Thousands of sparks

Chapter 87
Although no one was captured, Duchamp and his navy found something of intelligence value.

When two naval sergeants were cleaning up the bodies of Confederate soldiers in the wreckage, they found a thick "book" with a blackened appearance.According to Dusande and Duchamp's preliminary interpretation and understanding of the above content, this "book" should be the voyage record of this alliance scout ship named "Wentini III".

The voyage records of the alliance ships still follow the old rules of the empire, and the voyage records of each ship will be recorded by the captain himself-this is a major discovery.

Through the above voyage records, the Imperial Army was able to deduce the approximate location of the alliance's colonial star.Although the activities of celestial bodies in the universe are continuous, the coordinates a year ago will be difficult to be directly used for navigation and to lock the position of the alliance colony, but this is still very strategic and tactical data.

Compared with the stupid and persistent adherence to the "tradition" of the allies, the Imperial Navy is much smarter-after suffering two losses, the Imperial Navy requires all military ships to replace their ship logs every two weeks.And it is not allowed to mark the working conditions in the kindling room in the log.

This voyage record is of great significance to the empire, and Dusand didn't dare to delay, so he quickly called the red-clothed postman who was standing by to help identify the remains.

The seven destroyers made an emergency landing on the coast. Of course, the postmen in red had to come over to check on the situation.It's just that, as the well-known "one-liner" developed by Director Byrne, it's somewhat impolite to come directly to ask Dusande.After Dusande and Duchamp delivered the logbook with the blackened skin to the postmen in red, they pretended to be shocked and thanked.

Speaking of which, after so many years of fighting with the Empire, the allies still don't know how to adjust this most basic issue, which shows the rigidity of its internal operating system.

As an espionage officer who has received professional education, Du Sande's understanding of the alliance far exceeds that of his colleagues in the House of Commons.Occasionally, when he heard a congressman propose the idea of ​​"negotiating with the alliance to avoid war", Du Sande would not even laugh at the other party, but walked away silently, and then recorded the other party's words and deeds in the book, and the Heraldry Management Office to determine whether further intervention is required.

400 years of war is always going to be boring.This is normal.It is not that the empire has tried to contact the allies through various channels, trying to peacefully coexist with the alliance.

But the allies...they are not a target for peace talks.

The reason why the alliance is called "the alliance" is because they are not a unified country.From Dusand's perspective, this "alliance" seems to be more like a combination of city-states in ancient Greece.According to the information collected by the Heraldry Management Office, there are at least seven political entities within the alliance, and each has a division of labor in this system.

These political entities are intriguing with each other, almost wanting to tear each other alive.But there is one point where the entire coalition can quickly agree without saying a word.

They want to wipe out the empire once and for all.

In most cases, the empire's hostility towards the alliance came from their "ancestors", and the founders of the alliance who followed the rebel Salvador could be regarded as treasonous sinners anyway.As His Majesty's loyal subjects, it is not normal for the imperial people to have a hostile attitude toward their allies.

If not hostile, it is possible to be disloyal.

But the alliance's hostility towards the empire is... quite inexplicable.

Starting about 70 years ago, the captured Confederate soldiers gradually began to take on an inexplicable "sense of superiority".They are hostile to the officials and nobles of the empire, but sympathetic and even pity to the common people of the empire.

According to the intelligence collection of the Heraldry Management Office and the explanations of the prisoners of war, large-scale national education and political propaganda are being carried out within the alliance.In the field of public opinion in the alliance, the empire has been portrayed as a corrupt regime that survives by oppressing the common people.

Although Du Sande felt that the problem with the description of the alliance was not too big, but the more he looked at the information, the more chills he felt behind his back.

The Confederates have determined through "scientific research" that after hundreds of years of independent development and expansion, the Confederates have clearly differentiated themselves from the Imperials.This difference determines that the Confederates are far more advanced than the Imperials.As a more advanced race, the alliance has the obligation and the responsibility to make the empire "progress together".

In order for the light of civilization to shine on the backward, ignorant, barbarian and decadent imperial lands, means of war are necessary.The entire empire must be destroyed through violence, so that with the gradual supervision and "help" of the alliance, the civilians of the empire can abandon their backward characteristics and gradually become advanced allies.

In order to implement this kind of creepy "great love", the alliance's conscription work in recent decades has been extremely smooth.Group after group of young allies who firmly believe that they have a lofty mission step into the battlefield against the Empire with weapons in hand.

They have only one purpose, to kill every imperial soldier, nobleman and official they can see.

Well, there is no basis for negotiation at all among the allies.Unless the empire completely wipes out the other side and wakes up these damned racists.Or the empire is completely wiped out, and all imperial people are reduced to "purification objects" in the eyes of the allies.Otherwise, there is no possibility of this war stopping at all.

To be honest, Dusand himself certainly hoped to be able to negotiate peace with the alliance.The war lasted for more than 400 years, and the life of the imperial people was worsening day by day.In order to maintain the war, the empire has to collect an additional 10% high war tax from each colonial hall every year, and issue a large amount of war debt.

If the two sides can coexist peacefully, Dusand is confident that within a generation, universal compulsory education will be completely rolled out in Newsail.A generation later, Newsail could produce hundreds of thousands of well-educated high-level industrial workers, engineers and scientists.On the other hand, the 42 colonial planets can produce millions or even tens of millions of such high-level talents.

