When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#766 - Flute-shaped ships and industrial complexes

In the darkness of night, a bulky cargo ship cut through the waves, heading towards Jeanne d'Arc Fortress.

Currently, the Saint Sun's flagship was still under repair, and Horn was anxious to get to Jeanne d'Arc Fortress.

So, he simply requisitioned a new type of cargo ship from the docks and set off with nearly a hundred guards.

Candlelight flickered with the rocking of the ship as Horn sat by the window, letting the river wind, thick with the stench of fish and shrimp, brush his face.

Although he wouldn't arrive at Jeanne d'Arc Fortress until late at night, Horn still couldn't sleep.

The preparation time for war was originally a year and a half, then it was shortened to a year, and now it was actually only half a year.

Who could sleep with that kind of pressure?

Currently, the Saint Alliance was facing internal and external crises, and he had to stabilize the situation while also speeding up war preparations.

Leaving Madelaine to preside over daily government affairs, Horn gave him two instructions:

First, to go full speed ahead in printing three types of propaganda: the investigation report on the Flood-related Layan conspiracy, the bond dividend case collection, and Duke Winghive's dam-breaching secret order.

They all had one thing in common: they were all fabricated, or rather, half-true.

Second, to expand the Cheka's numbers—the child soldiers from the Loyalty Academy four years ago, who were only thirteen or fourteen years old, were now sixteen to eighteen years old.

These orphans, who had personally witnessed the cruelty of the Church and the nobles, had received four or five years of devout education in a completely closed and harsh environment, and it was time to release them.

Entering a state of war, society was bound to shift from openness and tolerance to introversion and closure.

Especially when facing such a large enemy like the Layan and such an unfavorable domestic situation, it was necessary to use extreme measures.

Subsequently, the Imperial Privy Council would hold a meeting to summarize a complete plan based on information from all parties.

However, before everything else could begin, there was one thing that needed to be done without delay.

That was conscription and the mobilization of manpower.

Currently, Moria had lost a large number of troops, so Horn had to conscript in advance to fill this gap.

However, mobilizing too many young adults for military service, flood control, and transportation would inevitably have a significant impact on the local economy.

And Horn's army was a gold-devouring beast, so how to balance things well was a huge problem.

In order to break free from the jumbled thoughts, he simply forced his attention to shift to the ship beneath him.

It had a very narrow upper deck, a pear-shaped hull, and a spherical stern.

It was about 25 meters long and 6 meters wide, with 3 decks and a load capacity of about 250 tons, yet it only required 12 people to operate.

Moreover, since hundred-household districts had been built everywhere, the rural constables had greatly increased their control over the area.

These constables, who were either retired soldiers or local tycoons, severely cracked down on water bandits and robbers, reducing the number of armed personnel on board.

Such a ship could be obtained for only 260 gold pounds.

If transporting grain, the freight per ton was about 5 dinars, so a Fluyt could earn 12.5 gold pounds per trip.

Since it only required 12 people and a one-way trip of 200 kilometers took only a week, the average daily wage of the crew could reach about 4 dinars.

Even so, after deducting other costs, the shipowner could still earn at least 7 gold pounds.

If transporting white sugar and spices, the profit would be even greater.

Basically, the investment would be recovered in two years, and everything after that would be profit.

It was thanks to these new cargo ships that Horn's Saint Alliance market was able to be barely established.

The 23 shipyards in Xiaochi City and Rapid Stream City could launch nearly a hundred ships every year.

Starting this year, more than half of them were Fluyt-type ships.

Of course, compared to the peak period of the Dutch Republic in Horn's hometown history, this was as insignificant as an ant.

They launched 500 ocean-going ships every year, while Horn's were still inshore and river ships.

But compared to other shipbuilding areas of the same period, it was already a considerable efficiency.

It wasn't that the shipwrights of Lower Ruifo County and Kasha County had particularly outstanding skills, but that they made extensive use of hydraulic machinery and modularization.

Taking wood as an example, other shipbuilding factories in the empire would receive an order, then buy wood, dry it for six months, and slowly saw it into shape.

Not only the hull, but also the bow, rudder, mast, and so on, all needed to be made and adapted themselves.

