Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 586 Shipbuilding farce of the Royal Navy

General Fordless sent information about the Royal Navy to Claude at the end of November, before assuming the post of Director of Security. Perhaps this was one of his last tasks as head of MI, so it was perfect. Compared to General Muried's acquisition of a technical researcher, the MIA agents lurking in the Royal Navy are hidden in depth and have more inside information, and even those Royal Navy officers know exactly how much money His Majesty's money has been embezzled...

Accepting this file on Royal Navy intelligence, Claude was interested in questioning General Fordless about some of the splitting up of the MI. In addition to the Autonomous Command Investigation Service, which was set up by Marshal Bolognick, the Intelligence Agency, the Security Service and the four intelligence agencies of the Army Intelligence Department and the Naval Intelligence Department under the Military Region were all to be redeployed from the former Military Intelligence Department. In addition to the fact that all MI personnel are assigned to the four departments according to their skills and personalities, the vast amount of documentation is to be split up and the chicken dog jumps for a while.

General Fordless was rather satisfied with Claude's splitting up and addition of intelligence services, which, in his view, made it easier to clarify the terms of reference by clarifying the responsibilities. In the past, although he was the head of the Military Intelligence Department, he seemed to have a high degree of authority and was responsible for too many matters. To be honest, he was a backpacker. Well done, of course. He couldn't be scolded. He himself felt that the position made his hair grey very quickly. He looked like he was not old.

Now, all he has to do is clean up the affairs of other agents with counterintelligence, protect the technology and secrets that the autonomous military region cares about. At once, he feels much lighter on the shoulder. He doesn't have to worry about sleeping at night to wake up from the nightmare. He fears that something might be missing. Most importantly, he is a Director of Security and a member of the Intelligence Monitoring Committee, a step higher than the head of the Military Intelligence Department, and receives double the salary of the Director and the commissioner...

After talking to Claude about the breakup of the MI, General Fordless resigned, and during that time he was too busy handing over and breaking up, Claude did not leave him to continue his in-depth conversation. Turning over the file, Claude soon found out why the Royal Navy had not succeeded in imitating the Ironclad.

Not to Claude's surprise, corruption is the first cause of the Royal Navy's failure. His Majesty King Frederick I has secured a great deal of money from the royal nobility in the name of royalty and land selection fees, so after delivering sixteen Ironclad warships in the Autonomous Military Region, a huge sum of five million gold kroner was appropriated to the Royal Naval Ministry, ordering research and imitation work on Ironclad warships in an effort to master the construction techniques of Ironclad warships and take them to the next level.

It's just that the Royal Navy Ministry has had no money in its pocket for so many years. All the five million gold kroner have their eyes red. First, according to custom, they took 30% as a dividend, so that all officers of the Royal Navy Department can pass a fat year. Immediately thereafter, it was misappropriated in various names, and if it was not remembered that it was the duty of His Majesty the King to serve as a Royal Navy officer, perhaps not a single Golden Krone would remain. But when we set aside the Ironclad to study and replicate it, Frederick I's five million gold kroner left only 1.8 million...

The reason for the failure of the second Ironclad simulation was the failure of the material simulation. The Royal Navy had just begun dismantling three Ironclad warships, drawing all the layouts and mechanical power formulations on the drawings, and recruiting shipbuilding experts and technicians from those warships for detailed analysis and validation, all of which were well done. It's just that they made a huge mistake searching for the material the scribe came to imitate the Ironclad warships and power machines.

The Kingdom of Auvellas is not a magician who did not serve the Crown, except that, after the death of Sterling X, that Prince Wedelec succeeded him in becoming Sterling XI, and the Grand Prince fought for the throne to wage a civil war in the Kingdom because of the lack of military spending and the unnecessary expenses of the Crown that Sterling XI drastically reduced in order to sustain his luxury life. The funds of scribes like those working for the royal family were cut, so most of the scribes left themselves.

