Chapter 765: Great Naval Achievement

"His Highness didn't lie to us; it really doesn't need sails to travel far."

The steamship exited the dry dock and continued to sail toward the open sea.

Feng'er grabbed Luan'er's arm, stood on tiptoe, and jumped lightly, her face flushed with excitement.

Luan'er was also in a state of shock, staring blankly at the steamship.

Although Yan Wang had introduced the steamship to them, seeing it with their own eyes still felt unbelievable.

Although Yang Susu did not lose her composure like the other two, the hand she used to grab Zhao Xu's arm tightened unintentionally.

Zhao Xu felt it and smiled lightly; his Imperial Concubine was putting on a brave front, and if there were no outsiders present, she would likely be shouting and screaming just like Feng'er.

Regarding this, Zhao Xu understood completely.

After all, they had always lived in a society of feudal superstition.

Although they understood that Yanzhou was undergoing some astonishing changes.

Because they lived deep in the inner chambers, they had only heard of them and rarely seen them with their own eyes.

Therefore, for them to see a steamship was no different from a modern person seeing a Star Destroyer.

Compared to Yang Susu and the others, Chen Shou, Zhou Yi, and the rest were surprisingly silent.

Yet their eyes were filled with hot tears.

From sailing warships to steamships, their feelings were the most direct.

To Zhou Yi, with the steamship entering service, the Yanzhou Navy would officially enter the era of steam warships.

At the Naval Academy, Yan Wang had once described to him the vision of ironclad warships sailing on the ocean.

Now, this fascinating vision had finally taken its first step.

To Chen Shou, ever since building the steamship.

His shipbuilding experience had been almost completely overturned.

If sailing warships could still be classified as traditional wooden ships, then steamships were completely different vessels.

Moreover, with the addition of machinery like steam sawmills and steam cranes to the Shipyard, the traditional hard labor of hand-sawing and shoulder-carrying had disappeared, and the efficiency of shipbuilding had greatly improved.

When building the steamship, due to unfamiliarity with the technology and machinery like steam chainsaws, it was a bit slower at first, but the further they went, the faster they built.

If they were to build the next batch of steamships, it would not take a year at all; six to eight months would be enough.

"Everyone, the launching of the steamship is a great joyous event for our Great Song. From now on, our Great Song's shipbuilding technology has officially caught up with the Xitu Guo," Zhao Xu said. The crowd was excited, and he was equally stirred.

In this era, whoever dominated the ocean could control maritime trade routes and obtain resources from all over the world to help the development of their homeland.

Even in the modern era, this remains a truth.

Without a powerful navy, one cannot protect overseas interests.

Overseas industries that were invested in with great difficulty would be ruined by hostile forces in an instant, or even result in a total loss of capital.

Therefore, for a long time, he had attached great importance to the navy.

He had invested a huge amount of Silver in shipbuilding.

So much so that Army commanders like Chang Wei often complained that the Army's military pay was about to fall behind the Navy's.

And for such a large investment, he needed a return.

From now on, it was time for the navy to repay the Great Song.

However, the steamship was only the beginning.

Next, he would have Chen Shou carry out the research and construction of ironclad warships.

So he continued: "But do not be proud. The steamship is only the most basic; the warships that follow will only become more and more complex."

Having said that, he gave Xu Ke a look.

Xu Ke understood and ordered two guards behind him to carry over a wooden box.

The box was opened, and inside was a thick stack of blueprints.

"Your Highness, these are..." Chen Shou saw them, and his body began to tremble slightly.

"These are the blueprints for new types of warships, including blueprints for ironclad warships, ironclad troop transports, ironclad supply ships, ironclad hospital ships, and so on," Zhao Xu said.

After letting Chen Shou build the steamship, he had taken time over the past year to draw blueprints for other ships.

He was prepared to hand all these blueprints to Chen Shou after the steamship was launched.

Just like the Research Institute and the Weapons Manufacturing Research Institute, he would set up a research institute in the Shipbuilding Department and order Chen Shou to lead a group of craftsmen to research and build them with a division of labor.

After all, through the construction of sailing warships and steamships, the Shipbuilding Department must have accumulated a large number of craftsmen skilled in shipbuilding technology.

And they were the foundation of the Great Song's shipbuilding industry.

Starting with them, the Great Song's shipbuilding industry would develop rapidly.

"This... so many." Chen Shou ignored his image, squatted down, and flipped through the blueprints in the box, as if digging for a gold mine.

Zhou Yi was no better, grinning like a fool, and also squatted down to observe the blueprints with Chen Shou.

After understanding the structure of the ironclad warship, both of them were silent for a long time.

Zhou Yi stood up slowly, his eyes full of stars as he looked at Zhao Xu.

At this moment, he admired Yan Wang immensely.

Yan Wang had not lied to him; there really was such a terrifying warship as an ironclad warship.

If thick iron armor could be embedded on a warship, the opponent's artillery shells hitting the ironclad warship would be like scratching an itch.

"It will be enough to keep you busy for a while. Besides the blueprints, Wang Chong will also send you machinery such as steam forging hammers and lathes," Zhao Xu said.

The ironclad warships of this era were simply wooden warships covered with iron armor, equipped with propellers and triple-expansion steam engines.

And for the iron armor to be embedded on the wood, riveting technology was required.

This was actually passing a bolt without threads through the iron armor and the wood, and then using a forging hammer to hammer the end without a nut into a nut shape.

Because at that time, the craftsmen would take a concave mold and place it on the bolt; the side facing the forging hammer would be flat, and the side facing the bolt would be concave in the shape of a nut.

"Hehe, this subject does not fear being busy, only being idle." Chen Shou remained squatting on the ground, his eyes refusing to move away from the blueprints.

Seeing this, Yang Susu and the others could not help but laugh.

Zhao Xu shook his head helplessly and looked toward the gradually receding Steamship and Sailing Warship.

Turning his head, he looked at Zhou Yi, "The Steamship has been given to you; do not let this Prince down. Go destroy the fleet of Britain and take Dongying for this Prince!"

"Yes, Your Highness!" Zhou Yi gave Zhao Xu a vigorous military salute, his expression excited.

Nodding, Zhao Xu watched the Steamship with the others for a while longer before leaving the Shipyard.

Just like last year, the navy still needed to conduct a month of adaptive training for the launched Steamship and Sailing Warship, while simultaneously practicing tactics such as formation attacks.

Therefore, it would be at least December before the navy could launch an attack on Dongying.

For Zhao Xu, this timing was actually quite good.

He would just treat it as a grand New Year's gift for Dongying.

Having personally participated in the warship launching ceremony, Zhao Xu was in no rush to return.

Yang Susu and the others had never seen the sea, so he simply stayed here with them for a few days to enjoy it.

Besides this, he also discussed matters regarding civilian Steamships with Chen Shou.

He ordered him to pull out a portion of officials from the Shipbuilding Department to be responsible for the construction of official civilian Shipyards, specializing in the building of civilian vessels.

He hoped that within the next year or two, commercial Steamships could be seen on inland rivers, steam fishing boats would appear on the sea, and perhaps even luxury steam cruise ships could appear at sea, becoming the second type of transportation method after the Railway.

After staying in Jinghai for three days, Zhao Xu returned to Yanzhou.

Next, he only needed to wait in peace for Zhou Yi to set out on the expedition.