Chapter 209: Launching of the Ironclad

When the public learned through various means that Gao Da was about to organize bullfighting matches in the new year, they immediately erupted in cheers, and some Spaniards who loved bullfighting were even more excited about it.

The Spaniards' love for bullfighting is beyond doubt; during the bullfighting season from March to October, almost every performance is packed to capacity.

Someone once commented on the Spaniards' love for bullfighting: "A Spaniard can be late for any event, but a bullfighting match is not among them."

Such a statement is not an exaggeration, especially in the southern regions of Spain, such as Andalusia.

As the most populous region in Spain, Andalusia possesses the most bullrings in Spain and the most fanatical crowds who love bullfighting.

Generally, excellent matadors can be awarded bull ears and tails, and in the bullrings of Andalusia, a matador favored by the audience can not only take a lap around the ring but also pass through the "Prince's Gate" while being witnessed and cheered on by the enthusiastic crowd.

Although such an award attracts matadors from all over Spain, qualifying to pass through the "Prince's Gate" is not so easy.

A bullfighting event features three matadors and six bulls, with each matador having two opportunities to fight.

To qualify to pass through the "Prince's Gate," a matador must win the favor of the audience during the two performances and obtain at least three bull ears and one tail to have a chance to pass through the "Prince's Gate."

Admittedly, bullfighting has great dangers. The reason Spaniards admire matadors is that they dare to face the risks head-on during the process of bullfighting.

The bulls used in bullfighting are purebred wild bulls, generally selected from North Africa, which are adult, healthy bulls with a violent nature.

Because their irritable temper and aggressive nature are not caused by human training, these bulls are extremely dangerous, making bullfighting an activity with a very high casualty rate.

It is foreseeable that as Gao Da promotes bullfighting throughout Spain, the number of Spaniards who lose their lives in bullfighting activities each year will grow at a very fast rate, reaching hundreds or even thousands in a short period.

But these shortcomings are acceptable to Gao Da, because bullfighting can also bring more benefits to Spain.

Ignoring external factors like weapons and equipment, the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army is not bad among the great powers, and it is still stronger than that of Russia and Italy.

Relying on the influence of the martial attributes that bullfighting brings to the Spaniards, Gao Da is confident in building a Spanish army with first-class or even top-tier combat effectiveness in Europe.

With a population smaller than other European powers, the only thing Spain can do is to improve the combat effectiveness of its army as much as possible to barely compete with other great powers.

As November approached, Spain received another piece of good news: the previously built *Revival*-class ironclad, the *Revival*, was about to be launched.

This news also attracted the attention and cheers of the Spaniards, causing a sensation throughout Spain in a short time.

Spain did not hide the construction of this ironclad; instead, the Ministry of Defense publicly announced the warship procurement plan, and it was built openly by the Royal Guanizo Shipyard.

The reason for being completely transparent was precisely to arouse the attention of the Spanish public and increase their national pride.

Originally, according to the construction time given by the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, the *Revival* ironclad had hoped to complete construction in the summer and be launched to begin sea trials.

However, the Ministry of Defense subsequently ordered nearly 20 other small and medium-sized warships, putting all three docks of the Royal Guanizo Shipyard into production, and the construction of the *Revival* ironclad was naturally delayed by several months.

The good news is that after the rush work by the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, two 3, 00-ton cruisers were launched and began testing along with the *Revival* ironclad.

With three warships being launched at the same time, and given that this was the first time in many years that Spain had launched an ironclad, Gao Da was definitely going to participate in the launching ceremony in person.

On the day of the launching ceremony, parts of the Royal Guanizo Shipyard were opened to the public, and it was crowded with curious Spanish citizens.

When the public saw with their own eyes that behemoth in the distance being pushed into the ocean, the Spaniards could no longer hold back the hot tears in their eyes, cheering loudly and celebrating.

The standard displacement of the *Revival* ironclad reached a staggering 8, 00 tons, which belongs to the first tier among the ironclads currently built by various European countries.

