Tyranny of Steel - Chapter 1005

Tilicke Schauffhusen sat patiently while waiting for his meeting with the Japanese Empress. After having a few many too drinks during his last visit to Japan, he was heavily scolded for his mistakes regarding the leaking of information that could prove critical to the war effort.

As a result, he had been assigned a chaperon, a young woman, roughly Henrietta’s age by the name of Dorethe Schubert. Since graduating from the same high school as the Austrian princess, Dorethe had worked hard to become a lawyer, and was now in a position of power she had never dreamed possible while she was growing up.

It was not just her career that this young woman put a significant effort into, but her appearance as well. No longer the frazzled haired, four eyed girl of her youth. Dorethe had become quite the beauty in her own right.

Thanks to advancements in the field of optometry such as primitive contact lenses, as well as the multitude of hair and skin products widely available in the reich, Dorethe had become what one might consider the ideal German Woman.

A curvy figure, an hourglass waist, long, blonde, and straight hair, along with mesmerizing sky-blue eyes. Her appearance was enough to charm most men, not that she ever cared for such a thing. In fact, Dorethe was solely dedicated to her work, which was one of the reasons she was extremely nervous now that she sat in the great hall of the Imperial Japanese Palace.

While Tilicke had become well accustomed to purposely antagonizing Empress Itami Riyo on behalf of the Kaiser. Dorethe was nervous that such a provocation could have disastrous consequences. Noticing the young woman’s anxiety, Tilicke simply chuckled and shook his head before assuring his chaperone that everything would be fine.

“There’s no need to worry so much, as much as the Japanese Empress may hate my guts, she would never harm a hair on my head, or yours, for that matter. She fears the Reich, and for good reason. You just leave the talking to me, and I’ll make sure the Kaiser’s gift is accepted.”

Dorethe could only respond with a silent nod of her head where immediately after Itami emerged from the hallway which led to her quarters, while dressed in a full military uniform, adorned with all the medals she had awarded herself.

While she was informed that the pain in her ass, whose name was Tilicke Schauffhusen had arrived in her court, Itami was not alerted of Dorethe’s arrival, and the moment she gazed eyes upon the German Beauty, her brows furrowed with a bit of envy. Not because she was jealous of Dorethe’s looks, for she herself was a beauty on another level, but because Germany had progressed far enough socially for beautiful women to hold positions of power.

While it was true that Japan had a female monarch, that was an exception and not the norm. In fact, the entire government was almost exclusively made up of men, and that was not something Itami could change by force. To do so would incite rebellion from the staunch conservative samurai class who held significant power in Japan.

With this in mind, the albino temptress was quick to throw shade at the German emissaries while she sat down on her throne in a conceited manner.

“Is this your secretary? I assume she does more than just haul your paperwork around and organize files for you. Have your superiors ordered her to warm your bed at night as well?”

Both Tilicke and Dorethe immediately took offense to this remark, as the man was quick to defend himself and his chaperone.

“With all due respect, Empress Itami, but I find your remarks to be nothing short of slander. Ms. Schubert is a valued associate of our firm and is a professional of the highest caliber. For you to insinuate that she is my plaything is not only egregious but also completely reprehensible. I demand that you apologize.”

Itami took one look at the enraged lawyers and simply smirked in response. Why would a monarch such as herself dare to lower her head in apology to a few lowly lawyers? Upon seeing that she had no intentions of expressing regrets for her callous remarks, Dorethe became completely enraged. The young woman took a deep breath to calm herself before responding to Itami’s insinuation like a true professional.

“Empress Itami, I don’t know how things are done here in the Empire of Japan, but in the Reich, women are more than just slaves. Your remarks, if true, would be a gross violation of the Women’s Protection Act of 1429, which prohibits harassment of any kind against women in the workplace.

Perhaps in a backwater nation like yours, the mistreatment of women is not only deemed acceptable by society but also is also commonplace. However, in the German Empire, we conduct ourselves to a higher moral standard.”

Several moments of silence followed Dorethe’s rebuking of Itami’s words. In this time, the air was as tense as a battleground. One could tell by the look in Itami’s blood-red eyes that she was furious at her opponent’s words, but could not speak against them, because in many way’s Dorethe’s remarks regarding the treatment of women in Japan were correct.

