Imperial Elite

Chapter 117 Erich: I understand!
1920 was not a good year for most countries in the world.

Although the war caused enormous destruction and killed countless people.

However, the enormous demand created during the war also led to a brief period of economic prosperity for most industrialized countries in the world.

However, with the end of the war, all industrialized nations discovered that although the war was over and spending had decreased, demand had also decreased.

Meanwhile, established industrialized nations like Bonitania have encountered an even more awkward problem: meeting wartime needs.

During the war, they had to purchase from countries like the United States and the United States, which had previously been suppressed by them in the trade system.

Citibank and Sunrise are not exactly friendly guests; having finally gotten in, they have no intention of leaving so easily.

Bruneian is having a tough time, and developing countries like Sunrise are having an even tougher time.

As major industrialized nations like Bonitania begin to refocus their efforts on the economy, they start to reclaim markets with more sophisticated industrial products.

Shengyang is under tremendous economic pressure.

Unlike countries like Bonitania and Citizens, which were industrial giants before the war, Rising Sun, as a typical late-developing country, expanded its industry during the war by relying on orders that were almost never fulfilled.

Of course, the way to expand is also very simple. Due to the industrial cycle and the lag in payment collection, many factories rely on loans to expand.

With the end of the war, these factories, which had been overwhelmed with orders, suddenly realized, "Who will buy our products now that the war is over?"
Not only could these products not be sold abroad, but with the recovery of production capacity in industrialized countries such as Bonitania, the entire Old World-based Sunrise domestic market was also impacted to some extent.

Because the emperor took the lead in eating steak, in this process of completely converting the Old World, not only did the red bricks used to convert the navy into a military academy have to be imported from Buntania.

They even adopted Western clothing and food, and entertainment activities were also adopted, such as baseball and moving logs.

Under this mindset, people in Shengyang would buy foreign goods that were now being sold at discounted prices without a second thought. They thought, "These foreign things are so beautiful. If I wore a Shengyang cloth jacket and looked like a Far Eastern head, who would pay attention to me?"

As a result, during the economic transition period following the war, countries around the world entered into varying degrees of economic recession, and as a large number of soldiers retired and entered the job market, the unemployment rate began to soar.

Of course, this is not the case in all countries.

The Gauls, who had been through the wringer at Verdun and Paris, found themselves facing a labor shortage after the war ended.

In general, after the great war, people did not feel that their lives had become better; on the contrary, they felt that their lives had become worse.

Of course, not everyone feels that their life has gotten worse.

Old Joe feels like he's living the best life ever right now.

Although Wagner's operations in Greece were not yet completely over, Joe's island had already been acquired.

The exploration and design team has now set off to transform this island into an entertainment paradise with everything you need for fun and relaxation.

This time, Joe didn't even have to actively seek him out; the local shipping company had already contacted him, expressing their desire to add a route to Gokche Island, which Joe has now officially renamed 'Paradise Island'.

However, since Joe now owns a shipping company after marrying Kate, he is not in a hurry to reach agreements with these shipping companies.

Because in the latter half of 1920, Joe's first children were born.

The reason for using the word "batch" is mainly because, for various reasons, Qiao mostly engages in group activities, resulting in a batch of winners.

Although they may not all be at the same time, the difference between them is not too long, so we simply count them as one batch.

After having six children in one go, Jo discovered that while the process of creating children was joyful, taking care of them was extremely painful, especially when the children didn't all have the same mother.

The factions and jealousy among the women made Joe feel that she should go out to work rather than stay at home.

So what kind of work could Joe, the governor of Emerald Isle, the chief armored officer of Brittany, the head of the Wagner Group, a NATO general, and an ordinary capitalist who owned manufacturing and the BBC company, possibly do?
Joe said he had too many reasons for not being home.

Having acquired dozens of tons of gold in one go, Joe is now incredibly well-off.

Even though Joe generously distributed substantial bonuses to the Wagner members who participated in the operation, and even melted down some gold nuggets to cast a batch of pure gold medals, which were awarded to units like the 7th Truck Transport Company that performed outstandingly in the battle.

Joe still has a large amount of money at his disposal.

Holding onto gold is just holding a pile of expensive metal; it only becomes circulating capital when it's spent.

So how should this money be spent?

Naturally, while smashing up the lab, they also started organizing a competition.

Past experience had taught Joe that the most important step for a unit to fully exert its combat effectiveness and carry out the commander's orders was to first ensure that the subordinate units received the commander's orders.

In the past, military strategists throughout history have devised various methods to accomplish this, including using flags, military music, and messengers. During major wars, telephone lines were even laid in the trenches.

