Securing Technology

In fact, modern tanks as we imagine them and the first tanks looked remarkably different.

The first tank to appear during World War I, the Mark I, had neither a rotating turret, a coaxial machine gun mounted atop the turret, nor a low hull.

The first tank, the Mark I, had a huge rhomboid hull, large continuous tracks enclosing the entire hull, and two cannons in total, one protruding from each side of the hull.

That was because the trenches of World War I were much wider than those of World War II.

World War I was trench warfare, with both sides digging trenches and spending years holed up in them, doing nothing but firing at each other.

The trenches became more than mere cover; they became living spaces, and naturally grew wider as well. To cross such deep trenches, a huge hull and tracks enclosing the hull were necessary.

But from World War II onward, the nature of warfare changed to mobile warfare.

Once tanks with overwhelming striking power opened the way, infantry poured in like a flood.

The front lines changed rapidly within a month, and there was less need to use trenches for such long periods.

In that kind of warfare, it was better to make tanks fast and small than to use Mark I tanks with their pitiful road speed of 6 km/h.

A doctrine was established of filling in the deeper trenches in cooperation with combat engineers and advancing.

Then what kind of warfare would the struggle between the South and the Center in this world take on?

'Naturally, it would resemble World War II.'

The Empire had no anti-tank guns, but it did have human anti-tank weapons in the form of mages.

Anti-tank attacks flying in from a distance of one or two kilometers would be quite threatening. To withstand them, tanks would need high mobility and sturdy sloped armor.

And the Empire's territory was vast. If we did nothing but wage World War I-style trench warfare against such a gigantic empire, our finances and public opinion might collapse first.

In other words, World War II-style mobile warfare was not an option but a necessity.

Then could our South, which had only just reached the level of World War I, build World War II-style tanks?

If this were Earth, that would of course be impossible.

'If only mana stones didn't exist.'

In fact, the basic principle of an engine was the same in every era. Explode fuel to push a piston and turn a crankshaft.

World War II-era engines were simply capable of igniting fuel more efficiently, more frequently, and more quickly than before.

This was where the power of mana stones shone.

A World War II-era engine was a device that produced tiny explosions dozens or even hundreds of times per second.

Naturally, it became incredibly hot, and precision materials engineering and cooling systems were essential to withstand that heat.

Moreover, more than half the energy was consumed simply as heat, so the energy loss was quite high.

But an engine with a mana stone in place of fuel was different.

It merely had to use the mana stone to activate a magic circle that generated pressure.

The original structure was fuel explosion->high-pressure gas->piston movement->engine rotation.

A mana-stone engine was pressure magic activation->piston movement->engine rotation.

Naturally, it was far more stable than an ordinary engine. It neither expelled heat nor lost energy in the form of heat.

Thanks to that, we could produce engines in the 400- to 500-horsepower range even now.

'Though if we pushed them that hard, there was a risk the mana stones might run wild.'

Naturally, such dreamlike energy was not free. The problem the Design Bureau needed to solve from now on was mana-stone runaway.

The problem I needed to solve was separate.

The equipment needed for tanks had not yet been fully commercialized.

"Your Grace, as you instructed, I have summoned the heads of each company."

The South's largest steel company. Eisenberg Steel.

The South's largest optics company. Lumen Optics.

The South's finest engine manufacturer. Vallen Engine Works.

A company that produced field artillery. Stern Armory, among others.

The heads of the private companies that had cooperated with the weapons factories under the South had all gathered in one place.

Every one of them was an elderly senior executive waiting only for my orders. They had seemed unfamiliar at first, but by now their faces were familiar.

The heads of the companies began their reports in turn.

"We have succeeded in realizing quite a lot of the welding technology you mentioned several years ago. However... it seems we need a little more time to commercialize electric arc welding."

"What exactly is the problem?"

"We are making up for the welding machines' inadequate performance and insufficient current-control capabilities with magic, among other things. It is not impossible, but since it uses valuable magic, lowering the unit cost is difficult."

That was something I had expected. Since we were using magic as a cheat code to forcibly bring technology from the future into the present, there was nothing we could do about its cost-effectiveness.

"Let's solve only the important parts with welding, and use riveted joints for the relatively unimportant parts."

