The experimental square was filled with the smell of gunpowder, and the members of the Gunpowder Research Department and the Military Design Institute who couldn't see each other gathered together. Mr. Raul, whose coat was already wrinkled, was sweating, staring nervously at the middle of the square, holding a flag in his hand:
"One set! Good! Three, two, one!"
He waved the flag.
boom-
There was an explosion that was many times smaller than when the cannon was fired, and a birch target standing on the square shattered.
"Yes! Yes! It worked!"
Mr. Raul gave a loud shout and couldn't help but wave his arm vigorously. The crowd cheered and turned their heads joyfully to look at the king accompanied by the devil.
"Your Majesty! We succeeded!"
"Yes, it worked."
The king replied, looking at the center of the experimental field, his fingertips pressed together. In order to show their respect for the king, Raul and the others moved a group of clean tables and chairs to a safe place outside the experimental area.
Now is the result of Legrand's first military heavy industry unit teaming up to demonstrate to the king their "super-fire military artillery" plan.
The king knows what plans his mad scientists are tinkering with—
In the very center of the experimental area, a skeleton was half-kneeling, with a cylindrical iron pipe nearly two meters long on its shoulders. The iron tube looks like a scaled-down cannon, or an enlarged hand cannon. The shot that blasted off the birch target just now was done by this skeleton.
This is the "Super Fire Military Cannon" project that Raul and the Rogers brothers have teamed up to complete.
This group of lunatics ran all the way on the road of "explosion is truth", almost insane.
Not only did they go to great lengths to build a giant cannon that could knock down a castle in one shot, but they even spared it on an ordinary frontal battlefield—in the words of the Rogers Brothers, “Gunpowder weapons should be given all-round attention on the battlefield. , it should never be used only as a siege weapon, whether in naval combat or on land, and should not sit on the bench for most of the war."
This statement full of "explosion is the truth" was rarely recognized by military designers.
Originally, the king only asked them to improve the artillery, but they temporarily put aside their grievances and thought about how to make gunpowder weapons usurp the dominance of heavy cavalry on the battlefield.
Finally, they set their sights on an unwelcome thing.
As early as the late 14th century, iron tube firearms using gunpowder appeared in the Hopeless Inland Sea, which were called "fire sticks" or "hand cannons". Before the Black Death broke out, this strange thing had been introduced to Legrand through the ship between the Abyss Strait and the Inland Sea.
But the hand cannons of this time are just like the artillery before, although military strategists know this kind of thing, but they are still not reused on the battlefield. They are far less powerful on the battlefield than longbows and crossbows[1], and it is even considered a shame to die under hand cannons at this time.
—Everyone knows that hand cannons are useless other than to scare the enemy, and if they get hit he is either a bad guy or a total coward. [2]
Minister Raul believed that hand cannons were an important direction for the use of gunpowder. He specifically asked the oath knights who were in charge of the order of the industrial base why hand cannons were not popular on the frontal battlefield.
The oath knights were still a little dissatisfied with the king's emphasis on cannons at first, but these dissatisfaction quickly disappeared in the "rumble" of the Rogers brothers and Mr. Lauer every day. Even when Mr. Raul, who looks like a gentleman, came to inquire, the oath knight took a step back subconsciously, harboring some kind of inexplicable fear of Mr. Designer who could be beaten down with one punch.
Finally, a sworn knight who had seen mercenaries use hand cannons gave the answer:
The hand cannon and the short wooden cover used to support it are generally more than one meter long. The gun body is too heavy and the recoil is too strong. It is difficult for ordinary soldiers to use it in mobile combat, and the accuracy of the hand cannon is really bad. It does nothing but create chaos. When defending the city, relying on the use of wall stacks has certain advantages, but in this way, the slow-loading hand cannon is not as fast and powerful as the longbow when defending the city.
To solve these problems, the Gunpowder Research Department and the Military Design Department joined forces for the first time.
The Rogers brothers came up with the idea of the fuse, based on their previous experience with firework craftsmen, and military designers thought about combining the arquebus with the hand cannon. Although the progress of the matchlock and hand cannons was slow, these guys did not give up and wanted to make the hand cannons work on the frontal battlefield.
Finally, they turned their attention to…
Um…
On the skeletons.
"That's it," explained Mr. Lauer carefully. "We made an enlarged version of the hand cannon—it can be thought of as a smaller version of the cannon. Until the matchlock was fixed, the difference was not that big. Mr. Skull Their strength is huge, and they can easily carry heavy hand cannons, and the recoil does not have much effect on them. In addition, an important drawback of hand cannons is that they need to use red-hot iron to ignite the gunpowder in the medicine room. The shooter must hold the barrel and fire at the same time as the shot, which is slow and difficult to aim accurately. But! [2].”
Mr. Lauer's voice rose.
He pulled over Mr. Skeleton, who had come down from the testing ground, and patted its shoulder blades with excitement.
"But! Your Majesty! Our Mr. Skeletons are different!" Mr. Raul continued, "Mister Skeletons aim not by their eyes, but by sensing the fire of their souls! Mr. Skeletons can put their own bones together. Temporary dismantling - yes! They can bite the ignition rod with their teeth, and then aim and shoot at the same time! Even their fingers are extraordinarily nimble and not afraid of high temperatures, they can complete this series of actions with precision!"
The skeleton shooter, who was slapped on the shoulders by him, split the upper and lower rows of teeth towards the king, revealing a shy smile.
The king looked at his freshly baked musketeer in silence, and saw that the skull was covered in black smoke due to the experiment just now, half white and half black.
"Then..." The king looked at the skeleton smiling happily at him, and carefully considered his words, "When the matchlock device is improved?"
The happily smiling skeleton stopped laughing, and the skeleton head fell down in frustration.
