Chapter 104: A Trip to Vienna
While Bruno was enjoying the peaceful days with his family, and Heinrich was struggling to figure out how to become a proper father figure to an adolescent girl he had suddenly found himself the adopted parent of. Things were progressing on the global stage in accordance with the changes Bruno had made to it.
The Tsar retained his power in Russia, and though he was forced to compromise insofar as to create a fully functional constitutional monarchy, one based largely upon that of the German Reich, he still retained significant authority as a monarch, unlike the modern liberal democracies of the 21st century which had "monarchs" as the "heads of state" for largely ceremonial purposes.
Russia began a state of rapid industrialization, having realized how much they had lagged behind the other foreign powers. At the same time, the wounds created by the Bolsheviks during their insurrection had slowly begun to heal. Something that time would eventually solve by itself.
The relationship between France and Russia was practically that of enemies. There was virtually no conceivable way after what the French had done to undermine the Tsar's sovereignty, both by trying to assassinate a foreign general in his employ while on Russian soil, and by supplying his enemies that sought to murder him and his entire family that the man would ever remotely consider aligning himself with the French.
Britain continued to match the German attempts to build a mighty navy of their own, outproducing them in terms of military warships, and shocking the world with the commissioning of the HMS Dreadnought which had pretty much overnight made every other battleship on the planet obsolete.
All the while, the sleeping industrial giant that was the United States of America stayed resting, showing no signs of awakening any time soon. Meanwhile, tensions continued to stir in China as the Qing Dynasty lived out its last days, seemingly unaware that the era of emperors in the land of silk was quickly coming to an end.
As for the German Reich, they continued to undergo the military modernization process that Bruno had set forth for them. With the military trials of the various infantry equipment Bruno had designed back in 1901, fully completed last year.
The German Army was beginning to issue semi-automatic rifles, general purpose machine guns, submachine guns, and semi-automatic shotguns to their Army. The shotguns, having proven their effectiveness within the ranks of the Iron Division of the Russian Civil War, suddenly became a sought-after item by the German Army on how contracted their domestic manufacture from Browning.
Meanwhile, the advanced Artillery Bruno had designed continued to undergo refinement and trials. But was showing significant promise. Within a year at the most, they would be approved and the manufacture of them would begin.
As for the Tanks, and Aircraft Bruno had made initial drafts of. They continued to undergo experimentation and development. With Bruno being a lead, say on what was added or removed from the designs.
It would probably be another two years at the latest before they began undergoing trials. To be adopted into service and put into production by 1910 at the latest. In addition to this, Bruno's suggestions towards building fortifications on their western borders had finally, after some time, been approved.
With the German Empire flexing its construction capacity to undertake such a massive endeavor on their borders with France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark. Naturally, this caused quite a bit of controversy with Germany's neighbors. But ultimately the German Empire declared it a matter of "securing its border from unwanted migrants."