Tyranny of Steel

The light of dawn shone down upon the Imperial Palace of Germany located within the city of Kufstein. Despite it being the hour where most people awoke to prepare themselves for a day of hard work, the Emperor of Germany had already been awake since the previous day.

Once more, Berengar had spent the entire night working on his designs, an unhealthy attitude according to his physician, but nonetheless, it had to be done. Luckily enough, there were ample supplies of coffee within the Palace's store rooms to endow the young Emperor with the energy needed to complete the task.

After one last stroke of the fountain pen, Berengar sighed heavily before gazing at his newest masterpiece. It was a blueprint used to create artificial ice. Since he had first entered this new life of his, Berengar had been plagued with room temperature beverages. After all, ice was a rare commodity in this medieval world.

However, with the invention of steam engines, Berengar had the ability to artificially create ice. The only problem was, he simply had not done so, largely because he had been preoccupied with many more important matters, such as creating an industrialized weapons industry and uniting his people into a single empire.

However, with a major war affecting his lands being an unlikely factor for the next few years, and his other major infrastructure projects already underway, Berengar realized now was the time to expand upon his ability to generate capital. There was no greater luxury in this world than a sufficient supply of ice.

Ice was something he had previously taken for granted in his past life. However, now more than ever, he realized how important such a versatile substance was. It could be used for tasks like refrigeration, all the way to medical applications such as treating swelling. To create ice from ammonia gas and water was practically a miracle in this day and age.

The principle of steam powered ice factories was actually fairly simple when one thought about it. Ammonia, when changing from a liquid to a gas, absorbs heat from its surroundings in what is now known as a refrigeration cycle. This was a principle discovered by Michael Faraday during the 19th century of Berengar's past life.

Later in that century, this principle was used to create the first Ice Factories in North America. The foremost stage of this industrial cycle was to use steam-powered pistons of considerable size to pump ammonia gas into a hot liquid. From there, the hot liquified ammonia is then pumped into condenser coils, where it is then cooled and processed into pipes beneath giant water tanks.

From this point on, the pressure is released, and the liquid ammonia evaporates, in doing so absorbing the heat contained within the water tanks. Eventually, the water contained within the storage is converted into ice, where it can then be processed and delivered to the buyer. A single ice factory operating under these conditions could produce a grand total of 150 tons of ice a day.

As Berengar had previously thought, the German Empire could use this ice for many aspects in their society, but they could also trade it with the Byzantine Empire and the Sultanate of Granada as a luxury item. After all, North Africa and Andalusia were arid climates, and if he could ship these ice blocks over to those lands, it would easily fetch a premium.

How he would ship ice overseas without it melting? It was referred to as the square cube law in his past life and was used for this very task. Essentially, one would place a large solid cube of ice in the cargo bay of the vessel and surround it with ice bricks. These ice bricks would keep the cargo cooled, while melting away themselves.

If Berengar could establish these Ice factories at his port cities within the Mediterranean, he could make a fortune off of the international ice trade alone, let alone the value of such a commodity within his Empire's borders.

Thus, when he gazed upon his many, many blueprints, and designs to achieve this result, a wide and satisfied smile etched itself on his face. He could already envision the sweet taste of a cold beer after a hard day's work. After achieving satisfactory results, Berengar drafted an expense report for the first Ice Factory within the City of Kufstein. As for its construction and development, he would lead that up to the City Planning Bureau.

Having gone through the necessary measures to construct such a factory, Berengar then spent the next few hours drafting the patents to secure the design for his own use. As he did with every invention he made. Although a burgeoning sector of industrialists was appearing in this world, he made sure they paid the price of admission to success directly to his personal bank account.

After all, the Crown needed its own source of funding to sustain Berengar's current luxurious lifestyle, and as a man who abhorred corruption and wasteful spending, the Emperor outright refused to spend tax-payer money on such frivolities. Instead, he had patented, trademarked, and copyrighted every innovation he had come up with over the years, ensuring that those who used his ideas would have to pay the price for it.

