"Lei Shi, you also know the current situation in Dachu, the navy is half-crippled, although ships are being built everywhere, the speed is too slow, and the warships built are far less sophisticated than the Aoren. Shi Luohua said in a deep voice.

Long before coming here, Shi Luohua had a thorough understanding of Renault's information through various connections, and knew that this secret master didn't like nonsense, so he opened his mouth to talk about specific affairs.

Shi Luohua is also difficult, a year ago, the southern navy was still strong, with more than 150,000 people and more than 1,500 warships. This is only the data on the Great Chu military register, in fact, the southern naval army is supernumerary, and it is much more supernumerary.

These things, everyone knows well, no one will say anything, after all, the southern shipping is prosperous, and the southern naval army seems to be very strong, but it is really not enough.

A large number of naval warships were used to suppress pirates and escort merchant ships, and less than half of them could really be used in combat.

It's not that Shi Luohua is pretending to be a public servant, and he, a general, is also working very hard. Dachu has been affected by disasters year after year, and the military department has limited funds, not to mention that the military expenditure is nearly ten times more than that of the northern navy, but the navy is a big money-eater, not to mention the construction of new ships, just the normal maintenance of thousands of warships and transport ships, that military expenditure is not enough.

More than 100,000 sailors, who want to eat and drink, where does the money come from?

If you don't have a side hustle, you won't be able to survive at all. Among the eight major legions, only the Yulin Legion, which is in Shangjingluo City, can only issue ninety percent of the silver, and the other seven legions have to find their own way.

Like the desert army, what they eat is the golden ancient road and the border trade of the Dingjun city. As early as a few years ago, the amount of money given by the Ministry of War to the desert army was less than three, and if you don't think of your own way, let alone fight, you can just break up.

There are many similar ones, the Beidi Army eats cattle and sheep and trades tea and iron, the Liaodong Army operates iron ore and medicine, and the Jiuquan Army relies on the Silk Road, each with its own way of making money, otherwise it will not be able to maintain it at all.

The worst is the northern navy, except for playing with some illegal salt, there is only fishing left, so their life is the most difficult.

Last year's naval battle crippled the southern naval army, and the remaining warships, in fact, were not few, but they were broken by the Austrian naval army, and they did not dare to fight at all. In addition, the important town of Wuyangfu was lost, and the economic source was cut off by more than half.

Shi Luohua wrote many times, asking for a new ship, and the response of the Ministry of War made Shi Luohua speechless, and the question was very simple, how many warships do you have to give you, can you win the Austrian naval army?

In that naval battle, Shi Luohua personally commanded, and saw with his own eyes that the Austrian naval ships were strong and artillery, and those who played with bed crossbows wanted to fight with artillery, just two words: no play!

Not to mention 1,500 warships, even if they are doubled, 3,000 warships will not be able to win, and the Austrian naval army can beat the southern warships, and the losses can be negligible.

There is no way, there is a generation difference, and the main means of attack of the Great Chu Water Army is bed crossbow fire attack, jumping gang melee combat. The Olympians don't play with you at all, they just bombard you with artillery.

Originally, Shi Luohua thought that the Great Chu Navy was over, the sea control power was completely lost, and it was impossible to take it back, who would have thought that Shengong City had formed a naval army, although the number was very small, but they were all ironclad ships, and they didn't need sails.

He has been a general of the Navy Legion for more than 20 years, and he listened to all the jokes, and it wasn't until he saw the smoking ironclad ship with his own eyes that he knew how powerful the secret technique of the Lei Master was.

Shouldn't a battleship be commanded by a naval army?

He had already inquired clearly, and now the commander-in-chief of the Shengong Navy was actually a fourteen-year-old girl, and it was from the Northern Navy that he had always looked down on, not even a formal captain, it was a woman inheriting her father's business.

Even such a person can command an ironclad fleet, why can't he, a naval general?

Of course, Shi Luohua is deeply rooted in Dachu and has a complicated relationship, so it is impossible for him to join Shengong City.

So, can you ask for a boat? He is a well-known general of the navy.

With the style of a mystic, this is entirely possible. So, here he comes.

"Shi saw with his own eyes the ironclad ships of the Shengong fleet, extremely sharp, crisscrossing the seas, and the Austrian naval army was ...... in front of the ironclad ships."

"You want a boat?" Renault didn't wait for him to finish his praise, interrupted him and asked, although Schrohua is a grandmaster, he has been a bureaucrat for too long, and he goes down the road while talking, habitually expressing his thoughts in the language of officialdom, and this is what Annoys Renault the most.

"Yes. As soon as Renault spoke, Schroy knew that he had said the wrong thing.

"Okay. ”

I'll go......

This is too simple, Shi Luohua thought that his request might be successful, but he didn't expect it to go so smoothly. In the past few years, Lei Shi's name is too big, and he is far away in Nanzhang, which makes the political affairs hall of Dachu feel that it is too early.

In the eyes of everyone, after the two secret masters of confession and fire left, only Yuxian was qualified to talk to Lei Shi on an equal footing, maybe His Majesty also had this qualification, but will these two go to Nanzhang?

