Munitions Empire

Dragon Island, Dragon City Port, the largest, most functional, and most modern super port in this world.

On the side of this port stood a gigantic shipyard, which had just surpassed Brunas Shipyard in size, the world's largest shipyard—Great Tang Group's Second Shipbuilding Factory, Dragon Harbor Shipyard.

A dozen or so dry docks allowed for the simultaneous construction of numerous massive freighters, and with the experience gained from building the Freedom Wheel and Wolf-class Cruisers, the Great Tang Group had already proven its ability to manufacture large steel ships.

Inside this advanced and enormous dry dock, hundreds of workers were at the bottom, piecing together and securing the super-gigantic keels.

Next to these enormous keels, people seemed so insignificant, while beside them, there laid one after another huge and thick steel plates.

The thickness of these steel plates exceeded 200 millimeters, which for this era represented the most advanced metallurgy and steel manufacturing technology in the world.

"This thing is simply a monster!" one old worker commented, without raising his head as he riveted the huge keel to the connecting steel structure.

He knew what he was building wasn't a Wolf-class warship, for its keel was much more massive than that of a Wolf-class.

Similarly, it was not a Freedom Wheel either, for though he had built one and the size seemed similar, this thing was completely different.

According to the design plans, in most places, the thickness of this thing's hull exceeded 100 millimeters. What did that mean?

Before this thing came into existence, there was nowhere in the world that needed to use steel plates thicker than 100 millimeters!

What was even more terrifying was that this wasn't everything. In many places, the thickness of this monster's steel surface approached or exceeded 200 millimeters, with the thickest part nearing 300 millimeters!

It was said that just the heavy steel plates alone weighed over 5,000 tons! What did that mean? The displacement of a Wolf-class Cruiser might not even be more than the total weight of steel used in this giant!

Based on the size of the keel, the old worker knew that the maximum length of this thing should exceed 150 meters! It might even be over 160 meters!

The total length of the Freedom Wheel was about 135 meters with a width of about 17 meters. It was the longest and most massive ship in the world thus far, and also the largest steel ship in history.

However, this battleship clearly broke the world record the moment it appeared, because according to the width of its keel, it was almost 150 meters long and 25 meters wide!

Without exaggeration, it was the largest ship in the world to date, and also the sturdiest.

According to the workers' experience, the hull of a Wolf-class warship could basically resist the cannons of all active navies in the world.

Therefore, if not fighting against a Wolf-class of its own or a Brunas-class Ironclad Warship, the defensive power of Wolf or Brunas-class was excessive.

The muzzle-loading solid shot ammunition used by other navies simply couldn't penetrate the outer armor of Brunas-class and Wolf-class warships.

Therefore, the old worker really couldn't figure out why they were building a ship with an "solid" hull thickness approaching 200 millimeters.

Could it be a ship capable of smashing icebergs, the safest super ship in world history? The old worker guessed in his heart.

...

In terms of size, Dragon City's Great Tang Group's Second Steel Factory was now on par with the Great Tang Group's First Steel Factory in Brunas and housed the armament workshop.

Here, there was the newly completed, world's largest and most specialized artillery production workshop! The cannons produced here were larger and more advanced than those from Brunas's gun factory.

In this workshop, some of the top technicians were busily moving around a facility for manufacturing gun barrels that reached deep underground.

A 13-meter-long huge gun barrel had just been completed inside this massive facility and was being prepared for hoisting out.

In a corner of this workshop, ten of such gun barrels had already been manufactured, neatly stacked and watched over day and night by guards.

"I really can't figure out the point of such huge cannons... a 150-millimeter caliber ship cannon is enough to destroy any warship, why... build one with a 305-millimeter caliber?" an employee asked his colleague nervously as he looked at these massive gun barrels.

"I don't know... perhaps they are preparing for future wars..." the engineer in charge of producing these cannon barrels shook his head; he also didn't under what was the point of these guns.

As far as he knew, there wasn't any world-famous super fortress that merited attacking with cannons of such caliber.

Frankly, it was too wasteful.