With these matters out of the way, Berengar collapsed back into his chair and sighed heavily in relief. Finally, he could get some rest, or so he thought. However, the moment he closed his eyes, a knock resounded on his door, forcing him into an alert status. With a heavy groan, he called out to whoever was responsible for interrupting his sleep with an agitated tone.

"Who is it now?"

A soft voice responded on the other side of the door. It belonged to none other than his wife, Linde.

"Master, have you been awake this whole time?"

Upon realizing that it was none other than Linde on the other side of the door, Berengar rose from his dormant position and yawned heavily before answering.

"I was just about to fall asleep. This better be important."

With this said, Linde opened the door and entered the room. Once more, she was in her intelligence uniform. However, something was very different about the uniform this time. Ever since Berengar had unified his Empire, he had overhauled many aspects of society. Including the military and intelligence alike.

As such, the uniforms issued to the newly formed German Imperial Intelligence were based upon those used by the Stasi in Berengar's previous life. The only major difference was the replacement of Communist imagery with Imperial symbolism from this timeline. As for Linde, she sported the uniform quite well, however as a woman, she wore a short skirt, and thigh-high stockings with it.

Berengar hardly noticed the dossier in the woman's hands, nor her stern expression. Rather, he was too enchanted by her beauty. He was tempted to push her down on his desk and take her then and there. Evidently, Linde noticed what he was thinking and responded by slapping him on the top of his head with the document before stating her reason for visiting.

"The Byzantine Empire is requesting further support on their Eastern Border. Small skirmishes have appeared between Byzantine Merchants, and bands of so-called raiders. However, Palladius is fairly certain that these raiders are Timurid Soldiers acting in disguise. It appears war against the Muslim world is inevitable. How should we respond?"

Berengar reflected on the issue deeply for a few moments, before pulling out another document he had lain around.

"It would appear now is an excellent time to demonstrate some of the new toys I have been designing for our military..."

A sadistic smirk appeared on Linde's lips as she heard the word "toys" she knew damn well her husband was referring to weapons when he used such a word in this context. Thus, she immediately opened the folder containing the blueprints of a new weapon and looked at Berengar in shock.

"Is this a scaled up Schmidt Gun?"

When Berengar heard this, he had a smug expression on his lips before revealing the details of this new wonder weapon.

"It operates on the same principle, but has a different operating mechanism. However, if you wanted to think of it as such, it would not be entirely wrong. I call it the von Kufstein Revolving Cannon. Much like the Schmidt Gun, or the Mk2, I should say, it is a revolving machine gun.

However, unlike the Mk2, this weapon is not chambered in the measly.45-70 govt cartridge. Rather it uses 40mm explosive shells. It has a rate of fire of roughly 68 rounds per minute, and an effective range of approximately 2,000 yards.

We can use this magnificent piece of machinery in coordination with our breechloading artillery to rain high quantities of explosive fire upon our enemies. Or it can be operated in conjunction with the Mk2s as well. If we deploy a few artillery battalions to the battlefield armed with all three types of artillery, I am sure it will be sufficient to handle any intrusion on our ally's eastern border. Don't you think?"

Linde nodded her head in approval before grabbing hold of the documents. She had a smirk on her face as she informed her husband of her intentions.

"I will get these delivered to the proper departments forthwith. You can rest now, you have surely earned it. I am certain Yasmin is still asleep in her room. If you want, you can use her massive cow udders as a pillow!"

Berengar chuckled when he heard this remark coming from Linde. It was a bit ironic, considering all his other brides referred to Linde's breasts in the same manner. In the end, Berengar dismissed the idea of provoking the woman before responding playfully in response to her suggestion.

"Isn't that your job?"

Linde merely scoffed before walking out the door, leaving Berengar alone in his tired state. One of these days, he swore he would get those two together and use both of their massive racks as the ideal pillow to rest his weary head upon. In the end, he did as Linde suggested and intruded upon Yasmin's beauty sleep.