After Frederick I succeeded him, a few of the magicians who worked for the Sterling royal family returned. But not all scribes are good material experts, really deal with metals to synthesize more proficient scribes, or the kingdom's old-fashioned aristocratic families in the military industry. Now that the royal nobility has been given a seal and has its own family territory, these scribes who have served them have also been brought back to their family territory.

The scribes of the Sterling royal family are good at pharmacology and are more professional at curing and detoxifying diseases, and ask them to conduct synthetic refining tests of metallic materials, which is as if the cowhead is not right in the horse's mouth. It is not easy to figure out the properties of common metals, it takes time, and a lot of money is needed to test the most common materials.

And the structure and construction of Ironclad warships is simple, but it doesn't mean that any iron plate can be made to build Ironclad warships. At the very least, metallic materials prevent corrosion and rust from sea water, as well as good anti-shelling performance, without deformation, these are the most basic requirements. In particular, power machinery, a propeller alone, is a university question, and ordinary iron or steel plates can't be made into propellers. Master Byrd spent more than a year experimenting on propellers.

The officers in charge of the Royal Navy thought it would be meaningful to allocate 100,000 gold crowns to these scribes sent to the royal family. Anyway, these scribes Bull B coaxed, can't really see these metal material synthesis tests, the drawings are so detailed, if you can figure out the material synthesis of this Ironclad warship, then there is nothing wrong with imitation.

And then, at first, these materials were synthesized, and a few scribes were foolish, 100,000 gold kroner, and even the most basic metal deck materials of the Ironclad warships were unclear. Especially those experimental magic materials, the purchasing department buys the cheapest and a few are fake, in order to get that expensive rebate. The failure of the material synthesis test was inevitable. It also caused the gray head of the scribes, and two of them ran back to Wangdu angrily.

The remaining scribes were more responsible, and a list was given to the Royal Navy Department, which resulted in senior officers of the Royal Navy Department looking silly. Because the scribes believe that without two or three years and two or three million gold kroner for testing, it is impossible to figure out the metallic synthetic material on this Ironclad warship. It's just that the money that His Majesty allocated was either split up or spent. Where did you get all that money?

Without Zhang, the butcher would eat a pig with hair? A lot of intelligent people, in order to avoid damage to their backpacks, someone came up with an idea that didn't require these scribes to do any metallic material synthesis tests, so everyone went over the paper pile. Didn't the Sterling Royal Family run a firearms institute and come up with a lot of metal formulas? Just find a similar metal formula to replace it. With the metallic formula, you don't need to do any experiments with the scribe, just deliver it directly to the refinery for forging...

So there is a similar board material, the deck material and so on, the only difficulty is that the power machinery and the propeller casting material is not there, other materials are used to manufacture the power steam engine, even with detailed drawing, what can still be made out is three different things, leakage or fire resistance and high temperature, deformation stuck in the mechanical area and so on, even two explosions, several technicians and workers were killed and injured.

At that time, the money had been spent cleanly and His Majesty asked about the progress of the Ironclad Battleship imitation, and senior officers of the Royal Navy Department told Frederie I in a spirit of good news that the progress had been very smooth and that the Kingdom's own Ironclad Battleship could soon be manufactured. As soon as Frederick I was happy, he decided to send Minister Chinchilla down to test the results, and the Royal Navy sat waxed.

Fortunately, there were many intelligent people in the Royal Navy, and they quickly figured out a way to get the Royal Army Department to stall the Lord Chinchilla first, and to build an iron armored boat on the chosen boards first. In any case, at least a few times larger than the Ironclad warships of the overseas autonomous territories, so as to be contrastive and obvious. So the Royal Navy shipyard in White Deer City was competing for seconds to build an iron hull ship.

For your convenience, the Royal Navy dragged a large flat-terraced sailboat directly to cover the surface. As for power machines, you can't build them yourself. Isn't there an Ironclad? Another one was dragged over, and after dismantling it, the steam powered machine was installed on this iron crust flat bottom boat. After loading it, it was found that the pushing boat could not be moved. When the machine moved, another one was installed, and another Ironclad Battleship was dismantled. Eventually, it was able to get this iron crust flat boat moving slowly at sea. Although it was unbalanced and the hull wobbled a lot, it looked frightening at least...

