What is the Southern Army's greatest weakness?
If someone asks me that, I will answer without hesitation.
'Numbers.'
The military is never a productive institution.
It devours more money than any other organization, and there is no way to recoup the cost.
It's not as if we can export defense products like the Republic of Korea in my past life. If we sell weapons, those weapons will eventually be aimed at our own soldiers. There is no way we would do something so foolish.
So even after declaring the Wartime System, we did not greatly increase the size of the army.
The reason was simple.
"Anyway, for the time being, we will hardly ever face a conflict on land."
Because the Empire fears civil war.
Of course, the Mages want to attack us somehow, but without the consent of the nobles and the corrupt Imperial Army generals, they cannot recklessly start a war.
After all, for a 'war' to take place, the Imperial Army and the nobles' private soldiers are necessary.
Therefore, at this point, an army of this size was sufficient to defend our territory.
What about the rest?
We have to run factories. We have to lay railroads. We have to help modernize the West. Since we declared the Wartime System and began producing munitions, there has been plenty of work to do.
Even the remaining personnel were being assigned to munitions support rather than the military itself.
Because the Southern Army requires far more supplies than the Imperial Army.
Spears and swords can be used repeatedly. Guns and shells, however, cannot.
Once a bullet has been fired, it cannot be retrieved and reused. Nor can a shell that has already exploded be picked up and used again.
Therefore, for modern armies, supplies are as precious as life itself.
Even if we cannot match the US military, where one soldier is supported by ten auxiliary personnel, we must at least ensure that our soldiers never find themselves unable to fight because they have run out of bullets.
Thus, the current strength of the Southern regular army stands at 150,000.
For a region with a population in the tens of millions that is undergoing the Industrial Revolution, that was a considerably small army.
That was also why I was betting my life on the Modernization of the Western Army.
The Western Army, which had 170,000 soldiers on paper, along with the potential conscripts from the West, would be a great help when the full-scale Imperial civil war eventually broke out.
Could the Western Army get strange ideas after being equipped with Machine Guns?
Well, I doubted they would suddenly go mad and fight their ally, the Southern Army, while battling their enemy, the Barbarians.
Even if something like that did happen, suppressing them would not take long.
The true firepower of a Machine Gun comes not from its overwhelming rate of fire, but from the supply system capable of keeping up with that rate of fire.
Until I could completely trust the West, all munitions would be produced exclusively on the Southern mainland. So there was nothing to worry about.
"You obtained the consent of all the Western nobles?"
"Yes. There were no lords who opposed it, Your Grace."
"Good. Then have the staff department draw up an operation plan for the Barbarian subjugation. I will also participate in the Barbarian subjugation, so make sure everything is properly prepared."
With this, the West was as good as completely in the South's hands.
Politics, economy, finance, manufacturing, military. Not a single field could function properly without the South's intervention.
Moreover, this was not something we had forced upon them. It was a structure the West itself had wanted.
A solid structure that would not easily break. Once it was complete, all we had to do was keep things moving as they were.
However, there was one problem I needed to address during the brief period before the Barbarian subjugation began.
"It's about time I did something about the navy as well."
The moment we annexed the West, the fragile peace we had enjoyed until now would shatter.
The enemies who had been wavering until now would immediately turn their spears and swords toward me.
And at the forefront would be Grand Duke of the East Edward.
Naturally, the option he would choose was a naval blockade.
Since building naval vessels capable of countering a naval blockade would take at least several months, preparations for the next-generation naval force had to begin now.
"Here is the design proposal sent by the Design Bureau, Your Grace."
[ Southern Special Design Bureau Undersea Submarine Design Proposal ]
[ Project 11502 ]
As the name suggests, it was a Submarine.
Since it bore the title 'Southern Special Design Bureau Design Proposal', it was a design put forward directly by the Design Bureau rather than by me.
The reason I had specifically commissioned the Design Bureau to design a Submarine was simple.
Surface ship construction and Submarine construction were entirely different fields. I wanted to see what level of technology the Design Bureau could bring to bear.
The result was quite surprising.
"Oh, they're quite good?"
The blueprint I received resembled the early Submarines of the 19th century.
The Nordenfelt II, launched by the Ottoman Empire in 1886.
It featured a streamlined hull resembling a Torpedo, with a Bridge protruding above it.
This design was the result of advances in shipbuilding technology brought about by Dreadnought construction, steel Magic Stone alloy manufacturing technology, and Magic engines.
