"My apologies, Lord Marshal, but we weren't able to come to an agreement with the envoy of the Fochs Islands."
The chief of the armaments department, General Mantevitt, and the chief of the military department, General Condowalker, reported the bad news to Claude.
The head of the Ministry of Military Affairs, General Conde Walker, added, "We tried to get this envoy to purchase the second-generation ironclad warships, but he refused.
Even though we told him that if he were to purchase second-generation warships, the delivery date would be brought forward by a year, he still rejected our suggestion and insisted on purchasing first-generation warships. "
"From his personal officer, the navy's intelligence department received this piece of news.
This time, the Commonwealth of Fokes Islands had sent a special envoy to purchase forty-eight ironclad warships. That was all the money they had allocated. They did not give the envoy any extra funds to purchase a few second-generation ironclad warships to test their combat effectiveness against the first-generation ironclad warships.
"Most importantly, none of the warships produced by the autonomous region's shipyards have cannons installed. Only the turrets are left on the deck.
So, in the envoy's eyes, the warships he purchased will have to be equipped with their own cannons, which will be useless against enemy warships. So, it doesn't matter if they're first-generation or second-generation. "
The head of the Equipment Department, General Mantevitt, had learned some insider information about this procurement envoy from the Fokes Islands United Kingdom through the Bureau of Naval Intelligence. Even the large and heavy cannons developed by the autonomous military zone could not sink another ironclad warship with a dozen or so shots, not even a first-generation ironclad warship.
Only the third generation warships developed by the autonomous region were equipped with new cannons and armor-piercing shells. That would pose a fatal threat to the first-generation and second-generation warships.
The few shipyards set up in Port Vebator didn't have cannons installed on the first and second-generation warships. Instead, they would be towed back by the buyers to install the cannons themselves.
Only the large or heavy bronze cannons loaded with black gunpowder were installed on sail warships. They didn't pose much of a threat to the first-generation and second-generation warships.
No wonder the procurement envoy of the Fox Islands United Kingdom insisted on the first generation of ironclad warships. Before the existing cannons could ensure that they could sink these ironclad warships, there was really no difference between the first and second generation of ironclad warships.
Even if the speed, agility, and resistance were higher, it would be useless. Doubling the price was the worst deal …
"That's why this envoy insists on a first-generation ironclad warship. Our shipyards in Port Vebator are already fully booked with orders from Kamarlane and Relioro. We won't be able to accept orders for new ironclad warships in the coming year, right?"
Claude looked up. "Didn't they say that Port Vebator is still expanding the shipyard?"
General Konder Walker replied, "There are plans to expand Port Vebator's shipbuilding base. They plan to add four more shipyards and eight more shipyards in half a year.
However, this expansion plan would only be completed by April next year, and it would also take a lot of time to install all kinds of auxiliary shipbuilding machinery. It would be very good if it could be put into use by June next year.
"The Fox Islands United Kingdom's procurement envoy's order is huge, so it would be a pity to turn it down.
"However, they insist on only first-generation ironclad warships and not second-generation ones. Otherwise, we could've given them the second-generation ironclad warships that are currently in service.
That way, they would only need to modify and refurbish the ships at Port Patres.
The problem now was that Port Vebator couldn't meet the deadline, and the Patres Military Base refused to accept the obsolete ironclad warships. Their workshops and shipyards were also piling up orders for new ships.
"If we accept the order from the Fox Islands United Kingdom, we'll have to start construction in the second half of next year at the earliest.
That's why we couldn't reach an agreement with the procurement envoy of the Fokes Islands United Kingdom. They asked us to start building the ironclad warships immediately and deliver the first batch of 12 ironclad warships six months later. We couldn't do that.
No matter what, it's first come, first served. We have to complete the order from Kamarlane and Relioro first. "
"Since that's the case, there's no point in dragging it out. Let's just reject the Fox Islands United Kingdom's order.
There's no need for us to compromise for the sake of forty-eight first-generation ironclad warships. "
Claude made his decision and stood up. He walked to the wall and looked at the map of the west coast's various colonies. He shook his head and smiled.
"I really don't know what the Fox Islands United Kingdom will do next." Claude pointed at the two remaining colonies on the map. "Without the ironclad warships, these two colonies might not be able to hold on.
Once the Kingdom of Camarlane and the Duchy of Relioro complete their orders, the Fochs Islands United Kingdom will have to worry about being locked up in the Fochs Islands. They won't be able to take care of the remaining two colonies on the west coast.
Mount Weyders might be able to hold on. It's the only colony at the extreme north of the west coast. Any further north would be the barren desert wasteland.
It's also a hundred miles away from Federo's colony. The two countries have always had a good relationship. If no other country intervenes, the colony should be able to hold on.
However, Mount Weyders Colony has rich mineral resources and an excellent deep-water port. In the eyes of other colonial countries, it's also a big piece of meat. It's just that no one knows who will benefit from it in the end.
