The cannonball exploded within the range of the target, and a thunderous boom rang in everyone's ears. Gwen knew that the boom was not only on the target, but also on the traditions of this world. From today onwards, the walls of the nobles were no longer indestructible, and the towers of the mages were no longer irresistible. The power that could tear apart stone and steel had been firmly in the hands of the Extraordinary for thousands of years. But now, it only needed a three-month training militia to pull the wrench to achieve it.
Some people were stunned.
Jenny stared blankly at the exploding fireball, trying to figure out how powerful a spell it was. Even though she had personally participated in the optimization of the acceleration trajectory, the moment when the cannonball exploded was still beyond her imagination.
She thought of her terrible teacher and guessed how many shots he could withstand in front of the railgun. One shot? Or two?
It was meaningless to withstand a few shots because in the new order created by the lord, all the enemies of Cecil had to face thousands of cannons.
Those who tried to use magic shields and amulets to resist the heat ray guns had already used their lives to prove this point.
Heti was also stunned. She immediately thought of the difference between this war machine and the catapult used in the Second Defensive Battle. After thinking for a while, she realized that these were two completely different weapons.
Most of the time, the catapult was just a deterrent. Huge stones or burning fireballs rose into the air and smashed into the top of the head or the wall with unstoppable force. The pressure brought by the catapult was fatal to the traditional nobles' private soldiers who did not have much sense of honor and responsibility. But in addition to the blow to morale, the damage that the catapult could really cause in a battle was limited. It was just a supplement for long-range attacks when the number of battle mages was insufficient. In most cases, the number of battle mages was insufficient. Their role was often to kill the enemy's important units, to create interference, or to counter the enemy's mages.
This magical device, which was named by the ancestors as the 'Magic Crystal Railgun', was a weapon with the true goal of destruction.
Accuracy, range, destructive power, stability, ease of operation … All of these indicators only had one purpose, and that was to be able to efficiently, accurately, and quickly achieve the destruction of the target … Just as the ancestor had said, when the cannonball exploded, the traditional nobles' castles and the Knight's Regiment's shield wall would all be gone.
Byron watched as the cloud of smoke gradually dissipated in the northern wind. He raised his hand and scratched his slightly messy grey hair. "This thing is more exciting than a ray gun … and more exciting than a catapult."
"If the future battlefield is filled with such things …" Philip looked into the distance and frowned. "Where should Knight and the heavy infantry go?"
Byron glanced at his partner and shrugged. "Didn't you see? Knight is on the side shouting to fire, and the infantrymen are in charge of reloading and pulling the wrench. "
The serious Philip inevitably fell into a state of dilemma. "… I always feel that this kind of battle lacks some sense of honor …"
Byron next to him said, "Think about it, when this thing is popularized, there will basically be two kinds of people on the battlefield. One is those who are killed by the cannonball before they even meet the enemy face to face, and the other is responsible for firing the cannonball. The glory on the battlefield is either a heroic battle or the final victory. Now that the heroic battle has died before the battle, it must be the final victory, so the glory of firing the cannonball is the most glorious …"
Philip was stunned. "Can you really explain it like that?"
"How else can you explain it? You can't always say that whoever loses is the most glorious, right? Then who wins the battle, just surrender the moment the battle starts. So the glory of firing the cannonball is the most glorious, at least compared to those who are lying on the ground. You said you are the most glorious person on the battlefield, if not you, then who? Am I right … "
Philip thought seriously and turned to leave. "… I always feel that you are talking nonsense again."
Byron looked at Philip's back and pulled the corners of his mouth in boredom. "If you have the ability, don't ask for the first batch of railguns when they are installed …"
Then he immediately went to Gwen. "My lord, will this new weapon be installed soon?"
Gwen looked at the wily old fox Knight's eyes and knew that he had a strong interest in this weapon. Byron was a real combat believer, and he did not care whether a weapon was in line with Knight's tradition. As long as it could effectively kill the enemy, it was a good weapon, and the Magic Crystal Railgun was obviously such a good weapon.
"We still need to do some post-production testing, and then we have to do some adjustments to mass production. It will be spring before we can send it to the production line."
Seeing a trace of disappointment on Byron's face, Gwen laughed. "Even if we have a batch of railguns now, the combat corps is not ready to install them. In order to use this new weapon most effectively, we have to form a new professional force."
"A new professional force?" Byron awoke from his excitement of "I'm going to have a Italian cannon!" (Just get the gist) and immediately understood what Gawain meant.
Judging from the range, power, and form of attack of this new weapon, it was not difficult for him to determine what kind of impact it would have on the war. It was definitely not as simple as "changing to a more powerful catapult". For the soldiers who operated the magic crystal railguns, whether it was the most basic training content, the positioning of the railguns on the battlefield, or even the way their superiors commanded them, they had to be redesigned in order to maximize the effectiveness of these "big guns".
