Imperial Elite

Chapter 41 Unique Processes of Brittany

What really gave Joe a headache was that he didn't know how to deal with the people from the Land Battleship Committee.

As we all know, an armored company should have armor, just as a fire hydrant should have water, and cultural workers should have culture; it is a simple truth.

But things changed slightly when it came to Joe.

Joe originally thought that after becoming the Director of Armored Forces, his relationship with the Land Battleship Committee had undergone some fundamental changes.

In the past, the Land Battleship Committee ignored him because he was insignificant and had little influence. As a result, the Land Battleship Committee had countless questions, but the committee did not respond.

But now that he's become the armored commander, they should be able to respond to his words now, right?

However, the situation is not like that, or rather, not entirely like that.

The Land Battleship Committee accepted all of Joe's suggestions for modifying the Royal Fist tank.

This directly led to the Royal Fist tank undergoing three iterations, with its designation jumping directly from MK-2 to MK-5.

Despite the crazy number of iterations of the Royal Fist tank, some of the most troublesome problems remain unresolved due to its original design.

For example, the layout of the internal engine that Joe has always wanted to modify is no less difficult than redesigning a completely new tank.

Therefore, the Royal Fist series tanks could only be based on the MK-1 and MK-2, with the original 4-inch gun in the front removed, a new hatch opened on the top of the turret for easy access, and the cannons on the left and right sides replaced with heavy machine guns to reduce the weight of the vehicle.

At the same time, the original 4-inch cannon on the turret was replaced with a 2-inch rapid-fire cannon, or the so-called 'Pom-Pom' cannon.

This type of gun is widely used for light air defense and anti-torpedo boat operations, and is extensively equipped on cruisers, destroyers, and battleships. It is a technologically mature gun used for close-range air defense and engaging small targets.

Although the reduction in caliber from 113 mm to 40 mm was an epic downgrade, the 'Pom-Pom' cannon's high rate of fire of 200 rounds per minute made up for this shortcoming.

Meanwhile, after the weight of the gun barrel was reduced by more than 500 kilograms, the turret, which was much lighter overall, was finally able to accommodate the commander's and gunner's chairs. In addition, an experimental electronic control system that could make the turret rotate electrically was added, so there was no need to worry about the motor being unable to drive the MK-5 standard model because the turret was too heavy.

Furthermore, after removing the left and right turrets to reduce weight, the original 4-inch gun was replaced with a lighter 3-inch gun with a faster rate of fire, and the gun carriage was modified to make the firing arc more flexible.

Both types of artillery were previously widely deployed on destroyers and cruisers for air defense and anti-ship operations.

This means that there is no need to develop new shells; new shells can be purchased directly from factories or obtained from the navy and anti-aircraft artillery units.

Moreover, there's no need to worry about these artillery pieces being unsuitable for the tanks and unable to perform their combat functions.

After all, there's an old saying in a distant other world: "Put down the anti-aircraft guns, and you'll face a military court."

These cannons could shoot down planes and torpedo boats on ships, and when mounted on tanks, they could destroy Teutonic bunkers.

It can be said that without testing the Royal Fist tank on the battlefield again, Joe has optimized every possible aspect of it.

Judging from the level of cooperation from the Land Battleship Committee in the Royal Fist project, it can be said that they have done their utmost.

However, it would be inaccurate to say that the Land Warships Committee suddenly changed its ways and began to fully cooperate with Joe's work.

Because outside of Project Royal Fist, the HT-N project proposed by Joe, also known internally as the 'Battlefield Advanced Tank Project' or the 'Harrison Tank - New' project, was progressing very slowly in the design work of the Land Battleship Committee.

Strictly speaking, the progress of this project can no longer be described as slow; it has essentially come to a standstill.

After Joe had already provided the oddly shaped box he had designed by stitching together numbers three and four, the rest of the work should have gone very smoothly, as is customary.

