Chapter 303 Preparations for Air Attack

After nearly a week of assembly and testing, Roland and Anna completed the development of the bomb's contact fuze.

Compared with the fuze of the shell, it neither needs to withstand high temperature and high pressure, nor does it have a high G overload when it is fired, so the structure is extremely simple. But it was such a thing composed of a firing pin and a spring that the two of them had to test many times before they succeeded.

The main problem is that no one knows how strong the spring needs to be so that it does not go off when accidentally dropped, and the firing pin must be able to reliably trigger the primer when thrown normally.

He and Anna could only test a little bit by changing the thickness and hardness of the spring.

Fortunately, the latter and Lucia have done a lot of preliminary work on weekdays, so Roland has more and more high-quality materials at hand. Finally, the 1365 alloy steel passed the test. It has high hardness and low toughness. Even if the bomb falls from a height of one meter, it will not be compressed to the end.

The right spring was chosen and the rest fell into place. Even if Roland has never seen what a real fuze looks like, he can design one by himself based on its working principle.

It's definitely behind, but it's good enough for stupid aerial bombs.

The completed version of the touch fuze is like a cylinder, twelve centimeters long and five centimeters in diameter, with threads on the bottom, which can be screwed into the opening at the top of the bomb.

Its interior is a convex groove, and the striker is similar in shape, and can fit into the groove. In its normal state, its upper part is spring-loaded against the notch, and the firing pin falls into the notch, exactly one finger's distance from the primer. To be on the safe side, Roland also made a hole in the head of the firing pin, and fixed it on the shell with a plug. Before the bomb was thrown, the iron rod had to be pulled out so that the firing pin could move up and down.

The simulated trial throwing test was carried out on a sunny afternoon.

Since the bomb was already close to the weight of five nightingales after being filled with gravel and black powder, Roland did not board the hot air balloon, but watched from a lookout 300 meters away from the bombing site.

Other than him, the First Army Commander Iron Axe and Chief Knight Carter Lannis were also visiting the test throw.

"Are you going to use a hot air balloon to throw a giant explosive package into the palace?" After hearing Roland's battle plan, Carter couldn't believe his ears. Launching an attack from an altitude of two thousand meters, ignoring the city walls and defense forces, completely overturned his previous combat philosophy—of course, he had been overturned many times in this year in Border Town.

"As long as it's controlled properly, it's not impossible," Roland nodded. "Tifeco is recruiting a new militia. If he can't be stopped, the western border will inevitably be attacked by the drug addicts again. Even if he wins, It won't do us any favors."

The secret letter sent by Tasa shows that Timothy still wants to use his usual old routine to consume his strength, and he doesn't know if the emissary team sent by Barov can draw more people to the border before the other party come to town.

"If you can really cast the wrath of thunder on Timothy's head, he will be overwhelmed with fright!" Iron Ax said excitedly, "This is an irresistible punishment from heaven!"

"I hope so," Roland smiled.

Although Tasa mentioned in the letter that Timothy may have figured out the formula of black powder and opened a workshop in the inner city to try to mass-produce this dangerous item, but after careful consideration, he still chose the target above the palace.

The reason is simple, because the palace is eye-catching enough.

Looking down from a height of two thousand meters, even the most magnificent city of Greycastle is only half the size of a palm, so it is necessary to find a good landing point in advance when dropping bombs. The palace is in the very center of the inner city, surrounded by red tile walls, and the top of the palace is paved with pure white stone slabs, which looks particularly eye-catching during the fall, and it is almost impossible to mistake the target.

But workshops are different.

He didn't have a floor plan of the capital at hand, and there was no one to guide him on the ground, so it was difficult to describe the location of the target with words alone. In addition, the size of the workshop itself is not large. Once the bomb falls into the residential area, the plan will not be worth the candle.

Suddenly, a white shadow fell straight to the ground, causing a column of smoke to rise in the testing ground, followed by a dull landing sound.

"It seems that the bomb has landed," Roland put away the telescope, "go and see the result."

After a week of training, Lightning's bomb-throwing skills have made great progress. This aerial bomb landed less than five meters away from the center of the target. The entire body of the bomb sank into the mud, and the shell was greatly deformed under the impact.

When the Voyage landed and Anna cut open the bomb with black fire, everyone saw that the soil near the fuze had become a mass of scorched black—this proved that the high-temperature gas from the primer ignited the black powder sprinkled on the surface of the soil, and the fuze works fine by itself. If the projectile is filled with nitrated starch, it can easily create a deep pit of four to six meters, and kill unshielded personnel within a range of fifty meters nearby.

Now that the aerial bomb has been developed, the next step is to arrange the battle plan.

Roland glanced at everyone one by one, and said slowly, "The plan to surprise the king's capital is scheduled to be implemented next Monday. The first is the iron axe. You will lead a fifty-man musketeer team to escort the witch to the outskirts of Silver Light City. There are A mountainous area that can block the view, whether it is setting up a camp or flying a balloon, it is very suitable."

"I obey, Your Highness!" Iron Ax responded.

"Aren't we going to fly directly from Border Town?" Wendy asked.

"No, that's too far away," Roland shook his head. It would take at least a week to travel from the western region to the capital, and it would take about three days to fly directly on the Yuanwang, and it would take six days including the return journey. After the hanging basket was equipped with a throwing frame, it could only carry two people. Nightingale couldn't go with them. Except for Anna, none of the four witches had the ability to fight. It was too risky to spend six nights in the wild, so he couldn't rest assured. "If you set off from Silver City, you can complete the bombing in only one day, and return before the sun sets."

"Next is the witch. This time, the mission personnel are Anna, Wendy, Lightning, Maggie, Nightingale, and Sylvie. The latter two are responsible for monitoring the situation around the camp, and the first four will carry out the attack process according to the training method, especially Lightning," he looked at the little girl, "it's up to you whether you succeed or not."

"Leave it to me." The latter patted his chest and said.

"Then the last thing I want to say is, pay attention to safety," Roland said word by word, "I'll wait for you to come back in Border Town."

Four days later, the first bomb "Dongfeng No. 1" was loaded in a carriage, escorted by the First Army team, and boarded a cargo ship heading for Silver City.