Munitions Empire

The sound of metal clinking echoed through the shipyard, a large shipbuilding factory owned by Shireck, originally dedicated to producing steel Ming Wheel Ships.

Now, Sofia had taken it over, and she gathered more than half of the consortium’s elite workers to build the Shireck Consortium’s own super warship here.

Having acquired propeller propulsion technology, Sofia naturally could not stand idly by and watch the Great Tang Group dominate the seas. Therefore, Sofia wanted to be a challenger, or rather, a sharer of maritime interests!

The massive hull was redesigned, and this warship sported a brand-new design, presenting an unprecedented challenge to Shireck’s designers.

In the end, the experienced designers still completed their task, and then began the construction of this behemoth!

The Shireck super warship took inspiration from the Great Tang Group’s Dreadnought design philosophy. After all, Jade City-class battleships had visited Qi Country and had been to Brunas, their appearance witnessed by many.

The imposing hull and the mighty cannons on it left a lasting impression on many. Various painters had depicted the Dreadnought docked in the port, one of which even ended up in Tang Mo’s collection.

Since many technologies had already spread, it was often possible to easily copy a rival’s design just by using one’s eyes.

Imitating developed designs could save a lot of trouble. Shireck’s new battleships were plagiarized just like that.

Regrettably, a mere imitation would always fall short, and after copying the exterior, Shireck’s designers encountered unprecedented difficulties in many critical aspects.

For example, Shireck copied the turret layout and exterior design of the Dreadnought but could not replicate the internal structure of the warship.

Especially the long-range optical sighting equipment exclusive to the Great Tang Group, which requires precision engineering, was impossible to plagiarize.

To compensate for the performance gap caused by such issues, Shireck’s solution was to increase tonnage, add more armor, and enlarge the caliber of the cannons…

This method was akin to boosting the in-game stats: thicker armor and larger cannon calibers naturally meant a more powerful warship.

However, in reality, a larger caliber doesn’t always mean stronger firepower, nor does thicker armor guarantee higher defense.

Defensive capability depends not only on the thickness of the armor but also on the technology used to assemble it, the quality of the armor, and the position it’s installed...

Firepower is not just about cannon caliber but also involves the density of fire, the choice of ammunition types, and considerations of chamber pressure and firing rates.

Moreover, sometimes technology isn’t something you can surpass simply because you want to.

The foreman overseeing the construction of Shireck’s Dreadnought was discussing this very "super" Dreadnought with his boss, "Sir, about the lifespan of our 320mm cannon barrels... actually..."

"You don’t need to worry about that! Although the lifespan may not be impressive, its theoretical performance is certainly stronger than Great Tang Group’s 305mm caliber," the supervisor said proudly.

Despite being behind in metallurgical technology and cannon casting techniques, Shireck, relying on their profound foundations, still managed to produce the 320mm cannons.

This new caliber gave Shireck’s battleships, with a layout similar to the Jade City-class, seemingly stronger firepower.

For Shireck, as long as the specifications on paper looked better, customers would be satisfied and willing to pay, and that was enough for them!

The workers in the distance were laboriously perfecting the immense hull. To support more armor, Shireck’s warships had a displacement exceeding 25,000 tons! Рᴀ𐌽ŏ฿ЕS

The complicated and outdated internal design of the hull wasted a lot of displacement, resulting in the overall defense of the larger and heavier new Shireck battleships being barely stronger than that of the Jade City-class.

What was even more ironic was that without a modern power system like the Jade City-class, Shireck had no choice but to use old-fashioned steam boilers for propulsion.

This turned the top speed of Shireck’s version of the battleships into a joke: theoretically, they could barely keep up with a free-wheeling ship at full speed.

"The one ordered by the people of Qi Country, I heard even their King is pinching pennies, eating only one meal a day," the leading supervisor said with pride: "Regardless, they all hope that we can build them a more powerful warship."

Once, to intimidate Qi Country and deter them from coveting areas of interest to Qi Country and other Great Tang Kingdoms, two Jade City-class battleships sailed to Qi Country, displaying a show of force that carried a heavy threat.

During the visit, the two warships even pointed their main cannons at Qi Country’s port, terrifying the Qi Country King to the extent that he hardly dared utter another harsh word.

After the Great Tang Kingdom’s battleships left Qi Country, the entire country regarded this threatening event as a profound disgrace.