"Well, it was strange that military weapons technology was still at a medieval level a hundred years after the Industrial Revolution began."
Technological progress naturally leads to advances in weaponry.
However, that had not been possible in this world.
The Mage and knight classes had been desperately blocking the development of weapons.
After Kaiser III, when the Industrial Revolution was just beginning, the Mages threatened Southern enterprises, declaring that they would stop buying their goods if they produced weapons.
As a result, enterprises had deliberately avoided weapons production for the past hundred years. After all, enterprises prioritized profit above everything else.
But they had not left me empty-handed.
The Southern Special Design Bureau.
It was a place where all kinds of experimental technologies, ranging from weapons to civilian applications, had accumulated over the more than a hundred years of the Industrial Revolution without ever seeing the light of day.
Although the original work, 'Monajoh', depicted it being completely burned down in the wave of communization, that had not happened in this world.
Because I was here, ready to make excellent use of those technologies.
The various technologies accumulated in the Southern Special Design Bureau were an enormous help in implementing Earth's blueprints in this world.
Furthermore, this world possessed one cheat-like material that did not exist on 20th-century Earth.
Magic Stone.
It was a mysterious substance several times more efficient than an equal mass of fossil fuel.
When alloyed with steel, it produced lightweight yet strong armor. When powdered and mixed into gunpowder, it maximized explosive power. And thanks to its ability to emit and sense Magic, it could even serve as a limited substitute for a semiconductor.
Of course, if you asked whether it could completely replace petroleum, the answer was no.
You couldn't simply make a jet engine out of solid Magic Stone. Nor could you ignore the various products made from petroleum byproducts and asphalt.
But that was a concern for a little later.
This world was nowhere near ready for such technology. It had not even grasped the concept of a jet engine yet.
For now, this should be enough to build the Submarine I had in mind.
The Submarine that had been called the terror of the seas during World War I and World War II.
The wolf pack beneath the sea.
***
Recently, the engineers of the Southern Special Design Bureau had been extremely busy.
Demand for new weapons had risen sharply after the implementation of the Total War system.
"Hmm... The Machine Gun manufacturing process is too complex, and the design has too many minor breakdowns. Try fixing those problems."
"There is a report that the equipment carried by frontline Heavy Infantry is too heavy. Try reducing its weight as well."
"Oh, a submachine gun? This is also quite a decent weapon. Continue researching it."
"His Grace the Grand Duke has given his instructions. Begin the conceptual design of a new 88mm dual-purpose gun to replace the 76mm Field Gun and 76mm Anti-Air Gun currently used by the Army."
With the wartime economic system firmly established, overwhelming financial support poured into the Design Bureau.
Furthermore, weapons development, which had barely been attempted until then, was finally becoming possible. As numerous enterprise factories converted to weapons production, new opportunities emerged.
The many design concepts that had been locked away in safes for the past hundred years under pressure from the Mage class were finally seeing the light of day.
Naturally, for the engineers of the Design Bureau, it was a time of pure happiness.
"Ah, we will carry on the will of our seniors."
"Wow, this safe is finally opening."
"Now we don't have to watch the moods of those old fart Mages anymore?"
Countless concepts and blueprints, secretly developed while avoiding the Mages' watchful eyes, poured out of the safes.
Among them was a concept for a Submarine.
It was a remnant of the efforts made by senior engineers who had once tried to conquer the deep sea using nothing but human power.
Following Kyle's orders, the Design Bureau engineers completed the blueprint by incorporating everything that could theoretically be implemented using existing technologies.
[ Southern Special Design Bureau Undersea Vessel Design Proposal ]
[ Project 11502 ]
"Ugh..."
"Senior, I guess this is as far as I can go..."
"I definitely drank coffee... Why am I sleepy..."
The Submarine blueprint was the culmination of Southern technology, created through the combined efforts of dozens of the finest engineers.
Although it had plenty of shortcomings, they were not worried.
After all, Grand Duke of the South Kyle Leopold, who had designed the Dreadnought, would somehow solve the problems.
How could he solve a problem that dozens of people working together had failed to overcome?
That was not something they needed to worry about.
Kyle Leopold would undoubtedly find a way to address the blueprint's shortcomings.
And Kyle Leopold did not disappoint the Design Bureau engineers.
"This is the draft of the next-generation Submarine conceived by His Grace."
A few weeks later, a representative from the Grand Duke's Castle arrived at the Design Bureau carrying a sealed document.
"He called this vessel UB-1."
U-boat.
It was the name of a small, secretive hunter beneath the sea.