The sky is blue and the clouds are light, and the waves are blue for miles.

The knights of the Northern County were invited to an observation deck hidden in the mountains.

Looking toward the northeast sea from the mountain, you can clearly see the boundless blue sea.

"Gentlemen, I will demonstrate the power of the new warships in these waters."

Rosen said so, and under the curious gazes of the knights, he said to Harry beside him: "Lieutenant Colonel, let the Banshee Queen come over."

The Banshee Queen is the second high-speed battleship, which has many improvements over the first Sturgeon, among which there are two biggest improvements.

First, it was equipped with artillery.

Secondly, in addition to the Lightning Storm Rune, additional Pure Water Shield Rune Array, Mind Immunity Rune Array and Storm Calm Rune Array were added, which greatly increased the defense capabilities of the hull and crew.

Due to the rapid expansion of the navy, Master Khalifa was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

He had already prepared everything and immediately issued detailed execution orders to the telegraph signalmen.

The knights immediately discovered the telegraph box.

They were the Earl's agents, and were men of first-rate intelligence in their own counties.

As soon as we saw the telegraph box, we all felt it was very strange.

Sir Humphrey wanted to ask for details directly, but at this moment, the Banshee Queen arrived.

In the northern waters, a pointed warship with a light blue paint job was slowly approaching.

After the second wave of improvements, the size of the battleship remained basically unchanged, 50 meters in length, slightly increased in width to 8 meters, and the height of the surface deck to 10 meters.

Because of the addition of a large amount of heavy combat equipment, the ship's full load displacement has exceeded 2,800 tons.

The reason why it is heavy and large in size is of course on the one hand, but also because the average density of the hull material is much greater than that of wood, and a large number of heavy metal parts such as artillery, metal ammunition, hybrid power core, etc. have been added.

If it was a wooden sailing warship of the same size, it would not exceed 1,000 tons when empty, and 2,000 tons when fully loaded. As soon as the warship appeared, it immediately attracted the attention of all the knights.

The Jazz immediately noticed a lot that was wrong.

"Where's the sail? Why is there no sail?"

"Hey~ It's actually running against the wind! And it's running pretty fast!"

"Why is this boat so narrow? It's narrow and long, and it has a pointed toe?"

"Shouldn't a battleship have a round nose?"

"What are those rows of windows on both sides of the ship used for? I seem to see a bunch of dark holes."

Lieutenant Colonel Harry immediately stepped forward to explain the basic situation to each of the knights.

"Dear distinguished gentlemen, this is the Black Stone Flame Gunboat independently developed by our White Sturgeon Island. The force that pushes it forward is no longer the uncontrollable sea breeze, but the fiercely burning black stone."

Upon hearing this, Sir Humphrey, who had been staying in Dawn City for many years, frowned.

"I heard that the naval powers of the Wit Continent are all trying to build black stone warships. They use a high-temperature pure water magic tool called the 'Rune Steam Engine', which can provide extremely powerful force and push warships weighing tens of thousands of tons at a very fast speed."

"Is it the same with the Baron?"

Rosen nodded vaguely: "My warship has some minor innovations, but the principles are not much different. They all draw power from the Black Stone."

Sir Humphrey nodded as if he understood, and then asked: "It is indeed good to burn black stone to gain strength, and it can get rid of the heavy sails, but how fast can it run?"

Rosen immediately winked at Harry and said, "Major, let the knights see the speed of the Banshee Queen."

Harry knew what was going on and immediately passed down the order: "Go forward at medium speed, 27 kilometers per hour."

It is about 15 knots, and the fastest speed of a sailing warship in strong winds is about 12 knots, so this ship speed has exceeded all sailing warships.

Following the order, the Banshee Queen slowly increased its speed.

The pointed bow began to cut the waves slightly, and conical waves spread out to both sides of the hull. The Banshee Queen's momentum became somewhat shocking.

“Such a big ship can go so fast!”

"It's really fast, but this is against the wind!"

"As expected of a new-style Black Stone warship, it feels like a beast on the sea."

Listening to these praises, Lieutenant Colonel Harry on the side laughed in his heart: "What a bunch of ignorant country bumpkins~"

The maximum speed of this boat is 45 kilometers per hour. Now it can only be said to be a simple warm-up. It would be really wild if it reached the maximum speed.