After things became dreadfully awkward, Tilicke broke the silence by pulling out his briefcase and presenting a copy of the Vienna Accords to the Japanese Empress.

“For your ease, I have taken the liberty of personally translating these documents into the Japanese script. This is a copy of the Vienna Accords, which the majority of the world’s leaders have signed and ratified as international law. Though I don’t expect someone such as yourself to find an agreement with this treaty, let alone adopt it yourself. I would hope that it will provide you with some insight.

? The Kaiser still believes that it is in his best interest, and yours, to show you how he has and will continue to conduct warfare, specifically in regards to the treatment of civilians and prisoners of war. If you would, please take a look.”

Itami did not hesitate to snatch the documents out of Tilicke’s hands, where she read through the treaty multiple times, ensuring that she did not miss a single stipulation. As Tilicke had said, the treaty was primarily about the treatment of civilians and prisoners of war, something she would not disagree with. As she herself was concerned about such a thing in this medieval world.

One thing that the Japanese Empress immediately noticed was that there was a clause which stated that rebellions in legally annexed territory were exempt from the treaty, and that a ruler could put them down however they saw fit.

There was only one problem with this stipulation regarding the ongoing insurgency in the Korean Peninsula. The Joseon Dynasty had never actually ceded its southern territory to Itami and her Empire.

The Joseon still contested her occupation of the region and was still technically at war for its control. There was simply an armistice that was declared at the 38th parallel, similar in many ways to the end result of the Korean War in Berengar’s past life.

This meant that if Itami made a move to purge villages which harbored insurgents, she could very easily be tried as a war criminal in the event she loses the future conflict against Germany. Which was starting to seem like the most likely outcome.

Obviously, this stipulation was designed with two purposes in mind, to give the Germans impunity to act however they wished in their colonies against troublesome native populations, while at the same time declawing the Imperial Japanese Army in its attempts to fight against the Joseon Insurgents.

It would appear that every time Tilicke appeared in her court, it was from some form of taunting on behalf of the Kaiser. This game of cat and mouse that she could never win was driving Itami mad, more so than she already was. Thus, it came as a surprise when she gently placed the document down and sighed heavily in defeat.

“Tell your Kaiser that I will need time to consider adopting these policies. In the meantime, I am still waiting on the previous agreement we have made. As far as I can tell, no time and date has been arranged for the transfer of Min-Ah, and I will not cooperate with your Empire any further until such a thing occurs. If that is all you have for me, then you can return from whence you came.”

After saying this, Itami got up, and abruptly left the two German lawyers alone in her great hall. The sudden act caught both of them by surprise, none more so than Tilicke, who was shocked that Itami had entertained him without flipping out for once.

As for Dorethe, she was just happy to keep her head, after deliberately insulting the Japanese Empress in her own home. Before long, she was begging Tilicke to leave, which he, of course, agreed to. Despite his curiosity over what had come over, the usually prideful Empress Itami.

Currently, Berengar sat in his office, surrounded by a pile of documents, as well as a group of his finest engineers from multiple fields of study. While Berengar had worked hard to create some truly astonishing weapons designs, the timeframe he had set for their manufacture had become a losing battle, and as a result, many of his Empire’s most talented minds had come to propose alternative solutions.

Among these men was a man by the name of Eckart Roth, who had taken over as the Reich’s lead naval weapons designer after the Italian shipwright Evio retired years ago. Eckart had a nervous expression on his face as he passed forward documents regarding the failures to create guided missile cruisers, and destroyers within the alotted time frame, there was even a hint of guilt in his voice as he admitted his wrongdoings to the man he respect most of all in this world.

“I’m sorry, my Kaiser, I have discussed the matter at length with Wernher and we both agree that the development of ship-based missile platforms is not possible to achieve within the next five to ten years. Though we could alter your designs of these ships to make use of more conventional weapons, it is our belief that we should improve our previous designs as a viable alternative.

As you can see, we have proposed multiple solutions to the current problem of our battleships, battlecruisers, and destroyers, reaching a point of obsolescence. With the expansion of our shipbuilding capabilities, and the labor force dedicated to this field. It is our belief that in no more than a year, we could have these new designs up and running as the proper escorts to your carriers. Especially when one considers that the hulls are already under partial construction, and can easily be modified to meet the requirements.”

