General Fodeles sent Claude information about the Royal Navy at the end of November, just before he took up the post of director of the Security Bureau. This may be the last task he handled as head of the Military Intelligence Department, so he completed it perfectly. Compared with General Murray Ed's bribery of a technical researcher, the spies of the Military Intelligence Department lurking in the Royal Navy are deeply hidden and know more inside information. Even those Royal Navy generals transferred His Majesty to the King. It is clear how much money has been embezzled...
After receiving this document about the inside information of the Royal Navy, Claude asked General Foderes about the splitting of the Military Intelligence Department with concern. In addition to the Dominion Investigation Bureau established by Marshal Bolognik, the personnel of the four intelligence agencies, the Intelligence Bureau, the Security Bureau, and the Army Intelligence Department and Naval Intelligence Department under the military region, all have to be transferred from the original Military Intelligence Department. All members of the Military Intelligence Department must be assigned to these four departments based on their specialties and personalities. In addition, huge files and materials must also be split, which makes them extremely busy.
General Fodeles was very satisfied with Claude's splitting and adding of intelligence departments. He believed that doing so would make the responsibilities clearer and make it easier to clarify the scope of duties. Although he was the head of the Military Intelligence Department in the past and seemed to have a high position, he was responsible for too many things. To put it bluntly, he was the one who took the blame. If he does well, he will be scolded. He himself feels that this position will make his hair turn gray quickly, making him look like he is aging prematurely.
It's fine now. He only has to be responsible for counterintelligence and eliminating spies from other countries, and protecting the technologies and secrets that the Dominion Military Region cares about. His shoulders suddenly feel a lot lighter, and he doesn't have to worry about waking up from nightmares when he goes to bed at night. Something is wrong. The most important thing is that he served as the director of the Security Bureau and a member of the Intelligence Supervision Committee. He was promoted one level higher than the director of the Military Intelligence Department, and he received the double salary of the director and the committee member...
After talking to Claude for a while about the split of the Ministry of Military Intelligence, General Fodeles said goodbye and left. During this period, he was very busy with the handover and split, so Claude did not keep him. Keep talking. Opening the file, Claude soon learned the inside story of why the Wang Navy's imitation of the iron-clad warship had not been successful.
As Claude expected, corruption was the number one reason for the failure of the Wang Navy. His Majesty King Frederic I obtained a large amount of money from the nobles of the kingdom in the name of promotion fees and land selection fees, so after delivering sixteen armored warships in the Dominion Military District, he generously allocated a huge sum of five million gold crowns. The money was given to the Kingdom's Navy Ministry and ordered to conduct research and imitation work on iron-clad battleships, striving to master the construction technology of iron-clad battleships and improve them to a higher level.
It's just that the Kingdom's Admiralty has been suffering from no money for so many years. Everyone's eyes were red when they received the five million gold crowns. They first took 30% as dividends as usual, making all the officers of the Kingdom's Admiralty very fat. Year. Then he misappropriated the public funds under various names. If he had not remembered his duty as a Royal Navy officer to be loyal to His Majesty the King, perhaps not a single gold crown would have been left. It's just that when the money was allocated to research and imitate armored battleships, Frederick I's five million gold crowns were only left with more than 1.8 million...
The reason for the failure of the second ironclad battleship imitation was the failure of material imitation. The Wang Navy just dismantled three ironclad battleships, drew all the layouts and mechanical power configurations on the drawings, and recruited shipbuilding experts and sailing warships. The technical staff conducted detailed analysis and demonstration, and these steps were done well. It's just that they made a big mistake when they were looking for rune mages to imitate the materials of armored battleships and power machinery.
It is not that the Kingdom of Ovelas does not have rune mages who serve the royal family, but after the death of Sterling X, Prince Wedelek succeeded to the throne as Sterling XI, and competed with the eldest prince for the throne to start a civil war in the kingdom. , due to the lack of military spending and in order to maintain his luxurious life, Sterling XI drastically reduced unnecessary expenses of the royal family. The funds for rune mages who worked for the royal family were among the cuts, so most of those rune mages left on their own.
