Release That Witch

The snow made it difficult for the carriage to move a single step. They spent half a day hauling their first field artillery out of town.     

"What's it this time?" asked Carter, who had been accustomed to the new inventions of the prince. "A larger flintlock?"     

"Kind of," Roland answered, and then commanded his people to remove the hook. He adjusted the angle of the gun carriage in person to keep the cannon flat and put the pole in the snow.     

The principles of the cannon and flintlock were exactly the same, so it was very appropriate to call it a larger flintlock. The cannon could load 12-pound, solid iron balls, with the shells and gunpowder put into the front chamber and ignited with fuses. Referring to the mature designs in history, Roland instructed the carpenters to build a wooden gun carriage for it. In order to improve the durability, they also wrapped the edges of the parts with iron sheet which bore more friction with the ground and more forces when launching.     

To make the carriage and wheels, Roland spent almost the same time as drilling the cannon bore. It took three carpenters one full week to complete them. Especially to make the wheels, with a diameter of half the height of a man, the carpenters first shaved four square timbers of equal length, and then infiltrated them and baked them with fire to bend them. Next, they whittled the groove for joggle jointing at the ends. This entire procedure alone took four days.     

Therefore, in Roland's eyes, this handmade, 12-pound field artillery of a limited quantity was giving off a dazzling light. When the cannon was dragged out for a test, the prince made special arrangements. Besides Chief Knight Carter and Militia Commander Iron Axe, all the guards and knight apprentices also went along. 12 members of the Militia were sent to empty the venue and keep alert. In addition, he brought Nightingale and Lightning for the first time. Thanks to Nana, the prejudice towards the witches had reduced significantly and Nana herself became the person who was second only to the prince in stature.     

"Do it according to the process, and clean the bore first." Although Roland was quite clear about the structure of the cannon, he knew nothing about the operation. He was racking his brain trying to recall the scenes of operating the cannon in various medieval movies, trying to figure out a process. However, only God would know what the actual result would be.     

Lightning was in high spirits. She pulled out a mop-like cleaning rod from underneath the gun carriage and poked it into the muzzle. Different from the other witches' contracts, Lightning proposed that as long as she was allowed to manipulate all kinds of novelty inventions, she would like to work for Roland with no salary. In the face of this money-saving condition, Roland naturally agreed. Anyway, when it came to a secret project, he would study it secretly. There were many ideas in his mind waiting to be realized, and there would be enough for Lightning to study for a long time if he casually tossed out a few ideas.     

She fiddled a few times, but the mop did not bring out any debris. However, according to the process, she had to clean it a second time. She took another mop and fiddled a few times again. Then the bore cleaning was done.     

"Do you see it clearly?" asked Roland, looking at the knights and the militias. The test was also an exercise. Since the production of the flintlock had increased significantly, the Militia was bound to evolve into a regular infantry while wooden spears would be replaced by flintlocks and cannons. This required a lot of shooting training, so they would skillfully operate these two hot weapons on the battlefield.     

Seeing that everyone nodded, he let Lightning move on to the next step.     

Lightning took out a package of gunpowder wrapped with paper, and stuffed it straight into the end of the cannon bore with a wooden pole. Then she put a shell into the end. After that, she took out a drill pipe and put it through the fuse hole in the rear of the cannon barrel, stabbed the gunpowder package and then inserted the fuse. Thus, the launch preparation was complete.     

To prevent accidents, everyone withdrew 30 steps and hid behind the bunker. After Lightning put the torch close to the fuse, the spark shone immediately and soon drilled into the cannon barrel in a short time.     

Then there was a loud noise...     

The high-speed airflow from the muzzle brought up the snow and raised a snow fog above the ground. The 12-pound cannon had a valid range of more than 1,000 meters in theory. Even if there was no rifling, the front shell would go in a straight line. The armor target, placed about 100 meters away, clanged and flew up when it was hit by the 12-pound iron ball. The speed of the iron ball did not reduce and it bounced back immediately when falling on the ground, stirring up more snow.     

When the smoke of gunpowder cleared, Carter and Iron Axe were the first to run to the target. They found that the front of the armor target completely sunk, and the front deck was attached to the rear deck, with a palm-sized hole in its center. Obviously, the shell continued to fly forward about 100 meters after penetrating the target. Even when it fell on the ground, it kept rolling forward, showing the amazing power it contained.     

"What a terrible penetrating force!" Carter exclaimed. He could imagine the horrors of the enemies when they gathered together and then became broken down by several shells.     

"By the name of Three Gods." Iron Axe began to believe that Roland was the messenger of the Goddess. Except for the messenger of the Goddess, who else could play the power of the flame to such an extent? The gunpowder particle, which he had repeatedly studied, was a common flammable material as long as it was ground up into powder and ignited. The flame was the Goddess' surging anger, as well as her most powerful weapon. Thinking of the never-ending, orange fire erupting from the hole of the Southernmost Land, he had an impulse to worship the prince.     

Roland was not surprised at the results, for the 12-pound field artillery could be described as a classic cannon. Especially the famous Napoleon Cannon, which shone in the American Civil War, fully proved that the large caliber was the beautiful truth.     

Next, he tested the cannon's strength with different doses of gunpowder. Although he knew that it could cause damage to the cannon, it was necessary to do the tests.     

When shooting with three parcels of gunpowder, the cannon muzzle rose and the carriage moved, but the barrel showed no obvious deformation. It seemed that the steel barrel was excellent in strength. Finally, Roland determined the standard amount of powder should be 1.2 times the amount used in the test. All that was left was to select the cannoneers and practice it over and over again.     

"Your Highness, this weapon is powerful, but it's too heavy. If it were to run into a pit, it could hardly move," said Carter, who immediately found the shortcomings of the new weapon. "Moreover, the cannon barrel should be cleaned every time before loading. Since the cannons use more gunpowder and shells than the flintlocks, I'm afraid we need five or six people to operate one cannon."     

"Yes, but everything is worth it. As long as we're equipped with two or three cannons, the duke... no, I mean the demonic beasts, like giant turtles, will be impossible to break through the city wall." Roland coughed and felt that was close. As for the shortcomings of the 12-pound cannon, he intended to solve that by shipping. It would be a complex and huge mechanical system to apply steam engines to steam-powered boats, even to the most primitive paddle steamer.     

Instead of transforming them by himself, it would be better to buy two-masted sailing ships, and then quickly transport the Militia and the cannons behind the duke's troops with Wendy's control of the wind. With this, he would attack from both sides and annihilate the duke's forces.