Imperial Elite

Chapter 1 The Army Has Made a Decision

July, 1916 (Sacred Calendar), a trench near Montauban.

The restless wind whipped up sand scorching hot from the summer sun, mixing it with the smell of gunpowder and blood in the air, and splattered it all over Joe Harrison's face as he squatted in the trench smoking.

The gust of sand and the smoke he had just inhaled immediately caused Joe, who never smoked, to cough violently.

If this happened elsewhere, and someone saw Joe choke on a puff of smoke, they would likely laugh at him loudly, saying things like, "You choke on your own cigarette? You should sit at the kids' table."

But at least in this trench, no one dared to laugh at Joe, who was covered in dust and coughing violently.

These reinforcements had only arrived at the trench a few minutes earlier.

When they arrived, all they saw was a Buntanian flag riddled with bullet holes and burn marks planted in a trench littered with corpses. Joe, covered in mud, gunpowder, and blood, was swinging his rifle butt and smashing a Teutonic officer to the ground.

Looking at the layers upon layers of corpses in the trenches, some even still in fighting positions after falling, and the burning war machines outside the trenches, it's not hard to imagine how fierce a battle once took place in this trench.

The guy, leaning against the tattered national flag, covered in blood, with bloodshot eyes, who had almost smashed the poor Teutonic's head open with the butt of his rifle, looked like a knight straight out of a legend.

Just by looking at this scene, the reinforcements could imagine how this corporal carried that tattered flag through heavy artillery fire and bullets to plant the flag of Bonitania in the trench with his comrades.

Then, just like in a legendary tale, they fought to the last man against the Teutons who wanted to retaliate in order to defend the flag.

The Somme River is very windy and dusty, but the tears in their eyes at this moment were not because of the wind and sand.

Upon seeing this scene, the captain leading the team, with his gray hair, straightened his hat, jumped into the trench, walked up to the warrior who was staring at them with bloodshot eyes, solemnly saluted the corporal, asked for his name and unit number, and then nodded to Joe.

"Son, although I am not your superior, your performance today was very brave. I will report to your superiors and apply for a medal for you."

After saying that, the captain extended his hand to Joe.

“It’s too dangerous to go back through the no-man’s land now. You’ll stay with my unit for now. When the messenger or the bandage guy comes, you can go with them.”

Joe didn't say anything, but simply shook the captain's outstretched hand.

Is there anything else you need to know about this place?

Joe shook his head.

"It was too chaotic; I only made it this far."

Hearing Joe's words, the captain's eyes showed even more admiration. What a brave man! He had wiped out the entire Teutonic army in the trench just to protect the flag.

If there were more warriors like Joe, our victory would be just around the corner.

After patting Joe's arm, the captain turned and called to his men.

"Don't just stand there! Go into the trenches and see if anyone is still alive. Signalman! Send a signal to let the rear know we've taken this position."

The trenches instantly sprang into action, but the busy soldiers all avoided the somewhat distraught Joe.

Joe, who had found a spot to crouch down in the trench with his rifle in his arms, trembled as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket.

Before today, Joe had never smoked a cigarette. After all, there are already many things in this world that can kill you today, so why would he want to find something that will kill him thirty years from now?

At this moment, Joe wanted to chew something, but when he reached into his pocket, he found that he had finished his chewing gum and that the biscuit had fallen out at some point.

Joe could only pull out the cigarette from his pocket that he had originally intended to exchange for chewing gum with his comrade. After clumsily lighting it and choking on his first puff, he coughed violently before finally catching his breath and letting out a long sigh of relief.

As he exhaled a puff of smoke, Joe couldn't help but wonder how things had turned out this way.

As a time traveler, isn't my treatment a bit off?

Joe came into this world three years ago.

Before his time travel, Qiao was a miserable mechanical engineer. Believing the nonsense that the older you are in the mechanical field, he applied for mechanical design and automation in college. After graduation, he became a versatile engineering technician who could work in any field after being beaten down by the realities of life.

From drawing blueprints in the office to tightening screws on the production line, there was nothing Joe couldn't do.

Then one day, after Joe finished his usual overtime work, he and his friends went to a place for a late-night snack. Suddenly, a truck appeared out of nowhere and knocked Joe and his friends into another world, proving that late-night snacks are bad for your health.

The good news is that in Joe's alternate world, there are no four roadside vendors who give out freebies, no green-skinned monsters that rob and plunder, and the environment is relatively suitable for human survival, without ubiquitous nuclear radiation.

