Chapter 27 Artillery demonstration
Chapter 27 Artillery Demonstration
“Honorable Lord Earl Paul Greiman, we are deeply sorry for your father’s death, and we had no choice but to fight at that time ……”
“Port Fullan will remain your domain, but we would offer our loyalty to you if you would grant us her as a place to live ……”
“We will offer you half of what we collect each quarter, and we guarantee that you will receive much more money than you have ever received in taxes before ……”
This was a letter sent by the Sharks gang that was entrenched in Port Fullan, and Paul had it read to the crowd at the meeting.
After reading the letter, the people in the hall were all angry and happy, this gang of pirates is really delusional, even dreaming of cracking the land and cutting off the territory, especially in the case of Alda’s army occupies the absolute advantage.
Paul took the letter and tore it to pieces with force, “It’s simply a slip of the tongue.”
Not to mention that the pirates after the great defeat are not qualified to call his bluff, on the basis of killing his father’s vengeance this one thing, Paul could not possibly let them go, otherwise how can he still mix after the rumor is spread.
“My lord, the two fully loaded infantry battalions have been trained, please order the troops to recapture the port of Fulan and completely eliminate this group of pirates.” Bryce spoke the wish of most of the officers.
The Count, however, did not agree, “There is no hurry, they have long been locusts in the fall and will not be able to hop around for a few days. Let’s test the newly developed firearms first, if it works well, our army will be like a tiger with wings, it’s just the right time to take this group of ungrateful pirates to test the knife. “
The crowd listened with great curiosity, the muskets and grenades had already been an eye-opener, I wonder what new and strange things this little earl has come up with.
At this time, the Count can be said to be full of energy, in the Lord’s castle near the construction of the paper workshop after day and night attack, made paper can finally be used, and summarized a set of feasible process, Ford chief with the first batch of manufactured paper in the Northwest Bay region of the world to promote, and finally opened up some of the sales road.
Nobles and merchants found that this new paper is really inexpensive, as long as the cost of a few dollars can buy a large iteration, used to write and draw, communication and bookkeeping is not a pain in the ass, can be compared to those dead expensive expensive parchment much better.
Another big buyer of paper is the monasteries around the world, now this era of the monastery also has part of the educational function, the demand for paper is naturally very large.
Now made paper is still relatively rough and fragile, Paul ordered the workshop craftsmen to continue to improve the papermaking process, according to the quality of the product customized different prices to meet the needs of different classes of customers.
After the sales opened, the money came, although the current stage is only in the Northwest Bay area, the profit is still very little, but the future is bright well.
Of course, as has happened on Earth, papermaking will eventually pry away the monopoly of the aristocracy and the church on culture and knowledge, benefiting the people at the bottom. “I’m kind of pushing the wheel of history a bit.” His heart gave a small smugness.
……
In the forest camp used to train new recruits, the original temporary tents and low fences have disappeared, replaced by a masonry house and a one-person-high brick wall, which has been transformed into a “military base” according to the count.
Lake Town’s internal defense force has also been expanded, now the internal defense force has been full of a squadron, two platoons of internal defense soldiers stationed here, outside the wall, led by the wolf dog soldiers day and night constantly patrol the surrounding area.
In an open area near the base, Marlowe, Herman and Kelly, who were in charge of weapons development, were fiddling with a thing, surrounded by soldiers on close guard.
If there were any Earthlings around, they would be able to recognize the thing they were fiddling with as a front-mounted bronze cannon with an early nineteenth century style.
The overall structure of the gun was simplified and designed by Paul with reference to the Napoleon gun, the “crossing artifact” on the network in his previous life, the frame structure of the gun carrying the gun body was very simple, consisting of four major parts: the wheels, the main axle, the tailstock and the tilting device, the tilting device consisted of a screw and adjusting handle that was connected to the tail of the gun. The tilting device consists of a screw connected to the tail of the gun and an adjusting handle, which can raise or lower the muzzle of the gun by turning the handle.
From afar came the sound of the Lord Earl and a group of officers talking: “I’m going to name this place ‘Area 51’, don’t ask me what Area 51 means, in any case, it’s called Area 51 …… “
After hearing the voice, Marlowe and the others hurriedly ran over to greet them, “Your Excellency, you’ve finally arrived, I’m ready here.”
Only to see the young count ran to the side of the bronze cannon, the cannon body from head to tail fondly “caress” once.
Crowd: “……”
Paul cleared his throat and said, “Uh-huh! I’ve got the men here, it’s up to you next.”
Marlowe tapped his chest and responded confidently, “Yes, my lord.” Thanks to the “contribution” of the pirate captives in the previous experiments, he was very confident in this public demonstration.
A double brick wall was built 100 meters in front of the cannon, which was the target of this test firing. Marlow ordered the gun crew to take their positions, while the crowd hid behind a low wall behind the gun to watch the firing.
The seven-member crew arrived at the gun with a bucket of water and operated the gun in accordance with the established procedures for their respective responsibilities.
The first step was to use a long brush with a woolen tip, dip it in the water and stick it into the muzzle of the gun to clean up the sparks left over from the last firing, which was not necessary for the first firing, but in order to prevent the artillerymen from forgetting this step in subsequent firings and causing accidents, this step was strictly required to be carried out in every firing.
A brush is then inserted into the barrel of the gun to dry up the moisture left by the preceding steps, and the velvet-wrapped firing-packet and a solid iron shot are successively inserted into the chamber, and the charge is completed by compacting the ammunition with a loading rod.
The ignition stage begins with the use of a thin iron awl, which is inserted through the ignition hole in the rear of the gun, to pierce the powder packet to facilitate ignition.
There are two ways of ignition, one is to insert a cotton fuse and then ignite the fuse, which takes some time to burn, the advantage of this way is that it is safer.
The other way is to fill the ignition hole with gunpowder and use an ignition rod to ignite the gunpowder in the hole using a cord wrapped around it, which has the advantage of being able to fire quickly.
In this demonstration, a fuse was used and the crew quickly covered their ears when the fuse was ignited.
As the fuse burned, it rapidly shortened and eventually ignited the powder.
“Boom!!!”
Only a deafening roar could be heard from the four-pound bronze cannon, and the powerful recoil caused the cannon body to retreat backward by a large margin. The people standing behind the low wall were all startled, and the earth under their feet seemed to tremble slightly in that instant just now.
“Ah~~” the Earl-sama had a mesmerized look on his face.
When the smoke from the launch cleared, the crowd could see the scene in front of them, the thick brick wall had been opened up with a terrifyingly large hole.
The crowd sucked in a breath of cold air, this power, if toward the crowd to hit a cannon ……
Most of them immediately ran over to scrutinize the artillery, while several people, including Schroeder, surrounded Marlowe and asked questions.
“After our many tests, this thing can hit more than a thousand meters. “
“Firing bigger shells? Hit farther? Of course, but only if we are allocated more money for experiments.”
“If you’re skillful, you’ll be able to fire 2 or 3 shots a minute, but frequent firing will overheat the barrel.”
Marlowe curled his mouth, suppressing his inner excitement while responding to the officers’ questions. This kind of sharp weapon was actually built through my hands, I really made the right choice in the first place.
“A weapon for the military! A weapon for a military nation!” Old Knight Schroeder exclaimed.
“Big is beautiful~~ Big is beautiful~~” Captain Holman murmured while touching the cannon as if he had opened the door to a new world.
“Marlowe, try firing a scatter shot to open their eyes again.”
“Alright, Lord Earl!”
(End of chapter)