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

Time flies and a year has passed.

Compared with a year ago, the total tonnage of the Orila City fleet has increased more than ten times, and Harald himself has trained thousands of qualified sailors for Orila City. His four sons also worked hard to learn various naval knowledge and were promoted to squadron commanders, each commanding a fleet.

During the war with the Feruman Empire, Harald had been working hard to maintain the maritime trade. It was the navy that had been protecting the trade routes from being interrupted, which allowed the city of Orila to purchase a large amount of supplies to support the massive consumption on the front line.

Looking at his more than 20 warships and more than 40 merchant ships, Harald even imagined that the fleet of Orila City would be invincible and reach every corner of the world.

He originally thought that as the war was about to end, the navy would usher in a new wave of expansion. However, he did not expect that the first news after the war was that his young man suffered a setback at sea.

"No! I, Harald, cannot swallow this! I must settle accounts with the dwarves!" Harald slammed the table heavily.

"Who on earth made our Navy Commander-in-Chief so angry?"

Just at this moment, a female voice came from behind Harald.

"Lord Fran! Why are you here?" Harald was stunned at first, then excited. Fran's coming, does it mean that she is going to do something?

"Since something so serious has happened, of course I have to come!" Fran said, "First, tell me what exactly is going on!"

"The dwarves and elves are really going too far!" Harald said, "Our caravan has neither crossed the border nor smuggled or evaded taxes. Everything is in accordance with normal transaction procedures, with all the documents and seals in place! But the dwarves insist that we are smuggling mechanical cores out of their country and want to board the ship for inspection. Of course we don't want to do that.

Agreed! This is public waters, what right do you have to inspect our ships? "

"And then?" Fran asked with a frown.

"The dwarves must have been prepared. The day after we refused, more than ten dwarf ironclad warships surrounded us and displayed their weapons, forcing us to stop the ship." Harald said, "We had no choice but to let them come up for inspection."

"Who is in command of this fleet?"

"It's my son Ivar." Harald said nervously, "Lord, Ivar was forced to do this."

"I know." Fran smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to punish him. He did a good job and didn't cause any disputes with the dwarves. He's a child who will accomplish great things."

"Thank you for the praise, City Lord." Harald breathed a sigh of relief, then said, "But City Lord, if this happens once, it will definitely happen a second time! Now that the Chinese Alliance is aggressively promoting its maritime sovereignty, it is obviously targeting us! We must find a way."

"In my opinion, we might as well give the dwarves a hard blow and defeat their main force. This way, the Chinese Alliance will not dare to provoke us again." Harald's other son, Haverdan, said.

"Go, go, go! Just do it!" Harald gave him a slap on the head, then said, "Do you know the size of the dwarf navy, the number of fleets, and the way they fight? You dare to go to war without knowing anything? We are facing the most powerful empire in the world, not a small city-state like Venice."

Fran nodded and said, "Commander Harald is right. Although our naval power is growing rapidly, we are a latecomer after all. Without sufficient intelligence, it is not advisable to have a dispute with the dwarves."

"Then what should we do next? Do we have to be so cautious every time we go out to sea? What if the dwarves do something..." Hafdan said: "For example, they secretly put the stolen goods into our cargo and then frame us! Then we will have no way to defend ourselves! I think this is something the dwarves would do.

Fran thought for a while and said, "You make sense! Although we don't want to have a dispute with the dwarves, it is not up to us after all!"

"City Lord, I think we can't just passively avoid fighting, which will inevitably make the dwarves take advantage of us." Harald said, "I think we should show our due fighting power to make them afraid to act rashly! I think we should take the initiative to launch a naval battle, such as destroying the navy of the Venetian Federation! Anyway, the world

No one in the world will sympathize with the Venetians!"

"Ahem, I know you have a grudge against the Venetians." Fran said with a bit of a smile, "But there's no need to start a war for this. Although the Venetians are considered half members of the Chinese Alliance, they have made a lot of money with us, so there's no need to rush them into the dwarf camp."

"Well, the city lord is right."

Fran said, "We need to demonstrate our military might, but we can't go too far. In my opinion, we should conduct an operation to eliminate the pirates, and then hold a military exercise in Bieson Harbor. This way, the dwarves will have to think twice before provoking us next time."

"What the city lord said makes sense!" Harald slapped his thigh and said, "There's not much else in this Endless Ocean, but there are a lot of pirates! I'll do it right away."

"Are there so many pirates in the Endless Ocean? I thought the most troublesome ones were the Feather Tribe."

"Alas, compared to the pirates, these Feathered Tribe are just a small fry." Harald said.

