Volume 1: The Rise of Elanhill Chapter 0088 Development
Although the sea route is a very important transportation route for strategic resources, Chris can only let his navy soldiers fight by sailing wind-powered sailboats. It's not that his technology is not up to the level of building steel warships, but he really doesn't have that many resources to use.
Steel has now gone from being a scarce resource to a strategic scarce resource that needs to be strictly controlled. Not to mention building warships for the navy that consume countless steel, even equipping the navy with 60 cannons is a difficult task.
In the initial plan, Des, who was stationed in the city of Seris, even intended to equip each warship with only two cannons to cope with the task. However, his plan was rejected by Chris, so he gritted his teeth and opened another production line to specialize in the production of naval artillery.
The same is true for the power system. Although the steam engine has been miniaturized and can be installed on trains, it is still in short supply. Not only do trains need more locomotives, but factories also need more steam engines to expand their production capacity.
As electricity consumption gradually increased, more thermal power plants came into operation and more steam engines were occupied by thermal power plants, so it was not the turn of naval warships, which were "units that had nothing to do with production and transportation", to compete for them.
You see, for a few steam engines, the railway department, the power department and the factory are almost breaking their heads, and countless Irish Hill senior executives have almost rolled up their sleeves and fought each other. Those who are cursing are bigwigs like Gurlodians, so who are those nameless staff officers of the navy?
The steel hull could not be made due to lack of iron, and the power system could not get the machine because of the lack of quota. As a result, the navy's steel battleship plan was shelved indefinitely, and the only option was to use traditional shipbuilding technology and build sailboats with wood.
After all, although everyone knows that the navy is also very important, the navy is obviously not in the main combat direction now. The decision-makers including Chris can only forget about the navy's expansion plan and put all their thoughts on defending the Holy Demon Empire.
Even so, the navy is developing very fast. Chris brought the best sailing ship design derived from the evolution of Earth civilization over a hundred years - Europe's prosperity was originally built on sailing ships, and those famous sailing ships were naturally more advanced.
After these warships are equipped with modern artillery, how powerful they are needs to be tested in actual combat. At present, Ailan Hill has no intention of testing the strength of the navy. They are frantically expanding their ground forces.
Actual combat is the best way to test troops. After the test of war, the top leaders of Ailan Hill have realized that the second-line garrison regiment equipped only with rifles is vulnerable when facing the attack of the Holy Demon Empire army alone.
Therefore, increasing the proportion of heavy weapons in the army became the top priority of the reform of the Ailan Hill army. Chris ordered that all the original garrison regiments be upgraded to main force regiments, which must be equipped with sufficient anti-aircraft firepower before they can be used in combat.
Under this order, all the arsenals in Ireland Hill were working at full capacity, rolling out one 30mm caliber dual-purpose anti-aircraft gun after another from the production workshop.
As the most important node and industrial center of the entire Ailan Hill, Seris's defense system has been completely separated from the original city defense. The air defense system of the entire industrial zone is a super defense fortification built on a completely new design.
Dozens of defense towers were built around the industrial area and castle of Ailan Hill. These defense towers were like small castles, with the lower part serving as a gun tower and the upper platform used to place anti-aircraft artillery.
Each defense tower is in the shape of a five-pointed star, with a 30mm dual-purpose anti-aircraft gun on each corner, ensuring that there are three anti-aircraft guns available to fire in any direction.
At the same time, in the center of this five-pointed star, there is a rotatable device used to install large-caliber anti-aircraft artillery that has not yet been put into production, or to install a newly produced night anti-aircraft auxiliary weapon: a searchlight!
According to regulations, one of two adjacent air defense towers must be equipped with a searchlight, and these searchlights are powered by two power plants, one dedicated to power supply and the other as a switching backup.
At the same time, around these air defense towers, there are machine gun bunkers with removable covers, equipped with Maxim heavy machine guns. These machine guns are installed on a fixed rack and can fire at the air or attack the ground.
It can be said responsibly that Seris's current defense system is already the most powerful defense in the Mortal Empire. If Irdo attacked Seris instead of Marica (now it should be called the Fallen Dragon City), he might be completely wiped out in the first round of dives.
Although, due to production constraints, many anti-aircraft towers are not equipped with so many 30mm anti-aircraft guns, this defense system has already taken shape and can definitely be said to be very powerful.
