Mercenaries and Adventurers

My book friend Bai Yejun has asked many interesting questions in the past two days, and I have answered them. I think it's quite interesting, and some settings of the novel were also revealed during the answer, so I posted a single chapter for book friends who don't read comments. Finally, thank you Mr. Bai Ye for your question.

Question: I have a question. I think the protagonist has always used a rifle that can be wielded directly. Will he use that kind of knight gun in the future? Or is it the style of today’s big guns? Because I feel that the knight's gun in the Middle Ages is only suitable for sprinting. In fact, their knight's competition also involves two knights charging each other to see which side is the first to knock it off the horse with a gun. This kind of nature feels special to me. Transformed into a charge, not suitable for wielding. But if I use the current style of the gun, I feel that it will be a bit weak to charge the enemy with the knight gun when fighting immediately in the future. How should the author deal with this?

Sorry, it's a bit too wordy, but I'm really curious, please understand.

Answer: Thank you for your comment. I know you are talking about the lance used by knights to charge, but this is what knights in medieval Europe used in our world. The design and use of that kind of weapon is completely prepared for normal humans. Not only the user, the horse, but also the target are only used "normally". But in another world, none of this applies. Strong knights who use weapons will find this kind of lance impractical, too light and without impact, because their opponents are generally not ordinary people or ordinary animals.

As for the monster-like war horses ridden by knights or real monster-riding beasts, they can have extremely strong carrying capacity or carrying capacity, so they can carry one or two others wearing the same armor while wearing a full set of armor. A powerful knight. These overly thick armors are not something that can be destroyed by a lance like you think. Therefore, even if this kind of weapon exists in another world, it will not be a limited weapon. More will be provided to under-appreciated cavalry equipment.

Its usefulness will also change from fighting against the same cavalry to suppressing popular riots. Because ordinary people who riot against the ruler's rule will find it difficult to have strong knights to support them, or these strong men are the leaders, and it is difficult to get rid of the command task. Fight on the front lines. Secondly, the wealth was not enough to equip a large number of iron armor, so it was difficult to resist the cavalry's lance charge. Therefore, this kind of weapon should be equipped for general cavalry and has a single function.

Finally, the weapons used by strong knights will also be diverse, but the average ones will mainly use medium and long-range projectile weapons, because most of them are restricted by the production level of high-end magic weapons around their residences, as well as their respective wealth levels. , and the source of magic materials. In addition, who their respective enemies are is also the main problem for each knight. However, this topic is too big to expand, so I won’t go into details here.

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Question: But I still have a question. Although the medieval European knight's guns in our world have a certain charge that can make a hole in the medieval knight's armor, and in reality, human arm strength is insufficient, so they are generally wooden guns, only made at the front end. An iron spear head, and they didn't know that it wasn't to kill the enemy on horseback, but to knock the enemy off the horse. This was the most important goal, because as long as the enemy was knocked down, the rest would be massacre. As for the fantasy theme, I mainly think that this kind of knight's gun can be modified. First of all, it can be changed from wooden to full metal, which greatly increases the power of sprinting. Let’s start with the fantasy-themed cavalry, which uses a variety of weapons. But when fighting on horseback, long weapons still have a certain effect. Those who use axes, swords, and hammers on horses, I feel like Liu Bei, with his hands above his knees, This way it has a certain length. Although it feels like it has no practical value when fighting World of Warcraft, it is still needed in war, and cavalry charges are terrifying. So the use value is still there.

Answer: That's right. Compared with ordinary lances, the physical weapons used by knights do not consider projectile weapons. If you think about it carefully, professional melee weapons still have to have several characteristics.

First, it must be long enough, and it must greatly exceed the size of the riding beast, so that it can fight close enemies in a wide range.

The second point is that it must be an extraordinary weapon. You said that your armor is enchanted or blessed, so my weapon must reach the same level.

The third point is that its shape can be diverse, and its material sources can also have the characteristics of fantasy worlds, such as the long horns of Warcraft, huge monster ribs, a straight magic tree, etc.

