Iron Powder and Spellcaster

The conflict between the Veneta Army system and the Navy system has been around for a long time. The "golden hat brim" and the "big leather boots" that are usually high on the top are competing in the city hall, which can be called a blue sea scene.

In a sense, the entire Republic of Veneta has gone through thirty years of noisy businessmen's guild style with no danger.

As the saying goes: rivals outlast friends. Over the years, Army officers and Navy officers have become accustomed to an atmosphere of contempt and competition with each other. Under the general principle of fighting without breaking, occasionally some tacit cooperation can be staged.

But just in the past three years, hostility between the Army and Navy has reached new heights.

In the year 558 of the Imperial Calendar, after Consul De Bella announced that "the Tanirian Conquest War has been completely victorious".

The Navy and Maritime Trade Affairs Committee of the Republic of Veneta (hereinafter referred to as the Maritime Affairs Committee) ignored the huge waves of criticism and opposition, and just passed the five-member parliament to form a third "big army" in the province of Tanilia. "Fleet" plan.

Immediately afterwards, the Maritime Affairs Commission forced the staggeringly large "Naval Arms Supplementary Plan for the Twenty-Eighth Republic of China" to pass the first and second reviews at the annual budget preparation meeting.

In the final public vote, while representatives of the Army system unanimously voted against, participants from the Third Army Corps cast the decisive vote in favor.

The dispute between "slow ship building" and "urgent ship building" has since come to an end.

Rapidly rebuilding naval power at all costs became Veneta's guiding principle at the national level.

In terms of the navy, a new main fleet was added, which meant that there were a lot of vacancies overnight.

A large number of midshipmen and junior officers who had been working hard on the deck for many years were naturally jubilant as they finally waited for the light of day.

As for the Army, due to the huge amount of bonds issued by the Directory to raise funds for shipbuilding, the Army's military expenditures will be significantly reduced in the next few years or even ten years. One can imagine the dissatisfaction and resentment that has arisen in the military.

The "betrayal" of the Third Army still makes many army officers still brood.

In order to bring the Tanirian fleet, which only exists on paper, into combat strength as soon as possible - and to calm public anger - the drafter and promoter of the new fleet plan, the powerful Commander of the Inland Sea Fleet [Regnero de ·Narexiao] voluntarily resigned from his position.

Admiral Naresho left the center of power, self-exiled to the Taniriya Islands, and became the "single commander" of the newly established Grand Fleet.

The former deputy commander of the Inland Sea Fleet [Martino Dandolo] was promoted to commander of the Inland Sea Fleet and admiral.

In other words, Martino Dandolo's appearance at the Army Headquarters meant that since the completion of the "Royal Palace", it was the first time that a senior naval official at the level of fleet commander had visited.

It has been three years since a naval officer last set foot in the "Royal Palace".

The last time - on the eve of the Tanirian War - the Military Council met at the Army Headquarters, the Naval Command sent four Commodores to attend, and Admiral Zio ordered the "Throne Room" to be opened as a sign of good faith.

This time, the higher-ranking Admiral Dandolo visited, but he was not invited to the luxuriously decorated conference room on the fourth floor of the army headquarters. Instead, he was taken directly to the stairwell leading to the underground building by the army colonel in charge of reception.

[Vetor Pisani] Although he was doubtful, he did not ask questions.

As the most junior captain among the three, and as a "Pisani" who bears the honor of his surname, Vetor cannot afford to be stage frightened.

So, Wettor shrugged, followed the army colonel into the underground of the "Royal Palace" with a smile.

After passing through triple access control, walking down two flights of stairs, and walking through a dark and damp corridor, the army colonel led the three visitors to a basement door.

The colonel opened the heavy wooden door nailed with felt and iron sheets, and the strong smell of herbs immediately poured out, irritating Wettor to cough.

He turned to look at Captain Tiye and Commander Dandolo, and saw both of them frowning.

When the oak door was completely opened by the army colonel, a small room came into view.

At the far end of the small room, six rows of sealed filing cabinets for storing important documents are placed against the wall. In the small space between the filing cabinet and the door, a simple table not much larger than the door panel was temporarily set up.

