Sword of Dawn

Page 128

"No, it means that we finally have good news." The old king raised his head, his cloudy eyes sparkling with fire, "Ansu is not ready for war yet—but fortunately, the war will be postponed gone."

Edmund thought for a while, then shook his head slightly: "I don't think Typhon, the paranoid emperor, will be shaken by this."

"Edmond, you can't just look at the parts," the old king shook his head, speaking of his own judgment, "Rosetta Augustus may not be shaken, but the noble council he formed can also receive the border Intelligence, as well as his First Duke, his advisory group...he may have successfully completed the centralization of the royal family, but he still has to compromise with the group of nobles."

Edmund Moen lowered his eyes, blocking all changes in his eyes: "Is he going to compromise with the nobles too..."

Francis II raised his eyes and glanced at his favorite heir, but didn't say much.

The young prince is too rich and sharp, and he doesn't understand the significance of "compromise" to maintain the country, and he doesn't understand how powerful and necessary the traditional aristocratic system is, but it doesn't matter, this is what every king grows up with. It doesn't matter if you don't understand the necessary link now, he will understand sooner or later.

"Compromise" and "negotiation", an illegitimate son of the past became the king of Ansu with the support of the Duke of the North, and gradually controlled the situation of the entire country, and gradually loosened the shackles around his neck, and had the words of a real king Power depends on "compromise" and "negotiation".

Compromise on the surface, negotiation in private, exchange of interests in the heart, aristocratic politics is nothing more than this.

The old king knew that the negotiation with Typhon was not far away.

In Cecil Territory, in the lord's study, a detailed report was sent to Gao Wen.

Amber tilted her head curiously, and she saw the logos of several technical departments including the Machinery Manufacturing Institute, the Rune Research Institute, and the Military Machinery Institute, but what was more eye-catching was the strange figure drawn on one of the pages s things.

It has long parallel tracks, a cast metal base, and a "sub-device" labeled "cannonball" that seems to be placed in the track. This is really a new gadget that has never been seen before. .

The half-elf lady scratched her hair: "Gao Wen, what is this?"

"Props used to measure truth," Gawain smiled, "one of the most effective means of negotiation."

Chapter 0309 Orbital Accelerator Cannon

Gao Wen would always come up with some inexplicable sentences and words, and sometimes even phrases that others could understand would be combined into an incomprehensible state in his mouth. Amber had long been used to this situation, and Her method of dealing with these obscure sentences is also very simple-that is, to give up thinking.

"Just tell me what it is," Hu Po rolled her eyelids, "A new magical machine? An alchemy device? Or the weapon you mentioned last time?"

"The report on magic machinery and alchemy equipment will not have the logo of the Military Industry Machinery Institute." Gao Wen smiled and pointed to the top of the report, then stood up, "Come on, let's go and have a look at this brand new weapon .”

At the weapons testing ground on the south bank of the Baishui River, relevant preparations have already been made.

What was sent to Gao Wen was a report indicating that the finished product had been assembled and was waiting for the lord's acceptance. At the same time that the report was delivered, Hetty had already ordered the personnel from the Mechanical Research Institute and the Weapons Testing Field to carry out the first inspection. Test ready.When Gao Wen and Amber arrived at the test site, the area had already been sealed off by soldiers from the Cecil Combat Corps, and they informed the residents in the northeastern part of the city about the weapon test in advance—the new equipment of the Cecil Collar often Accompanied by a huge explosion, so under normal circumstances, it is necessary to issue a notice in advance.

This is a weapon that Gao Wen placed high hopes on, and it was an "expedited and aggravated project" that was put on the agenda after the second Cecil defensive battle. All the onlookers rushed to the scene, including Byron and Philip, the... knights, as well as the technical leaders such as Jenny, Kamel, and Nicholas Dan. Of course, Hetty and Rebecca were also present.

This is the case in the initial stage of entrepreneurship. There are only a few people in the top team, and because of insufficient manpower, they often need cross-help, so that whenever there is a big achievement, they all come to watch.

As soon as Gao Wen showed up, Rebecca trotted happily to meet him: "My lord ancestor! My lord ancestor! The 'art launcher' you want is ready!"

When Gao Wen was chatting with the silly roe deer last time, he couldn't help mentioning "explosion is art", but this girl was directly misleading...

Gawain pressed Rebecca's head, and his eyes fell on the war machine that had just stepped off the mechanical assembly platform.

