As early as the construction of the cement firing room, Roland had made plans for the following projects. Most of them were built around the North Slope Mine, so they could be effectively guarded. This kind of bungalow with brick walls and wooden roofs could be built very quickly, and it would not affect the progress of the city wall construction.
The large amount of saltpeter purchased from Willow Town was transported to a nearby warehouse for storage. When it was time to use it, the servants would grind and weigh it, and then send it to the bungalow in batches. The same was true for charcoal and sulfur. The handling and mixing of the three raw materials were done by different groups of people, so as to minimize the risk of leakage.
Roland weighed 20 pounds of black gunpowder and slowly poured it on a piece of sheepskin.
The gunpowder had been soaked, compacted, dried, hammered, sifted, and other processes. It had a uniform size of particles, and its combustion performance was excellent. In order to prevent the collision of sparks and accidents, the whole production process did not use any metal utensils, most of them were ceramic or wood products.
After pouring the gunpowder, Roland folded the sheepskin layer by layer, wrapped it in three layers, and then tied it tightly with a rope.
"Is this all right?" Carter asked. Can this thing in front of us be called a weapon? Although it was an improved version of snow powder, who could be scared by the sound? It might be effective against farmers who had never been on the battlefield, but any trained soldiers and mercenaries would not pay attention to it. But... the Chief Knight thought carefully. What His Highness had done recently seemed unreasonable, but most of them had amazing effects. If the intelligence of demonic beasts was similar to that of wild beasts, perhaps this thing would be unexpectedly effective? For example, a loud noise would frighten them and make them scatter, thus reducing the pressure on the city guards and so on.
Roland put the wrapped gunpowder into Carter's arms, and then took a bag of finely ground gunpowder used to ignite the fire, "It's almost time, let's go outside the city wall, Iron Axe should be ready."
About two miles west of the city wall, between the Concealing Forest and the Impassable Mountain Range, was the test area he had drawn.
Iron Axe and several other hunters had been waiting here for a long time. Except for Iron Axe, they were all locals, and they were also the best archers. Hearing that His Highness had a task for them, they could not wait to follow Iron Axe.
By now, everyone knew that the new Lord of Border Town would never be stingy with his hiring fees.
Following Roland's orders, they erected long wooden poles and tied ropes around the perimeter, forming a perimeter of nearly half a kilometer. Knight patrols were arranged near the city walls to prevent anyone from approaching by accident.
Roland walked around the perimeter to check the perimeter and nodded. "Have you brought the prey?"
"Your Highness, they're all here," Iron Axe came forward, dragging a cage. Carter noticed that there were several pheasants and rabbits inside.
"Very good. Put them five, ten, fifteen, thirty steps away from the center. Tie one to each stake."
Carter secretly shook his head and stepped forward to suggest, "Your Royal Highness, I'm afraid that the animals you chose will not be able to test the effects. They are very timid and will scatter in all directions at the slightest sound. Even if you can scare them, you might not be able to scare away the demonic beasts. "
"Scared away demonic beasts?" Roland was slightly startled, but then he responded, "I don't intend to scare them away, even though the sound of this thing's explosion is really amazing."
He walked to the center of the circle with the Chief Knight, put down the gunpowder bag, and used a dagger to make a small cut, letting some of the gunpowder leak out. Then he took out a leather bag filled with gunpowder and sprinkled it from the cut, while moving backward.
Today was a windless day, which was very suitable for this primitive method of detonation.
After retreating nearly a hundred meters, Roland put away the leather bag.
"All right, let's ignite it here," he repeatedly estimated the distance, and after confirming that it was correct, he said to Carter, "Go and call all the hunters."
At this moment, Roland was also a little excited. He had already done a small flashover test before, so he was not worried about the test results. What he cared about was that this would be a great moment. From today on, firearms would officially appear on the stage, and he would be written as a milestone in history as a leader.
After everyone gathered, Roland ignited the gunpowder.
Carter was lying on the ground, looking at the quickly disappearing sparks, his heart was quite disapproving.
At such a long distance, and without putting it in a bronze barrel, it was still a question whether the sound of the snow powder explosion could reach here, but His Royal Highness actually asked everyone to lie on the ground. But since Prince Roland took the lead, he could not say anything more.
The winter ground was very cold, even through the chain armor, he could feel the chill spreading. Carter moved his body, ready to turn his chest sideways, when suddenly a loud noise sounded –
Because the distance was too close, the explosion and the shock wave arrived almost at the same time. He felt his ears buzzing, and the world suddenly became quiet. The tremor of the earth was fleeting. He looked up and saw a black cloud slowly rising, and then gravel and mud fell like rain.
The impact on Roland was much smaller than that of the Chief Knight. Even when setting off firecrackers, he would cover his ears, but after igniting the gunpowder, he immediately prepared to protect himself. The point of the explosion was not like in the movies, where a huge fireball would appear. The fire flashed, and a large amount of mud was lifted up by the air wave, rushing about ten meters into the air. When the dust settled, the only thing Roland felt was: the sound was much louder than firecrackers.
As for Iron Axe and the other hunters, they were already dumbstruck with fear. Among them, only Iron Axe knew that this trip was to test a new weapon, but he did not expect that the sound of the weapon would be so amazing.
Perhaps only the thunder of God's wrath could compare with it!
Roland stood up and led everyone back to the point of the explosion. There was a half-meter-deep pit on the ground, and the rabbit closest to the center of the explosion had already disappeared, leaving only a short piece of wood on the ground.
He checked the other animals one by one. The pheasants placed ten and fifteen steps away were lying on the ground motionless, obviously dead. Although there were no obvious wounds, Roland knew that they had died from the shock wave of the explosion.
The only survivor was the gray rabbit thirty steps (about 15 meters) away. Its thin ear wall was oozing with blood, and when it saw someone approaching it, it no longer struggled, as if the loud noise had taken away its soul.
Carter swallowed his saliva, and the buzzing in his ears gradually returned to normal. At this time, he understood what His Royal Highness meant when he said that he did not intend to scare them away. Is this really an improvement of snow powder? With this result, I'm afraid that the alchemists are far superior to the astrologers.
Iron Axe looked at Roland with a completely different expression, "Your Royal Highness, if the militia could have such a weapon, Border Town would no longer have to fear the threat of demonic beasts. I don't know if it can be mass-produced? "
Roland spread his hands, "Probably not. When the Months of the Demons come, I estimate that we can only make twenty or thirty of them." The main key was saltpeter. In this era, the method of producing saltpeter was still very primitive. They collected the precipitated potassium nitrate crystals by pouring a mixture of lime into the feces and urine of humans and animals. In addition to the alchemy workshop and the upper-class nobles, there were almost no other uses. Therefore, there were not many such refineries, and if they were all used to make explosives, they would soon be exhausted.
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