Because of the fear that Seris would be attacked by the Holy Demon Empire in retaliation, all the anti-aircraft guns produced in the past ten days have been reinforced here. Including the anti-aircraft gun units of the teaching regiment deployed in the field, there are at least ten field anti-aircraft gun carriages for reinforcement, and the firepower is much stronger than that of the Falling Dragon City.
In addition to the 1st Regiment that was returning, there were more than 60 anti-aircraft guns near Seris alone, which was considered a very sincere air defense force. Chris believed that with this level of air defense, even if the opponent sent out 30 dragon knights, they might not be able to gain an advantage.
"But if the Holy Demon Empire dispatches 50 or even more dragon knights, such air defense force will appear a bit weak." On the way back, Chris analyzed to the commander of the first regiment, Walter, with great concern.
Walter didn't care much about this situation. In his opinion, if he could defeat the Magic Empire twice, he could defeat them three or four times: "Your Majesty, it depends on the reaction of the Magic Empire."
"If they counterattack immediately and send in 50 dragon knights or even more troops at once, we will be under great pressure." Walter replied to Chris while riding on his warhorse, "But every day they are slower, our chances of winning will increase."
His confidence was not without reason, because Seris was producing more anti-aircraft guns every day, and as production capacity increased, the production speed of anti-aircraft guns would only get faster and faster. If the Holy Demon Empire could delay for a few more days, Ailan Hill would be able to increase the number of existing anti-aircraft guns by dozens or even hundreds.
By that time, even if a part of it was taken away, Seris's anti-aircraft artillery would increase by at least 20 or 30 guns, not to mention the increase in machine guns. By then, the power of this already very complete anti-aircraft system would increase exponentially, and the pressure on the dragon knights would be even greater.
If the attack fails and drags on for a few more days, Seris will have more anti-aircraft artillery, and then it will enter a vicious circle. The losses of the dragon knight troops will become greater and greater, and finally they will be completely passive.
"Then let's see how far those damn guys from the Holy Demon Empire are going to expand this war." Chris pulled the reins of his warhorse and said thoughtfully.
At this moment, in the wilderness of Ailan Hill, a giant steel beast let out a long cry. The train was carrying two ships of natural rubber, as well as sea salt and other industrial products produced in Ferry City, running across the wilderness , causing the civilians on both sides of the track to stop working and look at this unprecedented scene with curious eyes.
A train car was pulled forward quickly by the front of the train, black coal smoke spewed out from the chimney of the train, spread on the roof, and finally disappeared in the air behind it. It was faster than a horse-drawn carriage, and it could carry more things than a horse-drawn carriage. What was even more terrifying was that it could continue to work without sleep.
Because multiple locomotives were produced at the same time, this pre-built two-way railway could also transport multiple vehicles at the same time. The transportation efficiency was dozens or hundreds of times that of the original horse-drawn carriage transportation.
With this transportation line, the parts produced by the Maine factory and the daily necessities produced in the Ferry City can be transported to the City of Seris at an extremely low cost - the cooperation between cities has become more frequent and the production speed has become faster.
"That thing is called a train. The workers who were laying the railway told us about it a few days ago. They said that a train would pass over it at an alarming speed." A farmer waved the hoe in his hand, showing off his extensive knowledge to his fellow villagers.
In fact, he still didn't know why the train was moving, nor how much cargo was loaded in the carriages towed by it. But judging from its size, this thing called a train was already a very shocking new thing.
Roaring all the way, this train only needs half a day to travel from Maine to Seris. After all, the locomotive made by Chris is not of the original locomotive design.
This type of train is at least at the level before World War I, and is already a very practical design. With the transportation capacity provided by these trains, Ireland Hill's transportation capacity has surpassed all countries and has taken a shortcut to development.
"It's really big! And its roar is so loud, it must be able to carry a lot of things." Hearing the farmers around him showing off, this ordinary farmer nodded and exclaimed in admiration.
"Of course not. I heard that with this thing, it will only take us one day to go to Ferry City!" The farmer who showed off first said without raising his head as he continued to work with his head down.
"This year's harvest is much better than last year... I heard that grain prices have risen again?" The farmers who no longer cared about the trains talked about issues they were more concerned about. Anyway, for them, no matter how fast and powerful the trains were, they were not as exciting as the increase in grain prices...
