Du!
With a long whistle, a giant black iron warship appeared on the battlefield where the two sides were fighting.
Other than the unexpected material.
The most striking feature of this warship was that the standard features of warships of this era — the towering masts and enormous sails — were nowhere to be found. Instead, they were replaced by towering chimneys that were emitting thick black smoke.
This was a product that the "Tulip" technology tree had skipped, the [Steam Powered Iron Armoured Warship]!
"The Atlan Country with a weak industrial base can actually take out this kind of weapon? Moreover, the steam engine is no longer an auxiliary power source, it has taken away all the sails in one step?! "
Of course they were happy to see the war between two strong neighbours, Elvin's group of three wanted them to beat each other's brains out, but this kind of change was something they didn't expect.
They immediately turned around to check their own equipment warehouse.
The result wasn't surprising.
Including the prototype of the [Full Heavy Battleship], the [Armored Knight], Faletis had built four new battleships in the past three years.
As the Tulip's trump card, it was still in the secret military port.
The Garriott Duchy's [Fearless, Black Sea Pearl] was the first [Full Heavy Battleship], not a single one was missing.
The cost of the [Fearless, Full Heavy Battleship] was four hundred thousand gold lions, which was equal to the cost of ten first level sail warships.
Even the wealthy Faletis and Garriott could only maintain the rate of one ship per year for the time being.
Moreover, weapons in this era of technology were upgraded very quickly, so Elvin and Levina weren't prepared to dig a hole that they couldn't climb out of.
As for the [Steam Powered Iron Armoured Warship], it was much cheaper and weaker than the [Full Heavy Battleship], but it had a large advantage against normal sail warships.
Hong! Hong! Hong! Hong! …
As soon as it came out of stealth, the [Steam Powered Iron Armoured Warship] quickly attacked the Sack Empire's fleet.
The extremely sharp conical shells easily pierced through the thick hull of the Sack warship with unimaginable accuracy.
It was far beyond the firing range of a normal sail battleship. Just four consecutive shots were enough to sink a level three battleship.
In the eyes of Elvin and the other two onlookers, Ye Zichen was stunned.
Compared to the mainstream sail battleships of this era, this battleship not only used steam power, but also used the design of a turret on the upper part of the hull to accommodate the main weapon.
One of them was equipped with a 304mm front-loading rifled naval cannon, using conical shells that pursued range and accuracy.
One of the biggest advantages of the turret was that it solved the problem of the gunner's defense when the front cannon was loaded.
When the cannons needed to be reloaded, they could be retracted into the turret, covered with armor plates, and then pushed back to their positions.
This way, the cannoneers did not have to risk their lives to load the cannons on the deck where shrapnel was flying everywhere. Their safety was greatly guaranteed.
Moreover, the two main turrets were placed on top of the hull, not on the sides of the hull like a normal battleship, so the number was greatly reduced.
This design concept of the [Full Heavy Battleship, Dreadnought] wasn't something that Elvin and Watt had patented, rather it was an inevitable choice made by the engineers with the development of the battleship.
Because a large number of side cannons didn't have an advantage over a small number of cannons in the turrets.
Moreover, because of the contradiction between the displacement of the battleship and the armour of the hull, a large number of side cannons would take up a lot of load and make the armour of the battleship thin.
Other than that, the flexible steam powered battleships made the side cannons less and less useful. The thick armour could completely resist the cannons of the sail battleships.
Therefore, the warship engineers naturally began to shift their focus from quantity to quality. Bigger calibre, stronger cannons, stronger penetrative effect!
This was the mainstream of the "giant cannons" era.
However, Evan still couldn't figure out how Atlan managed to create such a thing.
There was no industrial foundation, no relevant technical staff, and no consistent technical route. Did it pop out from the cracks of a rock?
Driven by his strong desire for knowledge.
Elvin gave up on the indirect surveillance of the [Mental Network]. Instead, he used the [Magic Eye of Insight] to launch a remote view and looked directly at the smoke-filled battlefield thousands of kilometers away from Changdao.
In the next second, the main parameters of the battleship were quickly scrolling in Elvin's eyes.