Sir Humphrey looked at it carefully for a while, then asked, "Baron, are the new flame and thunder magic weapons installed in the windows on both sides?"

"Yes, they are the Flame and Thunder weapons. We on the White Sturgeon Island call them cannons."

"Cannon? That sounds easy to pronounce."

Among the ten knights, Sir Humphrey's knowledge was obviously far superior to the others, even Sir Robert from Shireshire could not compare to him.

Of course, the most knowledgeable person in Shire County is not Sir Robert, but the Earl's sister, Lady Agnet, a master of magic.

"Can you show us the power of the artillery?" asked Sir Humphrey.

Rosen nodded: "Of course, this is the focus of this battleship demonstration, and we will show you the great power of this new weapon!"

In order to make the Earl stand firmly with the White Sturgeon Island, it is natural to demonstrate strong strength, so this time, Rosen made a big move.

He nodded to Lieutenant Colonel Harry, who immediately issued orders according to the pre-arranged action plan.

"Banshee Queen, enter the designated sea area and attack the designated target ship."

Following the order, the Banshee Queen on the sea began to adjust its direction of travel. At the same time, the Murloc Killer boat on the sea quickly followed to maintain order on the sea to prevent irrelevant people from entering the dangerous waters.

Sir Humphrey had been observing closely and found that the ships on the sea cooperated very well, as if there was an invisible collective will.

He couldn't help but ask, "Baron, is every ship equipped with a telepathic mage?"

Mental magic is very subtle, and the difficulty of practicing it is a bit high. It is normal to equip large warships with it, but it would be quite a luxury to equip small boats with it as well.

What puzzled him even more was that he did not see the figure of the communication mage.

Rosen smiled: "It's not a communication wizard, but a lightning messenger invented by our island. Yes, it's the big black box over there."

Lightning Messenger was another brand new thing that startled the northern knights.

Sir Humphrey said, "Is it better than telepathy?"

"It's much more useful. If you need it, I will give you a lightning messenger for free to achieve real-time communication between the White Sturgeon Island and the earls."

Hearing this, the knights were even more surprised.

"Will this work? The Black Sea County where I am located is more than 600 kilometers away from the White Sturgeon Island!"

"Yeah, and is this thing reliable?"

Rosen smiled and said, "I will introduce the performance of the Lightning Messenger to you later, but for now, let's continue to look at the battleship."

The Banshee Queen is basically in place, and its target ship is a simulated ironclad battleship built on an island reef one thousand meters away.

Although it was a simulated battleship, it still took a lot of effort and cost 5,000 Oggs to build. The hull was 70 meters long.

From a distance, it looks almost exactly the same as the current mainstream ironclad battleships.

On the other hand, Sir Humphrey felt that the White Sturgeon Island seemed to have a large number of new magical achievements. He was very curious, but since the battleship was already in place, he could only draw his attention back to the battleship.

Rosen began the introduction again.

"The battleship is equipped with smoothbore rear-mounted guns that use explosive spherical shells. There are 32 guns in total."

“There are currently two specifications.”

"The two large guns in the front are the main guns with a caliber of 12 centimeters and a charge of 5 kilograms of explosives. The maximum range is over 2 kilometers. There are 15 auxiliary guns on each side, with a caliber of 10 centimeters and a charge of 3.5 kilograms of explosives. The maximum range is 1.5 kilometers."

These data are quite professional. The Jazz didn't understand them at all, but they all felt they were very powerful and real.

Sir Humphrey listened carefully, and when he caught a word he did not understand, he asked, "Exploding spherical bomb, what does that mean?"

Rosen explained intuitively: "The essence of a cannon is a powerful throwing weapon. Its function is to throw an iron ball to hit the opponent."

"We call this iron ball a cannonball."

"Oh~~ Where's Explosion?"

"Explosion means that there is a certain amount of gunpowder inside the iron ball. The moment it hits the target, the gunpowder inside will be ignited and turn into a huge fireball with extremely powerful explosion."

The gunpowder in the explosive bomb was newly developed by Bell Laboratories. It has a power similar to that of order explosives and is even safer.

So how to achieve safe and stable excitation?

Bell brilliantly divided the excitation process into two steps.

