C1511 Andreevs Dream (1/2)
Andreev's entire body was drenched from head to toe from the baskets carrying Zhiyuan Warship. The splashing seawater and the damp morning mist drenched his military uniform and leather robes.
What made his heart even colder was not only the sea breeze, but also this incomparably huge steel ship full of power. Under his feet was the teak wood floor, and all that he could see was steel, decks, cannons, main cannons, masts … Even the fences that protected sailors from falling into the sea were made of steel.
Humans were born with a natural adoration for iron and steel, and this was the genetic code that was imprinted in their souls. When the primitive tribes with wooden clubs and stone axes first encountered the civilized cities with bronze short swords and spears, they had the dreamy feeling of seeing a god.
When the barbarians charged towards the ancient empires, the forest made of armor made of steel, together with the invincible blade edge of steel, meant that the boundary between civilization and savagery would be covered by this one inch of cold light.
With regards to metals, especially steel, the sense of power that humans were infatuated with had become a type of gene after thousands of years of settling down.
Andreev clearly remembered that he was different from Vadim. Vadim had ridden from Central Asia to the Far East, while Andreev had arrived in China by boat in Europe.
He remembered very clearly that the whole Baltic Sea was filled with Sail battleship. The soldiers were already worthy of cheering when they encountered a cruiser with a double cannon emplacement. However, when they arrived at the English Channel and saw the British Empire's three layers of battleships pressing down on them like a mountain, Andreev almost suffocated.
A sense of power, he had a feeling of power, at that moment, he truly felt that the British Empire was undefeatable.
That memory had followed him all the way to the present, then to East Asia, where he had watched the Qing Empire, Nanyang, Korea, and Japan's ridiculous old wooden ships, and felt a sense of European superiority. At the time, he had really thought that coming to the Far East was civilization liberating savagery, and he had no sense of aggressor.
But today, a familiar feeling came over him once again. The heavy feeling did not come from the British Empire's battleship at sea, but from this Zhiyuan Warship of the Chinese.
No matter how much information Andreev had regarding this legendary battleship, he obviously knew about the legends of the Zhiyuan Warship traversing the Atlantic and South America continents. However, he had always thought that those were just legends.
Of course, the Chinese did not think that it was a bluff, but a strategy instead. But in the hearts of soldiers like Andreev, any deceptive tactics were always shameful, only power was real.
Until the Zhiyuan Warship threw himself into the battle of the Haishenwai, when that heavy cannonball exploded in the city, it was actually exploding the weak pride of the Sand Russian Army.
They never would have thought that the Zhiyuan Warship's fighting strength was strong to the point where it was not a legend but a fact.
But today, after Andreev personally ascended to the position of the world's number one pure Steel battleship, his three views were turned upside down once again. Steel was everywhere, and the heavy pressure of the field made him and the surrounding civilians breathless.
The Gatling s that were fixed to the battleship rotated with their figures. The marines behind the 57 mm Hutchison rapid fire gun were busy maintaining their equipment, the soldiers that were running around completely disregarded these Grandma Liu who had entered the Grand View Garden. All they had in their minds was this war and the mission they had just been assigned.