West of Border Town, Redwater River.
The snow made it difficult for the carriage to move, so it took them half a day to drag the first field artillery out of the town.
"What is it this time?" Carter was getting used to the prince's constant inventing of new things. "An enlarged flintlock?"
"Almost." Roland commanded his men to remove the hook, and then personally adjusted the angle of the cannon, so that the cannon body was flat, and the pole was placed in the snow.
The principle of the cannon and the gun was exactly the same, so it was very appropriate to say that it was an enlarged version of the gun. This cannon fired a twelve-pound solid iron ball, the shell and gunpowder were loaded from the front, and the fuse was ignited. Roland referred to the mature designs in history, and instructed the carpenters to build a set of wooden cannon mounts. In order to improve its durability, the parts that had more friction with the ground, and the parts that were subjected to greater force during firing were wrapped with iron.
In order to make the cannon mounts and wheels, Roland spent almost the same amount of time drilling the cannon's bore. Three carpenters were busy for a week before they finished, especially the diameter of the wheels, which had a diameter of half a person. The carpenters first planed out four equal pieces of square wood, soaked them, and then baked them with fire until they were bent. The ends were cut into grooves, and the outer edge of the wheel hub was covered with iron and hammered.It took four days to complete the entire process.
Therefore, in Roland's eyes, this fully hand-built, limited edition twelve-pound field artillery exuded a dazzling light. When he dragged it out for the test, the accompanying lineup was very large – Chief Knight Carter and Militia Commander Iron Axe, all of the personal guards and Knight apprentices went into battle, and 20 people from the Militia were responsible for clearing the field and guarding it. In addition, he also brought Nightingale and Lightning for the first time. Thanks to Nana, the Militia's prejudice against the witches was reduced to a minimum, and Nana herself became the only person in the team whose reputation was second only to the Prince.
"Let's do it according to the process, first clean the cannon's bore." Although Roland was very clear about the structure of the cannon, the specific operation was a blank.He racked his brain to recall all kinds of cannon firing scenes from medieval movies, trying to sort out a set of procedures. As for the actual effect, only God knew.
Lightning excitedly pulled out a mop-like cleaning rod from the bottom of the gun carriage and inserted it into the muzzle. Unlike other witches' contracts, Lightning offered to work for Roland as long as she could personally operate all kinds of novel inventions. Moreover, she didn't need to pay for it. Faced with this kind of money-saving condition, Roland naturally agreed. Anyway, when it came to the confidential project, he could just research it secretly.There were still many ideas and inventions waiting to be realized in his mind. Just a few of them would be enough to keep her busy for a while.
After fiddling with it for a while, the mop did not bring out any junk, but according to the procedure, she still had to clean it a second time. He switched to another mop and whipped it a few more times to clean the cannon chamber.
"Do you understand?" Roland asked the knights and militias who were watching from the side. This test was also a drill. Now that the production of guns had greatly increased, the militia was bound to evolve into an official infantry, and the wooden guns would also be replaced by guns and cannons. This required a lot of shooting training to be able to skillfully operate these two types of firearms on the battlefield.
Seeing everyone nod, he let Lightning carry out the next operation.
The little girl took out a bag of gunpowder wrapped in a paper roll, stuffed it into the cannon's bore, and used an iron rod to pierce it. Then she put in the shell and stabbed it again. She took out a drill pipe and inserted it into the fuse hole at the back of the barrel, pierced the gunpowder bag, and then inserted the fuse. In this way, the firing preparation was complete.
In order to prevent accidents, everyone retreated fifteen steps. Lightning put the torch near the fuse, only to see sparks at the end, and in the blink of an eye, it drilled into the barrel.
Then there was a loud rumbling sound –
The high-speed jet of air from the muzzle brought up the snow, raising a layer of snow fog on the ground. The theoretical effective range of a twelve-pound cannon could reach more than a kilometer. Even without rifling, the trajectory of the front shell was still a straight line. The armor target placed about a hundred meters away made a "dang" sound as it was hit by the twelve-pound iron ball, and the whole thing flew up. The iron ball's momentum did not decrease, and after falling on the snow, it continued to bounce, stirring up a column of snowflakes.
When the smoke dissipated, Carter and Iron Axe ran to the target. They saw that the front of the armor was completely caved in, the front deck was stuck to the rear deck, and a palm-sized hole was located in the center of the armor. Obviously, after the shell pierced through the target, it flew forward about a hundred meters. Even when it fell on the ground and rolled, it still contained an amazing power.
"What a terrible penetrating power!" Carter sighed, he could already imagine the tragic scene when the enemy gathered together and was penetrated by several shells.
"Three Gods above," Iron Axe began to believe that Roland was the messenger of Mother Earth. Apart from God's messenger, who else could exert the power of the flame to such a degree? He had repeatedly studied the gunpowder particles, and as long as they were crushed into powder and ignited, they would become a common flammable substance. Fire was Mother Earth's surging anger, and it was also her most powerful weapon. When he thought of the never-ending orange fire that erupted from the cave in the Southernmost Land, he had the urge to worship the prince.
Roland was not surprised by this result, the twelve-pound field cannon could be said to be a classic, especially the Napoleon cannon that shone brilliantly in the American Civil War, which fully proved the truth that a large caliber was beautiful.
Next, he used different charges to test the strength of the barrel, although he knew that it might cause the cannon to be damaged, it was still a necessary test.
Until the third charge was added, when the cannon was fired, the muzzle was raised, and the position of the mount was shifted, but the barrel still did not show any obvious deformation. It seemed that the steel barrel performed very well in terms of strength. In the end, Roland set the standard charge at 1.2 times the experimental charge, and all that was left was to select the gunners and practice repeatedly.
"Your Highness, this weapon is indeed powerful, but it is too heavy. As long as it encounters a mud pit, it will not be able to move. " Carter immediately saw the shortcomings of the new weapon, "Moreover, after each round of firing, the barrel needs to be cleaned and the charge reloaded. In addition, the gunpowder and shells are much heavier than the flintlock, I'm afraid that just one cannon will require five or six people to operate. "
"Indeed, but everything is worth it, as long as we are equipped with two or three cannons, the Duke … no, I mean the demonic beasts, the giant tortoise kind, will not be able to break through the city wall." Roland coughed twice, thinking that it was a close call. As for the shortcoming of the twelve-pound cannon, he intended to solve it through shipping. If a steam engine wanted to be transformed into a steamship, even the most primitive paddle steamer, it would still require a complex and huge mechanical system.