Chapter 20 The God of War
Paul came to the reception room and saw a middle-aged man sitting there awkwardly.
"The person standing in front of you is the owner of the Alda Territory in the northwest bay, Lord Paul Greiman." The servant leading the way said loudly to the man, then turned around and introduced the earl softly: "Sir, he is Marlowe, the foundry craftsman. He is here at your call."
"Sir...Sir." Maybe it was because he was nervous. Marlowe's voice stuttered a little, and he was not very fluent. He saluted and asked: "I wonder if you are looking for me...what's the matter? I have always been honest and law-abiding..."
"Okay, okay, I'm looking for you for a good thing, otherwise we would have met. The location is the prison cell. Are you better at making bells?”
"Yes." Seeing that the lord didn't look like he was trying to embarrass himself, Marlowe breathed a sigh of relief and spoke fluently: "The bell of the church in Huxin Town was cast by me a few years ago. Well...if it hadn't been replaced If you pass."
"It's very good. To tell you the truth, I have also rung that bell. From my perspective, the workmanship is pretty good and the wall is very smooth."
"Hey, sir, thank you."
The lord took out a piece of parchment and slowly unfolded it, "I need you to cast such a thing, can you complete it? This is The drawing is a cross-section. It should really look like a tubular object. I call it a cannon."
Marlow came over and looked at it carefully.
This is a cross-sectional view of an early artillery piece that Paul drew based on the information he saw when visiting Tieba in his previous life, and marked the dimensions. The gun barrel is thin at the front and thick at the back. The length of the barrel is about 1 meter, and the inner diameter is about 84 mm. It has a breech, lugs, and fire holes. It can fire 4-pound solid iron bullets or grape bullets. Not to mention the difficulty of making it. In terms of structure alone, this kind of artillery is much simpler than a musket. As a fan of the puppet army, he did not dare to doodle and came up with a rather conservative design.
Marlow has never seen such a thing before, "I wonder what the Lord made this thing called 'artillery' for?"
"Let's not talk about this first. I need to work here for a long time, and I will give you a monthly salary of 800 copper coins. If you do well, it will increase. Are you willing to work here for a long time? "
"Yes, yes!" He nodded as if pecking rice. Craftsmen like him who specialize in casting do not often get jobs in the northwest region where the economy is not very developed. Sometimes they are even requisitioned by the lords for free in the name of corvee. Now he has a Only a fool would disagree with the long-term stable meal ticket and the salary is so high.
"Okay, here is a labor contract, which is the so-called contract. You can just press your fingerprints later. I will read it to you first."
In addition to a few words about salary, the content of the contract is mainly about confidentiality, such as not revealing the work content to others, not leaving the workplace without permission, etc. Marlowe was confused by the large number of confidential matters.
This is the first time Marlowe has met such a "fastidious" lord. He has never heard of any kind of contract signed by nobles when they let civilians do things. Although some of the clauses in the contract that restricted freedom made him a little unhappy, the helpless treatment was so tempting that he pressed the fingerprint without hesitation.
"Perfect!" The Earl was secretly happy and immediately put away the contract. He thought Marlowe would go back and consider it for a few days, but he didn't expect to make a decision so quickly.
"If you do a good job, I promise that I will not treat you badly. Oh! By the way, from now on, you will stay in my territory, and I will send someone to pick up your family and place them properly."
"Let's continue talking about this artillery. Since you stay here to work, you will have to know some things sooner or later. Do you know the trebuchet and the ballista?"
"I know." Marlowe nodded.
"The function of artillery is similar to theirs, except that I replaced the projectiles with iron projectiles, called 'cannonballs'. The cannonballs were placed in the inner tube of the artillery, and the bottom of the barrel was filled with a It is a substance called "gunpowder". When this substance is ignited by fire through the small hole at the back of the barrel, it will explode violently and then push the shell out. "
" "I understand. What you said is very simple and easy to understand."
"Made some with bronze first, and then try with iron." According to Paul's understanding, bronze has better ductility, and the cannons produced are more durable. It is not easy to explode, and even if it explodes, it will not cause catastrophic consequences. The new army he has worked hard to train is not used as cannon fodder. Every soldier is his treasure, and he cannot inexplicably use it because of his own family. The weapon hangs up.
"According to your experience, how much does it cost to cast a bronze cannon of this size in the picture?" "Such a cannon is estimated to require more than 300 kilograms of bronze. At current prices, the cost is about 5 About a hundred Aldo silver coins or fifty Aldo gold coins.”
Paul was shocked, why is it so expensive! ! ! This is almost as much as the pension of ten soldiers. It is indeed ten thousand taels of gold once the cannon is fired. By the way, I haven’t even asked Philip how much it cost to develop firearms some time ago. At that time, I just told the craftsmen what they needed. Just provide whatever you want, and I hope you won’t cause yourself any more pain.
But now I can only pretend to be fat, people have been recruited, and they are eager to use it.
"How long does it take to cast such a cannon?" He asked the question he was most concerned about.
“Having never built this thing, I can only estimate that it will take at least a month.”
"This...is too long!!!"
Looking at the lord's eyes widening, Marlowe hesitated whether to mention the concept of scrap rate to Paul again.
"Okay, just one month, I will arrange a group of apprentices for you, let them learn from you, and you can cast a few more in one batch. Never let the apprentices starve to death of the master. The more apprentices you teach, the higher the salary will be, and there will be additional rewards."
"Yes, I will do my best, Lord, why not just use iron? If I use iron, I am confident that the price will be about a quarter of that of bronze."
"Sigh - I don't want to boast. This is because I am kind-hearted and think about you craftsmen. You know, iron is relatively brittle, so it would be bad if too much gunpowder explodes during the experiment.”
"What? Explode??" Marlowe heard a word that seemed very dangerous.
"The explosion inside was so violent that the barrel of the gun exploded."
Damn, are you really kind-hearted? Marlowe then realized that he had taken a job that could cost his life, "Lord, this...this...", he began to speak incoherently again, "I have old people above me who need to be supported, and there are young children below me who are crying for food, you see... ...Look...can we just focus on casting?”
“What are you afraid of? When the time comes, you can build a mound of earth, make the fuse longer, and go behind the mound to light a fire. Then it will be safe. ! Forget it, I just captured a group of pirate prisoners. I’ll give you a few and use them to your heart’s content.”
“Oh, okay.” Marlowe breathed a sigh of relief. Make you laugh ”
"The working principle of artillery is similar to another weapon called musket. This one has been made. I will send someone to take you to the place where we specialize in manufacturing weapons later. You can have a good exchange with the craftsmen who make muskets. After thinking carefully about the details of the next work, I asked to start the cannon casting work immediately."
"Yes, Lord Lord." Although he agreed, he suddenly became the craftsman in charge of weapon manufacturing, Marlowe. Still a little uncomfortable.
This is the butler Philip walking in, "Earl, Father Anderson and his teacher Brother Leonard came to visit. This Brother Leonard is the abbot of the North Shore Monastery."
"Oh? Anderson is the one who treated me, right? I've heard of the other one, why did they come to my door? Let them come here, and also arrange for Master Marlow to go to our training The battalion participated in the development of new weapons, and he provided whatever he needed. "
Thank you "Red Left Hand Sword" for providing the data, and modified the artillery caliber accordingly. I checked online, and it seems that there are two versions of information. One says that the inner diameter of the 4-pounder gun is 84mm, and the other says that the inner diameter of the 6-pounder gun is 84mm. Because I cannot find the smaller inner diameter data of the 4-pounder gun, I will use 84mm for the time being. Please apologize if there are any mistakes.
(End of this chapter)