The pleasant spring breeze blows the spring water on the lake and cuts out the new buds on the shore. April is the season of budding. The warm smile reflected in the eyes of the potter girl, like spring water flowing into her heart, making the seeds of yearning sprout and come to life.
Talea beamed with joy. She took a step forward and hugged Shulot's growing body tightly. Then, she raised her head slightly, her bright eyes were like water, her gentle eyes stayed on the young man's face, and she didn't want to leave for a moment.
Shulot stood silently, his mood unspeakable. His body froze at first, and he opened his arms slightly, subconsciously trying to break away from the embrace. Immediately, he felt Talea's close attachment and saw her loving eyes. The young man couldn't bear to be hurt, and he also had inner love, so he could only sigh and focus on business.
"Talaiya, how is the making of gunpowder going?"
"Your Highness, the female workers have mastered the skills of gunpowder preparation. A complete set of wooden tools and operating steps have been recorded. As long as the three raw materials are sufficient, they can be prepared in large quantities at any time."
Xiulote nodded. The original black powder is not resistant to storage and transportation. Once it is stored for a long time or is bumpy, the three raw materials will often layer up and down. Therefore, young people tend to store raw materials, make temporary preparations, and use gunpowder weapons as soon as possible after making them.
"Has the development of new gunpowder yielded results?" Shulot asked.
"Your Highness, I tried adding different raw materials and roughly mastered the combustion and explosion effects of different gunpowder ratios. But I haven't found any clues about the key processing step you mentioned."
Talea's eyes dimmed slightly, and there was a bit of remorse on her face.
Shulot smiled gently. Without clues to divine revelation, technological development will always be slow. The improvement of gunpowder cannot be completed in a short time.
"Talaiya, don't worry. Take your time and pay attention to safety... How did the experiment of the three gunpowder weapons I ordered go?"
Talea smiled again. She nodded vigorously, reluctantly let go of her embrace, and regained her ability as a gunpowder manager.
"Your Highness, the vertical rocket can be put into actual combat. The caltrop is very unstable and very dangerous to ignite. It has injured many civilians. The sound of the wooden cannon is very loud and very scary. But you can't put too much gunpowder in the launch because it will explode. once."
When he heard about the explosion, Shulot looked solemn. He looked at the thin face of the potter girl and felt a little worried. The young man stretched out his hand and held Talea's catkin. He felt the slightly hard calluses beginning to appear in his smooth hands, so he squeezed them tightly and said softly.
"Talaiya, don't personally participate in the preparation of gunpowder...take me to the weapons experiment site. I want to see the specific effects."
Talea nodded happily. The two walked together, surrounded by warriors, and soon came to a wide flat land. There are many straw men stuck in the ground, some of them wearing cotton armor and leather armor, and there are distance marks on the ground.
The weapon craftsmen involved in the research and development have been waiting for a long time. The potter girl gave a few detailed instructions, and then a large group of civilians followed the order and carefully fetched the three weapons and displayed them to the craftsmen.
The finished product of the vertical rocket is not much different from the ordinary war arrow. It is just a spherical paper gunpowder bag tied to the back of the arrowhead, with more than two ounces of gunpowder inside. The craftsmen used flint to light the fuse of the gunpowder bag, then drew a Tlaxcala bow, set up the arson rocket, and shot it with all their strength.
The vertical rocket is loaded with gunpowder packets, which nearly doubles its weight. Its speed was not very fast. It drew an obvious arc and landed next to the straw man more than twenty meters away. Everyone watched with bated breath. After only three or four seconds, the rocket suddenly exploded into a bright flame. In an instant, the flames rose up, quickly igniting the straw man, and the smoke dispersed. The fierce flame lasted for two seconds, then weakened significantly, burning steadily on the straw man.
Shulott estimated in his mind that after reducing the proportion of soil and saltpeter, the burning time of gunpowder would be significantly longer. He looked at the distance of the straw man and then gave instructions to the warrior captain not far away.
"Arrange twenty warriors with longbows."
Bertard nodded and obeyed. After a while, twenty warriors stood in a row holding long bows. They looked at the vertical arrows in their hands with some fear, then carefully lit them, quickly cocked the arrows, and after a little straight aim, there was a "whoosh" arrow.
I saw twenty vertical rockets streaking across trajectories at different heights, scattered between fifty and a hundred meters. Weighted arrows only significantly reduce range, but in the hands of a skilled archer, they can still maintain consistent accuracy. Then, the rockets exploded into bursts of flames, igniting the nearby straw figures like fireworks blooming in the daytime. Soon, the rising smoke spread into the weapon field with a pungent smell, and it was like the breath of mythical spirits. After a while, the venue was already in flames.
