Tyranny of Steel

After the dinner, Berengar took a bath with his lover before the two of them returned to their bed chambers. As per usual, after returning from the battlefield, they spent a fair amount of time making love every night for weeks on end. Eventually, the couple fell asleep in each other's arms.

By the time the sun rose in the Morning, Bernegar once more engaged in his standard morning routine. Lately, Linde had been joining him for a portion of the exercise, ever since she had given birth to Hans, she had begun to put effort into losing the baby weight, and once more, she was in pristine condition, though that did not mean for one moment that she would stop her daily routine.

After finishing their exercise, the couple took a bath together before eating breakfast; when they were finished, they went their separate ways for the day. Berengar had to visit Ludwig and place an order for the Arkebuse to sell to the Byzantines soon enough.

As for Linde, she had to manage the Spy network and collect intelligence on specific issues at hand. Now more than ever, she was filled with work, as her efforts were critical to stabilizing Berengar's rise to power. However, that was a tale for another time.

Berengar quickly descended from the Castle and entered the burgeoning city below, flanked by his House guards. When he neared Ludwig's office, he motioned for them to stay behind before entering the facility and knocking on the old man's quarters.

After knocking a couple of times, Ludwig opened the door; he looked more haggard than usual as if he had spent an entire three days straight working on some unknown project. When the man saw Berengar smiling while standing at his entrance, he rubbed his eyes a few times to see if he was witnessing reality. After realizing what he saw was indeed the truth, he exclaimed with shock.

"You excellency!?! I was just about to send word that I have something to show you, quickly come in, come in!"

Seeing the excited look on Ludwig's weary face, Berengar could not help but be amused, and as such, he walked inside the office only to realize it was cluttered with scraps of paper that looked like blueprint designs. Thus his curiosity was instantly piqued.

"Tell me, Ludwig, what is so important that you must forsake sleep?"

Ludwig was too excited to answer Berengar's question immediately, and thus he rummaged through a variety of blueprints on his desk before finding the right one. After grabbing ahold of it, he threw the other papers off the desk and spread the file across the surface so that Berengar could witness his newest creation.

When Berengar gazed upon the blueprints, he was completely and utterly shocked. He knew exactly what this weapon was and was astounded that someone could design such a thing in this era. Ludwig had taken Berengar's concepts, and with further education, and experimentation had designed a puckle gun by himself.

The puckle gun was a weapon from Berengar's previous life; only two were ever manufactured. However, for the time it was designed, it was practically a machine gun. It was a flintlock artillery piece that used a revolving cylinder that could carry six to eleven loaded shots and fired at a rate of nine rounds per minute. One might not think that is a lot, but in an era where it took 30 seconds or more to reload a standard cannon and 20 seconds or more to reload a single musket, that was an enormous advantage.

Most importantly it could be loaded with a solid ball, or a form of canister shot that contained a total of 16 musket balls per round. Allowing Berengar's armies to launch musket balls into infantry formations at a decent distance, with a much higher rate of fire than the traditional canister shot used in his cannons.

Berengar was stunned that Ludwig could design such a marvel of weapons engineering and gazed upon the man with newfound respect. Seeing how Berengar was staring at him, Ludwig decided to explain his creation and how he came to invent it.

"Your excellency, while you were at war, I got dreadfully drunk and had a sudden bout of inspiration. After sobering up the next day, I thought about my idea and realized it was entirely feasible. My thought process is, what if I could design a cannon that functioned similarly to your revolving flintlocks! I call it the Schmidt Gun after my family name! What do you think?"

Berengar was at a loss for words; this weapon was something that should not exist in this timeline, only someone like himself who had reincarnated into the world with future knowledge should be able to devise such an advanced piece of weaponry, and yet, Ludwig had invented it from scratch loosely based upon the principles of existing equipment that Berengar had developed. It was truly astounding.

Berengar could not be more proud of the man he placed in charge of his industrial district and smiled fervently at Ludwig before clapping him on the shoulder.

"Ludwig, my friend, you just earned a Knighthood!"

Hearing Berengar's words, Ludwig was shocked; he knew with Berengar's political and military reforms that Knights were quickly becoming a ceremonial position of lower nobility, but never in a million years did he think such a prestigious reward would fall into his hands. By now, Ludwig was extraordinarily wealthy as the head of Kufstein's industrial district, but he could not buy a noble title.

In particular, Berengar intended to introduce the Baronet rank for members of the common people who exceptionally served his state. Thus they were ranked higher than Knights but below standard Lords. Until now, Berengar had not found a commoner worthy of such a title, but with this game-changing invention by Ludwig, he would finally be able to introduce it to his noble hierarchy.

Hearing such praise from his liege, tears began to swell in the old man's eyes as he thanked Berengar for the reward.

"Your excellency, thank you!"

Berngar merely shook his head and responded to Berengar's appreciation.

"Do not thank me; you have earned it yourself! Your merit is second to none among the common population!"

After taking a few moments to collect himself, Ludwig finally realized that Berengar came here for a different reason, and thus he began to inquire about the details.

"Your excellency, why are you here?"

It was only now that Berengar remembered his original intentions for arriving, and as such, he carefully placed Ludwig's blueprints into the man's hands before putting his own upon the desk.

"The design is much simpler than the flintlock and not as effective. However, I hope that this Arkebuse can be produced so that I can sell them to the Byzantine Army!"

Seeing such a simplistic design on the table, Ludwig eagerly grinned before asking the thought on his mind.

"How many do you need and when?"

Berengar did not hesitate to declare his demand.

"Preferably thirty, and as soon as possible. I need to demonstrate their effectiveness to the Byzantine representative."

Ludwig scratched his beard for a moment while thinking about how long it would take. Eventually, he answered Berengar's question with a toothy smile.

"Give me a week; I need to set up a new production line for these Arkebuse as you call it; by then, we should be able to produce them regularly."

Berengar smiled and nodded before returning to the blueprints Ludwig had made.

"Set up a production line for the Schmidt Guns as well; I want as many as you can field. These weapons will be a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield!"

Seeing how eager Berengar was to implement these new weapons he developed brought a smile to the old man's face, and he quickly gave Berengar a thumbs up before proudly proclaiming.

"Leave it to me! I will be happy to produce as many as I can; I hope that they may bring glory to our realm!"

Thus Berengar gave one last piece of advice.

"Get some rest, Ludwig; you deserve it; everything else is secondary to your health."

Hearing that Berengar cared about his condition Ludwig almost broke out into tears; however, he managed to choke them back before responding with a wide grin.

"Don't worry, your excellency; I will get some sleep after I have given the orders to set up the production lines."

Berengar nodded before proceeding out the door. He still had several things to go over throughout the rest of the day. Namely, he had to visit Ludolf and check to see the progress of his reformation. He had been at war too long and had not focused enough attention on the spread of his new religion.

As he walked towards the local Chapel, Berengar began to wonder if any of his other exceptional subordinates would surprise him with significant innovations; only time would tell. One sure thing was that Ludwig was an outstanding engineer for the times he found himself in, and Bernegar fully intended to help the man on his path.

Unfortunately, Ludwig was already an old man and would most likely not serve him for too many additional years. Thus the need for public education and the fostering of exceptional individuals were more important than ever in Berengar's mind.