The fourth point is the way it is carried and used. This point must also be considered. Although the knights' riding beasts have a strong carrying capacity and can be carried directly, after all, human body size is here, and the weapons are too big and too long. Not only are the knights very It is difficult to carry around, and maneuvering during use is also a problem.

I think, on the one hand, I want to tell you that the knight himself can make changes to actively adapt to the upgraded lance weapons, such as having an extra pair of arms to control the lance in addition to the common use of sword and shield. Or you can extend your arms at will like Luffy and Mr. Fantastic, so that when you don’t have a powerful lance, you can use other types of weapons to fight against the same knight enemies. My weapons are not as long as yours, but my hands are longer. Ah, we can fight just the same.

besides. What will be the role of the re-upgraded lance? I think it's more important than just knocking down the same enemy as a mounted beast. Its more important role is to kill in close combat. It must have the ability to kill the same knight-level warriors. Curse, mass change under the influence of magic, forced spatial exile on contact, disintegration of matter, anti-magic, anti-armor, tracking magic positioning markers. These can all have a killing effect, not only that, but general magic attacks can also have it.

Only these important functions that can change the battlefield situation can reflect the role of melee weapons. Otherwise, wouldn't it be more reasonable if everyone rode highly mobile beasts and used crossbows or spears to fight throughout the battle? Although reality is boring. I have already thought of the reasons. With the limited size of arrows, crossbows and spears, it is difficult to project complex high-level magical blessing effects on them, and it is too expensive and wasteful. A melee weapon that can be reused would be nice.

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Q: Well, the weapons are similar to Dark Souls, with a bit of a fantasy theme. There are many kinds of crafting materials, and the final weapons are also many kinds. I understand what you mean. In this world view, it is impossible to mass-produce weapons with universal configurations, at least in the country where the protagonist lives now, because I have seen that the strong knights have not reached universal strength, although it is possible It is a remote status, but it is easier to explain that it is a feudal system, and it is impossible to produce weapons on a large scale without a central unified system. The knight's gun I'm talking about is a mass-produced weapon, mainly used for large-scale knight charges. Knight-level warriors, according to your statement, mostly use long-range weapons to throw spears, bows, arrows and crossbows, and fight in circles like riding horses and shooting, and then fight in close combat when they run out of ammunition. But what I want to say is that this kind of guerrilla-like combat method, the number of people It's impossible to have too many. It's similar to elite troops fighting against elite troops. It can only be used in small-group operations. If two armies confront each other, no matter what? There should be 10,000 people! In this case, how could a remote attack be possible? This is not modern trench warfare. At most, magic cannons or magic attacks are used at the beginning, and the rest is cold weapon combat, so Knight Impact is used in this kind of place. Although looking at the current plot, it is difficult to see a large-scale war. . Moreover, the main purpose of the knight's charge is to clear troops. It is impossible for every knight to be a strong knight, right? Moreover, the charge of knights does not necessarily rely solely on the momentum brought by speed. It can also have some magical features. For example, if several knights gather together, they will use life energy to produce something similar to a group skill. The more people there are, the more powerful the attack will be. The higher the force.

Answer: Thank you, thank you. What you said is very good and makes me very excited. It feels great to be able to discuss these with book friends. Let me explain it to you bit by bit. First of all, in the setting, those who fight on horses are divided into knights and cavalry. This is very important. Knights are the lowest level land lords composed of powerful knights, because their strength is far beyond that of ordinary humans, and they already have the ability to break the traditional feudal society at the most basic level of violence.

It is impossible not to let them participate in the distribution of power, so in order to win over and appease these people, they must be designed as the basic low-level nobles. From bottom to top, other low- and mid-level nobles will naturally have the strength of knights. This change will always be changed after the financial resources of the nobles increase to a certain level. Because some nobles who are rich and are shrouded by the God of Nobles can use other means (including but not limited to magic props, magic bloodline, church positions, etc.) to gain the strength to confront and suppress knight-level warriors.

In addition, when you reach a higher noble level, the greater power itself can suppress knight-level warriors. After all, when you have knight-level warriors under your command, you naturally don’t have to worry about a certain knight attacking you because you hold power. Inflict harm, because other knights under feudal rule will be loyal or spontaneously maintain the rules of feudal rule for the sake of power check and growth. This is a basic setting that includes the kingdom where the protagonist lives, some other scattered kingdoms, and parts of the empire. It is also some of the basis for the novel.

