What's wrong with building a steel torrent in a dungeon?

The time for this transformation is conservatively estimated to be half a year. There is no way to even think about forming combat effectiveness.

But in half a year...

By the time the navy is ready, Elrondil will probably have already become a pile of bones in a grave, and the war in the Elven Empire will have ended long ago.

If the strategy of the Northern Alliance and the Chinese Alliance was perfectly implemented, they would first use the excuse of assisting Margaret to keep Fran firmly within the Holy Roel Empire, and then slowly transform the navy. Not to mention half a year, the navy could even have more than a year to slowly explore and adapt.

Unexpectedly, the troll crisis broke out without warning and evolved into an all-out war in just half a year.

The navy, which is currently transforming key nodes, is unable to provide any help at all, which also cuts off the option of blockading the free port from the sea.

The Elf Queen had only two choices: either continue to live on land until the navy was transformed, or directly interrupt the navy's transformation plan and send the Empire's navy into the battlefield.

The former is beneficial to the navy, and the latter is beneficial to the army.

Although the Queen thought that sending troops to the sea was the only option, she did not understand the navy after all! Moreover, she was the one who ignored the reform plan in the beginning, and now she suddenly said that it would be terminated, and she had to take care of the feelings of the navy. So she did not make a choice on the surface, but asked the Army Ministry and the Navy Ministry to discuss it.

So...an argument inevitably occurred.

The capital of the Elf Empire, a green miracle.

The originally elegant and quiet palace was suddenly filled with roars.

An elf in pure white uniform stood up angrily and shouted, "What do you think transformation is? You can stop it whenever you want and start it whenever you want? Now more than 80% of the warships in the fleet are installing artillery and renovating their interiors, and suddenly they say they're stopping! What are those extra gunpowder chambers for?

?Where is the dismantled crossbow placed?"

As the general roared, the other naval generals around him also looked angry.

"Hamilton!" At this time, McMahon, who was sitting opposite the naval commander, slowly stood up and said, "Remember! Although you are the naval corps commander, the command of the navy belongs to His Majesty. As the corps commander, you only need to strictly follow His Majesty's orders."

At this point, all the elves present looked to their side.

Beside them was a row of stairs leading upwards, and at the top of the stairs sat none other than Lucy Antiriel, the human representative of the god Shiloh, the ruler of the Elf Empire, the leader of the Twelve Elf Kings, the Dark Breaker, the Guardian of the Elves, the Daughter of the Dawn, and the Queen of Nightingales.

Lucy Antiriel was about the same age as Galannodil.

At this moment, she was sitting on the throne, with a black shadow covering her body, making it impossible for the ministers below to see her appearance clearly, let alone guess what was in her mind.

After hearing McMahon's words, Admiral Hamilton finally calmed down, but he obviously did not give up his opinion, so he continued: "You don't need to remind me of this. I certainly know my position! But as the Admiral, I have an obligation to tell your Majesty about these things! Lest your Majesty be coerced by certain people."

"We have never coerced Your Majesty." McMahon said, "We are certainly aware of the difficulties faced by the navy. But the current situation forces us to make this choice."

"Humph!" Hamilton stood up and looked at King Xinye beside him, then said: "When the Troll Crisis broke out, I reminded you that the Empire urgently needed to rest for a while! Don't start a war easily... You didn't listen! Now that something has happened, you want the Navy to take care of your affairs!"

“That’s enough…”

Seeing that the army and navy were about to start arguing over the issue of power and responsibilities, Lucy Antiriel on the throne finally couldn't help it and interrupted both sides.

Her voice sounded a little childish, but the elves on both sides closed their mouths at the same time and listened quietly to the Queen's will.

"I am well aware of the predicament of the navy." Lucy Antiriel said, "If the situation had not been unsatisfactory, I would not have made such an absurd order. Mr. Hamilton's blame is not wrong. Everything is my responsibility."

"Your Majesty, that's not what I meant," Hamilton quickly defended.

"But...if we can't break through the Freeport and cut off the supply line of the trolls! Then the whole war will collapse." Lucy Antiriel paused for a moment, then said: "When that time comes, what's the use of the navy even if it is completely transformed? Everything will be too late, we will gradually lose the leading position in the confrontation and become a second-rate force. What will happen to the navy at that time?"

Hamilton clenched his fists tightly, as if he was making an important decision. After a long while, he said, "Your Majesty, it is not a problem to interrupt the navy's transformation. I just hope Your Majesty can understand that interrupting the transformation and forcibly attacking will greatly damage the strength of our warships! It will cause huge losses."

