Tyranny of Steel

Roughly a month had passed since Berengar ’s wedding. With it, Ludwig ’s workshop was fully updated with the steam-powered, precision engineering equipment that Berengar had designed and begun to introduce across Austria.

This did not mean that the entire industrial district of Kufstein was updated, in fact, it still had several months to go before such a feat could be achieved, but it did mean that Ludwig could get to work on some prototype weapons that Berengar had recommended for use in the armed forces.

For Austria to truly dominate on the battlefield, more modern artillery was desperately needed, especially since Berengar had begun to fear that his current artillery was dreadfully obsolete compared with his infantry ’s weapons.

As such, Berengar had designed a horizontal sliding block rifled breech loader loosely based upon the designs used by the German army in the latter portion of the 19th century. For now, this was the best his factories could manage to produce, as anything further would require an advanced recoil mechanism that his factories were simply incapable of making at this point.

Over the past month, Ludwig had endured substantial difficulties in producing and refining the prototype that Berengar had designed; however, with the help of his team of Engineers, and Berengar ’s support, the man had finally managed to create several rifled horizontal sliding block artillery pieces capable of undergoing field testing.

At the moment, Berengar and a few of his Generals were gathered at the testing ground, where they witnessed the artillery crew load one of the weapons from the rear. While the crew was busy doing so, Ludwig stood in front of the gathered military officials dressed in formal attire, with the same groomed appearance he had during Berengar ’s wedding. He began to make a speech as the weapon was rapidly loaded, his voice brimming with confidence.

”What you see before you is the newest innovation in field artillery! This weapon utilizes a 75x200mmR separate loading cased charge shell filled with TNT. It can launch this projectile up to five miles in the distance, with far greater lethality than the primitive ordinance used by our current muzzle-loading cannons!