After Frederick I succeeded to the throne, several rune mages who served the Sterling royal family also returned. But not all rune mages are good materials experts. The rune mages who are really good at dealing with metals and synthesizing materials are still worshiped in the military industry of the kingdom's established noble families. Now that the nobles of the kingdom have been granted titles and have their own family territories, these rune mages who work for them have also been brought back to their family territories.
The rune mages enshrined by the Sterling royal family are all good at pharmacies, and are more specialized in treating diseases and detoxifying, but asking them to conduct experiments on the synthesis and refining of metal materials is like making a mistake. Just figuring out the properties of common metal materials is not an easy task. It takes time and a lot of money to conduct the most common material tests to figure it out.
The structure and construction of an iron-clad battleship is actually very simple, but it does not mean that all iron plates can be used to build an iron-clad battleship. At the very least, the metal material should prevent seawater corrosion and rust, and it should also have good anti-shelling performance and no deformation. These are all The most basic requirement. Especially for power machinery, just a propeller is a big problem. Ordinary iron or steel plates cannot make propellers. Master Bird spent more than a year testing the propeller.
The official in charge of the Royal Navy thought it would be interesting to allocate 100,000 gold crowns to these rune mages sent by the royal family. Anyway, these rune mages are so cool that they don't care much about these metal material synthesis experiments. The drawings are so detailed. If the material synthesis of this armored battleship can be understood, then there will be no problem in imitating it.
Then when we started to conduct these material synthesis experiments, several rune mages were dumbfounded. They couldn't even figure out the most basic metal deck materials of the iron-clad battleship for one hundred thousand gold crowns. Especially for those experimental magic materials, the purchasing department buys the cheapest ones and some are fake, just to get the high rebates. It was inevitable that the material synthesis test would fail at this time, and it also made the rune mages so disgraced that two of them ran back to the capital in anger.
The few remaining rune mages were more responsible and even made a list and handed it to the Kingdom's Navy Department. As a result, the senior officers of the Kingdom's Navy Department were dumbfounded. Because these rune mages believed that without two to three years and two to three million gold crowns of experimental funds, they would not be able to figure out the metal composite materials on this armored battleship. It’s just that the funds allocated by His Majesty the King have either been divided or spent. Where can we get so much money
There are many smart people who can't eat pigs without Zhang butcher. In order to avoid damage to their pockets, someone came up with an idea. There is no need for these rune mages to conduct any metal material synthesis experiments. Everyone goes to dig through the pile of old papers. Didn't the Sterling royal family open a firearms research institute in the past and come up with many metal material formulas? You can just look for similar metal material formulas to replace them. With the metal formula, there is no need for the rune mage to do any experiments. It can be directly delivered to the refining workshop for forging...
So there are similar ship plate materials, and the deck materials are almost the same. The only difficulty is that there are no casting materials for the power machinery and the propeller. Other materials are used to make the power steam engine. Even if there are detailed drawings, it can be made. What came out was still different. It either leaked air or was not resistant to fire and high temperatures. There were numerous problems such as deformation and jamming of mechanical parts. There were even two explosion accidents, which killed several technicians and workers.
At this time, all the money had been spent. His Majesty the King asked about the progress of the imitation of the armored battleship. The senior officers of the Kingdom's Navy told Frederic I that the progress was going very smoothly, and soon they The kingdom's own armored warships can be manufactured. As a result, Frederick I was happy and decided to send an imperial envoy to test the results. Now the Royal Navy was in trouble.
Fortunately, there were many smart people in the Royal Navy, and they quickly came up with a way. One was to ask the people from the Kingdom's Army Department to hold the imperial envoy in the royal capital, and the other was to build the selected ship planks first. The appearance of an ironclad ship appears. In any case, it must be at least several times larger than the armored warships of the overseas autonomous territories, so that it can be compared and clearly seen. So the Wang Navy Shipbuilding Workshop in Bailu City was racing against time to build iron-hulled ships.
In order to save trouble, the Wang Navy directly dragged a large flat sailing ship over and covered the surface with iron ship plates. As for the power machinery, if you can't build it yourself, don't you still have an iron-clad battleship? Another one was dragged over. After dismantling it, the steam-powered machinery was installed on the iron-shelled flat-bottomed ship. After installing it, it was found that the ship could not be pushed. An idea struck. Installed another one and dismantled another ironclad battleship. Finally, the iron-hulled flat-bottomed boat was finally able to move forward slowly on the sea. Although it was very unbalanced and the hull shook a lot, at least it looked very scary...
