At the end of November, before he took up the post of chief of the security bureau, Fodelus sent Claude intelligence on the royal navy.
It was perhaps the last mission he handled as the head of the bureau, so he completed it perfectly.
Compared to General Moriad's bribing of a technical researcher, the spies of the military intelligence department in the Royal Navy were hidden deeper. They knew more inside information and even knew how much the admirals of the Royal Navy had embezzled from the funds allocated by His Majesty the King …
After taking the dossier about the royal navy, Claude asked General Fodreus about the division of the bureau.
Apart from the Autonomous Territory Investigation Bureau that Bolonik was in charge of, the Intelligence Bureau, the Security Bureau, the Army Intelligence Department, and the Navy Intelligence Department would all be transferred from the original Military Intelligence Department.
All the personnel of the bureau would be assigned to the four departments according to their specialties and personalities. Apart from that, the huge amount of documents had to be split up too. It was quite hectic.
Fodelus was quite satisfied with Claude's division of the intelligence bureau. He felt that it would make it easier to clarify the scope of duties.
While he used to be the head of the bureau and seemed to have a lot of power, he was in charge of too many things. He was basically a scapegoat.
If he did well, he'd be scolded if he didn't. Even he himself felt that the job would make his hair turn white quickly.
Now, all he had to do was to clean up the spies from other countries and protect the technology and secrets that the autonomous military zone was concerned about. He suddenly felt a lot lighter on his shoulders. He didn't have to worry about waking up from nightmares at night, fearing that something might go wrong.
More importantly, he was now the head of the security bureau and a member of the intelligence committee. He was one rank higher than the head of the bureau. He was getting double the salary of the head of the bureau and a member.
After discussing the division of the bureau with Claude for a while, Fodelus took his leave. He'd been busy with the handover and division, so Claude didn't ask him to stay for further discussion.
Opening the file, Claude soon found out why the Royal Navy didn't succeed in replicating the ironclad warship.
As Claude expected, corruption was the main reason for the Royal Navy's failure.
King Fredrey the First had obtained a large sum of money from the nobles in the name of promotion fees and land selection fees. So, after handing over the 16 ironclad warships, he generously allocated a sum of five million crowns to the kingdom's navy and ordered them to study and replicate ironclad warships, striving to master the technology to build them and bring them to the next level.
However, the kingdom's navy had suffered for so many years without any money in their pockets. Everyone's eyes turned red with greed when they received the five million crowns. First, they took 30% of the profits as dividends, allowing all the officers in the kingdom's navy to have a good year.
Then, they used various excuses to embezzle the funds. Had it not been for the royal navy's loyalty to the king, they might not even have a single crown left.
However, by the time the money was allocated to the research and replication of the ironclad warships, Fredrey I's five million crowns were only left with a little over 1.8 million crowns.
The second reason for the failure of copying Iron-armored Warships was the failure of copying materials. The Wang Family Navy had dismantled the three Iron-armored Warships and drawn all the layouts and mechanical power on the blueprints. They had also invited the shipbuilding experts and technicians to do a detailed analysis and demonstration. The Wang Family Navy had done a good job.
However, they made a huge mistake when looking for rune magi to replicate the ironclad warships and machinery.
It wasn't that Aueras didn't have any rune magi working for the royal family. It was just that after Stellin X passed away, Prince Wedrick ascended the throne and became Stellin XI. Due to the lack of military funds and the need to maintain his luxurious lifestyle, Stellin XI cut down on the royal family's unnecessary expenses.
Rune magi working for the royal family were among the cuts, so most of them left on their own.
After Fredrey I succeeded the throne, a few of the rune magi working for the royal family returned as well.
However, not all rune magi were good material specialists. The ones who truly worked with metals and knew how to synthesize materials were still the veterans of the royal family's military industry.
Now that the royal family's nobles were given their own territories, the rune magi who worked for them were brought back to their own territories.
The Rune Mages employed by the Stellin Royal Family were proficient in alchemy and curing illnesses and detoxification. It was completely out of place for them to conduct experiments on synthesizing and refining metals.
Just figuring out the properties of common metals was not an easy task. It required a lot of time and a lot of money to conduct experiments on the most common materials to figure it out.
The structure and construction of an ironclad warship was simple, but that didn't mean just any metal plate could be used to make one. At the very least, the metal had to be resistant to seawater corrosion and not rust. It also had to be resistant to cannon fire and not deform. Those were the most basic requirements.
This was especially true for machinery. Just a propeller alone required a lot of knowledge. Ordinary metal plates or steel plates couldn't be used to make a propeller.
Back in the day, Boyd had spent more than a year experimenting with propellers.
The royal family's navy officer thought it was enough to allocate 100,000 crowns to the rune magi sent by the royal family.
The rune magi were so arrogant that they didn't think much of the metal synthesis experiments. The blueprints were so detailed. If they could figure out how to synthesize the materials for the ironclad warship, they would have no problem replicating it.
