When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 702 - 660: Griffin Cannon and Corps-owned Falcon Cannon

The Secret Faction, which was previously chatting noisily, suddenly fell silent.

It's not that they remained calm in the face of danger but rather were enveloped in great confusion, momentarily unsure of what expression to make.

After all, this wasn't just some squire's manor but Fraser Fortress, which had choked the throat of the Northern County for decades.

After the initial bewilderment, a High Priest of the Ruo'an Faction couldn't help but quietly ask a Shadow Council elder beside him: "Do you remember a spell that descended from the sky?"

"Meteor Spell? But that witch died two hundred years ago."

"Is this the spring gun you mentioned? Its power is far greater than what you described." Remembering the thin spring guns home-made by their own people, Solan couldn't help but feel ashamed and annoyed. How dare these alchemists use a miniature version to fool her; do they think she won't dare to kill?

"No, no, no," Louise said while taking a puff from her pipe, "This is a new weapon. I've seen it for the first time myself... No wonder the Secret Faction was all summoned to witness it, was it to establish authority?"

Recently, the Ruo'an Faction had vaguely hinted at forming the "Black Snake Bay Alliance."

Large Secret Factions like the Shadow Council quickly united, but medium and small ones were scared and defiant.

They say it's better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix. If they give up power and lose independence, wouldn't it mean being controlled by a large Secret Faction?

Rationally, they understand the necessity of uniting.

Emotionally, however, most Secret Factions, especially the small leaders, harbor significant concerns.

Coming to Fraser Fortress this time, the Secret Faction members knew they were to be shown a show of force; they just didn't expect it to be this overwhelming.

After comparing with their own Secret Faction strongholds, the medium and small factions present issued a collective hissing sound as they sucked in through gritted teeth.

They realized that with the strength of their small castles or earth forts, they wouldn't need a second shot.

"Faith! Devotion!"

After firing the Spring Cannon, Mormon eagerly walked up to Horn: "Your Grace, according to measurements from the telescope, the Griffin Cannon made a hole of about 1 meter on the enemy's wall with its first shot and caused a collapse with a diameter of about 2 meters."

Holding the telescope, Horn was also staring at the crest of the wall. At the moment he saw bricks and stones flying, he slightly eased his mind.

Normally, the main force of siege cannons are 24-pound and 48-pound cannons, and 12-pound cannons are mostly used for ship guns and specific battlefield field artillery.

This field artillery hit its target with the first shot and coincidentally demolished a section of battlements; Horn thought they would have to fire several times.

After all, although the angle was adjusted with screws and the position with tracks, in an era with virtually no ballistics, fired cannonballs still held considerable randomness.

Astrology could only determine position and distance, while wind force, air humidity, and interference from the trigger rod remained as factors during launch. Whether it hits depends on the gunners.

Mormon exhibited unparalleled talent in operating the Spring Cannon as a veteran fireball crossbowman.

For the result of this initial test firing, Horn was both satisfied and dissatisfied.

To be precise, he was pleased with the effect but annoyed by the elongated 5-meter cannon body and over 2-ton weight of the prototype cannon.

Normally, even 12-pound siege cannons require long barrels, but no longer than 3 meters. Yet, the spring cannon crafted by Leonardo and Haimodin reached 5 meters.

According to their explanation, this was because the brass spring's energy release wasn't instantaneous. If the cannon barrel was too short, the spring would not have fully relaxed before the cannonball prematurely flew out.

However, from another perspective, due to the absence of gunpowder exploding problems, the Griffin Spring Cannon's barrel was 2-4 centimeters thinner than regular cannons.

Of course, as a prototype cannon, its barrel was thickened for safety.

If it were to be used in actual combat later, not only wouldn't there be one-piece barrels, but the barrel could also be even thinner by 2-3 centimeters, and it might even be loaded from the breech.

Because the barrel was too long, a weight supposed to be only around 1.8 tons soared to over 2 tons.

Such a cannon actually needed six horses to tow it, while a Falcon Cannon could be easily pushed by two or three men.