It is very large, with a three-meter-long acceleration orbit and a total height of nearly two meters. Its shape is very similar to the theoretical model that Gao Wen built in the "simulation experiment field" before, but the details are very different.

It has four metal rails arranged in parallel, which are still fixed on the base according to the cross structure. The tracks simulated in the environment are different, and the entire acceleration-orientation structure in front of us has been additionally reinforced. There are three "fixing rings" made of strong steel plates to firmly combine the four guide rails, and from those fixing rings Judging from the shining magic runes, they probably also have the function of assisting the rails to release waste energy and reduce magic interference.

The entire acceleration structure is installed on a roughly triangular base, which is covered with steel plates. Although it is only a prototype, the powerful metal control ability of the Nicholas egg still makes this base look very standard and precise. Its On the side, you can see the lines formed by the slightly shining magic material, and at the rear, you can see the joystick for control and the handle that can be shaken. In the part connecting the triangular base and the acceleration structure, Gawain noticed a huge The gears and shafts are obviously used to adjust the elevation angle of the orbit.

"According to your drawings and improvement suggestions, I redesigned its adjustment mechanism so that it can adjust the pitch angle in a wider range, and the base also reserves a rotating disk connected to the gun position, which can eventually make the whole The cannon can rotate freely," Nicholas' funny egg floated over, and there was a metallic trembling sound from the sphere, "the 'cannon sight' you mentioned is added to the upper positioning rail. In addition, Kamel has also redesigned the rune arrangement of the accelerated track to be more conducive to the release of waste energy, which can improve the overall lifespan of the track."

Gawain turned his head and glanced at Kamel, thinking that this ancient magister was really obsessed with "lifespan"...

"This is the 'cannonball' it uses," Kamel seemed to have guessed what Gao Wen was thinking, and broke the silence with a slightly embarrassed voice. A metal magic device was presented to Gawain, "I prepared a test bomb without explosives and a complete live ammunition—except that the explosives were replaced with gravel of the same weight, the test bomb and the live ammunition were completely complete in every respect. Agreed. This is a test round."

Gawain looked down - this magic-based cannonball had a completely different shape from the Earth cannonball he remembered.

Instead of a cylindrical body and conical warhead, it resembles a small, weird obelisk.

Its projectile is in the shape of a cuboid, with a depression on the top and bottom to match the directional guide rail in the acceleration orbit. The tail and front of the projectile, which look like small gold towers, are engraved with the "blessing of the wind" runes on the surface of the projectile. Those runes It's all dim now - apparently, it's not charging.

And you can't see the magic guide structure connected to the shell body.

"Where does the energy of the wind rune group come from?" Gao Wen asked curiously.

"Recharge during the acceleration process in the orbit," Kamel explained, "cannonballs are consumable items, so find a way to save costs, because the wind rune on it only needs to let the cannonballs fly at most after activation Tens of seconds, so there is no need to consider making it carry independent energy. For the basic spell effect with only one level, you only need to add some crystal dust to the material when drawing the magic circle, so that it has the basic energy storage property , then the energy accumulated in the magic circle is enough for the magic to run for about 1 minute."

Gao Wen was a little surprised: "This is a good idea - what do you think?"

"I hope so, but it was Rebecca's idea," Kamel changed into a humble gray-blue color, and stepped aside slightly to let Rebecca step forward, "I have to admit, your The genius of descendants in invention and creation is simply enviable."

Rebecca immediately walked up with an expression of "I'm super powerful", and raised her face to the sky in front of Gao Wen: "I got the inspiration from your magic capacitor - as long as you are on the acceleration track Add some additional magic-guiding structures to the cannon mount to drain some of the energy out of the gun mount, and then treat the runes containing crystal dust on the shells as weak magic-storing crystals, then the entire acceleration track becomes an open The magic capacitor. Although the shell stays in the acceleration orbit for a short time, coupled with the contact stage between the shell and the orbit during loading, this charging process is completely sufficient!"

Gao Wen knew it well, and felt that it should be so—only Rebecca, who came from a poor life, could always put the idea of ​​"compressing costs and achieving mass production" taught by him first. There may be this idea of ​​racking their brains to reduce costs - if it was the Gondor Empire back then, it would be considered difficult for the gang of gods to eject a cannon without a whole piece of blue crystal...