However, these methods are all too cumbersome, and their timeliness is a major issue.

So Joe decided to solve this problem once and for all. Now that public broadcasting is available, shouldn't we also develop radio so that commanders can effectively contact the frontline troops?

And how can it enable better communication between tank crews in a tank unit, thereby allowing them to execute tactics more effectively?
So Joe poured a lot of money into his lab in York, trying to figure out a way to develop a radio that infantry could carry on their backs and fit inside tanks to communicate like a telephone.

Of course, in order to give them a physical reference, Joe provided the lab with a disarmed Hound tank so that they could understand the environment inside the tank and think about how to fit the radio.

This move not only made the private laboratory, known as the Modern Radio Laboratory, the most powerful laboratory in all of Britannia, but also had an unexpected consequence.

With the release of the film "Wagner's Gold," Wagner's popularity among the people of Buntania is second only to those top agents known as the Kingsman.

After all, even the guardsmen, when they get drunk in the tavern, all they do is boast.

"You know Old Joe, right? He used to coach us. When I retired, I went to play for Wagner. We drank red wine from big bowls and ate beef in big bites!"

Then, amidst the envious looks of the other patrons in the bar, he downed the gin in one gulp.

The tanks that Joe delivered to the Modern Radio Laboratory could not possibly be tanks of the Bunitania Army, but rather tanks of Wagner.

Not only does it bear Wagner's insignia, but it also has scratches left by Sunborn machine gun bullets on the armor plates.

As a group of researchers who had served in the army's armored forces, they naturally knew how to drive this kind of tank.

So one rainy day, a researcher who didn't bring an umbrella simply drove this tank to a pizzeria to buy pizza. As a result, the pizzeria owner's beautiful daughter, who was usually aloof and never spoke more than three syllables to anyone, saw this tank.

Surprisingly, she asked the researcher if she could sit in the car.
Then the researcher not only unlocked four ways to eat pizza, but also put his hot baguette into a hot oven.

Thus, a group of the most intelligent people in Bonitania discovered the amazing phenomenon of firing cannons and driving tanks.

This tank became the most popular piece of equipment in the research institute.

Joe quickly received a design proposal for a car ventilation system.

Although I don't quite understand why, after I gave these researchers a tank and asked them to study radio communication devices, they ended up developing an in-vehicle ventilation system.

Even if there's some element of gacha in the research, this is way too skewed!

However, ever since he drove the Royal Fist MK-1, Joe had wanted to develop a vehicle ventilation system. Now that the research institute had achieved results, Joe naturally planned to apply this system to the new car.

As the Armored Director of Brittany, after completing this mission in the Far East.

Joe had ideas about what kind of armor should be used in the future.

First, the tank force, which serves as the spearhead of the armored forces, should primarily consist of two types of tanks.

A standard, easy-to-produce, easy-to-maintain, fast-moving medium tank capable of carrying out breakthroughs and advancing rapidly with mechanized infantry.

This type of tank does not need to have strong firepower or armor protection; it only needs to be able to deal with most common targets on the battlefield.

In addition to the ordinary tanks used to fill the front lines, a heavy tank is also needed.

This type of tank requires decent mobility, impenetrable armor, and a powerful main gun, specifically designed for breaching doors.

Then, based on the hulls of these two tanks, Joe planned to develop a series of extended models.

For example, assault guns and self-propelled artillery, which are modified from the chassis of medium tanks and equipped for use by infantry units.

Battlefield recovery vehicles modified from heavy tank chassis, as well as extended vehicle models such as heavy self-propelled artillery.

Basically, Joe's plan was to design a common chassis for both medium and heavy tanks.

Then, based on these two chassis, the Army's heavy vehicles were expanded.

As for light tanks, they will be placed on the same table as infantry fighting vehicles, and the armored personnel carriers currently used as a transitional measure will be eliminated, allowing infantry fighting vehicles to take on reconnaissance and troop transport functions.

Meanwhile, the future expansion of infantry vehicles, apart from relying on the eight-wheeled and six-wheeled trucks that are still under development, should all adopt this universal chassis.

Joe has already come up with a name for this project: Modern Combat Systems, or MCS for short.

The Army was taken aback by Joe's ambitious MCS plan.

We asked you to research tanks, not to assign the entire army to your task.

Look, look at all of this!
What are 40-ton heavy tanks, 30-ton medium tanks, and 15-ton tracked light general-purpose vehicles?
What? What? What? What is all this about?
How much money would it really cost to develop these things? Where would the army get that much money right now?
And who are we going to target with all this stuff?
alien?
After the initial shock, the Army, which had received the MCS plan, told Joe.