"If it weren't for the issues with fuses and lock wedges, we'd directly build a mortar, and deploy Typhoon shells to the wall. Given their dense positioning, how lovely." Haimodin crossed his arms before his chest, clicking his tongue.

"Instead of thinking about how to solve the issue of timed unlocking of lock wedges, you should be considering how to develop sturdier lock wedges." Horn walked away from the replaced spring warehouse, "I've lost count of how many spring warehouses have exploded."

"My design is perfect; it's a material problem, nothing to do with me," Haimodin immediately shifted the blame to those Dragon Worship Sect Dwarves, "You should go talk to Kaelgen."

The Typhoon shell mentioned by Haimodin involved inserting brass springs and iron sand bullets into an iron-shelled cannonball, unlocking the spring lock wedge upon landing.

Then, as the spring frenziedly rotated and propelled, the iron sand and bullets would explode around like a tornado.

Currently, this Typhoon shell design remains on paper, with no clear idea when it will be developed and when it will go into production.

"Could these lock wedges and spring clamps be used for Corps-owned Falcon Cannons?" Horn looked at the reloaded Griffin Cannon and recording Leonardo and continued asking Haimodin.

In Horn's artillery design, 12-pound cannons would be used for defense and positional warfare, while real field artillery remained the 3-pound Falcon Cannons.

Even the shortened 12-pound Griffin Cannon barrel wouldn't weigh less than 1.7 tons, which meant poor mobility and excessively high costs.

Horn's Corps-owned artillery involved attached artillery for 3-pound cannons at the legion level and independent artillery units equipped with 6-pound cannons at the battle group level.

Haimodin muttered to herself: "Well... equipping 2-pound brass springs for Corps-owned Falcon Cannons would require about 40 pounds of carbon steel to manufacture the spring warehouse.

If each Falcon Cannon were equipped with 15 spring warehouses, consuming 30 pounds of brass and 600 pounds of carbon steel, a legion equipped with 3 Falcon Cannons would require 90 pounds of brass and 1800 pounds of carbon steel; this number is also acceptable..."

While Haimodin was chatting with Horn, under Mormon's operation, the artillerymen fluidly changed the 60-pound spring warehouse and began the second round of artillery firing.

With Mormon's command, shadows wrapped in air waves vaulted out once more, spanning nearly 1500 meters to charge towards Fraser Castle.

The second shot evidently didn't share the previous luck. Though it maintained the preceding angle and position, this shot ended up lodged within the bell tower.

Debris and tiles accompanied fractured wood falling, striking the foreheads of soldiers and knights beneath the wall. A few cowardly soldiers even screamed "devil" and "divine punishment" and began fleeing in all directions.

"Get back to your positions!"

"Wanna lose your head? Return now!"

"Whirr—Crash!"

Only when knight officers brandished whips could they herd these runaway soldiers back into their positions.

Yet, as they raised their heads to look at the crack in the bell tower, they couldn't help but swallow hard.

......

Grateful to the knights of Fort Fraser for their years of toil here, building many water wheels and windmills.

With gear sets installed and larger water wheels replaced, the remaining eight spring warehouses rotated in turns, making the Griffin Cannon roar almost every five to ten minutes.

This Griffin Cannon had been firing from morning till dusk. Had Horn not worried about the spring warehouse exploding due to overuse, it might have continued overnight.

Though the first day had already riddled the wall with gaps and cracks everywhere, Horn still hadn't ordered an assault, but continued testing data from all angles repeatedly.

Two days, three days, until the fourth day, knight and soldier morale within the city collapsed.

The gate wasn't yet blasted open by the Griffin Cannon, yet several hundred Extraordinary Knights had secretly fled the castle on horseback at night.

When the Ruo'an Faction's army stepped into Fort Fraser at dawn, gazing at the soldiers kneeling in rows on either side, with flags hung upside down, they were momentarily bewildered.

Their casualties amounted to only one unfortunate fellow who sprinted too fast when entering the city and broke his leg.