Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 52 New Ideas

   "The pier is only that big, and there are familiar faces among the porters. You said you didn't know who was missing after the bombing?" Winters slapped the table heavily.

   "There are too many people on the pier. As long as you have the strength, you can be a porter. How can we remember everyone?"

   Winters asked various questions from other angles, but the other party killed himself without knowing anything.

   "You go out." The exhausted Winters waved: "Call the next person in."

The    man left, and the chair was replaced by another squat man.

   This short man sat awkwardly on the stool, pursed his lips tightly, and said nothing.

   "Your name, please?" Winters politely broke the silence.

   Before he could finish his sentence, Shorty Tangled his neck like a hedgehog pierced his **** and shouted, "I don't know anything!"

   "I asked for your name..."

   "I don't know anything!"

"name…"

   "I don't know anything!"

"roll!"

   "I don't know anything!"

   Winters picked up the cup on the table and smashed it **** the ground.

  —cut—

   "The dock workers are very tight-lipped and refuse to say anything." Winters reluctantly reported to Lieutenant Colonel Field the results of the inquiries about the dock workers.

In the lounge of the officers' club, Field, Moritz, and Winters sat in a circle around a small table.

"The porter is afraid of being regarded as a leaker. Several gangs control all the handling business on the dock. They issued a seal order, and the porter naturally dared not even fart." Field was in a bad mood and held the wine glass in his hand for a long time. But he didn't drink a drop of wine: "We can't protect the porter's family, they won't stand on our side."

The    assassination case didn't make any progress, and neither Field nor Winters' faces were very good-looking.

   Major Moritz seemed to be completely unaffected and happily poured his own drink. Winters couldn't help but wonder if Major Moritz was really deaf, or if he was using his inability to hear as an excuse to avoid a frustrating job.

   Under the calm pier, the undercurrent is surging, and the house of the Ben Venuto family is still empty. There is some news from the **** on Qianmin Street, explaining why the dockworkers are all keeping their mouths shut, and why the entire Benvenuto family is missing.

  The porters at the Hailan City Wharf are roughly divided into several groups by region. On weekdays, violent conflicts often occur due to robbing and other reasons, breaking one or two arms and legs from time to time.

  The night of the assassination, the Monta people found their leader in a pool of blood in the alley behind the Pinewood Tavern, killed by a knife in the left side.

   And just a few days ago, the Monta people had just had a fierce fight with the Vine people. The Vine people were seriously injured and a dozen were slightly injured. The seriously injured one died not long after being brought back.

  The Republic of Monta is located in the mountains, and the living environment is difficult. The land could not feed people, so the men had to go out and earn money as soldiers. Therefore, the Monta people are fierce and tough, and they are brave and not afraid of death. The land of the Monta Republic has been an important source of troops since ancient times.

   Now the Monta believe that the Vine are the murderers and vow to give blood for blood. Then they will never give up until the blood of the enemy is spilled.

Although the   Wane people do not admit that they killed the leader of the Monta people, they just regret that someone deprived them of the opportunity to take revenge.

   For the Vaen people who value family relations, if a Vaen dies, there will be a large family to take revenge. The entire Vine community is linked by a complex web of kinship, like a pot of soil overgrown with plant roots.

  Wan people suffered a big loss before, and they are also licking their wounds and preparing to take revenge.

   In the shadows of the bustling port area, the two sides are gearing up and gathering strength, and they may fight at any time.

  According to the cripple, both parties bought a lot of real guys on the black market, and even bought a lot of gunpowder. Even the Platoons, who have nothing to do with this matter, are secretly preparing. The final result can be very ugly.

   And the Vine, who was seriously injured in the previous violent conflict, was Ben Venuto’s uncle, blood revenge is a praised and respected behavior in Vine culture. Therefore, the Benvenuto family is now the main target of revenge for the Monta people. According to the lame, their family should be protected by the Vine community.

   Several groups of workers at the wharf are going to fight to the death?

  Field didn't care about that at all.

   In his eyes, even if the waters of the port were dyed red by the blood of the dock workers, it was a problem for the customs and the city guard.

   But it is precisely because of this absurd reason that the dockers kept their mouths shut and refused to say anything.

   "These guys are sure that we have no evidence and can't be tortured." Field said angrily and frustratedly: "XX! Putting it in jail and beating it up must have said everything."

   However, Field can only speak ruthlessly. Although torture is a common method for coalition law enforcement officers to obtain evidence, coalition law has strict restrictions on the conditions for the use of torture. The church also strictly prohibits believers from using torture on believers to extract confessions—in theory.

  If Field dared to put the dockworker in jail without any evidence today, he would have to pack up and go write the war history now without waiting for the day when the case is overturned.

   "What about money?" Winters offered another naive approach.

"We can't get a price that can afford their lives, and the dock workers' associations are never soft when it comes to slaughtering rats [referring to leakers]." Field shook his head: "And ordinary workers won't know any valuable information. , we have to find those leaders, but it is absolutely impossible for them to tell us where those leaders are now."

   Winters had a new idea in his mind these days, but he was careful not to bring it up rashly. Now, seeing that the investigation has reached a deadlock again, he feels it is time to talk about his new ideas.

"I got a reed gun these days, which is similar to the one I fished out." The reed gun that Winters was talking about was actually Sophia's: "After a few experiments, I first found that this gun is not very good. Simple, the shooter is even more difficult."

   After Sofia was taken to the barracks under house arrest, the reed gun she was carrying was left at the Serbian house. Winters couldn't help dismantling the gun out of curiosity, and it took three times as long to put it back together again.

