Chapter 286: Anti-Piracy Operations (2/2)

The Doge began to curse under his breath as he heard this

”Useless fucking pirates! What the hell am I paying them for!?! Go on, spit it out!”

Not willing to waste a second, the Captain immediately reported what he and his crew had witnessed and the overwhelming destructive power of a single frigate used by the Austrian Navy. After a lengthy discussion, the Captain was dismissed, leaving the Head Admiral and the Doge with grim expressions as they stood in silence by themselves.

They had a hard time believing the Captain's reports and had even questioned the man's sanity as he told the horrific tale of the Pirates' untimely demise. Ultimately the Doge posed a question to the Admiral.

”Do you think he was telling the truth?”

The Admiral scratched his chin for a bit before sighing

”I believe that he believes that he was telling the truth...”

The Doge looked at the Admiral with a questioning gaze as he heard this and asked for clarification.

”meaning?”

After careful consideration, the Admiral laid out what he believed to be a more likely scenario.

”What the Captain says is too unrealistic. Even with the alleged industrial prowess of Austria, to make ten ships, each armed with dozens of cannons, that is capable of firing projectiles that explode upon impact is unlikely.

I mean, I have heard reports of his army using such technology, but this is mostly from second-hand information and is probably just a propaganda tactic the Austrians are using to mislead us about their actual military capabilities.

I don't doubt that the Pirate ships were destroyed, but by a single vessel with a single bombardment? Preposterous! Unless I can personally witness such a thing, I refuse to believe in such a fantasy.

No, I think it is far more likely that the Austrians have constructed a new kind of vessel capable of having cannons on the broadside, and all ten of the ships opened fire on the three pirate vessels simultaneously.

At most, they have five cannons on each side, which is not something we need to worry about; after all, we planned for unexpected circumstances such as this, and we are producing a new warship every day.

Assuming Bernegar isn't foolish enough to attack us, we will have our thousand ships in under three years. By then, it does not matter how many of these ships the Austrians have; they will be outnumbered!”

After hearing this estimation, the Doge began to calm down and think about the circumstances more rationally. The Admiral was right; such firepower on a vessel was not just outrageous; it was downright otherworldly.

Unless Berengar had received divine inspiration from the Lord Almighty himself, there was no way he could design such monstrous vessels. As such, the valuable intelligence that the Captain reported was disregarded as the rantings of a coward.

Little did the Venetian Admiralty realize that every word the Captain had spoken was complete and utter truth because the Doge and Head Admiral had disregarded the Captains testimony, they would be in for a world of hurt the day they were unfortunate enough to enter a war with Austria, and the Tyrant of Steel.

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