"Why? It's difficult to wipe out the Feather Tribe because their hiding places are very secretive, but pirates are different! Once we find their source, the worst that can happen is that we can just sweep all the taverns and military ports along the way."

"Ahem, in principle, that's the case." Harald said, "But many pirates are official."

"Official pirates?"

"Of course, so far no force will admit that they are cultivating pirate forces, but in fact there are indeed many pirates who obey the orders of the royal nobles. They use this method to quietly protect their own country's ships and suppress the enemy's maritime trade. Such pirates are called privateers."

"Okay... I was naive." Fran said, "If that's the case, then we have to be careful of the dwarf privateers."

"That's not necessary." Harald said, "No matter how bad our merchant ships are, they are equipped with cannons and muskets! In terms of combat effectiveness, those wooden sailing ships that rely on bows and arrows are no match for us. At least their speed is not on the same level as ours. As long as they are not the elves' tree ships or the dwarves' ironclad ships, we are no match for them.

afraid. "

"Well, I'm not worried now that we have guns and cannons." Fran turned to Gorronil and said, "You have been in charge of the construction of the navy. You have to work harder on the new warships."

"That's what I was going to say!" Gorronil said, "Do you want the city lord to come and take a look at our dock?"

Chapter 217 New Warship

Fran followed Goronil and soon arrived at the dock.

The researchers at the shipyard are mostly gray dwarves.

It may be that the ancestors of these gray dwarves are of the same origin as the dwarves, and have a gene that yearns for the sea, but these expelled gray dwarves can only hide in the dark underground, suppressing this innate gene. So when Fran established a research and development base near the port of Bieson, a large number of dwarves came to sign up to go

With the addition of these skilled craftsmen, the technology of warships has advanced by leaps and bounds. The latest warships produced today are completely different from the one Fran rode last time.

It had no sails and no wooden wheels on both sides. Although the overall material was still mainly wood, Fran could already see the prototype of a modern ship.

Abandoning the intermediate products of sails and wooden wheels from sails to steam power meant that Orila City had a revolutionary technological breakthrough. However, Fran knew that these technological breakthroughs did not only come from Orila City itself, but other forces also helped a lot.

For example, the Feruman Empire. Before the war, the Feruman Empire was known as the capital of mathematics and alchemy, and there were many experts in various fields. Now that the empire was destroyed, Fran took over and packed all these experts to Orila City at an extremely low price.

Of course, the support from the Feruman Empire is mainly in the field of basic science, while the help from Rainbow City is practical in the field of technology.

After the war, Fran found the great magician Lina who came to support Orila Gler.

Generally speaking, most magicians are also part-time alchemists, especially fire magicians. Although their research methods are more based on blind experimentation, and the way they get results is also very metaphysical and extremely inefficient. But after all, Rainbow City has been researching for so long, and there are still many results.

Through a series of cooperation (deception), Fran got Lina to provide her with a lot of new material formulas. Although Fran spent almost the cost of recreating an Orilagler to buy the formulas for these materials, it was worth it overall.

Materials are the foundation of technology. With these new materials, their metallurgical industry can advance by leaps and bounds, thereby driving all production departments.

Not only that, Fulan also reached an in-depth cooperation with Lina later. Fulan provided the venue and test environment, and Rainbow City provided the personnel, and the two sides jointly developed materials and improved processes.

"Look at this one." Gorronil pointed to a battleship anchored at sea and said, "This is the first type of battleship we designed, the Snow Wind type."

Snow and wind type, this name sounds very auspicious.

Fran took a look at the new warship and said, "The tonnage of this ship doesn't seem to be large. It's even about the same as the sailing ships in the past."

"Yes! The main feature of the Snow Wind is its compactness and flexibility." Gorronil said, "It sacrifices armor and various heavy firepower. This is also tailored according to the dwarf warships. The dwarf warships are equipped with heavy armor and are said to have mysterious divine magic bonuses. It is difficult for our artillery to penetrate them. It is difficult to injure them.

The best way is to use incendiary bombs."

Fran nodded, and then said, "Use your own advantages to attack the opponent's disadvantages. It's a good design idea."

"That's right!" Gorronil said, "The dwarf warships are heavy and solid, but they are indeed a little slow, so we win by speed. Once we meet the enemy, we will bomb them with incendiary bombs or destroy their power!"

"I think the reason why the dwarves developed heavy warships is to deal with the elves' tree ships." Fran said: "The elves' tree ships have vines to help them, and their boarding ability is very strong, but they are helpless when encountering the iron armor of the dwarves' warships. They restrain the elves, and we restrain them."

"Will we be restrained by the elves?" asked Harald.

