Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 207: Ironclad Launch

When the public learned through various channels that Carlo was about to organize a bullfighting competition in the new year, they immediately burst into cheering, with some Spaniards who loved bullfighting becoming particularly excited.

Spaniards’ love for bullfighting activities is beyond doubt; during the bullfighting season from March to October, almost every bullfighting performance is packed to capacity.

Someone once commented on Spaniards’ love for bullfighting activities: “Spaniards can be late for any event, but not for bullfighting competitions.”

This statement is not an exaggeration, especially in several southern regions of Spain, such as the Andalusian region.

As the region with the largest Spanish population, the Andalusian region has the most bullfighting arenas in Spain and the most fanatical crowds who love bullfighting.

Generally, excellent bullfighters can receive rewards of the bull’s ear and bull’s tail, and in the bullfighting arenas of the Andalusian region, bullfighters favored by the audience can not only take a lap around the arena but also pass through the bullfighting arena’s “Prince’s Gate” amid the audience’s enthusiastic cheering and witnessing.

Although such rewards attract bullfighters from all over Spain, obtaining the qualification to pass through the “Prince’s Gate” is not that easy.

A bullfighting activity features three bullfighters and six bulls, with each bullfighter having two bullfighting opportunities.

To obtain the qualification to pass through the “Prince’s Gate,” a bullfighter must win the audience’s favor in two bullfighting performances, securing at least three bull’s ears and one bull’s tail to have a chance of passing through the “Prince’s Gate.”

Admittedly, bullfighting activities carry great dangers. The reason Spaniards adore bullfighters is that they dare to charge head-on despite facing enormous risks during the bullfighting process. The bulls used in bullfighting venues are purebred wild bulls, generally selected from North Africa—fierce adult healthy bulls.

Because their irritable temper and combative nature are not due to artificial training, these bulls are extremely dangerous, making bullfighting activities ones with extremely high casualty rates.

It can be anticipated that as Carlo promotes bullfighting activities across Spain, the number of Spaniards dying in bullfighting activities each year will grow at an extremely rapid rate, reaching hundreds or even thousands in a short time.

But these drawbacks are acceptable to Carlo, as bullfighting activities can also bring more benefits to Spain.

Setting aside external factors like weapons and equipment, the combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army is not bad among great power nations and is still stronger than that of Russia and Italy.

With the influence of the martial attributes that bullfighting activities bring to Spaniards, Carlo is confident in forming a Spanish Army with top-tier combat effectiveness in Europe, or even the very best.

In a situation where the population is not as large as other European powers, all Spain can do is maximize the army’s combat effectiveness as much as possible to barely compete with other great power nations.

As November approached, Spain received another piece of good news: the Revival-class ironclad Revival was about to be launched.

This news also attracted the attention and cheering of Spaniards, causing a sensation across Spain in a short time.

Spain did not conceal the construction of this ironclad; the Ministry of Defense publicly announced the warship procurement plan, and it was openly built by the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard.

The reason for complete publicity was precisely to arouse the attention of the Spanish people and enhance their sense of pride.

Originally, according to the construction timeline given by the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, the Revival ironclad had hope of completing construction work in the summer and launching to begin the sea trial phase.

But subsequently, the Ministry of Defense ordered nearly 20 other small and medium-sized warships, putting all three dockyards of the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard into production status, naturally delaying the construction of the Revival ironclad by a few months.

The good news is that, thanks to the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard’s rush work, two 3000-ton cruisers will also launch and begin testing alongside the Revival ironclad.

With three warships launching simultaneously, and this being Spain’s first ironclad launch in many years, Carlo was definitely going to personally participate in the launch ceremony.

On the day of the launch ceremony, parts of the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard were open to the public, surrounded by curious Spanish people.

When the public saw with their own eyes the colossal object in the distance being pushed into the ocean, Spaniards could no longer hold back the hot tears in their eyes and cheered loudly in celebration.

The Revival ironclad’s standard displacement reached an astonishing 8600 tons, placing it in the first tier among ironclads currently built by European countries.

For comparison, the British Magnificent-class ironclad built in the same period had a displacement of only 9644 tons, which already proves that the Revival-class ironclad’s tonnage ranks among the top in the current rankings of various countries’ ironclads.

More importantly, the Revival-class ironclad is equipped with four 12-inch 305 mm steel naval guns loaded from the breech. Although the gun caliber is not as large as the 318 mm naval guns mastered by the British, the advantage is that they are breech-loading guns, with rate of fire and shooting distance far superior to muzzle-loaders.

Although the British Magnificent-class ironclad has 1000 tons more displacement than Spain’s Revival-class ironclad, its main guns are only two 11-inch front-loading rifled guns, lagging behind Spain’s Revival-class ironclad in firepower.

Overall, the combat effectiveness of the Revival-class ironclad absolutely belongs to the first tier among active ironclads of European countries. This is also the result achieved after Carlo vigorously supported Spain’s existing shipbuilding system and obtained some technology and information from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Compared to this ironclad with over 8600 tons displacement, the two nearby cruisers with only over 3000 tons displacement seemed somewhat mini.

However, having seen the main course of the Revival ironclad, the public naturally would not disdain the two side dishes beside it.

After these three warships were launched, Spain’s naval strength was thoroughly stabilized in the world’s top five. Although only fifth, with no chance of competing for fourth, it is at least in the top five.

More importantly, this is just the first ironclad built by Spain in a decade. When Spain builds more ironclads in the future, will its naval strength still only remain at the world’s fifth level?

What the public was most concerned about and anticipated was naturally this question.

At the launch ceremony of the three warships, Carlo did not act too high-profile to avoid arousing the British’ wariness.