Compared to my friend who hadn't even had a bite of roast meat before being conscripted by the weasels to defend Holy Terra, I'm far better off.

The bad news is that, apart from a few minor differences, the environment here is basically very similar to that of Earth before World War I. It is an old colonial empire located on an island, facing the challenge of a new power on the mainland.

A dark cloud, a cloud of war, is looming over the entire world.

However, Joe, who had just transmigrated, had no opinion on such a thing that could change the course of history. As the eldest son of a working-class family, Joe's first task was to fix endless screws, pay bills, and have three younger siblings who were crying for food and were about to go astray and start hanging out on the streets.

Fortunately, as an engineer, Joe in this world only managed to complete an elementary school degree. It was only because the Education Act of 1870 mandated education for children and made elementary school tuition free that Joe's parents were able to send him to school.

However, now that the most troublesome thing, literacy, was done, Joe could handle the rest on his own.

After all, before he transmigrated, he was an engineer who was constantly chased by project deadlines the moment he opened his eyes, and he would do anything to get his projects into production.

He's a hands-on engineer who can handle everything from mechanical drawing and mold factory inspection to, in critical moments, going to the production line and tightening screws until they're practically smoking.

With his rich technical experience, Joe quickly rose through the ranks in the factory, transforming from a production line worker who could only do simple, repetitive tasks into a skilled worker who could point at blueprints and question engineers, "What is the purpose of this design? Don't you know it can't be made like this? How did you calculate the tolerances? I could find a drunkard to calculate it and he wouldn't make this kind of mistake!"

Joe's vibrant spirit quickly caught the attention of the factory owner, a wealthy nobleman, like a firefly in the night.

The nobleman was very interested in the spirited Joe and decided to have a talk with him.

During this meeting, Qiao Chenggong pulled out the small patents he had prepared beforehand and convinced his boss to invest in him, opening a factory for him to produce small items that Qiao Chenggong had patented, such as binders, spring-loaded clothes racks, and safety pins.

Unsurprisingly, with these simple and practical gadgets, Joe landed a large number of orders, transforming him overnight from being heavily indebted to incredibly wealthy. Not only did he own a house and a car, but his parents were able to retire, and his younger siblings were able to attend prestigious schools where tuition fees used to consume 1.2 times their family's annual income each semester.

Of course, Joe's younger siblings had strong opinions about this opportunity to leave the streets, go to a higher education, and become a "decent civilized person."

Fortunately, Joe wasn't exactly a civilized man, and persuaded by the gilded bronze-headed cane, these street kids gratefully entered the school—a place where even lingering at the gate would have attracted the attention of the police in the past.

Furthermore, Joe is a far cry from the fundamentalist anthropomorphic capitalists of this era who say things like, "What? You need to take sick leave? How can you let your own affairs affect the company's production?! You'll lose money!"

Qiao, who still had some sense of shame and didn't force overtime, even giving workers overtime and performance bonuses, was instantly seen as a great philanthropist.

He has earned the titles of "Friend of the Union" and "Suspicious Leftist".

Joe was indifferent to these ideological issues, and the royal spies who frequented the factory area.

Just kidding! I'm not afraid of a straight shadow even if I'm crooked! Besides, there's so much surplus value in the factory waiting for me to exploit... no, there are so many workers waiting for me to lead them to common prosperity. I don't have time to study things other than making money... or common prosperity right now.

Although labor costs increased, labor productivity rose even more, and Joe quickly gained a foothold in the market, even having enough money to wield the big stick of patent law and start cracking down on imitators in other countries.

Joe would rather give the money that thieves took from his own pocket back to them than let those patent thieves get away with it.

As a result, the judges who originally wanted to protect their country's industries immediately became fair and impartial, and purged many of those who dared to take advantage of the situation.

Just as Joe, a rising star in the business world, was emerging, as an elder once said, a person's destiny depends on their own efforts, but also on the course of history.

With a gunshot in Golden Valley, the July Crisis, which shocked the world, erupted. The entire Old World was instantly transformed from its former tranquility and peace, and all nations mobilized frantically as if they were ready to give up on life.

Feeling that the country was in peril and that it was essential for him to make a fortune, Joe began to consider whether he had anything that could be used in the upcoming war to earn a substantial sum. Just then, a white feather was delivered to Joe.

At first, Joe didn't care about the white feather the girl sent him, which mocked him as a coward.

So what if I'm a coward? It doesn't affect my ability to make money.

