Iron Powder and Spellcaster

Upon hearing that General Janos was dead, Winters' fists clenched unconsciously.

The one-eyed lieutenant colonel was unmoved. He sneered and asked, "Is this why you called me out?"

"Hand over the baggage you are carrying, and I will allow you to keep the flag and weapons and leave." The Hed repeated the conditions offered, seemingly confident: "Anyway, you are still alive, so it's not too bad, isn't it? "

"Okay." The lieutenant colonel replied calmly: "You wait until I get back to think about it."

The Hurd man smiled, with politeness mixed with contempt: "Your Excellency, there is no point in delaying time. No one will come to save you, and my kindness and generosity also have limits."

"Is there anything else?" the lieutenant colonel asked casually, picking at the blood from his fingernails.

"May I know your surname?"

"John Jessica."

"I am Alaric, and I serve as Haugkota, also known as the Captain of Thousands."

"Nice to meet you."

"I am also honored to fight against you."

Lieutenant Colonel Jessica's attitude was negative, and the negotiation ended quickly.

After standing up from the bear skin, Alaric said coldly: "Gentlemen, while we are talking, the fine sand in the hourglass is falling one by one. There is not much time left for you."

…

On the way back to the camp, Lieutenant Colonel Jessica suddenly asked: "Second Lieutenant Montagne, what do you think?"

Winters told the truth: "Will they really let us leave if we hand over the baggage? I don't know for sure. But we should indeed be prepared."

"You're wrong when you think that way." Lieutenant Colonel Jessica said disdainfully: "The Herds are so awesome, why don't they just come and attack us?"

"They probably just want something..." Winters raised his eyebrows: "Well, is it possible?"

"That's what you think. Do you think I'm more anxious, or are they more anxious?"

The second lieutenant thought carefully: "It seems that the Hed man is more anxious."

"Yes, I think he is so anxious that he is about to pee his pants! And he is so bold that he wants us to surrender?"

The second lieutenant was confused: "But didn't he mean..."

"Do you believe what he said?" Lieutenant Colonel Jessica laughed loudly: "I also said that I was his father!"

Winters recalled the look and demeanor of the Hurd man, and couldn't help but feel a little annoyed: "Is that guy lying to us without changing his face?"

"It's not strange to use any tricks in fighting. Don't think that the Hed people are simple and honest, the barbarians are the most cunning." The lieutenant colonel casually told: "Don't spread what the Hed people said. If you ask, just say that they are here to persuade them to surrender."

…

The beacon fire has been lit, and the messenger asking for help has crossed the bridge early.

The first thing Lieutenant Colonel Jessica did after returning to camp was to interrogate the prisoners, while Winters returned to the team and led everyone to strengthen the defenses.

Regardless of their status, the Platuan people are all working hard.

The camp is backed by a big river and originally had trenches and earthen walls, but the walls were not high and the trenches were not deep.

But with just a few hundred people in the camp, they couldn't dig out much earth even though they were exhausted.

Several officers discussed and decided not to work on the trenches at all, but to do some immediate work.

So everyone is working hard to raise the shooting tower, plunder the wood in the camp, and sharpen it to serve as a defensive horse.

When Winters returned to the team, he saw Andre, Bader and several others gathered around.

"What are you doing?" Lieutenant Montagne asked.

Andre raised his hand and threw a fire portal gun to Winters: "Look at this."

Winters caught it: "What's wrong?"

This is an ordinary fire door gun with a long wooden handle and a short iron pipe as the firing device.

Winters saw a clue: a long dagger was inserted into the barrel of the gun, turning the fire door gun into a short spear.

"It's interesting." Winters said seriously.

The dagger was stuffed so tightly that it took him some effort to pull it out. When he held it in his hand, he discovered that the workmanship of the dagger was particularly crude. It was just an iron bar sandwiched between two pieces of cork.

"This gadget saved our lives today." Bud patted the young man next to him: "Barona, tell Lieutenant Montagne."