The rune magi were dumbfounded when they started experimenting with the materials. 100,000 crowns wasn't even enough to figure out the most basic material for the deck of an ironclad warship.
The purchasing department bought the cheapest materials for the experiments, and some of them were even fakes in order to get a high commission.
The material synthesis experiments were bound to fail, and the rune magi were left in a sorry state. Two of them angrily ran back to the royal capital.
The remaining rune magi were more responsible and handed a list to the royal family's navy. The high-ranking officers were dumbfounded when they saw it.
The rune magi believed that without two to three years of research and two to three million crowns, they wouldn't be able to figure out the materials for the ironclad warship.
However, the funds allocated by the king were either split or spent. Where would they find that much money?
Without Butcher Zhang, were they supposed to eat pigs?
There were quite a few smart people. In order to prevent their own pockets from being damaged, someone came up with an idea. They didn't need the rune magi to carry out any metal synthesis experiments.
Didn't the Stellin royal family set up a firearms research institute and come up with many metal synthesis recipes?
All they had to do was look for similar metal synthesis recipes to replace them.
With the metal synthesis recipes, there was no need for the rune magi to conduct any experiments. They could just hand it over to the refinery for forging.
As a result, similar materials for the planks and decks were available. The only problem was that they didn't have the materials for the propellers and engines. Even with detailed blueprints, they still ended up with a mishmash of materials. They either leaked air or couldn't withstand fire or high temperatures. There were many problems with the parts of the machinery that got stuck. There were even two explosions that killed a few technicians and workers.
By this time, the money had been spent. His Majesty asked about the progress of the imitation of the Iron-armored Warships. The senior officers of the Royal Navy told King Frederick that the progress was very smooth and that the kingdom's own Iron-armored Warships would soon be built.
King Frederick was delighted and decided to send the imperial envoy down to test the results. The royal family's navy was now in a difficult position.
Fortunately, there were many intelligent people in the Royal Navy. They quickly thought of a solution. One was to have the people from the Ministry of Army stall the imperial envoy in the capital, and the other was to first build an ironclad ship with the planks of the ship they had chosen.
At the very least, it had to be several times larger than the ironclad warships of the overseas autonomous region. Only then would there be a clear comparison.
As such, the royal family's naval workshop in Whitestag raced against time to build ironclad warships.
In order to save time and convenience, the Wang Family Navy directly towed a large flat sailing ship over and covered the surface of the ship with iron planks.
As for the propellers, they could still build ironclad warships even if they couldn't.
He dragged another one over, disassembled it, and installed the steam-powered machinery on the iron-shelled flat-bottomed boat. However, when he installed it, he realized that it could not move the boat, so he had an idea to install another one and dismantle another ironclad warship.
In the end, the ship was able to slowly move forward. Even though it wasn't balanced and swayed a lot, it still looked intimidating.
The imperial envoy sent by His Majesty the King had been warmly received by the kingdom's navy along the way, and even he himself felt embarrassed.
When he arrived at Whitestag and saw the ironclad ship, he compared it to the ironclad destroyer beside it. It was practically a giant.
He didn't know much about the navy and only knew that the bigger the ship, the more powerful it was.
Other things aside, just the space on the ship alone could fit a few more cannons. It was always better to have more cannons in battle.
In order to repay the kingdom's navy for their generous treatment, the imperial envoy had the accompanying painter draw the heroic posture of the iron boat on the sea. At the same time, he used his imagination to draw a dozen or so giant cannons on the bare deck. He didn't care if the cannons would crush the iron boat and sink it.
All he knew was that the more impressive the drawing was, the easier it would be for him to answer to both the king and the royal family.
Sure enough, when the imperial envoy returned to the capital and handed in the painting, everyone was delighted. King Frederick the First liked it very much. The artist had used an exaggerated technique to draw the overseas autonomous region's ironclad warships next to the iron-hulled flatboat. The proportions looked like a comparison between a child and an adult.
In reality, the ironclad ship was only twice the size of the ironclad destroyer, but it looked more than five times larger in the drawing.
Fredrey the First was truly delighted. The ironclad warship of his own navy was so impressive. There were so many cannons on it and it looked even more powerful than the ones on the ironclad warships of the overseas autonomous region.
He turned to the manager of the royal navy and asked him how much it cost to build the ironclad warship.
The manager hesitated for a long time before raising a finger. He knew that the ship was pieced together and cost around ten thousand crowns, so he was prepared to quote a price of a hundred thousand crowns.
He didn't expect Fredrey the First to misunderstand. The sixteen ironclad warships used by the overseas autonomous region as compensation for the nobility promotion and land selection cost between a hundred and a hundred thousand crowns each.
The ironclad ship on the drawing was five times larger than the ironclad destroyer beside it, so it was only natural that it would cost five times more.
Fredrey the First said, "It's worth it to spend a million crowns on a single ironclad warship.
In that case, I'll allocate another five million crowns to build five more.
With these six ironclad warships, the kingdom's coastline will no longer have anything to worry about.
