I will be crowned king

Although the funds allocated to the Storm Legion, or Anson's Shooting Army, were not a small amount, if they were divided equally among the heads of each soldier, it would not only be very impressive, but at least it would be extremely shabby.

Excluding three meals a day, the equipment budget of each shooting army is only one-half to one-third of the average soldiers of the Storm Legion; for this result, optimistic mathematicians will conclude that they have at least one-third of the Storm Legion. A pessimistic army officer will immediately realize that he is leading a group of standard armed refugees, and his combat effectiveness and morale are directly proportional to the stupidity of the enemy.

With such a generous budget, a technical consultant was required to design original and simple infantry equipment... Rao Shikar had a deep understanding of Anson's character and temperament, and he couldn't help but feel some sympathy for William Gottfried. .

But this sympathy disappeared immediately the moment he saw the shape of the other party's "super masterpiece".

No matter how much you ridicule the shooting army as a group of standard cannon fodder, it does not mean that they are actually allowed to die on their own initiative after going to the battlefield - this has been the Saints' Calendar for a hundred years, and thousands of people are rushing to the battlefield wielding long-handled axes. In addition to being used as moving targets for enemies to practice shooting, what practical significance do these life-hungry thugs have?

Even if you just add color to the Leyden rifle, you have done your best!

Faced with the stunned look of the chief of staff, the technical adviser did not explain much, but directly took the weapon from a shooting soldier and handed it to him with both hands.

At this time, Karl finally figured out that the other party was indeed original - he shortened the Leyden rifle, made the barrel thicker, and then installed a logging ax head on the butt of the rifle. From a distance, it looked like a long-handled axe. The axes are exactly the same.

"I named it the Ax Gun...before I thought of a more appropriate name." William introduced:

"Because we want to save budget, we use a smoothbore barrel. The thickening not only makes it more handy in close combat, but also prevents overheating. The wide enough barrel also makes it easier to insert lead bullets."

"Naturally, such a weapon cannot be expected to have high accuracy and range when firing, but it should not be a big problem for the shooting army. After all, you and the Commander-in-Chief have not expected them to be able to repel the enemy by firing in formation, right? "

"Finally, there is the tomahawk on the butt of the gun. As I said, this is a weapon that can incapacitate the enemy upon contact. It is more in line with the... characteristics of the shooting army."

Realizing that the other identity of the chief of staff in front of him was the commander-in-chief of the shooting army, William had no choice but to speak tactfully.

But Karl, who was fully focused at the moment, didn't care about this at all. His attention was completely attracted by the weapon in his hand.

As William said, the structure of this gun is extremely simple, and it even looks simpler than the Leyden rifle. Apart from the metal bolt, the most complicated part of the entire weapon is the grip for wielding an ax at the front and middle of the gun body. There is no handle, not even a bayonet slot for the rifle bayonet.

But such an infantry weapon that was so simple and crude that the bayonet could be inserted directly into the barrel turned out to be a breech-loading rifle!

Carl gently pushed the lever under the butt of the gun, and the entire gun body "folded" away from the bolt, revealing the magazine; without thinking much, he directly took a paper shell bullet from the butt of the gun and filled it in, then forcefully inserted it into the barrel. The gun body is restored to its original shape.

"Crack——!"

The harsh sound of the machine sounds like the collision of a hammer and an anvil, but it is so pleasant to the ears of the chief of staff.

"Alan!"

Karl, who didn't even raise his head, suddenly spoke.

"Chief of Staff?"

"Go and inform the instructors in the camp to come over as soon as possible - bring a few wooden targets with you and place them fifty to two hundred meters away from me!"

"Ah...yes!"

The little secretary did not dare to refute and quickly ran towards the camp dormitory.

A few minutes later, a dozen panting instructors followed Alan Dawn and stood in a row behind Carl and William; at the same time, there were six more targets in front of him, scattered between fifty and two hundred meters. between.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Carl Bain calmed down for a few seconds, then suddenly raised his gun and decisively pulled the trigger.

"boom--!"

The thunderous gunfire sounded, and the surrounding instructors couldn't help but raise their eyebrows. The movement of this gun was comparable to that of a one-pounder.