Apart from Mount Weyders Colony, the Fox Islands United Kingdom's remaining colony is called Port Lupsere, which is right next to Opsaro City Alliance.
Fortunately, it was sandwiched between the Opsaro City Alliance and the colony of the Ferdero Principality, unlike the colony of the neighboring Principality of Relioro in the central region, which had been forcibly occupied by the colonial authorities of the Principality of Relioro.
However, the Loupsere Port Colony is now facing the danger of being annexed by the Opsaro City-States Alliance. Once the Fox Islands United Kingdom is defeated at sea … "
The Fox Islands United Kingdom originally had four colonies on the west coast. The smallest colony, Cape Loducus, had been given to the Overseas Dominion. The remaining three were distributed at the northern, central, and southern end of the west coast.
The northernmost colony was Mount Weyders Colony, which was full of hills and rich in mineral resources. It was a military base that the Fox Islands United Kingdom planned to build and produce ironclad warships.
The central colony was on the plains and was also the colony with the richest harvest of agricultural products. However, it has now been occupied by Relioro's colonial authorities, and this colony was no more.
The southern colony called Port Lupsere was not far from the Pamigal National Republic. Only the Vassiliko Duchy colony and Opsaro City Alliance colony were between the two.
The colony of the Vassiliko Principality was half destroyed, but the Opsaro City-States Alliance was very happy. In front of them was the colony abandoned by the Vassiliko Principality, and behind them was the colony of the Fokkers Islands United Kingdom.
As long as they annexed the Vassiliko Duchy colony and Port Lupsere colony, the Opsaro City Alliance's colony on the west coast would almost triple.
It was only out of respect for the Fox Islands United Kingdom's naval power that the Opsaro City Alliance did not make a move.
Having failed to reach an agreement with the Dominion, the procurement envoy of the Fochs Islands United Kingdom placed an order for 60 first-generation marine steam powered machines and propeller spindles from the Dominion's First Commercial Power Machinery Workshop. The total value was three million gold crowns, which was equivalent to fifty thousand crowns for one set of marine steam powered machines and propeller spindles.
With the approval of the autonomous military zone, the deal was completed within three months.
The Department of Naval Intelligence believed that the Fox Islands United Kingdom's so-called purchase of ironclad warships was actually a pretense. The real purpose was to purchase the ship's steam powered machinery and propeller spindles from the Dominion.
This could very well mean that the Fox Islands United Kingdom would develop their own ironclad warships, or imitate the Blacksail Pirates by covering the warships with copper or iron plates before installing the ship's steam powered machinery and propellers.
A month later, the Fox Islands United Kingdom sent a fleet of sailing warships to receive the six armed transport ships carrying twenty ship's steam powered machinery and propeller spindles back to the Fox Islands in the southern seas of the Freia Continent.
What they did not expect was to be ambushed by the joint naval fleet of the Kingdom of Kamleyne and the Duchy of Lereolo three hundred miles away from the Fox Islands.
The Kamarlane Kingdom had dispatched two cruising combat units, or twelve ironclad warships. Of these, two were armored transport ships fully loaded with blackstone coal, while the two first generation ironclad cruisers and eight first generation ironclad destroyers, or ten ironclad warships, had actually entered the fray.
The Duchy of Lereolo had yet to receive the first batch of custom-made ironclad warships. They only sent out twelve fast three-masted sailing warships.
The Fox Islands United Kingdom's fleet consisted of eighteen third-level sailing warships (five masts, three layers of cannons, and forty-eight heavy cannons on each side of the warships), six armed transport ships, and four fast three-masted sailing warships, for a total of twenty-eight sailing warships. They were up against the ten ironclad warships and twelve fast three-masted sailing warships of the Kingdom of Kamleyne and the Duchy of Lereolo.
The Fox Islands United Kingdom was once again defeated in this battle. If not for the quick arrival of the reinforcement fleet, the twenty-eight sailing warships would have sunk to the bottom of the sea.
In terms of firepower, the Fox Islands United Kingdom United Kingdom's fleet had the absolute advantage.
However, the ten ironclad warships of the Kingdom of Kamleyne did not attack from the side like the sailing warships. Instead, they chased the rear of the sailing warships, launching white phosphorus bombs and destroying the rear cabin of the rudder. This made it impossible for the sailing warships to display their firepower advantage. In other words, they were completely useless and could only become targets at sea …
Only three of the twenty steam-powered machinery and propeller spindles carried by the six armed transport ships were left. Only one armed transport ship survived until the rescue arrived.
The other five armed transport ships were all sunk, and the seventeen machinery and propeller spindles they carried were all sunk to the bottom of the sea.
This huge loss caused the Fox Islands United Kingdom to send an envoy to the overseas dominion again. This time, they waved a bank draft and requested for twelve second-generation ironclad warships to be completed and delivered in half a year …
The second-generation ironclad warships were twice as expensive as the first-generation ironclad warships. The total price of twelve second-generation ironclad warships was 3.6 million gold crowns.
