World-Ending Demon Emperor
Chapter 740 - 364: Super Battleship! The head of the Hai Family!

Chapter 740: 364: Super Battleship! The head of the Hai Family!

A large wooden warship takes at least three to four years to build, from gathering the materials to completion.

However, the three warships of Suo Lun, from the beginning of their construction to now, had taken no more than a year at most, because the materials required for these warships were purchased from other shipyards regardless of cost by Suo Lun.

Even two of the ships had already been half-built before being converted into two-tiered warships.

"How much longer until these three ships can be launched?" Suo Lun asked.

"Seven days!" replied the commander of the shipyard guard, who was also one of the trusted Samurai of the Suo family.

Without counting the cannons, these three ships alone cost Suo Lun nearly 100,000 Gold Coins, and if you add the cannons, and the cost of training for the cannons, that was beyond calculation.

Of course, there was also the construction of this secret shipyard, plus the salaries of thousands of workers and so on, totally astronomical figures.

Suo Lun’s Chaos Stone Salt Field had been in production for almost two years now, while the even more profitable Magic Mirror had been on the market for less than a year.

In these one to two years, the Gold Coins earned by Suo Lun were absolutely astronomical figures, almost surpassing the Rage Wave Kingdom’s annual taxation.

But now, he had hardly any Gold Coins at hand, almost spending as much as he had.

Now that the sea trade had been blocked, his financial resources were cut in half, and life became difficult.

...

Yan Chuo’er was seeing the huge Cannon Warship for the first time and was completely shocked!

Two of them had double tiers of cannon decks, while the middle one, the flagship, had a full three tiers of cannon decks.

Standing at the base looking up, the warship was as majestic as a mountain.

"These two smaller ones are the Tian Shui-class warships, displacing 2,000 tons, equipped with 55 cannons, and requiring a crew of 700," Suo Lun said as he introduced the three warships: "The large one in the middle is the Southeast Warship, displacing 3,000 tons, equipped with 75 cannons, and requiring a crew of 950."

Suo Lun didn’t have much research into the sail ship cannon warships of the 17th and 18th centuries on Earth.

Therefore, these warships were entirely based on the impressions and concepts in his mind, then chiefly relying on this world’s shipbuilding craftsmanship.

Fortunately, this world’s shipbuilding level was not weak, not to mention warships of two thousand tonnage; even larger ships of three to four thousand tons had been built.

However, compared to the shipbuilding skills of 18th century Spain or England on Earth, they were undoubtedly lagging by a considerable margin.

With the same displacement, the number of cannons was at best about half that of the others.

Nevertheless, warships of this tonnage were already intimidating enough, as most of the warships in this world were only a few hundred tons and manned with only one or two hundred crew members.

The Yandao Warships were even smaller, with only about a hundred pirates on a Rock Pirate ship.

It was precisely because these warships were so small that it was even more difficult to target them with Griffin Beast aerial strikes.

Yan Chuo’er, born amongst the Rock Pirates, had an extraordinary passion for the sea and warships.

And faced with Suo Lun’s three Cannon Warships, she felt her blood boiling, her breath quickening.

"Although I don’t know the power of these three warships, I do know they will surely change the history of naval warfare," Yan Chuo’er said with a trembling voice.

Then, she turned her head and asked, "Suo Lun, can these three Cannon Warships defeat Yan Mo’s navy of a hundred thousand?"

Suo Lun shook his head, "I don’t know, it’s likely very difficult!"

Indeed, he didn’t know, as the navy was a military branch that required the most time and a solid foundation.

These three Cannon Warships were entirely the products of Suo Lun and several dozen shipbuilding artisans devising plans on paper.

The thousands of gunners who had trained for a year had fired cannons, and also fired them on the sea, but they had not actually trained on these three large warships.

These three Cannon Warships had not only never seen combat, but they had not even been to sea.

So what the outcome would be in an actual battle was known to no one!

Even in real combat, Suo Lun couldn’t guarantee with complete certainty that parts of the warships wouldn’t fall apart after firing the cannons.

Because these three warships were highly experimental in nature, according to Suo Lun’s plan, it would take at least five years for his Cannon Warships to engage in battle for the first time.

Just like the Chinese navy on Earth Plane, the first aircraft carrier took seven years from the start of its conversion to becoming operational.

But often, plans can’t keep up with changes.

Just like in the United States during World War II, when there weren’t enough aircraft carriers, merchant ships were converted into carriers, forming an operational fleet in just a few months.

Suo Lun’s three experimental warships were just like that, almost untrained yet might have to be rushed into real battles at sea!

"Three ships are definitely not enough," said Yan Chuo’er. "No matter how powerful the warship, three cannot defeat a thousand."

Suo Lun said, "Not just these three, other warships have also begun conversions, directly mounting cannons on the decks. Of course, a warship can at best install only about a dozen cannons. And the number of cannons is far from enough."

Yan Chuo’er sighed, "Yan Mo’s provocation really comes at an inopportune time."

"Who’s to say it doesn’t?" said Suo Lun. "If he dared to provoke us two years later, I’d make sure he’d be scrambling to pick up his teeth off the floor. But now, our new navy has not formed a fighting force, at best we’re just budding."

After a moment of silence, Yan Chuo’er said, "Go to Yingzhou Island, an enemy’s enemy is a friend, seek an alliance with the Hai Family."

Suo Lun nodded, then took another look at the three grand Cannon Warships.