After Becoming The Tyrant CH 116 The Skeleton Musketeer
The experiment field was filled with the smell of gunpowder, and the members of the gunpowder research institute and the military design institute who deeply dislike each other were gathered together on one side. Mr. Raul, whose coat was already wrinkled, was sweating all over his face, staring anxiously at the middle of the field, holding a flag in his hand:
"Group A! Good! Three, two, one!"
He waved the flag.
Boom——
There was an explosion that was many times quieter than the sound of a cannon firing, and a birch target standing on the square shattered.
"Yes! Yes! It's a success!"
Mr. Raul let out a loud shout, and couldn't help waving his arm vigorously. Everyone cheered and turned their heads to look with joy at the King who was accompanied by the Devil.
"Your Majesty! We succeeded!"
"Yes, you succeeded."
The King replied, looking at the center of the test field, with his fingertips touching. In order to show respect to the King, Raul and the others specially moved a clean desk and chair and arranged them in a safe place outside the experimental area.
Right now, Legrand's First Military Heavy Industry Department united to demonstrate to the King the results of their "super-fire military artillery" plan.
The King finally knew what his mad scientists had been up to——
In the very center of the experimental area, a skeleton was half-kneeling, and on the shoulders of the skeleton was a cylindrical iron pipe nearly two meters high. The iron pipe looked like a scaled down version of the cannon, or it was an enlarged hand cannon. The shot that knocked down the birch target just now was done by this skeleton.
This was the "super-fire military artillery" plan jointly completed by Raul and the Rogers brothers.
This group of lunatics ran wildly on the road of "explosions equates truth", which was simply insane.
Not only did they try their best to create a giant cannon that could blow up a castle, they didn't even let it go on the ordinary frontal battlefield either. In the words of the Rogers brothers, "Gunpowder weapons should be used in all aspects on the battlefield. It should be emphasized that whether it is in naval warfare or on land, it should never be used only as a siege weapon, nor should it be sitting on the back bench for most of the war."
This statement full of "explosions equates truth" was for once recognized by the military designers.
Originally, the King only asked them to improve the cannons, but they temporarily put aside their grievances and thought up how to let gunpowder weapons usurp the dominance of heavy cavalry on the battlefield.
Finally, they set their sights on an overlooked item.
As early as the late 14th century, iron pipe firearms using gunpowder appeared in the Hopeless Inner Sea area, which were called "fire sticks" or "hand cannons". Before the outbreak of the Black Death, this novelty had already been introduced to Legrand by ships between the Abyss Strait and the Inner Sea.
But the hand cannons at this time were the same as the artillery before them. Although military strategists know of this kind of thing, they were still not used significantly on the battlefield. They were far less powerful on the battlefield than longbows and crossbows, and it was even considered a shame to die under hand cannons at this time.
——Everyone knew that hand cannons were useless except to frighten the enemy, and if they were hit they were either unlucky or a coward.
Mr. Raul believed that hand cannons were an important direction for the use of gunpowder. He specifically consulted the oath knights who were in charge of the order of the industrial base, why hand cannons were not popular on the frontal battlefield.
At the beginning, the oath knights were a little dissatisfied with the King's emphasis on the cannon, but this dissatisfaction soon disappeared in the daily "rumbling" explosions of the Rogers brothers and Mr. Raul. In fact, when Mr. Raul, who could be considered to look like a weak scholar, came to ask, the oath knight couldn't help but take a step back subconsciously, and had some inexplicable fear of Mr. Military Designer, who was clearly someone he could knock down with one punch.
Finally, an oath knight who had seen mercenaries use hand cannons gave the answer:
The hand cannon and the short wooden sheath used to support it were usually more than one meter long. The gun body was too heavy and the recoil was too strong. It was difficult for ordinary soldiers to use in mobile warfare, and the accuracy of the hand cannon was really poor. It simply didn't do anything other than create chaos. There were some merits in using them while hidden within the castle defenses when defending the city, but in this way, the slow-loading hand cannon was not as fast and powerful as the longbow when defending the city.
To solve these problems, gunpowder research and military design joined forces for the first time.
The Rogers brothers came up with the idea of the fuse based on their previous experience learning from fireworks craftsmen, and the military designers thought about combining matchlocks with hand cannons. Although the progress of matchlocks and hand cannons was slow, this group of guys did not give up and wholeheartedly wanted to make hand cannons work on the frontal battlefield.
Finally, they turned their attention to...
Well…..
The skeletons.
"And that's it." Mr. Raul explained thoroughly, "We made an enlarged version of the hand cannon——it can be regarded as a reduced version of the cannon. Before the matchlock device is solved, the difference between the two is not big. The skeleton gentlemen have great strength and can easily carry heavy hand cannons, and the recoil does not affect them too much. In addition, an important drawback of hand cannons is that they need to ignite the gunpowder in the medicine chamber with a red-hot iron block, the shooter must complete the action of grasping the gun barrel and igniting the fire at the same time when firing, which is not only slow, but also difficult to accurately aim. But!"
Mr. Raul's voice rose.
He pulled over Mr. Skeleton who had come down from the experiment field, and patted his shoulder blades excitedly.
"But! Your Majesty! Our Mr. Skeletons are different!" Mr. Raul continued, "Our Mr. Skeletons aim not by eyes, but by the feeling of their soul fire! The Mr. Skeletons can temporarily disassemble their bones–—yes! They can bite the ignition rod with their own teeth, and then aim and shoot at the same time! Even their fingers are extraordinarily flexible, not afraid of high temperatures, and can even complete this series of actions with precision!"
