After concluding negotiations with the Bergmann Company over the development of light machine guns and submachine guns, Lelouch’s mission in Thuringia was basically complete.
Over the next three or four days, he personally helped Hugo Schmeisser sort out the general technical route, planned the schedule, and completed the procedures for establishing Bergmann’s new subsidiary.
The new company was temporarily named “Bergmann Salzburg Industrial Co., Ltd.” In any case, it was only the company name, not the brand name, so there was no need to be too particular—just like some company’s branch in some region.
Bergmann had also asked him why he had chosen a place-name from Austria like Salzburg. Lelouch merely explained offhandedly that Salzburg was his hometown, and Bergmann raised no further objections.
As for the brands under which the new company’s products would be sold, there could be more than one in the future. The first thing Lelouch thought of at the time was “Volkswagen,” because he knew that in this harmonized world, he had in fact already intercepted the fortunes of many people who no longer existed.
If Lelouch did not create the “Volkswagen” brand, then this name would surely vanish into the long river of history.
Of course, Lelouch also considered that the “Volkswagen” brand seemed more suited to vehicles, with a somewhat civilian character. For light weapons used purely for slaughter, it would be better to create another brand in the future.
After the new company was established, Hugo Schmeisser quickly produced a concrete design proposal. He stated that he could produce a prototype light machine gun within half a month and a prototype submachine gun within one month, after which small-scale trial machining could begin.
If mid-December were taken as the delivery date, Schmeisser guaranteed that he could provide 100 new-type light machine guns and 300 to 500 submachine guns.
While they were refining the specific technical plan, Schmeisser also mentioned that the key difficulty with the submachine gun should be the fine-tuning of the bolt’s weight. To design, in such a short time, a bolt that was not fully locked and relied entirely on spring inertia to return forward meant that it would inevitably be impossible to manufacture a bolt whose weight was perfectly ideal.
That required a great deal of slow, meticulous, repeated testing. If they forced the project forward in haste, then the bolt would inevitably end up either too light or too heavy.
If the bolt was too light, it would recoil too easily, worsening the gas and flame leakage that occurred when the cartridge ignited. If it was too heavy, it would have difficulty recoiling in time, causing jams when extracting spent casings.
Regarding this issue, Lelouch gave him a reassurance that absolved him of responsibility: since they could not achieve meticulous fine-tuning, then for the initial version, they should rather design the bolt on the lighter side.
As a military enthusiast, Lelouch understood all too well the harm caused by an overly heavy and rigid bolt leading to jams. The main reason later generations regarded the French Chauchat light machine gun of the First World War as the worst gun of all time was that its recoil mechanism was too stiff and too heavy.
When the Chauchat recoiled, even the entire barrel moved rigidly backward together with the bolt, just like a barrel-recoil cannon.
The advantage of this was that the recoil felt by the shooter was indeed reduced, because an entire barrel moved backward to help absorb the recoil. But the recoiling parts were too large and too heavy, so they often failed to complete their motion properly, and then jammed when extracting the spent casing.
Before transmigrating, Lelouch had watched a test video of the Chauchat on Bilibili. It jammed four times after firing twenty rounds. No wonder every French soldier in the First World War said his own side’s light machine gun was the greatest piece of shit under heaven.
Naturally, Lelouch had to avoid this huge pitfall. He would rather have shorter range and flame leakage than jams.
Only after receiving this reassurance did Schmeisser completely let go and accelerate development.
With the end user’s low requirements and forgiveness, his efficiency soared to who knew what heights.
……
On November 12, after completing his mission in Thuringia, Lelouch and Immelmann once again set off on an aerial journey, heading for their next stop: Munich.
That was the capital of the Kingdom of Bavaria, Rupprecht’s old lair, and also the headquarters of Siemens.
On this trip to Munich, Lelouch still had a pile of scattered little matters to find contractors for. In the end, he also needed to have Siemens solve the problem of making wireless radios lighter and more portable. For the storm assault troops, a radio light enough to be carried along by an assault platoon was the true essence of assault tactics. This was even more important than light machine guns and submachine guns.
Because only a lightweight, portable radio could allow frontline units to accurately report coordinates and call for artillery support, making the army’s long-range heavy artillery more flexible and efficient in use.
On the plane, Captain Immelmann, who had spent the past few days eating and drinking well in the guesthouse with nothing to do, still seemed somewhat unwilling to let things end there.