General Moriad happily allocated twelve second-generation ironclad warships from the fleet and delivered them to the military port shipbuilding base for renovation and modification. They were ready to be delivered to the Fox Islands United Kingdom in half a year.
On the other hand, Boyd's ship design center placed an order for twelve brand-new fourth-generation ironclad warships …
When the combined naval fleet of the Kingdom of Camarlane and the Duchy of Lerio ambushed the sailing warship division of the Fox Islands United Kingdom, and the news of their overwhelming victory reached the west coast, the Opsaro City-States Alliance finally made their move on the neighboring Fox Islands United Kingdom's Lupsere Colony.
The Opsaro City-State Alliance sent a legion to occupy the Lupsere Colony. They also got three long-distance ships to send the colonial officials and their families of the Fox Islands United Kingdom on board and send them out of the country.
As for the Mount Weiders Colony at the northernmost tip of the west coast, it became the only remaining colony of the Fox Islands United Kingdom on the west coast.
In order to protect this colony, the Fox Islands United Kingdom specially asked the Duchy of Federo, which had a good relationship with them, to send troops to guard the Mount Weiders Colony.
However, when the Duchy of Federo hesitated and finally decided to send a local garrison to have a look, they found that the Mount Weiders Colony had been silently occupied by the Black Sail Pirates.
The Mount Weiders Colony could only be blamed for being too far north. Even the neighboring Duchy of Federo Colony was more than a hundred miles away on land. If it wasn't for the excellent deep-water harbor, it might have become a colony abandoned by the Fox Islands United Kingdom.
Fortunately, this colony was rich in mineral resources, which effectively filled the mineral resources shortage of the Fox Islands United Kingdom as an archipelago country.
For more than a hundred years, the Mount Weiders Colony had been the largest mining area of the Fox Islands United Kingdom.
They implemented two systems here. The mountain mine was a slave system. They bought slaves from other colonies or pirate groups through various channels to mine mineral resources for the kingdom.
The port at the foot of the mountain was a normal colonial system. A town was built, a governor was appointed, and immigrants were moved in …
To be honest, the Mount Weiders Colony should be the largest colony of the Fox Islands United Kingdom on the west coast. However, because it was located at the northern end, it was very remote, and because it was full of mountains and hills, so the immigrants of the Fox Islands United Kingdom did not like it.
For more than a hundred years, only two or three towns were built around the port at the foot of the mountain, and the number of immigrants was less than 50,000.
It was not until the Fox Islands United Kingdom decided to build the Mount Weiders Colony into a military shipbuilding base that could produce ironclad warships that a large number of immigrants and their families arrived here. They began to build shipbuilding workshops and set up laboratories.
Because there were four powerful sailing fleets at sea, the authorities of the Mount Weiders Colony never dreamed of being attacked by pirates.
Then the Mount Weiders Colony was suddenly attacked by more than a dozen pirate groups led by the Black Sail Pirates. More than a hundred warships of the sailing fleet that had just arrived at the port for a night of revelry were either plundered by the pirates or burned to ashes.
Just like that, the Fox Islands United Kingdom inexplicably lost a sailing fleet.
Then the Black Sail Pirates looted the rest of the facilities in the port. All kinds of mechanical equipment and armaments in the warehouse, the metal hulls of six ironclad warships, shipbuilding experts and technicians recruited by the Fox Islands United Kingdom, and several rune mages all fell into the hands of the Black Sail Pirates.
It could be said that the Black Sail Pirates returned from the Mount Weiders Colony with a full load …
Next, the remaining three sailing fleets of the Fox Islands United Kingdom frantically searched the world for the pirate forces that attacked them.
It was not until one of their sailing fleets encountered the Black Sail Pirates in the Nubari Sea and suffered a crushing naval battle that the Fox Islands United Kingdom finally found the culprit who attacked them.
Soon, the ironclad warships of the Black Sail Pirates once again attacked the wealthiest colony of the Fox Islands United Kingdom located in the middle of the west coast. Once again, they destroyed another sailing fleet and plundered the coastal towns, making the world understand that the trend of ironclad warships replacing the sailing warships was irreversible.
At this critical moment, the Kingdom of Camarion and the Duchy of Relioro not only did not help the Fox Islands United Kingdom to deal with the Black Sail Pirates, but also hit them when they were down. One captured the colony of the Kingdom of Lesnia, and the other annexed the central colony of the Fox Islands United Kingdom.
This forced the Fox Islands United Kingdom to ignore the Black Sail Pirates and deal with the two enemy countries first.
In this way, the Fox Islands United Kingdom forgot about the Mount Weiders Colony that was attacked by the Black Sail Pirates. It was not until even the Opsaro City-States Alliance laid their hands on the Mount Weiders Colony did they remember that there was still a Mount Weiders Colony.
Only then did they realize that the Black Sail Pirates had returned and the Mount Weiders Colony had fallen into the hands of the pirates …