The skeleton shooter who had his shoulder blades patted clacked the upper and lower rows of teeth at the King, showing a shy smile.
The King looked at his newly baked musketeer in silence, and saw that the skull was covered in black smoke because of the experiment just now, half white and half black.
"Then....." The King looked at the skeleton smiling happily at him, and carefully considered his words, "What about when the matchlock device is improved?"
The happily smiling skeleton stopped smiling, and the skull fell off in sadness.
Mr. Raul inexplicably felt an intangible condemnation of his conscience——as if he was an unscrupulous client in a brothel——he waved his hands and quickly dispelled the messy associations: "Ahem! In fact! We have a new idea, and our Mr. Skeletons play an important role in this plan."
"We believe that there are two development paths for hand-held guns: first, completely get rid of the influence of the prototype of the cannon, reduce the size, improve accuracy and portability, and make it be suitable for ordinary soldiers to operate. Second, maximize the size, but for human soldiers, only ones with strong chest muscles can use it, but this is not a problem for our Mr. Skeletons. This is the future development goal of the super-fire military artillery.”
Hearing his words, the skull on the ground jumped cheerfully.
Obviously, these skeletons were more willing to serve their Majesty the King on the battlefield than digging mines and building houses.
The Devil sighed, unwilling to look at this scene.
——So stupid! These skeletons were so stupid!!
The King glanced at Mr. Raul, and then at the skeleton who was obviously very happy: "So, it's time for me to make a new batch of badges——for my skeleton musketeers?"
The Skeleton Musketeer joyfully tossed his own skull into the sky. Not far away, the skeletons carrying ore glanced over enviously.
"Fine....." The Devil compromised, "I will select a batch of suitable skeletons for you."
The King let out a small laugh.
Fine.
The Devil thought, let hell throw away its dignity to please the King.
Just when Mr. Raul wanted to continue explaining to the King, a messenger crow flew down from the sky, and it gently placed a letter on the King's desk.
The King opened the letter.
That rare lighthearted smile faded, and his expression became serious.
"The Hall of Truth?"
He said to himself.
………………
The capital of the arts, Will City.
The sun was shining brightly, and a group of white doves symbolizing peace and happiness were fluttering upwards at the sound of the church bells. The winter was over and the weather was getting warmer. But Matthias felt a chill in his bones as he sat at the table by the window.
"Father, you have to think clearly!"
His daughter who was about to get married cried and persuaded him with red eyes.
"Tomorrow, you just say, the heliocentric theory is wrong and that's enough. Can it be that our family's lives are not as important as your numbers that no one even cares about?!"
"But the math doesn't lie....."
Matthias, who was not good at words, wanted to explain to his daughter.
Tomorrow, in the "art capital" of Will City, there would be a debate on some of the ideas put forward by the heretics. This was a large debate hosted by the Holy See, and many well-known scholars were invited. The Holy Empire specially arranged this performance in order to show its broad mind, to declare openly that God's words were the truth.
The Emperor of the Holy Empire declared: God is just and benevolent, and He is willing to give the heretics a chance to teach them the right way with the truth. At the meeting, the Holy Court will allow all scholars to put forward their own views and answer them one by one. God will forgive the world with His wisdom.
Matthias was one of the invited astronomers.
After accepting the invitation, Matthias was quite proud at first, until a few days ago, when a bishop came to the door, suggesting that if he opposed the heliocentric theory in the debate, then his wife and daughter would get the jewelry they wanted, and he would also become a clerk of the Holy Court.
"To hell with mathematics." Matthias's wife threw his manuscripts into the fireplace coldly, looked at him, and said word by word, "Do you know the "Malleus Maleficarum" that was just published? The inquisitors have already questioned Bella and I."
Matthias was speechless and leaned back in the chair wearily.
"I…..I see."
He whispered.
His wife and daughter left, leaving the door ajar.
Matthias stared blankly at the manuscripts burning rapidly in the fireplace.
It was getting dark, and evening came.
Matthias's daughter went upstairs to call her father for dinner. She knocked on the door several times, but got no response.
She pushed open the door and froze.
The room was quiet, no candles were lit, and the fire in the fireplace had already been extinguished. Her father's hands were hanging by the chair, stiff and pale. There was a strong smell of blood in the room.
With a scream, the soon-to-be-married girl rushed downstairs.
The evening sun hung down in the western sky, and the rays of light were like blood.
The sun shone quietly on the earth.
Once upon a time, there was a little boy who chased the setting sun in his childhood. Over and over again, he thought that one day he would be able to chase the sunset. Later, when the boy grew up, he began to calculate the angles of the sun, the moon and the stars over and over again. He thought, if he couldn’t go to the place where the sun sets, he would calculate the angles of the sun and the stars.
He wanted to reach out and touch the sun.
Eyes could be deceiving, legends could be deceiving, but numbers could not be deceiving. The boy who grew up calculated those complicated and huge degrees countless times. In the end, all he had to do was stretch out his hand, and he could pluck the sun down.
But, says the Holy Court, God their Father was everywhere, the stars circled the earth, and the sky was the domain of angels and the Holy Spirit.
Under the tears of his wife and daughter, the boy who grew up, gave in.
Year 1 of the Holy Empire, February 2.
The Debate of Truth opened in Will, the "city of art". Before this unprecedented debate, no one cared that a silent astronomer chose to sleep forever in the long night. He left a final doubt behind:
Where would the flower of technology be born?
Would the truth become muddy together with slander and crime?