Old Joe, we know your idea is good, but don't set off yet.

Your plan is good in every way, but it's too systematic and too expensive, and we don't have the money right now.

The army does not need such highly mechanized troops for the time being.

Yes, we understand that the Hound tank has its limits, and its development has reached its end.

We need new tanks to deal with the new situation.

But isn't it a bit too much to bring up three car groups at once?

We certainly know you're an expert in this area, and we have no doubt about your expertise. These things do look really good, but we don't really need them right now.

So... could we pick one of the three lines and start researching it?

We'll explore the other two lines when there's a need for them in the future.

You see, I think this medium tank project is great.

When needed, just add some armor and replace the cannon, and it becomes a heavy tank.

As for infantry fighting vehicles... armored vehicles are acceptable as a makeshift solution, so let's leave it at that for now.

First, start a project for a 30-ton medium tank.

Joe originally wanted to protest the Army Department's half-hearted approach.

But after thinking about it again, Joe realized that what the Army said did make some sense.

During this period, the army did not have a pressing need for tank research.

Although I've grown somewhat disdainful of the Hound tank, compared to other tanks currently available, the Hound, with its superior versatility and overall performance, does indeed appear quite appealing.

So let's leave it at that and start working on the research project for the 30-ton tank.

Meanwhile, because Joe's MCS project was not approved, according to Bonitania tradition, the project's level of secrecy was not very high.

It was simply stuffed into a filing cabinet by an employee of the Army Department, and if nothing unexpected happens, this plan will be destroyed along with other expired documents after a period of time.

Of course, Joe was unaware of this. As someone who didn't want to go home, a project involving a 30-ton tank certainly wouldn't keep Joe so busy that he couldn't go home.

So while working on the 30-ton tank project, Joe, who was not short of money, also invested in air racing.

In addition to investing in racing events, Joe also added a new project: heavy-lift flight. Beyond investing in aviation competitions, Joe also established his own flight laboratory and began researching helicopters.

However, Joe encountered a problem this time. Although Joe's concept was clear and his design was well-defined, the research on the helicopter was not progressing smoothly due to limitations in materials and processing technology.

Although some problems have been encountered, things are generally moving in a positive direction.

The seeds have been sown; now it's time to wait for the harvest season.

What Joe didn't expect was that on Christmas Day in 1920, his parents would criticize him for once, thinking that Joe couldn't control himself and that this should be put aside for now.

Now that the child is born, it's really too much to be running around outside all day instead of spending time with the child.

In addition, there were complaints from the women and jeers from the younger siblings.

Joe knew he was likely to be in trouble for the next few years.

Little did Joe know that his troubles were just beginning.

Because in the snow and wind of Christmas 1920, the Committee for Suppressing Counter-Revolutionaries and Sabotage of the People's Revolutionary League selected a group of outstanding officers and combat heroes from the army to begin forming a special force under the People's Revolutionary League, the Signal Flag.

Meanwhile, in the mountains of the Caucasus, a group of Teutons, posing as art students, began training with the Lucia government forces.

As the economy was in turmoil, the number of people in Bonitania influenced by left-wing ideology began to increase, while the local intelligence agency, which was originally responsible for local intelligence, suffered from post-war funding cuts.

They had to drastically reduce their staff, and by 1920 they were reduced to only 35 official agents. Their original internal intelligence function relied entirely on informants to obtain information.

This will naturally cause considerable problems.

For example, there was a captain in the Army Department who was very dissatisfied with the chaos in the country after the war.

After fighting a major battle, this is what we got?
Coupled with the prevailing left-wing sentiment at the time, the captain felt that the higher-ups were all a bunch of scoundrels, and he wanted to do something to change all of this, so he joined the Revolutionary Alliance!

If you want to join the Revolutionary Alliance, you naturally have to offer something.

As a member of the Army Department, the captain couldn't get his hands on high-level documents, so he had to look for things that weren't so classified.

Then, the captain dug out Joe's MCS plan, which had been casually stuffed into the filing cabinet.

As an infantry officer, the captain didn't understand the significance of the plan, but Joe Harrison's signature on it made him think that the plan was valuable enough.

Due to the downsizing of domestic intelligence agencies at the time, coupled with the left-wing trend that emboldened left-wing parties to even openly engage in street activities.

After observing for a while, the captain quickly found a political party active on the streets and said, "I sincerely want to join the People's Revolutionary Union. This is just a gift. I hope to make contact with Moscow."

The left-wing party initially assumed that the captain who had taken the initiative to contact them was a sting operation by the local intelligence agency, so they did not accept the gifts and only exchanged some polite words.