Berengar gazed upon these proposed designs and sighed heavily in defeat. Not because they were poor attempts at building appropriate vessels. Quite the contrary, these weapons were more modern than anything Japan was currently fielding.

Case in point being that these newest designs were essentially Bismarck-class battleships, Admiral Hipper-class cruisers, and Type 1945 destroyers. Which were some of the most modern warships Germany designed in the second world war of his past life.

No, what caused Berengar to become distressed was the fact that he had pushed for the advancement of arms, at a pace his Empire could not keep up with. In doing so, he had wasted everyone’s precious time, energy, and resources. As a result, he sat back in silence for several moments with a gloomy expression on his face. When the man finally spoke, he astonished all of his engineers.

“I’m sorry… This is all my fault… It pains me to admit, but I got ahead of myself and pushed for modernization too quickly, failing to account for our current limitations. In doing so, I wasted so much of your time, resources, and energy. I will immediately approve the manufacture of these vessels and push our plans for the others back a few years. I hope you can all forgive me for this slight oversight…”

Nobody in the room was willing to accept that this was Berengar’s fault. They would rather take the blame for failing to live up to the Kaiser’s expectations, then to ever believe the man had made a mistake. Still, the look on Berengar’s face proved that he was serious about apologizing, and thus the next man to speak up was an engineer at the Kufstein Royal Armory, who was quick to change the sour mood that permeated the air.

“My Kaiser, I believe I have some news that will cheer you up… With the armored vehicles designs that you have graced us with, my team has developed improvements, which will also ease the burden of manufacture.

As you can see, this here is a flak panzer, which uses the same chassis as the Panther Tank. We have increased the size of the guns over the older model, with an improved dual mounted 3.7 cm Flak 341, which is enclosed in a rotating turret. Have a look and see for yourself.”

Berengar was stunned by this development. In truth, when he was designing his own version of the flak panzer, he had neglected the design of the Flakpanzer 341, which had never been more than a wooden mockup in his past life. However, without even having the basis of this prototype to work from, his engineers had created a functional concept that was similar in design. This led Berengar to immediately think about a variety of possibilities where he posed his next question without hesitation.

“Is it possible for you and your team to design a self-propelled artillery piece that makes use of the 15 cm sFH 18 field gun, while being based upon the Panther Chassis?”

The engineer simply smiled and nodded his head before responding to this question.

“Of course, we have actually already designed a prototype, though it does require a bit of lengthening of the chassis. Still, it is entirely doable and will save us considerable expense and time moving forward.

Luckily, as things are, there has not been a major focus of manufacture on the Flakpanzer and Hummels. We can easily scrap what few models exist in our armed forces and begin production of these improved variations immediately!

I would also like to add that in the same spirit of the Panther Chassis redesigns, we have altered the Marder IFV that you have made to the same effect. We Call it the Schützenpanzer Ausf. B “Marder” As you can see, this machine has the same capabilities as the current Marder, but is easier to manufacture, and requires the same production methods as all of these other vehicles, rather than a dedicated line of assembly.

It is our hope that with this new line of weapons, we will be able to cut the costs of manufacture, while also increasing rates of production. In doing so, we will create a much more efficient production line of these valuable machines of war.”

To say these improvements impressed Berengar was as an understatement. These weapons would allow his Empire to use the same tooling, and parts to mass manufacture armored vehicles of every kind. This would allow the German arms manufacturing industry to out-compete their Japanese rivals by a wide margin.

In fact, he felt a bit ashamed for not doing this in the first place. After all, many of these designs existed in his past life, and the ones that didn’t were easy to design. The Panther Chassis, especially with the improvements Berengar had made to its engine and suspension, was arguably the best platform for all of these armored vehicles that he could currently manufacture.

The fact that he had been so strict about using other designs that found his fancy honestly made the man feel foolish. Bias had blinded him and in the end, Berengar could only sigh once more in defeat, realizing that perhaps the men who worked beneath him had begun to outshine his own brilliance.

By pulling out his stamp, Berengar made sure that each and every one of the designs presented to him were approved for immediate manufacture. Though his military would not be entering the capabilities of the cold war within the next decade, it would at the very least be operating with peak second world war era technology by the time war broke out with Japan.