Visit

Preparations for the military exercise would take some time, but the "Free Trade" was currently idle, so why not send it on a friendly visit to a target country? Napoleon gave the order, and the French Foreign Ministry contacted Britain, proposing that, to enhance mutual understanding and deepen friendship and trust, each navy send a warship to the other for a friendly visit. The France also stated that they would send the "Free Trade" as an "envoy of friendship" to Britain. Friendly Britain citizens would be able to board the "Free Trade" and learn about the various details of the France warship under the guidance of relevant personnel. Some lucky spectators would even have the opportunity to personally simulate operating certain equipment.

When Prime Minister Addington learned of the France proposal from the Foreign Office, he was quite surprised. He immediately summoned the First Lord of the Navy and the Foreign Secretary to discuss it. They all agreed that the France had come to demonstrate.

"So we don't agree to them coming?" Prime Minister Addington asked.

"That won't do. That would make us look cowardly," the First Minister of the Navy immediately objected. "Besides, they're bringing the 'Free Trade,' and we do indeed unusually want to learn more about this ship."

"Is there anything special about this ship?" the Prime Minister asked.

"This is a steam-powered frigate. Although it's called a frigate, it's actually a large ship the size of a second-class battleship. It's just that it's equipped with relatively few cannons. Not long ago, this ship engaged in two battles with the United States Navy in the Caribbean. It captured, sank, and severely damaged one United States warship each, almost causing the United States to lose half of their navy in one fell swoop."

"Hahaha, those rebels, their entire navy only has six warships." Prime Minister Addington laughed gleefully. But noticing that the First Lord of the Navy wasn't joining in the laughter, he asked, "What, a second-class battleship—though they call it a frigate—taking out three frigates, isn't that quite normal?"

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, it is like this: the three United States frigates are also warships close to the size of second-class battleships. In a sense, they are like the France 'Free Trade' —special warships that sacrificed some firepower to increase speed. The greater role of these warships is not for battlefront combat, but for attacking shipping lanes. Our warships can defeat them, but most of them cannot outrun them; those that can outrun them, they cannot defeat them."

Based on our observation of the second battle between the 'Free Trade' and the United States, none of our warships could outrun the 'Free Trade,' and the 'Free Trade' could sail all the way to the Caribbean with excellent endurance."

"Is even our recently developed propeller-driven steamship inferior to it?"

"I'm afraid so, Your Excellency. Our propellers are experiencing a sharp drop in efficiency and violent vibrations when spinning at high speeds, and this problem has not yet been fully resolved. Therefore, at least for now, our ships have not yet reached the speed of the Free Trade '."

Furthermore, according to our descriptions of the Free Trade's second engagement, besides its speed, two other aspects of the Free Trade surprised us. One was its firepower. The Free Trade didn't have many cannons, only nine on each side. However, in actual combat, we observed that the number of shells fired per unit time was almost comparable to that of a third-rate battleship. You know, if a ship can reach a speed of 15 knots, and 15 knots without wind support, and also has such firepower—that's simply terrifying. If the reports are true, then the entire navy, including the Victory, currently has no warship that can defeat the Free Trade in combat."

"Not even the 'Victory'?"

"Yes, Prime Minister. Because of their speed advantage, they can easily seize the T-position. This makes it difficult for the 'Victory' to fully utilize its firepower advantage."

"Ah, I roughly understand. The first surprising thing you mentioned about that ship was the rate of fire of its cannons? So what's the other one?"

"It was its defense. Our men observed that the two sides were exchanging fire at very close range, but the United States cannons never managed to penetrate the 'Free Trade's' hull. All the shells bounced off the 'Free Trade's' hull. Later, according to information we received from the United States, they even suspected that the 'Free Trade' was a real iron-hulled ship."

"So you want to take this opportunity to go and see that ship?"

"Yes, Prime Minister."

"Alright then, I have no objection. In any case, we can't show weakness to the France, can we? But then, which ship should we send to visit France?"

