Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 210: Chapter 153: Warship Design and Acquisition Plan

While other countries were plagued by economic crises, Spain was bustling with major construction projects.

Under Prime Minister Prim’s orders, the Spanish Government acted swiftly, formulating detailed plans for the grand construction in just a few days and allocating funds for implementation.

Among the priorities of the Spanish Government were the development of road traffic and the renovation of slums.

Unlike the UK, France, and Germany, Spain does not have vast expanses of plains; most of its land is mountainous and hilly.

Building highways in such terrain is much more difficult than in plain areas, which is why Spain’s transportation infrastructure has lagged behind the major European powers like the UK, France, and Germany.

Taking advantage of the economic crisis, the Spanish Government planned to invest over 50 million Pesseta to extensively build a highway network nationwide, linking various regions and key cities in Spain.

The government conducted a detailed division of the existing road system within Spain, separating it into four-lane national highways, two-lane regional highways, and town roads with dual-lane traffic.

The connections between regions and key cities are naturally the broadest, with four-lane national highways. Since cars have not yet been invented, the demand for road width is relatively low.

In future times, even four-lane highways could not meet the traffic needs of an urban area. But in this era, a four-lane highway was already considered quite broad for Spain, sufficient to meet the traffic needs for the next 30 years.

During these 30 years, the Spanish Government would surely continue to expand the transportation system further, possibly even building wider six-lane highways.

Not long ago, Benz reported a piece of good news to Carlo. They successfully developed a four-stroke gas engine and are working on engines using other fuels as energy.

Although the birth of an engine does not signify the birth of a car, the two are closely related. With a four-stroke engine, it is already possible to create a relatively simple car for experimentation.

However, to solve the stability and power-related issues of the engine, Benz and the others needed to conduct more research and improve the current engine model.

To manufacture cars and put them into commercial use, considerations for the safety and economic practicality of the cars must also be taken into account.

In short, this is not a problem that can be completely solved in a short time. In at least the next ten years, even if cars are invented, they will only be luxury transportation affordable to the wealthy.

Nonetheless, considering the numerous Spanish nobility, if cars could be developed earlier, these nobles alone could provide significant sales volumes.

Moreover, cars offer clear benefits in improving the traffic environment. Journeys that take several hours by carriage could be completed in less than an hour by car.

Horses defecate randomly, causing additional environmental damage, but cars, aside from exhaust emissions, pose much less environmental harm.

Exhaust emissions are not a concern for Spain right now. Developing cars sooner and improving the current traffic environment with them is the most important thing.

If cars were available, material transportation and personnel movement would be much easier. Armies in Madrid could reach various cities and villages more conveniently via the highways, further strengthening the government’s control over different regions.

Under such circumstances, it would become extremely difficult for the Catalonia and Basque regions to stir up any trouble.

The results of engine research were certainly gratifying, but compared to the blueprints submitted to Carlo by the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard, they seemed less significant.

Indeed, after over half a year of design and discussion, the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard finally came up with a warship design that satisfied all experts.

This warship design was submitted to Carlo’s office, accompanied by fairly detailed parameters and design concepts.

Just by looking at the design parameters of this warship, Carlo was generally satisfied.

Although the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard did not fully achieve Carlo’s demand for the world’s most advanced ironclad with higher speed, stronger firepower, and superior armor protection, this does not mean that the design lags behind other countries.

The Royal Guanizuo Shipyard had been dormant for over 20 years, but some of the shipyard’s experts were still well-versed in the warship designs of countries around the world.

After Carlo’s orders, the design experts at the shipyard put all their knowledge into designing an ironclad that would satisfy Carlo and win more opportunities for the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard.

This ironclad design could be said to encompass the strengths of many nations. Although, at first glance, it seemed like a patchwork, resembling the British ironclads in overall appearance, it also embodied new concepts in Spanish warship design.

Firstly, the ship’s power, which Carlo was most concerned about. The warship was expected to adopt the currently advanced reciprocating expansion steam engine as its power source, equipped with two steam engines capable of outputting over 6,000 horsepower at maximum.

This power output capability, while not the top tier, ranked as excellent among the ironclad designs worldwide.

In terms of the warship’s firepower, this new ironclad would adopt breech-loading 12-inch 305mm steel cannons throughout, making it one of the first warships to use breech-loading cannons.