Shulot silently calculated the different speeds at which the rockets ignited. The deviation was about a few seconds. It seemed that the quality of the fuses was indeed uneven. He ordered a long shot again.
The longbow warriors fired arrows again, switching to shooting upwards at a wide angle. This time, the horizontal movement speed of the vertical rocket decreased, and it drew an elongated arc, falling to about 100 to 150 meters. Many rockets exploded in mid-air, like fire falling from the sky. The accuracy of the rockets was greatly reduced, and many of them missed their targets and burned in corners far away from the straw men.
Shulot observed for a moment, then asked the warriors to shoot several times at different distances, and made a rough plan for the use of vertical rockets. The stable shooting distance of the rocket should be within one hundred meters, with satisfactory accuracy within fifty or sixty meters. If on sloshing water, this distance should be reduced further. In order to increase the power of combustion, the charge of the gunpowder bag can be continued to increase, as long as accurate shooting of fifty meters can be maintained.
Shulot nodded with satisfaction. He shook Talea's hand and praised her.
"Talaiya, you did a good job. This kind of longitudinal rocket can be customized on a large scale, and it is called a 'light rocket'. In addition, I need you to double the gunpowder in the paper bag to create a range of The 'heavy rocket' about fifty meters long is used as a weapon to light up the big boat. Currently, these two types are ordered."
Talea nodded happily and obeyed the order. Then she said hesitantly.
"Your Highness, Tao Tribulus is a bit unstable. Can you also test it today? Maybe after a while, the research and development can be more mature..."
Shulot shook his head and said affirmatively.
"I'm about to go on an expedition. I don't have much time to wait, so let them start!"
Soon, following His Highness's order and forced by the warriors' war sticks, a row of ten civilians stood more than ten meters apart, fighting between the two groups. With fear on their faces, they picked up the six to seven kilograms of caltrops and stared at the yellow and black spiked ball, which was a symbol of death.
Shulot thought for a while and asked the civilian husbands to put on cotton armor. Then, the young man watched them nervously light the fuse of Tao Tribulus, as if pressing the countdown to death, and then waved his arms with all his strength to throw out the heavy Tao Tribulus.
"Boom!..." Before a civilian could throw the caltrop in his hand, the spiked ball exploded instantly, and countless fragments suddenly shot out. The civilian husband seemed to have been hit by a giant's heavy hammer. He suddenly flew back two steps, then fell to the ground with blood spurting out, and died immediately. With the power of black powder in this era, he was not shattered to pieces.
When Shulot heard this, he felt a chill in his heart as he walked away. The civilian husband's face was charred, and his body was burning with flames. If you looked closely, there were dense wounds and countless ceramic shards stuck in them. His arms and limbs were twisted and separated, like a broken rag doll. Under his body was a fountain of blood, which was gradually boiled dry by the flames.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!..." Continuous explosions continued, like the roar of the God of Thunder in the human world. The longbow warriors were horrified and took a few steps back in fear. The sticks and bows fell silently from their hands. Many warriors knelt down in fear and prayed loudly to the Lord God, asking the Almighty Lord God to come and drive away the roaring evil spirits.
Shulot glanced around and saw two civilian husbands rolling and struggling on the ground. Their caltrops were only thrown six or seven steps away, still within the effective killing range. The fragments of the explosion did not break their cotton armor, but they blinded one civilian husband's eyes and scratched the neck of another civilian husband. Soon, the civilian husband whose neck was bleeding was paralyzed and motionless.
"Boom! Boom!..." There were two more explosions. Tao Tribulus exploded at the straw man more than ten steps away. Within three steps, the straw man's leather armor cracked and was completely blown to pieces. Within five steps, the straw man's cotton armor was damaged and embedded with many sharp fragments. At about seven steps, the straw man's cotton armor blocked all the debris, but was shaken back and forth by the air waves.
Shurot counted the explosions. Then, he frowned and looked carefully. There were two dumb bombs in front of him. The young man glanced past the civilian husband whose hands and feet were limp and howling on his knees, and looked at some of the warriors who were still able to maintain their composure.
"This is a weapon given to us by the Lord God. Don't be afraid! Come two warriors, hold up two layers of shields, and put on two layers of cotton armor. Water the two unexploded caltrops. Make sure to cover your head and neck with the shield!"
After a while, two warriors emerged from the warriors. Shulot secretly noted down their physical appearance. The two warriors were fully equipped, holding shields and water bottles, and carefully approached the spiked ball.
And just when they were about to start processing, there was another "Boom!...". There was a loud explosion, shaking everyone's heartstrings.
Shulot looked solemnly and saw a warrior knocked to the ground by a close-range explosion. The young man quickly directed the rescue and brought the fallen warrior back to his side.
