Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 580 Shallow Water Heavy Artillery
"The Federation's battle mages have never had any contact with these alien races. We absolutely cannot hide any of this important information." Salas said solemnly.

Dawson, dressed in ordinary classical robes and clearly fresh from the academy, nodded and echoed, "Indeed, ever since the demons lingering in the Evil Moon Mountains retreated, Gallagher hasn't stopped sending reconnaissance airships to explore the wasteland. Aside from observing large-scale demon troop movements, there haven't been any signs of any alien activity."

They all knew very well that if the Demon Lizardmen invaded the southern border from the Evil Moon Mountains, the demons in the western wilderness would be their first target. Unless this warlike and bloodthirsty humanoid race was completely defeated, Blackrock City would never face a threat.

The two legendary chiefs also heard about the air raid alarm being sounded today, but they were living in the northern border after all. Without Harvey's initiative to ask for help, out of the most basic respect... they would never intervene in the battle without authorization.

"It was just a exploratory attack, and it didn't cause any damage to Spark City." Harvey paused and sighed, "But what worries me is that their fighting style seems to be evolving at a much faster pace."

Sarath pondered for a moment, then slowly asked, "Do you intend to immediately attack the alien fortress at Great Bear Lake?"

"That's right, but relying solely on ground forces to slowly advance wouldn't be enough to achieve a surprise attack... and it might even alert the enemy. We don't know if there are more secondary floating islands in the Great Bear Lake area."

After all, Spark City relies on its towering city walls and pre-deployed air defense systems. Even when facing enemies that are several times larger than its own, it can calmly and decisively counterattack through a tight defensive line.

But once the decision is made to take the initiative and dispatch the army to a wasteland hundreds of miles away to fight against an alien fortress occupied by tens of thousands of demon lizardmen, the strength of a regiment is completely insufficient.

Unless it is an absolutely necessary crisis, Harvey will never choose to engage in a bloody tug-of-war and war of attrition with the enemy.

The "exchange tactic" that erodes the vitality of the human race is a chronic poison that will lead you to the abyss of failure.

"The Blackrock City Mage Warband, led by Son of Flame and Stormrunner, has already reached the Old Capital and will arrive in the North in three days at the earliest." Sarath was fully aware of Harvey's potential tactics and offered a suggestion. "Rather than having mortal soldiers slowly advance upon the enemy, eight high-level spellcasters and nearly a hundred mid-level battle mages, armed with sufficient high-explosive bombs, could launch an aerial bombardment of the enemy. This would be a good plan."

After saying that, he turned to Dawson, winked, and chuckled, "Of course, if you take the initiative to ask, it's not impossible to let Dawson join this surprise attack team and add a great help to you."

Dawson, suddenly called out, rubbed his red nose and said awkwardly, "Speaking of battle... well, it was sixty years ago, before I was promoted to Legendary rank, when I was stationed in Blackrock City."

The battlefield of research-based spellcasters is usually within a magic laboratory.

Harvey waved his hands and laughed, "It's not so serious that the Chief needs to go to the battlefield in person..."

As he was speaking, the military secretary hurriedly knocked on the door and walked into the office, respectfully placing a freshly completed report on the table.

Harvey picked it up and flipped through it for a moment, then nodded to himself. "This is the plan for the surprise attack on Great Bear Lake that the military has just discussed and finalized. Please review it separately, Your Excellencies."

Saras took one look and said in surprise, "Sea and air tactics? You plan to deploy armored warships to cooperate with the airship team?"

"Indeed, airships alone won't be able to penetrate the floating island's defenses. To maximize the depletion of the enemy's manpower, we need to supplement it with the ironclad's artillery fire." He stood up and advised the two chiefs, "The specific tactical implementation requires close cooperation from the Federation's battle mages. Let's head to the warship port first, and we'll talk as we go."

The first generation of ironclad ships manufactured by Spark City did not consider the transportation of heavy firepower weapons from the beginning. After the North had completely doubled its steel production, Harvey began to slowly replace the first generation of ironclad ships, either converting them from military to civilian use or transferring them to other riverside cities in the South for garrison. He then began to intensively develop the second generation of ironclad ships.

In order to build a larger new ironclad ship, he also specially built an inland deep-water port in a river bend in the lower reaches of the Ice River east of the royal capital, where the East Coast Garrison Corps was located. He sent a large number of engineering alchemy beasts to widen the river, built a circle of high walls, and sent defense troops to garrison on the spot.

Compared with building a bridge across the river, the ice tributary with a width of only a hundred meters and the main river channel with a width of five or six hundred meters are fully capable of building a large deep-water dock.

The group arrived at the port in a grand manner on an alchemical wheelbarrow. Under the unanimous gaze of the workers, they went straight into the largest dock No. 1.

"Such a huge metal creation, is it really a feat that can be achieved by mortals alone?" Salas rolled up his sleeves and raised his head slightly to look at the huge ship in front of him.

Its shape is similar to those old-fashioned ironclad ships that frequently travel on the river every day - the angular hull is pointed at the front and wide at the back, the waterline and freeboard are almost perpendicular to each other, the hull is flat and has no keel-like protrusions, and only the welded rivets all over the surface of the hull can prove that its manufacturing process has not completely surpassed the technical level of ordinary craftsmen.

"It's just in the lifting, welding and assembly stages that a large number of alchemy beasts are used to replace manpower. Apart from that, there is no other work that requires the participation of spellcasters." Harvey explained very modestly.

But no one would think that the other countries in the southern border are capable of building such oppressive steel creations... Even if they also have the technical patents for replacing sail propulsion with magic power, ordinary kingdoms simply cannot produce huge quantities of refined steel to build ships.

Only a city like Spark City, which has a huge and advanced heavy industry as its backing and applies magic to all aspects of the manufacturing industry, can create a war machine that is no less powerful than the lizardman floating island fortress.

Fadun swallowed his saliva and said dryly, "You plan to have the caster drive this huge steel ship directly from the Glacial River into the Great Bear Lake... and then smash the enemy's Floating Island No. 3 head-on?"

The place where they were standing at the moment was right in front of the warship. The huge metal ram cast as a whole on the bow could not help but make the foreign spellcasters of the Federation think a lot.

"Clash? Are you kidding, Mr. Fadun?" Harvey laughed. "A second-generation ironclad ship is only 120 meters long, and only about 15 meters wide at its widest point. Its overall characteristics are still known for its speed and maneuverability. How could it possibly go head-to-head with a floating island?"

He then led everyone onto the ship's deck and, pointing to the workers busily completing outfitting work, explained, "The second-generation ironclad will be equipped with four magic power cores. When fully loaded, its top speed can reach 30 miles per hour, more than double the speed of an ordinary civilian ironclad ship."

In addition, in terms of the most important weapons, Harvey directly upgraded it to the "top configuration" - four fixed anti-aircraft beam cannons, four large-caliber magic naval guns, side-mounted machine gun arrays on both sides of the hull, and even a small airship landing platform at the rear end of the deck.

"We can now complete the launch of two new ironclad warships within three days at the earliest. After another half day of actual commissioning... we can immediately set sail for Great Bear Lake."

(End of this chapter)