Chapter 20 – God of War

Chapter 20 God of War
Paul came to the parlor, only to see a middle-aged man sitting there in a fidgety manner.

“Standing before you is the possessor of the Arda Territory of the Northwest Bay, Lord Earl Paul Gleiman.” The servant leading the way said loudly to the man, and then turned to introduce himself softly to the Lord Earl, “My lord, he is the foundry artisan Marlowe, who has come in response to your summons.”

“Sir …… Sir.” Probably because he was more nervous, Marlow’s voice stuttered a little, he bowed not very sharply and asked, “I don’t know what you are looking for …… from me, I have always been law-abiding …… “

“Well, well, well, you are sought for a good cause, otherwise the place where we meet would be a prison cell. Are you better at casting bells?”

“Yes.” Seeing that the lord didn’t look like he was going to give himself a hard time, Marlowe’s breathed a sigh of relief and spoke sharply, “I cast the bell for the church in Lakewood a few years ago, uh …… if it hasn’t been replaced.”

“Very good, not to hide, that bell I also went to ring, in my layman’s point of view, I feel that the craftsmanship on the treatment is not bad, the wall is very smooth well.”

“Hehehe, your honor is flattered.”

Only to see the lord took out a piece of parchment and slowly unfolded it, “I need you to cast such a thing, are you able to complete it? What’s drawn on this is a cross-section, what it really looks like should be a tubular object, I’ll call it – artillery.”

Marlowe came over and looked at it closely.

This was a cross-section drawing of an early artillery gun that Paul had drawn according to the information he had seen in his previous life when he was browsing the posters, and had labeled it in terms of dimensions. The barrel was thin in the front and thick in the back, the length of the body tube was about 1 meter, the inner diameter was about 84 mm, there was a tail, lugs, and fire transmission holes, capable of firing a 4-pound solid iron or grape bullet, not to mention the difficulty of making it, in terms of structure alone, this kind of artillery was rather much simpler than a musket, as a pseudo-military fanatic, he didn’t dare to draw it indiscriminately, and engaged in a rather conservative design.

Marlow had never seen such a thing before, “I wonder what the adults made this thing called ‘artillery’ for?”

“Let’s not talk about that yet. I need a long term worker here, I’ll pay you 800 coins a month, and if you do a good job you’ll get a raise, are you willing to work for me for a long time?”

“Yes, yes!” Marlowe nodded his head repeatedly, like him this kind of artisan who specializes in casting, in the northwest region where the economy is not very developed, it is not often that he can get a job, sometimes he is even requisitioned by the lord in the name of corvée service without compensation, now there is a long term and stable meal ticket, and the wage offered is so high, only a fool would not agree to it.

“Good, here is a labor contract, the so-called contract, later you can just press your handprint. I’ll read it to you first.”

The content of the contract in addition to a few sentences on wages, the main thing is the content of confidentiality, such as not to disclose the content of the work to other people, not allowed to leave the workplace without permission, etc., a large number of confidentiality matters heard Marlow dizzy.

Malo or the first time encountered so “exquisite” Lord, I have not heard of the nobles let the commoners to do things still sign what contract. Although some of the provisions on the contract restricting his freedom made him a little bit unhappy, but he had no choice but to be treated too tempting, he did not even hesitate to press the handprint.

“Perfect!” Lord Earl was secretly pleased and immediately put away the contract, he thought that Marlow would still go back to consider for a few more days, but he didn’t expect to decide so quickly.

“If you do a good job, I promise I won’t treat you poorly. Oh! By the way, from now on you’ll stay in my territory, I’ll send someone to pick up your family for proper placement.”

“Let’s continue to talk about this artillery, since you’re staying and working for me, there are some things you’ll need to know sooner or later. You know about stone throwers and crossbows, right?”

“Knew.” Marlowe nodded.

“The artillery serves a similar purpose to them, except that I’ve replaced the launching object with an iron projectile called a ‘cannonball’. The projectile is placed in the inner tube of the cannon, and the bottom of the tube is stuffed with a substance called ‘gunpowder’, which explodes violently when ignited with fire through a small hole at the back of that tube, which then propels the projectile out. Can you follow my instructions?”

