Winter rain fell for several days in the town of Vichy.

The cold air mass in the north weakened after crossing the Ott Mountains, and it was in a constant tug-of-war with the warm air mass generated by the ocean over Genoa. This made the winter of 1832 in Genoa much colder than usual.

Returning to the town of Vichy, Sean, accompanied by the mayor of Petit Pierre, visited the missing fishermen's relatives and then went to a warehouse on the docks.

The Xia merchants and his men were imprisoned here, and the guards were still the military, but the people in charge of the management were the people brought by Daley.

At this time, the more worrying news came, the naval base on the island of San Nado fell into the hands of the Fish Demon, and the Fish Demon was able to succeed in one blow after years of lax armament of the Navy.

The fish demon laid siege to this isolated island. The fate of the 100,000 people on the island is uncertain, and the food reserves they rely on for survival are up to seven days, all of which are transported by merchant ships, and the results can be predicted.

And the confession of the Xia people can also correspond to this, they rescued several residents who escaped from the island of Sennardo in the sea area of Sennado, and then they encountered the pursuit of the fish demon, and the lucky ones they rescued can also prove that they are not lying.

The fish demon was not aimed at the Genellaese, and after figuring out the facts, Daly immediately released the Xia people, and now this matter is a headache for those big people in the Holy City.

Dahl Le's boat pushes the boat.

But the Xia people were clearly frightened, and some of the sailors fell ill several times on the shore, and they could not leave Vichy for a short time.

Now they are penniless. Seeing that they had saved the Europas, Sean instructed Mayor Pierre Jr. to allow them to live in the town temporarily, and to provide some support until they were able to leave.

The stranded Xia country cargo ship on the beach is still in place.

At noon that day, Sean stood on the beach, watching the ironclad ship Genoese approach the stranded Xia State cargo ship.

Taking advantage of the high tide, they wanted to tow the cargo ship to a nearby dock.

Once such a round-bottomed cargo ship runs aground, the protruding keel will make it skewed, and the hull will inevitably be damaged under the influence of its own weight.

The owner of this ship has the surname Dragon, in fact, not only the Xia people have more surnames Dragon, but even the Europa people have the surname Dragon, and many of the surnames of the Europa people with relatively short pronunciation are mostly related to the culture transmitted from the Xia Kingdom. When the first Xia people came to Europa, many Europa people did not have surnames, and the nobles did not yet have the habit of bathing.

This relates to legends from a distant past.

According to Sean's guess, this must be the result of the human spaceship that escaped from Earth, and these space refugees or the descendants of space migrants, for some reason, had to start from scratch, blended with each other, and were plausible.

The murals of the Sawyer Church contain many legends from ancient times, such as fish-men, werewolves, blood warriors, bloodthirsters, and even more exotic intelligent beings, which may only be created by failed genetic technology.

Maybe it's not a failure, but it was deliberately created by the last group of pioneers to cope with survival on a strange planet.

But Sean has no evidence, which is why he encouraged theology professors at Poitou University to go on a global expedition.

After counting the time, the professor had been gone for a year and a half, and now his ocean-going expedition fleet did not know where it had been, and perhaps would never return. Especially now that fish demons are rampant, it is even more worrying. Of course, for now, I'm afraid only Sean, the initiator, still remembers him.

Religious legends describe the fish demon or fish-man as an evil creature, but in many voyagers' notes, they are described as a mysterious and timid creature who never comes into contact with humans.

But now the fish demon is actively attacking humans, and this is a big event, and the direct consequence is that the ocean-like trade and coastal transportation of the European and Roman Empire will be disrupted, and this consequence will have a knock-on effect: tariffs will be sharply reduced, goods will be overstocked, and a large number of factories will reduce production, which in turn will lead to massive unemployment.

The Reya smoked, small but powerful, managed to tow the stranded merchant ship to deep water, drawing cheers from the crowd.

"It's not a small force!" Mr. Long said in Europa with a standard Holy City accent, "I heard that this is an invention of Lord Viscount?"

"No, it's the work of engineers. Sean said, "Isn't it?"

Mr. Long said: "It is indeed a masterpiece, it doesn't even use sails, and if my ship was such an iron guy, I wouldn't be so embarrassed at all." I dare say that in the future, the sea will be full of iron guys who use steam engines. ”

"Your judgment is good, but not right now, we are still trying to make a big guy suitable for ocean voyages. Sean laughed, "If you want to order, I'm afraid you'll have to wait a few years." ”

The operation of the realistic point is that while the sails are retained, the steam engine is used as the auxiliary power, and the hull is still a wooden structure. If it is a battleship, at most the battleship should be equipped with armor to defend against artillery attacks, which can only be called an armored ship, not an ironclad ship.

