On February 5, 1832, Sean accompanied Admiral Moko on an inspection of the Kang's shipyard, east of the port of Poitou.

Despite getting information about Moko's Shangke from different sources, Sean was still surprised to see him in person.

It is the image of a navigator accustomed to the wind and sun on the sea, with bronzed skin and broad, rough palms, which is very inconsistent with the background of Admiral Moko's aristocratic background. If he hadn't been dressed in a crisp admiral's uniform, Sean would have thought he was just the captain of some ocean-going merchant ship.

This broke the stereotyped image of a high-ranking officer in Sean's mind and won him some favor.

At this time, the manufacturing workshop of Kang's Shipbuilding Company was in full swing, and the technicians and workers did not even have a holiday during the Spring Festival.

A slender ironclad ship is being built in the dockyard.

It was five times larger than the Genoese and had a displacement of 1,000 tons. This is the largest ironclad ship that Kang's Shipbuilding can build with all its resources mobilized at present, because it involves a complex process.

The red-hot rivets held the pieces of cast iron together, and it looked like Kang's Shipbuilding had found the right way forward.

Next to it is another wooden sailing ship, which is still a traditional three-masted sailing ship with a displacement of 1,800 tons. In order to save time, Sean temporarily acquired several large merchant ships of the same type, dismantled them, removed the deformed and decayed parts, and selected the best keel and other parts to reassemble. The difference was that it had been redesigned to suit the battle, so that it had three decks, could be equipped with guns or crossbows, and the sails were not only two-stringed, but also had 100 to 150 mm armor at the bottom.

Both the ironclad ship and the new sailing armoured ship were equipped with steam engines, but the former was the only source of power, and the latter was only an auxiliary power, depending on the cost of use.

This was the result of Sean's busy month in January, and in order to have enough men to see a little bit of success when Admiral Moko arrived, he even spent a lot of money to buy the only traditional shipyard in Poitou.

Obviously, Admiral Moko came with hope, and the admiral had heard the heated discussion about the successful trial voyage of the Genoese half a year earlier.

So, as soon as Admiral Moko arrived, he boarded the Genoese and took a seat outside the harbor, and despite the sultry heat and noisy noise, he went down to the bilge to observe the steam engine at work.

The Admiral was full of praise for the Genoese:

"Viscount, here I see the future of the Navy. No, I see the future of the ocean. In time, steamships will become popular. ”

"Thank you, Admiral, for the compliment, but as far as ironclads are concerned, our current capabilities can only build warships of this displacement, but I think it's actually very suitable for fighting the fish demon because it doesn't require heavy guns, and it doesn't require too many sailors to handle the sails, and the cost is relatively low. Sean said, "This kind of ironclad ship of this size, with enough fuel, can sail at sea for at least a month, and is not afraid of wind and waves." In other words, one investment, less worry and effort. ”

Admiral Moko had just suffered a heavy defeat, not to mention the loss of the battleship, and the loss of those sailors made him extremely distressed, but the crew on the ironclad ship did not need too many sailors, because it did not need to catch the wind, and did not need to raise and lower the sails and change the angle of the wind direction, making the voyage relatively simple.

What Sean did not mention was that with steam power, the ship was more maneuverable and had the flexibility to change course as needed, which was extremely advantageous when it came to combat.

But Admiral Moko didn't say a word about his intention to purchase, just asked how much a 1,000-ton ironclad like this would cost, and Sean replied that the cost was around 700,000.

Sean noticed that Admiral Moko's face was very unsightly, and the reason Sean could imagine was that he was short of money. The recruitment of a large number of merchant ships has been the greatest support given to him by the cabinet.

But he suffered a big defeat.

Therefore, Admiral Moko was under tremendous pressure, and the surging public opinion in the newspapers made him want to step down immediately, and all kinds of abuse and criticism made him want to commit suicide for a while.

He even suspected that if no one dared to stand up and clean up this mess, or if the cabinet and the military command wanted him to continue to hold this black pot to divert the attention of the people, he would have been dismissed a long time ago.

Admiral Moko was very unwilling, and when he retreated to the port of Pumao to rest, he happened to see a newspaper report about the Genoese, and thought of the way in which the fishmen attached to the bottom of the ship to destroy the battleship when fighting the fishmen armed with rudimentary weapons at sea, and thought that the ironclad ship was exactly what he wanted, even if it was an armored ship.

Sean showed him exactly what he wanted to see, although with the slow manufacturing capacity of Kang's shipyard, he didn't know it would take until the Year of the Monkey to provide him with a fleet.

Obviously, neither the emperor nor the cabinet could wait long, and the interruption of sea transportation and ocean trade was bleeding the empire's already difficult finances every day.

