Chapter 772: Countermeasures Against theThreat in the West

Itami sat within the confines of her personal quarters. She wore nothing but a silk robe while her snow white hair was glistening with water. For the fifth time in the past forty-eight hours, she had just come out of her personal hot spring. She was lucky to have such a luxury, as it helped her cope with the stress she was currently facing.

After finding out that there was another reincarnator in the west whose name was Berengar von Kufstein, and that his Empire was quite possibly as advanced as her own. Itami had been plagued with migraines, which was a common symptom when she was especially stressed.

She did not know who this Berengar von Kufstein was, what his personality was like, or the extent of his ambitions. However, she could already guess that if the Reich was as advanced as her Empire was, then they posed a significant threat not only to her rule, but her very existence.

Since such a powerful state existed on the other side of the world that could challenge her, she now had to speed up her plans to invade Korea, Hokkaido, and the Ryukyu Kingdom. After all, Germany had ample supplies of iron, something she was severely lacking in. Which meant that they likely already had ironclad vessels, which she could not afford to construct right now.

However, more importantly, Itami needed a proxy, someone she could empower to cause problems for this Kaiser's ambitions in the east. It was clear that he was sooner or later going to get involved in India, at least if the rumors were true. She doubted whoever this man was, that he was so kindhearted as to protect an exiled Emperor and his sister, without having some form of ulterior motive.

Thus, Itami could conclude that Berengar was intending to overthrow this self proclaimed Emperor Chandra Tomara, and replace him with a puppet in the Anangpur Empire. Most likely, the man had the plans to install this puppet as Emperor of the entire Indian Subcontinent. At the very least, that was what she would do if she were in his position.

It was actually quite scary how accurately Itami could predict Berengar's exact plans, simply due to how similar their thought processes were. She knew nothing about Berengar, or his mindset, but by simply preparing to fight an enemy that was as intelligent as she was, she had completely anticipated Berengar's plans for India, and thus planned to counteract them.

The young Empress quickly took out a map she had drawn, which included her approximation of The German Empire, and how she perceived it would look. Essentially, she drew an Empire that was WWI Germany with the inclusion of WWI Austria. After all, Itami knew that some of their weapons were being manufactured within the city of Innsbruck, which was an Austrian city.

While this wasn't entirely accurate, as Berengar's empire controlled the Baltic states, part of the lowlands, and Bohemia. It was enough to give her an idea of the natural resources that the Reich had at the moment. As Itami was in the middle of editing her map, a knock resounded on her door, before the Minister of trade's voice appeared on the other end.

"Itami-Sama, I have important news to bring you from trade with the Anangpur Empire, won't you open up?"

Upon hearing about an area that was of particular interest to her, Itami rushed to the door and opened it, where she gazed upon the old man who helped foster trade between Japan and foreign nations. In his hands was a can of corned beef hash, which had a painting of the dish on its label.

Though it was written in German, and therefore she couldn't understand its contents, Itami knew what Corned beef hash looked like, and immediately grabbed hold of the can and stared at it with disbelief. This can of food was simple proof that not only had the German Empire begun canning food, but it had also been to the New World, otherwise where the hell would they get the potatoes for this dish?

Itami stared in disbelief for several moments while the old man went on a winded story about how his merchants got their hands on the can. However, Itami didn't hear any of it. She only desired to know for certain if the dish contained potatoes. Thus, she immediately called out for her servants, ignoring her minister of trade completely. When one of her maids arrived, Itami quickly gave her an order.

"Bring this to the kitchen, and have them cook it for me. I desire to taste this dish as soon as possible!"

The maid could see the stern look in Itami's blood-red eyes, and quickly bowed her head before absconding to the kitchen where the canned meal was prepared for the young empress, and brought to her quarters. While she was waiting, she dismissed the minister.

"I thank you for bringing this to my attention, but I need to study this item carefully. If you will wait until after I have eaten its contents, I will speak with you then."

The old man bowed his head and agreed to Itami's request before leaving her alone. After a while, another servant brought the corned beef hash to her room, where she gazed upon the Potatoes with disbelief. There was no doubting it. There were potatoes in this dish, still she tasted it just to make sure, and sure enough the familiar taste of potatoes entered her mouth.

Itami was furious. Though she had plans for the new world, it would appear that someone had beaten her to it. If that was the case, then she could not underestimate just how much of an advantage this other reincarnator had over her.

The new world was a treasure trove of untouched natural resources. If this Berengar von Kufstein had already established colonies there, it was simply impossible to guess how advanced his Empire was.

After all, the simple proof of how much further ahead Berengar was over her was the fact that he had factories capable of mass producing canned food, and he was selling them abroad. She could not fathom how vast the man's food surplus must be by now.

This news changed everything. It meant that Berengar's troops had much better rations than hers. Hell, it meant his people were much better fed than hers. This gave Germany's armies a tremendous advantage. Itami was beginning to feel another migraine creeping up on her as she thought of all of this.

It was clear what she must do. She had to arm the Bengal Empire with sufficient weapons that could cause Germany some grief, and buy her some time. If the Bengal Empire united India before Berengar's puppet could, then he would have a hard time enforcing the claim that Dharya had.

However, Itami knew that matchlocks would have no effect on German troops, and thus if she wanted to empower the Bengals she would need to sell them her current issue weapons. Which she did not have a problem with, as by the time she needed to enforce her influence over India, she would have much better weapons for her troops.

Thus, in that moment, Itami decided it would be prudent to visit the Bengal Empire and negotiate and arms deal with the Bengal Army. One that would change the political landscape of India forever. However, if she were going to do this, then she needed to be discreet.

Itami needed to make sure the weapons could not be traced back to her. The worst possible scenario would be Germany finding out about her existence, and declaring war on her before she was ready. Because of this, she decided to manufacture a new line of weapons that were from a foreign design, and made use of the Devanagari script for its markings.

After some consideration, Itami chose the 1881 Marlin rifle chambered in 45-70 government. The reason for this weapon was because she honestly did not know what state of firepower the German Army had access to, and because of this, she desired a repeating rifle to be safe. However, since she could only manufacture black powder weapons at the moment, it made her repeating rifle options extremely limited.

She also planned to re-chamber the Gatling guns that were currently in production into the .45-70 cartridge and sell those to the Bengal Army. As well as introduce an 1873 Colt Single Action army, chambered in .45 long colt as a sidearm.

As for the Armstrong guns her army currently used as artillery? They were a British design, and there was no way they could be linked back to Japan, so long as she made sure the markings on these guns were in Devanagari.

Thus, Itami spent another sleepless night as she prepared her countermeasures against Berengar von Kufstein and his German Army. When German troops finally entered India, it would surprise them to see the level of firepower at the Bengal Army's disposal. Or so Itami thought.

The reality was that while Itami was investigating the German Empire; she had left behind traces of her existence. After all, trade between India and Japan was not supposed to be extensive during this time period. The more she interfered in the region, the more it would catch the interest of the Reich's Queen Spider, whose agents kept a watchful eye on the Anangpur Empire at all times.