An old man with white beard and hair and a majestic appearance was sitting behind the table, closing his eyes and concentrating.

A burly man with a terrifying face and a large golden sword sat on the left hand of the old man, fiddling with the ring impatiently.

The buttons of the man's shirt had been unbuttoned to his chest, revealing his lush hair, but it was still about to burst the uniform.

When the door was opened, he just glanced at the four people outside the door coldly, and then continued to turn the "Ring of the Great Alliance" on his knuckles.

There is another well-looking middle-aged man sitting on the right side of the old man, flipping through the papers on the table.

After the door opened, the middle-aged man put down the file in his hand and smiled and nodded at the three people outside the door.

Without the introduction of the army colonel in charge of the reception, Vetor Pisani recognized the three people in front of him:

The old man sitting in the middle is the Director, one of the members of the five-man council, and the general of the army [Carlo Zio];

The strong man on Carlo Zio's left hand side is the Army Major General [Roster Leighton] who became famous in the Tanirian Conquest War;

The middle-aged general on the right side of Carlo Zio is the commander of the 4th "Fallencui" Corps, Army Major General [Jacob de Bar].

Compared to the three army generals, the fourth army officer sitting on the edge of the simple table attracted Vetor's attention even more - because that man was clearly wearing a colonel's uniform.

Compared with the chairs under the generals, there is only a bench under the colonel's buttocks. His hands were placed stiffly on his knees, his shoulders were tense on both sides, and his expression was more awkward than uneasy.

Seeing Vetor Pisani and others outside the door, the school officer let out a sigh of relief and relaxed his shoulders a little.

Since the commander of the "Feleng Cui" army appeared in the room, Vetor guessed that the school officer should be the representative of the commander of the "Grand Veneta" army, General Antonio Sertti.

But now is not a good time to ask questions.

The army colonel Su Rong who was in charge of the reception raised his hand and saluted the generals in the basement and stopped outside the door.

Naturally, Wettor would not be moved by the army's formation. He glanced at the two companions with a smile and walked into the room casually.

The heavy oak door closed again, blocking out all sound.

Vitor Pisani threw his three-cornered hat on the table, and while pulling out the seats for his two older companions, he asked calmly: "We were invited to the army headquarters, and we were asked to dress in civilian clothes, but we sent a team of such An eye-catching cavalry escort? He is indeed a respectable army colleague, and his actions always make people confused."

The three army generals frowned. The shoulders that the school officer sitting next to him had just lowered were unconsciously shrinking again.

"The reason why I forcefully invite you all to come here is really hard to explain."

Major General Barr responded politely. He put the document at hand back into the file box, and then pushed the wooden box in front of the three naval officers:

"Because these - the documents we want to show you, have the highest level of confidentiality. According to the Army Secrets Regulations, they cannot be viewed outside this archives, nor can they be discussed outside the archives. To be honest , even within the army, there are only a handful of people who can enter the archives, and there are only a few officers who know the contents of these documents. If you can set foot in this archives, it means that we have come up with a huge amount of information. Sincerity.”

Vetor raised his eyebrows and was about to speak, but Captain Tiye, who was sitting on the other side, spoke first.

Lorenzo Thie didn't look at the wooden box at all. He stared at the three army generals in front of him and asked coldly: "You talk so much nonsense, why don't you finally show it to us?"

As soon as these words came out, Roster Leighton, who was already suppressing his anger, finally couldn't bear it anymore and shouted: "You may be used to being a king on the ship! But our army has rules and systems!"

Vetor Pisani immediately retorted: "So the Army's rule is to put butter on fat pork and mix mud into dog feces?"

"[Vulgar language]!" Layton was furious.

Not to be outdone, Whittle said: "[Old language version of vulgar language]!"

"Okay!" General Zio shouted angrily, "Don't be embarrassed!"

Everyone in the archives room almost had their eardrums blown out. It was hard to imagine that such a loud voice came from such a thin old man.

Layton grinded his teeth hard, straightened the chair he had kicked down, and sat down angrily.

"Guarantee your safety." Carlo Zio said concisely: "It is Antonio's request."