For comparison, the *Magnificent*-class ironclad built by the British in the same period had a displacement of only 9, 44 tons, which is enough to prove that the tonnage of the *Revival*-class ironclad can already rank among the top of the current ironclads of various countries.

More importantly, the *Revival*-class ironclad is equipped with four breech-loading 12-inch 305mm steel naval guns. Although the caliber is not as large as the 318mm naval guns mastered by the British, the advantage is that they are breech-loading guns, and their rate of fire and shooting distance are far ahead of muzzle-loading guns.

Although the British *Magnificent*-class ironclad has 1, 00 tons more displacement than the Spanish *Revival*-class ironclad, its main guns are only two 11-inch muzzle-loading rifled guns, which lag behind the Spanish *Revival*-class ironclad in terms of firepower.

Overall, the combat effectiveness of the *Revival*-class ironclad definitely belongs to the first tier of active ironclads in European countries. This is also the result achieved after Gao Da vigorously supported Spain's existing shipbuilding system and obtained some technology and data from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Compared with this ironclad with a tonnage of over 8, 00 tons, the two cruisers next to it with a tonnage of only over 3, 00 tons seem a bit mini.

However, since they saw the main course of the *Revival* ironclad, the public would naturally not dislike the two side dishes next to it.

After these three warships were launched, Spain's naval strength was firmly stabilized in the top five in the world. Although it is only fifth, with no possibility of competing for fourth, it is still in the top five, isn't it?

More importantly, this is only the first ironclad built by Spain in ten years. When Spain builds more ironclads in the future, will Spain's naval strength still remain at the world's fifth level?

This is naturally the question that the public is most concerned about and looking forward to.

At the launching ceremony of the three warships, Gao Da did not keep a high profile to avoid arousing the jealousy of the British.

The British are not afraid of Spain developing its army, but if Spain turns its attention to the development of the navy, the British will have their concerns.

After all, to put it bluntly, the British status as the world hegemon is entirely maintained by the navy. What they fear most is the challenge from the sea, which will affect the power and status of the British Empire.

At present, the main contradictions among European powers are the German-French contradiction, the British-French contradiction, the British-Russian contradiction, and the Russian-Austrian contradiction.

But why did it eventually evolve into the British-French-Russian alliance fighting against Germany and Austria? The most fundamental reason is that Germany's development in the navy threatened the status of the United Kingdom, forcing the British to choose the lesser of two evils and eventually choose to cooperate with the less threatening French to defeat the Germans.

Of course, the purpose of the British is not so simple. The British want to solve the two major heart-and-flesh troubles of Germany and France in one fell swoop during the war, ensuring that there is no country on the European continent that can threaten their status.

The final result is also very clear: Germany was eventually defeated under the siege of Britain and France, and the French also suffered huge casualties, which eventually led to France's poor performance in World War II.

The surrender of France in World War II cannot be blamed on the French, after all, France had already suffered too many casualties in World War I. The time between World War I and World War II was only 20 years. When World War II broke out, there were many French people who had experienced World War I, and these people would certainly not want to experience another large-scale war like World War I.

Although Spain does not intend to be high-profile in naval expansion, it will still build several ironclads in the next few years.

For one thing, Spain's economy has gradually improved and can support Spain's navy in having more ironclads. For another, with the expansion of Spain's colonies, Spain does need a more powerful fleet to protect its colonies.

As mentioned before, although Spain has the world's fifth-largest navy, most of the warships are sailing warships, which are products that have fallen behind the times.

Just like pre-dreadnoughts encountering dreadnoughts, sailing warships encountering ironclads are like eggs hitting a stone.

The huge improvement brought by technology is a gap that sailing warships cannot make up for no matter how hard they try, which also leads to the status of Spain as a naval power being somewhat bloated.

Although Gao Da has no intention of maintaining a large-scale navy, it is still necessary to replace some of the warships with new warships using steam turbines as power while Spain's economy is developing rapidly in these few years.

