After nearly a week of assembly and testing, Roland and Anna together completed the development of the contact fuze for the bomb.
Compared to the fuze for artillery shells, it did not need to withstand high temperature and pressure, nor did it have the high g overload when it left the chamber, so its structure was exceptionally simple. But even with such a thing made of a firing pin and a spring, the two of them still tested it many times before they succeeded.
The main problem was that no one knew how much elasticity the spring needed in order to not misfire when it was accidentally dropped, and when it was thrown normally, they also had to ensure that the firing pin could steadily trigger the primer.
He and Anna could only test it little by little by changing the thickness and hardness of the spring.
Fortunately, the latter and Lucia had done a lot of work in advance, so Roland could use more and more high-quality materials. The last to pass the test was alloy 1365, which had high hardness and low toughness, so even if the bomb fell from a height of one meter, it would not be compressed to the bottom.
After choosing a suitable spring, the rest came naturally. Even if Roland had never seen a real fuse, he could still design one based on its working principle.
It was definitely backward, but for a stupid, black, and thick bomb, it was enough.
The finished version of the contact fuze was like a cylinder, twelve centimeters long and about five centimeters in diameter, with a screw thread at the bottom, which could be screwed into the hole at the top of the bomb.
Its interior was a convex groove, and the firing pin was similar, so it could be inserted into the groove. Under normal conditions, its upper part was pushed against the groove by the spring, and the firing pin fell into the groove, exactly one finger's distance from the primer. To be safe, Roland also made a hole in the head of the firing pin, and used a bolt to fix it on the cartridge case. Before throwing the bomb, the iron rod had to be pulled out first, so that the firing pin could move up and down.
The simulation test was carried out on a sunny afternoon.
Because this bomb, after being filled with gravel and black gunpowder, was already close to the weight of five Nightingale, Roland did not board the hot air balloon, but instead watched it from a telescope three hundred meters away from the dropping site.
In addition to him, the First Army's Commander Iron Axe and Chief Knight Carter Lannis were also watching the test.
"Are you planning to use a hot air balloon to throw a giant bag of explosives into the palace?" After listening to Roland's battle plan, Carter could not believe his ears. Launching an attack from an altitude of two thousand meters, ignoring the city wall and the garrison forces, this completely subverted his previous combat philosophy. Of course, during this year in Border Town, he had already been subverted many times.
"As long as it's properly controlled, it's not impossible to achieve," Roland nodded, "Timothy is currently recruiting new militias. If we can't stop him, the Western Territory will inevitably be attacked by Yao Army. Even if we win, it won't bring us the slightest benefit. "
The secret letter sent by Theo showed that Timothy still wanted to use the same old trick to consume his own strength. It was unknown whether the team of emissaries sent by Barov would be able to catch up with the other side and draw more people to Border Town.
"If you can really cast the Wrath of Heaven's Thunder on Timothy's head, he will definitely be scared out of his wits," Iron Axe said excitedly, "This is simply an irresistible Heaven's Punishment."
"I hope so," Roland smiled.
Although Theo had mentioned in the letter that Timothy was likely to have already figured out the formula for the black gunpowder and opened a workshop in the Inner City in an attempt to mass-produce this dangerous substance, but after thinking it over, he still chose the top of the palace as the target.
The reason was very simple, because the palace was sufficiently eye-catching.
Looking down from an altitude of two thousand meters, even the most magnificent city of Graycastle was only the size of half a palm, so when throwing the bomb, it was necessary to find a good landing point in advance. The palace was in the center of the Inner City, surrounded by a red tiled wall, and the roof of the palace was paved with pure white slabs. During the fall, it looked particularly eye-catching, and it was almost impossible to mistake the target.
But the workshop was different.
He didn't have the layout of King's City, and there was no one on the ground to guide him, so it was difficult to clearly describe the target's location with words. In addition, the workshop itself was not large, once the bomb fell into the residential area, the gains of this plan would not make up for the losses.
Suddenly, a white shadow fell straight to the ground, causing a column of smoke to rise in the test field, followed by a dull thud.
"It seems that the bomb has fallen," Roland put away the telescope, "Let's go and see the result."
After a week of training, Lightning's bomb throwing technique had made great progress. This bomb fell less than five meters away from the center of the target, the whole body of the bomb had sunk into the soil, and the outer shell had been greatly deformed under the impact.
When Cloud Gazer landed, Anna used her black flame to cut open the bomb, and everyone saw that the soil near the fuse had already become a mass of charred black, which proved that the high temperature of the primer had ignited the black gunpowder scattered on the surface of the soil, and the fuse itself was working normally. If the inside of the bomb was filled with nitrostarch, it could easily create a four to six meter deep pit, and kill and injure the people within a range of fifty meters who had no shelter.
Since the development of the bomb had been completed, the next step was to arrange the battle plan.
Roland's gaze swept over everyone, and slowly said, "The surprise attack on King's City will be carried out next Monday. First of all, Iron Axe, you will lead a team of fifty people with flintlocks, and escort the witches to the outskirts of Silver City. There is a mountainous area there, which can block the view, so whether it is to set up a camp or to release a balloon, it will be very suitable. "
"As you bid, Your Highness," Iron Axe replied.
"Are we not going to fly directly from Border Town?" Vendy asked.
"No, that is too far," Roland shook his head, from the Western Region to King's City it would take at least a week, if they were to use Cloud Gazer to fly directly, it would still take about three days, including the return journey, it would take six days. After the basket was installed with a throwing frame, it could only carry two people, so Nightingale couldn't go with them. Among the four witches, except for Anna, none of them had the ability to fight, so spending six nights in the wilderness was too risky, he really couldn't rest assured. "If you set off from Silver City, you will only need one day to complete the bombing, and return before the sun sets."
"Next is the witches, this time the mission members are Anna, Vendy, Lightning, Maggie, Nightingale and Sylvie. The latter two are responsible for monitoring the situation around the camp, the attack process will be carried out by the first four according to the training methods, especially Lightning, "he looked at the little girl," whether we can succeed or not depends on you. "
"Leave it to me," the latter said, patting her chest.
"Then the last thing I want to say is, pay attention to your safety," Roland said word by word, "I will wait for your return in Border Town."
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