“Thuringia was far too boring. A small industrial city like that doesn’t even have anywhere to sightsee. You, on the other hand, were busy every day, fishing up so many good things for your army.”
Sitting in the rear seat, Lelouch could not help laughing when he heard this. “You got to sleep for a few extra days right after returning home, and now you’re acting ungrateful after getting the benefit. Once we get to Munich, you’ll have to find time to teach me how to drive and fly. Besides, in Thuringia, I wasn’t only seeking benefits for the army. Your aviation corps can use them too.
“The experimental light machine guns and submachine guns I had Bergmann manufacture this time actually all have problems with their cooling structures, and they’ll have to be improved later. But using these ‘defective products’ as air-force models, mounting them on your reconnaissance aircraft in the future, or even holding them directly in your hands and firing them in the sky, would be perfect…”
Immelmann refused to accept that as soon as he heard it. “So our aviation corps deserves to use defective products?!”
Lelouch said, “What do you know? There is no trash in the world, only resources put in the wrong place. In land combat, these two kinds of guns have very poor environmental compatibility and can only be used in watery or cold environments. But in aerial combat, that doesn’t matter. Think about how strong the wind is when a plane is flying. The efficiency of air cooling is who knows how many times greater than on the ground!
“So even a machine gun with the most defective cooling shroud will absolutely have enough cooling once it’s up in the sky. If you ask me, if you’ve decided you want to fight aerial battles, then you should specially customize machine guns that omit as much cooling-structure weight as possible and are compact and lightweight enough. The carrying capacity of an aircraft is especially precious, so this should be taken to the extreme.”
Lelouch’s words finally lifted Immelmann’s spirits, which was rare. Thinking along those lines, he realized it truly did seem to make sense.
Historically, during the First World War, most armies’ aircraft machine guns had not actually undergone specialized design. At the time, air forces were not professionalized, so they simply moved land-combat machine guns onto aircraft directly, without caring whether their cooling capacity was redundant.
Someone like Lelouch, who could precisely grasp the technical requirement of “flying fast in the sky means strong wind, so cooling doesn’t need to be too good” and propose a specialized direction, could absolutely achieve twice the result with half the effort as long as a few targeted modifications were made.
For example, planes of other countries with the same takeoff weight might only be able to mount one machine gun. But if they used an aviation-specialized lightweight machine gun, perhaps they could double that and mount two. That would be a qualitative increase in firepower.
Immelmann was also knowledgeable in the field, and the more he thought about it, the more excited he became. His admiration for Lelouch also grew stronger and stronger.
Immelmann said sincerely, “You really are something, kid. I’m completely convinced now. Sigh, when I first saw you rise so quickly from noncommissioned officer all the way to captain, I still felt I’d been underappreciated. But now it seems you absolutely deserve it. In a few more months, maybe you’ll be a field officer. In the future, when it comes to building the aviation corps, I’ll have to listen to more of your guidance.”
Lelouch said, “We’re brothers. No need to be so polite. In a couple of months, perhaps your aviation corps will have to exert itself in actual combat. That matter of shooting down that enemy reconnaissance plane earlier—no military merit was reported afterward, right? The enemy still shouldn’t know we’re trying to fight aerial battles?”
Immelmann said, “It wasn’t reported. I know what matters most. Before we’ve worked things out and become proficient, rashly exposing ourselves would only make the enemy more vigilant. For the sake of the overall war situation, I’d rather report my personal merit later. After that day, within a week, I found another opportunity to use a C96 Mauser pistol to kill a French reconnaissance-plane pilot.
“His plane crashed too, but it was over the area we control, so the enemy won’t find the body or wreckage. They definitely still think it was an aircraft accident. I listened strictly to you and did not provoke or fight over enemy-occupied territory.”
Lelouch was very satisfied with this, and also saw him in a new light. “You really do have enough self-control. That makes two shoot-downs on your record, and you’re still willing to be an unsung hero. But don’t worry. When the Battle of Ypres begins, I’ll definitely let you earn merits to your heart’s content. When the time comes, you’ll be promoted all at once, with principal and interest included. I never let my brothers suffer losses.”
Immelmann said, “Don’t give me those empty words. Since you’re willing to offer ideas for the aviation corps, I won’t cheat you either. Before, I said three thousand marks to teach you to fly and drive. Now I’ll lower the total price to one thousand marks. But after your light machine gun and submachine gun samples come out, you have to give me one of each so I can take them into the sky and try them out.”