In one step, use all-metal to overcome the shortcomings of sailboats that not only need to be repaired after an ocean voyage, but can last up to ten years if they are well maintained, and their wooden materials will deform when squeezed by huge waves, and often even cause the hull to fall apart, causing terrible accidents.

But the all-metal ironclad ship was not only costly, but also faced many technical difficulties, which is why the Genoese was relatively small.

Kang's Shipyard is a bottomless pit, and it needs to find an opportunity to generate a little income before it can build a real ironclad ship. Perhaps a little enlargement of the Genoese would also be a good option.

"It's a pity. Mr. Long said, "Your country has already taken the lead, and our country has only just used the steam engine. We're already a lot behind. ”

The Xia merchant wandered around the town of Vichy these days, and he found many good things here, such as tea, and he was fascinated and envied by the cultural aspects of the tea drinking of the people of Vichy.

He felt that tea was a drink more suitable for his compatriots, especially after recognizing a square word. This word was first discovered by scholars of the Xia Kingdom.

As a businessman, he was ready to introduce tea and tea culture to the Xia Kingdom, and thought that it was extremely profitable, so he wanted to have a good relationship with the owner here.

Sean, of course, will not refuse, although tea is still in short supply, with the efforts of the council, tea culture has swept the country, but the price has fallen in the form of a cliff. If you can export, this is obviously also a good way to make a profit.

The merchant claimed to be from a large family in the Xia Kingdom and was extremely influential in the Xia Kingdom, but whether what he said was true or not, Sean didn't care, and he promised to give him a preferential price for the first supply, as long as he could afford it.

Mr. Long was trapped, and even though Sean helped him repair the cargo ship and lent him enough food and fresh water for free, he would not dare to return to the sea immediately. Throughout the coastline of Europa, there are many foreign merchants who are as trapped as he is.

The fish demon has tasted human blood and has become more aggressive, and even fishermen operating in the coastal waters have been attacked from time to time.

Coastal areas were invariably on high alert, and marine activity almost stopped.

The Xia Kingdom was obviously also seriously affected, and later learned that they had sent ten warships to contact the Europa Empire, and it was not until the end of May of the following year that one warship successfully reached the shores of Europa, which shows the danger at sea.

The senile Admiral Younas was dismissed, and here it is necessary to mention the position of the Imperial Navy in the army - the Navy has not had a single marshal so far.

It can be seen that the Europa Empire had a vast maritime territory and a thriving overseas trade, but it did not have a corresponding naval power.

Of course, on the sea, the only one that can compete with Europa is the Xia Kingdom, which is about the same size, but the Xia Kingdom is not an aggressive country, and although naval battles broke out between the two countries and ended in the victory of the Xia Kingdom, the business between the two countries is still going well.

The empire's long-term pressure was on land, on the northern borders, in the defense of the Bilisi, in the midst of repeated battles with the Assyrians, which made the military expenditure heavily biased in favor of the army.

So the new Admiral Richard Moko found himself unexpectedly unable to assemble a full fleet.

He had to requisition merchant ships and slightly modify them to facilitate the installation of artillery, but some people thought that it would be better to install a giant crossbow - just for this, the bigwigs of the Holy City discussed it for half a month.

In the end, it was the Giant Crossbow faction that gained the upper hand, because the Giant Crossbow was cheaper than artillery, and it was relatively simple to use, flexible in combat, and convenient for modifying merchant ships. Using artillery against fish demons and sharks at sea is not very efficient.

Of course, considering the finances of the Empire, it is only natural that the former should be chosen as the main battle weapon. It is ironic that since the invention of gunpowder weapons, the form of war at sea has reverted to its traditional form.

On December 5, 1832, Admiral Moko led a fleet of 300 warships south from the mouth of the Ossella River to sweep the sea.

At first, his fleet fought well, and he was no slouch against the Shark Legion, but in the reef area not far from his destination, the island of San Nado, the Fish Demon took advantage of the darkness to attack.

At this time, the fleet stayed here in order to avoid the huge waves, and the fish demon scuttled through the fleet's warships, and the panicked fleets either ran aground or collided with each other, and the sailors who fell into the water either drowned or fed the sharks.

Admiral Moko's fleet was originally patchworked, and could not withstand the attack of the fish demon, so he had to order the ships to retreat to Pumao Harbor in the face of strong winds and waves.

A few days later, Admiral Moko found that most of his men had been lost.

It was the end of 1832, and on the last day of the year, Sean unexpectedly received a letter from Admiral Moko himself.

The admiral, who has nothing to do with Sean, is scheduled to visit Kang's shipyard in early February of the following year to examine the feasibility of using the new shipbuilding for combat purposes.

This is a rare opportunity for Sean and his shipyard, for which his Spring Festival is once again in vain.