Yuxian was pushed up by Lei Shi, and his relationship with Lei Shi is closer, but even if he is the general of the Southern Water Army, it is not easy to find an opportunity to ask Yuxian.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I opened my mouth, people agreed.

"The ironclad ship is built while experimenting, there are still many problems, and the production is insufficient, even if I give it to you, will you use it?" asked Renault.

The navy is not something that can be trained in one or two years, and ironclad ships are powered by steam engines and require quite a lot of technical personnel. The personnel of the Lan Bing Naval Army are more complicated, some of them come from the Northern Naval Army, some of them are reliable coolies selected from Shengong City, and some of the soldiers drawn from all sides, and the most important part of them are from the artisan battalion, without their support, the ironclad ships can't drive away at all, let alone fight.

Now the manpower of the Lan Bing Water Army has reached the limit, and the soldiers and sailors are easy to say, but the number of craftsmen is seriously insufficient, even if there is a ship, it can only be parked there, and no one will use it.

Renault has repeatedly expanded the artisan battalion, and the number of reorganized craftsmen has exceeded 10,000, which is still far from enough. The artisan battalion is not only shipbuilding, but also smelting, construction, muskets, artillery, bullets and shells......

There are many places that need talents, and there are also the most critical laboratories, and more than 100 subject experimental teams need 15 or 600 people to operate normally.

That is to say, the development of Shengong City in the past two years has been fast enough, coupled with Chu Ren's strong support, tens of thousands of artisan households have been transferred from the Ministry of Industry, which can support this shelf. In the beginning, the population of the entire Shengong City was less than 10,000.

"You can learn, there are a lot of excellent sailors in the Southern Navy. Shi Luohua patted his chest and said.

"It's okay, Huya, you ask Xiaoman to find a few skilled shipwrights and take General Shi to visit the ironclad ship. ”

After speaking, he turned his head to Shi Luohua and said: "I really don't have enough manpower here, it is naturally best to have the help of the two naval armies in the south and the north, you go and take a look first, and we will talk about it after you understand it." ”

In fact, Renault is not optimistic about the Southern Naval Army, the ironclad ship is not a wooden ship, it can fiddle with the sails and conduct naval battles, and there are many things to learn.

Moreover, the design and construction time of the ironclad ship is too short, including the steam engine, there are countless problems, in order to hurry, Renault's method is to repair and change while using, just like the radio, everyone takes it first, can use it, and if it can't be used, there must be a backup plan.

Lan Bing's water army seems to be majestic, and he knows that the craftsmen who are responsible for repairing steam engines, boilers, and transmissions do not scold their mothers for a day.

The steamship of this era is not ordinary and difficult to use, and the captain sits on the spacious and bright bridge, and his mouth is full speed ahead.

Listen cool, just these four words, the following group of people are busy working, and they may not be able to meet the captain's requirements, you say full speed, full speed, we are obedient, what to do if the boiler is disobedient.

This is still a trivial matter, during the battle, the ship changes direction a lot, sometimes left and sometimes right, sometimes at full speed and sometimes in reverse.

It's not like an integrated control ship, you just need to enter a command, and sometimes the previous order is not executed, and the next one comes again.

In general, the response of the Shengong ironclad ship is not ordinarily slow, and it is even slower than the response of the vast majority of sailing ships.

Therefore, Renault clearly wrote in the Navy Drill Code that if we don't fight you in close combat, we will rely on airships and range to bully you from afar.

Like the previous naval battle, although the results were amazing, not only the whole country of Great Chu rejoiced, but even the Austrians were shocked. In Shengong City, Lan Bing had no merit, if it weren't for the lack of a suitable candidate, Renault would have wanted to replace her. It is a very dangerous act to drive an ironclad ship a mile away from an enemy ship.

If they were surrounded by Austrian warships and fought in a gang fight, these warships were likely to be captured by the Austrians.

For this reason, Renault also added a self-sinking valve to the ironclad ships built later, and the ironclad ships must not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Austrians.

Shi Luohua saw hundreds of dry docks, and his heart was stirred, this is the future of the Great Chu Naval Army, most of the docks are building ships, formed or unformed iron giant ships, looking at it makes him excited.

But on a battleship that had already been built, Shi Luohua, the old naval general, was dumbfounded, everything he was familiar with did not exist, there was no bed crossbow, slap rod, and barbed net. Not even the necessary things like sails and oars.

Listening to the new terms in his ears, which he didn't understand half-understood, he understood why Lei Shi responded so happily.

There is no one in Lei Shi's hands, and he has no one, okay, don't look at the more than 100,000 people in the Southern Water Army, but who will use these tricks?

Xiaoman Shenjiang said very clearly, the most important power system is the steam engine boiler, it is still unstable, it often breaks down, and it needs to be repaired at any time, the Shengong City craftsman battalion can no longer be deployed, so there are three built battleships parked on the dock, since Mr. agreed, General Shi had better send someone to drive away immediately, and there will be more warships and transport ships launched later, the Shengong City dock is too small, it has long been insufficient, and the berths need to be vacated.

At this moment, Shi Luohua felt that his scalp was numb, the truth was not as easy as he imagined, Lao Tzu would not open it.

Not to mention repairing boilers, even those cannons, he won't use them!

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is .. m.