Even early World War II tanks often used a mixture of riveted construction and welding. This was a satisfactory enough result.

The other countries still could not even use riveted joints properly.

Next it was Lumen Optics' turn.

"We have focused on reducing impurities in the lenses and engraving night-vision magic into them. Aside from the increased demand for mages during this process, everything is proceeding according to plan."

The optics industry had benefited the most from magic.

Thanks to the existence of crystal balls, glass-cutting technology in this world had advanced considerably more than other technologies.

"Now that we have taken the East, we can mobilize more mages. I will assign more mage personnel to you."

Next it was Vallen Engine Works' turn. They had brought several engineers from the Design Bureau with them.

"We succeeded in producing the 500-horsepower-class engine we had set as our target... but there are cases, albeit rare, in which the mana stones run wild."

"Is it a circuit problem?"

"It appears so. We are currently working with the Design Bureau to fix the circuits."

"I will redirect as many of the Design Bureau's magic-circuit design personnel as possible to this project."

"Thank you. We will do our best!"

Meetings of that sort continued until the sun had completely set.

A tank was truly the final tech tree, requiring the full mobilization of every industry in a nation.

It was no coincidence that battleships appeared before tanks in Earth's history.

Battleships looked difficult to make because of their enormous size, but their actual technical difficulty was greater on the tank side.

Battleships floated on water. And water had much looser weight restrictions than land.

Thanks to that, their engines could be made as large as necessary, and there was no problem with encasing them in thick armor.

Tanks were different. To move quickly across uneven ground covered in all kinds of terrain, the components used in battleships had to be miniaturized.

That was why I had deliberately left them until last. While postponing them, I had only pointed them in the right direction and told them to build up their technological capabilities as much as possible.

And the entrepreneurs had more than lived up to those expectations.

"To sum up, you are saying that all the preparations needed to produce this 'tank' can be completed within about a year and a half?"

"That's correct."

"That is more than satisfactory. Good work."

Until then, the entrepreneurs had been sitting with tense expressions, but now color returned to their faces. They knew exactly what it meant to achieve satisfactory results for me.

"Continue this year's allocated corporate support as planned. In particular, have Kreuz Transmission focus solely on producing transmissions. The Southern Grand Ducal Household will buy them as soon as they are made."

Basically, I was inclined to provide as much support as possible whenever it was needed.

But companies that failed to produce sufficient results even after receiving that support had to pay the price.

I was not so unreasonable as to execute them with anti-aircraft guns, but I did fire off paperwork bundles as large as anti-aircraft guns.

That was so the military-industrial complexes would not work halfheartedly.

"I will receive the next regular report a year from now. Until then, make sure you can maintain these results."

So I sent the company heads home, telling them not to let their guard down until the very end.

Once again, silence descended upon the grand ducal office. It was not an unpleasant silence, however. It was a good opportunity to organize my thoughts.

I had deliberately been releasing, one by one, the technologies needed to build tanks for several years.

Now that those technologies had taken root in their respective companies, there was only one thing left for me to think about.

What kind of tank to build.

I had two models in mind as possible inspirations.

The T-34 series, the byword for mass production.

And the Tiger series, with its overwhelming breakthrough power.

The T-34, with a design simple enough to be produced even at a tractor factory and decent performance, was the best choice for our South.

And I planned to operate the Tigers as a small elite force, charging in while shelling from beyond the mages' range.

A mage's effective spell range was usually one to two kilometers. Since they could also put up their own protective shields, their role on the battlefield was similar to that of tanks.

And during that period, the Tiger series was the only tank with an effective direct-fire range of over two kilometers. That was the Tigers' unique advantage, one the other main battle tanks did not possess.

Because of that, when T-34s or modified versions of them could not hold out, there was no better unit to deploy than these.

'Well, I will have to think about the details after seeing the results a year from now.'

Only six months had passed since the East had capitulated. Our technology was still incomplete.

All I could do was wait.

And as it happened, some good news arrived while I was waiting.

"Your Grace."

Lucilla entered after opening the door to the quiet grand ducal office.

As always, she approached the desk with a file in one hand.

"The verdict in the trial of Edward, the former Eastern Grand Duke, has been delivered."