both sides have excellent firearm designers.
Browning’s eyes instantly lit up, it indeed was a good suggestion.
But soon, his excitement quickly dimmed, he self-deprecatingly laughed and said to Bo Yata: "No, Jonathan, the General doesn’t need us to achieve his goals, he has no need to cooperate with us."
Browning shrugged bitterly, he had never been so humble.
Bo Yata thought for a moment and found it to be true, Shire had creativity and "Saint-Étienne" arsenal to realize it, why cooperate with FN?
What they didn’t know was Shire actually found it profitable.
Because it could more thoroughly control Belgium’s military industry, gain Browning’s talent, and obtain FN’s production capacity.
Just need to share the profits, why not?