Baronna was very nervous and stumbled when he spoke: "This knife is used by hunters in my hometown to shoot wild boars. Sometimes the wild boar survives a shot, so the hunter inserts the dagger into the gun and uses it as a spear."

Winters inserted the dagger back into the gun and tried a few thrusts.

Bud explained: "Many merchants in the convoy only had hook guns. I thought this thing might come in handy, so I asked the blacksmith to make dozens of them. Originally, the musket was used as a mallet after firing, but with this thing it can be used as a mallet. It is used for short spears, but it gave the Hud people a little surprise today."

"Bud and I are studying." Andre added: "If each musketeer is equipped with a sword, it may be able to replace the spearman."

Winters showed a faint smile, handed the flamethrower back to Baronna, shook his head and said, "No."

"Why?"

Winters, who was born in infantry, reminded the two cavalrymen at the same time: "How light is the fire gate gun? How heavy is the matchlock gun?"

"What's the meaning?"

"The matchlock gun is heavy and heavy. The light one weighs fifteen kilograms, and the heavy one can weigh thirty kilograms. You have to use a stand to shoot. How can you use it as a short spear? The weight of a spear is only five to ten kilograms."

Andre refused to accept it, found a matchlock gun and tried it, and said nothing.

Facts speak louder than words. The matchlock gun is too bulky, its center of gravity is not suitable for fighting, and its attack range is short.

Although it is held with both hands, it cannot send the pole like a flower spear. The actual attack distance is about the same as that of a one-handed spear, with only the arm and half a spear.

Putting a dagger on a heavy matchlock gun to use as a short spear is not as effective as hitting someone with the butt of the gun upside down.

Winters added salt to the wound on the side: "Besides, the spear is two and a half meters long at least. How long is the musket with the dagger inserted? The role of the spearman is to protect the archer from the cavalry attack. Using short spears to deal with the lancers will naturally lead to disadvantages. .”

"Then this thing is useless?" Andre asked reluctantly.

"It's hard to say." Winters thought for a while and said, "If the weight of the musket can be reduced to less than ten kilograms, this thing will be of great use. In addition, the musketeer must dare to engage in hand-to-hand combat. Otherwise, I would rather use a halberd. and the spear protects the archer.”

Andre couldn't help shouting: "Can't we just make a musket that weighs less than ten pounds?"

Winters said helplessly: "It's not as simple as you said! If you want to reduce the weight of the musket, you have to use a lighter barrel. The lighter the barrel, the thinner the wall. Aren't you afraid of exploding the chamber? Or use less powder. That’s not powerful enough.”

“The bottom line is,” he concluded, “we still need better iron.”

…

At midnight, the moonlight was dim, but the sky was full of stars.

Only the sentry hadn't rested yet, and everyone else in the riverside camp had fallen asleep.

Two silent figures led the horses and quietly slipped out of the north gate of the camp.

The man bit the wooden stick and immediately bit the iron bit. Winters followed closely behind Lieutenant Colonel Jessica, communicating with each other solely by hand gestures.

The lieutenant colonel insisted on not bringing any guards. According to him, the more people there are, the easier it is to trap people.

The two officers left the military camp silently. People who didn't know why might have thought that they were trying to escape.

In the dead of night, the only sound is the chirping of insects, and even the slightest noise can be heard far away.

All metal objects on Winters and Qiang Yun were wrapped in cloth, as was the Lieutenant Colonel. The two of them didn't ride horses either, they just held the reins and walked slowly.

After the negotiation, Detective Hurd wandered around the riverside camp to spy on the reality.

The Hud's small horses are agile, fast and good at jumping. Use muskets, bows and crossbows to hit, but you can't hit them. The cavalry was sent out to fight, and the other party slapped the horse and ran away.

This happened again and again, which made the Plato people very annoyed.