Gawain praised Rebecca a few words, made the girl so beautiful and started giggling, then turned to look at the soldiers standing by the railgun: "The technical details will be discussed later, I can't wait to see its actual performance." , shall we start with the test bomb?"

"This is the most in line with the process." Kamel said while controlling the evoking hand to send the test bullets to the soldiers.

According to the newly learned operating procedures, the soldiers immediately began to load this huge war machine.

They opened the loading port on one side of the gun base, pushed the shells into it, and stuck the shells into the orbit with the help of the push rod, then closed the loading port, adjusted the angle of the acceleration track, and activated the charging structure for overload (the scientific name is Rebecca Booster). effect mod)...

The magic line on the gun mount gradually brightened, followed by the rune group on the entire acceleration guide rail, a strange, low humming sound began to sound.

Another soldier manipulating the cannon was already standing behind the side of the cannon mount, putting his hand on the handle for firing the cannon.

Knight Byron gave the order: "Fire!"

The soldier then pulled the handle.

The cannonball was pushed into the acceleration section by the base repulsion mechanism, and then accelerated rapidly under the action of a series of repulsion runes. All the sounds converged into a sharp detonation. With the violent retreat of the entire acceleration track in the base, a shiny metal The device rushed out of the orbit under the wrap of a light blue cyclone, and flew into the clear sky with a sharp whistle.

Compared with the "artillery" that relies on the explosion of gunpowder to propel the projectile, the sound of this accelerated railgun is much quieter, but the sudden explosion still startled Rebecca and Hetty——Jenny even more He exclaimed softly, and covered his ears slowly.

And a few seconds later, on the opposite side of the distant, targeted hillside, Gawain saw a cloud of smoke suddenly rising.

He smiled: "If the guns are okay, let's use live ammunition—that's more intuitive."

Several technicians from the Mechanical Research Institute immediately stepped forward to check the condition of the rail gun, and soon a report came: "The track is in good condition! The charging structure and overload structure are in good condition! All moving parts are firmly connected!"

"Live ammunition!"

The soldiers repeated the process of the first launch, and this time, what was pushed into the accelerated orbit was a live ammunition filled with tens of kilograms of Rebecca crystals.

Rebecca, who was well aware of the movement of the crystal she tossed out, immediately got behind Hetty, and Hetty subconsciously hid behind Gawain. Amber looked at the reactions of the two of them, thought carefully, and calmly analyzed , the whole person becomes illusory - if the situation is not right, he will jump directly to the shadow world.

Then, the rail gun fired.

There was still a sudden explosion, and a metal device that looked like a small obelisk and wrapped in light blue air rushed out of the orbit. Even Gawain and Kamel could barely catch up to its flight path. ——The cannonball did not explode immediately after it exited the "bore". Its projectile body and fuze safety mechanism have withstood the test. The whole cannonball flew a long parabola in the air, and after tens of seconds, it hit heavily on the ground. On a hillside far away.

There was a loud bang, like a thunderclap, countless earth and rocks rose into the air in the explosion, and the impact fireball produced by the explosion of magic power rose into the air.

Hu Po, who was about to drill into the Shadow Realm, froze in place.

She stared blankly at the hillside that had been covered in smoke, dust and rocks, with a huge fireball flying into the air, and suddenly understood what Gawain meant by "negotiation means".

Under any circumstances, anyone who uses this thing to negotiate with her, she will definitely cooperate...

Chapter 0310 Gao Wen's Improvement Plan

The cannonball exploded within the range of the target, and a thunderous bang was heard in everyone's ears. Gawain knew that this bang not only hit the target, but also hit the tradition of this world—from Starting today, the walls of nobles are no longer indestructible, and the towers of magicians are no longer irresistible. This power that can tear rock and steel has been firmly controlled by extraordinary people for thousands of years, but now, it All it takes is a militiaman in three months of training to pull a wrench and make it happen.

Someone is in a daze.

Jenny stared blankly at the exploding flame, and weighed in her heart how powerful it was equivalent to magic—even though she personally participated in the optimization of the acceleration trajectory, the moment when the shell exploded was still beyond her imagine.

She thought of her terrifying mentor, and guessed how many rounds her mentor could withstand in front of the rail gun, one shot?Or two shots?

It is meaningless to resist a few shots, because in the new order created by the lord, all those who are enemies of Cecil will face a barrage of shots.

Enemies who have tried to use shields and amulets against the heat ray gun fire have proven this with their lives.