The small dinghies of the overseas autonomous region won't be able to withstand a single blow from our six ironclad warships.
It's time to let the people of the overseas autonomous region see the might of the royal navy and the kingdom's foundations. We can build ironclad warships with greater firepower than theirs. "
The head of the Kingdom's Navy immediately felt that the finger he had extended was shining with a golden light and was so hot that it turned purple.
However, he was a smart man. He would not refute His Majesty and ask for a snub. He just patted his chest and promised to build the five ironclad warships to show the majesty of the royal navy and spread the name of the Stellin Royal Family to the world!
Knowing the base price of the ships, the royal navy didn't take 30% of the five million crowns as a bonus. Instead, they took half of it and gave all the high-ranking officers in the royal navy a generous bonus.
Then, they took another million crowns to reward the imperial envoy and the various bigwigs in the royal court. That way, there would be people who would plead on the royal navy's behalf if anything happened in the future.
It was only when there were only a million crowns left that the kingdom's navy decided to start building five ironclad warships.
However, bad news came at that moment. The ironclad ship used as a sample had sunk to the bottom of the sea, probably due to a leak.
As a result, they had to build six ironclad warships, and they had to be at least three times larger than the ironclad destroyers of the overseas autonomous region.
The last problem was where to get 12 steam-powered machines back …
After countless meetings, the royal navy finally decided to swallow their pride and send an envoy to the overseas autonomous region to ask for help. They wanted to purchase twelve steam-powered machines for use on ships at a high price.
However, when the envoy arrived in the region, he realized that he didn't need to ask for help at all. All he needed was for the workshop to sell the machines.
When he stated his purchase request, the Commercial Power Machinery Workshop reported it to the military headquarters and found that it was only a steam powered machine for the first generation of Iron-armored Warships, which was an obsolete product. Therefore, the military headquarters approved the transaction.
Since it was the kingdom's navy that was buying it, the manager of the workshop doubled the price and added a little more, making it 35,000 crowns per unit.
The emissary refused and the workshop supervisor wanted to reduce the price further, but the emissary quoted a price of fifty thousand crowns per set, meaning that the extra fifteen thousand crowns would be a commission …
As a result, the twelve steam-powered machines cost the royal navy 600,000 crowns, and that didn't include the envoy's travel expenses or the cost of transporting the machines.
With the remaining 300,000 crowns to build the six ironclad warships, it was a little difficult to make ends meet.
Since they had to be three times the size of the ironclad destroyers, there weren't any suitable transport ships to make do. They had to build flat-bottomed wooden ships that were three times the size as the base, then cover them with steel plates, weld them together, polish them, paint them, and so on.
Truthfully, the royal navy and the high-ranking officers in the royal family's navy wanted to do something practical, but they couldn't stop their subordinates from taking advantage of the situation.
Just as the base of the six flat-bottomed wooden ships was about to be completed, they suddenly realized that they had spent most of their money.
After some careful calculations, he found that there was still a gap of nearly a million crowns for the purchase of the ship's metal plates, the welding costs, and the subsequent costs.
It was impossible to ask the king for money, as everyone was worried that Frederick I would send someone to check the cost of building the ships. However, it was also impossible to ask them to fork out their own money to complete the six ironclad warships.
After much discussion, some of them turned their attention to the remaining ten or so ironclad warships.
Perhaps some of them had already received a favor or were persuaded. They decided to have a few accidents at sea to scrap a few ironclad warships, and then secretly sell these nominally scrapped ironclad warships. The money earned from the sale would be used to continue building the six ironclad warships …
Then there was the information General Moriad received. The Fochs Kingdom spent 480,000 crowns on an ironclad destroyer and an ironclad cruiser, along with a full set of blueprints drawn by the kingdom's navy.
The kingdom of Kamarleon along the southern coast of Freia spent a hundred and eighty thousand crowns on an ironclad destroyer, while the kingdom of Morosik spent another two hundred thousand crowns on one.
That surprised Claude. Moroshik's colonies on the western coast had already become Pamigal's territory. Moroshik's two expeditions had failed and they were greatly weakened.
He didn't think they would still be interested in making ironclad warships. It seemed that Moroshik wasn't satisfied with the outcome. Perhaps they would make a comeback in a few years' time.
The last 'scrapped' ironclad destroyer was sold to Kancharia for 250,000 crowns, along with a full set of blueprints.
Kancharia was a peninsula kingdom in the north of Freia, roughly 600 kilometres away from Shiks. Further west, it could be considered a powerful naval force.
Claude closed the document and shook his head with a sigh.
After Frederick I's ascension to the throne, the kingdom regained its peace, economy, and vitality. It could be said that the kingdom now had a qualified king.
It was just that Frederick had been living in the palace since he was young, so he didn't know how his subordinates messed around with him, the king …
The farce of the royal navy's warship construction showed just how corrupt the kingdom's governance had become.
It seemed that Bolonik's decision to deal with the region's governance was the right one. He couldn't allow the region to become a paradise for corrupt officials like the kingdom itself.