Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 162: Ongoing Developments in the Land of the Rising Sun



Though the League of the Four Emperors had been established, primarily as a result of Bruno's actions in this life, some of its members were closer than others. For example, Germany and Russia were on exceptional terms at the moment.

Not only were the Kaiser, and the Tsar related, but ever since Bruno had single-handedly caused the Russian Revolution to occur and also saved the House of Romanov, as well as the entirety of the Russian Empire, from the Bolshevik menace, the Tsar had begun doing everything he could to get on the good side of Germany.

Currently, there were not only joint military exercises being held between the two countries, but there were also joint infrastructure projects being built. Not only were the railways being renovated and improved upon for the use of heavy armored trains, as well as the high-speed trains of the future, but even the road systems were being overhauled to facilitate transit via automobile traffic.

Granted, Bruno had no plans to make cars and trucks the primary form of transportation for the German Reich, as public transportation methods such as trains, subways, and buses were far more ideal for the German environment.

But at the same time, the use of personal vehicles for transportation was indeed something that was necessary, especially considering carrying cargo via aircraft was still decades away. Thus, the transportation of goods across the German Reich and its allies would be required to be carried via railway and highway.

And while Austro-Hungary was also involved in this massive infrastructure initiative, of which the three Empires were primarily contracting Bruno's businesses to complete the work, the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns were not ever likely to truly get along.

Sure, Germany and Austro-Hungary were neighbors and allies. That was natural considering the nature of the world at the moment. But Germans had a tendency to hold grudges for a very long time; wars had been waged, assassinations had occurred, and centuries of conflict between the two noble houses-who had spent countless resources trying to unite Germany under their banner in preceding centuries-was not exactly something that could be resolved in a single lifetime.

Perhaps because there was a lack of familial ties between the two houses, the Austro- Hungarians and the Germans were not as friendly at the moment as the Russians and Germans were. Even so, the relationship was amicable and trustworthy enough not to fear any form of betrayal in the immediate future.

The Empire of Japan, however, was a different story. Blood had been spilled between them and the Russians only recently, and unlike Bruno, who had redeemed himself in the eyes of the House of Romanov and the Russian people, Emperor Meiji was still seen in a bad light by the Tsar and his Empire.

For starters, the Japanese were a foreign people from the Far East. And in this day of excessive nationalism and ethnic pride, it was not like they were regarded as equals to the European powers. To an extent, this sentiment could be considered accurate.

Over the course of the last few centuries, ever since the Age of Exploration began, the European powers spread to every jungle, every desert, and every inhospitable wasteland around the world and claimed it as their own. Gaining victory after victory against anyone who resided where they planted their flag.

When it came to military prowess, only a European power could challenge another European power. This had been the way ever since the Europeans mastered the use of gunpowder. The only exception to this was Japan.

Only recently had a European power been defeated, and that was the Russians, who had lost to the Japanese. They were at most considered upstarts who had beaten the "backwater" of Europe in the Far East by many of the European rulers and people.

This lack of willingness to treat the Japanese as equals, despite carving out their own sizable Empire on the other side of the world, had angered the Empire of Japan, especially its leadership.

Sure, they were offered a place in Germany's new military alliance, something they were glad to accept. But the distance between them and the German Reich, as well as all these other previous issues discussed, did not favor strengthening relationships between the two powers beyond ideological similarities and economic necessity.

Or I should say that would normally have been the case, but there was one distinctive factor that tied Germany to Japan in a way that nobody had anticipated. And that was Bruno. You see, Bruno had made a mark on Emperor Meiji; more specifically, he had impressed the man with his performance in Manchuria, as well as his insights into warfare.

Even more so, Bruno offered Japan a grand gift that Emperor Meiji did not know how to repay. He had given them insight into the future of weaponry. Though he said a few words here and there regarding how machine guns would, by the very nature of their use, evolve in the coming decades.

Emperor Meiji had taken these words to heart and tasked his engineers with coming up with something based upon the recommendations Bruno had made. The Japanese had a rather impressive ability to make domestic military equipment and had done so to a rather absurd extent in Bruno's past life.

What I mean by this is that pretty much every nation that was either not called the United States of America or was not a major European power simply purchased weapons from either of the two or licensed the domestic manufacture of weapons designed in those two regions. Japan was the most notable exception to this general rule of the era. While many of their weapons were loosely based upon those used in Europe at the time, they were very different in many ways. It was perhaps because of this that Japanese equipment had proven to be primarily lacking when compared with the weapons used by the Americans during the War in the Pacific.

And it was also likely to be the reason they had a very different doctrine than the Western powers. While pretty much every nation of the war, other than Japan, fielded some kind of belt-fed machine gun, the Japanese relied on heavy machine guns loosely based upon the WWI-era French Hotchkiss, which used a rather inefficient rigid feed strip that was almost like a clip, but not necessarily.

Because of this design, its ability to continuously feed without the need for reloading was diminished, to say the least, bringing down the practical rate of fire significantly.

And while they were not using these heavy machine guns, they were using either BREN-like magazine-fed light machine guns or something called the Type 11 that had a bizarre feed design that made use of Arisaka stripper clips stacked on top of one another.

Either way, like their armored vehicles, they had never really designed a machine gun properly suited for the war, which could explain why they ultimately lost to the Americans in pretty much every land battle fought in the Pacific, outside of those waged very early on before the Americans could fully muster their wrath.

Bruno had more or less changed this, resulting in a prototype belt-fed, air-cooled machine gun with a detachable barrel, chambered in 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka. Frankly speaking, the gun was more or less a belt-fed variation of the Type 96.

Resulting in the weapon looking oddly similar to the BSA GPMG, which itself was little more than a belt-fed conversion of the BREN machine gun that the Type 96 was loosely based upon. Or more specifically, the ZB 36, which the BREN was based upon.

Functionally speaking, the weapon was more efficient than its past life counterpart, which it slightly resembled. It was more aesthetically pleasing, at least to Bruno's sense, should he have been present to witness its creation.

If used in the upcoming Great War, this weapon could prove to be not necessarily an equal to the German MG-34, but vastly superior to the heavy machine guns employed by the Allies. And when Emperor Meiji saw the first semi-functional machine gun prototype that he had invested heavily into over the course of the last four to five years since receiving Bruno's advice, he couldn't help but say his thoughts aloud.

"It would appear I owe that man a great debt of gratitude.... Perhaps I should extend him a letter of invitation to witness what his thoughts have given birth to?"

Anyone who had heard what the Japanese Emperor had said did not respond to him, as they knew he was speaking to himself. Instead, the project creator was quick to boast of the

weapon's capabilities.

"Compared to what the European powers are beginning to field, this weapon is vastly superior. We have acquired copies of the French machine gun, and it is not only significantly heavier than our new prototype, but we also suspect it will be far less reliable than ours once the completed design has been finalized.

While the weapon is far from ready to begin military trials, we are going to be performing some basic tests with it later this afternoon, if Your Majesty would like to be present to

witness its first function tests."

Emperor Meiji quickly looked over at the engineer who said this and smirked as he smiled,

voicing his agreement to the invitation as he did so.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world!"