The New Civilization of Witches
Chapter 73: Artillery Test
To the west of Border Town, near the Chishui river. Snow does not allow the train to move one step further;
the entire group of people had spent half a day dragging the carriage into the artillery field.
"What's this?" ask Carter, who is already somewhat familiar with the fact that the Prince repeatedly finds new discoveries, but,
"Is this just a bigger weapon?"
“You're almost right,” Roland confirmed.
He directed his men to remove the cover so that he could personally adjust the angle of the cannon.
He set his angle parallel to the ground surface, pointing towards the snow pile.
The principle of the cannon and the weapon is identical, so calling it a larger version of the weapon is not appropriate.
The cannon used for the test was capable of firing a 12-pound iron ball. Before they could light the lead, the room had to be filled with gunpowder and iron balls.
As a reference to the cart, Roland took the old design of the cannon seen in the history books.
But to increase their durability, Roland had told the carpenters to replace many of the parts that were usually made of wood with their iron counterparts.
In order to make a cannon cart, Roland had almost spent a lot of time on the cannon itself.
Three skilled carpenters needed an entire week to complete, the most time-consuming part being a half-human diameter wheel.
First, the carpenters had to make four rectangular trunks of the same length. These rods are then burned with fire until they can be bent.
After that, a knife is used to peel the excess. Finally, an outer layer of iron is applied to the wheels.
This process alone takes more than four days. So in Roland's eyes, this limited cannon made by hand took a very special place.
Now, when he dragged her out for the exam, she had already made a special arrangement. Knight Chief Carter and the Iron Axe Militia Commander were by his side,
as always. Also, there was his personal bodyguard along with twenty militia members who acted as mine-seekers and scouts.
As for the witches, he had Nightingale and Lightning by his side. Thanks to Nana, the prejudice against witches has been significantly reduced. In the eyes of the Militia, the most important person here was Nana when excluding the Prince.
“According to the usual process, we must clean the barrel of the cannon first.” Roland said, while he could imagine the blueprints of the cannon,
this particular operation plan was a blank sheet to him.
Inside his brain, he did the various cannon shots he had seen in the movie, trying to figure out the exact process, but only heaven knew how effective it was.
Lightning, in high spirits, took the mop cloth and began cleaning the cannon.
When cleaning the muzzle – the contract is different from other witches –
as long as he was allowed to operate all of Roland's new inventions personally, he would always be willing to help him to the best of his ability, even without the others.
Since Roland had to save money, he quickly accepted his terms. However, if he had a secret project, he could still study it secretly.
In his mind there are still many ideas that he has not realized and just waiting to be implemented.
For now, he only needed to throw it occasionally to distract her. Sweeping with a mop, Lightning was able to clear out some of the trash,
but according to the process, he had to clean it up a second time. Taking the mop again, he started cleaning again until he was done.
"Did everyone see it?" roland asked towards the crowd of guards and militia. Artillery tests are also an exercise.
If he was able to increase the level of weapons production, the militia would definitely turn into infantry, exchanging spears for weapons.
But even so they had to go through many training sessions before they were good enough to use both types of hot weapons.
When he saw everyone nodding, he told Lightning to continue. The little girl first opened the bag
and took out a pocket-sized paper cartridge filled with gunpowder, then stuffed it into the tip of its muzzle with ramrod.
He then took out an iron ball and used the ramrod once again to push it into the barrel.
After which, he took out the lead wire from the rear end of the cannon barrel and put it into the hole to penetrate it into the paperback.
Thus, the launch preparations are complete.
In order to prevent an accident, everyone had to step fifteen meters away from the cannon.
Then there was a loud rumbling sound – air gushed out of his muzzle very quickly, even to the point of spewing snow lying on the ground.
The theoretical effective range of the twelve-pound cannon reaches one kilometer.
Even without any rifles, those cannonballs would still fly in a straight line.
Everyone could hear a sound when the iron ball hit the armor that was placed 100 meters away.
The speed of the Iron Ball did not decrease much, every time it touched the ground, it would bounce back, blowing more snow.
After the smoke cleared, Roland, along with Carter, and Iron Axe, all went straight to check on the target.
When they arrived near the armor, they saw that the front of the armor was already in contact with his back, and there was a palm-sized hole in the middle.
Obviously, the speed of the ball was still not reduced to zero, as it still flew 100 meters further.
Even after falling to the ground, he continued to roll, showing the incredible strength he contained.
"Surprising penetration capability!"
Carter sighed .
He could already imagine what would happen when the enemies stood together in groups; being hit by several cannonballs that brought terror throughout the battlefield
“Three gods above,” Iron Axe start praying.
According to him, Roland should be the messenger of Mother Earth. Except for the messenger of God, who else could bring such terrifying power into the world?
He had already studied the chemistry of gunpowder; it was made of common chemicals that only needed to be prepared carefully.
The flame is an incarnation of Mother Earth's anger, as well as her most powerful weapon – at least this is the thinking of the people in the south.
Every time they saw the never-ending orange flames produced by the volcanic eruption, they could not help but start praying.
The test result was similar to what Roland expected from a 12-pound classic cannon. The biggest moment for the cannon to shine was during the U. S. Civil War and during the time of Napoleon.
After which, he filled the cannon with different amounts of gunpowder to test its power level.
Although he knew that it could cause damage to the cannon, it was still necessary to conduct tests.
Even after firing with three different amounts of gunpowder, the cannon still showed no signs of deformation.
Apparently, the quality of the steel used to make the cannon was very good.
In the end, Roland decided that the amount of powder they would use was 1.2 times the amount used during the test.
After that, he used the test to select the shooter.
“Your Highness, this is indeed a very powerful but too heavy weapon. If we hit a hole, we won't be able to move any further.”
Carter, who could immediately see the problem with the new weapon, criticized,
“And, after each shot, the barrel should be cleaned with wet mop, then it should be refilled.
Carrying gunpowder, cannon balls, and the cannon itself, I'm afraid you'll need five to six people to operate just one cannon. ”
“Indeed, but it's all worth it! As long as we can use two to three cannons, Duke,
I mean demonic beasts, like the giant tortoise kind, won't be able to break through walls again.”
Roland coughed, almost.
As for the losses from the 12-pound cannon, he intended to finish it off with a delivery.
With the help of a steam engine, he was able to turn a traditional boat into a steam-powered boat.
Even if it was the most primitive rowing boat, it still had a complicated and bulky mechanical system.
So, instead of changing the boat, he bought a two-masted sailboat. With Wendy's help, he could even send out cannons behind the Duke's army.
With this he would be able to attack enemies from both sides, and be able to easily and efficiently annihilate the Duke's army.