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The shells fired by this thing are absolutely devastating, before such a cannon, there is simply no target worth its fire!

Even he felt that those fortresses built of stone, or the sail warships at sea, weren't worth the cost of a single shell from this behemoth!

"Perhaps, it's the cannon Mr. Tang plans to install on his castle..." an engineer tried to explain the purpose of this artillery: "It can ensure the castle's absolute safety at any time."

"Are you joking? In this world, which country could sink so many Wolf-class cruisers, then occupy Dragon City, and afterwards besiege Mr. Tang's castle?" another engineer scoffed at the idea.

"..." The speaking engineer, rebutted, was left speechless and could only admit resignedly: "Alright, you're right... indeed no one is capable of doing that. But then, what are these cannons... actually for?"

"Listen, I heard... it's, it's an order for the security forces' navy..." an engineer said timidly at this moment: "The neighboring workshop... workshop... is, is, is making... the turret for this, this thing..."

...

"We finally succeeded! This brand new power! It will replace the steam engine in the future! It will become the new driving force for the development of the world!" Parker wiped the sweat from his forehead and took a deep breath with a sense of wonder.

In front of him was a newly-tested power machine, different from previous steam engines, operating on an entirely new principle.

Applause broke out, and many workers even began to cry with excitement. This was the fruit of their labor, the latest technology that would change the entire world...

To create this thing, Parker personally led the team, assembling virtually all of the elite from the Great Tang Group's steam engine improvement design teams.

So many engineers and technicians had worked day and night for so long and had finally, with the complete blueprints provided by Tang Mo, produced the object currently before them.

It was now operating smoothly, and Parker looked at it with the same admiration he had for the steam engine years ago.

This was a reverence emanating from his very bones, a primal worship of the mechanical power of man.

"Pressure normal! Output power... estimated value... reached!" a worker handed the copied data to Parker and introduced: "According to design standards, it could provide power... surpassing that of the steam engine."

"Gentlemen! For us, this is just the beginning!" Parker, curbing his joy, signed his name on the record, then addressed all the workers before him: "The boss means to submit the whole power set to the navy next month."

"We're going to produce 18 coal-fired steam boilers! And four steam turbines! The design requirements for the complete set are 24,000 horsepower! Gentlemen... the time to prove ourselves has arrived!"

"This is Great Tang Group's most cutting-edge power technology! We're going to show the world! Who! Is the best!"

"Great Tang! Great Tang!" All the workers were chanting vigorously, their voices almost drowning out those of the steam turbines.

The whole apparatus continued to work amid the roaring noise, its shaft spinning without tire, tirelessly outputting even more powerful energy.

This was the world's first real steam turbine set, a more powerful steam power system.

With this device, ships could travel faster, and it seemed they could also go farther.

...

"It's just showing off for the sake of showing off, nothing special," said Mathews, as he covered the blueprints of the super warship named the "Jade City class" with another sheet of paper.

That was the blueprint given to him by Tang Mo, actually of the battleship named Dreadnought. Before this battleship emerged, everyone thought their own warships were the best in the world. After its appearance, the history of warships in the world was cleaved in two; there was the pre-dreadnought era and the post-dreadnought era...

And the Great Tang Group's Jade City class battleship was the otherworld's Dreadnought!

"The master hopes to build an invincible warship to showcase the shipbuilding capabilities of Great Tang Group, along with other military design abilities. Therefore, we've integrated all the advanced technology, simply stacking new technologies to create a weapons warship that surpasses everything," Mathews spoke as he walked toward his students.

"This warship will become the master's flagship and will also be the most powerful warship in the world for the next three years! No exception!" he said passionately: "We must make everyone see the gap between us and the others! If we are eagles, they are but insects! If we are whales they are merely krill! If we are lions, they are but wild rabbits...

or perhaps, even that is giving them too much credit! They are nothing but doomed corpses, decaying, ignored skeletons!"

And standing before him, these future industry elites were even more thrilled, almost bursting into cheers.

Experience more tales on empire

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Something came up at home today, so here are two updates for now.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

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