Displacement: 9,448 tons; Length: 87 meters; Width: 20 meters; Main armament: 2 turrets, 4 304mm rifled cannons, huge ram; Range: 12 hours at a speed of about 15 knots.
The [Magic Eye of Insight] even pierced through the steel body and saw the intricate system inside.
Steam wasn't only used for power, it was also used for the steering system, mooring system, rotating armour system, loading ammunition, pumping water, lifting and lowering shipboard boats, harpoons, and so on.
Some were also used on the [Full Heavy Battleship], but some were new to Elvin.
What? You're saying that stealing technology is wrong?
Hey, can the technician's work be called stealing? It's called stealing!
"Hmm, the technology looks very mature. It doesn't look like it was created by some genius on a whim.
But it's indeed impressive to be able to do this without any prior technology! "
In the surging tide, some people were leading the tide, and some people were being carried forward by the tide.
Elvin always believed that no great person was indispensable. People were the creators of history.
The world wouldn't completely stop moving forward because of the absence of Memnon Watt or Elvin Garrett. At most, it would be delayed for a few decades or a hundred years.
Suddenly, when his eyes moved to the core power room of the [Ironclad], Elvin raised his eyebrows slightly.
"This thing … It's more than that!"
[Power Core – Steam Ball]
On the surface, it worked by installing a brass pipe on both sides of a closed steel container. In the middle of the pipe was a hollow sphere that could rotate around an axis.
On both sides of the sphere, two inverted nozzles were installed perpendicular to the axis of rotation. The inside of the container was filled with water and heated with charcoal.
The water boiled and turned into steam. It carried a huge amount of energy as it gushed out from the nozzles on both sides of the sphere. The steam would cause the hollow sphere to rotate at a high speed.
The rotation speed was as high as 3,000 revolutions per minute, providing the battleship with an endless surge of power.
Looking at the [Ironclad] that was moving freely among the sails battleships that were a generation behind, Elvin gradually fell into deep thought.
"The one who invented this ironclad … is not human!"
Since Watt could break through the knowledge and cognitive circle of all intelligent beings and successfully become a "Crown Wizard," then it was impossible for anyone to be on par with him in the field of "steam-powered machinery."
However.
For this ironclad, the weapon system, steel armor, and shipboard cannons were fine, but the powerful [Power Core – Steam Ball] was definitely not a creation of human mechanical engineers.
Combined with the fact that the Atlan Kingdom was the first place where demons and even demons descended, Elvin had reason to suspect that this was the "demonic technology" that the demons from the lower realms had bestowed upon the Atlan people.
At least in the mystical knowledge that Elvin possessed.
Among the 72 demon gods, the demon god "Vassago," ranked third; "Valefor," ranked sixth; "Paimon," ranked ninth; "Casimorar," ranked twenty-fifth; "Belle," ranked twenty-eighth; and "Gaap," ranked thirty-third.
There were a total of six demon gods, and all of them had knowledge related to science or alchemy.
However, if the "invisibility" ability that even the [Mental Network] could not detect was included, the target could be narrowed down to the sixth, ninth, and twenty-fifth demon gods.
Of course, it was not impossible that there were multiple demon gods with various abilities "helping" the Atlan people.
Unfortunately, Solomon had a contract with the 72 demon gods, so he could not take the initiative to find trouble with them.
"F * ck, it's not hard to figure out the intention of these demon gods to find a way to survive behind the 'door,' but from the looks of it, they're basically here to steal our business!"
Whether it was the result of adventure, personal experience, or independent thinking, Elvin had gradually sorted out a main line with his detached vision.
The so-called "Renaissance," "Age of Navigation," "Steam Industrial Revolution," "Capital Torrent" … Everything was just a small branch of the big trend.
The trend of "compensation for the weak" that ran through the entire Planet Helag was the main trend that had always followed this world.
The strength of individuals weakened, and the strength of science made up for it.
No matter who it was.
In this process, every beneficial push to the "compensation" should be able to receive a huge amount of feedback from the [World's Favor].
Perhaps, other than going behind the "door" and hugging the thighs of the true gods, he could really walk a brand new path of "transcending the calamity".
Even if he could not reach the level of a true god, he could still safely step into the next era with his current strength and rationality. Which true god's thighs were thicker than the world's consciousness?!
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