Military Exercise Plan

Carnot listened, neither refuting nor immediately expressing support. He knew that the army was the Bonaparte Family's core strength, and they were unlikely to exploit it. However, precisely because the army was the Bonaparte Family's core strength, Joseph and his men certainly wouldn't reduce the soldiers' treatment. Therefore, any reduction in military spending would most likely fall on equipment or training.

After thinking for a moment, Carnot said, "I don't have much to say, just two points."

He paused, then said, "First, when you sell weapons abroad, you absolutely cannot... um, Joseph, I know what you're trying to say. Are you suggesting that the weapons you sell to foreigners are basically counterfeit versions? But do foreigners know they're buying counterfeit versions?"

"How can we let them know?" Joseph said. "Otherwise, the goods won't sell well."

"Then tell me, if they see that they have more than us, and the items seem about the same, do you think they might have some risky ideas? Let me ask you again, are the things you sell them better than what they already have? Is it possible that they might develop the illusion that they have become much stronger?" Carnot asked again.

"That really might happen," Joseph nodded.

"So you see, we have to let them know that the weapons they bought are monkey-made. Compared to ours, the weapons they have are like the difference between a monkey and a human," Carnot said.

"This will affect our income," Joseph said.

"No, Joseph," Carnot said. "They already know how different they are now compared to how they were before. Now it's just a matter of letting them know how different they are from us. If they don't buy our monkey-version weapons, they won't be able to beat us, and they won't be able to beat their neighbors either. In fact, the more they understand that they are no match for us, the more they will feel the necessity to buy our weapons, even our monkey-version ones."

"Ugh, isn't this just the same old protection money mentality?" Joseph almost slapped himself across the face. As a transmigrator, he actually needed a native to remind him of this overused tactic from later generations. It was simply... too embarrassing! So pathetic, so damn pathetic!

In later generations, when people talk about "monkey-version weapons," they usually think of Russia first. But in fact, another superpower Lighthouse Country, is just as good at selling "monkey-version" weapons. For example, when buying tanks, they remove the most crucial depleted uranium armor and replace it with the first-generation composite armor used before the development of depleted uranium armor. (Because the skill tree for depleted uranium armor is unlocked, the skills for ordinary composite armor are not unlocked.)

Arms sales are always handled by experts. Don't the countries that buy the USS David tank know what kind of tank it is after the depleted uranium armor has been replaced? Yet, the Lighthouse Country's "monopoly" version still sells well. Why?

First, while the "monkey version" from Lighthouse Country may not be as good as the original, it's still better than what they produce themselves, and in fact, they can't even manufacture it themselves. Second, buying the "monkey version" weapon from the Lighthouse Country is like paying protection money to the Lighthouse Country, meaning no one else can bully you. Therefore, whether a weapon sells well or not isn't necessarily related to whether it's actually good.

Of course, the best way to achieve this effect would be for France to find an easy target to defeat, quickly and decisively, and weapons sales would immediately improve, much like how the Lighthouse Country dealt with Saddam Hussein. However, the current problem is that it seems there's no one on the Europe continent to be thoroughly defeated for the time being. Austria is essentially no longer an enemy, so attacking them would be pointless. Russia isn't out of the question, but it's too far away, and besides, Russia isn't Saddam Hussein, a country that would leave no lingering problems after a defeat.

Since there's nothing we can directly attack, we can only follow Russia's example and stage a "Zapad-81 military exercise" to scare them.

Of course, an exercise of the scale of Russia's "Zapad-81" military exercise, involving ten army groups, more than 300,000 troops, thousands of tanks and armored vehicles, and thousands of various aircraft, is something that Joseph, or even France, could never dream of in his lifetime.

Moreover, exercises are meant to save money and buy weapons; military exercises like "Zapad-81" are far too expensive.

However, there is one thing about the "West-81" that is very commendable: it openly invites the hypothetical enemy to watch the exercise, scaring them to death. Joseph thinks that France could also invite those who might still have illusions to come and see for themselves what a "high-tech war" is like, scaring them to death, and incidentally giving France weapons a big advertisement.

"Joseph, your eyes are shining, have you thought of something again?" Carnot had worked with Joseph for many years and knew him quite well. As soon as he saw Joseph's expression, he knew that Joseph must have thought of something.

"Should we organize a joint military exercise and invite 'friends' from other countries to watch?" Joseph suggested.

"You mean, show off your skills in this exercise, let's show them to our 'friends'?" Carnot perked up. "Yes, let's discuss it together. The first question is, what capabilities do we need to demonstrate to them?"

"The ability to move quickly, especially heavy firepower units and artillery; powerful and rapid firepower, such as breech-loading guns and shrapnel shells; strong attack capabilities, trench digging and the use of demolition charges and trench guns under fire cover..." Joseph counted on his fingers.

"You've forgotten to mention something, something that could easily be shown to others," Carnot said.

"What is it?" Joseph asked.

"The Navy!" Carnot said. "What can really provoke them and force them to quickly buy weapons from you is the Navy. Let the 'Free Trade' demonstrate how to disrupt free trade during naval exercises, then sell similar warships. Anyway, as far as I know, you're already building newer ones..."

"I promised Napoleon I wouldn't sell the breech-loading guns, at least not until the next generation of newer breech-loading guns appeared," Joseph said. "However, the monkey version of the 'Free Trade' is fine to sell. Hmm, let them show it off in exercises first, then we'll resell it to the Turkey, or just the Britain ..."