Later, Shulot looked carefully and saw that one side of the warrior's double shield had completely exploded, and one side was embedded with dense fragments. A few fragments penetrated the shield and got stuck on the cotton armor. The wooden shield was burning with flames, but fortunately the cotton armor did not catch fire. The guards checked for a moment and found that there were no wounds or blood on the warrior. It's just that his foot was sprained, his head was shaken and dizzy, and he couldn't stand up at all, which meant death on the battlefield.
During the observation, another warrior had returned with the extinguished caltrop and threw the spiked ball into the pool prepared nearby.
Shulot smiled and praised him, asked the warrior's name, and wrote it down in his mind. Then, the young man continued to think and shook his head.
"One of the ten caltrops exploded early and two were duds. The explosion time of the remaining seven fluctuated. The biggest problem is that there is no stable fire tube. The quality of the fuse to ignite the fire is unstable... In addition, it needs to be thrown Grenadiers were equipped with slow-burning matches specially designed to light fires.”
Thinking of this, Shulot sighed. This is still an experimental site with no enemies and stable ignition. If it were to go to the battlefield, this weapon would be a bomb that would explode at any time and could only be used by desperate warriors.
"The grenadier needs to be tall and strong. The effective throwing distance is more than ten to twenty meters. The killing distance without armor is within seven steps, and the killing distance with cotton armor is within five steps. If facing a shield, the explosion must be within three steps. Within. The sound of the explosion can greatly deter the enemy and severely damage the enemy's morale."
Shulot shook his head slightly. In his opinion, the power of this most primitive grenade was very limited. However, Bertard and the many warriors were already filled with awe, looking at the spiky ball as if it were a divine object, and were amazed. This is the power of God!
"It takes a long time to prepare, ignite, and throw the caltrop. It needs to avoid enemy attacks, and the throwing distance is also very short. It is most effective in dense formations... From this point of view, the situation where this weapon exerts its greatest power is not Field battles are instead siege battles, left to those who dare to die first!"
The young man thought for a moment, and his eyes suddenly lit up. Then he smiled and nodded, looking at the crowd of people who were as respectful as gods.
"continue!"
With the cooperation of several civilians, a simple wooden cannon with a copper hoop was transported to the center of the site. Some people had dug earth to build a shooting platform, and used wooden frames to fix the wooden cannons. Then, under the command of the craftsmen, the civilian workers clumsily filled the gun barrel with gunpowder.
In front of His Highness, the craftsmen only filled 50 kilograms of crude black gunpowder and did not dare to fill it up. Then they added more than ten kilograms of stones to the muzzle, drew out a fuse, sealed the muzzle with cotton, and aimed at the straw man fifty steps away.
Shulot nodded. The young man held Talea's arm and pulled her back seventy or eighty steps. Then twenty warriors held up their shields and formed a three-layer protective shield array in front. His Highness then ordered the firing.
After a long few breaths, there was only a loud "bang" sound, and then another "crash" sound.
Shulot strode out from behind the shield formation, and saw the wooden cannon repulsed several steps back. All the civilians around him were lying on the ground, praying in fear. Fifty steps away, a puff of smoke rose up, and the straw man in the experimental field had disappeared. When the smoke dissipated, the boy took a few steps forward and saw the knocked down straw man, the stones densely embedded in the soil, and the leather armor as broken as a sieve.
Shulot walked from the center where the stones were densest, judging the dispersion of the ammunition. Then, he ordered the warriors to set up wooden frames, place many shields fifty to one hundred meters away, and continue to light and test fire.
The repeated bombardments were accompanied by terrifying explosions, like the roar of wild beasts in mythology, shocking the hearts of all warriors. This is the weapon of the gods in mythology, a giant beast raised by the gods!
In Xuelote's view, compared with real bronze cannons, this kind of wooden cannon is more like a big firecracker that intimidates people.
It has certain damage to unarmored targets within one hundred meters, and it can kill cotton armor within fifty meters. Facing a warrior with a shield and armor, it would have to be as close as thirty meters to produce sufficient power. The firing speed of the wooden cannon is extremely slow. It is fixed to load and ignite, and to clean, check and reset. The craftsmen can only fire one or two rounds every quarter of an hour. After firing more than a dozen rounds, the craftsmen quickly warned that there might be a danger of the barrel exploding. As for the accuracy of the wooden cannon, it can only maintain a general direction, and it is normal for it to deviate by more than ten meters.
Looking at these new gunpowder weapons, Shulot was dissatisfied for a long time, then smiled with satisfaction.
"It's time to give Avitt a surprise!"
Shulot put his hands behind his back and looked at the palace in the northern capital in the distance. Behind him were admiring girls, loyal warriors, and everyone kneeling in awe.