Winters' rifled gun had another problem. The rifling was lead-laden and it lost its accuracy. Fortunately, Balian said he could solve it, and it has now been handed over to the blacksmith for repair.

The ancient law says: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

Taking advantage of the darkness after dark, the lieutenant colonel took Lieutenant Montagne with him to prepare for a close reconnaissance.

According to the lieutenant colonel, the reason why he only took Winters with him was because he had a good horse and because he did not have night blindness.

There was only a hill between the Hittites' camp and the Plato camp.

Jessica and Winters reached the top of the hillside, which was already within the patrol range of Hurd's sentry.

At the foot of the hillside, the Hed's camp was brightly lit, and I didn't know what they were doing.

"I can't see well." The lieutenant colonel lying on the ground whispered: "Count how many campfires they have."

Winters, who was also lying on the ground, covered his left eye and put his other hand over his right eye, trying to identify the firelight in the distance.

Jessica whispered to the second lieutenant: "The Huds sent out troops, a team of ten soldiers. If it is really a team of thousands of men, there must be at least fifty campfires."

"Captain, I've already counted to eighty!" Winters replied in a low voice.

"The number is correct?"

"The count is now ninety."

"[Vulgar language related to sheep]" Lieutenant Colonel Jessica suddenly cursed: "There won't be another Wanfu team on the grassland, right?"

"What's the meaning?"

"Let's go, a sentry is coming!" The lieutenant colonel got up, grabbed the second lieutenant's clothes and dragged him back.

"Wait." Winters remained motionless, his eyes fixed on the camp in the distance. He suddenly cursed: "[Vulgar language related to sailor's mother]! The Huds are building siege engines!"

"Stop talking nonsense and leave quickly."

The two of them jumped on their horses, let go of their hooves and ran towards the camp.

Hurd Sentinel noticed something strange, and after chasing for a while, he found that he couldn't catch up, so he stopped following.

Jessica, who returned to the camp, asked the second lieutenant: "That group of Huds we met at the beginning, how many riders were there?"

"Nearly a hundred."

"Where did you meet that group outside the camp?"

"Almost two hundred."

"understand?"

Winters shook his head violently: "I don't understand."

"The Hud people don't pay attention to having all the troops." Lieutenant Colonel Jessica looked gloomy: "A Tulu may actually only have thirty or forty horsemen. A nominally thousand-man troop can actually be considered wealthy if it has six hundred horsemen. But. The Tulu teams we encountered are all fully staffed. This Hauge looks like he is probably also fully staffed."

"so?"

"The Hed people are nomadic in family units, and there are few people who can be fed by pasture. When there are more men, families will be separated, and the same goes for tribes. Very few tribes can go out to fight with thousands of men at one go. If we hadn't been so unlucky, At the extreme point, when we encounter a large tribe that has come out in force, that means someone is giving orders to all the tribes." Jashka gritted his teeth and said, "The last person with such prestige... was Que Ye Khan, thirty years ago."

Thirty years ago, Winters was not born, and he was not from Plato. Winters could not sympathize with Lieutenant Colonel Jessica's state of being faced with a powerful enemy.

He is now more concerned about the crisis at hand: "Don't worry about Queye Khan for now, sir! The Hud people are building siege equipment, and that is the fatal thing!"

Several data can be quoted: classic musket brown bess, 9 pounds; medium and formal, 8 pounds; 38 large cover, 8 pounds. The matchlock guns of Winters' era often weighed more than ten, twenty or even thirty kilograms, making them extremely bulky.

The prototype of the bayonet already existed in the era of the gun, but it has not been widely used. Human beings learn the fastest from fighting. The bayonet prototype was not widely used, not because the ancients were stupid, but because it was not easy to use.

The basis of materials determines scientific and technological construction. In the final analysis, if the materials are not up to standard, everything will be a castle in the air.

Winters is in a period of transition. When this book begins, many things are not yet available. By the end of this book, a lot of things will be universal. It is a very interesting place to be in an era of great change.

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