"These cannons sacrificed their range in order to raise their elevation angles. If they encounter an elven ship, they really won't be able to gain much benefit." Goronil said, "Besides, the elven ships are not slow in movement, so we don't have a clear advantage over them. Once the elves break into our position, it will be difficult for the fragile bodies of the Snow Wind-class to resist the attack of the vines! But we don't only have the Snow Wind-class."

As he spoke, Goronil led everyone to another dock.

This dock was newly built. Just by looking at its draft depth, you can tell that what is being built here is definitely a huge ship. On one side, various semi-finished structures are waiting to be assembled.

"What's being built here is another kind of ship, the Fuso class!" Gorronil said, "Since the city lord himself is not very good at naming, we took the initiative to name it! The name comes from a red flower."

Um… since they are named after flowers, can’t we find a more auspicious flower? Rose-level ones will do!

Of course, the name is just a title, the most important thing is its performance.

"The displacement of the Fuso class is about the same as the elves' tree ship! In order to propel this behemoth, we invented a larger steam engine! The production capacity of this steam engine is not large, and we still need the assistance of the magicians in Rainbow City. But it is definitely much faster than the elves' tree ship. At present, there are four warships in another port at the same time.

The ship is being built together.

"According to the theory of hardness (armor), power (firepower) and speed (speed) you proposed before, the Fuso-class is far superior to the elves' tree ships in all aspects. Even in close combat, we are confident that we can blow them into pieces before the vines roll over." Goronil said proudly.

"Hearing what you said," Harald said, "The Fuso-class battleships will have no problem fighting the dwarves. Even if the dwarf battleships have stronger armor than ours, their attack power (city crossbows) and speed are no match for us. We can still chase them and fight them."

"That's true," Goronil said, "but the cost of building a Fuso-class battleship is too expensive after all. One ship can replace four Yukikaze-class ships. If possible, we should win at the lowest cost. And the Yukikaze-class is definitely better at dealing with pirates who come and go without a trace. But..."

"But what?" Fran asked.

"These warships currently have a fatal flaw, which is their range." Gorronil said, "You know, City Lord, it takes a lot of coal to drive such a huge ship! If our warships want to sail from here to the Dwarf Empire, they need to be accompanied by a large number of supply ships. If it takes a long time, they will have to come back here for supplies. It would be great if we could set up a few supply stations on the Endless Ocean."

"Supply stations..." Fran thought for a moment and said, "There are quite a few supply stations close to the Calradia continent. They all belong to Venice and Genoa. They are easy to deal with. As long as you pay, they are willing to sell the supply stations. But for the center of the Endless Ocean... we must find a good island. We haven't explored the Endless Ocean enough!"

"It would be great if the Feather Tribe were here." Harald said, "They live on the sea all year round and must know the sea very well! But since you captured their little princess last time, they haven't come to us."

"Let's talk to the Venetians and Genoese first, and at least build up our coastal defenses first." Fran said, "We can only talk about the Feather Tribe later."

Chapter 4: Threats at Sea (Supplementary April 10)

After discussion at the Naval Staff, a strategy to confront the dwarves was quickly developed.

The dwarves were a traditional maritime power. Although their warships had not been innovated for more than a hundred years, Fran still did not dare to underestimate them considering their huge stock strength. It would be extremely unwise to start a war with them before her navy was fully developed. The current situation was naturally to delay as much as possible.

Time is on their side.

So on the one hand, Harald led his troops to suppress pirates everywhere, thereby demonstrating the strength of the navy and preventing the dwarves from going any further and openly attacking their merchant ships.

Their fleet may be afraid of the dwarven ironclad ships, but they have no problem against the pirates. Harald led a navy composed of renovated merchant ships and retired old ships and easily defeated the combined forces of the nine major privateering pirates in the Endless Ocean.

Afterwards, Harald held a small-scale military parade in Biesund Harbor, hanging all the pirate flags in a row to express his determination to all the privateers. In this way, the dwarves were indeed afraid of the ships of the Vienna Alliance, at least they did not dare to take action openly.

On the other hand, Harald showed weakness to the dwarves, saying that the Aurora people had no intention and no strength to compete with the dwarves for the Endless Ocean. This sea area is so vast that it can accommodate the two forces to sail again. They can put aside their disputes and jointly develop it. For this purpose, they signed a series of unequal and even somewhat humiliating trade terms with the dwarves.

make an appointment.

Of course, the implication of this fight is that the relationship between Orila City and the dwarves is still good. Vienna City just wants to make money and does not want to challenge the hegemony of the dwarves. But if you really push too far, then we don't mind going to war with you. At that time, it will be the Northern Alliance that will reap the benefits. I hope the dwarves will think it through.