The first step is to install a special rune ring at the exit of the barrel. When the shell passes through the barrel, it will inevitably pass through the rune ring, completing the first step of excitation of the gunpowder and putting it into a collision excitation state.

Thus, the safety of the shells is ensured while giving them enormous explosive power.

After a pause, Rosen concluded: "The power of the throwing technique and the blasting technique are both amazing, so the power of the shells is also amazing."

At this time, the Banshee Queen had completely reached the predetermined position, the ship was swung sideways, and the muzzles of its 15 side guns were all aimed at the target one kilometer away.

Lieutenant Commander Harry received the captain's request: "Lord, the Banshee Queen requests attack authorization."

"Wait a moment."

Rosen raised his hand and signaled, "Please be careful, gentlemen. The noise will be quite loud. Don't get scared."

The jazzmen were a little nonchalant. The distance was two kilometers, so how loud could the noise be?

Some people even questioned it.

"It's a bit far from the target ship. Can we reach it?"

"This target ship looks very solid, and real warships will activate pure water shields, which are the best defense against fire spells. At such a long distance, what can we do even if we can reach it?"

Lieutenant Colonel Harry on the side immediately explained: "Sir, please look carefully at the target ship. We not only wrapped a layer of iron sheets on the surface of the wood, but also activated the pure water shield, and the shield strength is as high as five rings!"

After hearing this, all the knights squinted their eyes and observed with Eagle Vision.

As expected, it was discovered that the surface of the target ship was covered with a thick layer of water light. Considering the Ocean Heart Necklace that the Baron had previously given to it, the claim of a five-ring pure water shield was still credible.

Sir Humphrey observed more carefully and confirmed directly: "It is indeed a very sturdy target ship. Its defense should be no less than that of all the mainstream ironclad warships currently."

Now that everyone was ready, Rosen ordered the artillery to fire.

Ten seconds later, the Banshee Queen began to roar.

15 flanking artillery pieces fired in sequence.

“Boom boom boom~~~”

The sound was like thunder shaking the sea, and flames burst out from one side of the ship like a giant palm dispelling the clouds. The target ship in the distance was instantly covered by flames and thick smoke.

Countless seagulls on the beach flew away in panic, and birds in the mountains and forests also soared up from far to near, as if disturbed by an invisible terrible force.

Just as the knights were puzzled, the shock waves of the artillery arrived! Everyone felt their bodies shaken by the violent sound waves, not only their internal organs were impacted, but they even had the illusion of being unstable.

It was like being violently shaken by the hand of a giant.

The jazzmen couldn't help but gasp, with shock evident on their faces.

"What a huge noise! ​​It's really the Fiery Thunder!"

"With such a big commotion, the power must be extraordinary!"

"Look at the target ship~Look at the target ship~~"

The wind was strong at sea, and the thick smoke from the gunpowder explosion was quickly blown away, revealing the true appearance of the target ship.

The ironclad warship, which had been so solid and majestic the moment before, was now hit so hard that it was almost broken into two pieces.

The solid iron armor defense and five-ring pure water shield had almost no defensive effect.

All the knights were stunned. They looked at each other and there was silence for a long while before someone spoke.

"The power of this attack must have reached the sixth ring, right?"

"That must be the sixth ring. After all, the sixth ring is the pinnacle of power."

Sir Humphrey also followed the old idea and asked: "Baron, the strength of this magic weapon is at the peak of the sixth ring, right?"

Rosen smiled and nodded: "Almost the same. Not only is the intensity high, but the scale of the spell is also extremely large, resulting in the absolute power of the spell being very astonishing."

"So far, no mortal has been able to withstand the artillery bombardment head-on, even if they are prepared in advance."

Lieutenant Colonel Harry wanted to laugh when he heard the lord's answer, but he didn't dare to laugh out loud.

"Lord, this is really funny, hehe~~"

But he is also right, no one can take it head-on.

These days, he has been testing the power of this new magic weapon.

The more he tested it, the more he felt the terrifying power of this artillery.

He now felt that even if he was a god, he would probably die on the spot if he was hit.

But Rosen's very conservative answer has already shocked the Jazz so much that they feel their worldview is about to be overturned.

Because of the law of focus without destruction, spell strength is the most difficult attribute to break through. Now it has reached the extreme of six rings, which is enough to easily tear apart the spell defenses of all sailing warships in the world.