It's just that the target in the distance is still intact... Karl opened the gun a little unfamiliarly, poured out the unburned remains of the paper shell, loaded the ammunition again, raised the gun, and fired.

"boom--!"

The wooden target was still intact.

Calmly, Karl fired again, and the wooden target located 150 meters away shattered into pieces.

"boom--!"

The fourth shot missed the target again. After the continuous shooting, Carl's operation was obviously more skillful than at the beginning. It only took more than ten seconds to complete the reloading process.

Then came the fifth shot, and the two-hundred-meter wooden target shattered into pieces.

With the sixth shot, a hole was opened in the 100-meter wooden target, and all six paper shells on the butt of the gun were empty.

Just when everyone breathed a sigh of relief and thought the test was over, the chief of staff, who had always been silent, suddenly reversed his rifle, picked up the ax blade, and rushed towards the fifty-meter wooden target.

"Snapped!"

The cold ax split the wooden target directly from the middle. The handle in the center of the gun body prevented the direct grasp of the hot barrel, and also gave the weapon excellent balance when slashing. The ax was riveted by iron nails. Very solid, no signs of looseness at all.

Feeling the residual warmth emanating from the gun body, the chief of staff gasped slightly and fell into silence.

After a full minute, he turned his head when he heard footsteps approaching behind him. The sickly technical consultant with two dark circles under his eyes had already come behind him, with a bit of curiosity in his eyes:

"How about it, do you think the Commander-in-Chief will be satisfied with it?"

Karl took a long breath. He did not answer William's question, but raised the index and middle fingers of his right hand: "Two questions."

"First, is this thing really yours?"

"Not entirely, or not at all." William shrugged nonchalantly: "At least compared to the original version, my version is a little safer and more concise."

"……What's the meaning?"

"It means that the prototype of this rifle is a weapon called the 'Flag Gun' once equipped by the Judgment Knights. I replaced the rifled barrel with a smoothbore, replaced the exposed hammer with a firing pin, and left a A tomahawk is installed in the position." William wrote lightly:

"But if you think they are still the same weapon...well, that's not impossible."

"The Knights of Judgment, the secret weapon of the church?"

Karl's eyes lit up at first, and then he suddenly remembered something, frowned slightly and said, "But is this really no problem? Will your doing this involve technical leakage?"

William did not answer immediately, but blinked at him curiously.

In his eyes, Carl Bain's words are simply too interesting... Standing in front of you is the fugitive that the Inquisition wants to capture. Your commander-in-chief is a standard Old God sect and blasphemous mage. Your main sponsor is a famous apostle. And your entire legion is at least involved in a series of crimes such as corruption, private army, tax evasion, and participation in enemy rebellion.

This is already a situation where the entire army is shot to death as a mercy, but a mere "leak of church technology" is actually what you are most worried about as the chief of staff?

However, William is just curious and has not forgotten that his current position is the technical advisor of the colony. It is his duty to answer questions: "Not at all, because the 'flag gun' is an old piece of equipment that has been eliminated long ago, and I have never seen a real one. , I just accidentally saw it in a book when I was looking for a research topic.”

"Then when were they eliminated?"

"I don't know, I don't specialize in weapons." William shook his head, and then changed the subject: "But that book is very old, and I remember that its publication date seemed to be the Calendar of Saints...well, seventy years. "

Seventy years ago, that is, at least thirty years ago, the Judgment Knights abandoned this equipment with performance comparable to that of Beopold... Karl fell silent again.

He still had a vague impression. The little clerk once mentioned that the steam rifle that Lisa was carrying on her back was the model of the 90th year of the Saints calendar, and that weapon first appeared in the 83rd year of the Saints calendar. One shot was as powerful as a three-pounder.

Thinking about it this way, it is indeed not a serious problem, and it should not be targeted by the church.

Slightly relieved, Karl picked up the brand new ax gun in his hand again: "It's not bad. It far exceeded my initial expectations. It can be mass-produced."

"However, there are some small areas that I still hope can be improved. In order to save costs, the bayonet slot can be omitted, but I hope to leave at least this part of the space in the design, and the paper shells should be as small as possible. It is best to be able to match the Leo The paper shell bullets used by Pod are universal, but of course they are not universal."

