Herald of Steel

“So, where is the next ship?” As the fate of the second ship was decided, Pasha Farzah was eager to see the next one.

But only got a nervous chuckle from Alexander.

This was because the third one had been a fully concrete tub boat, and Alexander had initially wanted to show it off as a miniature version of what his ships would ultimately look like.

But since even the cement and wood ship was too heavy to maneuver quickly, he felt that that was not even worth showcasing.

“I’ve been told that ship has had some problems. So maybe next time,” Alexander made up the lame excuse, and then quickly diverted the topic.

“Now, as for the reason why I wanted to show you these ships.”

“What I need the most are some experienced shipwrights to help with the construction of the ships. And some good sailors to man them.”

Zanzan had neither of these and so Alexander hoped to turn to them to procure some.

And was instantly replied back by Lady Inayah.

“Okay. I will lend you a thousand workers and sailors.” The noble lady did not even blink an eye as she readily agreed to this massive amount.

The reason for which was revealed in the immediate question that followed, “So how fast can you make these ships?”

‘These ships’ naturally referred to the large cargo ships and it seemed that Lady Inayah could not wait to get her hands on them.

“That….this is a brand new type of ship. So I can let you know only once the shipwrights get a look and give me a timeline.” Alexander gave the reasonable answer, before slyly adding,

“Also I’m a bit short on workers. So the more workers I have ……” Alexander did not need to spill it out as Lady Inayah immediately flashed her palms and readily said,

“I will get you another thousand more. Will that be enough?”

It appeared the merchant lady was really eager for her new ships.

“Hahaha, yes, yes, much obliged.” Alexander heartily chuckled as having got these extra hands.

The regular time for building a trireme was 6000 man-days, and so with so many workers, Alexander was confident in being able to produce these ships quite quickly, provided his cement supply could keep up.

While Alexander and Lady Inayah celebrated the creation of their new ships, Pasha Farzah, who was listening in from the sides, seemed to be in a far more pessimistic, or one should say realistic mood.

“Brat, how are you gonna field a navy? You don’t have the men or the expertise.”

“That….for now, I want to just protect my shorelines. And more specifically my capital.”

“As for the trade routes, I will leave the merchants to defend them themselves.”

Alexander was currently too weak to do both and hence the compromise.

Hearing the immediate task Alexander wanted his navy to do, Pasha Farzah ruminated for a while and then suddenly proposed, “Hmm…if your job is to just defend, then perhaps even these new ships can be useful.”

This was a complete u-turn on what he had said just a while ago, and sensing the two curious gazes, the old man quickly explained,

“What I mean to say is that you can park these heavier, better-armored ships near the shore and let the enemy ram you.”

“And then, if you can make the ships large enough and you can fit a lot of soldiers in there, then even if the enemy boards you, your outnumbering soldiers can kill them.”

This seemed like a viable tactic, and though the flaws in it were obvious- the most glaring one being that it was up to the enemy to decide whether they would engage or not, leaving Alexander with no initiative, there were still merits to the plan.

“Yes, that might work. But we can discuss that in length in the coming days,” So he said he would talk more about it later.

And then quickly added, “As the men…well I was hoping you would lend me some like Lady Inayah here.”

Alexander had noticed Pasha Farzah was yet to offer him any assistance.

But here, the man, in a completely opposite fashion to Lady Inayah, instantly rejected him,

“Don’t come to me looking to borrow men.”

“I never bothered to have a navy because half my ports freeze during winter and the other half have some half have kind of natural disasters happening to them all the time of the year.”

“So the only one with any kind of navy experience in Adhania is Inayah’s family and Djose.”

The reality was that Pasha Farzah’s own fiefdom traded with ships only in the summer months from March to September, while his entire province only had a few ports at the southern edge of his province at were operational all year around and those were all in the territory of his retainers.

So the old man never bothered to develop a navy beyond a few patrol boats which he had converted from large fishing trawlers and relied mostly on wall cities to defend against naval invasions while using internal land trading routes to supply those cities in case of a blockade.

Thus though the old man had some theoretical knowledge about the navy based on the tactics of naval combat he read in books, but he lacked any real combat experience. ｂ𝚍𝚘𝚟ｌ.ｎｔ

Neither did he have any experienced personnel to share with Alexander.

This revelation was quite a surprise for Alexander who had assumed very much otherwise given the man traded a lot with Thesos, who in general were a sea-faring ethnicity, and plus when he had first met the man in Adhan, he had also arrived via ship to first Agnirat and then marched to the capital.

So Alexander thought he possed a large navy to protect his trade routes.

But it seemed that those were really all Lady Inayah’s ships.

Hearing this dismal condition of Pasha Farzah’s navy, from the side, Lady Inayah could not help but lament its sorry state, “Lord Farxah, I have repeatedly urged you to build a navy. But all you do is leach of mine.”

“If you had led by example then Adhania would have had a strong army and navy.”

But was instantly rebuked by the old man by this, “Bah! What do I look like? Made of money?”

“The army already costs me an arm and a leg. With a navy, I will become a pauper.”

Navies naturally cost a lot of money.

Ships needed to be built which required expensive materials and expert craftsmen, sails had to be woven, ropes manufactured, and tons of bronze bought for the ram.

These then had to be regularly maintained as wooden ships rotted and worms bore into them, sails tore and had to be patched, and ropes replaced.

Then there were the sailors needed to man them, who all had to be paid quite a higher price than the peasant soldiers, and lastly were the regular drills needed to keep their skills sharp.

All these cost a lot of money.

And as Adhania was a country with a massive landmass, meaning all nobles had to keep an army to protect their fiefdom, there was simply no coin left in the purse to also field a navy for most of them.

But as Lady Inayah would point out, this apparently was not a problem for Pasha Farzah.

“*Sigh*, your treasury is overflowing with so much gold that you had to build a second one. Why not build a navy with it instead?” She pointed incisively.

As a person with the spirit of a merchant, Lady Inayah was one of the rare nobles who would rather always invest her earnings than store them inside her treasury to gather dust, something Alexander would certainly appreciate.

But the old-fashioned man simply brushed this suggestion off.

“Hah! Why bother? I can ship all my goods by land if I want to. So building a navy now will be just like dumping gold into the ocean at this point.”

And then he spread out his palms and in a resigned tone to point out,

“And besides, we are already so behind the other powers at shipbuilding by this point that it will take us decades to catch up.”

“So it’s better to concentrate on our army instead.”

“That is our strong point and we should stick to it.”

“Rather than wasting money on things we aren’t.”

“Because there are some things some nations are naturally good at, such as Cantagena is good at sailing and we are good at cavalry.”

Pasha Farzah was the epitome of the conservative noble, who felt it was always best to play it safe.

While Lady Inayah hearing this droning talk she had heard a million times before vented,

“Last time, I saw an eight-row trireme from Exolas. The captain of the ship called it a octreme.”

“And even said Cantagena was already using a ten-row trireme called decareme.”

“And here were are using a three-row trireme.”

“Can you really allow our great country Adhania to fall so behind?”

Lady Inayah pleaded.

But Pasha Farzah only reiterated his previous point, “Yes, they made have advancement in ships.”

“And here we have made advancement in the cavalry. The stirrups Alexander invented will revolutionize cavalry warfare”

“Like I said, some nations are better at some things than others.”

It seemed the old man was adamant here, thinking that in winning the civil war, the role of a strong navy was minimal

So it seemed for now Alexander had only Lady Inayah to help with his navy.