   As someone with a natural instinct for mechanics, Winters quickly figured out the structure and principles of a reed gun. The ignition mechanism of the spring wheel gun is essentially a friction wheel connected to the scroll spring. Before use, it is necessary to "energize" the friction wheel round by round. When the trigger is pulled, the friction wheel rotates and the flint is scratched to generate sparks, which ignite the gunpowder.

  In Winters' view, the advantage of this design is that it doesn't need to be careful not to put out the arquebus like a matchlock, and there is no open flame.

  Be aware that the arquebus is a rather dangerous weapon, both against the enemy and the shooter himself. Because the arquebus burns slowly, it is also an open flame. For arquebusiers who carry a lot of gunpowder and are covered with gunpowder powder, they are already eligible for wages without lighting themselves.

Another advantage of    is that it can be used with one hand. The shooting process of the arquebus requires two hands, so there is no one-handed arquebus. The reed gun can shoot as long as one hand holds the gun and pulls the trigger, so only the dock assassin can hold a gun in one hand and a sword in the other.

   At the same time, however, Winters also saw the danger of this design—the spring-and-wheel mechanism was simply too complicated, too fragile, and not reliable enough.

   Trigger, tenon, scroll spring, as long as one part is loose, this gun will fire. The assassin dared to hang this kind of gun on his waist, wouldn't he be afraid of smashing his thigh with one shot?

   "What's not so simple?" Field lay back on the sofa with little interest.

"It's not easy to use! The people who made the gun didn't take into account the actual situation of one-handed use, and the barrel used was still the barrel of a long gun. Essentially, it was a sawed-off long gun, or a 30-gram lead bullet. The gun of this caliber is too difficult to use with one hand, if I design it, I will make the caliber a little smaller." Winters confidently expressed his thoughts: "The gun we fished out is bigger than the spring in my hand. The caliber of the revolver is still large, and anyone who can shoot accurately with that gun must be proficient in firearms.”

  Field lay on his back on the sofa and hummed softly: "Then what?"

"I was inspired by the post-mortem report from the customs, where the coroner used the body shape, appearance, calluses on the hands to infer their identity and social class. I think we can also use the available evidence to speculate that the assassin was an assassin. what kind of person."

   "It's interesting." Field heard this sentence and slowly got up and sat up: "Continue."

"Of the four assassins, at least two are proficient in firearms and can use this large-caliber revolver with one hand; there are also assassins in customs, so they know when the Skua will dock and wait at the dock in advance; four The traveler took the initiative to approach them, thinking that the assassin was someone who came to pick him up, which is also very strange... By the way, and their horses, the horses pulling the carts did not panic when they heard the gunfire... Oh, no I'm afraid a trained draught horse can't do that."

  Field's demeanor became extremely serious. Even Moritz noticed the change in the atmosphere and put down his glass silently. The lieutenant colonel said to Winters in a deep voice, "Just say what you want to say."

   "The other thing that impressed me about those assassins was that they were all masters of swordsmanship, and especially they were very, very, very familiar with Marshal Ned's long sword skills."

Winters used three very consecutively to express his thoughts, and he continued: "As familiar as he has experienced thousands of confrontations, the assassin knows how to use the swift sword against the long sword. The assassin was almost slashed in the stomach as soon as he fought the sword. If it was an ordinary swordsman, I would definitely not be so embarrassed. Major Moritz has also fought against the other side, you can also ask the major's evaluation. "

"There are not many people in Veneta who are familiar with the swordsmanship of the military principal, proficient in firearms, and trained not to be afraid of the sound of gunfire. There are not many people in Veneta." Winters gritted his teeth and said his own conclusion: "This It's my own idea, the assassins we are looking for should be a few alumni... One of them was kicked off his jaw by me."

   "Alumni", what alumni? Winters wanted to say that it was clearly an Army officer, but the accusation was too serious. He still used the term alumni, but Field would not be misunderstood.

   "Are you very good at swordsmanship?" Field asked endlessly.

   "It's okay, but there aren't many swordsmen who can make me embarrassed."

   "Come on, there are training swords in the club." Field grabbed his uniform jacket and stood up: "It's useless to talk about it, you'll know after a test."

   Half an hour later, on the second floor of the Officers Club.

  Field took off his helmet and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He panted and said, "You really have something. I didn't expect you to be a newcomer, but I'm still the worst swordsman..."

  There is no training armor, only a helmet, and in the swordsmanship contest to the point, Winters beat Field 20-0. Winters actually thought about giving the lieutenant colonel a few points, but when he grabbed the longsword, he just wanted to win. Lieutenant Colonel Field's swordsmanship is far inferior to his magic skills.

   "It's your turn." Field hooked his fingers at Moritz and threw the helmet to the major.

   confronted Moritz, and the pressure on Winters increased sharply. The major deserves to be one of the top swordsmen in the army's internal competition, and his reaction speed and control after the sword are much better than the lieutenant colonel.

   But...still a bit worse than Ike. Although Winters is indeed kept by Ike all year round, Ike is a true top swordsman. Winters' sword skills continued to accumulate in defeat after defeat, and he even came close to defeating Ike in the end.

Major    Moritz's swordsmanship is very strong, but he is only first-class. Not only was he unable to suppress Winters, but Winters became more and more brave and won the game.

   Lieutenant Colonel Fidel's eyes lit up.

"This year's competition is up to you to win glory for the gendarmerie. Moritz is not motivated. You must practice hard." Field rushed up and held Winters' hand tightly: "Be sure to take the garrison command's hands. The beasts are all messed up."

  The flattered Winters nodded again and again.

   Thanks to the book friends Yanyun San, thanks to the book friends 20181013204343295 for their recommendation votes, thanks to Qinggui w for their recommendation votes, and thanks to the book friends who have voted for the recommendation before.

   The mind of victory and defeat is a very interesting thing.

   (end of this chapter)