The imperial envoy sent by His Majesty the King was warmly entertained by the Kingdom's Admiralty along the way, and even he felt embarrassed. When I arrived at Bailu City, I looked at the iron-shelled flat-bottomed boat and compared it with the armored destroyer next to it. It was simply a giant. He was immediately full of praise. He didn't understand the navy and only thought that the bigger the ship, the more powerful it was. Apart from anything else, a large area like the one above can be used to place a few more artillery pieces. During a war, more artillery pieces will always be more powerful.
In order to repay the kindness of the Kingdom's Navy Department, the imperial envoy asked the accompanying painter to draw the heroic appearance of the iron-shelled flat-bottomed boat at sea. At the same time, he used his imagination to paint more than a dozen giant cannons on the bare deck. The fort, regardless of whether so many artillery pieces would sink the iron-shelled flat-bottomed boat. He only knew that the more powerful and beautiful the painting, the easier it would be for him to do business, whether it was His Majesty the King or the Kingdom's Admiralty.
Sure enough, after returning to the royal capital, everyone was very happy when the imperial envoy handed over the painting. Frederick I liked it very much. The artist used an exaggerated technique to paint the armored warships of the overseas dominions next to the iron-hulled flat boat. The ratio looks like that of a child compared to an adult. In fact, this iron-hulled flat-bottomed ship is only twice as big as the armored destroyer, but on the screen it looks more than five times larger.
King Frederic I was really happy. The armored battleship built by his own navy was so powerful. There were so many cannons on it, which looked more powerful than the several cannons on the armored battleship built by the overseas autonomous territories. He turned around and asked the director of the Kingdom's Navy how much it cost to build such an iron-armored warship. The director of the Kingdom's Navy hesitated for a long time and stretched out a finger. He knew that this iron-hulled flat-bottomed ship was pieced together and cost only one dollar. It’s about 10,000 gold crowns, and he’s going to quote 100,000 gold crowns...
Unexpectedly, Frederick I misunderstood. You must know that the quotations on paper for the sixteen armored warships used by the overseas autonomous territories to compensate for the promotion fees and land selection fees were between 180,000 and more than 200,000 gold crowns each. . The home-made iron-hulled flat-bottomed boat on the screen now is five times larger than the armored destroyer next to it, so of course the cost is five times higher.
Therefore, Frederick I said that such an armored warship cost one million gold crowns and was worth the money. Then I will allocate another five million gold crowns and build five more ships. With these six giant iron-clad ships, I believe there is nothing to worry about in the Kingdom’s waters. Those small sampans in the overseas autonomous territories are simply vulnerable to our six giant iron-clad ships. We should also let those in the overseas autonomous territories see the majesty of the Royal Navy and the heritage of the Kingdom. We can build armored giant ships with greater firepower and greater firepower than them...
The head of the Kingdom's Navy Department suddenly felt that the finger he stretched out was shining with golden light and was so hot that it turned purple. However, he is a smart man, and naturally he will not contradict His Majesty or even bring trouble to himself. He just patted his chest on the spot and promised to build these five giant iron-armored ships for the kingdom, which showed the majesty of the royal navy. The reputation of the Yangstrin royal family spread over the sea. among the waves
Knowing the lowest price of shipbuilding, the Kingdom's Navy received a huge sum of five million gold crowns this time, instead of taking a 30% dividend, it directly deducted half of it and gave a generous bonus to all senior officers of the Royal Navy. Then he took another million gold crowns and paid heavily to the imperial envoy and the big guys in the royal court, so that if anything happened in the future, there would be people to intercede on behalf of the Kingdom's Admiralty...
Only when only one million gold crowns were left in this huge sum of money for shipbuilding, the Kingdom's Navy decided to start building five giant ironclad ships. But then bad news came. The iron-hulled flat-bottomed boat used to make samples had sunk to the bottom of the sea, possibly due to water leakage. So the number of armored giant ships to be built became six, and they were more than three times larger than the armored destroyers of the overseas autonomous territories. The last question is where to get twelve steam-powered machines...
