Reincarnated as Nikolai II

When Roman presented "destroying trench effectiveness through overwhelming scale warfare" as an imperfect solution to trench warfare.

Nikolai, who had expected horrors no less than the Western Front in the East, had long ago proposed new weapons as a solution.

Though lacking in engineering knowledge and unfamiliar with weapons history, he prided himself on having some useful knowledge for trench warfare.

However, it didn't take long for that illusion to shatter.

"So, you're saying to put armor on tractors? Apart from whether the engine could handle it, wouldn't that make them unusable for reconnaissance?"

"No, not for reconnaissance. This is for destroying enemy machine gun positions."

"Then it needs to withstand not just machine guns but shells... Your Majesty, unless using a train engine, it can't bear such armor weight. The tractor frame itself won't hold up."

No matter how high the Tsar's authority and how solemn his orders, in the early 20th century's technological transition, new weapons couldn't be created so easily.

So even when Nikolai met directly with engineers to add advice, frustrated by slow development speed.

"The turret... needs to rotate? Wouldn't just mounting machine guns be more efficient?"

"If it exceeds 10 tons, it might lose field utility. This massive armored tractor absolutely cannot break through mud!"

"Aircraft with machine guns suffer drastically reduced maneuverability. Installing urban defense net balloons is better for defense!"

Though the Tsar provided novel ideas like "tractors with armor and rotating turrets," the military couldn't understand such weapons' utility.

"Aren't vehicles the best reconnaissance tools since they don't stop from one or two bullets! You'd put reconnaissance weapons at the front?"

"For supplies... honestly, horse carts are cheapest compared to making vehicles. On steep slopes, both need to be pulled by ropes anyway."

"If we really need to move small forces quickly at the front, just organize bicycle units!"

Era's limits, technology's limits, differences in doctrine, experience, and knowledge.

Weapon developers and military officials weren't trying to act against the Tsar's orders according to their own will.

"Orders for countermeasure and weapon development against enemy air bombing... This must mean Count Zeppelin's airships! The Tsar must have thought of this after seeing German airships!"

"Then let's make airships too! Bigger and more magnificent!"

"Since it flies purely by buoyancy without constantly moving by lift, precise bombing is also possible! This must be the next-generation air bombing the Tsar spoke of!"

This was just how the era was.

When the Tsar said "the era of air bombing is coming!" developers quickly searched surrounding countries trying to find and develop "weapons capable of air bombing."

Naturally, Nikolai didn't want airship development, but when German airships conducted air raids on Alsace, Liège, Allenstein, Paris, and even Warsaw not long after war began, the Army Air Service secretly became passionate about airship production.

Perhaps Nikolai bore some responsibility regarding weapon development.

What use was having the T-34 tank that immediately comes to mind with "Russia" when not knowing the name of a single part inside that tank?

The Tsar's desired "rotating turret on armored tractor" ended up sounding to subordinates like "Oh, perhaps the Tsar is obsessed with big gun battleships and wants dreadnought rotating guns?"

Thus, as war approached, Nikolai finally had to acknowledge certain things.

"This country's technology is garbage."

Despite endless support producing many renowned physicists, chemists, and engineers with high basic science levels.

The country's industrial power itself was just very low.

Rotating turrets were still technology used only for naval guns, with no land use except fortress installations.

Similarly, though considerable time had passed since diesel engines appeared, their reliability was terrible compared to steam engines.

Between horses that could move troops reliably if not sick and vehicles unusable once broken down.

There was no need to ask which was more trusted in the field.

Such clashes with reality continued in rifle development too.

"The bolt locking and unlocking should happen automatically along with shell ejection?"

"That's right."

"We already have the Fedorov rifle. Its developer Vladimir Fedorov even wrote 'Automatic Weapons Primer'."

"Oh, is that so? Then mass produce this-"

"However, the military already rejected it due to feeding issues and recoil problems. What use is a rifle that can't properly hit enemies? To solve this, Mr. Fedorov developed his own 6.5mm rimless cartridge from the imperial standard 7.62mm round but... A separate round for just one gun lacks field practicality."

"..."

Though Nikolai argued rifles were the future of infantry weapons, all imperial infantry weapons for the past 20 years were Mosin-Nagant, Mosin-Nagant variants, or new models based on Mosin-Nagant.

The entrenched shackles of Mosin-Nagant.

Abandon the Mosin-Nagant adopted as the main weapon since the previous generation? Nonsense.

Considering production costs, production time and supply, plus doctrine utilizing troops familiarizing with new weapons, changing firearms was never simple.

In the end, the Tsar was a commander, not an expert.

Though he could order combat, he couldn't execute it, so Nikolai's involvement in weapon development had limits.

Of course, this didn't mean there were no effects at all.

"As Your Majesty said, we've made a weapon that can attack enemies while rotating with armor! We mounted a machine gun instead of a turret, but since the gunner controls direction it's no different from a rotating turret!"

More than a tank, a malformed armored weapon was born - like an old Humvee with metal plates added and rear and side seats modified to mount machine guns.

"Though very difficult to hit with automatic fire even at 50m, we've introduced a rifle weapon that can fire automatically anyway!"

Though closer to a submachine gun than a rifle, the Fedorov modified rifle was introduced - a firepower weapon with increased magazine capacity to fill gaps between machine guns and light machine guns.

"A biplane carrying medium machine guns and ammunition? In this era of increasingly shorter wings? Even with biplane lift that's too much, so instead we developed a fighter with guns fixed to the aircraft floor! For combat... well, it'd be good to hold position above enemy aircraft, but if difficult just open the window and fight with pistols!"

Instead of weapons fired directly by pilot and gunner, they even created weapons fixed to the aircraft floor when asked for weapons fixed with the airframe.