Gazing at the 12-pound bronze field cannon symbolizing the pinnacle of French muzzle-loading artillery before him, Jero Bonaparte’s thoughts seed to drift back to a sumr in a previous life.
At that ti, he was browsing a web novel titled "Lingao Awakening." While he can no longer clearly recall the content, the one thing that left an impression on him was the two 19th-century weapons in the hands of the "Lingao Five Hundred Baboon Brigade." With these two weapons, they launched a dinsional reduction attack against the Late Ming Dynasty.
However, stemming from the endless internal conflict since the birth of humanity, the internal political struggles of the "Five Hundred Baboon Brigade" far outweighed their external warfare.
One of these two weapons was the Minie Gun, actively used by the French, and the other was the product placed before Jero Bonaparte, the Grand Napoleon Cannon.
Back then, out of curiosity, he even went online specifically to find the construction blueprints of the Grand Napoleon Cannon and its firing videos.
Now, as the physical presence of the Grand Napoleon Cannon was laid out in front of him, Jero Bonaparte felt a sudden and inexplicable sense of disorientation swell within him.
Ti has passed, and ultimately, there’s no going back.
Thinking of this, Jero Bonaparte couldn’t help but let out a long and short sigh.
As Jero Bonaparte was musing nostalgically, Vilnius, who stood to the side, noticed sothing unusual about him. She softly called out to Jero Bonaparte, "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
Her calls snapped Jero Bonaparte back to reality, and he offered an apologetic smile to the two slightly nervous artilleryn before him. Then, in a gentle tone, he asked those around him, "Who among you can introduce to this cannon?"
Standing behind Jero Bonaparte, Bashirio glanced at his team of field artillery engineers and signaled with his eyes for one of the main design engineers to explain the structure of the new-style cannon.
The engineer, understanding Bashirio’s hint, quickly stepped forward, bowed to Jero Bonaparte, and said, "Your Majesty, let introduce the structure of this cannon to you!"
"Are you its creator?" Jero Bonaparte sized up the engineer before him. From his aged appearance, upright posture, and the callus on his right middle finger, he seed like soone who had erged from the military.
"Not just !" The engineer revealed a shy smile and added, "There are more than ten people in our team; they are all creators of this cannon!"
"Alright! It’s you, then!" Jero Bonaparte pointed at the engineer and said.
The engineer adjusted himself, with a serious expression, ca to the front of the 12-pound bronze cannon. Stroking the bronze barrel, he said, "This cannon is a 12-pound field cannon, designed with improvents based on the original 6-pound field cannon. The caliber of the barrel is 114mm, which is 21mm more than the 6-pound field cannon (which has a 93mm caliber). The larger caliber allows the entire cannon to accommodate a 12-pound (5.44 kg) heavy iron shell.
With just 2.5 pounds (1.13 kg) of standard gunpowder, the 12-pound shell can be propelled at a very high speed (439 ters per second). When the muzzle is at a 5-degree angle with the horizontal, the precise distance is about 1480 ters. When the muzzle is at a 10-degree shooting angle with the horizontal, the precise shooting distance can reach around 1880 ters."
"1880 ters, huh?" Jero Bonaparte pondered the data of the Napoleon Cannon in his mind as he stroked his chin.
After a long while, Jero Bonaparte spoke again, "As I understand it, the maximum range of a 6-pound field cannon is only about 1300 ters! Right!"
"Exactly!" The engineer didn’t hesitate to respond: "Moreover, when the target is about 200 ters away, the power of a 6-pound field cannon diminishes, and its power can’t even pierce through half a column, while a 12-pound field cannon is enough to pierce through an entire column at 550 ters!"
"How about the weight?" Jero Bonaparte inquired again.
Facing the endless questions from Jero Bonaparte, the engineer was clearly well-prepared: "As for the weight, the total weight of the entire cannon is 1109 kilograms. If you add the carriage five ammunition boxes, it’s about 1750 pounds! Although it’s much heavier than the previous 6-pound cannon, it also greatly enhances its power. Moreover, this field cannon is much lighter than a siege cannon!"
"Sounds pretty good!" Jero Bonaparte responded, then shifted his tone: "However, after hearing you talk so much, I just want to know if we can do a live fire demonstration! After all, what you hear may not always be true; only seeing it with your own eyes is believing."
"Of course!" The engineer answered without hesitation.
The reason the cannon was brought to the firing range today was precisely to let military personnel see whether they had faked anything. However, the Emperor’s arrival had forced the ongoing live fire demonstration to pause.
