Amid the whispers of the people, Caesar watched with satisfaction as the first ironclad ship of the Northland slid into the sea.

To be honest, this ship did not come easily, Caesar himself knew nothing about sea ships, and the barren north also lacked shipbuilding technology, and there were few shipbuilders who knew it, but fortunately, the empire spread the Black Dragon Emperor's bounty to all parts of the mainland through the public opinion control department, attracting a lot of talents.

Different from today's mainstream sea-bound solid wood ships, this ship uses a steel skeleton for the first time, and it is one level ahead of today's mainstream ships in terms of design and material level, and the overall strength is several times higher than that of wooden warships.

Corvet Villen, a master from the trading city-states, gained official attention and respect as soon as he arrived on the West Coast, and the shipbuilder was not uninflexible, and after spending some time learning about the steam furnace's drive mode and how it worked, he quickly revised the drawings he had already conceived to design a warship that met the requirements of the Northern Empire.

When all technical difficulties were overcome, Corvit's shipyard was immediately supported by the Empire, and the machine was so large that it took only a year for Emperor Caesar to request the armored ship he requested.

"But for now, it's a half-finished thing." Caesar stared at the sea beast that was larger than himself and exuded the beauty of steel.

In order to speed up the construction, the armored ship was not equipped with power modules and weapon systems, but at the beginning of the design, Corvit had already taken this problem into account, and reserved the slot and interface for the installation of the steam furnace, transmission structure and paddle wheel in the hull, and then only needed to weld these metal parts to splic, and it was not difficult to install.

This design idea was a good idea, and Caesar decided to keep it to facilitate mass production in assembly line factories.

As early as the feasibility of building armored ships was completed, the empire invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the controlled area on the west coast and began to build large-scale assembly line factories.

That is the real official shipyard in the Northland, with the emergence of molds, machine tools and other products, without changing the requirements, the factory can basically produce exactly the same parts of the ship, so as to avoid deviations when installing power systems and weapon modules.

With technical support, reliable modules, and a large workforce, the only factor that constrains the production of armored ships is the production of steel, but with the mining veins and trade imports of the Northlands, the steel provided is more than enough to support the Empire's needs.

In other words, Northland can build more than three armored ships in a year, and if the Black Dragon Emperor is willing to expand the size of the shipyard, this number will become even more.

You must know that this is not an ordinary merchant ship or sailing ship, but a huge armored ship for the military, which is generally used as a flagship in naval battles, and must be supplemented by a small warship group of a certain size.

This means that if the speed of the steam furnace and the training of the Blackwing crew can keep up, the Empire will have a vast sea power within five years, filling the entire West Coast with its own warships, and the epic destroyer fleet is no more than that.

It's the charm of combining industry and magic.

Now that the armored ship has been successfully launched into the sea, the next task is to install the power parts, and the weapon assembly has to be moved back slightly, because the original black artillery has been banned, and the weapons workshop is developing a new type of artillery - this is why Caesar was able to give up a hundred twenty-five-pound black guns and give them all to the Elven Forest.

"Your Majesty, I don't understand."

Hogg stood at the feet of the black dragon, raised his head and asked, "This will be our best weapon, why should it be leaked out in advance?" The gnolls scanned the crowd with scarlet eyes, "There are humans from elsewhere in here who could be our enemies. ”

"In order to promote national strength."

"Huh?"

"I just want them to see the empire grow stronger."

Caesar smiled, "Before I ruled here, there shouldn't have been anything like this in the Northlands, right?" As the standard of living gradually improves, and things that don't exist continue to appear, they will identify with the empire more and more - this mentality will be improved in all directions, from rebellion to doubt, to firmness, piety, worship, and in the end, they will even think that the empire is omnipotent. ”

"I still don't understand that you're not a god and can't draw faith from it, so what's the point of doing that?" Hogg's voice was still confused.

"Just because I can't take in faith doesn't mean that faith doesn't work for me."

The black dragon whispered: "If everyone in this empire is willing to die for it, then what is the difference between the Black Wing Empire and the Kingdom of God, I have a ...... with the gods here"

He stopped halfway through his words, lowered his head and smiled at the gnoll: "You can roughly understand it, exposing the armored ship is a propaganda tactic." ”

After two weeks of inspections on the new ship, and after confirming that there were no problems, Corvette Villen was invited to the royal court, where a grand ceremony was held in front of everyone.

Officially, based on the outstanding contribution of the shipbuilder Corvette Viren to the Empire, His Majesty the Emperor decided to grant him the title of Count, although the title of Blackwing Nobleman conferred upon him after the establishment of the Empire could not be hereditary, but the Empire retained the right of his descendants to inherit the fief of Count Corwitt.

The turmoil caused by this incident was even greater than the impact of the appearance of armored ships, because after all, only some people paid attention to ships and warships, and the title of nobleman was the glory that all the imperial lords desired, and this time His Majesty the Emperor gave him a knighthood that was not low.

An earl, knowing that since the establishment of the Black Wing Empire, the royal court has not granted anyone a title of nobility, and people have begun to wonder if the empire is going to abolish the aristocracy, but at this moment, a new nobleman enters the imperial stage.

What's even more dramatic is that the one who was named was actually a shipbuilder!

Although Corvette is well-known in the industry and is respected as a "master" by insiders, in fact, based on Eladia's current values, he is still just a craftsman, and his status is on par with that of a merchant, far less noble than an unattainable magician, and even a slightly capable adventurer.

But all the coveted titles of the Empire's spellcasters were obtained by one such craftsman.

Some astute people have already smelled the attitude of the empire from this incident, and can see clearly what the royal court really values and encourages.

At the same time, this knighthood also caused some dissatisfaction among the spellcasters who served the Empire, but that was all, and the casters soon lost their voices, and there was no further follow-up.