"Don't worry! As long as we can capture Freeport and win this Troll War, I will focus on restoring the navy! What's more, the Troll Empire doesn't even have a decent warship, and the Orila Fleet is still on the way. The merchant ships of the Orcs are simply no match for us!"

"Since your majesty has said so, I will do my best. However, I would like to make a small request."

"Speak! Don't worry. As long as I can do it, I will definitely agree to it."

"The fleet is in a rush and cannot fight a protracted war! The Troll Empire will obviously have a targeted strategy. Since there are trenches, flying thunder cannons and rapid-fire guns on land, there may also be cards we don't know about on the sea! Once we get into a stalemate, we can't break the situation. I hope Your Majesty can sympathize with the crew of the navy and give up in time, at least leaving seeds for the navy and the empire."

Lucy Antiriel was silent for a long time before she said, "Okay! I promise you. If we can't find a breakthrough at sea, then we will consider ending this war. I hope you can go all out and not have any more concerns."

"Yes!"

Hamilton saluted the Queen who was high up.

Chapter 359: Pronounced as Fleet, written as Gatekeeper

The next day, the Saint Selux Fleet received a very absurd order: to complete all modifications within five days, equip as many weapons as possible, and then leave the port to attack the free port of the Troll Empire.

As soon as the news came out, the elf engineers who were working intensively on the renovation project were all in an uproar.

This is a joke.

It was you who said that we would carry out a comprehensive transformation at all costs, and now it is you who are canceling the transformation and preparing for the attack?

Orders change from day to day. Can military orders be treated like a joke?

Engineers argued that doing so would cause permanent damage to the ship.

However, this order came from the Queen, and with Hamilton's nod of approval, the engineers could not resist the power and could only accept the decision silently.

The elves are different from the Dwarf Empire, which has four large fleets.

Ever since they lost to the Dwarf Empire in the Endless Ocean, their surface forces have been shrinking across the board, and now there are only two fleets left.

One is the Western Fleet that is stationed in the Indo-Asia continent to maintain peace in the colonies, and the other is the Saint Serux Fleet that guards the native waters.

Since the elves do not have much trade exchanges with the outside world, there are not many merchant ships traveling in the Sea of ​​Saint Selux, so the Elven Empire is unwilling to maintain a huge maritime force in this sea area. As a result, the size and volume of the Saint Selux fleet are far smaller than those of the Western fleet, and its actual combat capability is also very lacking.

The Saint Selux Fleet only had more than 20 warships in total, all of which were of similar size and had no clear functional classification. In addition to sweeping out pirates in the Saint Selux Sea, their biggest role was to protect the Luna River.

The Luna River is the most important river in the Elven Empire. It winds down from the central mountain range of the Elven Empire until it flows into the Saint Selux Sea. Due to the large flow of the Luna River and the fertile plains along the way, a large number of cities have been built on both sides of the river. The capital Green Miracle is also around the Luna River.

It can be said that the Moon God River is the river where the civilization of the Elven Empire originated, and it is also their economic artery today. Countless materials and supplies enter the Elven Empire through the Moon God River and are then transported to various major cities.

The Elf Empire was also well aware of the importance of the Luna River, so a large number of troops were stationed at the entrance of the river. They even obtained two huge ancient trees from the god Xiluo to guard the estuary. With these two ancient war trees as the center, the elves also maintained two huge fortresses. Any enemy forces that attempted to cross the Luna River would be attacked by these two fortresses.

In contrast, the Saint Selux Fleet is more like a guard at the mouth of the Luna River than a fleet.

Logically speaking, sending the Western Fleet to attack Freeport is the most correct option in this situation.

However, the Western Fleet also has its own mission. It must be stationed on the Indo-Ya continent to deter the Elf Empire's colonies on the Indo-Ya continent. Wherever there are signs of resistance, the Western Fleet will go there to spread the seeds of civilization.

Originally, the colonies of Inya were afraid of the elves' military power and dared not act rashly. But with the prevalence of firearms, the elves' strength declined significantly, and as the elves grew stronger, rebellions occurred one after another. Under such circumstances, if they were sent back rashly, the colonies of Inya would probably be in chaos, and uprisings would occur everywhere.

Of course, this is not the main reason.

Unlike the Saint Selux Fleet, the leadership of the Western Fleet was not in the hands of the Imperial Navy. A considerable part of the command power was in the hands of the Twelve Elf Kings, and the power and responsibilities were very unclear.