Such a high-level talent, even if sent to the army as artillery, can accurately send every shell to the enemy's position.Of course, this is the most wasteful use of talent.

If they can enter the empire's military industry, heavy industry, and other industries closely related to war, Dusand even feels that the empire can completely flatten the alliance within ten years.

But Du Sande did not have such a foundation and environment.The bills and resources that the House of Commons can enact are limited, and there are a host of demands and "interests" that must be balanced.

Even her mother has her own thoughts, and Dusande still doesn't understand why Androni has to forcibly push through the bill to improve the treatment of miners, and she doesn't understand why the two satellites are completely bound to the colony.

This will only further strain an already jittery mining complex.

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Today is a rare day for the Dusand family to see "all members are present".During dinner, the baron's family unexpectedly showed up at the table on time.The only thing that wasn't quite right was that Duchamp, Dusande, and Androni all looked dead tired.

The kind that has no energy at all.

Lorraine, who was invited to dine together, carefully looked at the atmosphere on the table, and wisely decided to keep silent.However, Polina didn't care about these details at all. She directly dragged Dusand and began to report on her work.

Half of the work report of Great Technician Polina was yelling about some specific parameters that Lorraine still couldn't understand, and the other half was complaining that Du Sande was not interested in the work of Belford Automobile Manufacturing Company recently.

"When can you go and see that... armored vehicle?" Under the prompting of Dusande's eyes, the maids kept putting beef and lamb chops on Polina's plate, but they still couldn't stop the The mouth of a great technician who has developed a body of strong muscles and an unexpected appetite at work.After she swallowed the steak in her mouth, she said to Dusand, "We have produced three versions of the tracked movement mechanism you mentioned, but the effect is not very good."

"Before that, we need a more reliable engine." Dusand said with a sigh, "How is the development of the new engine going?"

"The calorific value of the oil extracted after distillation and stratification is good, and its flammability is also very good." Now, it was Polina's turn to have a headache, "But... the compression ignition point of this kind of thing is too high. The existing The component is probably not strong enough."

In order to develop an internal combustion engine that can be put into use, at least two conditions must be met.

Materials and structural designs capable of compression-igniting diesel fuel, or electrical ignition devices capable of igniting a mixture of gasoline and air within a cylinder.

The front-end technology tree required for electric ignition equipment must reach at least the level of electromagnetic induction, and now Dusand has no chance to find a magnet by winding a coil, and then demonstrate the great usefulness of cutting the magnetic induction line.

The torque of the gasoline engine is not very good, it is better to go straight to the diesel.

"There are still two roads to be guaranteed now. New internal combustion engines must continue to be developed, but the improvement of gas engines cannot be stopped." Dusande thought for a while and suggested, "The one you mentioned earlier was 'enlarge the size of a single cylinder and manufacture a low-speed internal combustion engine. ’ is a good idea, maybe we can work harder in this direction.”

Androni first smiled and chatted with Lorraine about her recent study problems, and expressed her blessing for Lorraine's application for the preparatory course of Olin Empire University. Then, she asked the sullen Duchamp, "Why? You look very unhappy today?"

"Because it's too bad luck." Duchamp shook his head sullenly, and then roughly described the actions of the garrison navy today—of course, out of the principle of confidentiality, he said that there was an accident during the "exercise".

The destroyer, which was supposed to be performing piracy combat missions with other destroyers, "fired out".

This is not a common saying, but a technical term in the Imperial Navy-the sudden "annealing" of the Ipsilon mine in the fire room, which is what they call "flame out".

Epsilonite is still a mineral in nature, and there is a certain amount of stress inside this crystal-like mineral.During use, repeated heating and instant cooling will increase the stress inside the Ypsilon mine.

Some Ipsilon mines have natural cracks or other flaws that are difficult to see with the naked eye.Under the stress of repeated heating, such flaws are likely to cause the entire processed Ypsilon ore to break instantly.

This is a very serious operational accident, and it may even tear an imperial warship apart in an instant.Fortunately, the personnel on duty in the tinder room on that destroyer handled it decisively and quickly.After they found that the Ypsilon mine in the ignition chamber was damaged, they immediately heated all the ores with the maximum firepower according to the manual, and after evacuating to the ignition chamber, they opened the ejection valve.

Propelled by jets of two hundred pounds of explosives and more than six hundred pounds of high-pressure steam, the entire tinder chamber was quickly thrown out of the hull.About two quarters of an hour later, a disorderly teleportation began—the tinder chamber jumped dozens of times in a very short period of time, and was finally directly teleported to the sixth planet of Newsail.

The destroyer struggled to return to port with the help of a spare tinder chamber, and will continue to receive repairs for the next six months.

The reason for Duchamp's frustration was as simple as this-he failed to figure out the intention of the alliance, and at the same time his fleet would be short of a destroyer for the next six months.

Androni and Dusand spoke together to comfort Duchamp, and after a while, the atmosphere became a little more relaxed.

"Ma'am." The young butler John Boulder appeared in the dining room. He approached Androni and whispered to her, "Mr. Marquis' motorcade appeared at the gate of the manor."

Androni glanced at John in surprise, and then asked, "No letter?"

"No." John shook his head, and then said, "There is a message, Mr. Marquis said that there is an emergency and I need to talk to you..." He turned to look at Dusande with a tired face and said, "We will discuss with Mr. Lord face to face."

hehe~
(End of this chapter)