Imperial Elite

Chapter 35 I'm so stupid, really...

When Joe returned to the military base, it was exactly five minutes before the latest time stipulated.

After parking the car, Joe took a bottle of brandy and went to return the car keys to Colonel Els, the regimental commander.

If the group leader is so generous, it would be inhumane for Qiao not to offer a token of appreciation when returning the car.

When Joe found Colonel Ellis in the commander's room, Colonel Ellis was sitting in a chair, holding a glass of red wine, enjoying the phonograph playing "If You Were the Only Girl in the World."

"report!"

Joe knocked on the door, and Colonel Els, whose face was slightly flushed, turned around and waved to Joe when he saw him.

"Come in."

"Yes."

Joe entered Colonel Els's room and placed the brandy he was holding on the table where the colonel kept the phonograph.

“Sir, I didn’t know what kind of wine you like to drink, so I took the liberty of bringing this bottle of 1811 Reserve Cognac. I hope you won’t mind.”

As he spoke, Joe pulled the commander's car keys out of his pocket and handed them to Colonel Els with both hands.

"Here are your car keys. Thank you so much for lending me your car."

"It's alright, after all, I have to offer some help to our heroes."

As Colonel Els put the key into his pocket, he reached out and patted Joe's arm, then picked up the bottle of brandy Joe had placed on the table and examined it.

“An 1811 vintage, this is quite rare.”

After glancing at the label, Colonel Els held the bottle up to the light, seemingly checking the color of the wine.

"Even before the war, this thing was hard to come by, let alone now. Where did you get it?"

Joe smiled as he watched the colonel fiddling with the wine bottle in his hand.

"You're absolutely right. I bought this before the war and it's been kept in the cellar at home ever since."

Colonel Els smiled, put down the bottle of wine in his hand, and patted Joe on the shoulder.

"Don't bring me such valuable things again next time, unless you got them from the Teutons, otherwise it will look bad."

Colonel Els looked at the bottle of brandy and said.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to drink this bottle of wine until the day of victory."

"Yes! Next time I'll bring back some good stuff from the Teutons."

"You boy."

Colonel Els smiled and shook his head.

"By the way, how was your holiday? Is everything alright at home?"

"It's alright, everything is fine at home."

"That's it."

Colonel Els looked Joe up and down.

"Now that everything is fine, I'm going to start scolding you."

Although Colonel Els said he was going to reprimand Joe, his expression remained smiling and his tone didn't change.

"You little rascal, even though you were doing a good deed this time, how could you make it happen in the newspapers? Do you know what the consequences will be?"

Upon hearing Colonel Els say this, Joe felt not sad at all, but rather excited.

Here it comes, here it comes, finally here! As the saying goes, the calmer the laugh, the harder the beating. Colonel Els is laughing like this now, so next he'll be put in a small dark room, a military court, and stripped of his military status.

There are wine glasses next to me. I'll smash the glasses as a signal, and five hundred military police will rush in from outside the room and drag me out on the spot. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Seeing that Joe didn't speak, Colonel Els walked up to Joe and reached out to pinch Joe's cheek.

"Don't do that again next time."

'ah? ’

The expected three-piece suit and military police did not appear. Instead, a casual "Don't do it again next time" left Joe momentarily stunned. Was that all?

Seeing Joe standing there speechless, Colonel Els assumed that Joe hadn't reacted yet, or hadn't figured it out.

Colonel Ellis felt that Joe's methods were wrong; how could something like this be leaked to the newspapers at this time?
Joe is still too young, too simple, and sometimes even a bit naive, but adopting the orphan of a fallen comrade is definitely a good thing.

So Colonel Els felt he had to explain to the kid that he was reprimanding him because of orders from above, and teach him how to handle such situations calmly and effortlessly if he encountered them again.

Colonel Els was explaining to Joe how many methods they, as officers, had to resolve this minor issue without making a big fuss.

The members of the Land Warships Committee are explaining to Winston the progress of the project so far.

Unlike his previous reports submitted to fool the officials in the wartime cabinet, Winston, as the organizer and creator of this project, could be said to have made tanks a weapon without him.

Before the project was handed over to the Army for development, Winston attached as much importance to this weapon as he did to the Navy's new warships.

So it's not an easy thing to fool Winston.

Moreover, the committee members had no idea that, unlike the Land Warships Committee which had always fully supported them, Winston was here to cause trouble and find fault.

So, after the committee members presented their work, including the Royal Fist MK-1 tank, which is still in mass production, and the Royal Fist MK-2 tank, which already has a prototype and is undergoing testing.

The committee members looked at Winston as if he were a hound that had retrieved a ball thrown by its owner, their faces beaming with 'I'm awesome, yay!'

Then the committee members heard Winston ask calmly, "Is this the best you can do?"

Upon hearing this, the committee members' hearts sank. They had no idea why Winston would ask such a question. Was there something they hadn't done well enough?

Then they saw Winston pull a small notebook out of his pocket.

The next few hours were agonizing for the members of the Land Warships Committee. They were completely unprepared for Winston's barrage of questions about the tanks, and given Winston's familiarity with bureaucracy, they couldn't resort to the convoluted, long sentences they used with others.

They could only be like elementary school students dragged into the teacher's office, interrogated one by one by Winston with those questions.

During the torture, the more these committee members listened, the more familiar these questions sounded. They felt as if they had heard them somewhere before.

After Winston checked each of the questions, he looked at his notebook, then at the committee members in front of him, his face as gloomy as the London sky.

"So you haven't dealt with the vast majority of these problems reported from the front lines, and you've just left them there?"

Seeing Winston's gloomy face, the committee members exchanged glances before Eustace, as the committee chairman and director of naval construction, finally spoke.