Spain developing the army does not scare the British, but if Spain turns its gaze to navy development, the British will have the worries they should.

After all, plainly speaking, the British world hegemon status is entirely maintained by the navy. What they fear most is challenges from the sea, which would affect the British Empire’s power and status.

The main conflicts among current European powers are the Germany-France conflict, Britain-France conflict, Britain-Russia conflict, and Russia-Austria conflict—these four major conflicts.

But why did it ultimately evolve into Britain-France-Russia versus Germany-Austria? The fundamental reason is that Germany’s naval development threatened Britain’s status, leading the British to choose the lesser of two evils and cooperate with the less threatening French to defeat the Germans.

Of course, the British purpose is not so simple; what they want more is to solve both the Germany and France heartaches in one war, ensuring no country on the European Continent can threaten their status.

The final outcome is also clear: Germany was ultimately defeated under the siege of Britain and France, while the French also suffered huge casualties, leading to France’s poor performance in World War II.

France’s surrender in World War II cannot be blamed on the French; after all, France had already borne too many casualties in World War I. The time between World War I and World War II was only over 20 years, and when World War II broke out, many French who experienced World War I were still alive, and they certainly did not want to go through another large-scale war like World War I.

Although Spain does not plan to be high-profile in naval expansion, navy development in the coming years still requires building a few ironclads.

First, Spain’s economy has gradually improved and can support the Spanish Navy in possessing more ironclads. Second, with the expansion of Spanish colonies, Spain indeed needs a more powerful fleet to protect its colonies.

As mentioned before, although Spain has the world’s fifth navy, most warships are sailing warships, products already outdated.

Just like pre-dreadnoughts encountering dreadnoughts, sailing warships encountering ironclads are like eggs hitting stones.

The huge gap brought by technology is one that sailing warships cannot compensate for no matter how hard they try, which also makes Spain’s status as a naval power somewhat inflated.

Although Carlo has no intention of maintaining a large-scale navy, taking advantage of these years when Spain’s economic development is relatively rapid, it is still very necessary to replace some warships with new-type warships powered by steam turbines.

The speeds of sailing warships and ironclads are completely incomparable; one uses wind for power, the other uses steam turbines.

Ironclads can even complete ocean voyages without sails, something previous sailing warships completely lacked.

Spain’s colonies are spread across the globe, with colonies in America, Africa, and Asia. In such a situation, some warships with ocean-going capabilities are very necessary and can help Spain better stabilize its colonies.

If relying on those sailing warships, by the time they arrive at distant colonies, the colonial rebellions would probably have already ended.

With this idea in mind, after attending the launch ceremony of the Revival-class ironclad, Carlo immediately notified the other members of the Spanish Defense Committee to hold a new round of defense meeting at the Madrid Royal Palace.

The Spanish Defense Committee is an organization established by Carlo after pacifying the workers’ parade. In addition to electing the Minister of Defense during cabinet changes, it is also Spain’s highest conference organization for military affairs.

The purpose of Carlo convening the Spanish Defense Committee meeting is very simple: to discuss Spain’s naval expansion plan and thoroughly stabilize the Spanish Navy’s status in the world’s fifth position.

The participants in the Spanish Defense Committee meeting are fixed: just Carlo, the Minister of Defense, the Prime Minister, the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defense, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Guard—these seven people.

Because Grand Duke Serrano, as Cabinet Prime Minister, also serves as Minister of Defense, there were actually only six people participating in the meeting.

The fewer people at the meeting, the less debate; everyone had no objections to Spain’s naval expansion, not even the Commander-in-Chief of the Army.

The main reason is still the current relatively peaceful environment limiting the growth of the Spanish Army. The Spanish Royal Army currently has a total of 136,000 men, which is already quite a number.

Adding the Guard’s 15,000 men, Spain’s total army numbers have exceeded 150,000, with overall combat effectiveness second only to the five great powers.

In such a situation, the army is hard to expand further. Unless facing a war crisis, all the army can do is strive for more equipment budget, allowing soldiers to train boldly without worrying about bullet consumption.

In fact, the current Spanish Royal Army is really not stingy in training. Excluding the 46,000 colonial army, the Royal Army still has over 90,000 men.

In the military expenses expenditure announced annually by the Ministry of Defense, the training costs for these 90,000 soldiers take up the largest portion.

Do not underestimate soldiers’ training costs. Suppose each soldier conducts target practice twice a week, consuming 10 bullets each time, then one soldier consumes up to 20 bullets per week.

Spain has 90,000 Royal Army soldiers, which means if the Spanish Army follows this target practice proportion, the weekly bullet consumption exceeds 8 million rounds.

8 million rounds a week means over 7 million rounds a month. At this rate, the bullets used by Spanish soldiers just for target practice consume over 100 million rounds annually.

Although actual training is certainly not this simple, it is enough to prove how enormous the daily training expenditure of the Spanish Army is.

Fortunately, after years of expansion and production, the Royal Arsenal’s output of weapons and equipment, ammunition, and cannonballs has increased several times or even dozens of times.

Especially since the army has fully equipped new rifles, the Royal Arsenal only needs to keep one rifle production line to cover daily rifle wear and tear; the remaining lines can be used for overtime production of bullets.

Although it cannot fully meet the training needs of Spanish soldiers—after all, the colonial army also consumes bullets, and the Guard’s 15,000 soldiers are not included.

But the good news is that 70% of the bullets consumed in army training come from domestic production in Spain, with only 30% from imports.

This is also thanks to Spain’s rifle being an improvement on the Italian rifle; both can use the same bullet.

This allows Spain to purchase the same model of rifle ammunition from Italy, solving the trouble of bullet demand caused by army training.