The reason for this situation can be traced back to the time when the Elf Empire expanded abroad.

At that time, in order to mobilize the enthusiasm of the elven nobles to expand territory, the twelve elven kings were given a great deal of autonomy.

The Elf Queen at that time promised that all colonies conquered by the Elf King with his own strength would be regarded as his own property. As long as a certain amount of tax was paid to the Empire, the Empire would not interfere with anything else, even if they levied the right of primogeniture in the local area.

This method certainly mobilized the enthusiasm of the entire Elf Empire to expand its colonies, but it also laid the groundwork for the subsequent expansion of the Elf King's power. Except for the three kings of the South, the other Elf Kings gained great benefits from this great expansion and formed the capital to compete with the Elf Queen.

Later, in order to protect their overseas interests, the twelve elven kings and the queen formed a joint fleet to fight against the rebels in the colonies. After hundreds of years of continuous development, the joint fleet became the Western Fleet.

Although this fleet nominally still belonged to the Empire and was organized under the name of the Navy, in reality Hamilton had no power to mobilize them at all. If he wanted to use it, he had to discuss it with other Elf King representatives and reach an agreement.

With the situation in the Inya continent unstable, the twelve Elf Kings obviously would not agree to the Queen's request to transfer the Western Fleet away from the Inya continent! Wouldn't this be equivalent to asking them to send troops to help the Queen gain prestige?

In the end, Lucy Antiriel had no choice but to order the Saint Serux fleet to interrupt its transformation and rush to the Troll Empire.

More than 20 warships may not seem like a lot, but the elves' tree ships are different from the dwarves' ironclad ships. A tree ship can be seen as a special ancient tree that can float on the sea and enrich the life of a warship.

If the dwarf warships were damaged, with holes in the bottom and broken sides, they would have to be sent back to the port for repairs. But the elves didn't need that. They only needed divine powers from the divine magicians to repair the tree ships themselves, at least to ensure that they would not sink in the sea.

This makes the tree ship extremely resilient. Even if it is riddled with holes, it can recover its combat capability after wandering on the sea for half a month. The Dwarf Empire was also troubled by the tree ship at the beginning. It could only mobilize the national productivity and produce warships far more than it needed. It just piled up steel to kill the tree ship.

There are only a few warships in the entire Freeport now. Although these warships are equipped with steam engines and artillery, and even covered with iron armor, they are all transformed from merchant ships of the Orc Empire. They are not good in foundation and have small tonnage.

Asking them to deal with the entire Saint Serux warship would be tantamount to suicide. The fleet of Orila City is still far away on the way, and they also need to guard the transport ship full of soldiers, so they can't get away at all. Once the guarding force is reduced, I believe the Dwarf Empire will definitely come to take advantage of it to avenge the disastrous defeat in the Endless Sea.

For a moment, the entire Gorom City fell into a tense situation again.

However, Zhu Chongba, the commander-in-chief, did not show any panic at all, as if this was part of their plan.

Chapter 360 Are you here to cause trouble?

In the conference room, Kagraz, Sankara and others turned their attention to Zhu Chongba, hoping that Orila City could help them defeat the elven fleet.

"Ahem, before that, please allow me to introduce the two people next to me." Zhu Zhongba said, "These two are the deputy commanders of our Orila City Fleet. Haverdan and Bjorn."

"What? You two are General Haverdan and General Bjorn?" Kagraz looked at the two ordinary-looking Venetians in front of him with some surprise: "You are the ones who defeated the dwarf army back then?"

As he spoke, Kagraz had already rushed in front of the two of them, his eyes revealing great excitement, as if he had met his dream idol.

Haverdan and Bjorn were obviously shocked by Kaglaz's reaction and didn't know what to do for a moment.

"Sorry, sorry! I was a little too excited." Kagraz realized that he had lost his composure, and after adjusting himself, he continued, "You really don't know how popular you are in the Orc Empire."

"Ah? We... are actually very popular in the Orc Empire?" Haverdan and Bjorn looked at each other in surprise: "But we have never been to the Orc Empire."

"You led the army to defeat the dwarves at sea! This is a great boost to our Orc Empire! Many tribesmen want to invite you to visit the Orc Empire and ask you to tell us about your heroic deeds."

This enthusiastic flattery made both Haverdan and Bjorn feel a little embarrassed.