"That's right." The school officer on the side whispered in agreement: "Lieutenant General Serbetti attaches great importance to your safety. The cavalry escorting you is also the cavalry of the Third Army."

Tiye narrowed his eyes and looked at the school officer.

"This is Colonel Sebastian Vauban." Rear Admiral Barr took the initiative to introduce to the naval officers: "The representative of General Serbetti. It is a great credit to General Serbetti that all our respected naval colleagues can talk to us candidly." without."

"We are willing to come to your 'Royal Palace'." Vetor Pisani snorted: "It's not because of Antonio Serbetti, but because of Monsignor Naresio's face."

Jacob de Baal said meaningfully: "It seems that we all have some 'pacifists' in each other, don't we?"

The major general pronounced the word "pacifist" very hard, causing another major general next to him, Roster Layton, to snort coldly.

"Finish what needs to be done first." Admiral Zio put an end to the bickering in the archives room.

Vetor Pisani and Captain Tiye exchanged glances, and Vetor finally reached out to take the file box and distributed the documents in it to his colleagues.

Each of the Army's top-secret documents is bound in thick cardboard.

Only the serial number and confidentiality level are written on the cover. The first page after opening is written with the person who sent and received it, the second page is an overview of the content, and the next page is the original document glued to the paper.

The first file Vetor got his hands on successfully caught his attention.

An overview on the second page shows that the contents of the archive are about the imperial royal family's routine winter hunting ceremony on the Castile Peninsula last winter.

Looking back further, there are three original documents, all of which are handwritten manuscripts with illegible handwriting.

The first original is a hunting record of the imperial royal family’s winter hunts;

The second original is a bill for wine, meat and flour consumed in the imperial palace during the winter hunt;

The third original is the shortest, but it records Henry IV's eating habits and behavior during his stay on the Castile Peninsula.

This information was extremely valuable, given that the survival of the Empire and the fate of the League depended to a large extent on the life and health of Henry IV.

Vetor was disappointed to find that the pseudo-emperor's physical condition still showed no signs of problems.

During the winter hunting season in Castile, the false emperor's personal haul included two deer, a bear, and several foxes and wild boars.

According to the report, the puppet emperor only slept for six hours a day. He would get up at dawn, run, ride horses, practice swordsmanship, and then handle official duties. They took turns having lunch with the princes of Castile at noon, receiving petitioners in the afternoon, continuing to deal with official business in the evening, and finally going to bed. This is the case every day during winter hunting.

The false emperor had no entertainment other than public events and did not drink alcohol unless necessary. Even the writer of the report marveled at the pseudo-emperor's seemingly inexhaustible energy and superhuman efficiency.

The only content in the file that made Wettor feel a little happy was the record about the nightlife of the pseudo-emperor.

According to the reporter's records, apart from handling official duties, the pseudo-emperor had no nightlife to speak of. Nor did he sleep with the queen, at least not once during the winter hunt.

Vetor couldn't help but curl up his lips. He turned back to the first page to see who had observed the daily routine of the imperial royal family so closely, but he only saw a code name - "Cat".

He shook his head, placed the file in front of Admiral Dandolo, and then took out another file from the box.

After opening the cover and scanning the first line of text, Wettor's eyebrows immediately knitted together.

The second file he got was a statistical report.

A statistical report on "logging permits" issued by the Governor-General in the Northern Territory of the Empire.

Six years ago, a tragic battle broke out between the Imperial Royal Navy and the Fremen fleet in the Far Eastern Sea. The water changed color and the wreckage of the ship burned for a whole day and night.

This time, the Royal Navy washed away the humiliation of thirty years ago, destroyed the Sultan's fleet in one fell swoop, and successfully recaptured Rhodes Island.

In the victory report officially announced by the empire, every sunken and captured warship of the Freiman Navy was listed in detail, but the losses of the Royal Navy were kept secret.

Since the main form of naval battles in the Far East is boarding battles, the main ships of the Royal Navy and the Freiman Navy are also galleys and extra-large galleys, so victory is often achieved by the sailors of one ship killing the other ship. The sailors came to realize it, which was very tragic.