Although the number of warships on the White Sturgeon Island is still relatively small, with only five ships, these ships are fast, powerful, and can hit so far, making them the nemesis of sailing warships.

But after all, the number is still a little small.

Although it brought great confidence to the knights, they were still a little worried.

Sir Humphrey asked: "Baron, five ships, are they really enough?"

He immediately added: "The fleet heading north this time is the First Storm Fleet, which has assembled 20 warships, three of which are Storm Battleships with a tonnage of over 1,000 tons."

The Storm Ship is the largest ship of Weilan, with an empty displacement of 1,200 tons. Below it are the 800-ton Wind Ship and the 500-ton Wave Ship.

Chenxi City only had three fleets in total, and one third of its forces came at once. They attached great importance to the White Sturgeon Island.

Rosen naturally knew the news. He observed the faces of the knights and found that the knights from the poor counties had firm expressions, and it was obvious that they had made up their minds to follow. However, the knights from the rich counties, such as Mountain County and Shire County, still had hesitations on their faces.

Since the northern counties are generally poor, most of the knights have been convinced by the new warships.

Then the purpose of this exhibition has been achieved.

So he smiled and said: "In addition to the warships, we have also formulated detailed tactics and are confident that we can defeat the Storm Fleet at sea."

After saying this, he looked at the knights of the Northern County.

"The problem is that once the island-wide lords' meeting is held, the Duke will definitely declare the Northern County a rebellion and send troops to suppress it."

"So, does the Northern County have the confidence to defeat the Duke's army on land?"

Upon hearing this, the jazz subconsciously wanted to say yes, but when the words came to their lips, they couldn't utter them in the end.

Because of guilty conscience.

Although in history the northern counties' armies were indeed very capable and often defeated the southern counties' armies, as the times changed, the northern counties became poorer and the southern counties became richer.

When a place is poor, the army's equipment and training will be poor. Of course, the army training in the Southern County is also poor, but that can't stop them from having good equipment.

Occasionally, conflicts would occur between counties, especially between the north and the south, where minor frictions would occur frequently.

But the Northern County clearly felt that it was gradually losing the advantage over the Southern County.

If you can't win on the battlefield, you naturally can't be tough.

Rosen had expected the silence of the lords.

Because the Island Intelligence Bureau had already figured out the details of the Twenty-Five Counties of Weilan.

In fact, Rosen understood their power even better than the earls of the counties, and saw the rise and fall of power between the North and the South at a higher level.

Weilan is a huge island with mostly plains in the south and many mountains in the north.

The economy in the plains is good, but it is difficult to defend. The economy in the mountains is difficult, but it is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Also, due to historical reasons, the two sides in the south have long been dissatisfied with each other, so there is a vague dividing line between the forces.

But as the South becomes more prosperous and populous, and with the large amount of high-end magical equipment supported by Aaron, this power dividing line is gradually moving northward.

If there is no interference, the Northern County will sooner or later be completely swallowed up by the Southern County, and the giant island of Weilan will completely become Aaron's puppet.

But the Northern County is Rosen's current base, and the earls are currently the strongest force in the Northern County.

So he had to cover for the earls.

Of course, he is just a backup. He will not let Northern County collapse, nor will he let Northern County kill people everywhere.

Because what he wanted was the entire giant island of Weilan, not just the Northern County.

Facing the silence of the knights, Rosen said loudly: "Dear brave gentlemen, we in the North have no shortage of brave warriors, but we lack powerful weapons and equipment."

This has been a long-standing fact, and all the knights nodded.

Rosen raised his hand and took the Lightning Torrent Crossbow handed to him by Lieutenant Colonel Harry, walked to the edge of the observation deck on the top of the mountain, pulled the trigger at the distant air, and fired continuously left and right.

'Swoosh~swoosh~swoosh~swoosh~'

A torrent of lightning gushed out, and the continuous lightning illuminated the eyes of every northern knight.

The terrifying flash of lightning lasted for a full minute before it stopped. Then Rosen held the steaming lightning crossbow in one hand and turned to look at the knights of the Northern County.

"The Lightning Torrent Crossbow can fire 300 intermediate lightning balls per minute, with a range of 400 meters. It is a new weapon on the battlefield, and only costs 1,500 Oggs."

"Want a batch, sirs?!"

(End of this chapter)