Brooklyn, the Silver Rock Arms Factory.
On the newly expanded testing grounds, a stern, meticulous man stared ahead with a solemn expression.
Just then, Liu Ren, rifle raised, pulled the trigger in rapid succession.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Garand roared, shattering target after target downrange. But seeing his final few shots miss completely, Liu Ren's expression turned awkward. His marksmanship was clearly lacking.
Sensing something, the man spoke in fluent German. "May I give it a try?"
An interpreter hurried to translate for Liu Ren. "Boss, Mr. Hans would like to test the rifle himself!"
"Of course, no problem!" Liu Ren replied with a broad smile, handing the Garand rifle over to him.
Gripping the rifle, Hans inspected it with practiced ease. Watching his movements, Liu Ren knew at once that the man had military experience.
Hans pulled back the bolt, picked up an en-bloc clip from the side, loaded the weapon, and aimed at the distant targets that had already been set up.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Pulling the trigger repeatedly, he emptied the clip in an instant, followed by a crisp *ping* as the empty clip ejected.
"Excellent! This weapon meets every single one of our requirements!" Hans said excitedly, looking at Liu Ren with a beaming smile.
After all, no one understood better than they did just how fierce the arms race had become, or what kind of difference a semi-automatic rifle could make on the battlefield.
Hearing Hans's praise, Liu Ren smiled warmly. "I'm glad you like it. The Silver Rock Group exists to satisfy our clients' needs, after all!"
"Very good. May I ask what your monthly production capacity is?" Hans inquired happily.
"Within a month, our production line can turn out five thousand rifles!" Liu Ren replied with a serious face.
Long before manufacturing the Garand, he had anticipated the need to expand production lines, so the factory had been running at full capacity all along. A truly good rifle never lacked buyers.
"Five thousand? That is far too few. We have enormous demand, as you should understand!" Hans immediately voiced his dissatisfaction.
What could five thousand rifles a month accomplish? That was barely enough to equip a single brigade!
During the early stages of World War I, they had mobilized two million soldiers, a figure that swelled to six and a half million in the later stages. As for why the Gallic rooster had fallen so flat in World War II, even surrendering before the enemy occupied Paris—it was because an entire generation had been wiped out during the First World War. Fully 1.24 million had died, with casualties reaching three to four million. That was why the once-glorious French nation had gone from a proud rooster to a battered hen; the two world wars had completely depleted their population.
Did Liu Ren feel any heartache selling Garands to Germany? Of course not—what did that have to do with him? As a proper capitalist, his concern was expanding production lines and ramping up output, not praying for the poor souls in Europe or worrying whether they would make it home after the war.
The immense wealth extracted from this war would be used to upgrade the Silver Rock Arms Factory, preparing for the upcoming World War II and providing aid to his homeland. If necessary, Liu Ren would even enlist in person and charge all the way to Tokyo alongside the Navy!
Liu Ren: *Fight, fight, fight!*
Orc Beastman: *Waaagh! Fightin' feels good!*
"What about your inventory? How many do you have in stock right now?" Hans asked bluntly, cutting through any unnecessary chatter.
Looking at Hans, Liu Ren turned his head and murmured a question to John, then stated the actual figure: "Forty thousand!"
"Excellent! We'll take them all!" Hans beamed, thrilled to hear that the available stock far exceeded his expectations.
Seeing him agree so readily, Liu Ren said in mild surprise, "We haven't even discussed the price yet."
"No need for such fuss. You sign, I agree! Money is no object!"
Hans looked at Liu Ren with a wide smile, already imagining the praise he would receive upon returning home. After all, what soldier wouldn't love a lightweight, reliable rifle that delivered tremendous firepower and was easy to repair if damaged?
***
Two days later, in the conference room where the contract was to be formally signed, Lauren made an appearance as the "boss behind the scenes."
Both sides engaged in fluent conversation, wearing warm smiles.
With production costs sitting below twenty-five dollars, Liu Ren jacked the price up to eighty dollars a rifle. Even then, the deal was struck only after Lauren had "painstakingly" pleaded the case—making it seem as though Liu Ren was taking a massive loss on the transaction.
The payment process, however, proved rather complicated. Germany was temporarily unable to produce 3.4 million US dollars in cash and had to settle through alternative means.
Taking advantage of this, Liu Ren demanded armament patents held by Schneider Arms and Krupp.
Hans noted that this would require internal consultation.
The negotiations dragged on for half a month, eventually drawing representatives from Schneider Arms and Krupp into the room. After extensive bargaining, an agreement on the patents was reached, though Liu Ren still had to pay nearly a million dollars to balance the deal.
Even so, it was entirely worth it. With these technologies in hand, he could replicate the artillery pieces of Schneider and Krupp! As for taking things further, he would merely need to recruit the right specialists to make improvements. After all, Schneider and Krupp certainly wouldn't hand over their latest research to Liu Ren, but even slightly dated technology was vastly better than groping blindly in the dark.
***
A few days later, when the first payment of 1.4 million dollars cleared into the account, Liu Ren was already raising a glass of champagne alongside Lauren and the others in celebration.
Not only had they made a fortune from the deal, but they had also secured crucial artillery technologies.
Looking at Liu Ren, Lauren clapped him on the shoulder. "Liu, you're an absolute genius! My God, nobody expected you to actually pull this off!"
"Success was only natural. After all, we make the best rifle in the world!" Liu Ren laughed heartily, brimming with excitement.
Just then, Lundin frowned from the side. "What if they reverse-engineer the Garand's technology?"
"Isn't that to be expected?" Liu Ren replied with a grin, giving a light shrug.
The technical threshold of the Garand rifle wasn't exceedingly high; they had simply seized the initiative. Besides, their buyer was Germany. Making a massive profit on this initial sale was already a triumph. The Germans had bought such a large quantity simply to arm their forces as quickly as possible. Liu Ren didn't believe for a second that the high command in Germany was foolish enough not to dismantle and copy the weapon once they had it.
They were clever, but he was no fool either. Now that the Germans had bought it, wouldn't France be in grave danger without it?
So, raising a hand wasn't an apology—it meant they still had a lot to learn!
Listening to Liu Ren lay out his plan, Lauren and the others fell completely silent.
While they had still been basking in the joy of this deal, Liu Ren had already locked onto his next target.
As for whether Germany would throw a fit when they found out, Liu Ren didn't care. They were tearing his rifle apart without paying a dime in patent fees, so not heading over to Berlin to scatter a handful of Orc Beastman spores was already polite enough on his part!
Besides, who wasn't a bit underhanded these days? If you're going to play dirty first, and I don't hit back twice as hard, wouldn't that make me a total fool?
Chapter 30