Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 183: Shareholder Meeting

Another few weeks had passed, and Vizier Al-Hakam had long since departed to return to his ledgers in Baghdad; of course, he would first report to the Caliph about his visit and his successful acquisition of the Fire-Lances.

Yet that was a quarterly report for another time.

At the moment, Ragnar was in the Iron Works Testing Range once more, where he was observing the introduction of two new key pieces of machinery.

Ones that would drastically change the market share of the battlefield once again.

Since Leif the Elder had designed the ’Leif-Hammer’ and the prototype ’Schmidt Gun’ (which Leif insisted on calling the ’Repeater Cannon’ to avoid sounding too foreign), he had spent a great deal of time and effort bringing them to reality.

At the moment, three of the Repeater Cannons were lined up in the mud, their brass cylinders gleaming under the grey English sky.

The Repeater Cannons were mounted on reinforced carriages that could be dragged by a team of draft horses, much like a standard steam cannon.

Thus allowing for excellent mobility of the assets on the battlefield.

This immediately caught the eyes of the Shift Supervisors (Artillery Officers) present, who by now had all engaged in hostile takeovers at some point.

Soon these machines would be demonstrating their capabilities to Ragnar and many of his senior management who had gathered.

Ragnar was about to hold a keynote speech, and Leif was standing next to him, wiping grease from his hands. This speech would do two things.

It would introduce Leif as the architect of the Repeater Cannon and establish him as a new rank of "Industrialist."

Thus the charismatic young Director spoke with a great deal of passion for the man in front of him, who was also a valuable asset.

"Gentlemen of the Board! I have gathered you all here today to witness the rollout of a mighty innovation, one that would not exist without the brilliant mind of this man standing before you. Most of you should be aware of his employee ID; he is Leif the Elder! Without his R&D, none of you would be equipped with the tools you use to audit the competition!

He is the Head Engineer of Titan’s heavy industry, and now he has invented a machine that will change the bylaws of warfare; what you see before you is known as the Repeater Cannon!

It is a revolving artillery piece with the ability to fire nine rounds per minute! Either solid iron slugs or a canister shot comprised of 16 musket balls! Its effective range is 75 yards, with its maximum range being 200! Now let us witness the ROI of this machine!"

Upon hearing this impassioned speech, a series of polite applause erupted from the audience of Supervisors who had gathered to witness the destructive power of the new asset.

An enemy formation of 100 wooden posts was set up at 75 yards, each equipped with scavenged West Saxon mail to simulate a hostile merger.

The moment Ragnar gave the order, the three guns began to liquidate the target.

The first volley fired by the Repeater Cannons was filled with solid slugs, and a total of 27 rounds were fired in a single minute; the large projectiles devastated the enemy formation, as they tore through not only one opponent but sometimes the liability behind them as well.

However, the demonstration was not finished with that. Instead, the brass cylinders were rapidly replaced with ones filled with Canister Shot, and before long, another volley was fired off.

Each canister contained 16 lead balls that flew downrange into the targets and shredded them apart.

A total of 9 canisters were fired per the three guns in the span of one minute, resulting in a whopping 432 projectiles being fired into the enemy formation during that small time frame.

The resulting depreciation of the simulated enemy formation was shocking even to the veteran supervisors who had waged many audits.

They could only imagine the effects such a machine would have on the battlefield when used alongside standard steam cannons.

It was indeed an astonishing degree of restructuring that these so-called Repeater Cannons wrought upon the armored wooden targets.

After the demonstration was finished and the targets were thoroughly scrapped, Ragnar noticed his managers were staring in silence for some time.

Eventually, General Bjorn began to clap slowly, his gold tooth glinting, and before long, it transformed into thunderous applause.

So much so that Ragnar had to calm the men down by raising his cane before saying his other piece of important news.

"Due to the great extent that Leif the Elder has served our Brand, I hereby promote him to Industrialist for his exceptional service to the Iron Empire! For those of you wondering, Industrialist is a new equity-holding rank that shall henceforth be appointed from the workforce who have accomplished exemplary service to the Directorate.

For those of you present who are Thanes, do not fret; your voting rights remain secure!"

The news that Ragnar declared just now was shocking to the people present, especially considering the management class was almost entirely filled with Thanes and Defectors at the moment.

Thus they were conflicted over the matter.

However, Ragnar did state that they were still below the Board of Directors, therefore such a thing was somewhat acceptable to the old guard.

Despite their concerns over the issue, they still applauded Leif on his promotion, and the old man shared his usual soot-stained grin in response.

He was now a shareholder, even if he still preferred his apron to a silk tunic.

However, Ragnar did not stop the presentation here; he had another critical innovation to add to his inventory, one that Leif had helped produce; it was a relatively simple design and thus could be employed in mass numbers.

However, this presentation was meant for the Infantry Supervisors, and thus he dismissed the Artillery staff before approaching the other test field where his infantry managers had already gathered.

On the field was a platoon of Grenadiers, who appeared to be holding the standard Mark II Repeating Crossbow.

However, what shocked them was that their bolt cases were open, and in them were no longer the standard loose bolts but a Speed-Loader Clip; this invention was based upon the concept of a stripper clip from Ragnar’s previous life and essentially sped up the reloading process of the magazine.

Thus Ragnar boldly declared its specs to the infantry managers who were gathered and observing the strange new devices.

"This is the Quick-Load Clip; it will replace the loose bolts in our service. It is made of thin tin and contains five bolts aligned for immediate insertion! This device allows the magazine to be filled in a single motion, thus allowing a far quicker reload speed! Instead of fumbling with individual bolts, your contractors will be firing continuously!"

The Grenadiers present had spent the last few weeks getting accustomed to the device and by now were exceptionally proficient in its use.

As such, they rapidly reloaded their first magazine. In doing so, they placed the tin clip into the guide rails of the crossbow magazine and then shoved the bolts down in a single fluid motion; with this act, the weapon was primed.

After doing so, they quickly cranked the levers, aimed at the targets downrange, and fired. Within seconds the platoon of grenadiers reloaded their magazines and fired again.

This rate of fire peaked at twenty bolts in a single minute, thus thoroughly shredding the enemy formation in front of them at fifty yards.

The infantry managers who were gathered for this demonstration were just as shocked at its display as the artillery staff were for the Repeater Cannon.

This small tin device would change the way they waged audits.

It would make Ragnar’s armies far more efficient than the enemy forces, even if the enemy got their hands on some primitive crossbows.

Thus a roar of applause echoed throughout the testing field as the infantry managers clapped to their heart’s content.

They would now be able to fire many more projectiles downrange at the enemy forces before having to engage in close-quarters negotiation; such a device was truly revolutionary.

Ragnar himself was impressed with the speed and efficiency that his grenadiers utilized such devices with; if his entire workforce could be trained to be so efficient in their use, nobody in this market would be able to compete with him on land.

Thus he too applauded the contractors who had been used in the demonstration.

Ragnar could see the rise of his future Iron Legion with the new innovations.

All he needed now was a matching Iron Navy, something he planned to begin construction on shortly with the help of the new Leif-Hammer. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

For now, in the following months, his troops would be adequately trained in the use of the Quick-Load Clips.

Ragnar’s grand ambitions were slowly but surely starting to become a reality, and thus he looked upon the new military innovations with pride.

He truly believed the tools his workforce currently wielded would establish his Brand’s dominance for fiscal years to come.

"Bjorn," Ragnar said, turning to his General as the smoke cleared. "Send a memo to the foundry. I want full production on the clips by Monday."

"Understood, Director. Efficiency is Victory."

"Indeed it is, Bjorn. Indeed it is."