Chapter 1238 – Strategic Level Weapons and Equipment

Gaia 7th year, 4th month, apart from building the Martial Management Division, Ouyang Shuo also placed a lot of attention on the latest technological developments of the military works industry.

After a year of industrialization, the Emperor dynasty military works industry welcomed a huge breakthrough. The most eye catching one was the weapons and equipment field.

In the navy region, Great Xia’s first iron armored warship finally went into water in Beihai Bay.

The early stage iron armored warship was a wooden warship wrapped with thick iron to defend against attacks. The ship was equipped with many cannons and was 23 meters long and 13 meters wide.

Great Xia had developed the early stage warship in the middle of the 5th year, but its practical use was not high, and they could not equip the navy with it on a large scale.

The second generation iron armored warship was built of steel. There were warships with cannon turrets and patrol ships, getting close to the standard of 20th century warships.

Gaia 7th year, 4th month, the Great Xia’s first iron armored warship was born.

The birth of this warship was due to the development and research of large-sized cannons, a slightly advanced steam engine as well as Great Xia’s metallurgy standards.

Apart from the cannons, the iron armored warship was equipped with battering rams and torpedoes, becoming a crucial weapon of the navy war period.

Due to the iron armored warship technology maturing by the day and the improvements and increased openness of industry technologies, in the next few years, iron armored warships would surely replace the man o’ war.

To protect their authority on the ocean, the Imperial Court had to create a great quantity of iron armored warships.

The problem was that the costs of the warships were not low. Just a single ship cost close to a million gold and took almost half a year to make.

The Qing Dynasty of history gritted their teeth and only managed to buy two Grade 1 iron armored warships. Of course, the current ones that Great Xia designed could not be compared to a Grade 1 warship like the USS Dingyuan.

It was simply because they did not have the support of electricity.

Of course, the cannons also could not compare to their cannons, which could spin 360 degrees.

To produce iron armored warships on a large scale meant that they would need many factories working on it at the same time.

From the 1st year of Gaia, Great Xia had been building shipbuilding factories at all the ports and owned 16 shipyards. Only then could they equip the navy with large amounts of turreted warships and Z1 Type Warships.

However, the problem was that these shipyards were used to build wood warships.

Only the Beihai Shipyard, which was the first shipyard in the territory, had the ability to build iron armored warships. For this matter, the Imperial Court needed to upgrade the remaining 15 shipyards.

Since Gaia had removed the speed up function, just this alone would use up close to half a year and modifying costs of the shipyard would take up to three million gold.

Along with the costs of building an iron armored warship, the costs would break the sky.

Even then, Ouyang Shuo had to grit his teeth. He decided to equip the Indian Ocean Squadron and the Pacific Ocean Squadron first with two each as the main warships.

In the future, they would make adjustments based on the situation.

Apart from navy equipment, the air force also had a major breakthrough.

Of course, strictly speaking, Great Xia did not truly have an air force. It only had an air force platoon and squadrons, and the squadrons and legion corps relied on the mimicry flying devices.

Although the mimicry flying devices were good, their weaknesses were really apparent.

First, it relied too heavily on magnetic ohlite, which restricted the number of mimicry flying devices.

Secondly, the energy loop made use of the Atlantic carving technology, and its industrialization standards were really low. The technology was not suitable for building fighter jets.

Due to these two points, the No.7 Research Institute had been searching for technological breakthroughs.

Finally, during this month, the No.7 Research Institute had made physical breakthroughs, using the mimicry flying device technology to develop the first generation fighter jet.

The first generation fighter jet made use of mixed energy of magnetic ohlite and internal an combustion engine. It could be used to direct cannoneer fire from above, scouting and bombing.

Although it was still a huge distance away from a true fighter jet, it was already quite amazing.

More crucially, after making use of the mixed energy, the basis to mass produce fighter jets was set. Great Xia had taken a firm step toward building a true air force.

Ouyang Shuo believed that there would be a day when the Great Xia Army would have a true air force.

Lastly would be the army equipment.

In the last half a year, Ouyang Shuo had made a trip to Atlantis and made a huge deal with Kalia. He bought the combat puppet technology that the Atlantis Civilization had sole ownership over.

Now, the Great Xia Army works industry had created its first combat puppet prototype.

As long as they worked on it for a future period of time, they would be able to build a true combat puppet. When that happens, the Great Xia Army would have a truly strategic weapon.

New technologies every day was undoubtedly a sign of the prosperity of an Emperor dynasty.

When these strategic level weapons and equipment technologies matured and enter the mass production stage, the Great Xia Army would definitely welcome a huge transformation.

Once they had control of all that, they would be able to industrialize on the fast track.

Only by industrializing really deeply and forming a full industry chain would they have the ability to create combat puppets, first generation fighter jets, and other complicated equipment.

Without numerous factories, all of this would be impossible.

Moreover, supporting Great Xia’s industrialization was the slowly forming imperial capital region.

4th year, 1st day, the Imperial Court published the Imperial Capital new city region planning. It announced that the new city region would prioritize technological organizations relevant to military works, factories, and supporting workshops.

Secondary would be developing businesses.

Combat puppets, first generation fighter jets, and other strategic weapons and equipment were the core of the new city region.

Ouyang Shuo knew that with the game entering the 7th year of Gaia, the difference in strength of a single soldier of each country was closing.

Even if Great Xia’s troops were the cream of the crop, they could not truly go one versus five.

The only thing that could let them continue to keep their advantage, apart from a scale that scared the enemy, was changing weapons and equipment as well as tactics.

Only then could the Great Xia Army remain undefeated and support the continual expansion of the Emperor dynasty.

The huge investment now was setting a firm foundation for the second breakthrough of the Great Xia Army. Even if it was difficult and needed huge amounts of resources, Ouyang Shuo would grit his teeth till the end.

If he could not bear to invest now and he fell behind, he would be crushed by others.

It was due to such strategic considerations that Ouyang Shuo placed his focus in the starting half of the 7th year on internalizing the Imperial Court and technological development.

On the contrary, he paid less attention to the few wars that the Imperial Court was starting.

The game world was changing constantly and one could not slack off. If one was slightly careless and too conservative, it would bury huge problems for the future.

“Before we conquer the outside, we must settle our internal problems first.”