At most, there will be some problems when designing the chassis. After all, in order to put it into production as soon as possible, Qiao Lian chose to share the engine and transmission of the Royal Fist tank.

However, the engineers on the Land Battleship Committee made a series of major changes to Joe's design drawings. One day they said there were problems with the suspension machining and that the suspension system might need to be changed. The next day they said that the previous body size design was flawed and that the engine and gearbox could not be fitted in.

The day after tomorrow, they said that the navy has taken over the production of rolled armor steel, so we can only use ordinary steel and the overall stress needs to be recalculated.

The day after tomorrow, they started saying that skilled riveting workers are now repairing ships in naval shipyards, and the Royal Fist tank also uses a lot of welding technology, so for this new type of tank, why don't we take a risk and adopt a full welding process?

After Joe solves one problem for them, they'll pull out eight hundred more questions from who-knows-where and ask Joe.

Faced with this obvious delaying tactic, Joe couldn't accuse them of being uncooperative, because these guys were designing the tank exactly according to Joe's requirements, and apart from being slow, Joe couldn't find any fault with them.

These people sometimes even spout incredibly long and complex sentences.

"Your Excellency, Chief of Armored Forces, I fully understand the profound significance of your request for armor design optimization in enhancing the effectiveness of our defense system."

"However, given the complexity of armor development and its far-reaching impact on overall strategic deployment, resource allocation, and cross-departmental coordination, any design adjustments must undergo a thorough review process to ensure that the opinions of all potential stakeholders are fully considered, while avoiding unforeseen systemic consequences that may result from hasty implementation."

"Therefore, at this stage, it is recommended that we first establish a dedicated advisory committee to solicit professional insights from all parties and develop a comprehensive evaluation framework to ensure that any subsequent actions can achieve long-term strategic goals while maintaining the stability of the existing system."

This puzzled Joe greatly. Damn it, is it that hard to design a new type of tank?

Did I jump into the well with the child of the Land Warship Committee at some point? Why are these guys so uncooperative?

It was all work, but now it feels like it's also connected to some personal grudges?

Frustrated by the lack of cooperation at work, Joe could only push the project forward amidst constant wrangling with the Land Battleship Committee, while simultaneously training the armored training company.

Because the new vehicle is still on paper, Joe can only use Royal Fist MK-3 and MK-5 tanks for training.

Then, Joe discovered that his armored training company was indeed teeming with talented and ruthless individuals. Besides old Londoners like his investor, who were Union Jack-affiliated, there were also quite a few students from prestigious universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial College London.

This puzzled Joe. Why were these future pillars of the empire not staying in the rear and doing scientific research, but instead joining the army? Did the army need him as a filler?

After drinking together a few times and sharing cigarettes and chocolates with them while on duty, Joe finally understood what was going on.

In general, some of these students were passionate young men who joined the army after the war began, responding to the government's call to "Young men! Go to the front lines! For His Majesty and the Motherland! Teach those Teutonics a lesson!" and driven by fervent and lofty patriotism.

Others were like me, unlucky souls forced to join the army by public pressure, and some were even worse off than me.

At least Joe only faces the troublemaking White Feather, while these students who just want to live a normal life have to bear the pressure from their classmates and friends.

With most of the fervent students joining the army, life became increasingly difficult for the remaining students.

To his classmates, “Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial College London are supposed to cultivate people with lofty aspirations, high moral character, great talent, and the ability to shoulder great responsibilities. What about you? You just sleep all day, have terrible luck, break all the rules, and cause a mess. How dare you stay at school like this?”

Soon, faced with the combined contempt of their classmates, those students with thin skin could only grit their teeth and join the army. As time came to 1915, the front lines became increasingly tense, and even the most lazy students had no choice but to join the army after finishing their studies.

Fortunately, although the recruitment methods in Bonitania were rather unethical, the Bonitania Army did manage to be humane for once when allocating these students.