Hetty also fell into a stupor, and she immediately thought of how different this war machine was from the bomb trebuchet used in the second defensive battle—after thinking about it for a while, she realized that they were two completely different things. Concept weapon.

Catapults are often just a deterrent. Huge stones or burning fireballs rise into the air and hit the top of the head or the city wall with unstoppable force. It is fatal to traditional noble private soldiers, but apart from the blow to morale, the damage that trebuchets can actually cause in a battle is actually very limited. A supplement: In most cases, the number of battle mages is insufficient, and their role is often only to kill important enemy units, create positional disturbance, or counter enemy mages.

And this magical device named "Magic Crystal Railgun" by the ancestors is a weapon that truly aims at destruction.

Accuracy, range, destructive power, stability, ease of operation...the purpose of all indicators is only one, and that is to be able to achieve the destructive effect on the target efficiently, accurately and quickly... As the ancestors once said, when a shell After the explosion, the castles of the traditional nobles and the shield walls formed by the Knights will all be gone.

Byron watched the cloud of smoke gradually dissipate in the north wind, raised his hand and scratched his messy gray hair: "This thing is more powerful than a ray gun... and much more powerful than a trebuchet."

"If there will be such things on the battlefield in the future..." Philip looked at the distance and frowned, "Where should the knights and heavy infantry go?"

Byron glanced at his partner and shrugged: "Didn't you see it just now? The knight shouted to fire the cannon, and the infantry was responsible for reloading and pulling the wrench."

Philip, who has a serious personality, inevitably fell into a tangled state: "...I always feel that such a battle lacks a sense of honor..."

Byron was on the side to enlighten: "Think about it, after this thing is popularized, there are basically two types of people on the battlefield, one is shot to death before meeting people, and the other is responsible for firing the cannon. , the honor on the battlefield is either a heroic fight or a final victory—now that those who fought bravely died before the battle started, that must be the highest honor for the final victory, so the most honorable thing is to shoot..."

Philip was stunned when he heard this: "Can you really explain it that way?"

"Otherwise, how do you explain it? It can't be that whoever loses is honored every time, right? Then whoever wins the battle can surrender directly when the war starts-so the one who fires the gun has the most honor, at least it is more honorable than the gang lying on the ground. The field is the most honorable, who will be honored if you don’t honor it? Right..."

Philip thought for a while, then turned his head and left: "...I always feel that you are talking nonsense again."

Byron looked at Philip's back and twitched the corners of his mouth in boredom: "When you have the ability to install the first batch of rail guns, don't..."

Then he came to Gao Wen immediately: "Lord, will this new type of weapon be installed soon?"

Gawain looked at the eyes of this old fritter knight and knew that the other party had already developed a strong interest in this weapon. Byron was a true combatant. It is good equipment to effectively deal with the enemy, and the magic crystal rail gun is obviously such a good equipment.

"We still need to conduct some post-tests, and then we need to make adjustments for industrial mass production. It will take the next spring when it is sent to the production line."

Seeing a look of disappointment on Byron's face, Gao Wen laughed: "Even though there are a batch of finished rail guns now, the Combat Corps is not yet ready to deploy them—in order to use this new type of gun most efficiently weapons, we must form a new professional army."

"A new professional army?" Byron woke up from the excitement of "I'm going to have Italian guns" (just understand the spirit), and immediately understood what Gawain meant.

From the range, power, attack form and other aspects of this new weapon, it is not difficult for him to judge how this thing will affect the war situation. It is not just as simple as "changing a more powerful trebuchet", For the soldiers who operate the magic crystal railgun, whether it is the most basic training content, or its position on the battlefield, or even the command method of the superior commander, they must be re-customized to make these "big bang bang" "Maximum effect.

"The Cecil Combat Corps will add 'artillery' units to specialize in manipulating this kind of heavy firepower. I will hand over the formation, training, and logistics of the artillery units to you and Philip after this," Gao said. Wen said unhurriedly, "Manipulating a railgun requires certain skills. Unlike a heat ray gun, the range of the magic crystal railgun has exceeded the range of aiming corrections based on intuitive feelings. Therefore, manipulating this new cannon This puts forward higher requirements for soldiers. When aiming, it needs to use various auxiliary sights to calibrate the firing angle. It needs to use the pre-compiled shooting table to estimate the drop point of the shell, and it needs to be able to quickly respond to the shooting instructions issued by the commander. , so the cultural level of the soldiers is relatively high—it’s not even enough to be able to read and write, so you need to pay more attention when selecting the first batch of artillery.”

