Herald of Steel

The group crossed the heavy wooden door restricting access to the naval fort and were soon escorted inside.

The inside was quite spare, with only a few large wooden houses distributed across the entire space acting as lodging for the five hundred or so workers plus soldiers there, a few large wooden sheds that were used as carpentry workshops, and a small dock leading out to the sea that was used to build the vessels.

And as the two nobles looked around curiosity at these, Alexander gave some background of this place.

“After suffering the recent blockade, I felt an urgent need to build a navy as soon as possible. Or risk having all my trade plundered.”

“And so I had this abandoned hamlet be turned into a sort of shipbuilding yard.”

“It’s not a real shipyard yet as it’s very rudimentary. But for now, it is only being used built to new ship concepts.”

“And we have built three such boats to showcase our new designs.”

“And I hope to get the two esteemed lords’ opinion on them.”

Finished saying this with humility, Alexander turned to look expectantly at the two.

And Lady Inayah replied with a gentle smile, “Hehe, Lord Alexander is being too humble. I’m sure whatever you have come up with will impress us no doubt.”

“And although Adhania has never been a great naval power, we will try our best to give our thoughts.”

The mature lady was suddenly looking forward to seeing three new types of ships.

While Pasha Farzah was far more pessimistic, saying, “Brat, even if you can build a better trireme, do you think you will have the men with the expertise to use them?”

“Do you think expert oarsmen come floating out of the ocean?”

“And let me tell you beforehand, you won’t find any slaves with such skills either.”

“Because in battles these expert sailors will either drown or their host countries will buy them back even for large ransoms. ”

The experienced man did have a point there.

There was a reason why there were ‘countries with a strong navy culture’, who would be quite protective of their expert sailors.

Because it took generations of such people, each handing their life experiences to their successor to create a strong navy.

The reason for taking so long was they had to master a variety of techniques all of which were needed to effectively steer and command.

These included reading the wind patterns to adjust the sails and riggings optimally, navigating through the stars, predictably the weather based on the color of the sky or the type of clouds, able to feel the roughness of the waves to properly guide the ships, and even just understanding how much a ship would turn when the steering wheel was turned.

All things that took decades to master. 𝘰𝑣𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

This was one of the reasons England was able to dominate the seas even against other coalitions of European powers- because being an island nation they had generations of expert sailors who were able to better command the ships.

So in this respect, a good navy could be compared to a good cavalry, both taking many years to master and very much influenced by geography.

And since Adhania was a huge country, enabling it to be self-sufficient, it did not really trade with the outside world too much, with Lady Inayah’s family and Kuleef being the only two major powers engaged in international trade in the whole of Adhania before Alexander came.

Even Matrak mainly traded by land to Thesos or depended on Thesian ships for naval trade.

Hence, Adhania never bothered to develop a navy to speak of, as it did not need it to protect any maritime routes.

Which was as different as night and day for naval powers such as Cantagena and Sybarsis.

In the case of Cantagena for instance, they had built their whole society around the navy, with the strata of society one coming from dictating the position one could take when joining the armed forces.

The highest role- the captain was naturally always held by a noble, with him being responsible for the ship’s maintenance and operation, as well as conscription and recruitment, not only from Cantagena but other friendly Thesian city-states too.

Then there were the free, affluent men, usually land owners, who would be picked to be the phalangites, armed in the usual phalanx style, but given a smaller shield for better maneuverability on the close spaces, and a linen thorax instead of bronze cuirasses so that if one ever fell aboard, he would not instantly drown.

Further, these men, who mainly acted as the ship’s secondary weapon after the ramming, were equipped additionally armed along with grappling hooks for boarding enemy ships.

But usually, the primary task of these forces was defensive, as they were tasked with the protection of the oarsmen, arguably the most critical group of the crew.

And lastly, there were the oarsmen, who would be usually taken from the lowest strata of Cantagenan society, being peasants and fishermen.

Which was interesting given it was their skills which usually decided battles.

But whatever the reason for Cantagena’s choice was, no one would doubt their lethality in naval combat.

For example, in the hundreds of small and large skirmishes Adhania had fought against Cantagena, they were yet to win a single major engagement and had their navy mostly relegated to harassing actions in the rear to try and disrupt the enemy’s supply lines.

These historical precedents made Pasha Farzah quite skeptical of Alexander’s desire to field a strong navy.

But he also wished deep down to be proven wrong.

As he was having these thoughts, he noticed small a trireme dock near the shore and Alexander invited the two nobles to come to take a closer look.

“My lords, please let us look at this,” He said as he went forward, followed by the other two as he then introduced the ship,

“This trireme might look like any ordinary trireme out there, but it is in fact quite special. More specifically its joints are very special.”

“Because instead of using wooden pegs to lock in the mortise and tenor joints we here used thick high-quality steel!” Alexander revealed the secret, and claimed,

“So this trireme’s hull is now a few times stronger than anything out there.”

Alexander made this huge claim in a sort of flat, neutral tone, something that would sometimes irk Cambyses, but this time there was no shock from the two nobles who could hardly believe their ears.

The shock to the two nobles was certainly quite a lot.

“What! Are you saying the truth, Alexander!” Lady Inayah in her extreme surprise even forgot about the honorifics as she almost squealed in surprise and amazement, and even somewhat doubted Alexander.

Because if it really worked as he said, then she had no doubt that Adhania would be able to dominate both the land and sea of this world.

While Pasha Farzah was seen visibly shaking.

He knew switching from wood to iron had never been done before because mainly of cost, but that was not an issue with Alexander.

And so he found the technique completely viable.

“Are you sure? Does it work?” He hence hoarsely asked to confirm

To which Alexander only chuckled and said, “Haha, well seeing is believing. I have arranged for a combat demonstration. Let us wait and see.”

With this said, under Alexander’s directions, the small trireme was slowly towed a bit out to the sea by two other small boats, while the group moved to a raised platform along the shore to get a better view of the combat demonstrations.

And soon this demonstration commenced, as another trireme appeared a few distances away from the new ship and then sped towards the sides of the steel pegged ship at full speed, shortly before ramming it with maximum force.

The solid bronze ram crashed into the flank of the new ship mercilessly, causing large bits of pine and many splitters to fly out and making the small trireme groan and creak with pain as it swayed dangerously under the large impact.

But even under such huge forces, the ship still stood and sluggishly returned to an upright position after its oscillating sways slowly subsided.

And as the crowd waited with baited anticipation at this demonstration, they saw that there showed no signs of any water entering the ship, meaning only the outer part of the hull had been chipped, but the hull had not been penetrated.

Meaning this ship had accomplished the unimaginable task of surviving a type of attack no other vessel would be expected to live through.

Not at that speed and such a clean shot.

This was like being shot in the head by a desert eagle and surviving.

Maybe possible once in a million times, but the chances would certainly not be in one’s favor.

And hence the result astounded those present.

“Haha, brat you really are something to come with such an idea. Hahaha, great, great,” Pasha Farzah gave out a massive roar and laughed boisterously seeing this, even letting his head hang out into the air.

Alexander had rarely seen the old man so happy.

While Lady Inayah could only nod her head silently as she seemed to have lost her voice, only managing to form a huge smile that showed all her flawless pearly whites.

To say both of them were impressed would be a gross understatement.

And then remembering there were two other additional demonstrations, the duo could hardly keep still.