Chapter 288: Chapter 284: Exploiting the Three Kingdoms
Perfikot certainly wouldn’t want the Navy’s flagship, and even if she did, it would be a frigate or a cruiser, not those large and useless battleships.
Although she was once a fan of big guns and ships before crossing over, it was strictly limited to those steel behemoths from World War II, not the ironclad battleships of the Imperial Navy.
You can’t say it’s ugly, but it’s not exactly beautiful.
To someone like Perfikot, who has appreciated the beauty of battleships in their most glorious days, these "ancient" things truly don’t hold much interest.
Moreover, the primary function of this type of warship is to knock out another ship of the same class; beyond that, they serve no purpose.
Of course, showcasing the Empire’s might is one use as well.
It might even be said to be their most important function besides combat.
In comparison, cruisers and frigates are far more useful.
At the very least, these high-speed warships can be used for patrols or various other tasks.
In fact, during peacetime, or even in wartime, the ships most commonly used by navies worldwide are these frigates and cruisers; they are the mainstay of fleets under normal circumstances.
Perfikot is currently hoping to have a cruiser at her disposal or a few frigates patrolling the coastline of the Northern Territory and the routes between the mainland and the Northern Territory.
The reason is none other than pirates.
It sounds ridiculous, but the reality is even more absurd.
Because these pirates were the remnants of the naval forces from the three-nation alliance from the old world, which declared war on the Empire and were annihilated.
When the three-nation alliance was obliterated overnight by Perfikot using a thermobaric bomb, wiping out hundreds of thousands of their land troops and their navy in one fell swoop, the three nations not only faced massive casualties and economic devastation from their capital cities being destroyed, but also had to contend with the severe consequences of their military power being almost completely wiped out.
They were defenseless before the Empire.
It wasn’t just the Empire; neighboring countries eagerly eyed the suddenly weakened three nations.
Fortunately, the Empire sent troops to occupy the three nations just in time to stabilize the situation.
The neighboring countries daring to covet the three nations did not dare to provoke the Empire, which possessed such a formidable weapon as the thermobaric bomb, since no one wanted their own capital erased from the map overnight.
For the three nations, this actually made little difference.
Being occupied by neighboring countries would be occupying them, just as being occupied by the Empire was an occupation, and perhaps being occupied by neighboring nations would have been slightly better, because this time the Empire’s goal was truly to drain them dry.
Because Perfikot convinced the entire Imperial Center during a council meeting, the Victor Empire implemented extremely strict occupation policies on the unconditional surrender of the three nations.
This included but was not limited to wealth looting, resource extraction, and the most inhumane labor force exploitation.
The looting of wealth and resource extraction is currently underway. Although the capitals of the three nations were destroyed, the entire countries remained undamaged by war, so they are still intact overall.
In fact, the materials the three nations stockpiled for war remained largely untouched, providing a windfall for Victor.
This naturally led Victor to commence large-scale resource extraction in the three nations, loading all sorts of important strategic resources and materials onto trains and ships, transporting them to the Empire’s mainland.
Together with them came shiploads of laborers.
Yes, the Empire began directly plundering the population, akin to the historical colonial exploitation.
These laborers, plundered by the Empire, would be poured into domestic factories, driving the industrial system of the Victor Empire into high gear alongside those resources.
However, they were not producing cheap industrial goods for dumping onto the three nations; they were producing everything Perfikot needed to develop the Northern Territory.
Perfikot has currently provided the Empire with the technology of the improved steam turbine, and while it has yet to be fully implemented at home, the production lines are being adjusted for large-scale production.
After all, the efficiency and power of steam turbines far exceed that of piston steam engines by more than just a small margin.
Although the Empire’s alchemists and engineers are considerably less inventive than Perfikot, if it’s merely about practical application of what Perfikot has already invented, they can accomplish it, and quite well at that.
However, this technology is still in its early stages, and there’s a way to go before widespread application, making the expansion of production capacity now a priority.
Aside from the steam turbine, technologies like Perfikot’s nitroglycerin explosives and new types of steel have received her approval and have begun entering practical use within the Empire’s mainland. It’s only been a short time, so the effects are not yet evident.
But at least nitroglycerin explosives have begun large-scale application in military and engineering construction sectors, and their demand for these items is insatiable.
The rapid influx of resources and labor from the three nations has indeed greatly alleviated their demand for these things.
Of course, the more significant part remains the Empire’s demand for Flying Airships, though the technology has been scaled down to the civilian market, it hasn’t been opened to foreign countries yet.
So the plundered laborers from the three nations haven’t been funneled into shipyards but allocated to related supply chain industries to produce necessary components.
The most labor-intensive task is, of course, the production of balloon envelopes, an inherently labor-intensive job that now, due to the Empire’s demand to expand production, naturally falls upon these plundered laborers to endure extra hardship.
In comparison, the steel industry is slightly better off, with Perfikot’s main procurement supplier still being Andrew. Although his steel company hasn’t monopolized the entire steel industry of the New Continent, it has already risen as a new strong player within the industry, and supplying Perfikot’s current needs isn’t a problem.
However, as Perfikot begins to require more, Andrew’s steel company struggles to meet supply.
This is partly due to technical issues and partly due to processing issues.
Though Andrew’s steel company possesses the most advanced smelting technology in the entire New Continent colonies, it still lags far behind the Empire’s mainland.
So, after Perfikot tested out the shield tunneling machine, she placed a new order with the Empire’s mainland instead of Andrew, unlike the first machine.
In fact, the parts Andrew provided at the time did not meet Perfikot’s requirements. However, since they had many alchemists, they could just directly apply alchemy on-site to make the necessary adjustments without having to redo everything.
After all, the special material requirements of the shield tunneling machine were limited beyond the cutting disc, and if it’s just about enhancing material properties, the alchemists were up to the task.
Other alchemists aren’t as powerful as Perfikot, but it doesn’t mean they can’t do anything.