His Majesty the King sent Minister Chinchilla along the way was very warmly received by the Royal Navy, and he was not even ashamed of himself. When we arrived in White Deer City and watched the flat-bottom boat of the iron shell, we compared it to the Ironclad Destroyer next to us, and it was really huge. He didn't know the navy, but thought the bigger the boat, the stronger it was. Needless to say, more artillery can be placed in places as big as the light, and the artillery is always stronger when fighting.

In return for the deep hospitality of the Royal Navy Ministry, the Minister of Chinchilla asked the accompanying painter to paint the offshore English figure of the iron crust bottom boat, while at the same time using his imagination to paint more than a dozen giant artillery turrets on a bare deck, despite the fact that so many artillery were placed on it, would the iron crust bottom boat be crushed? All he knows is that the more prestigious the painting, the easier it will be for him to turn over, a past that His Majesty the King and the Royal Navy Department have all told him.

After returning to Wang Du, Minister Qin Qian was very pleased with the painting. Frederie I looked very much at it. The painter used an exaggerated method to paint the overseas autonomous Ironclad Battleship next to this Ironclad Flat Ship, which looked like a comparison between children and adults. In fact, it's twice as big as the Ironclad Destroyer, but it looks more than five times bigger.

Frederick I was truly pleased that the Ironclad warships built by his own navy were so powerful that there were so many cannons on them alone, and they seemed to be more powerful than a few cannons on the Ironclad warships built by the Overseas Autonomous Territories. He turned to the head of the Royal Navy and asked how much it cost to build such an Ironclad warship. The head of the Royal Navy hesitated for half a day to stretch out a finger. He knew that this iron crust flat boat was assembled and cost about 10,000 gold kroner. He was going to report 100,000 gold kroner...

I had no idea that Frederick I had misunderstood, knowing that the 16 Ironclad warships used by the Overseas Autonomous Territories to compensate for the costs of martial arts and land selection were all quoted on paper at between KK 180,000 and KK 200,000. Now this homemade iron crust flat boat is five times bigger than the iron armor destroyer next to it, and it's worth five times more.

Thus, Frederick I said, such an Ironclad warship would be worth a million gold kroner. Then I'll allocate another five million gold kroner and build five more. With these six giant Ironclad ships, I'm sure there's nothing more to worry about on the kingdom's coast. Those little boards of overseas autonomy, in front of our six giant Ironclad ships, are simply unbeatable. We should also show the people of the Overseas Autonomous Territories the power of the Royal Navy and the backdrop of the kingdom that we can build bigger, more powerful Ironclad ships than they...

The head of the Royal Navy Department immediately felt his finger stretched out shining golden and purple. But he is a smart man, naturally he will not rebut His Majesty so much that he is not amused. He only shot himself on the spot and promised to build these five Ironclad giant ships for the kingdom that show the majesty of the Royal Navy. The royal family of Youngstering is famous in the waves of the sea!

The Royal Navy Department, which knew the bottom price of the shipbuilding, did not take a three-point bonus this time by collecting a huge sum of five million gold kroner, but instead directly withheld it and awarded a generous bonus to all senior officers of the Royal Navy. Then we took another million gold kroner, and the heavy payment thanked the Minister of Chinchilla and all the elders in the King's court, so that the rain was all over the place, so that people came to speak for the Royal Navy Department after the accident...

The Royal Navy decided to start building five giant Ironclad ships only when there were only one million gold kroner left in this shipbuilding. But then the bad news came that the sampling vessel had sunk to the bottom of the ocean, possibly because of a leak. So the Ironclad Giant was built into six ships, more than three times larger than the Ironclad Destroyer of the Overseas Autonomous Territories. The final question is where to get 12 steam-powered machines...

