Imperial Elite

Chapter 39 Your Majesty! Please get in the carriage!

When His Majesty George first met Joe, he was generally somewhat disappointed.

After all, Joe, who had made outstanding contributions in just a few months, was so reliable in His Majesty George's eyes that he had long since become a figure like Cromwell, capable of stopping a child's nighttime crying.

Although he had seen Joe's photos before, His Majesty George thought there must be something wrong with the camera or the photographer. After all, how could an imperial elite like Joe look like a recent college graduate?
A person who could achieve such merit must have a physique and appearance that would be enough to warrant a three-year prison sentence.

But when His Majesty George actually met Joe, he found that Joe really did look like a recent college graduate, someone who was not intimidating at all and wouldn't stand out on the street.

His Majesty could only sigh silently in his heart, realizing that the world is full of wonders, and perhaps some people may look ordinary, but they truly have a lion living inside them.

With this sentiment in mind, His Majesty George awarded Joe the medal and then presented him with the flag of the Armored Training Company, instructing him, "You've done well before, keep it up, and do a good job!"

Joe, as if in a dream, had only one thought regarding His Majesty George's awarding of medals and flags.

There's definitely something wrong with this godforsaken place called Bonitania!

Although he had been on the battlefield a few times, Joe had a clear and definite understanding of his own identity: a shrewd and resourceful person.

Joe felt that he had survived until now not because of his own abilities, but entirely because of luck and the Teutonic people's support.

Anyone else could have achieved what I have. My real advantage isn't on the battlefield, it's in the factory. There's really no one in the world who knows tanks better than me!

Moreover, compared to himself, who never wanted to join the army from the beginning and was only coerced by public opinion, the other officers in the army were all Imperial Baturu who were always ready to fight for the Empire and die for His Majesty.

Compared to their fighting spirit and will, Joe felt that he was not only a Baturu, but also the number one Sachima of the Empire.

The only reason Joe didn't run away on the battlefield wasn't because he had even a tiny bit of honor or sense of responsibility; it was simply because there was no opportunity for him to escape.

To have someone like me, the Empire's number one Sachima (a derogatory term for a powerful figure), lead the formation of an armored training company, and to call it a model of armored forces... what do I have to teach other armored units? Am I lost?

Moreover, the Training Company, the Training Company, although the name sounds like some kind of academic organization.

However, as someone who has played Little Mustache's Growth Diary 3, Joe knows very well that with new equipment, a full complement of personnel, and many ruthless individuals, they are simply a natural-born battlefield fire brigade.

Therefore, whether in the East or the West, troops with the title of instructor are often the ones wearing the thickest armor and suffering the most severe beatings. They are the kind of troops who charge ahead and retreat behind, the kind of troops that even Napoleon's old guard at Waterloo would have to sit at the children's table with.

How did the Empire's number one Sachima, who slept through an entire officer training course, become the first company commander of the armored training company?

That's simply impossible...

Medals can be awarded arbitrarily, but official positions cannot be given arbitrarily.

Is there really no one in the entire empire who sees through the true nature of this "Number One Sachima of the Empire"?!

But now that things have come to this, Joe finds himself unable to say that he is the Empire's number one Sachima. All he can do is put on an awkward smile, hold the military flag, and look at the cameras and video recorders below the stage with His Majesty George.

Then, just as she was giving an awkward smile to the camera, Joe suddenly remembered something.

Although all Qiao had been thinking about since joining the army was leaving, he was the kind of demoralized, deserter who would have run away long ago if he hadn't committed desertion.

Overall, apart from the tough training and poor food, life in the military was alright. At least I was treated the same as everyone else and didn't receive any discrimination.

So for Joe, the British Army didn't have any particular opinion. He basically considered it a terrible job with low pay, poor benefits, difficult work, and dangerous environment, which was basically a waste of his life, but he couldn't quit.

Aside from wanting to resign but not daring to, I didn't have any particularly prominent conflicts with the Bonitania Army.