They'll give you platitudes like, "We appreciate your support, but we're just a local organization and have no connection with Moscow. You've got the wrong person."

But the captain clearly didn't think so.

Come on, your leader, although he looks like a Buntanian, his tongue practically flies all the way to Gaul when he opens his mouth. And he still pretends you have no connection with Moscow? You're kidding me.

So the captain threw the things on the ground, indicating that he had delivered them and it was up to them whether they wanted them or not, and that their trilled 'r' was really too heavy.

I've dealt with Lucas in Gaul before, so I know what that accent is.

Seeing that the captain had said so, the left-wing party initially pretended to be ignorant until the captain had walked a long way away and they had checked the surroundings to make sure there were no spies. Only then did they pick up the briefcase.

Upon returning to his residence and opening the door, the agent sent by the Committee for the Elimination of Counter-Revolutionaries and Sabotage immediately stated that he had to return to China immediately.

After all, although they didn't quite understand the meaning of other things in the document, they could clearly see the connection between Joe Harrison and modern combat systems.

Soon the People's Revolutionary Alliance received the best Christmas gift since its inception.

The entire high command of the People's Revolutionary Alliance army could only describe this plan, known as the Modern Combat System, with one word: "art."

This plan almost completely outlined for them what the future of armored warfare should be like, what equipment they needed, and what design specifications they should have.

With this plan, they can avoid many years of detours.

But then they discovered a small problem.

That is, Russia was originally one of the world's major countries with the weakest industrial strength.

Especially now that Russia has not only lost its once-rich eastern region, but is also divided between the north and south, its industrial capacity has declined significantly.

Given Russia's limited industrial capacity, it is clearly unlikely that it could complete the military equipment required for this modern combat system plan.

However, it was not entirely impossible, as the Teutonic comrades in the People's Revolutionary League successfully preserved Upper Silesia.

This region, the birthplace of the Teutonic Empire and a long-established industrial center, was not without plans to further industrialize its Lucia region.

However, there is a small problem here: relying solely on Upper Silesia, they certainly cannot complete the entire industrialization process, and without completing the full industrialization process...

Leaving aside the issue of people's living standards, the alliance between the Teutonic Knights and the Lucia military government alone put enormous pressure on the Revolutionary Union.

If industrialization and military modernization cannot be completed quickly, it's hard to say what will happen once the Lucia military government and the Teutons recover.

After all, the last incident has already demonstrated the paper tiger nature of imperialism and their malice towards the People's Revolutionary Alliance.

As long as they can limit the People's Revolutionary League, they probably wouldn't mind relaxing military restrictions on the Teutons in the future.

At that time, the People's Revolutionary Alliance would face a serious two-front war.

Therefore, in order to complete the world revolution, the People's Revolutionary Alliance must complete industrialization and military modernization as soon as possible.

To this end, the People's Revolutionary Alliance began to formulate its first five-year plan and new economic policies to stimulate economic development.

Meanwhile, the Rising Sun Army and the Far Eastern Frontier Government had been severely weakened by Wagner in previous battles.

Therefore, rather than launching an attack to the west, further provoking imperialist countries and worsening one's own diplomatic environment, it is better to avoid such actions.

The People's Revolutionary Alliance chose to expand eastward, first eliminating the interventionist forces and right-wing warlords in the Far East.

As soon as the People's Revolutionary Alliance troops launched their eastward offensive, they immediately felt that the difficulty level had dropped several levels. Although it was not as easy as a Tyrannosaurus Rex fighting a Paramecium, it felt like a Sanda champion entering kindergarten.

Faced with the Rising Sun Army, which had already been weakened by Wagner, and the Far Eastern Frontier Government, the People's Revolutionary Alliance's forces quickly completed the recapture of the Far East.

There were even some unexpected surprises, such as several Hound tanks that the Rising Sun Army planned to take back to the mainland after abandoning Wagner, for a display of their achievements.

Because the Rising Sun Army was so badly beaten, several regiments were disbanded, and several generals were held accountable.

So, in order to save face, the army disregarded the fact that these tanks had been abandoned by Wagner and simply brought them back to the mainland as if they had been destroyed by them.

Forget about where these tanks came from, I just want to know if we got Wagner's tanks?!
Then they started shifting the blame to the navy: "Although we didn't stop Wagner, we fought, and these tanks are our spoils of war. So what was the navy doing?"
Are we just going to stand by and watch Wagner leave with the gold?

Your navy should know shame! Know shame!
In response to the Army's shameless attempt to shift blame, the Navy also said, "Stop embarrassing yourselves. Several divisions couldn't even defeat Wagner's forces. How many men did they have? Probably not even a division."
If you can't even beat this, you might as well disband.

