Chapter 80 Artillery

After the cement boat was placed in the curing room for a week, it was finally time to launch it into the water for drying.

The summoned workers were stunned. When the prince gave the order to push the hard-won bathtub into the water, everyone wondered if they had heard it wrong.

However, Roland's order was indeed the case.

He had the shed temporarily dismantled and removed, and then dug a slope at the bottom of the cement boat, leading directly to the river. This part must be done with extra care, because the tensile and seismic resistance of cement products is extremely poor, and a few cracks are still a trivial matter.

Rolling logs, tying ropes to control the speed of the slide, when everything is ready, the workers wrap the hemp ropes with thick wrists around the newly laid wooden piles and pull them into a straight line. With a command, the rope was slowly released, and the bottom of the boat slid on the rolling logs, making a harsh friction sound.

Fortunately, everything went well. Roland saw that the cement boat gradually fell into the river. The draft of the whole boat was about half a meter deep, and the side of the boat was still about one meter above the water. The workers were surprised to see that this object, which was heavier than a stone, did not sink into the bottom of the river with a rumble, but floated on the surface of the water like a leaf.

"Quickly wrap the rope around the stake a few more times, and then tie it tight!" Roland commanded. The hemp rope tied to the hull cannot be untied, otherwise the cement boat will float south with the river.

Although Nightingale didn't show her body, her shock was evident in her unbelievable tone: "Why can it float?"

"Uh... To put it simply, its average density is lower than that of water, so it can float on the water," Roland replied after thinking for a while, "It doesn't matter if it's iron or cement. In fact, when you see a sailboat, You should understand that such a big boat is much heavier than a rock.”

The voice didn't sound again, and he guessed that the other party was already in deep thought. Even Anna may not be able to react immediately. Roland smiled and continued to direct the workers to the next step.

It takes a long time for the subsequent drying of clothes. When there is heavy snowfall, the work has to be stopped. Only when the snow is light, can we rush to do it for a while. The main content of the sun-decoration is to lay the deck, and the planks are installed on the ship. The gap between the deck and the bottom of the ship stands with many short wooden piles as supports. Although it is a bit of a waste of space, considering the size of the cement ship The main purpose doesn't matter so much.

Followed by anti-corrosion treatment. The carpenters knew exactly what to do. They first applied a layer of pungent-smelling oil to the deck, and then repeated several layers of red paint after it solidified. After everything on the deck layer is completed, the sun decoration enters the stage of superstructure installation.

The so-called upper part is just a wooden shed standing between two masts to store artillery and ammunition. When it rains, the crew can also have a shelter from the rain. There is also a special platform for one person to stand on the top of the wooden shed, which is obviously prepared for Wendy. As long as she stands on the roof, the range of her ability can fully cover the top and bottom of the sail.

The rudder at the stern is made of cast iron, and it is a little troublesome to install. It is necessary to pass the tiller through the reserved hole underwater to expose the deck, and then insert the iron ring from the deck and weld the buckle. The buckle is a right-angled triangle iron plate, the long side is welded to the tiller, and the short side can rotate freely in the slot reserved by the iron ring.

The welding work was naturally handed over to Anna. After expressing shock and puzzlement at the stone bathtub that could float on water, she asked the exact same question as Nightingale.

Roland repeated the answer, and saw Anna squatting aside and meditating.

Well... universal education has a long way to go.

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On the other hand, Vanner hesitated whether to join the Artillery Team or the Musketeer Team.

Everything starts with the order three days ago.

His Royal Highness decided to call out outstanding personnel from the first militia team and the second militia team to form a special team, and Fan Na was very happy to hear that his name was among them. But when Iron Ax asked him whether he would join the Artillery or the Musketeers, he was confused. He knew that muskets were easy to deal with evil beasts at the head of the city, and their penetrating power was much stronger than that of hand crossbows. At present, only Iron Axe, Lord Chief Knight and some hunters can use such fierce weapons. Fanner should have joined the Musketeers without hesitation, but he just asked too much, what is a cannon?

When he learned that it was a musket magnified ten times, and its power was a hundred times stronger than the musket, he fell into a dilemma.

Obviously, the more powerful weapons you can use, the more proof His Royal Highness values ​​you. Joining the artillery team seems to be a better choice than the musket team, but walking through the streets of the town with that straight musket on your back attracts everyone This is the scene he has always dreamed of. Although the cannon is powerful, if it is magnified ten times, surely it cannot be carried away?

Until the deadline of the last day, he gritted his teeth and chose artillery. The last straw that broke the camel's back was the monthly salary of 5 silver wolves higher than that of musketeers.

Then the rigorous training began.

Five people are required to operate a cannon, and Vanner is grouped with Yupi, Cat's Claw, Nelson, and Rodney. Faner was appointed as the gunner because he served as the deputy of the spear team.

Compared with muskets, this thing is ten times more troublesome to serve! For more than a month, he secretly observed the process of Iron Ax operating the musket, thinking that he had already mastered it. However, the artillery has to go through a set of cumbersome operations just to switch from the marching state to the ready-to-fire state.

Stop the horse, pull out the pin, pull up the buckle, move the gun mount, push it to the shooting point, and lower the support. These procedures require the coordination of five people. Separated from the tractor, the four wheels become two wheels, and the support can be dropped. Skillful coordination was required during the changeover, otherwise the heavy gun carriage would be difficult to remove from the tractor.

After the landing is completed, the ammunition is loaded and ready to shoot. This part is very similar to the musket, except that to clean the barrel, you need to use two brushes to poke it in once in turn. The gunpowder is also packaged and can be directly loaded into the barrel. The ignition method uses a medicinal wire to ignite, and it seems that it is difficult to exert its power when it rains, Faner thought.

Fortunately, most of the time, the gunner only needs to instruct others what to do, without spending too much effort.

For the first three days, only one artillery piece was available for training from the four selected artillery groups. So under the command of Iron Axe, a group of people loaded the gun carriage, unloaded it, prepared to fire, and then went back to load it. These two steps were repeated, and Faner suspected that the cannon barrel might be much cleaner than his own face after being cleaned continuously.