I, transformed into a vampire girl, sparked the Industrial Revolution.

Chapter 67 Current Status of the Navy

Having determined the objective, Alice glanced at the clock on the wall—there were four trains a day from Trian to Sheila, and if they prepared now, they could catch the last one.

"The National Defense Committee shall immediately contact the Hilla Naval Command and order the fleet to prepare for combat within 72 hours."

Deploying troops into combat within 72 hours is an extremely difficult undertaking, but fortunately, a campaign of this scale does not require the deployment of hundreds of divisions, nor does it have tanks or armored vehicles available for the troops. The army is obviously much easier to mobilize.

"Yes!"

Alicia and Admiral Yug Lat discussed the matter and quickly reached a decision: Alicia would remain in the rear to prevent the southern rebels from taking advantage of the situation to attack, while Alice would lead the naval fleet to attack, in order to avoid a situation where Alicia was unable to help as she had done last time.

"Alice."

"Yes."

"Take care, and come back to me safe and sound."

"Yes."

"Rafis, you're with me!"

Alice jogged out the door, changed into trousers and a coat in the dressing room, and picked up the cowboy hat from the back of the closet, returning to her gothic cowboy image. However, looking at herself from left to right, she looked more like a vampire hunter.

It's a bit ironic, but not bad.

"Your Highness, those two Sirens are still in the reception room..."

"Find someone to treat them well, arrange a few days' trip to Trian, and wait for my return."

Alice had only heard the beginning of the siren's story when she thought about the two sirens' endless descriptions and couldn't help but marvel at how talkative they were. It would probably take half a week before they got to the important part.

Raffis packed her luggage with lightning speed, and Alice took a gun from the gun rack in the room. It was a brand new rifle that was not yet widely issued to the army.

Spencer repeating rifles and several Sharps rifles. These breech-loading rifles were expensive but effective. The Dragoon Corps had repeatedly stated that it wanted to be equipped with breech-loading rifles, but the planning bureau had rejected the request several times due to "insufficient budget." However, it is said that the cavalry Corps raised some money on its own and ordered a batch of Sharps carbines from the Trian Armory.

With her repeating rifle and Sharps rifle slung over her back, Alice turned and walked out of the Red House. Two Ford cars were already waiting downstairs. The royal Fords differed from the Model Ts currently on sale in that they used fully enclosed cabins.

"Your Highness..."

"Come on in, Mr. General, you can sit in the passenger seat."

As a member of the Naval Military Commission, Yug Rat was naturally one of the leaders of this emergency military operation, but the Navy had no office in Trian and all his assets were in Shira.

How many operational ships do we have?

Alice sat in the back seat, leaning back and calmly analyzing the situation, but first she needed some information.

"Of the four Hiun-class cruisers, three are in a state of wartime readiness and one is undergoing outfitting."

"There are 18 Type 90 escort ships, all of which are ready for combat."

"There are 20 Type 037 steam paddle wheel tugboats. It is uncertain whether these ships can cooperate in combat."

"In addition, the Ministry of Trade has five Flying Fish-class clipper merchant ships, three of which are being fitted out."

"If it's a transport ship, the navy has four 500-ton galleons and about 30 auxiliary ships."

Yug Latto knew the navy's development like the back of his hand, and in his view, it was rapid. But on that side, there was a battleship with 51 guns, whose firepower exceeded that of the entire Western Ocean Fleet.

The new naval ship is still on the drawing board. Who knows when it will be delivered? Although it looks like an ironclad ship according to the drawings, all of Trian's steel production has been allocated to the construction plan. It will be a long time before it reaches the navy. There are also 3 Hiun-class ships and 4 Type 90 escort ships on the slipway.

"Get all those ships ready, with double the ammunition. We need at least four brigades of infantry."

"Yes, I will send a telegram to Sheila as soon as I arrive at the train station."

Alice thought that the navy conducts combat readiness drills every day, burning nearly 20 tons of gunpowder and 50 tons of coal for power every day. This was the consumption in the era of motor sails. If a large-scale battle were to take place, the daily consumption would be doubled and then multiplied by the number of combat days.

Coal is transported from the North, with large quantities of coal and iron ore being transported daily via the North-Trian-Hilla transport route. The National Geographic Society and its northward expansion forces are expanding northeastward in hopes of finding more mineral resources, but the last report indicated that they had even reached the Dwarven border.

What weapons do naval infantry use?

Alice hadn't approved the weapon change yet, but the Dragoon unit had already been fully equipped with Sharps carbines, which left her speechless. However, since the Dragoon unit was self-funded, she couldn't say anything, and besides, breech-loading rifles were more suitable for cavalry.

Alice had several breech-loading rifles with fixed ammunition, but she wasn't sure which one to use. Aside from the Dreiser rifle, which was in a precarious situation with its firing pin, what about the Sharps, Springfield, Remington, or the Chassepot or Martini-Henry? But the bullet caliber had to be standardized at 13mm, which was a strict requirement. Alice didn't want a future where military ammunition was a diverse mix.

"Um... Most of the naval infantry use Hall rifles, while the 1st Naval Infantry Brigade uses Sharps rifles."

"Your bullets aren't standardized?"

"No, Your Highness. The Sharps rifles used by the First Brigade are the paper-filled version, not the metal-filled version. As you know, the Navy's budget is entirely spent on capital ships."

"Fortunately."

Alice didn't know what to say. She didn't really like muzzle-loading guns either, since she still had a Spencer carbine in the gun case in her trunk. Trian and Sheila had established several more arms factories, some of which were state-owned, some were government-regulated private factories, and one was even moving towards developing magic-powered firing rifles. Alice couldn't help them.

"But the sailors' weapons are quite varied. I heard that the armory on the Feiyun has four or five different types of rifles, ranging from the newest Spencer rifle to the oldest Minié rifle."

"I heard that the Feiyun underwent modifications half a month ago?"

"Yes, Your Highness. The upper deck of the Feiyun did not have any bridge. We added a conning tower in front of the funnel and a fire control room at the stern. All Feiyun-class ships after the Feiyun had this design, and the 90-class ships also underwent modifications."

"What modifications?"

"That's right. Considering the positioning of the level 90 ships, we modified three level 90 escort ships and added 12-cell rocket launchers."

"The Congreve rocket?"

Alice hadn't had time to finish reading the Navy's support weapon innovation plan, so she naturally didn't know what the Navy was putting on the ships. However, when it came to early rockets, she certainly knew about the Congreve rocket.

"No, it's better than that. We're using the Hale rocket."

Okay, the Navy had a sharper eye. The Congreve rocket had a long guide tube, which seemed wasteful on the space-constrained surface of naval ships. The Hale rocket, on the other hand, eliminated the Congreve's long guide tube and used a tilted stabilizing rotor to stabilize itself using the spin of the exhaust gas during flight. Compared to the former, it had superior performance and a smaller size.