Lelouch said, “Deal.”
A light machine gun and a submachine gun could not possibly cost two thousand marks. Besides, it was for his own brother, and for testing aerial-combat tactics and feel in advance. This counted as official business, and the duke would surely approve it.
Once the two of them had agreed on the issue of using automatic weapons in aerial combat, the plane had also reached Munich.
Immelmann landed steadily. The conditions in Munich were much better than in Thuringia. A BMW sedan was already waiting at the airfield in advance. Previously, this company had still been called BFW and had mainly produced aircraft engines.
But after Lelouch had spoken with His Highness the Duke that time, he had casually suggested that since they hoped this company would expand its business in the future and not merely produce aircraft engines, it would be better to change its name.
The duke felt that made sense, and after he hinted as much to the company’s founders, Max Friz and Karl Rapp, the two founders accepted it as well. Thus, just a few days earlier, the company had officially changed its name to BMW, meaning Bavarian Motor Works.
From this perspective, Lelouch could be considered to have promoted the birth of the BMW brand.
After Immelmann saw the new car before him, he also circled it several times with great interest, observing it.
The workmanship of the car’s exterior was decent, and the decorations were quite luxurious. As for the engine power, that was still unknown; they would have to drive it to find out.
“How much does this car cost?” Immelmann had always liked operating all kinds of machinery, so naturally, upon seeing a new car he had never seen before, he was eager to try it.
The Bavarian royal steward who had come to receive them answered calmly, “This car is not yet for external sale. At present, it is only in trial production, supplied for use by the royal family and senior army-group officers.
“However, over at the neighboring Fourth Army, the Grand Duke of Württemberg uses local brands from Stuttgart—Benz. A car of similar specifications to ours sells for more than twenty thousand marks.”
Benz had already been manufacturing cars for more than thirty years. BMW was still newly established, so naturally its foundation could not compare.
Immelmann secretly clicked his tongue. “Twenty thousand marks? With a captain’s military pay of four hundred marks, it would take fifty months to afford one!”
Lelouch also sighed somewhat, though not because he thought it expensive. “The empire’s industrial products are indeed refined to perfection, but industrial efficiency is already no longer sufficient. Max, you may not know this, but on the eve of the war, across the ocean in the Ugly Country, Henry Ford had already lowered the price of cars with similar horsepower and carrying capacity to a little over one thousand dollars, roughly equivalent to five thousand marks.
“In other words, with the cost for us to make one car, the people of the Ugly Country can make four. Moreover, they are still improving the efficiency of their production lines. If we do nothing, the gap in productivity will only grow wider in the future.”
That royal steward clearly did not understand much about the industrial world outside. Hearing this, he was also greatly shocked. “That kind of industrial trash from the Ugly Country can be sold so cheaply? Can a car worth five thousand marks even drive? Isn’t it just an engine carrying a shell?”
Lelouch did not want to argue the issue now, so he merely shook his head helplessly.
On the other side, Immelmann had already gotten into the car and familiarized himself with it briefly. Then he drove Lelouch first to the Bavarian royal estate to settle in, and they would go to Siemens the next day.
In the days that followed in Bavaria, Lelouch’s living conditions were also obviously much improved.
He no longer needed to take planes back and forth. Wherever he went, Immelmann drove the BMW prototype.
Every day could also be described as fine clothes and luxurious food, with splendid carriages and fine horses.
His Highness the Duke was also very generous. He must have learned that Lelouch had handled matters very effectively during his time in Thuringia, so he called back and bestowed that BMW upon Lelouch as his personal property.
A gift valued at twenty thousand marks was given just like that.
Feeling grateful for the favor and recognition he had received, Lelouch became even more diligent in going to Siemens during this period to urge forward the lightening of wireless radios.
Because Lelouch was representing the duke in presenting requirements, he received a personal audience from Hermann von Siemens, the head of Siemens Munich. However, the subsequent technical discussions were mainly carried out with the project managers and engineers under him, and there was no need to dwell on the specific details.
After all, Siemens was much larger than Bergmann and also had a vast amount of civilian industry. The big boss was very busy as well.
Hermann von Siemens was already the company’s third generation. His grandfather, Werner von Siemens, was the original founder, while his father, Arnold, was the second generation and was now also elderly, residing mostly in Berlin. The business in Munich had been handed over to third-generation family members to manage. This was also a typical family enterprise.