Although the final decision on which ship to send still requires careful consideration, since the France dared to show the Britain their most advanced warships, how could the Britain be so cowardly as to not even dare to look? Moreover, the France media had already begun to promote this matter.

The English edition of * Science Truth Daily * first broke the news, and in its usual style of making the story as significant as possible with a short story, it only used two lines on the front page to report the news, "The French Navy's steam-powered cruiser 'Free Trade' will make a friendly visit to London on May 10. The general public is welcome to board and tour the ship."

The news was placed on the front page, but without any further explanation, which actually made it easier to attract readers' attention. Of course, that alone wasn't enough. Then, The London Merchant published an article saying that the visit of the Free Trade was a sign of the ever-increasing strategic mutual trust between Britain and France, and that this friendly visit would further enhance mutual understanding and thus consolidate the hard-won peace and friendship between the two countries.

However, at this time, most of the major Britain newspapers had not yet joined in. At most, they simply reprinted the relevant news without offering further comment. Some tabloids did report on the matter, but the basic content could be summarized in one sentence: the Royal Navy was full of martial spirit, while the French Navy was utterly incompetent.

The reports in these Britain tabloids seemed to displease the France, so the Sun (English edition) gave a comprehensive introduction to this epoch-making France warship, including its propulsion system and its various astonishing capabilities... Basically, although the Sun didn't explicitly say so, everyone could see its subtext was. "This ship could easily defeat any warship in the Royal Navy in a one-on-one fight."

Of course, the exaggerated reporting in * the Sun * infuriated many Britain. Consequently, numerous Britain tabloids retaliated, mocking the * the Sun' s unreliable boasts—such as the use of revolutionary technology that increased the rate of fire of cannons four or five times, giving the Free Trade, with only nine cannons on each side, firepower comparable to a battleship—all blatant exaggeration.

As for increasing the rate of fire of artillery by four or five times, consider that the original rate of fire of French Navy cannons was already more than half that of the Britain, plus their cannons were inherently smaller—110mm caliber, which, converted to more common pounds, is only about 12 pounds. A 12-pound cannon? They dare to mount it on a warship? Look at the level of cannons on our Britain warships!

Overall, while there was some noise, the volume wasn't too high. At least, the larger, more influential media outlets didn't join in. Although some of them had their own special news channels and knew some of the situation, they didn't want to jump out now and be proven wrong by reality a few days later. Generally speaking, people in this era are still relatively honest. Although people lie, cheat, and steal, they're at least not too embarrassed to publicly call it a glory of continuous progress. They certainly wouldn't make jokes like saying one day that no one would die, and then immediately turning around and saying that if fewer than 100,000 people died, it meant I was incredibly capable.

Of course, ultimately, this isn't because people in this era were more moral. It's because the poor of this era lacked education. Education has two functions: one is to make people reasonable; the other is to make people even dumber than those who are uneducated. In terms of the second purpose, the education of this era was too different from that of later generations, so a beautiful new world could not be built in this era.

As for the major newspapers that didn't get the news through special channels, they remained silent because they felt it was beneath their dignity to argue with tabloids, and also inconsistent with the elegant demeanor of the United Kingdom.

The Britain are very confident in their navy, and one manifestation of this confidence is that they don't care much about criticism and are generous in praising others' strengths. In their eyes, any merit or progress you make is just like a primary school student getting a perfect score. "Hmm, little one, you're so smart, great job! Here, uncle will give you a lollipop."

However, if he suddenly discovered that the other person didn't get a perfect score on an elementary school exam, but rather at a higher-level university, his emotions would likely be quite different. It's like when Red Hare Kingdom was far behind the Lighthouse Country, with its GDP less than half that of California, the Lighthouse Country had a much better opinion of the Red Hare Kingdom; but once Red Hare Kingdom's GDP caught up with the Lighthouse Country's, the situation completely changed, and the giant panda instantly became a dragon.

On May 10, the Free Trade docked at the Port of Port of London.