Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 873 - 724

Chapter 873: 724

Six ironclad ships were indeed enough to bridge the gap. Coupled with those fortune ships and gunboats of the Nanyang naval forces, they were more than sufficient to handle any warfare in Nanyang.

The Shenqi Union was already developing more powerful steam engines and formidable breech-loading cannons. Future ships would certainly have to be made entirely of iron armor.

In a world of magical techniques, there were no technical challenges for fully ironclad warships.

Afterward, accompanied by Mo Changsheng, Li Xuan toured each of these still incomplete warships.

Dugu Biluo, who had come along, was astonished by the majestic ironclad ships.

However, Li Xuan, having seen aircraft carriers displacing tens of thousands of tons in the future world, felt that these ironclads were somewhat ordinary in comparison.

Next were the five Yunzhong warships that had just begun laying their keels. The Shenqi Union wasn’t building these ships in a dry dock but rather in a large workshop next door, where they had constructed five massive ship platforms with a hefty investment.

Ship keels weren’t much to look at, but this time, Leng Yurou adopted Li Xuan’s suggestion and used an alloy assembly for the keels, which significantly reduced the cost of the Yunzhong warships.

Yet Leng Yurou felt uncertain as the ship’s keel had always been made from centuries-old towering trees. It was unheard of to cast the parts from an alloy first and then assemble them into a whole structure as they were doing now.

It must be noted that the keel was the core of any ship, determining the success or failure of a warship.

Even though these were airborne warships, the keel’s significance hadn’t diminished; it was the most structurally crucial and heavily stressed component of the ship.

Li Xuan’s visit today had two purposes, one was to inspect the assembly of these alloy keels, and the second was to observe the strength test supervised by Leng Yurou.

Mo Changsheng, as the leader of the Mo, also found this particularly interesting.

He was indifferent to the ’Yunzhong warships’ themselves since they had nothing to do with mechanical contraptions.

Mo Changsheng believed they were just enlarged versions of the immortals’ flying boats and flying shuttles; a fusion of magical talisman arrays and artifact refining techniques, with mechanical contraptions playing only a supporting role.

Its overall technology was not closely related to Mo’s main direction.

However, the ’assembled keel’ and the five ’super electromagnetic cannons’ that Leng Yurou was planning to place at the bow of the ship as the main guns did have some technical content.

Since Li Xuan arrived quite late, the keel assembly in the workshop was already more than half completed.

What he saw before him was a magical scene; over a dozen spellcasters with powerful mana, under Leng Yurou’s command, were fitting pieces together in place.

In the world of the future, heavy alloy castings that would need various types of machinery to install were being completed by a handful of spellcasters in this world, and the process was swift. The installation was expected to be finished by dawn.

After arriving, Li Xuan did not idle either, measuring around with a tape measure.

He had studied the keel blueprints designed by the Shenqi Union and knew the dimensions of each component by heart.

Li Xuan was reassured to find that the precision of these alloy castings met the standard and was in complete alignment with the design, indicating that there shouldn’t be any problems with the keels.

The disappointment, however, was that the Shenqi Union had not advanced beyond this foundation.

Sure enough, when the keel assembly was completed, a host of spellcasters from the Shenqi Union, under Leng Yurou’s leadership, conducted tests using various spells. Leng Yurou then excitedly approached Li Xuan.

"Beyond expectations! The overall strength of the alloy keel is more than double that of the keels cast from ’Black Iron Fir,’ its resistance in all aspects is stronger, and its weight has been reduced by thirty percent. Our initial design was too conservative; the volume of these five ships could actually be increased by a significant amount."

——The real key was actually the cost. A single ’Black Iron Fir’ log measuring one hundred and fifty zhang would cost over three million four hundred thousand teal. There weren’t many of such logs within the entire Jin Dynasty.

And a single Yunzhong warship required four such ’Black Iron Fir’ logs.

However, the combined cost of the various expensive materials used for their alloy assembled keel was less than one million teal.

This could reduce the production cost of the five Yunzhong warships from an exaggerated twenty-two million to fewer than ten million teal. Even with the addition of the electromagnetic main cannon at the bow, the cost would not exceed fourteen million teal.

"This is truly an ingenious idea."

Mo Changsheng’s eyes sparkled, "Mo believes that this method can also be used on future ironclad warships. Alas, it’s a pity!"

He was filled with regret, Li Xuan should have thought of this method earlier, or else the six ironclads he built could have saved over five hundred thousand teals.

Li Xuan gave a wry smile, he hadn’t thought of assembling dragon bones at that time.

Saving money for The Court and for oneself, those are hardly the same thing.

He too was greatly invigorated, joyful for the wellbeing of his own wallet.

However, what Li Xuan was most concerned about now was the completion time, "Yurou, I want to know if these warships can be finished within six months?"

Leng Yurou was slightly taken aback, "Isn’t that too fast? Normally, it would take at least a year, followed by a trial period."

The construction of these five Yunzhong warships was not as simple as that of those ironclads.

"One year is too long!" Li Xuan frowned and shook his head, "I can only give you seven months at most, I have great use for these warships."

Otherwise, why would he have invested nearly eighty million teals to build these five Yunzhong heavy warships?

Leng Yurou couldn’t figure out why Li Xuan was in such a hurry, could it be to forcefully attack the Jinque Palace, or to prepare for a decisive battle at Xi’an?

Five Yunzhong warships, five electromagnetic guns with a range of one hundred and eighty li, seemed a bit undercooked for a forceful attack on Jinque Palace.

Enough for attacking Xi’an though, but was Li Xuan too willing to invest for The Court’s affairs?

Another strange thing, due to the expected higher strength of the composite metal assembled dragon bone, the volume of the five Yunzhong warships from the Shenqi Union exceeded Master Zhongliu’s original design by twenty percent.

However, most of this extra volume was used by Li Xuan to enhance the seaworthiness of the Yunzhong warships.

This could even allow the five Yunzhong warships to navigate the legendary Infinite Taixu—

After some careful consideration, Leng Yurou agreed, "I’ll try my best. However, we don’t have enough artisans, I might have to headhunt from the Junqi Bureau and Inner Weapon Staff Bureau."

These two institutions of The Court sheltered a great number of skilled artisans who had not been able to fully utilize their talents for various reasons.

Leng Yurou had long coveted these artisans, but out of consideration for The Court’s opinion, she did not dare to headhunt them.

Upon hearing this, Li Xuan couldn’t help but give a rueful laugh, "Go ahead, headhunt without restraint! I’ll take responsibility for whatever happens. As long as you can bring the people over, I’ll help you release them from their artisan registry."

He knew that, no matter how skilled many of the craftsmen at the Junqi Bureau and Inner Weapon Staff Bureau were, their monthly income would not exceed one hundred teals.

Therefore, many people with extraordinary skills ended up producing shoddy work.

In Li Xuan’s view, this was simply a waste.

The Great Ancestor and Emperor Taizong of the Jin Dynasty only thought about saving money, but the methods they used actually ended up being the most costly.

Mo Changsheng, who was nearby, heard this and furrowed his brows with some concern.

Li Xuan was already committing a risky act by building the ’Yunzhong warships’ without The Court knowing, and now he was even planning to poach from The Court’s Junqi Bureau.

Mo Changsheng thought that none of the ancient powerbrokers had ever done something like this.

He was deeply worried—finding a backer in The Court who was so open-minded was a rarity for their Mo, and Li Xuan had even tacitly allowed them to recruit disciples under the guise of training artisans.

Mo Changsheng was concerned that this backer would end up facing attacks from both within The Court and outside, ultimately leading to his downfall.

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