Release That Witch

Every day Van'er's group had to train for two to three hours with the new weapon, and even after the training was finished, Van'er had to return to the city wall to continue his old, boring job. One of the men from Van'er's dormitory had signed up for the Flintlock Squad, and now he had a brand-new flintlock and stood behind him to show off the weapon. If it was not for the rules that forbid infighting, Van'er would have already made him shut up.     

But he also noticed something was not right.     

[Didn't my compatriots join the Flintlock Squad only a few days ago? Yet, they were allowed to directly start their shooting training through fighting against the demonic beasts, but what about our Artillery Squad? We aren't even authorized to shoot a shell. Moreover, the cannons are so heavy that it's actually impossible to transport them onto the city wall,] thought Van'er.     

When he looked at the top of the wall, he could see that the wall-walk was almost full with people standing side by side in pairs. Usually, everyone was used to running on the inside of the wall-walk. Even if it was steep, it was still better than interfering with teammates' fighting movements. As for the cannons… the two wheels alone were wider than the whole wall-walk, and using a cannon to shoot downwards did not seem very practical.     

Could it be… that the cannon would not be used to fight against the demonic beasts?     

The next exercise further confirmed his suspicions.     

Iron Axe brought the four artillery teams to the river. There, Van'er discovered that, without realizing when it had happened, a huge "boat" appeared in the Redwater River. No… he was not even sure if it was correct to call it a boat. The shell seemed to be made out of the same gray stone that was used to build the wall, and its dimension was very wide but short. Other than two bare masts, there was actually no other similarity with a boat. This even caused a heated argument between his team.     

"This is clearly a floating bridge." The first one who came up with a conclusion was Jop, who previously belonged to the team with the sailing ships transporting the ore to Longsong Stronghold, and he always thought of himself very well-informed. "They built the deck so wide to make it more stable! During my traveling all over the realm, I've seen many of them, and if this is a boat, then how can it be moved without the wind? After the former wooden bridge of over decade old in Longsong Stronghold was washed away by a flood, people in Longsong Stronghold replaced it with a floating bridge. They just placed several of broad planks side by side on a boat and connected them with an iron chain to make it more stable!"     

"The furthest place you have traveled to is Longsong Stronghold, and yet you call yourself knowledgeable." Rodney sneered. "If this is a floating bridge, why would it have two sticks? Wouldn't they be blown away by the wind?"     

"And look towards the end, don't you see the steering wheel? Floating bridges don't need this." Nelson directly broke in to help Rodney. These two brothers were always at the same side. "In addition, looking at the construction between the two sticks, it looks like a cabin, and it's just not finished yet. This is a boat, no doubt."     

Van'er was not interested in the boat, he was only concerned about the next training's content. Luckily, he soon found out. Iron Axe asked them to drive the horses that dragged the cannon towards the Littletown—yes, that was the boat's name, personally named by His Highness the prince. After listening to Iron Axe's introduction, Jop's face suddenly became stiff, while the two brothers showed a triumphant expression instead, and then they began to tie the wheels of the cannon cart onto the deck of the boat.     

On the deck, there were two groups of stopping poles, each group consisting of four poles. They were located in the middle of the deck, one behind the other. This apparently indicated that the deck could fit two cannons.     

Well, with this, Van'er could confirm that they would not be dealing with the demonic beasts—the Redwater River flowed from the north to the south, and there was no large river in the Misty Forest.     

When they embarked for the first time, Van'er immediately felt the outstanding stability of the boat. As the river was flowing beneath it, the boat remained motionless; it felt just like standing on solid ground. Only when the horses came on the deck did they feel a little swing.     

He also noted that every time a team finished their firing practice, Iron Axe would count the time and note it down. Considering that there were only two spots for cannons, it was clear that only the two fastest teams would get a place on the ship. Van'er secretly told his discovery to the rest of his team who were immediately inspired and were bursting with energy, and each of them put as much effort as possible into the training. If they were not chosen for the artillery team they would be sent back to the Spear Squad. Losing their face was a small matter, and the most important matter was that they would not get a pay rise!     

Van'er had to wait until the seventh day to finally receive his first live firing training.     

On that day, His Highness also came to visit the scene, watching the artillery exercise. Everyone in the four groups walked with a broad chest and was full of enthusiasm.     

Because of their training, everyone was quite familiar with the loading of the ammunition, so it did not take long until the first shot was fired by Van'er's team.     

It was the first time he saw the power of a cannon. With a deafening roar, the cannonball was shot and landed around 500 meters away in the snow, blasting a lot of snow and mud into the air, and then bounced even further. It was impossible for Van'er's bare eyes to track the iron ball.     

The scene made Van'er both excited and a bit frightened, wondering how His Highness had managed to make such a terrible weapon. If he had to face an artillery attack, even with a full body armor, it would be to no avail.     

After a round of firing, His Highness the prince would order someone to mark the landing position with a flag. And at the same time, he let someone measure the distance between the muzzle and the flag. After four rounds came the turn of Van'er's team again, he heard the command to change the cannon' angle.     

A scale, marked with 0, 5, 10, 25, and 30, was placed on the joint of the two ends of the cannon and the cannon mount. Although he did not understand what this meant, as long as they just followed the instructions, everything would be alright. Iron Axe shouted, "Shoot at the angle of 5!" Jop, who was the strongest, took the ramrod, inserted it into the muzzle, waiting for Van'er to tight the screws, and pressed it upwards until the white line was inserted in the hole and then he let it go.     

Compared with the angle of the barrel at the beginning, the angle now was a bit lower, and when the cannon was raised, it showed exactly 5 on the scale.     

What followed next was again four rounds of firings, putting flags, measuring the distance, adjusting the angle.     

Van'er slowly started to understand the reason behind His Highness the prince's actions.     

He was recording the distance of every shot, and the higher the angle of the cannon, the further the iron ball would fly.     

This was something that Van'er could understand from his experience of using a bow, the higher up the aim, the further the arrow would fly. If the arrow was shot horizontally, it would hit the ground very fast. He never thought that this was the case with the cannon too. The flying distance would be so much further because of its bigger velocity. Suddenly, he got this crazy idea—what if the iron ball got faster and faster, would it be possible that it would never land?     

*******************     

At the Redwater River, the testing of the Littletown was also underway.     

Considering that Wendy would act as the boat's driving force, the boat's crew needed to be absolutely reliable. So, Roland picked some people who already knew about the witches as the first crew of the Littletown. Chief Knight Carter became the captain; the helmsman was Brian; the sailors who had to set the sails were Carter's men, and the task of communication was left to Tigui Pine, Nana's father. These people often came into contact with the witches, so coupled with their ideological transformation with which they got rid of their prejudice against the witches, there should not be any problem. In the case of Tigui Pine, it was even less the case, since his own beloved daughter was a witch.