Since you are all science and engineering students, you must know math. Since you know math, you can calculate artillery mils. The army has decided that you will be the artillerymen!

Then, when these students finished learning artillery knowledge and were ready to be sent to the front line, it just so happened that the armored forces were being formed. So these science and engineering students from various universities joined Joe's armored training company.

Those who studied humanities were in a worse situation. Because they lacked science and technology skills, they were all assigned to infantry units and sent to the front lines. Just last month, they saw several obituaries of acquaintances published in the newspapers, and without exception, the location was the Somme River.

Faced with these highly talented students sent by the Army, Joe had only one thought.

Gentlemen, you don't want to go to the front lines and fight the Teutons to the death, do you? Then come with me and let's invent something!

So after clearing out a garage in the camp, Joe began to work with the high-achieving students from various universities to improve the much-criticized in-vehicle communication system.

Joe also bought telephones and switchboards out of his own pocket and, while testing them on the tanks of the armored training company, he also made some improvements to the headsets sold on the market.

Then Joe, along with these guys who called themselves the 'Garage Gang' because they spent so much time in the garage inventing things, secured three patents in one go, including an in-car communication system, a headset design with a throat microphone, and a headset design with an adjustable microphone.

After coming up with these three patents, Joe was still lamenting why he hadn't thought of and developed them sooner. He thought that if he had developed these things, like helmets, before the war, he wouldn't have needed to sell pins, and he would have been financially independent long ago.

Joe's investor, the nobleman Baron Edmund Victor Sersk, who spent the first half of his life as an adventurer and the second half as a capitalist, came to congratulate Joe, saying that it seemed he would make a lot of money again. He wondered if Joe would still be willing to cooperate with him as before.

Joe was completely bewildered by Baron Edmund's invitation to collaborate. After all, all his previous inventions were just attempts to get his attention and be transferred from the front lines to the rear for development work, without earning him a single penny.

Moreover, since such inventions are developed within the military and consume military resources, shouldn't they theoretically be directly authorized for use by the military?

Upon hearing Joe's question, Baron Edmund shook his head and sighed.

Joe still doesn't understand how Britannia works.

Edmund then explained to Joe how a project should operate in Brittany.

First, if Joe wants to move forward with a project, he needs approval from above. This doesn't refer to figures like His Majesty or the Prime Minister; they are too busy and sometimes don't even have time to follow up on project progress from briefings, so they usually can't push projects forward.

So at this point, Joe needs to find the minister in charge of the project. For example, if Joe wants to get his hands on the land battleship committee's prize, he should talk to the Minister of Munitions.

Then, with the Minister of Munitions' approval, Joe still needed to find a manufacturer willing to cooperate. Although, in theory, the Empire's military production was all done through bidding and tendering, the specifics of how to win a bid were...

After all, everyone is quite busy, and these manufacturers wouldn't be willing to start construction unless there were sure the project would be profitable.

This project can only be pushed forward if the higher-ups are willing to push it forward and the manufacturers have agreed on orders and targets.

Baron Edmund happens to have a factory in Liverpool that can produce things like switches and headphones.

Therefore, if Joe is willing to continue working with Baron Edmund this time, Baron Edmund will share five percent of the profits with Joe for every in-vehicle communication device installed.

If Joe is willing to sell ownership of the patent, then the selling price and profit sharing are still negotiable.

Faced with Baron Edmund's terms, Joe was momentarily dazed.

"Aren't we doing something illegal?"

Baron Edmund smiled at Joe.

"Then why do you think your project can't get through to the Land Warships Committee?"

At that moment, Qiao suddenly realized.

Damn it, when these people faced me, they had two faces. Were they just waiting for me to get away with this?

Joe gritted his teeth and looked at Baron Edmund.

"Your Excellency, do you happen to own a factory capable of producing motor vehicles? If not, do you happen to have a friend who is willing to contribute to the tank industry in Bonitania and could you introduce me to such a person?"

(End of this chapter)