Seeing Knight Byron leading the order to leave, Gawain let out a soft breath.

Then under his order, the soldiers and technicians fired all the prepared test and live ammunition, and collected a lot of valuable data in the process.

After the test, he called Kamel and Nicholas to his side.

"Are you satisfied with this weapon?" The arcane light on Kamel's body was jumping, and he was obviously in a good mood.

Gao Wen nodded: "Very good, all aspects have met my requirements, but there is still a lot of room for improvement, do you know what it is?"

Kamel was not quite used to Gao Wen's ability to see through a brand new thing in an instant and immediately put forward a lot of practical suggestions, so he was a little dazed for a while, but Nicholas was obviously more used to it than him. The 1.3-meter-diameter comic made a buzzing voice: "Technology is by analogy. After launching projectiles with accelerated orbits becomes a reality, you must consider making similar products of various sizes, models, and purposes next. Bar……"

"That's right," Gawain nodded, and then turned his gaze to the launch site not far away - the magic crystal rail gun has dissipated heat after the continuous high-intensity shooting stress test, and now the technicians are carefully disassembling the gun. The cover plate of the seat, observe the charging structure and overload device (Rebecca booster module) inside to determine what happens to the delicate parts of the cannon after these loads, "This cannon is very powerful, but it is only suitable for Installed on the city wall or other fixed fortifications, and the large acceleration track needs to be brought up with a fixed position magic net, which means that our soldiers lack offensiveness... A weapon that cannot actively attack is doomed complete."

Kamel understood Gawain's meaning: "Miniature?"

"This is the first direction," Gawain nodded. "On the battlefield facing the regular army, the power of that cannon is too much. Find a way to lighten the cannonball, reduce the acceleration trajectory, reduce energy consumption, and let it It can be driven by a magic capacitor group, so that it can be mounted on a carriage, or even disassembled and carried by the artillery crew. The other direction is the diversification of shells - the current shells only have one effect, that is Kill the enemy through explosions, but since we can already launch magic devices weighing tens of kilograms to hundreds of meters or even thousands of meters away, why not add some tricks to these magic devices?"

Kamel was immediately reminded by Gawain that a new way of thinking opened up before his eyes——

As a researcher from the Gondor Empire, he has never lacked innovative ideas.

"A magical device weighing dozens of kilograms...there are too many places to play," the tone of the ancient magister became particularly cheerful, "I can even insert a 'Wound of Annihilation' into it!"

Gao Wen glanced at the other party: "...you'd better find a cheaper one, and it can be used in this era."

"...Then I'll think about it later."

"You are in charge of the design of the cannon's mechanical part," Gao Wen nodded to Nicholas, and then looked at Kamel, "You are an expert in the field of magic. I believe that with the two of you, we will create more and more suitable guns." It is not difficult to improve the models required by the battlefield. However, the research must meet the actual needs, and the production of new equipment must also take into account the production capacity of the production line. At present, we still focus on those key projects, and don't divide our energy too much. pass."

Nicholas floated his body up and down, and Kamel nodded accordingly: "Don't worry, of course I understand this."

Gao Wen suddenly remembered another thing: "Speaking of...Santis has been away for two days, right?"

"Yes, he wants to complete the task you gave him as soon as possible," Kamel said, "and he can quickly establish contact with the mage circle in the capital, and the shortage of talents in the territory can be alleviated earlier-if the population is in the spring When the increase is made, a group of technicians from the capital can also be added at the same time, then everything will be perfect."

Gao Wen looked thoughtful: "Is this part of the plan going smoothly..."

He raised his head and saw Jenny and Rebecca standing not far away, pointing at the magic crystal rail gun disassembled by the technicians, and they seemed to be having a lively chat.

"Jenny! Rebecca!" Gawain called out.

The two girls ran over quickly, and Rebecca beamed: "Master Zu, you called me? What's the matter?"

Gao Wen nodded: "I have an idea about the structure of the magic net. You can see if it can be realized."

"Have you thought of an idea for improvement?" Jenny looked at the lord who seemed to have infinite energy and inspiration with some surprise, "Or did you discover the flaws in the current magic net?"

"No, I'm planning to create a flaw in it..."

The two girls looked confused at the same time: "Huh?"

Gao Wen smiled: "I plan to dig a hole..."