Tyranny of Steel

After traveling around the City of Innsbruck for a good bit, Berengar, Liutbert, and Ishwar had gathered at the Innsbruck Armory. While some of the production capacity for the Austrian Royal Army was conducted here, the overwhelming majority of the goods manufactured in this facility were designed with export in mind. Whether that be to their allies in the form of flintlocks and 12 lb cannons, or to non-allied nations with arkebuses and falconets.

As the men walked through the facility, they witnessed sights of thousands of firearms stacked into pallets dedicated for export. With the victories in Iberia, and the ongoing massacre against the Eastern Coalition, the demand for firearms and gunpowder had increased substantially.

Berengar had not only begun to outfit the entire Byzantine and Granadan Armies with their weapons and armor. But, he had also supplied foreign kingdoms that were non-hostile, such as Wallachia, and the Kalmar union with large quantities of arkebuses and falconets. The value of the international arms trade that Austria handled had grown significantly.

When Ishwar gazed upon the thousands of stockpiled firearms, and the hundreds of cannons, he could hardly believe his eyes. This small Kingdom in the west had such substantial manufacturing ability to make so many weapons, and keep them stockpiled. He wondered why they did not employ them in their own armed forces. Curiosity got the better of him, and he uttered his thoughts unknowingly.

”With so many firearms, why have you not employed them in your armed forces? ”

When Berengar and Liutbert heard this they both broke out into laughter, it was only after a few moments where the two men were able to calm themselves and explain their reasoning for not employing these more primitive weapons.

”You see, these weapons are obsolete compared to the ones employed by our armed forces, by several generations of technological advancements. We would never sell our advanced weapons to foreign kingdoms even if they ’re allies.