Iron Dynasty

On the King-Class ironclad warship, Yue Yun was using his binoculars to observe Zeelandia ahead.

The news of the Dutch soldiers attacking the local garrison had been circulating widely in the country through newspapers. It was against this backdrop that he received the order to attack all Dutch warships in Southeast Asia and, at the same time, cooperate with the Southeast Military Region to occupy Manila and Jakarta, which belonged to the Dutch.

Liu Chen was also looking at the situation on the island. Putting down his binoculars, he said, “Apart from some buildings that were destroyed by cannonballs and explosions, there seems to be nothing different on the island.”

“Hmph, the Dutch and the Japanese are all unreliable. It’s good that they’ve shown their true colors now, at least it can reduce the Empire’s losses. If the Dutch tricked us out of more technology, the Empire would suffer even more.” Yue Yun said calmly. He had always been deeply wary of foreign races, after all, the Empire had suffered too much humiliation over the years.

Liu Chen looked back at the twenty-three ironclad warships behind him, which were emitting black smoke, his expression filled with pride. In the Battle of Dengzhou, the ironclads performed excellently, almost charging through the enemy’s naval gunfire, and leaving the combined fleet’s warships with no power to fight back.

Such an excellent performance naturally showed the shipyards the blueprint for the development of future warships. So in the past year and a half, the Empire’s shipyards had been operating at full capacity, and on the basis of the first ironclad, they jointly built twenty-four ironclads of three tonnage classes in all the shipyards in the country.

For example, the King-Class ironclad they were currently on was a top-tier warship among ironclads. The total weight of the armor was 1,461 tons. The length of the armored citadel was 45.5 meters. The armor on the waterline of the armored citadel was 355 mm thick, and the armor below the waterline was 304 mm thick. The armor on the main gun’s open turret was 304 mm thick, the gun shield was 15 mm thick, and the armor on the conning tower was 203 mm thick. It was 95 meters long, 19.4 meters wide, had a draft of 6.53 meters, and was powered by a horizontal triple-expansion steam engine with 6,000 horsepower. It had a speed of 14.5 knots and a cruising range of 3,500 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. It had 8 boilers, a displacement of 7,411 tons, and a full load displacement of 7,935 tons.

In addition, they felt fortunate that the Empire’s electricity had also developed greatly during the construction of the ironclads, so this technology was also applied to the ironclads.

Because of the electricity, the King-Class ironclad was equipped with searchlights produced by the Empire’s lighting factory. The brightness of these searchlights was enough to rival the light of eight thousand candles.

In terms of weaponry, the King-Class also adopted the most advanced breech-loading rifled artillery technology. It had 4 main guns, which were 305mm breech-loading Imperial Guard cannons. These four cannons were installed in two twin turrets on the open turret platform, with eight 150mm breech-loading secondary cannons, also in open turrets, four each at the bow and stern, and sixteen 75mm launch guns. Its firepower could be described as plentiful.

Most importantly, the design of the ironclad’s turret completely subverted the previous sailing warships. These open turrets had rotating turret bases, which could fire in all directions while sailing.

Thinking of the data of the King-Class ironclad warship, Liu Chen’s face was flushed with excitement. However, the King-Class was, after all, a behemoth among ironclads.

At present, the Empire’s navy was mainly composed of ironclad cruisers with a displacement of about three thousand tons and one thousand five hundred tons. Although these warships could not compare to the King-Class in terms of firepower, they were more than enough to beat the European sailing warships.

However, while these warships were mighty, their price was also high. It was said that the construction of the King-Class ironclad warship cost two million gold dragons, and these warships combined cost more than thirty million gold dragons, which was a huge expense.

At the Zeelandia pier, Liu Xinhong and Fang Hongming stared dumbfounded at the fleet of warships slowly sailing into the harbor.

Although the name of the ironclad had long spread to every corner of the Empire, seeing such a massive fleet of ironclads with their own eyes still left them with an unprecedented shock.

Especially the ironclad with the words “King-Class” painted on its hull. Just by looking at this steel monster, one could imagine how powerful it was.

“Lao Fang, these ironclads are amazing. I even want to join the navy.” Liu Xinhong’s mouth was watering.

Fang Hongming nodded numbly. The appearance of the Changping-style machine gun had made him feel that there were no more powerful weapons in the world, and now he had witnessed another miracle.

The two waited at the pier for a while. When the warships docked, Yue Yun and Liu Chen, as well as other naval generals, got off the warships.

“General Yue Yun.” Liu Xinhong and Fang Hongming saluted at the same time. They had received the fleet’s sailing plan before the warships arrived.

As before, as an important supply station on the southern route, Zeelandia was almost a mandatory stop for all southbound warships.

Saluting, Yue Yun said, “I have to trouble you two again. This time, we don’t need coal, just fresh water, vegetables, and fruits as before.”

“No problem, General.” Liu Xinhong said. He immediately called for soldiers to transport the supplies from the warehouse.

Yue Yun nodded with satisfaction. Then he looked at the war-torn marks on the battlefield with interest and said, “It seems that the battle that day was not easy.”

Fang Hongming said, “That’s right. The Dutch had a premeditated plan, and although the Conqueror rifles they were equipped with were not as convenient to load as the Han-style rifles, their power was not very different, so they posed a great threat to our soldiers.”

“Indeed, the airtightness of a front-loading gun still has its advantages. Liu Chen, we must not take the attack on Manila and Jakarta lightly this time.” Yue Yun reminded him.

Liu Chen’s expression became serious. In recent years, while the Empire was developing, the European nations were also not idle. Unlike the barbarians, these Western countries attached as much importance to science as the Empire and were quick to accept new things.

According to the news they received from the Prussians, after the Europeans mastered the secret of conical bullets, the old-style lead bullets were being eliminated in large quantities and gradually replaced with new bullets.

“Rest assured. I have already experienced the British’s level in Singapore. Their soldiers are indeed not on the same level as the Japanese and Goryeo soldiers. I will be cautious.”

Yue Yun’s expression was satisfied. He said, “That’s good. After this matter in Southeast Asia is over, we will go and deal with Japan.”

“Deal with Japan?” Liu Xinhong asked strangely. “Didn’t Japan already sign the instrument of surrender?”

“As His Majesty said, the instrument of surrender is nothing but a piece of paper. The most important thing is the extent to which it is carried out. The current chaos in Japan has made His Majesty very unhappy. We have been letting them play cat and mouse for a while to see what kind of tricks they can pull.”

At this point, Yue Yun suddenly stopped the topic. He said, “Let’s not talk about that anymore. We’ll rest here tonight and set sail tomorrow.”