After joining the armored forces, Jofa realized that his biggest conflict was not with the Teutons on the other side of the no man's land, where they wanted to kill him but he also had to kill them, a conflict of life or death.

It wasn't that I wanted to resign, but that Lu Jun wanted me to fill in the gaps; it was a conflict between working and not working.

It was a conflict between himself and the Land Battleship Committee, where the latter wanted to give him subpar equipment, while he wanted them to provide him with better equipment.

When Joe submitted his report and waited for a response without getting one, he thought that his superiors had a negative opinion of him and didn't value his opinion.

But now, the higher-ups are awarding me medals and transferring me to form an armored training company. This is clearly not because they don't value me. After all, if they really didn't value me, I would be at the back of the line, just bragging and joking around.

So the answer is now obvious: it was those corrupt officials from the Land Warships Committee or other departments who were deceiving their superiors and obstructing things!

Since all the previous problems stemmed from these deceitful scoundrels, and His Majesty George is right in front of him now, if he were to say something directly to His Majesty, wouldn't these scoundrels be unable to continue their despicable deeds?
Thinking of this, as the master of ceremonies asked Joe to step down from the stage, Joe suddenly whispered to His Majesty George.

"Your Majesty, we just received our new tanks yesterday. Would you be interested in experiencing this new equipment?"

Upon hearing Qiao's words, the expressions of everyone around the platform changed.

It wasn't that they were worried that Qiao would try to use the emperor to command the other lords after letting His Majesty into the carriage; rather, Qiao's suggestion was not originally part of the inspection plan.

As the leaders of the Bonitania Empire, both His Majesty George and the ministers of the wartime cabinet had very full schedules every day.

Basically, even if I'm not busy from dawn till dusk, I still have to race against time to flirt with my secretary.

Now, George invites His Majesty to ride in and experience the vehicle. If His Majesty agrees, everyone's schedules will definitely be disrupted. Then, as the surrounding ministers held their breath, His Majesty looked at the tanks at the back of the line and hesitated.

His Majesty George had just turned 51 at the time, which, according to the Royal Navy's standards for admirals, was the prime of his life. Moreover, as a boy who had just turned eighteen years and three hundred and sixty-five months old, how could His Majesty George not be interested in such a large toy?

Besides, there are so many reporters on the scene. I think that the release of the photos of me riding on the tank for testing should boost morale. After all, it's just riding around in something that looks like an armored vehicle, maybe even firing a couple of shots. What could possibly happen?
His Majesty George nodded at this thought.

"Okay, you drive. Let me experience the Empire's latest fighting machines."

Upon hearing this, the hearts of the surrounding ministers, which had been hanging in suspense, instantly died.

Now that His Majesty has spoken, even if the ministers oppose it, they will not do so in front of such a group of reporters.

So while the ministers were all praising "Your Majesty's might," they were secretly making a mental note of Qiao's actions.

With His Majesty's order, even if no one was prepared beforehand, we must now complete the preparations as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, although Joe had been slacking off that past week, the soldiers had still managed to accomplish some things.

Soon, the soldiers of the tank regiment, which had been reorganized into the Royal Tank Regiment, quickly set up some targets made of scarecrows near the test road in the camp, which used to be a field.

After all, His Majesty wants to experience a tank. Who knows if His Majesty might suddenly get the urge to fire a couple of shots or a cannon while in the vehicle? It would be better to prepare everything for His Majesty.

While setting up the vehicle testing ground, Joe also led His Majesty into the new tank assigned to their crew and began explaining the equipment inside to His Majesty, the Prime Minister, and the Secretary of War.

Qiao originally intended to let His Majesty experience just how... exhilarating it would be to run this car.

However, when His Majesty climbed into the tank, whether he felt too lonely by himself or wanted to share this novel experience with others, he beckoned the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Army to come in as well.

