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墨書 Inktalez
The first requirement for the design of automatic weapons is the delivery of ammunition. One of the reasons why Germany and Japan lost in the post-war period was precisely this. In ground combat, when soldiers engaged in close quarters, the German Army's rifles and the Arisaka faced off against the US Military's M1 Garand and the Soviet Army's PPSh. There was no third option besides death or surrender.
Although both the Arisaka and the Mauser were excellent rifles—accurate and lethal—they were not suited for the type of ground combat that often occurred at close range, where a deluge of bullets was key to survival. This issue also stemmed from Germany and Japan being resource-poor nations.
Germany had a high steel production capacity, but its sources of iron ore were limited. Apart from the Ruhr industrial area, most of its iron ore came from abroad—countries like Sweden, Norway, Spain, Austria, and Luxembourg provided some, but not enough. This effectively capped Germany's industrial potential. Therefore, for Germany to develop further, it needed to continuously expand its territory to incorporate resource-rich areas.
Japan, on the other hand, was essentially devoid of iron ore. During the Meiji Era, Japan depleted all its oil resources, and by the Taisho Era, it had exhausted all coal and iron ore resources as well. All war-related resources were reliant on imports. Consequently, Japan's existing industry was primarily a processing industry; heavy industry was largely secondary processing. The Japanese steel industry relied on scrap metal for production, lacking the capability to process iron ore directly into steel.
The steel mill purchased by Kujou Yuuma represented a complete industrial chain capable of turning crushed ore into steel. Once operational, it could produce more in a year than Japan's domestic output could achieve in several years, reaching terrifying figures in terms of tons produced.
Thomas Mellon Rockefeller commissioned designs from Warhammer Weapon Factory for three types of individual automatic weapons: one was named Aka, another Suteki, and the last was the Butter Gun. When designers first saw Thomas Mellon Rockefeller's hand-drawn schematics, they were astonished by their unconventional appearance; they wondered how someone would dare to design weapons based on such sketches.
However, after listening to Rockefeller's detailed descriptions, the designers realized that their boss was indeed a clever weapon designer—albeit one who struggled with drawing. A few weeks later, two assault rifles and one submachine gun were produced. Due to Rockefeller's nearly stringent requirements for functionality in harsh environments—such as sand, sewage, and snow—none of the initial thirty test models met the standards.
Yet when a $10,000 bounty was announced by Rockefeller, all three weapon types quickly met criteria for simplicity, durability, straightforward structure, and high strength within just five days.
With physical prototypes available, setting up production lines based on these designs became straightforward. Within a month, production lines for all three rifles were completed; each line could produce several units daily.
Instead of starting mass production immediately, Thomas Mellon Rockefeller initiated production for rifles first. He had a plan: one production line would be handed over to Hitler for large-scale manufacturing while he retained another line for his global private plans—buying weapons for Germany before the war and then selling them to both sides once conflict erupted.
Aka was intended for future Red Party warriors; Suteki was designated for Germany; Butter Gun was meant for his own Huaxia Legion. In terms of cost-effectiveness, these weapons were inexpensive to produce in large quantities with simple structures and high reliability. They could adapt to various harsh battlefield conditions with relatively stable firing rates that were easy to control. The issue of accuracy had been addressed early in the design phase by drawing inspiration from two automatic rifles.
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