There are other vast areas ruled by societies, and areas where the Church of Gods replaces feudal rule, but the social structures are quite different. I won’t go into details here. Let’s talk about knight combat next. You'd think there would be a massive knight charge, but I don't think that's going to happen. Let me analyze it carefully for you.

First of all, I don’t know if you, book friend, know the combat scope of modern armies. It's like this. Due to the large-scale use of rifles, machine guns and artillery, the era of line formations and queuing to shoot in the early modern period has long since passed away. The reason is that the attack range of soldiers has greatly increased. Similar to the full-power rifle bullets used by Mauser rifles, they do not consider accuracy when shooting the rifle. They have sufficient lethality when shooting parabolic trajectories from more than two thousand to three thousand meters away. Within a precise shot, the range of several hundred meters can be It can be attacked by high-tech soldiers, which results in a very wide combat range for a small group of soldiers. In field battles, in order to ensure the density of firepower, basically a small group of soldiers can control a radius of three to five hundred meters centered on them. A circular range of meters.

Turning back to the novel, the knights do not have rifles, but they have the ability to use full-metal bows and shoot metal arrows that are not inferior to rifles and machine guns. And because of their superior eyesight and extremely accurate arms, their bows and arrows are far stronger than rifles in terms of strikes, regardless of continuous shooting. You must have expected that the knights with such a wide attack range will definitely not all gather together to fight, because in this way, you will lose a large amount of battlefield control area in vain.

Moreover, if the knights gather together, their respective firepower will be greatly wasted. This does not take into account the magic issue that follows. Let's make an example. Two knights are facing each other. Assume that they do not engage in large-scale roaming confrontations, but only fight to eliminate each other. In this way, on a plain, two knights from each group of two hundred knights fought on horseback. One side gathered together, using strong bows and lances, and primarily used lances. The knights on the other side dispersed their teams and divided them into Teams of five people, forty groups.

When the Lancer Knights formed a group to attack, the opponent's Archer Knights directly dispersed into forty groups, spreading out on the left and right wings to surround the Lancer Knights. Although the Cavalry Knights would also use bows and arrows to fight back, when they gathered together, the lances in their hands had no opponents to attack in groups.

The opponent did not accept the Lancer Knights' moves at all, and in the long-range bow and arrow exchange, the Lancer Knights gathered into a group in order to use their lances. Although collective shooting could effectively kill the distant Archer Knights squad directly. Volley kills, but at one time, they can only eliminate one or two teams of Archer Knights, while the Archer Knights can shoot the surrounded Cavalry Knights from all directions. Considering the density of the Cavalry Knights team, when shooting In terms of effectiveness, the Archery Knights are much higher than the Lancer Knights.

That's about it. Next, let me talk about the second issue of large-scale knight combat. That is, are there not that many powerful knights? Think about it, Kendall County includes Baron Kendall, who also has knight-level strength. How many knights are there under the command of the baron in the county?

The answer is 7 digits. So what is the maximum number of militia that Kendall County can organize?

The answer is beyond imagination, more than 6,000 people. Among them are women who are equally strong and physically strong, old men who are too old to fight, and young men who cannot master spears. The last question is, 7 knight-level warriors fight against 6,000 people. Regardless of terrain and logistical factors, who will win?

The answer is 7 powerful knights.

Let me analyze it here. First, and most importantly, the militiamen had no weapons that could effectively harm the knights. The militia's crossbows are okay against farmers or bandits, because these people don't have enough armor. Their crossbows are fairly powerful, and can kill armored cavalry in large-scale shootings, but against all knights wearing very thick steel armor, including both men and horses, the militia's crossbows There is no way to hurt the other party.

The second reason is mobility. The militiamen move entirely with their legs and feet, while the knights on the opposite side are all riding monster-like war horses that exceed ordinary horses. Not only is the movement speed difficult for the militiamen to catch up with the knights within a certain period of time, but it also leads to Knights always have the initiative in combat. They can launch an attack at any time, fight when they want, and retreat when they want. The militiamen can only regroup to save their lives after chasing for a certain period of time.