Finally, it was Bjorn, the eldest brother, who said, "The title of hero is really too much of a compliment. And this is not just the work of the two of us. It was the joint efforts of all the officers and soldiers of Orila City who shared the same hatred for the enemy that enabled us to defeat the dwarves. We are just a part of this huge team and have done our part."

"Yes, yes!" Hafdan patted his chest and said, "This time, the military of Orila City also predicted that the elves would be desperate and want to launch a surprise attack from the sea, so father... no, the commander-in-chief ordered us to go ahead and help protect the free port."

"Great." Sankara breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this, and then said to Zhu Chongba: "Really, since you have reinforcements, why didn't you notify us in advance? We were worried for nothing."

"I don't know if they can arrive here as scheduled." Zhu Zhongba said, "After all, the distance on the sea is too far, and anything can happen. Before I see the reinforcements arrive successfully, I certainly dare not make a hasty conclusion, so as not to let you suffer greater disappointment. But fortunately, they are here."

"I just wonder how many support warships you two have brought this time?" Sankara asked curiously.

"Forehead…...."

"Is this..."

Haverdan and Bjorn hesitated, and finally Haverdan said, "The number of warships. If we are more precise and take an integer..."

"How much?"

"zero."

"What?!"

Not only Sankara, but even Zhu Chongba widened his eyes.

You two are not here to support us. I think you two are here to cause trouble.

Bjorn quickly explained, "Because strictly according to the classification of the Orila City Navy, the ships we brought cannot be classified as warships. At best, they can only be considered warships. Because their tonnage is really not very large. Do you know the Yukikaze-class battleship?"

Everyone nodded.

"The tonnage of this warship is only half of the Yukikaze class."

"Only half?" Zhu Zhongba said, "With such a small tonnage, what else can be loaded? I'm afraid it can't even fit armor."

"You're right." Haverdan said, "These warships are not equipped with iron armor, but only a thin layer of cement on the outside. As for the cannons, there are only fifteen in total. Seven on each side and one in the front."

This configuration is much smaller than the warships of Orila City. No wonder they say they are not warships but only small boats.

Upon hearing this configuration, Sankara could not hide his disappointment.

If the fleet of Orila City arrives, there is no need to worry about the warships of the elves, and they can even be reimbursed. However, the fleet of Orila City, like the western fleet of the elves, cannot be withdrawn for the time being. Sankara also knows that this is impossible.

Bjorn said: "Although these boats are terrible in terms of firepower and defense, they do have one very good attribute - fast speed."

With such a small tonnage, how can the speed not be fast?

Harvdan said: "After the last Endless Sea Battle, we designed this special warship to target the characteristics of the dwarven and elven warships, which lack long-range capabilities. We use high maneuverability to pull with the enemy, and then continue to bite them with artillery, just like a pack of wolves facing a giant beast that they cannot match in a single fight."

"So we call it - wolf pack tactics." Bjorn added: "But unfortunately, after the Battle of the Endless Sea, the elves and dwarves chose to modify their warships. If they were also equipped with artillery, then these small boats would not be so useful."

"But now... the transformation of the elves has been suddenly interrupted." Sankara understood instantly: "Their Saint Serux fleet can only attack with vines. Even if there are still some artillery left, I'm afraid the firepower will not be too strong."

"Yes." Bjorn said, "So we brought out all the warships that we had built. Fortunately, they sail fast enough, so we can arrive at the free port ahead of time. Otherwise, you will probably have to grit your teeth and hold on for more than a month until our main fleet arrives."

"Then, how many warships do you have in total?" asked Zhu Chongba.

"About thirty ships." Bjorn said, "The firepower is indeed a little lacking, but we also have a supplementary plan. We can bring the flying thunder cannons to the deck and use them to attack when necessary. Although the sea is rough and the accuracy may be very low, it is better than nothing."

Zhu Chongba pondered for a while, then said: "We don't know the specific tactics of the navy. So if you need anything, just tell us, and we will do our best to help. We have passed the most dangerous time on land and entered a stalemate. As long as we can defend the free port, the defeat of the elves is only a matter of time."

"Okay, I won't be polite then." Bjorn said, "I need a large number of engineers and steam engine repairmen. It would be best if they know how to maintain naval equipment."

"Well... the Troll Empire definitely doesn't have the relevant talent." Zhu Chongba turned his head to look at Kagraz, and then said: "Can the Orc Empire provide some?"

"No problem!" Kagraz said, "I will write a letter to Lord Beast King right away."

Therefore, people of different forces and races came together, contributing money and manpower, to discuss the plan of defending the free port.