Preparation for Aerial Attack
Preparation for Aerial Attack
Compared to the fuze for the artillery shells, there was no need to withstand high temperature and pressure, nor high-G overload when during the detonation, that's why the structure was surprisingly simple. But even for such a simple thing which was made up of a firing pin and a spring, they had to conduct countless experiments to succeed.
The main issue was that no one knew how much elasticity the spring required to avoid ignition during an accidental fall. In the same time, they had to guarantee the firing pin would trigger the bomb during a normal launch.
He and Anna could only test this by changing the thickness and the hardness of the spring little by little.
Fortunately, Anna and Lucia had already done a lot of pre-work. Thus, Roland could choose from a variety of high-quality materials. In the end, through testing, they ended up using the steel alloy number 1365, which had a relatively high hardness, but a lower toughness. So, even if the bomb fell from an altitude of one meter, it would not be completely compressed.
After the selection of the spring, the rest was easy. Even though Roland had never seen a fuze before, he could still come up with a design by himself according to how it worked.
It was certainly not state of the art but it would be enough for the current crude bombs.
The completed fuze looked like a cylinder, 12 centimeters long, five centimeters wide, with a thread below it which could reach up to the top of the bomb.
Its interior looked like a downward convex groove so that the firing pin which had the same shape could fit inside. In the idle state, its top part would be pushed by the spring to the groove mouth, while the firing pin inside the groove was just one finger away from the primer. For security purposes, Roland also opened a hole in the head of the firing pin and used a plug to keep it fixed on top of the ammunition case. This way, before the launch, it was necessary to pull the plug first, or else the firing pin would not move upward and downward.
The simulation launch was held on a sunny afternoon.
Because the weight of the bomb after it was filled with gravel and black gunpowder was close to five times Nightingale's weight, Roland did not to board the hot air balloon, and instead watched the launch with a telescope from 300 meters away.
Apart from himself, Iron Axe, the Commander of the First Army and Carter Lannis, the Chief Knight were also watching the simulation.
"You plan to use a hot air balloon to throw a giant explosive package in the palace?" Carter could not believe his ears when he heard Roland's plan. To initiate an attack from an altitude of two kilometers, disregarding the city walls and the garrison forces, this redefined entirely his concept of a combat—but of course, having stayed in Border Town for almost a year, his previous concepts had been redefined many times already.
"As long as it's controlled properly, this is entirely possible." Roland nodded. "Timothy is currently recruiting soldiers of the militia by force. If he isn't stopped, the Western Territory will definitely suffer from another attack of a drugged army. And even if we win, it won't benefit us at all."
According to Theo's secret letter, Timothy still wanted to use his old tricks to decrease Roland's strength. He was not sure whether the people sent out from Barov would be on time to recruit as many people as possible to Border Town before it was too late.
"Supposing you successfully release "thunder's fury" on Timothy's head, he'll be utterly scared!" Iron Axe said excitedly, "It would be like an inescapable God's Punishment!"
"I hope so." Roland smiled.
Theo had mentioned in the letter that Timothy had probably figured out black gunpowder recipe and had opened a workshop in the inner city, planning to mass produce it. After thinking carefully, Roland still decided to choose the palace as its target.
The reason was simple. The palace was much more eye-catching.
When looked from an altitude of 2,000 meters, even the most magnificent city of Graycastle was half a palm big. Therefore, it was important to choose the target of the bomb in advance. The palace was situated in the middle of the inner city, surrounded by red tile wall. At the top of it, there were white slates, which were particularly eye-catching, making it impossible to miss the target.
But the workshop was different.
Without layout chart of the king's city and ground guidance, it would be impossible to describe the exact location of the target by words. Plus, the workshop's area was not so big. If the bomb were to fall on top of a civilian's house, the whole plan would fail.
Suddenly, a white shadow fell on the ground, causing a pillar of smoke in the simulation field, followed by the thunderous sound of an impact.
"Looks like the bomb has landed." Roland put away the telescope. "Let's go see the results."
After a week's training, Lightning's bomb dropping technique had improved significantly. This time, the bomb had hit the ground just five meters away from the target. The whole bomb was sunk in the ground and the outer shell was greatly deformed due to the impact.
Once the Cloud Gazer landed, Anna used her Blackfire to cut open the bomb, and everyone saw that the soil near the fuze had been burned black—this proved that the primer's temperature was high enough to ignite the gunpowder which was spread on the ground beforehand, so the fuze itself worked properly. If the interior of the bomb was filled with nitrostarch, it would easily create a four to six meters deep hole, and everyone within a vicinity of 50 meters would die.
Since the development of bomb had been completed, the next thing to do was to plan the attack.
Roland looked everyone around him and said slowly, "The surprise attack on king's city will be carried out next week. First, Iron Axe, you'll lead a group of 50 flintlock squad members and escort the witches to the outskirts of Silver City. There's a mountain ridge in that area, which is much concealed, and it's suitable both for setting camp or launching off a balloon."
"Yes, Your Highness," Iron Axe answered.
"We won't fly directly from Border Town?" Wendy asked.
"No, it's too far." Roland shook his head. Normally, from the Western Territory to the king's city it required at least a week's trip and with the Cloud Gazer it would take around six days to go and come back. Furthermore, with the dropping equipment installed, the basket could only load two people, and since Nightingale was not going, only Anna had the ability to fight out of the four witches. Thus, spending six nights in the wild would be too dangerous for them and he did not want to risk it. "If you set out from Silver City, you'll be able to complete the mission in just one day and return before nightfall.
"Next, the witches for this mission are Anna, Wendy, Lightning, Maggie, Nightingale, and Sylvie. The last two will be responsible for monitoring the surroundings, while the attack will be carried out by the first four according to our training. Especially Lightning." He looked at the little girl. "Our success depends on you."
"Just leave it to me," she replied and patted her chest.
"The last thing I want to say is, be careful," Roland emphasized each word. "I'll be waiting for your return in Border Town."
Four days later, under the escort of the First Army, the first bomb "Easterly Wind No.1", carried out by a carriage, was loaded on a freighter to Silver City.