Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

During the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Czech Republic became an important economic center of the empire due to its favorable location and rich mineral resources. The Austro-Hungarian Empire invested a large amount of resources in the Czech region, which greatly promoted the industrial development of the Czech Republic, especially the development of military industry.

Its degree of industrialization reaches an astonishing 100%. What does it mean? Apart from industry, there is nothing else in the Czech Republic, such as agriculture. All the food the Czech Republic needs is provided by Britain and France. Although Slovakia is an undeveloped agricultural area, the Czech government has not taken many measures to develop Slovakia.

It is mainly engaged in machinery manufacturing, various machine tools, power equipment, ships, automobiles, electric locomotives, steel rolling equipment, military industry, and light textiles. The chemical and glass industries are also relatively developed.

In the first half of the 20th century, the achievements of Czech military production were obvious to all. At that time, the Czech Republic had the Skoda factory, one of the top arsenals in Europe.

The Skoda Arsenal was formerly a machinery factory founded in the western Czech city. In 1868, an Austrian count named Skoda spent a large sum of money to buy it. Therefore, starting from 1869, the factory was renamed Skoda Arsenal and was located in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic.

Its arms industry can produce 20,000 heavy machine guns, 60,000 light machine guns, 2,500 cannons, 1.6 million rifles, more than 80,000 grenades, and 500-600 tanks every year. In addition to meeting the needs of its own army, all weapons produced by the Czech Republic are exported. Its arms exports once accounted for 30 to 40% of the world's total, and it has been the world's largest arms producer and exporter for many years.

The artillery output of the Skoda Arsenal in 1937 was almost the total output of the British arsenal. In addition, the Arsenal also operated machine tools, thermal power equipment, and produced cars, buses, trucks, rail and trolley buses, electric locomotives, etc. Various heavy industrial products can be said to be the backbone of Czechoslovak industry.

The Czech machine guns in the various war movies I watched when I was a child are representative of Czech military products.

After the end of World War II and its integration into the Warsaw Pact, the Czech military industry remained very strong throughout the Cold War. In the late 1980s, the output value of the Czech military industry accounted for 8-10% of the total value of the machinery manufacturing industry. From 1984 to 1988, the Czech Republic exported arms worth US$2.7 billion, accounting for 1/3 of exports during the same period, ranking seventh among the 16 major arms exporters in the world.

However, the huge military industry cannot stop the impact of historical trends.

In the 1980s, the world's third industrial revolution unfolded. Western developed countries vigorously developed high-tech industries such as electronic technology, information technology, and new energy, and their economic strength became stronger with each passing day. At this time, the Czech Republic is still proud of its traditional heavy machinery industry, which is already "backward production capacity" in the eyes of developed countries. Therefore, compared with the rapidly developing high-tech industries in Western countries, the Czech industry naturally lags behind.

Coupled with the fact that the Cold War is coming to an end, some hotspot areas have cooled down, the disarmament process of various countries has accelerated, and the world situation has eased, the Czech military production has been greatly affected. At the same time, with the collapse of the Warsaw Pact-Economic Cooperation System, the Czech Republic was no longer able to obtain resources from the Soviet Union, and its limited national strength and financial difficulties could no longer support its huge military production.

The gradually declining Czech Republic eventually became an exporter of delinquent women to the West. Later, the United States made a bloody horror film "Human Skin Inn". It was originally supposed to take place in Thailand, but because of fear of offending Thailand, it was later changed to the Czech Republic. Anyone who has seen this movie knows the plot, and those who have not seen it can also search for it. The box office of this movie was pretty good at the time, but the Czech Republic, a country that was so hacked, did not even complain.

Yannick’s first stop was the Skoda Arsenal.

Although the Czech Republic has been divided, the Czech people are still living as before, and the same is true in this arsenal. Workers still go to work and work on time.

There are just some new faces in the factory. Some engineers from Germany have joined the Skoda Arsenal. They are evaluating the products of the Skoda Arsenal and analyzing which aspects need improvement.

Yannick first came to the tank workshop. See the current flagship products of Skoda Arsenal, the LT-35 light tank and the LT-38 light tank.

The performance of the LT-38 light tank is probably similar to that of the historical No. 3 tank. Historically, after Germany obtained these tanks, it was also a treasure, incorporated into its own army, and renamed it the fw38t tank. After all, the number of German No. 3 tanks at that time was also seriously insufficient.

For Skoda, this tank is their pride, and now, the Jackal tank produced in Germany is far more advanced than the LT-38 light tank in all aspects. In the eyes of German engineers, this kind of tank is invisible. On the goods.

After taking a look at the evaluation report compiled by the engineers, Yannick gave the order very simply. "Stop the production of these two tanks immediately. They simply cannot meet the needs of our army!"

The company leaders and Skoda engineers who were traveling with us looked a little embarrassed. After all, this LT-38 light tank is the most advanced tank in the Czech Republic. It is not a good feeling to be disliked by others.

Every product is soaked in the hard work of engineers. For these Skoda engineers, their tanks are like their children, and they are eager to produce all their tanks.

But they also know this is impossible. Compared with the German tanks, their tanks have lagged behind. For example, the armor is still riveted. When the opponent's artillery shells come over and the rivets fall off, the flying rivets cause the greatest damage to the tank crew.

But what Yannick said next made them ecstatic. "However, the chassis of this LT-38 light tank is quite good, so don't waste it. Keep the existing production line and continue to produce this chassis. Of course, the components need to be modified so that they are at least 75% common with the Jackal tank."

Yannick's words were tantamount to acknowledging the excellence of the LT-38, which made the designers present feel flattered. You must know that His Highness is almost omnipotent, and his weapon proficiency is unparalleled. The German weapons corps that dominated the Spanish Civil War came from his hands.

But what’s the use of just building a chassis?

"..." Seeing everyone's confused looks, Yannick asked his secretary to take out the design drawings he had prepared and give them to the person in charge of the company. "Use this chassis to build a tank destroyer. Give you one year, and the monthly output of this destroyer will reach 1,000 units."

The person in charge who had not had time to look at the design drawings was shocked by this number. "1,000 vehicles?!" You must know that the current monthly output is only a little over 100. 1,000 vehicles, how can it be increased eight or nine times?

"Don't worry, the structure of this tank destroyer is very simple. Even if you can produce three to four hundred vehicles per month now, it will be no problem. When Speer integrates the factories here, the monthly output of 1,000 vehicles can also be completed." You must know that this tank destroyer has a very simple structure. Destroyers could be produced at the end of the war despite Allied bombing, let alone now.