Even though the navy of the Vienna Alliance is still very weak, it will still cost a lot to defeat it.

After weighing the pros and cons, the dwarves really did not take actions such as detaining ships and boarding them for inspection. However, they continued to make small moves in secret, using excuses to delay time and charge extra fees, etc. Of course, these were harmless little things and could be tolerated for now.

At the same time, Fran continued to plunder skilled craftsmen in Calradia, acquire docks and ports, and rapidly expand her production capacity. She also sent people to cooperate with Venice and Genoa to buy their supply islands and military ports on other continents at high prices, thereby maintaining her own sea routes.

It has to be said that these two republics are indeed the forces that can get their support wherever there is a lot of money. Fran only gave them the exclusive rights to some industrial products and got their support.

In this way, a maritime strength protection network was quietly born along the southern coastline of the Calradia continent. After being transformed by Fran, these docks suddenly became shipyards and ports with surging production capacity, and continued to cultivate maritime talents for Fran.

Although these ports were ostensibly for civilian use, Fran knew that if necessary, she could directly issue an administrative order to have them produce warships.

After the strategic plan was drawn up, the dispute at sea was temporarily subsided, and Fran was finally able to leave Biesund Port and return to Vienna to rest for a while.

And in Vienna, there are still many difficult things that need to be solved by yourself.

Vienna was originally the capital of the Holy Roal Empire, but because Fran had previously redeemed a large amount of land (all of which were unowned lands left behind by the fleeing nobles) and used these lands to open various factories, schools, and residential buildings, most of Vienna’s industries and land are now in the hands of Fran.

Some even call Fran the Grand Duke of Vienna.

As the center of the Vienna Alliance, Vienna also had a large number of foreign consulates stationed in the city. Almost all of these foreign consulates were Fran's staunch allies, not Margaret's allies.

Of course, this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is the city defense. Before this, the city defense of Vienna was almost always maintained by the military, but the nobles in the military fled before the war and were all dismissed by Margaret. Later, in order to stabilize the city's public security in a short period of time, Fran temporarily took over the public security.

But it was easy to take over, but it was hard to let go, and Margaret never protested to her. So the city defense army was always in Fran's hands until now.

Now everyone is saying that Vienna is more like the capital of Orila City than the capital of the Holy Roll Empire. The Holy Roll Empire seems to have returned to its previous state of being neither holy, nor Roll, nor an empire, and is even worse than before.

Although the emperor was a puppet before, the power was at least in the hands of the nobles. Unlike now, the power is directly controlled by the city of Aurora, which is unprecedented in history.

Such rumors naturally reached Margaret's ears, but she did not take any action.

In other words, even if she wanted to change, what could she do? Her biggest reliance before, the army, was now in tatters. Several of her old followers died or were injured, and the nobles who were loyal to her at the beginning either died in battle or fled. Now she could be said to be alone.

On this day, Margaret was drinking wine and eating grapes in her bedroom, listening to Wallenstein reporting to her the income of the Chamber of Commerce. Now Wallenstein's Chamber of Commerce has become her only source of income. With this income, she can barely maintain a 20,000-man army.

But this legion is almost entirely composed of new recruits, and it is still a long way from actual combat.

"Is your income very good during this period? It's even higher than when I first became emperor." Margaret said in surprise after listening to the numbers.

"Your Majesty, I'm going to say something that you may not like to hear." Wallenstein said, "The reason why our income has been high recently is because we took the express ship from Orila City. We can generate a lot of revenue by selling Orila City's products."

After hearing this, Margaret froze for a moment. After a long while, she asked, "Why do you think I don't like to hear this?"

"Um... because..." Wallenstein was speechless for a moment.

Margaret stood up and said, "Wallenstein, you are my only confidant now. I hope to get the truth from you. For the Holy Roel Empire, is it better for me to be the emperor or for Fran to be the emperor?"

After hearing this, Wallenstein's face changed. She certainly didn't dare to respond. So she slowly lowered her head.

"Speak? Don't be dumb!" said Margaret.

"Your Majesty, if you keep asking, I shall become mute," said Wallenstein.

Margaret sighed and said dejectedly, "Tell me, how can I compete with Fran in the future? I can't find any way to turn the tables. Should I completely unite with Christina?"

Wallenstein smiled bitterly. After this period of contact, she roughly knew the relationship between Fran and the Saint. The intimacy between the two was obviously not something Margaret could interfere with, so she said: "Excuse me, Your Majesty, you have already given all the promises you could make to Christina! But it has almost no effect. The influence of the Holy Roman Church