“I see, I see, Your Excellency is speaking in a very plain and easy to understand manner.”

“Cast some in bronze first, and try casting them in iron later.” According to Paul’s understanding, the ductility of bronze is better, the artillery that is built is more unlikely to blow up, even if it blows up, it will not cause catastrophic consequences, his hard work to train the new army is not used as cannon fodder, each soldier is his baby bumps, it can not be inexplicably because of his own family’s weapons to hang up.

“According to your experience, how much does it cost to cast a bronze cannon of this size in the picture?” “A cannon like this is estimated to require more than three hundred kilograms of bronze, and based on current prices, the cost would probably be around five hundred Aldorian silver coins or fifty Aldorian gold coins.”

Paul was shocked, why is it so expensive!!!! This is almost catching up with the pension of ten warriors, it’s true that the cannon is gold ah, by the way one hasn’t even asked Philip how much he spent on the development of firearms some time ago, at that time he just instructed the craftsmen to provide whatever they needed, hopefully it won’t give him any more flesh pains.

But now can only swollen face, people are recruited, and also anxious to use.

“How long will it take to cast a cannon like this?” He asked his main concern.

“Not having built this, I can only estimate, it will take at least a month.”

“This …… is also too long!!!”

Looking at the lord’s wide-eyed stare made Marlowe wrestle with whether or not to mention the concept of scrap rate to Paul again.

“Alright, one month is one month, I’ll arrange a group of apprentices for you, let them learn from you properly, and you can cast a few more doors in one batch. Definitely don’t have the idea of teaching an apprentice to starve the master, the more apprentices you teach, the higher the salary can be, and there will be additional rewards.”

“Yes yes, I will definitely do my best. It’s just that Lord Lord, why don’t you just use iron? If I use iron, I’m sure I can keep the price at about a quarter of bronze.”

“Alas – I don’t want to boast, it’s also because I’m kind-hearted and thinking of you artisans. As far as I know, iron is more brittle, and it wouldn’t be good in case of a blowout when the gunpowder is overloaded during the experiment.”

“What? A blowout??” Marlowe heard a word that seemed very dangerous.

“It’s when the explosion inside is so violent that it blows the barrel of the gun.”

Shit, you call that kind-hearted? Marlowe then realized that he had taken a job that could get him killed, “My lord, this …… this ……”, he began to speak incoherently again, ” I have an old man on top who needs support, and a young child underneath who is waiting to be fed, do you see …… do you see …… can you just manage the casting ah?”

“What are you afraid of, when you build a mound of earth, make the fuse a little longer, run to the back of the mound to light the fire is not safe! Forget it, just captured a batch of pirate prisoners, allocated to you a few, feel free to use them well.”

“Oh, okay.” Marlowe breathed a sigh of relief, “I was so out of it just now, I made you laugh.”

“The working principle of artillery is similar to another weapon called musket, this one has already been built, later I will send someone to lead you to the place where we specialize in making weapons, you have a good exchange with those craftsmen who make muskets, think carefully about the details of what to do next, I demand that the casting of artillery be started immediately.”

“Yes, Lord Lord.” Although he had promised, but all of a sudden becoming the artisan in charge of weapon manufacturing, Marlow was still a bit uncomfortable.

This was when the butler Philip walked in, “Earl, Father Anderson and his teacher Brother Leonard have come to visit, this Brother Leonard is the abbot of the North Shore Abbey.”

“Oh? Anderson is the one who cured me, right, the other one I have heard of, why did they come to the door. Let them come here, in addition arrange for this Master Marlowe to go to our training camp to participate in the development of new weapons, provide whatever he needs.”

Thanks to the data provided by “Red Left Handed Sword”, I modified the caliber of the artillery accordingly. I googled, it seems that there are two versions of the data, one says that the 4-pounders have an inner diameter of 84mm, and the other says that the 6-pounders have an inner diameter of 84mm. I can’t find any smaller data for the 4-pounders, so I’ll go by 84mm for now, please bear with me if I’m wrong.

(End of chapter)