"The Cecil Combat Corps will add an 'artillery' unit to specially operate this heavy firepower. I will hand over the organization of the artillery unit, training, and logistics in actual combat to you and Philip after this," Gwen said unhurriedly. "Controlling the railgun requires a certain degree of skill. It is not like the heat ray gun. The range of the Magic Crystal Railgun is beyond the range that can be corrected by intuition. Therefore, operating this new cannon requires a higher standard of soldiers. When aiming, it requires various auxiliary sights to calibrate the angle of fire, it needs to use a pre-prepared firing table to estimate the impact point of the shell, and it needs to be able to quickly respond to the firing instructions issued by the commander. Therefore, it requires a high level of literacy of the soldiers. It is not enough to just read and write. This requires you to pay more attention when you select the first batch of artillery soldiers."
Seeing Byron and Knight leave, Gwen sighed softly.
Then, under his orders, the soldiers and technicians fired all the prepared test shells and live shells, and in the process, they collected a lot of valuable data.
After the test, he called Kamel and Nicholas to his side.
"Are you satisfied with this weapon?" The arcane light on Kamel's body was bouncing. He was obviously in a good mood.
Gwen nodded. "Very good. It has met my requirements in all aspects, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Do you know what it is?"
Kamel was still not used to Gwen's ability to see through a new thing in an instant and come up with a lot of practical suggestions, so he was a little stunned for a moment. However, Nicholas was obviously more used to it. The smiley face with a diameter of 1.3 meters hummed. "Technology by analogy. After the launching of cannonballs with acceleration rail has become a reality, you must be thinking about making similar products of all sizes and uses …"
"That's right." Gwen nodded and looked at the launch site not far away. After the continuous high-intensity shooting test, the Magic Crystal Railgun was cooling down. Now, the technicians were carefully removing the cover of the gun mount to observe the charging structure and the overload device (Rebecca's Enhancement Module) inside to see what changes would happen to the precise parts of the gun after withstanding the load. "This cannon is very powerful, but it's only suitable to be installed on the city wall or other fixed fortifications. Also, the large acceleration rail can only be installed with a fixed position magic net, which means that our soldiers lack the ability to attack. A weapon that cannot attack is destined to be incomplete."
Kamel understood what Gwen meant. "Miniaturize?"
"That's the first direction." Gwen nodded. "On the battlefield against a conventional army, the cannon is too powerful. Find a way to reduce the size of the shell, reduce the acceleration rail, reduce the energy consumption, so that it can be driven by magic capacitors, so that it can be mounted on a carriage, and even disassembled and carried by the cannoneers. The other direction is to diversify the cannonballs. At present, the cannonballs only have one effect, and that is to kill and injure the enemy through explosion. But since we can already launch dozens of kilograms of magical devices hundreds of meters or even thousands of meters away, why not add some variety to these devices? "
Carmel was immediately reminded by Gawain, and a brand new train of thought opened up before him.
As a researcher from the Kingdom of Gondor, he never lacked innovative ideas.
"Dozens of kilograms of magitech devices... There are so many things that can be done." The ancient magus's tone became particularly cheerful. "I can even stuff Creation of Armageddon into it!"
Gwen glanced at the magus. "... You'd better say something cheaper, something that can be used in this era."
"... I'll think about it later."
"You'll be responsible for the design of the mechanical part of the cannon." Gwen nodded to Nicholas and then looked at Kamel. "You're the expert in the field of magic. I believe that with the two of you, it won't be difficult to create more improved models that meet the requirements of the battlefield. But the research has to be tailored to the actual needs, and the production of the new equipment also has to take into account the production capacity of the production line. At present, we should focus on the key projects, don't divide our energy too much. "
Nicholas floated up and down, and Kamel nodded. "Don't worry, of course, I understand."
Gwen suddenly remembered something else. "Speaking of which... Santis has left two days ago, right?"
"Yes, he wants to complete the task you gave him as soon as possible," Kamel said. "And to establish contact with the mages of the Captical as soon as possible, the lack of talent in the territory can be alleviated sooner. If we can expand a group of technicians from the Captical at the same time when the population increases in spring, everything will be perfect."
Gwen looked thoughtful. "Is this part of the plan also going smoothly?"
He looked up and saw Jenny and Rebecca standing not far away. The two of them were pointing at the Magic Crystal Railgun that was being dismantled by the technicians, and seemed to be chatting enthusiastically.
"Jenny! Rebecca! "Gwen called out.
The two girls quickly ran over. Rebecca was beaming. "Ancestor, you called for me? What's the matter? "
Gwen nodded. "I have an idea about the structure of the magic net. See if it can be implemented."
"You've thought of an improvement?" Jenny looked at the lord who seemed to have infinite energy and inspiration with some surprise. "Or did you find a flaw in the current magic net?"
"No, I'm going to create a flaw for it..."
The two girls were stunned at the same time. "Huh?"
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