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  Chapter 206: A frightened bird

  While Tyrion was waiting for trial by combat, Jack and Daenerys returned to Sea King's Island on their dragons.

The North has been basically stabilized, Moat Cailin has been almost repaired, the port is under the control of the Unsullied, and there is an Iron Fleet stationed there, so there is no need for Jack to stay in the North all the time.

There are mainly two things to do when returning to Neptune Island. One is to come back to see the two children, Alexander and Elizabeth.

Second, Jack is preparing to take action against Qarth.

Now that the situation in Westeros has stabilized a little, we just need to wait for Tywin's death and then provoke a war between the House of Lion and the House of Rose, thereby allowing the North to recover its vitality.

So during this time, I can do something else.

What's more, Atlantis has now formed three fleets.

Each fleet consists of one giant battleship, nine large battleships, sixty medium battleships and one hundred and forty small and medium-sized fast battleships, in addition to an indefinite number of supply ships.

Currently, the First Fleet is stationed in the Seychelles and the Second Fleet is stationed in the Free Trade Bay.

The newly formed Third Fleet has been docked at Longya Island, training all day long, but has never seen blood.

In fact, the First Fleet and the Second Fleet had basically no experience in naval battles.

But since they need to garrison Neptune Island and the Free Trade Bay, this opportunity is given to the Third Fleet.

Each fleet of Atlantis was fully staffed with 210 warships and a total of 7,800 people.

The giant battleship carried a large amount of supplies.

Next are nine large warships, each of which is equipped with crossbows and catapults.

The soldiers on large warships are all archers, and the main task of large warships is to protect the giant warships and the surrounding supply ships.

In the Palace of Neptune, Jack sat on the throne, and below him were officials from various departments.

The Minister of the Imperial Research Department first reported: "Your Majesty, there has been a breakthrough in the research of gunpowder. We found that as long as the powder made from the dried petroleum fish is added to the gunpowder, the situation you originally envisioned can be achieved."

Jack's face lit up with joy. He had started experimenting with gunpowder a long time ago, but the progress had not been smooth.

Unexpectedly, it was the oil fish that solved the problem of releasing gunpowder energy in the end.

He was originally ready to give up gunpowder and look for other alternatives, such as solid wildfire.

Jack was in a good mood. He simply waved his hand and gave the research department an additional 1.5 million gold royals in research funds.

However, the research results of the Scientific Research Department are far more than these. The Scientific Research Department is divided into many laboratories.

Steam engine, printing, papermaking, hydraulic forging, etc.

In addition to these, many technologies have emerged from the three cities of the Free Trade Coast.

A woman invented a weaving machine that was sixteen times more efficient than manual weaving.

This woman was also smart. She chose to trust the authorities and quickly registered the patent with them.

He also borrowed three thousand gold royals from a branch of the Imperial Bank and opened a textile factory.

This woman is just a microcosm. In the era of rapid economic development, even pigs can take off, but as long as you seize the opportunity, you can definitely become rich.

Time passed slowly, and Jack listened carefully to everyone's reports.

The most valuable of these was the progress made by the Ministry of Agriculture. He had originally set aside a No. 1 grain breeding base on the edge of Neptune City.

The original purpose of establishing the No. 1 grain seed breeding base was to prevent Atlantis from being strangled by food issues in the early stages.

Later, this crisis was gradually resolved and the area became a grain-producing base.

Jack knew very well that food was the lifeblood of an empire at all times, as it had been in the past and would be in the future.

The latest achievement of the No. 1 two-breeding base is Barley No. 3, which has a high resistance to natural disasters and a good yield.

Jack didn't expect that this group of farmers who had just begun to understand genetics could actually breed grain varieties with significantly increased yields.

Whether it is luck or something else, it is a success and a valuable experience.

Now Atlantis not only has income from the imperial factories, but also taxes from the free trade coast.

Of these incomes, 20% is saved for emergencies, and the remaining 80% is basically invested in scientific research and national defense.

At present, it seems that the money was not wasted, and now Atlantis' technology is ahead of other forces in Westeros and Essos.

The next step is to expand outward, occupy more territory, and accumulate more funds to accelerate the development of the empire.

After everyone finished reporting their work, Jack made a brief summary and the next deployment, and then started to get down to business.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the land in the Seychelles and the Free Trade Bay is already saturated. We need more land to build factories and grow food."

Everyone was stunned when they heard this. Are they preparing to expand?

Especially the people from the Ministry of Defense, they looked at Jack with shining eyes, and occasionally glanced at the group of stingy people in the Ministry of Finance.

Jack originally established a political framework based on six departments.

But later on, he felt uncomfortable calling them Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of War, and Ministry of Rites.

They simply changed their names to more prominent names such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry of Defense is responsible for managing the empire's navy, army and air force, but Atlantis currently only has a navy and an army.

Even at the current rate of development, the air force is estimated to appear at least a hundred years later.

This time is already very fast. If it weren't for the ideas provided by Jack, it would probably take at least another 800 years for airplanes to appear with the current technology in the world.

This is even the normal development situation. Without outside intervention, Jack estimates that the world may be trapped in the Middle Ages forever.

"Where are you planning to attack, Your Majesty?

At present, the entire Free Trade City of Essos is very wary of us.

If we attack a city-state without any reason, I am afraid we will face a one-on-one battle with Essos."

The speaker was Sorge, the original leader of Triton. Triton was the first army formed by Jack and the first formal army other than the Unsullied.

After the Ministry of National Defense was established, he joined it and served as minister.

The Minister of Defense is nominated directly by the Emperor of the Sea and has command and management authority over the military.

However, the right to transfer military personnel is the responsibility of the Political Assistance Committee composed of the Poseidon Party.

Since Sorge was appointed as Minister of Defense by Jack, he was certainly not a good-for-nothing.

He had a clear grasp of the situation.

Ever since Poseidon, the god of the sea, landed in Volantis and destroyed most of the city, all the city-states in Essos have been hostile to Atlantis.

After they received confirmation from Volantis that Atlantis had some means to drive the deep-sea monsters.

They began to develop various weapons against giant creatures, the most common of which was an enlarged version of the crossbow.

At the same time, the rulers of major city-states began to consciously spread the word that Atlantis was worshiping a certain evil god so that the people under their rule would resist Atlantis.

Sometimes, the rulers of the major city-states seemed to see the shadow of Valyria.

Moreover, Atlantis can not only drive deep-sea monsters, but also control dragons.

Now the major city-states of Essos are like frightened birds.

Once Atlantis attacked a city-state without warning, they would quickly unite to deal with Atlantis without hesitation.

After finally enjoying a few years of self-governance, how could they willingly go back to being people's dogs?

(End of this chapter)