We mobilized our entire army and confronted the Bonitania Grand Fleet, preventing them from continuing their northward advance.

Do you know the Bonitania Grand Fleet? It's Earth's number one fleet!

We still won without suffering any losses. If you're bad, practice more and learn from us!
So, in order to embarrass the navy and at the same time make their defeat seem less shameful.

The army collected everything along the railway line, including Wagner's belongings, and sent them back to the mainland as spoils of war.

The light weapons and tanks that had not yet been delivered ended up in the hands of the Rapid Strike Forces of the People's Revolutionary Alliance.

After acquiring these weapons and equipment, the People's Revolutionary Alliance quickly began research and imitation work.

Several design bureaus were even established to expand upon this foundation.

The Shengyang people, who also obtained these weapons, made a different assessment of them.

After inspecting the tank, senior army officials said it was a great thing and asked if they could get one for themselves.

Of course, out of pride for the army, directly copying the Hound tank was absolutely out of the question.

Otherwise, wouldn't that make it seem like the army really lost? So if we're going to do it, let's do it with our own Tank 1.
Building a tank was no problem at all, and a factory quickly took on the job.

However, at this point, the characteristics of the Rising Sun army began to prove their worth.

Those who frequently design tanks know that firepower, defense, mobility, reliability, and productivity form an impossible pentagon; it's a choice that requires trade-offs.

Sometimes, even after making a choice, the outcome may not be good; that's the magic of industrial development.

However, as a group of muscle-bound minds who believe in the power of the mind, the Rising Sun Army has a special view on this. Regarding these indicators, the Army believes that the reason they couldn't defeat Wagner back then was because of insufficient firepower.

Therefore, firepower must be the top priority in the design of a new vehicle, so the priority of firepower must be 1.

At the same time, defense is also very important. Wagner destroyed field fortifications with a single shot, and such a thing cannot happen again on a tank, so defense is also a crucial factor.

Military spending and resources are limited. To produce more equipment and arm more troops with less military spending, productivity must also be 1.

As for reliability, how could something produced by the empire's artisans have any problems? And even if we take a step back, if supplies can be used to count troops, then dragonflies can also be used as eagles, so it's good enough in that respect.

Faced with the demands of the Rising Sun Army, the factory's designers began to drastically reduce requirements on mobility and reliability after prioritizing firepower and productivity.

There's nothing we can do; this is the level of Sheng Yang Industrial. It's not that we don't want to do better, it's just that we really can't do it anymore.

So let's leave it at that. Let's just get the stuff made and deliver it to the troops. At worst, we'll just bow. What else can we do? Commit seppuku?
Although the Rising Sun Army decided to start developing tanks, they didn't even glance at Wagner's submachine guns and simply threw them into the warehouse.

As a representative of impoverished imperialism, the Rising Sun can scrape together enough money to produce heavy equipment like tanks. Regardless of their usability, at least they've saved face.

However, the Rising Sun Army felt that submachine guns, which fire a magazine of bullets with a single pull of the trigger, lacked spirit.

How can we achieve close-range fire support?
How could that demonstrate the samurai tradition of daring to fight in close combat?!

This is not in line with the military traditions of Rising Sun!
It's definitely not because the ammunition consumption is too high and the army can't afford or wants to spend the money that it's not planning to develop submachine guns!
Meanwhile, in a projection room at a military camp somewhere in Teutonic, officers led by Erich were watching Wagner's "Das Gold" for what seemed like the umpteenth time.

Their notebooks were filled with their thoughts, while on a table next to the screening room, a sand table depicted a standard Teutonic Line from the Great War, and at the other end of the Teutonic Line were some models that looked like tanks and soldiers.

Clearly, these officers weren't watching the movie repeatedly just because it was entertaining.

After watching the film again, Ehrlich still felt that Wagner's system seemed to be missing something.

So when he walked up to the sand table, Erich casually asked another officer a question.

"What has Old Joe been up to lately?"

The other officer paused for a moment, thought for a moment, and then answered.

"I heard he's preparing for an air race, including a speed race and a load-carrying race..."

Before the officer could finish speaking, Ehrlich slapped his thigh.

"I knew this guy was hiding something! The Air Force! It's the Air Force! Future combat systems must combine air and ground forces! Otherwise, this guy would rather chase women than spend money on these things!"

------

Although Joe Harrison didn't enjoy writing books like others, his love of making movies was very helpful to me, especially his 1920 film "Wagner's Gold," which gave me a lot of inspiration.

For example, tank units can clear the way for troops, but what clears the way for tank units is not necessarily tanks.

—From *Victory Within Reach* by Erich

(End of this chapter)