Warlord: King of All Clans

As early as a year ago, Count Fonteyne Gustave obtained firearms from the Tarhan tribe in the west.

The Earldom of Gustav is separated from the South by only a mountain and is deeply influenced by the culture of the South. There is a Holy Light Church in every town in the Earldom of Gustav.

The Church of Holy Light has always been the main force in spreading the imperial civilization. They not only brought the faith of Holy Light to the north, but also brought a large amount of civilization to the south.

Therefore, the Counties of Gustav, like the Counties of Odalov and Kurolov, were more technologically advanced than the Counties on the north bank of the Anzeno River.

After seizing the firearms, Count Fonteyne immediately asked the alchemists he had to study them.

The alchemist worshipped by Count Gustav's family was no ordinary person. In just one month, he independently developed a Gustav alchemical musket based on the Western musket.

Sitting behind his desk, Count Fontenay took the exquisitely shaped "musket" engraved with runes, aimed it at the armor rack more than ten meters away and pulled the trigger.

With a loud bang, a hole as big as an eye socket was blasted out in the decorative plate armor.

Count Fonteyne was very satisfied with its power. With such a musket, he would be able to resist the musket cavalry in the west.

"How much does this musket cost?"

The high-ranking wizard who was also the chief alchemist replied solemnly, "A total of sixty-four gold."

Count Fontenay's beard stood up in anger, and he immediately felt that the runes on the musket were not beautiful. "This thing costs 64 gold soles? Are you kidding me?"

The alchemist had to patiently explain, "In order to ensure the safety of the entire musket, the barrel is handmade by the alchemist in the Mage Tower, and they can only make one a day."

"The flintlock and the gun body are both made by the senior craftsmen in the mansion. It will take a week to make them."

"The stabilizing magic circle engraved on its surface can improve the stability and shooting accuracy of the musket, but to enchant such a small area, only an intermediate enchanter can do it."

The alchemist consoled him, "Fortunately, you already have all these craftsmen, alchemists, and enchanters. You don't need to hire them from outside."

Count Fonteyne was comforted and began to consider whether it was suitable for arming. Then he heard the alchemist continue: "The only flaw is the problem of ammunition."

Count Fontenay didn't care too much. If the poor people in the West could afford it, then he could afford it too.

Even if the muskets are a bit expensive, let’s first build a musketeer team of a thousand men.

"What's the problem?"

"One round of ammunition costs one gold coin."

Seeing that Count Fontenay was silent and just staring at him coldly, the alchemist quickly explained: "In order to increase the power of the musket and enable it to penetrate the plate armor, I need to mix half of the magic stone crystal dust into the gunpowder. This alchemical material is purified from the magic stone ore powder in the deep sea south of the Free State of the Islands. It is more expensive than gold in the southern imperial capital. When it comes to our side, the price is doubled."

"Each bullet requires half a ton of magic stone crystal dust, which is about one gold soli."

Anshai is an imperial unit of weight, equal to one-twelfth of an imperial pound, about 40 grams.

Count Fontenay suppressed the urge to shoot the alchemist and asked in a deep voice, "What if I don't release the magic stone crystal dust?"

The alchemist said in embarrassment: "This..."

Soon, Count Fonteyne witnessed the power of his own independently developed gunpowder.

After loading the arrow with gunpowder that was as heavy as lead bullets, the alchemist apprentice in charge of the test shooting pulled the trigger at the target twenty meters away.

The lead bullet struck the wooden target and bounced off, leaving a shallow dent in it.

With such power, let alone penetrating plate armor, even hitting an unarmored target may not necessarily be fatal!

Count Fonteyne was so angry that he threw away his expensive alchemical musket. At the same time, he couldn't understand why the River Reach Territory and the Talhan tribe could afford muskets.

Do they all have magic stone mines?

The alchemist, who is a high-level wizard, was also helpless. He studied under the master mechanic Ingsol and was proficient in mechanics and materials science. It only took him a month to independently develop a low-tech creation like the alchemical musket.

But unlike the Talhan tribe, he did not directly steal the high-quality gunpowder products from Hewan and crack them to produce granular gunpowder with performance close to two-thirds of that of Hewan gunpowder.

To develop saltpeter purification technology, gunpowder refining technology, and gunpowder granulation technology all on your own within a month is something that even a Saint cannot do!

The primitive powdered black gunpowder he temporarily developed was only at the level of Hewan's first-generation gunpowder. It could be used to set off firecrackers or fireworks, and it could work miracles with a little brute force. It could also be used to make powder barrels, but it would be a bit of a stretch to use it as a propellant for bullets.

This primitive black powder appeared in the barrel of his alchemical musket only because it could cooperate with the flintlock device, ignite and detonate the magic stone crystal dust mixed in it, which was the real factor that provided the power for the bullet.

If there was no raw black gunpowder involved, he would also need to carve a fire element array and inlay magic crystals to provide energy, which would triple the cost of the alchemical musket.

The latter idea is actually the alchemical muskets of the South, such as Denise's alchemical staff.

In the eyes of the high-level alchemist, the alchemical musket he developed was already very cheap, almost the cheapest one among all his works.

If you can kill a heavily armored elite soldier with just one shot, what else is there to blame?

In addition to muskets, the same is true for cannons.

The Centurion artillery produced by the Tarhan tribe fell into the hands of Count Fonteyne, but due to the lack of qualified gunpowder, the power of the artillery could not be fully exerted.

The primitive gunpowder produced by themselves could only spray the Centurion shotgun shells dozens of meters away, killing unarmored targets, and its attack power was even weaker than that of the catapult.

Disappointed with firearms, Count Fonteyne had no choice but to change his development strategy.

Your spear is sharp, can't I just make my shield thicker?

The short-barreled muskets of the Tarhan tribe in the western border can fire shotgun shells that cannot penetrate plate armor, and the single-headed bullets can only cause damage at close range.

Their musketeer cavalry were mainly used to target the leather-armored conscripts and armored regular soldiers of the local armed forces, and were still slightly inferior to the armored knights of the North.

However, the number of armored knights in the North was very small. A local legion of 3,000 people only had 100 to 200 people. Only the main legion of the earl could barely gather a thousand people.

The rest of the civilian lancers still mainly wore mail and leather armor.

The musketeer cavalry of the Tarhan tribe in the western border, numbering often one or two thousand, swarmed forward and took turns firing, which worried even the armored knights.

In that case, he thickened the soldiers' armor, replacing the regular armored soldiers' chain mail and scale armor with plate breastplates from the southern border!

Although the mass-produced plate armor in the South Territory is expensive, it is still much cheaper than the alchemical musket and the knight's full set of plate armor.

You have musketeers, I have cuirassiers!