Since the Emperor said it could begin, they did not need to worry about other issues.
"Begin!" The engineer nodded to the two live-fire artilleryn beside him.
Upon receiving the engineer’s orders, the two artilleryn imdiately sprang into action. One of them took the worm from next to the gun carriage and inserted it into the muzzle to scrape out leftover fragnts from the previous firing inside the barrel.
With swift skill, the artilleryman scraped out the fragnts. Another artilleryman placed the damp sponge inside the cannon bore for a second cleaning. The damp sponge can remove any hot fragnts not cleared by the worm. After two sponge cleanings, the standard 2.5-pound gunpowder, packaged in a nylon bag, was inserted into the cannon bore.
Next, the 12-pound solid cannonball was laboriously pushed into the bore.
Finally, the solid cannonball and standard propellant are placed in the correct position in the cannon’s barrel using the rod.
For a skilled artilleryman, the entire process takes only 30 seconds.
However, these two artilleryn took more than 40 seconds, clearly lacking so technical proficiency.
Once everything was ready, the engineer turned to ask Jero Bonaparte if he wanted to fire a shot himself.
Eager for this opportunity given his love for firearms, Jero Bonaparte gently released Vilnius’ hand and stepped up to the Grand Napoleon Cannon.
"Your Majesty, you just need to pull here!" Due to the pull rope design principle of the Grand Napoleon Cannon, as opposed to the fuse used in the Little Napoleon Cannon, the engineer helpfully pointed to the pull rope of the Grand Napoleon Cannon to prevent Jero Bonaparte from embarrassing himself.
Jero Bonaparte gently grasped the white pull rope and stood to one side of the Grand Napoleon Cannon. Jero Bonaparte was well aware of the recoil of the Grand Napoleon Cannon.
Then, Jero Bonaparte gave a firm pull.
Accompanied by a thunderous roar, the muzzle of the Grand Napoleon Cannon ford a conical white cloud, which only occurs when a projectile breaks the sound barrier.
The solid cannonball breaking the sound barrier charged forward with unstoppable montum, heading directly towards a group of straw mannequins 700 ters ahead.
A few seconds later, the speed slightly reduced, the cannonball plunged into the straw n like a tiger descending a mountain.
One, two, three... more than a dozen straw n were knocked down by the irresistible cannonball in an instant. If the cannonball were converted into real people, the scene would now be a bloodbath.
The cannonball, having "knocked down" nearly a column of straw soldiers, continued its flight, crashing into the forest behind the straw n.
The dull sound ca from the forest nearly a kiloter from Jero Bonaparte. Startled birds in the forest quickly took flight, creating a scene of a hundred birds soaring.
"Not bad!" Jero Bonaparte nodded in satisfaction, then turned to ask Nie’er: "What do you think?"
"In terms of the cannon’s power, it’s indeed excellent!" Nie’er was also quite satisfied with the Grand Napoleon Cannon itself, then added: "If the price could be a bit lower, that would be even better!"
"Hmm? What’s the price of this cannon?" Jero Bonaparte realized that this cannon might not be cheap.
Just from the amount of bronze used for the cannon itself, the total quote, including labor costs, is likely over 2000 francs.
What does 2000 francs an? It’s equivalent to the total annual expense for a family of three Parisian workers!
"Our quote is 2500 francs!" The engineer told Jero Bonaparte the price.
Hearing the engineer’s quote, Jero Bonaparte took a deep breath.
A price of 2500 francs is equivalent to what two ordinary workers could earn in a year.
Now, using the equivalent of two workers’ annual earnings to produce such a cannon really made Jero Bonaparte feel the pinch.
Moreover, buying a cannon isn’t a one-ti purchase, it requires purchasing hundreds, if not thousands, so the initial cost of artillery plus ammunition wouldn’t be less than 5 million francs.
"Uh... can it be a bit cheaper?" Jero Bonaparte didn’t hesitate, openly negotiating this with the engineer of his own company.
The engineer looked helplessly at Bashirio, at a loss for words.
Bashirio, originally standing at the back, stepped forward and said to Jero Bonaparte, "Your Majesty, 2500 francs is already our best offer to the military! For export, this cannon would need at least 3000 francs."
"Is there really no way to make it a bit cheaper?" Jero Bonaparte asked again.
"How about this!" Bashirio seed to make a major decision and said to Jero Bonaparte, "Each cannon for 2400 francs, no less! We’re already doing this at a low profit and high volu!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)