Third, there is the issue of attack distance. The crossbows of the militiamen have been described in detail in the previous extermination of Luokpocket Bandits. It can be seen that most of the crossbows of the militiamen are at a range of no more than one hundred meters. Shooting was carried out within the range. This was partly due to the terrain problems of the mountains and forests at that time, and the crossbows used by the militiamen were weapons manufactured on a large scale by craftsmen in the craftsman area. They themselves lacked shooting accuracy and shooting aiming methods. They just used The original Wangshan was designed to shoot within 100 meters. The outstanding performance in the story was achieved by some elite militiamen. I didn’t write about the performance of the spear militia, which is less described, but you can feel it a little bit.

Fourth, the small number of knights ensures their command and morale problems. Since there are only 7 people, they can effectively implement the plan. Even if the militiamen have a good command system, it will take a while from the commander to issue an order to the 6,000-person grassroots combat team to respond. The time gap between this is enough for the knights to initiate a battle, achieve results, and then retreat.

And as time goes by, the morale of the knights will only increase, but their combat power will continue to increase before their physical strength is exhausted. On the other hand, on the militia side, as a large number of people are killed, morale will only decrease, not increase. And as the number of killed exceeds the psychological threshold of illiterate militiamen per capita, they will collapse and flee at any time when the command system is poor.

Fifth, is the Baron’s magic crown. Readers who read carefully may have noticed that the Baron's eldest son has a very powerful and versatile magic crown. Considering that the descriptions of the magic crowns between the Baron and his eldest son were different when the two appeared, among which the Baron's magic crown The one who is far stronger than his son.

Let’s not explain the power of the magic crown first, let’s talk about the origin of that thing. The Baron Kendall family itself comes from the empire. Although they were not aristocrats before the empire moved, judging from the design and construction of Kendall City's underground sewers, we know that the Kendall family is a technocrat with relevant water conservancy construction technology. The family is skilled in designing and organizing people to build complex and precise water conservancy projects that include magical operations. This can be seen from the fact that Baron Kendall has been in the provincial capital all year round and is responsible for the province's water conservancy construction work. They have technology behind them and are related to magicians. Naturally, after becoming the nobles of the kingdom and putting Kendall City on the right track, their income increased significantly. Through the family's magician connections, they obtained valuable magic crowns.

It seems a bit off topic. Returning to the topic, since a small number of elite knight-level warriors can defeat a large number of ordinary soldiers, then the question arises, how will a normal war similar to the story proceed.

First of all, ordinary soldiers are still needed. Why? Because the purpose of war is not war, but a means of politics. Politics is for political participants to gain benefits, so the ultimate purpose of war is to allow political participants to gain benefits. Rather than a war for the sake of war.

So when we consider the purpose of war in feudal countries, we know that for feudal land lords, the land and the people on the land are the purpose for waging war. Although ordinary soldiers cannot defeat knights, they can defeat the people. To rule a land, you need some soldiers to control the people on the land.

These matters are complicated and need to be shown. They cannot be done by the knights, who are members of the nobility in feudal society. They are the profiteers of the war. They can use time and energy to participate in the war, but they cannot still rule the land. Doing it yourself, these things have to be left to ordinary soldiers to complete.

Secondly, ordinary soldiers participated in the war, so did they just occupy the land after the knights fought? Neither. As mentioned before, there are only 7 knights in a territory as large as Kendall County, so even if one kingdom initiates a war against another kingdom, it cannot be decided by a battle between hundreds of knights.

Not only is it too childish, but it is impossible for a king to mobilize his country like this. Even modern society cannot achieve this level of mobilization, let alone a different world under the feudal system. Although similar outrageous wars occurred during the Spring and Autumn Period in ancient my country, they only occurred in a period when social and military levels were still very backward.

Therefore, in the story, a large-scale war, taking into account the actual situation, will be a war in which each noble lord leads a few knights and more soldiers, dispersed without mutual support and cooperation.

