Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters-Chapter 836 - 86 Defending the City
Chapter 836: Chapter 86: Defending the City Chapter 836: Chapter 86: Defending the City Terdun’s cannon position.
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The interval between cannon shots was growing longer and their accuracy getting worse, and Hong Lingyu, the officer in charge, was very dissatisfied, not hesitating to use his whip.
“How the hell do you not understand?!” an irate little-eyed slave, wearing a smooth leather coat, explained repeatedly without success and cursed at Hong Lingyu, “If there’s a burst barrel, then we’re all done for!”
For a mere slave to be so impertinent to a warrior was unthinkable, unless he was under the influence of some strange medicine.
But the little-eyed man’s status was somewhat special; he was a “house slave” of the fire stoker. In other words, he was the fire stoker’s private property, and nobody dared to beat or kill him.
Hong Lingyu’s expression turned even darker as he turned to look at the Translator.
The little-eyed slave glared and yelled at the Translator, “Translate that for him!”
...
The gunners, wrapped in tattered military uniforms, kept silent, coldly watching the farce unfold.
Apart from the three who were followers, the rest of the gunners were captured Paratu soldiers.
Those captives who were more compliant and had not tried to escape were selected by the fire stoker, formed into a battalion, taught cannonry by the little-eyed house slave who had become an “honorary Terdun,” leading to the formation of the current Terdun artillery team.
The little-eyed slave had been a common gunner in the Fifth Corps but now, as a favored house slave of the fire stoker, his status had skyrocketed.
However, the fire stoker clearly did not entirely trust his new slave and had assigned additional supervisors for the artillery team in combat.
Standing in front of the “honorary slave,” Hong Lingyu was the younger son of the former officer in charge.
The former officer had his left leg below the knee blown off by a cannonball, bled uncontrollably, and soon died.
The Translator, shivering, relayed the little-eyed slave’s words to Hong Lingyu, making sure to translate the profanity as well.
Hong Lingyu flew into a rage, not caring for anything else, and struck the little-eyed slave’s face fiercely with a horsewhip, violently kicking him to the ground.
The little-eyed slave saw stars, struggling to get up, only to have a boot stomp heavily on his chest.
Hong Lingyu drew his curved blade, pressing it to the little-eyed slave’s neck, and said a few ferocious words.
The Translator quickly translated, “The Khan commanded you to fire the cannon, so just fire the damn cannon. Dare to make excuses again, and your head will be cleaved off.”
The desperate little-eyed slave grasped at straws, “The Khan! I want to see the Khan! Herde Khan!”
Hong Lingyu, who understood the last word, tapped the other’s cheek with his curved blade, “[Herde language] You won’t see the Khan! The Khan isn’t even here.”
…
At the same time, Mason was also inspecting the condition of the third-generation cannons behind the city wall.
“It’s ruined,” Mason said regretfully, but decisively ruled, “Send it back to the workshop.”
“It could still be fired a few more times,” Demon Ons stated calmly, “The other wooden cannons can’t shoot solid shot far.”
Mason insisted, “No, the seams have cracked open; take it back to the forge for reworking.”
Demon Ons, without another word, led his men to haul away the wooden cannon.
Terdun’s cannons weren’t nearly enough to destroy the entire wall, so they concentrated their fire on the western arrow bastion.
Revodan’s arrow bastion was a triangular fortress protruding into the trench from the city wall, a primitive form of bastion structure, able to flank enemies entering the trench.
The new arrow bastions were generally independent from the main fortress, so even if the bastion itself fell, the defense could continue from the main fortress.
However, due to the pressing deadline, Revodan’s arrow bastion was integral with the city wall.
If the bastion fell, the wall would be breached soon after.
The cannon fire that continued from early morning until afternoon left the arrow bastion badly damaged; the steep walls had collapsed into a gentle slope.
Inside the trench, Terdun’s soldiers maneuvered, the flickering plumes on their helmets barely visible. They watched the cannons wreak havoc in silence, without launching an assault on the walls.
Mason didn’t mind if the enemy kept up the cannon fire like this.
The Terdun people seemed to be counting on the cannons to completely destroy the arrow bastion, but as soon as night fell, Mason would immediately send out crews to repair the walls.
By continuous “ricochet shelling,” Mason had successfully forced the Terdun cannons back to two hundred meters away. After increasing the distance, the accuracy of Terdun’s cannons also declined.
Even the least confident militia had to admit that it was skill, not luck.
Ricochet shelling – solid ammunition bounces repeatedly off the ground, like stones skipping across a pond.
Although it seemed comical, most of the cannonballs would eventually “accidentally” fly into the barbarians’ cannon positions.
Aiming directly at the target, even with minor differences in firing angle, amount of gunpowder, and weight of the shot, could lead to severe deviation in the projectile’s trajectory.
A shell flying overhead of the enemy would cause no damage, while one landing in front might sink into the mud.
Yet, when Mason aimed a certain distance in front of the enemy and added more gunpowder to lower the trajectory, a subtle change occurred:
The hard winter soil allowed the cannonballs to “skew” upon making contact at a small angle;
Under these circumstances, as long as the cannonball fell within a specific area in front of the enemy, the bouncing shot could inflict casualties;
And “hitting a specific area in front of the enemy” was much simpler than “directly striking the enemy.”
Mason had opened a new door… it was just a bit tricky to navigate.
Because if the iron ball was to bounce, the trajectory needed to be as flat as possible, meaning the speed of the shot had to be fast.
Currently, the only way Mason knew to increase the velocity of the shot was to add more gunpowder.