After numerous meetings, the Kingdom’s Navy Department finally decided to save face and sent envoys to overseas autonomous territories to seek help, purchasing twelve marine steam engines at a high price. It was only after the special envoy arrived in the overseas dominions that he discovered that there was no need to ask for help, as long as the commercial power machinery workshop was willing to sell it. When he told the purchase request, the commercial power machinery workshop reported the matter. The military region headquarters found out that it was only the steam power machinery of the first generation of armored battleships and was an obsolete product, so it approved the transaction with a stroke of a pen.
Since it was the Kingdom's Navy Department who came to buy it, the director of the commercial power machinery workshop quadrupled the price and added a little more, and quoted a price of thirty-five thousand gold crowns. The special envoy refused, and the workshop manager was about to reduce the price even more. However, the special envoy quoted a price of 50,000 gold crowns, which meant that the extra 15,000 gold crowns would be used as a kickback...
Therefore, these twelve first-generation iron-clad battleships' marine steam-powered machinery cost the Kingdom's Navy Ministry 600,000 gold crowns, not counting the travel expenses of the special envoy and the transportation costs of these power machinery. The remaining more than 300,000 gold crowns were somewhat stretched to build six giant iron-clad ships. Because the hard requirement is to be three times larger than the armored destroyer, there is no suitable flat-bottomed transport ship to make do. It is necessary to build a flat-bottomed wooden ship three times the size as the base mold, then cover the outside with marine iron plates, and then weld them and polish them. Apply paint etc...
To be honest, the senior officers in the Royal Navy and the Royal Navy also want to do something practical, but they can't help the people below to take advantage of it and get some kickbacks. When the bottom molds of the six flat-bottomed wooden ships were about to be completed, I suddenly realized that the money had almost been spent. After careful calculation, I found that there is still a shortfall of nearly one million gold crowns in purchasing those ship iron plates, the cost of welding labor materials, the subsequent process costs, etc.
It was impossible to ask His Majesty the King for money, because everyone was worried that Frederick I would get serious and send people to verify the cost of building ships, but it was also impossible to ask everyone to pool their own money to complete these six giant ironclad ships. After much discussion, someone decided on the remaining dozen or so armored warships. Maybe some people have already accepted the favor or were persuaded or something. They decided to scrap a few armored warships due to several maritime accidents, and then secretly sold these nominally scrapped armored warships, and the money they sold was used to continue manufacturing the six armored warships. Giant ship...
Then there is the information obtained by General Muriel. The United Kingdom of the Fox Islands spent 480,000 gold crowns to buy an ironclad destroyer and an ironclad cruiser, along with a complete set of drawings drawn by the Kingdom's Navy Department. The Kingdom of Kamanlane on the southern coast of Farea continent spent 180,000 gold crowns to buy an armored destroyer, and the Kingdom of Morosik also bought an armored destroyer for 200,000 gold crowns.
This really surprised Claude. The colony of the Morosik Kingdom on the west coast has become the territory of the Pamigal National Republic. The Morosik Kingdom's two expeditions failed and its vitality was severely damaged. Unexpectedly, there is still interest in developing iron-clad warships. It seems that the Morosik Kingdom is still not convinced. Maybe they will make a comeback in a few years.
The last "scrap" ironclad destroyer was sold to the Kingdom of Western Kamcharia for 250,000 gold crowns, along with a complete set of drawings. This is a peninsula kingdom in the northern part of the Farea continent, about six hundred miles away from the Kingdom of Hicks, and further to the west. It can also be regarded as a naval power.
Claude closed the file, shook his head and sighed. After Frederick I ascended the throne, the kingdom regained rare peace, the economy recovered, and its vitality recovered. It can be said that the kingdom has a qualified king. It's just that Frederick I grew up in the palace as a child and didn't know the fireworks of the world, so he didn't understand how the people below were playing tricks on him, His Majesty the King...
From the shipbuilding farce of the Kingdom's Navy, we can see how far the Kingdom's officialdom has reached. It seems that Marshal Bolognik's decision to rectify the administrative issues in the overseas autonomous territories this time is very correct and timely. He must not let the overseas autonomous territories become a paradise for corrupt officials like the Kingdom itself...