Based on the post-war patrol situation of the Royal Navy, the Veneta Navy internally determined that the Imperial Royal Navy had lost at least half of its combat power, otherwise it would never have stopped at Rhodes Island.

But that was six years ago. Understanding the current size of the Royal Navy - and more importantly, figuring out the future size of the Royal Navy - is the top priority of the Veneta Navy.

As long as the Veneta Navy wants to obtain information, the Imperial Navy will definitely guard against it. Therefore, so far, the Veneta Maritime Commission's exploration of the Imperial Navy's shipbuilding plan has been like a blind man trying to figure out the elephant.

At this moment, this new "logging license statistics" in the Army's confidential archives made Vetor Pisani's eyes light up.

As the kingdoms in the north fell one after another, the vast virgin forest treasures on the south coast of the Narrow Sea fell into the hands of the empire.

According to Army intelligence, the Imperial Governor-General in the North has issued logging permits for at least 60,000 oak trees over a hundred years old in the past two years to "fill the timber reserves of the Royal Dockyard."

Another order transcribed in the archives showed that the puppet emperor's Admiralty had approved the First Royal Dockyard's request to "use timber that has not been thoroughly dried in the sun as appropriate" to meet "His Majesty's progress requirements."

Vetor has no doubt that those towering oaks and needlewoods will eventually become the warships of the false emperor.

Just a rough conversion is needed: the flagship of the Inland Sea Fleet, the Glorious, uses approximately 1,200 century-old Plato oak trees; the harvesting of 60,000 mature oak trees means that there will eventually be at least fifty Glorious ships. warship launched.

Moreover, the material standards of the Glory are far higher than those of conventional warships. If a warship is built with a combination of hardwood and softwood, 60,000 oak trees will ultimately be able to produce far more than fifty warships.

What's more, judging from the description on the second page, the Army's statistics on logging permits are bottom-up, not top-down. The actual number of logging permits issued must exceed the number counted by the Army.

After the fall of the kingdoms on the southern coast of the Narrow Sea, the "heretic kingdoms" on the northern coast of the Narrow Sea also bowed their heads to the false emperor, which meant that the empire could still obtain high-quality timber from the north of the Narrow Sea.

The scale of the Royal Navy's shipbuilding program will be more terrifying than even the wildest imagination.

Vetor Pisani cleared his throat and handed the file in his hand to General Dandolo.

"Your Excellency," Wettor said calmly, trying not to show any nervousness, "You need to see this."

Admiral Dandolo took the file silently.

Vetor took the document from the admiral's hand, as if they were just exchanging readings.

He hurriedly glanced at the newly obtained army files, and the description on the second page was very deceiving: the imperial foreign minister Barrack de Champany submitted to the emperor at the request of the puppet emperor, top secrets about the "future foreign policy of the empire" memorandum.

Whittle read through the manuscript of the memorandum obtained by the Army.

"[Old Speech] Politics and trade meant that the Fremen (Saracens) were natural allies of the Senas League." Champany wrote: "[Old Speech] The Senes League was on the edge of the continent, drawing from the continent's periphery The interests are easier. Therefore, the friendship between the Senas Alliance and the Fremen is foreseeable. The empire must return to its traditional policy of curbing the westward advancement of the Saracens and dividing the two mountains and narrow areas. When the empire and Senas will enter the future When the Alliance goes to war again, it must ensure that the princes of the Broken Lands become allies of the Empire..."

"Cliché." Wettor curled his lips and thought to himself, "Nothing new at all."

He closed the cover again and put the top-secret Army document in his hand back into the file box.

At the same time, Martino Dandolo also read the statistical report submitted by Vetor.

The admiral took off his eyes, pondered for a moment, looked at Carlo Zio in front of him with his still bright eyes, and asked hoarsely: "So, let us look at these, why?"

What greeted Dandolo was the Army General's equally piercing eyes, and his resounding reply: "In order to prevent you from making mistakes!"

[Thanks to the leader of book friend [Kai Fengqing], thank you very much! ]

[Recommended book friend's seedling "Berchner's Kingdom\