After numerous meetings, the Royal Navy finally decided to pull down and send envoys to overseas autonomous territories for help in obtaining steam power from 12 ships at high prices. It was only after the envoy arrived at the Overseas Autonomous Territories that he realized that there was no need to ask for help at all, as long as the commercial power mechanical workshop was willing to sell it. As soon as he reported the purchase requirements to the commercial power machinery workshop, the military headquarters found that it was only the steam power machinery of the first generation of Ironclad warships, which belonged to the phase-out products, and it was also a big wave of approval to trade.

Since the Royal Navy Department had purchased it, the director of the commercial powered mechanical workshop quadrupled the price and added it slightly, and quoted a price of 35,000 gold kroner. The envoy refused, the workshop director was trying to reduce it a bit, and the envoy quoted a price of 50,000 gold kroner, meaning that the extra 15,000 gold kroner would be used as a rebate...

Thus, the steam-powered machinery for the 12 first-generation Ironclad warships cost the Royal Navy 600,000 gold kroner, not counting the travel expenses of the Special Envoy and the transportation costs of the powered machinery. The remaining 300,000 Golden Kroner were stretched elbows to build six Ironclad giant ships. Because the hard requirement is to be three times bigger than the Ironclad Destroyer, there are no suitable flat cargo ships to fit, you need to build a three-fold flat wooden boat undermould first, then cover the boat iron plate outside, then weld and polish, then paint and so on...

Honestly, senior officers in the Royal Navy and the Royal Navy are also eager to do something about it, but they can't help but get some cheap rebates or something from the people below. Looking at the completion of the six flat wooden bottom models, it suddenly became apparent that the money was almost spent. A closer look at the shortfall in purchasing those marine iron sheets, welding labor materials, subsequent process costs, etc., plus nearly one million gold kroner…

It is impossible to ask His Majesty the King for money because everyone fears that Frederick I will seriously send someone to verify the cost of building the ship, but it is also impossible to have people pay for all six Ironclad ships. Negotiate, and someone strikes at the remaining dozen Ironclad warships. Perhaps there are people who have already received love or been told that they have decided to scrap several Ironclad warships in several maritime accidents and sell them in secret to continue building those six Ironclad giant ships...

Then came the information received by General Muried that the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands had spent 480,000 gold kroner on an Ironclad destroyer and an Ironclad cruiser, accompanied by a complete set of drawings drawn by the Royal Navy. The Kingdom of Cameron Lane, on the southern coast of the Farea continent, bought an Ironclad destroyer at a cost of KK 180,000, and the Kingdom of Morosik also bought an Ironclad destroyer at a cost of KK 200,000.

It was surprising to Claude that the colonies of the Kingdom of Morosik on the West Coast had become the territory of the Pamigal National Republic, and that the two expeditions of the Kingdom of Morosik had failed and had caused great damage to its energy. I didn't expect to be interested in developing an Ironclad warship. It seems that the Kingdom of Morosik is still uncomfortable. Perhaps in a few years they will come back to life.

The last “scrapped” Ironclad destroyer was sold to the Kingdom of Western Kancharia for 250,000 gold kroner, accompanied by a complete set of drawings. This is the northern Peninsula kingdom of the Farea continent, some 600 miles from the Hicks kingdom, and further west, a naval power.

Claude closed the file and shook his head to exclamation. With the advent of Frederick I, the kingdom has regained a rare sense of tranquillity, economic recovery and revitalization, and it can be said that the kingdom has a qualified king. It's just that Frederick I grew up in the Deep Palace and didn't know the fireworks, so I didn't know how the people below were messing with His Majesty the King...

From this shipbuilding farce by the Royal Navy Ministry, it can be seen how corrupt the kingdom is to govern itself. It seems that Marshal Bolognick is quite right and timely in this decision to govern the governance of the Overseas Autonomous Territories and must not, like the mainland of the Kingdom, become the land of corrupt officials...