The lords may have common war interests, but in a fight they are not affiliated with each other and cannot unite to fight unless they are deployed by a higher-level noble. However, it is also impossible for high-level nobles to directly command certain knights and knights. Soldiers under my command. Knights under the same noble will cooperate on a small scale, but it is simply impossible to cooperate with knights under other nobles.

This is a matter of principle under the system of feudal lords and aristocrats.

So looking at it this way, the combat effectiveness of the knights directly belonging to the kingdom will far exceed that of the various lords below. Of course, the great nobles will not be at the mercy of the king. In terms of financial resources, due to the noble lord system, the king is superior to the great nobles in rank, but in terms of financial resources, it is difficult to win or lose. After all, there is only one king. , and there can be many great nobles who are not inferior to him in strength. The king can form a knighthood in the name of the country. Naturally, the great nobles can also form a smaller knighthood by themselves. The number does not need to be too many. Dozens of people can be directly subordinate to the great A noble knight will do.

When the overall strength of multiple great nobles is equal to that of the king, a balance of power among the upper echelons of a country's military emerges. It seems like I've gone too far again. In short, large-scale wars will happen, but large-scale battles between knights, such as thousands or tens of thousands of people, may not happen?

I have another great idea. Maybe such a battle could happen, but not in the real world, but what about the world of the dead? What about the world after death? After the death of the powerful, their souls returned to the kingdom of gods. How much strength did each god accumulate over a long period of time? That’s all for today. Having said so much, I probably won’t be able to update it today. Sorry everyone.

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Question: What I am talking about is, is there a centralized unified country similar to an empire? In that case, mass-producing weapons shouldn't be a problem, right? And didn’t you say that magic in this world is highly advanced? There should be a magic gun, right? Or is it similar to World of Warcraft?

Answer: There must be centralized feudal countries similar to empires, but they are not necessarily human countries. Human beings have already suffered enough from having an empire. For an empire of that level, mass production of magic weapons is naturally not a problem, but who will produce the magic weapons?

this is a big problem. The status of magicians is higher than that of knights. Knights are already so difficult to deal with. Naturally, it is difficult for the empire to let magicians be used as workers to mass-produce magic weapons.

Let me tell you something first. The magicians of the empire cannot accept the empire letting them mass-produce magic weapons, but what about non-human beings?

Why use a gun to release magic? I understand what you mean. A convenient piece of equipment that can quickly release killing magic has actually appeared in the novel. Do you need me to remind you?

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Question: Why no guns? Doesn’t it mean that magical civilization is highly advanced? At least there should be fire guns! And why don’t you just post a long comment? It’s so painful to read paragraph by paragraph! You didn’t even see the comment I just posted below.

Answer: There is no way. I use the interactive management of the writer area to reply to your question. You can only write a maximum of 150 words in one reply. One more word will not work.

I don’t like using my mobile phone to log in to Qidian.com to read and type. I always type on the keyboard. In this way, my typing speed will be almost the same as my thinking speed. You don’t have to think a lot in your head, only to end up unable to write it out.

In addition, regarding the question of guns, as an amateur military enthusiast who cannot be more amateur, I can give you a simple answer.

The so-called gun is a device that uses the expansion of gunpowder gas to push and accelerate the projectile warhead in the barrel and launch it. Regarding the gunpowder gas part, modern technology can already use electromagnetic force to push projectiles instead of gunpowder gas to do work.

Among them, the power of the weapon is determined by the weight and type of the projectile, whether it contains internal explosives, the length and sealing degree of the barrel, the number of rifles in the barrel, the degree of friction between the projectile and the rifle, and the fixed charge of the bullets and shells. The quantity, type, sealing degree of gunpowder, and the number of projectiles fired by the gun per unit time are related to the hit accuracy of the projectiles.

It’s relatively simple, but in my understanding, that’s pretty much it.

When brought into novels, it does not mean that modern firearms or modern firearms cannot appear. After all, although the development of firearms in the real world is complicated, it is not very complicated. The most fundamental reason is, why do we need guns?