"Another one, I hope the ax at the end of the butt can be designed to be detachable... The recoil of this gun is a bit too big for ordinary soldiers, but other than that it is almost perfect. If possible, please design a shotgun model. We may install it in small batches to other units of the legion."

"As for the name...what do you think of 'Gottfried'? The model number is tentatively Type 102, or 101?"

"It doesn't matter." William said calmly: "Whatever you like, you can call it 'Bane' or 'Bach'. Anyway, the original designer of this weapon has been dead for at least several decades, and it is impossible to cause trouble for you anyway. .”

Karl laughed twice, coughed twice, and then changed the topic: "Ahem, cough... Well, where is the other weapon? I remember there should be a support weapon, right?"

"A support device that can provide supplementary firepower to a company or infantry battalion, yes."

William nodded, raised his hand and pointed behind him: "Already ready, that's it."

"that?"

Karl looked back in astonishment. The instructors around him also turned their heads at the same time as him. A strange-looking artillery appeared in the center of their field of vision.

The reason why I say weird is because the shape of this guy is quite different from the artillery in their impression.

Currently, the popular or common artillery in the world of order can be roughly divided into two types - cannons and mortars, or flat-fire cannons and curved-fire cannons.

The former has high accuracy, high rate of fire, strong fixed-point strike power, and can even restrain cavalry to a certain extent. However, the slender barrel makes movement inconvenient, and it is generally aimed at enemies within the field of vision.

The latter has a low rate of fire and poor accuracy. It can only estimate a rough range when firing, but the range is longer and the caliber is generally large. Its huge power can cause a morale blow to the enemy even if it misses, and it can also attack the field of view. Enemies outside range.

And the weird-looking cannon in front of me...it seems to be something in between.

First of all, the barrel is not long, basically only a little longer than the wheel of the gun carriage, but it is at least longer than the mortar, which means that it can shoot flatly, but the range will certainly not be very far; and because the barrel is short and thick, that is, It has the possibility of firing at an elevation angle, but the caliber is not very large, which means that the power of the shells will not be very great.

All in all, it is like a "new weapon" that combines the advantages and disadvantages of two types of artillery.

Karl was stunned for a long time again this time. After more than a minute, he hesitated and said:

"Your Excellency Wilhelm Gottfried, is this the equipment you designed specifically for the Storm Legion to support the infantry battalion?"

"That's right."

"And you think it's perfect for...fire support?"

"For the battalion level, yes."

"Can you explain it in detail?"

"Absolutely." William nodded slightly:

"First of all, I carefully understood the organization of your army. A full battalion has at least two companies, with a number of between two hundred and nearly three hundred people - depending on the number of infantry platoons. In other words, this A weapon needs to have the following characteristics: light structure, simple operation, and versatile functions."

"So I designed this six-pound field gun. Its barrel is not long so it is lighter. It sacrifices a certain range for the ability to shoot straight, which means it can adapt to more terrains and can even be used in bunkers or anywhere to avoid enemies. Provide fire support within the field of view.”

"And to be honest, I don't think an infantry battalion needs some kind of extremely long-range artillery. That is at least an attack method that can only be used by infantry regiments or infantry divisions." William shook his head:

"The most important thing is that it is light enough and will not pose too serious a burden to the marching team."

"How light?" Carl couldn't help but ask.

"It's a little lighter than an ordinary six-pounder, but it's basically the same."

"So it only requires two pack horses, or can it be pulled by four people?"

"That's right."

"Can it shoot straight or curved?"

“It may be more difficult to shoot from a downward angle, but it’s basically the same.”

"Where's the steering?"

"The barrel isn't long, so...you know."

"What's the rate of fire?"

"Because the range requirements are not high, and the barrel is wider than a normal six-pounder, it will be easier. Explosive shells and shotgun shells can also be used normally."

The chief of staff said softly "Hmm" and thought for a long time.

"Your Excellency William, I have one last question, two to be precise."

"Speaking."

"What's the name of this artillery, and..." Karl turned around and said:

"When can mass production begin?"