The speed of sailing warships and ironclads is not proportional at all, after all, one uses wind as power, and the other uses steam turbines as power.

Ironclads can even complete ocean voyages without the need for sails, which is something that previous sailing warships did not possess at all.

It just so happens that Spain's colonies are spread all over the world, with colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Under such circumstances, some warships with ocean-going capabilities are very necessary, which can help Spain better stabilize its colonies.

If they relied on those sailing warships, by the time they reached the distant colonies, I am afraid the rebellion in the colonies would have long ended.

With this in mind, after attending the launching ceremony of the *Revival*-class ironclad, Gao Da immediately notified the other members of the Spanish National Defense Committee to hold a new round of national defense meetings at the Royal Palace of Madrid.

The Spanish National Defense Committee is an organization established by Gao Da after suppressing the workers' demonstrations. Its role, in addition to electing the Minister of Defense during cabinet changes, is also the highest military meeting organization in Spain.

The purpose of Gao Da calling the National Defense Committee meeting is very simple, that is, to discuss Spain's expansion plan in the navy and to firmly stabilize the status of the Spanish Navy in the world's fifth throne.

The candidates for the National Defense Committee meeting are fixed, which are nothing more than the seven people: Gao Da, the Minister of Defense, the Prime Minister, the Chief of General Staff of the Ministry of Defense, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Guard.

Because Grand Duke Serrano, as the Prime Minister, also serves as the Minister of Defense, only six people actually participated in the meeting.

The fewer people in the meeting, the less controversy there is. Everyone has no objection to Spain's naval expansion, even the Commander-in-Chief of the Army.

The main reason for this is that the current relatively peaceful environment limits the growth of the Spanish Army. At present, the Spanish Royal Army has a total of 136, 00 people, and the number of troops is already quite large.

If you add the 15, 00 people of the Imperial Guard, the total number of the Spanish Army has exceeded 150, 00, and its comprehensive combat effectiveness is second only to the five major powers.

Under such circumstances, it is difficult for the army to expand again. Unless facing a war crisis, the only thing the army can do is to strive for a little more equipment budget so that soldiers can train with peace of mind without fearing the consumption of bullets.

In fact, the current Spanish Royal Army is really not stingy in terms of training. Excluding the 46, 00 colonial troops, the Royal Army still has a scale of over 90, 00 people.

And in the military expenditure announced by the Ministry of Defense every year, the training costs of these 90, 00 soldiers account for the bulk.

Do not underestimate the training costs of soldiers. If each soldier conducts target practice twice a week and consumes 10 bullets each time, the number of bullets consumed by one soldier per week is as high as 20.

Spain has 90, 00 Royal Army troops, which also means that if the Spanish Army follows this ratio of target practice, the number of bullets consumed per week exceeds 1. million.

1. million rounds a week, the number of bullets consumed in a month exceeds 7 million. According to this ratio, the bullets consumed by Spanish soldiers just in target practice reach hundreds of millions per year.

Although the actual training situation will certainly not be so simple, this is enough to prove how huge the daily training expenses of the Spanish army are.

Fortunately, after years of expansion and production by the Royal Military Factory, the output of weapons, equipment, ammunition, and shells has expanded several times or even dozens of times.

Especially in the case that the army has been fully equipped with new rifles, the Royal Military Factory only needs to keep one rifle production line to fill the daily wear and tear of rifles, and the remaining production lines can be used to work overtime to produce bullets.

Although it cannot fully meet the training needs of Spanish soldiers, after all, the colonial army also has bullet consumption, and the 15, 00 soldiers of the Imperial Guard are not included.

But the good news is that 70% of the bullets consumed by military training come from domestic production in Spain, and only 30% come from imports.

This is thanks to the fact that Spain's rifles are improved from Italian rifles, and both rifles can use the same type of bullet.

In this way, Spain can purchase the same type of rifle bullets in Italy, solving the trouble of bullet demand caused by military training.

(End of this chapter)