The reason why firearms develop in the real world is because with the development of technology, firearms have to be invented, because humans only have this simple weapon route to follow. Why didn’t modern Europe invent a plasma weapon, laser weapon, particle beam weapon, or radiation weapon in the 15th and 16th centuries? To put it simply, during the second industrial revolution, it would be okay to invent an electromagnetic weapon similar to the magnetic storm infantry in Red Alert.

The only reason is that the development of these weapons is too difficult. Even in modern times, there are not many actual combat equipment in the field. Therefore, in the different world in the story, the magicians are all humanoid self-propelled turrets. It is difficult for them to have the motivation to develop a gunpowder weapon that does not rely on magic for other people who cannot use magic.

Even possible weapons like bombs are unlikely to appear. Because of the explosive power that dynamite can do, fire magic in magic can also do it.

What's the difference between a magic gem arrow inlaid with powerful flame magic, shot by an elf archer with superb magic shooting skills, and a 155mm self-propelled artillery fire?

You might say that self-propelled artillery uses rocket-extended range shells, which can shoot sixty or seventy kilometers at once, but the elf archers pray to the gods for blessings to make the arrows lose weight, and then release their magic to let an elf ride on the tail of the arrows. , after the arrow was fired, he pushed the weightless arrow all the way to the end of the arrow. Then, he activated the magic bow and let the arrow shoot out from his hand at a high speed.

Such an arrow may fly in the sky for several days and nights. Finally, after the elf sees the target, it pushes the arrow to the ground. It jumps away and spends several days and nights before slowly flying back to its owner.

The magic gem at the tip of the arrow can be replaced by magic with any kind of effect, far beyond the realistic cannonballs that can only have a few effects. For example, the gem at the front of the arrow can be freezing magic, or a guidance source that guides magicians far away to release large-scale disaster magic to attack the target, or it can be a punctuation point for space teleportation, and the arrow hits the ground instantly. In the center, a group of knight-level warriors armed to the teeth are sent to attack the enemy's leader.

There are countless similar effects. The magic is far more powerful than any weapon in the real world. So sometimes I don’t really like to read novels about reality and different worlds. I feel that since it is a different world, why do we always deliberately lower the development level of the other world for the sake of the story’s pleasure.

In a real fight, the magical world would randomly send out some invisible assassins to assassinate leaders and commanders on a large scale. Considering the strength of the leaders on both sides, the real world would not be able to defeat them at all. You may say to use nuclear weapons, but gods of similar strength on the other side will not fly directly into outer space. They will directly intercept ballistic missiles in outer space during their mid-flight.

So, I think if you think about it carefully, the real world with its highly developed social system and management system is far better than the traditional alien world. It is difficult to defeat it, but in terms of learning after exposure, the real world has its counterpart. Unrivaled ability to learn and implement. Because of the strength of the strong people in the other world, it is difficult for them to unite to do something, but in the real world, they can exchange information at high speed, reach consensus, and turn defeat into victory.

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Question: Then you need to make some weapons with more magical characteristics. They are different from the real world and test your imagination. The weapons with magical characteristics I refer to are not bows and arrows or crossbows, but similar to guns, but different from them. The magic weapon of the gun is completely original from its shape to its interior. It tests your imagination and creativity, so I recommend you to use a gun. It is actually a more convenient behavior. After all, most people can't imagine it. Things that don’t exist at all in reality, you will be more or less affected by some things in the real world.

Answer: Hehe, it’s actually not that troublesome. In the opening scene where Baron Kendall appeared for militia training, and in the scene a few days ago when the young but beautiful Griffin Knight appeared, I had actually already hinted at the appearance of similar weapons. To put it bluntly, it’s the short magic staff hanging around their waists. The magic weapon used in battle is made into a short staff and can be used as a long or short spear in the hand soon. As for the aiming problem, it can be the user's visual guidance.

Finally, thank you Bai Yejun for your comments and being able to comment with everyone. It reminded me of a post I saw on Station A today. The content was that the spirit of everyone on the Internet in the early years is missing in the recent Internet.

Indeed, I feel this way too, and I also have some opinions that coincide with the netizens in the post, but I won’t go into details here.

But after reading that post, I saw Bai Yejun’s comments in the writers section. After replying, I was very happy and felt that I had found the feeling of the Internet again. That's great.