Although this was somewhat different from Joe's original plan, since the emperor was pushing him away and the ministers were letting him go, things had come to this point, so they had to proceed.

As the ministers approached, Joe also called his crew to get into the car.

However, Joe encountered a slight problem at this time. Although Joe had now been promoted to company commander of the armored training company, Cecil was still his tank commander in the tank crew organization.

So Cecil, standing in the crowd, was caught in a dilemma: he couldn't stay where he was, nor could he get on the train with the crew.

During his brief combat career on the Lucky Bella, he spent most of his time either unconscious or lying in bed in a daze.

Seeing Cecil standing there in a daze, Joe, thinking that one more person means one more heat source, and since the crew organization hadn't been changed yet, he couldn't let His Majesty and the ministers be turret loaders and turret operators, waved to Cecil, "Cecil, what are you standing there for? Get in the car!"

Upon seeing Joe lead His Majesty and the Prime Minister into the tank, the engineers from the Fokker factory, who had brought the tank there to teach logistics and crew how to maintain it, immediately rushed to follow like dogs with their tails on fire.

After Joe's sharp review of the new tank yesterday, everyone knew what kind of praise he would give to this improved version of the Royal Fist.

However, before the engineers could get close, the surrounding officers tacitly stopped them.

Amidst a chorus of voices like, "Hey friend, you just bumped into our company captain and you think you can just walk past without a word?", the officers of the armored regiment kept all the engineers out of the sight of His Majesty George and his ministers.

Although Joe considered himself the Empire's number one tank expert, the Royal Armored Regiment believed that no one in the world knew more about tanks than Joe.

While everyone else considers victory a victory if their tanks can just make it to the front lines, this guy managed to get his tanks through the Teutonic defenses and then back through the Gauls' territory. Is that something an ordinary person could do?!

You're saying these engineers know more about tanks than Joe?
Come on, ask any of them if they can drive a tank right through the Teutonic defenses and capture a general. Their record is verifiable!

In addition, Joe's crew had maintained the vehicle the best in the group, so the general consensus in the group was that if those idiot engineers hadn't ruined the engine, the Lucky Bella wouldn't have been lost on the battlefield.

Given all these deeds, and the fact that the first thing Joe did upon returning to London was not to indulge in debauchery but to adopt the orphans of his old subordinates, the group generally considered Joe to be a reliable and good person.

This led to a consensus among the officers in the regiment after Qiao Rui's evaluation of the new tank yesterday: what Qiao says makes a good tank, and what constitutes a good tank? Could Qiao possibly mislead us?
We absolutely cannot let these guys ruin Old Joe's plans. We're going to drive this thing to the front lines and fight the Teutons to the death. We absolutely cannot let the quartermaster just give us some junk.

While the officers blocked the engineers, Joe didn't start beating the car up as he usually did.

As a veteran engineer, Joe knew exactly how to persuade people who had no understanding of technology to accept his technical views on the product and then give himself a more flexible project schedule.

So after getting into the vehicle, Joe introduced the facilities to His Majesty and the cabinet ministers without offering any personal opinions, and even occasionally praised the Land Battleship Committee for its improvements to the vehicle.

For example, the engine firewall and the newly added exhaust pipe are really a sign of civilization. Before, when the tank started, the engine exhaust couldn't be expelled, and the inside of the vehicle was as hot as an oven.

The newly added water-cooling pipes are also a good thing. The last tank I drove was lost because the engine overheated and spontaneously combusted.

As Qiao introduced the vehicles to His Majesty and the cabinet ministers, the crew members took their positions. Some squatted down next to the cannons and machine guns to prepare for battle, while others inserted the cranks into the engines to start the vehicles.

Soon, with the engine roaring, the tank started moving.

Then His Majesty George began to feel that something was not right. Didn't Joe just say that the new firewall could block some of the engine heat and that the exhaust pipe could also expel the exhaust fumes from the car?
Why is it so hot inside the car now?

And why does this smell smell a little off?
(End of this chapter)