"Your Excellency, in order to show my sincerity, this ironclad ship, which is under intense construction, can be provided free of charge to the Navy for trial. ”

Sean also made a lot of money for business, and the 700,000 he said was not an exaggeration, although it was twice as expensive as a wooden sailing ship of the same size.

Of course, if the workers are more skilled and the manufacturing process is more mature, large-scale manufacturing can greatly reduce costs.

"Thank you, Viscount, for your generosity, I wonder when it will be able to be launched. Admiral Moko couldn't help but say with some excitement.

In fact, he didn't dare to guarantee that the Military Command Department or the cabinet would be willing to place an order, which meant that Sean might have spent 700,000 in vain.

"At the end of March, this was the maximum capacity of Kang's shipyard. Sean said, "If it weren't for the challenge launched by the fish demon, my original plan was to build an ironclad ship with a displacement of 1,000 tons by the end of this year, and I would be satisfied." After all, we are all newbies. ”

"But you're at the forefront. Admiral Moko said, "I will bring the generosity of an Imperial Gold Dragon Medal recipient to the Holy City. As an admiral, I promise to work hard to get the Cabinet out of the money, and those guys want us to defeat the Fish Demon but let us do it with our bare hands, and they will make our Navy rich even if they leak a little bit through the Army's fingers. ”

Sean automatically ignored the admiral's complaint and said with a smile:

"Thank you for your affirmation, Kang's Shipyard also hopes that the Imperial Navy can do its part to defeat the fish demon. ”

At noon, Governor Byrne hosted a banquet at the Grand Hotel Poitou, accompanied by Admiral Moko, Mayor Stanley, and the Estates-General President Sieyès.

Siyes offered Admiral Moko an alternative, and the Poitu consortium was willing to provide a loan to the Navy for the Navy to purchase 1,000-ton ironclad ships.

"I would like to know what total amount of loans are willing to be made by the gentlemen of Poitou?" asked Admiral Moko.

"Ten million!" said Siyes.

The bankers, of course, were not philanthropists: "Guaranteed by the Genoese tea tax of 1834." 15% per annum. ”

The terrible interest rate of 15% was not because Siyes was too greedy, because the emperor or his cabinet had to pay up to 20% interest on borrowing from the bankers of the Holy City, which shows that the state's ability to repay the loan is extremely poor.

But this kind of big business was rarely encountered by the bankers of Poitu before, especially when it came to munitions, which belonged to the financial predators of the holy city and Gyeonggi, and did not have the share of the Genoese at all.

Now that there is such an opportunity in front of him, Siyes certainly will not miss it, especially with the tea tax as a guarantee, which is a profitable and profitable deal. In addition, the ironclad was made in Genoa, and it was reasonable for the Genoese to provide a loan.

This deal, whether it is Sean, the governor or the mayor, is strongly in favor of it, it will create jobs, increase tax revenues, and be more conducive to a prosperous economy.

Admiral Moko left with this plan, which was not at all up to him as an admiral, and he could not protect himself now.

He attributed one of the reasons for the defeat to the patchwork of the ships, and if he didn't argue for himself, would the big men in the Holy City think they were easy to bully?

Sure enough, Admiral Moko returned to Pak Mao Harbor and wrote a fiercely worded letter, in which he scolded the Prime Minister and the marshals of the Military Command Department, and recounted all the injustices suffered by the Navy over the past twenty years, at the end of which he threatened:

Either remove me from my post and stop doing it, or give me money, I will build an ironclad ship!

Admiral Moko was an honest man, and unlike his predecessors, he was a man who truly loved the sea, so he had great prestige and appeal among the sailors.

He rebelled against the first army, but let the military order his subordinates not come to the stage. Because the reporters learned that the navy had not updated a single warship for 20 years, and the treatment of naval officers and men was not as good as that of army soldiers, many scandals were exposed.

But ironclads are a new thing, and the people of the Holy City have only seen about it in the newspapers, and they are skeptical of Admiral Moko's plan to build ironclads, and the steps are too big to easily pull the egg.

Admiral Moko was relieved of his duties, and one of the root reasons that Sean knew was that he had used the cheese of the arms dealers, because they controlled all the resources of the North to make sail warships, and thought that they could also be used for war by equipping wooden sailing ships with iron hulls.

Sean doesn't find it strange that the Imperial Navy has always been neglected, and it has to do with the fact that the Empire is too little dangerous at sea, and the only enemy of the Navy is pirates.

If it had been competing at sea with a country like Xia for a long time, the Imperial Navy would not be what it is today.

Technological progress is always inseparable from demand, and war is the most important factor in promoting military-related technological progress.

Regardless of the arguments in the north, Sean's first 1,000-ton ironclad ship is still under construction, and since the order seems to be on hold, he is not in a hurry, and he devotes himself to it, summing up lessons and lessons in order to improve and improve.

But Siyes was quite angry: "Yankees!"