"Your Excellency, I disagree with you. We upgraded the MK-1 tank using the fastest speed and the most reliable technology. These upgrades can be applied to all current MK-1 tanks, allowing them to be put into service as quickly as possible. At the same time, we are also continuously improving the tanks. The prototype of the MK-3 is already under construction, and we are preparing to..."

Winston waved his hand to interrupt Eustace.

"Take small steps and move quickly, like the navy builds warships. You don't need to tell me that. What I want to ask is, why don't you just design a new tank, like we did when we designed the Royal Fist?"

Upon hearing Winston's words, all the committee members, including Eustace, finally understood why Winston had suddenly asked them such a tricky question.

Damn it, Joe! How did you manage to get the report to Winston?! We'll remember this!

Although he silently made a note of it for Qiao.

However, Winston still had to be dealt with, so Eustace continued to use the previous excuses, such as the new tank development taking too long to be put into use in time, the troops needing time to adapt to the new vehicle, and the current Royal Fist tank being mature and reliable. Rather than wasting resources on new vehicles, it would be better to use resources on mature and reliable old vehicles.

The Battle of Jutland demonstrated that new things are not always useful, but numerical superiority is a real advantage.

Winston was clearly not as easily fooled as the gentlemen of the wartime cabinet when it came to this excuse.

Winston said, "What you're saying makes some sense, it has its reasons, and it doesn't."

If the navy doesn't develop new equipment because it's afraid of wasting resources, then does that mean it doesn't need to build new ships either, and can just use the Dreadnought until it dies?

Don't give me that nonsense. I know you received a design from a lieutenant named Joe, so just develop according to that plan.

If you can't handle it, then I'll transfer Joe over to do the development. I've met this lieutenant before; he's a capable person, and I don't think he'll refuse the opportunity to lead a project independently.

Upon hearing Winston's words, the members of the Land Battle Committee unanimously agreed that Lieutenant Joe was exceptionally brave and that it was a loss for the army for such a talent to leave the front lines. They argued that it was unacceptable to let such a talent work as a lowly screwdriver in a factory, and that Lieutenant Joe should continue to beat up the Teutons on the front lines.

Of course, while they say that Joe's design is immature and requires a lot of time and resources for detailed design and verification.

However, as anyone who frequently draws knows, design often just requires that one flash of inspiration. After that flash of inspiration comes the soul-consuming process of detailed design.

So privately, the people in charge of the technical direction on the committee repeatedly reviewed Joe's proposal and lamented that they should have thought of these ideas when designing Fist of the Royal.

Joe's design is epoch-makingly different from the design of Royal Fist; the difference is as great as that between a human and a chimpanzee.

The reason I rejected this design before was that if a second lieutenant with only an elementary school education could come up with such a design, then what are these professionals?

But now that things have progressed this far, Winston has made it clear that they need to design the new tank according to Joe's ideas, so the only option they can do now is to drastically modify Joe's design.

Now that I've grasped Joe's design philosophy, all that's left is to follow that line of thought and write another answer!

Having figured this out, the members of the Land Battleship Committee immediately said that since His Excellency the Minister had said so, they would go ahead with the prototype design and try to produce a prototype as soon as possible.

Winston nodded upon seeing the Land Warships Committee's statement.

"Very good, very energetic. Then you can get started on the design now. I want to see your design as soon as possible!"

After the members of the Land Warships Committee left, Winston immediately began drafting a new report.

As a seasoned politician, Winston knew all too well that when it came to these bureaucrats, it was important not only to listen to what they said, but also to observe what they did.

The Army has now placed a large order for Royal Fist tanks, and it would be hard to believe, even for a Downing Street intern, that they haven't gotten something out of these orders.

In this situation, they certainly lack the motivation to design new tanks, so we need to give them some motivation.

Winston felt that Lieutenant Joe Harrison was perfect for the job.

The report that Lieutenant Joe had submitted earlier had already embarrassed the Land Battleship Committee, and he had just used the same issues Joe had discussed with him to interrogate them again. Now they must have a lot of grievances against Joe.

Judging from Joe's attitude toward the Royal Fist MK-1 when they last met, Joe must also have a lot to say to the Land Battleship Committee.

In this situation, could I give Joe the position of armored vehicle director and let him act as the client to push the project forward?

As a veteran who had spent half his life in the military, experiencing both joy and sorrow, Winston was well aware of the significant role a well-trained force could play on the battlefield.

Winston was deeply impressed by Joe's heroic figure as he commanded the tank that had spontaneously combusted during the retreat and crushed the Teutonic defenses.

Furthermore, according to the Army's reports, there is no one in the Army who understands armored warfare better than Joe.

So, could we discuss with the Army Department about having Joe form a tank training company specifically to test the new tanks and write user manuals and tactical regulations for these devices?

Winston quickly finished writing the report, signed his name, and then summoned his secretary to deliver it to the war cabinet immediately. If the prime minister was asleep by the time it arrived, he was to wake him up and have him read the report.

Just as Winston's secretary, with a look of 'Should I wake the Prime Minister?', headed to Downing Street with the report.

Joe lay sadly on his bed in the barracks.

It's so hard, it's really so hard for me...

Looking at the unfamiliar ceiling and recalling Colonel Els's instructions to him, Joe grinned in regret.

Why didn't I just rush in and beat that guy up?

By making such a big fuss, given the complexity of the case, I'll likely end up in jail for a while, and by the time the court delivers its verdict, the war might already be over...

Sigh, I was so stupid, really...

Just as Joe was grinning in regret for his restraint, three other men in the Scotland Yard interrogation room were also grinning.

However, it's hard to say how much of it stemmed from regret and how much from pain.

(End of this chapter)