Mr. Raul felt inexplicably condemned by his conscience—as if he were an unscrupulous and unscrupulous client in a brothel—with a flick of his hand, he quickly dismissed the messy associations: "Cough! In fact! We There's a new way of thinking, and our Mr. Skeleton has played an important role in this plan."
"We believe that there are two development paths for hand-held guns: First, to completely get rid of the rudimentary influence of cannons, reduce the size, improve accuracy and portability, and are suitable for ordinary soldiers to operate. Second, the enlargement of guns, for human soldiers, unless the physique Soldiers with strong chest muscles can use it, but this is not a problem for Mr. Skeleton. This is the future development goal of super-fire military guns."
Hearing his words, the skulls on the ground collapsed happily.
Apparently, these skeletons would rather serve their king on the battlefield than mine and build houses.
The devil sighed and did not want to see this picture.
- So stupid! These skeletons are so stupid! !
The king glanced at Mr. Raul, and then at the skeleton, who was obviously very happy: "Then I should have a new batch of badges made - for my skeleton musketeers?"
The Skeleton Musketeer happily tossed his skull into the sky. Not far away, the skeleton carrying the ore glanced here enviously.
"Okay..." The devil compromised, "I will select a group of suitable skeletons for you."
The king laughed softly.
Fine.
The devil thought, let the hell throw away his face to please the king.
Just when Mr. Lauer was about to continue explaining to the king, a messenger crow flew down from the sky and gently placed a letter on the king's table.
The king unfolds the letter.
He restrained that rare brisk smile, and his expression became serious.
"House of Truth?"
He muttered to himself.
…
City of Art, Will City.
The sun is shining, and a group of white doves, which symbolize peace and happiness, are flying in the church bells. The winter has passed and the weather is getting warmer. However, Tia felt a chill in her bones while sitting at the table by the window.
"Father, think about it!"
His daughter, who was about to marry, cried and persuaded him with red eyes.
"Just say something tomorrow, the heliocentric theory is wrong [4]. Can't our family's life be as good as your numbers that no one cares about?!"
"But math doesn't lie..."
Tia, who is not good at words, wants to explain to her daughter.
Tomorrow, there will be a rebuttal in Will, the "capital of art," over some of the ideas put forward by heretics. It was a large debate chaired by the Holy See and invited many well-known scholars. The Holy Empire specially arranged this performance in order to show its broad mind, to declare that what God said is the truth.
The Holy Emperor declared: God is just and merciful, and He is willing to give the heretics a chance to teach them the right way with the truth. At the meeting, the Holy See allowed all scholars to put forward their views and answer them one by one, and God will forgive the world in His wisdom.
Tia is an invited astronomer.
After accepting the invitation, Tia was proud at first, until a few days ago, a bishop came to the door, suggesting that if he argued against heliocentrism, his wives and daughters would get the jewelry they wanted, and he will also become a clerk of the Holy Court.
"What the hell math." Tia's wife threw his manuscript into the fireplace coldly, looked at him, and said word by word, "Do you know the "Witch's Hammer" that has just been released? Inquisitor I've asked Bella and I already."
Tia was speechless and leaned back in the chair tiredly.
"I… I see."
he whispered.
The wife and daughter backed out, leaving the door open.
Tia stared blankly at the manuscript burning rapidly in the fireplace.
It was getting dark, and evening came.
Tia's daughter went upstairs to call her father for dinner. Knocked on the door several times, but got no response.
She pushed open the door, stunned.
The room was quiet, no candles were lit, and the fire in the fireplace had long since gone out. Her father's hand was hanging by the side of the chair, wooden and pale. There was a strong smell of blood in the room.
With a scream, the girl who was about to marry rushed downstairs.
The twilight sun hung down in the western sky, glowing like blood.
The sun shone silently on the earth.
Once, there was a little boy who chased the setting sun in his childhood, over and over again, he thought that he would be able to catch the sunset one day. Later, when the boy grew up, he began to calculate the angle of the sun, the moon and the stars over and over again. He thought, if he can't go to the sunset, then he will calculate the angle of the sun and the stars.
He wanted to reach out and touch the sun.
Eyes can deceive people, legends can deceive people, but numbers do not. The grown-up boy counted those complicated and gigantic degrees countless times. In the end, he could pick up the sun with just a stretch of his hand.
But, the Holy See said, God the Father is everywhere, the stars circle the earth, and the sky is the realm of angels and the Holy Spirit.
Under the tears of his wife and daughter, the boy who grew up, he gave up.
Holy Empire Year 1, February 2.
The Debate of Truth opened in Will, the "Art Capital". Before this unprecedented truth debate, no one cared, and a silent astronomer chose to sleep forever in the long dark night. He left the last doubt:
Where will the flower of technology be born
Will truth eventually become mud with false names and sin
The author has something to say: [1] The early muskets were far less lethal than the longbow and crossbow of the era. See Dupuy's "The Evolution of Arms and War"
[2] "It is not exactly when the hand cannon appeared, probably in the 1430s, but no later than the early 15th century. For a long time, the main function of the hand cannon was to scare the enemy, if it hit the enemy It can only be said that the enemy is unlucky" - "War in the Middle Ages: European War Theory and Practice: 300-1500"
[3] The early muskets of the early 15th century required a red-hot iron block to ignite the gunpowder in the powder chamber, and then the shot was fired. Therefore, the early hand-held guns have slow firing speed and poor accuracy, and the actual effect is very limited. It was not until the late 15th century that the arquebuses improved the ignition device, and the armies of various countries began to use hand-held guns to equip their armies.
[4] See that some readers are confused and explain. In the Middle Ages, the Holy See held geocentric theory and attacked heliocentric theory for theological considerations. The bishop came here to get astronomers to give up the heliocentric theory and support the geocentric theory.