Chapter 60 Layout

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Border Town's second recruiting went much smoother than the first time, thanks to the fact that after the winter food rationing, the militia could get more and better food. Every week on the family visiting day, many team members will secretly hand over the bread and jerky they saved on weekdays to their relatives. Roland told Carter and Iron Ax not to interfere in this matter, while those relatives happily brought the food home and spread the news to the neighbors.

An army composed of the people is itself an excellent propaganda model. Neighbors talking to each other is much more effective than city hall propaganda. Now most of the people in the old part of the town know about this - the militia team formed by His Highness not only has a good salary, but also can eat three meals a day, and the battle with the evil beast does not seem so dangerous. Therefore, when recruiting soldiers for the second time, the number of people in the old district increased greatly, and even residents of the new district came to sign up.

The number of people who met the requirements was much higher than Roland expected, so the second militia expanded to 200 people, and Carter led the training on weekdays. When the trumpets sounded, they went to the walls and stood by as auxiliary troops.

Both the chief knight and the minister's assistant raised objections to this. At present, the first militia team is already capable of fighting against evil beasts. At this time, it seems useless to recruit a second team with twice the number of the first team. necessary. Food and wages that are higher than the rations of the general public will lead to an increase in the burden of financial expenditures, and the extra money spent on gold dragons has no obvious effect.

But Roland insisted on his decision.

Because these people were not prepared to deal with evil beasts.

He didn't dare to tell his subordinates the plan brewing in his mind yet. Before the Duke took action, he had plans to attack the fortress—if such an idea were to be spoken out now, Carter and Barov might not be able to accept it at all.

Longsong Fortress is different from Border Town. As the official border of the Kingdom of Greycastle, its walls are ten meters high, built of bricks and stones. The Duke and the Sixth West are all stationed in the inner city, and the number of troops they can mobilize is estimated to be around a thousand. Theoretically speaking, relying on the militia team of less than 300 people, it is impossible to take down the fortress in the siege battle-even if it is equipped with cross-epoch muskets.

And due to the existence of the God's Stone of Retaliation, the witch cannot be used as a beheading weapon. Roland has repeatedly confirmed this to Nightingale. Prominent nobles like the Duke of Lane and the Six Families will definitely spare no effort when purchasing God's Stone of Retaliation—of course, it is called a donation to the outside world. This kind of stone, which can only be obtained by donating a few to dozens of golden dragons, can seal witches within a certain range. It is the most powerful weapon that the church claims to fight against the devil, and it is also where they make the most money every year.

Roland's only chance lies in field battles.

Thanks to this era, most of the wars between lords are in the recruitment mode. The subordinates who want to gather will not slip away halfway, and the lord will basically go with the team, which gives Roland the opportunity to carry out the annihilation battle. But how to seize this opportunity, he is still at a loss. After all, all his experience in luring the enemy into formation comes from film and television works or historical stories, and he has never actually operated it.

Since he can't figure it out, it's better to do what he is good at first, he thought.

Roland stretched, walked out of the office, and came to the wooden shed in the backyard alone.

The assembled steam machine No. 2 stood quietly in the center of the field. At first glance, its appearance is much smoother than that of the Steam No. 1 machine, and the traces of the welding seams of large parts are no longer as uneven as before. This is the masterpiece of Anna's new ability. Her green fire can drill into small gaps for welding, and the large pieces that are stitched together are better than ever.

In line with the research and development spirit that the follow-up model is better than the original model, and the magic-modified model is better than the follow-up model, Steam No. 2 machine has been equipped with a centrifugal governor. As the first automatic control system and feedback system in human history, its appearance can be regarded as of great significance. The structure of the governor is very simple. The main body is composed of two hinged thin rods with iron balls welded at the ends and a rotating main rod. At first glance, it looks like the bamboo dragonfly that I used to play when I was a child. As long as you rub the bamboo pole quickly, the two rotating fan blades will automatically rise due to centrifugal force.

For the governor, the two iron balls are equivalent to the fan blades. When the steam engine is working, the main rod is driven to rotate. When the output is too high, the speed of the small ball is accelerated, and it gradually rises under the influence of centrifugal force, which drives the pull rod to close the small valve. . When the output becomes lower, the speed of the ball slows down, and the position is lowered under the influence of gravity, thereby increasing the valve. Keep the steam engine running at a relatively fixed power all the time.

With the speed controller, steam machine No. 2 can now undertake some more delicate processing tasks.

And the gears delivered to the blacksmiths for production have also been completed, and are now neatly placed in a corner of the shed.

If you look at it from the perspective of industrial assembly line production, none of these gears can be called qualified, and all of them are thrown into the defective product box, waiting to be returned to the furnace. But as far as this era is concerned, they are already rare works of art-the gears designed according to the involute are inherently harmonious and beautiful, and the wheel discs are infiltrated with lard, exuding the unique luster of metal.

In addition to the gear set, the carpenters are responsible for planing the base and platform, and other parts are ready. He asked the guard outside the door to call Anna, and together they began to assemble the first steam-powered boring machine.

In Roland's plan, this is the fastest way to mass-produce muskets.

Relying on a blacksmith to knock out a gun barrel by hand is extremely time-consuming and laborious, but with a boring machine, he only needs to pour iron rods one by one, and then directly drill holes with a boring knife, and can produce more than a dozen gun barrels in a day.

At the same time, by replacing the cutter head, the boring machine can also be used to cut the rifling, and the shooting accuracy of the flintlock with the rifling will be further improved.

In this way, he is sure to arm the two militia teams with nearly 300 people before the end of winter.

But Roland still couldn't guarantee that his citizens could still calmly reload, aim and shoot when facing the knight's charge, instead of throwing down their weapons and turning around and running. After all, the establishment time of these two teams is too short, and they don't have any experience in fighting others.

Therefore, he must bring more powerful firepower to the stage to completely defeat the enemy before they form a charge.

That is artillery.

As the god of war in the history of human warfare, the lethality and deterrence brought by artillery are beyond the reach of guns. A six-pounder field gun with enough range to strike when the enemy muster. It is impossible for the mixed army of this era to maintain discipline under artillery fire. As long as they are equipped with three to four field guns, the opponent will not even have a chance to charge.

He has already made a plan step by step - with a manual milling machine, he can process usable gears, and with gears and the speed-controllable steam No. 2 machine, he can get a steam-powered boring machine. With the steam boring machine, he can process all kinds of barrels and gun barrels.

There are still at least two months before the end of the Demon's Moon. As long as the plan is implemented smoothly, the militia in Border Town will have the strength to fully contend with the Duke's army.

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