The prideful people of the Shireck Kingdom approached Shireck, hoping Shireck could manufacture more powerful warships to help them dominate the Great Tang Kingdom.

As it happened, Shireck was also building dreadnoughts, so they took the Shireck Kingdom’s delegation to inspect the shipyards where the warships were being constructed. Continue reading on

The Shireck procurement group was quite satisfied with Shireck’s new battleships and immediately placed an order. This purchase nearly emptied the Shireck Kingdom’s national treasury reserves.

In order to regain their lost honor, the monarch of Shireck ate only one meal a day to inspire his subjects to tighten their belts and prepare for war through frugality and sacrifice.

Under the leadership of His Majesty, everyone in Shireck tightened their belts, donated money and materials, and frenziedly raised funds to purchase warships.

How frenzied? So frenzied that the children of Shireck even developed a game called "Sink the Jade City."

Now, the Shireck Navy could be said to have been reborn, with its combat power even surpassing that of other countries’ navies by a large margin.

At least on paper, the Shireck Navy had purchased one Brunas-class ironclad warship from the Great Tang Group and spent money to procure five new destroyers introduced by the Great Tang Group.

This was actually only the tip of the iceberg concerning the Shireck Navy’s procurement, with the focus being on various types of military vessels built by the Shireck Consortium.

To compensate for the losses in the last naval battle with the Great Tang Group, Shireck purchased 30 new warships from Shireck in a single breath, and went bankrupt buying three battleships that were under construction.

If one merely looked at the number of warships, the Shireck Navy’s data was quite frightening: they had 36 new warships and three battleships, plus a dozen or so Ming Wheel Ships left over from the last war...

Although the Great Tang Kingdom’s navy clearly had more ships and seemed to be of better quality, the Great Tang Navy had to be spread across Brunas, Dragon Island, Eternal Winter City, Winterless City, Linshui, and Dongwan Port.

Thus, the Great Tang Navy, which had controlled the seas since its inception, seemed to have encountered a challenger this time, an ignorant challenger.

Unfortunately, the commanders of the Shireck Navy didn’t yet know that the warships they had spent all their money on were essentially large toys with poorer targeting systems, garbage propulsion systems, tonnage without adequate protection, and outdated artillery technology.

"As far as I know, we’re not the only ones building similar warships, right?" the chief Shireck craftsman asked in a low voice.

"Indeed, as far as I’m aware, many countries are building their own new warships, some larger, some smaller," said the Shireck Consortium executive with his hands behind his back, quite sentimental.

In the past, Shireck monopolized the workshops of many countries and nearly had a monopoly on the construction of sail warships.

Because at that time, whoever built warships needed to purchase cannons from Shireck to arm those sail warships.

But now, as technology has spread, and some countries have gradually completed industrialization, or at least partial industrialization, they all possess a certain production capacity.

As these countries industrialized, they took back control of weapon production into their own hands, which actually broke Shireck Consortium’s previous marketing model.

For Shireck, the loss brought about by many countries gradually escaping its control was already causing them great distress.

Countries no longer named their warships after the producer; they preferred to use Great Tang Group’s naming method, categorizing their own warships as destroyers, ironclads, cruisers, and battleships. It’s just that actually, no country was equipped with battleships, and most didn’t even have cruisers.

To catch up with the gap, various countries were trying every means possible to enhance the power of their own navies - if they couldn’t purchase them, they would build their own.

Consequently, many new types of warships emerged like bamboo shoots after a rain, with many countries also making so-called improvements to their own warships, resulting in a plethora of oddities.

Some countries primarily focused on imitation, copying the destroyers of the Great Tang Group or the Shireck Consortium.

Others focused on improvement, arbitrarily equipping destroyers with larger caliber guns, or creating monsters that were between the tonnage of cruisers and destroyers.

All in all, the development of naval vessels was still in a primitive state, with everyone’s imagination running wild and many immature design ideas.

It was the same with tanks.

"By next year, we will see a fascinating picture where those maritime nations with more warships rise up to challenge the dominance of the Great Tang Group," laughed the head of Shireck coldly, as if seeing the Great Tang Group in deep trouble.

"That’s really great!" the craftsman leader quickly offered his flattery, "With your assistance, Lady Sofia, you will surely win the final victory!"

"Heh, hahahaha!" The complacent Shireck leader, upon hearing the compliment, became even more smug and laughed heartily.

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