When Siemens’s engineers first received Captain Lelouch’s requirements, they found them rather unbelievable. In their view, the current FU08 low-power wireless radio weighed only seventy kilograms in total, which already made it very useful. One packhorse could carry it away.
The current communications companies were still highly reliant on mules and horses; it was not as though they were short of draft animals.
But Lelouch was considering more. What he needed was for the radio station to be carried on the backs of infantrymen and rapidly maneuvered through complex terrain.
He also knew that it was impossible to make electronic components or batteries lighter in the short term.
Thus, his improvement idea was also simple and crude. The original wireless radios were all integrated units. Since individual-soldier transport had not been considered, the structure was very compact, with the batteries installed inside the machine. In that case, Lelouch had Siemens’s people quickly produce a model in which the battery pack and the radio itself were separated.
After calculating it, the Siemens engineer told him some bad news: “If we make it split-type, we’ll also need additional insulating components and connecting cables, and the structure will become more complicated. Instead, the total weight will increase slightly by several kilograms.”
Lelouch’s attitude was very direct and clear. “It doesn’t matter if the total weight increases. I only need the weight of each individual component to decrease! If the total weight goes up, at most I’ll have several soldiers carry it separately and have them carry fewer weapons and less ammunition. But who can carry a seventy-kilogram unit on his back?”
The Siemens engineers responded to this requirement very quickly. After a bout of working overtime, they finally put together a plan: the total weight actually rose from seventy kilograms to seventy-five kilograms, but it could be split into three parts. The radio itself weighed twenty-five kilograms, while the battery pack was divided into two blocks, each also weighing twenty-five kilograms.
The radio’s endurance was further reduced by half, but when the power was used up, spare battery packs could be plugged in and swapped directly.
In addition, the extra five kilograms of total weight was not added for nothing. It included not only the weight of the additional cables, but also some waterproof structural components and shock-absorbing rubber pads, making the entire unit less prone to damage in harsh field environments.
Lelouch was fairly satisfied with this result. At worst, each platoon could add another communications noncommissioned officer in the future, and the platoon leader, deputy platoon leader, and communications NCO would be responsible for carrying the radio and battery packs.
The sixty ordinary soldiers in the other four squads would carry combat weapons.
The officers carrying the radio and batteries would only bring one Mauser twenty-shot pistol and two hand grenades for self-defense, saving all other load capacity for communications equipment.
When he saw the final plan, Lelouch could not help cursing wildly in his heart:
Damn it, the energy-storage density of lead-acid batteries in 1914 is truly low!
For a radio with power of only a few dozen watts, it needs two twenty-five-kilogram battery packs!
In later generations, even phones used dozens of watts of power when playing games, but how much did a single phone battery weigh?
……
The matter with Siemens could not be settled overnight.
Lelouch roughly calculated the schedule. He would have to stay in Munich for at least half a month, and during that time he might also have to make a trip to Nuremberg, which was also within Bavaria.
So while the Siemens engineers were working, he did not remain idle. First, he had Immelmann teach him to drive and fly.
Before transmigrating, Lelouch had also known how to drive, holding an ordinary C1 license, so he even knew how to operate a manual transmission.
However, the old manual-transmission cars of 1914 were completely different from later generations. Under Immelmann’s high-intensity training, he still spent three to five days before he learned, and another dozen or so days before he preliminarily mastered flying a plane.
During this period, Lelouch also seized every spare moment. Holding the budget approved by His Highness the Duke, he brought some Bavarian royal stewards with him to inspect suppliers and procure some equipment with relatively low technical content.
For example, he wanted to produce steel helmets several months earlier than the French army, or procure a batch of camouflage uniforms with better concealment colors, as well as first-generation gas masks capable of defending against tear gas.
Even the long military boots originally used by the German army were not very suitable for the future battlefield environment of the Ypres salient. The surroundings of Ypres were too muddy, and in many places the water reached the waist. Long boots could not keep water out at all; instead, after water got in, they would keep holding it there, soaking the feet until they rotted into “trench foot,” a kind of fungal foot disease.
Lelouch felt it would be better to procure a batch of low-cut, highly wear-resistant, thick-soled athletic shoes for the soldiers, plus leather puttees. Those would be more useful than long boots. Ideally, they would be like later generations’ work safety shoes, sturdy and durable.
Among these things, aside from steel helmets being slightly difficult, the others could be handled by finding any garment factory in Munich, so there was nothing in particular worth elaborating on.