Besides, what does it have to do with me if the empire goes to war?
I owe my success today entirely to my own hard work. Where was the king when my family of six was crammed into a room that could only fit one bed?

Now you tell me, is the King's kindness never enough?

Pooh! nausea!

As he casually tossed the white feather to the ground and stomped on it, Joe said to the girl in front of him, "It's not just men who can contribute to the war. Field hospitals need a lot of nurses, and factories need laborers to replace the men who have enlisted. And what are you doing? Spreading these little feathers plucked from the pigeons in the square? What contribution have you made to the war?!"

Seeing the girl's face turn red and then start meowing like a cat in a bag, Joe shook his head and said, "What you need most right now is to learn a sense of responsibility, not to start some kind of social movement."

Although Qiao felt somewhat pleased when he praised Bai Yu's words, he later learned what it meant to be a fearsome figure in public opinion. As those noble ladies, along with their entourages, began to hand Bai Yu to any man they saw on the street.

Those aristocratic lads who couldn't stand being provoked quickly joined the army, and then the young men from Joe's factory also went to the recruitment office.

People like Joe, who are indifferent to the white feathers and the sudden outpouring of patriotism, and even somewhat sarcastic, seem a bit too unconventional.

Soon rumors began to circulate about Joe, and even some small articles about him appeared in the newspapers. It was one thing for the reporters to say that Joe was a cowardly coward, but they went so far as to argue that Joe was not a citizen and was a Teutonic spy!

Things had escalated to this point that even Joe's investor, his former boss, couldn't sit still anymore.

This old nobleman, who had once fought in the Southern Dark Continent, also sought out Joe.

This means I know you're not interested in this war; you'd definitely be more useful to the war effort if you stayed in the rear factories.

But things have already escalated, and soon the whole of Britannia will know. If Joe continues to stubbornly resist, it won't be appropriate. If his reputation is ruined, no one will want to do business with him. If he really doesn't want to go to the army, then he should get a certificate proving he's unfit for service, or even pretend to be mentally ill!

Stop arguing with those white-feathered people; those above are in cahoots with them!

Seeing that he couldn't escape this calamity, Joe made a desperate move and donated a medical team to the Army Department. He explained that the reason he didn't respond to the call to fight for His Majesty the King immediately was because he had to take care of factory matters and ensure that the factory could continue operating after he left.

Many workers' families depend on this wage to support them, and at the same time, they need to raise money to make a greater contribution to the war. As for the previous slander against them, they will take legal action to resolve the matter.

Then Joe hired the best lawyer he could find to sue the reporters who wrote those short articles in the newspaper.

They even donated a medical team to the army. With such a generous donation, no one dared to question whether Joe was a Teutonic spy. Even those who said Joe was not a citizen had to consider whether their own contributions to the war as a citizen were greater than Joe's.

After all, in a capitalist country, money can buy you anything.

After successfully getting two reporters to fabricate stories to please a girl, they not only lost everything but also ended up spending several years in jail.

After venting his anger, Joe still went to the conscription office to report for duty so as not to affect his business.

However, even though they were prepared to fight for the king, there were still some nuances to consider regarding how to fight for the king.

After being enlightened by his investor, a nobleman who thought money was just a number and he only wanted to have some fun, Joe felt that going to the trenches to fight the Teutons with bayonets was a contribution, firing cannons behind the trenches was a contribution, and transporting cannonballs by horse-drawn wagons was a contribution.

Why don't I just relax and take it easy in the back? If others fill in the gaps, it's my turn to fill in the gaps; it's all an opportunity.

Joe felt that since he had donated a medical team to the army, he had made a good connection, so there shouldn't be any problem with him being assigned to the logistics or artillery units.

Furthermore, Bonitania has a long-standing tradition of buying official positions, so it's not unreasonable for them to spend their own money to get an official post, is it?

Then Joe realized that perhaps the previous neatly arranged paperwork had worked, or perhaps the colonel at the recruitment office didn't like a nouveau riche like himself, or perhaps the Army Department was simply being unreasonable.

Despite Joe's reasonable suggestion, the War Department refused to allow it.

The officials in the Army Department said that firstly, the vacancies for officers were already full, and secondly, considering Joe's educational level, positions requiring specialized skills, such as logistics and artillery, were definitely not suitable for him.

Considering that Joe had previously stated in the newspaper that he was going to contribute to the King and was also an inventor, if you understand invention, you understand mechanics, if you understand mechanics, you understand engineering, and if you understand engineering, isn't that the natural-born engineer?

The army has decided that you will be a combat engineer!
(End of this chapter)