Even the fastest workers would take 8 to 9 months to build a Fluyt-type ship.

In the Saint Alliance area, although they had not yet developed to the point of using clockwork machinery, hydraulic machinery was definitely available.

Under the design and modification of the Saint Mechanics Court engineering team, shipwrights used a large number of pulleys, ropes, and hydraulic sawmills to replace the old laborious machinery.

Horn even generously allowed them to pay for the modification in installments.

The shipwrights were now building ships at full speed, looking forward to the day when they would pay off their ship loans.

After the Saint Alliance unified weights and measures and broke the traditional apprenticeship system, Horn instructed Catherine to create a modular supply chain system.

Simply put, shipwrights only needed to design and build the hull according to the industry standards promulgated by the state-owned guild.

Components such as masts and rudder plates were all pre-made in specialized workshops, ready for installation when needed.

As long as both the shipwrights and the component workshops strictly followed the weights and measures and industry standards, then they would fit together perfectly when installed.

Even the wood used to make the hull was bought and dried by specialized timber merchants, and the shipyards could just buy it directly.

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In shipyards everywhere, there was even the strange sight of building ships first and then selling them.

Throughout the Saint Alliance, there were countless citizens and young people who wanted to get rich, gritting their teeth and mortgaging their ancestral lands to buy ships and transport goods.

According to Catherine, they had even attracted a batch of shipwrights from Laya, and by the end of this year, they would be able to expand to 27 shipyards, driving a large number of other small workshops.

Not only the shipbuilding industry, but the cannon and firearm industry in Gray Furnace Town was also beginning to take shape.

Gun carriages, gun stocks, gears, straps… Large and small component workshops surrounded the central Gray Furnace Town firearms factory like satellites, guarding it.

There were even workshops specializing in making tools for making parts, and workshops specializing in making lathes for making tools for making parts.

Jeanne d'Arc Fortress was a consortium of construction and printing and publishing industries, and the Saint Mechanics Court was a consortium of textile, alchemy, machinery manufacturing, and academic industries.

Small workshops hand-crafted parts, while the central large factory was only responsible for assembling, purchasing supplies, and manufacturing core components.

Not only Xiaochi City, but such trends were faintly emerging throughout the Saint Alliance.

But they failed to develop like the shipbuilding industry, mainly because of the lack of craftsmen, the lack of customers, and the lack of materials.

The construction and printing industries in Jeanne d'Arc Fortress were slightly better.

The firearms industry in Gray Furnace Town depended on market demand.

The textile industry of the Saint Mechanics Court faced the problem of insufficient raw material supply.

And generally, they all lacked craftsmen.

The several manufacturing entities under Horn's command had almost sucked up all the elite craftsmen of the Qianhe Valley.

Yet they still couldn't meet the demands of Black Serpent Bay and the Fran Trading Company, and even the internal needs of the Qianhe Valley were sometimes met and sometimes not.

As for the reason, Horn knew clearly in his heart that they simply didn't have faith in the future of the Saint Alliance.

In their minds, the Saint Alliance was ultimately a shaky regime.

Under the propaganda offensive of the Church and the lords, the empire's artisan community believed that joining the Qianhe Valley now was basically equivalent to joining the Qin army in 1949.

This led to Horn's industrial system being stuck in this state, unable to go up or down, and soon reaching its growth ceiling.

The solution to this problem was very simple, which was to win a battle against the Layan.

Give the empire a resounding contest, and it would not ignore your existence.

So, the Saint Alliance actually needed this war?

Horn didn't know what to think for a moment, and as he thought, he actually thought about the war again.

Fortunately, during this time, the ship had already sailed through the dark river and docked at the canal port outside Jeanne d'Arc Fortress.

Walking from the trestle to the dock, a carriage inlaid with thin iron plates was already parked by the roadside.

Nearly a hundred officers from the Saint Danji Military Academy were holding torches, their breastplates clanging.

They had been temporarily transferred to serve as Horn's guards, and the leader was the short-haired Seromis.

Getting into the carriage, Horn didn't hesitate at all: "Where is Jeanne? Good, then let's go to the Saint Advent Hall."