Chapter 34 Cannon Firing
Within a week and a half, Landon had successfully produced 12 cannons within the Construction industry and 56 large sacks of gunpowder in the Alchemy estate.
To ensure that the gunpowder had a superb Combustion ability, Landon had gone through several processes to ensure that the gunpowder particles were all finely crushed powders with uniform particle sizes.
At the same time, Landon had also recruited 150 knights into the army within this past week and a half.
Landon wasn't worried about the slow production rate of cannons and the number of knights he had, because he knew that, in another 1 and a half weeks more, slaves and refugees would be arriving Baymard from Santa.
Today, Landon positioned 8 of those cannons on the city walls and decided that the remaining 4 cannons should be brought to the barracks headquarters in the upper region.
Behind the barracks was an empty field that led to a dense forest. From the high walls on the Baracks, one could see the dense forest that went on for about 80 square miles leading to a tall volcanic mountain.
From what he had heard, the mountain has not had an eruption for at least 10,000 years and is not expected to erupt again in a comparable time scale of the future. So this was an extinct volcanic mountain.
It was the perfect place for the knights to practice cannon firing in future.
For today, he chose to test 1 of the 4 cannons from the barracks and had 2 knights drag the cannon unto the empty field.
Both knights and workers wanted to see, as well as his mom, Lucy, little Momo and Grace, so he allowed them to come. But not all the knights of course (** Who's going to guard the city walls in the central region?)
Many of the workers were curious as to what they had been making. They had been creating this weapon for quite some time now and didn't fully understand what it could do.
But for Tim Mayers and chief Wiggins and the various supervisors in the industries, they understand exactly what would be happening today. Based on the chemical reactions and production processes, they knew that this weapon would have a great explosive factor.
Everyone's heart was pounding as they crowded on the city walls, waiting to witness history.
Landon also had some workers create 7 strong circlular wooden fences with rope and wood, 3 feet away from each other. Then, he had his knights place 7 wild boars in each circular fence.
He assigned a gunner and crew needed for operating a single cannon, and instructed Lucius and the knights on how to operate the cannon.
Cannon operation required a specialized crew and a gunner to run it smoothly.
Each cannon was to be manned by 4 soldiers and a gunner. The gunner was in charge of loading the gunpowder, while 1 soldier was in charge of providing cartilage by igniting the canon. The 3 other soldiers were in charge of ramming and sponging the cannon, as well as holding the ladle.
Also, each cannon could fire about 60-75 shots (cartilage) daily.
After properly explaining to his knights, they followed instructions and pointed the cannon at a projected angle towards the fourth (middle) animal fence.
"My lord, we are prepared", Major General Gary said.
"Good...now... FIRE!!"
One of the soldiers ignited the cannon. Sludge and smoke fired out from the canon, and instantly:
'Boom'
The ground shook slightly and everyone felt sounds echoing loudly in their ears. It was truly deafening.
Everyone was shocked silly.
This.... What kind of weapon was this? The results exceeded everyone's expectations.
Lucius' eyeballs nearly popped out of his eyes as he looked at the results... Then, he started remembering the days where he used to fight for territories along the borders.
The Pyno continent looked exactly like that of North America back on earth.
You could say that Arcadina was like Canada and Alaska combined, with Baymard located at the topmost part of Alaska.
The empire of Deiferus and the empire of Yodan both shared borders with Arcadina and could be considered as the United states and Mexico combined.
From the East of empire of Arcadina, a lot of cities trailed towards an extremely large Island close to Baymard (*** similar to how Mexico trails into the continent of South America back on earth... only this happens from Alaska in canada)
This massive Island is empire of Carona.
Likewise, from the west of the empire of Arcadina, a lot of countries trail towards an even bigger island. This is the empire of Terique.
Acadina and Deiferus have always been in conflict with each other....This conflict led to a large scale war 200 years ago.
The main issue was that, the Deiferus soldiers would sometimes conquer major cities along the Arcadina borders, brutally killing the people and soldiers stationed there. Once city's along the borders are conquered, the overall size of the empire would be reduced.
If this continued, then sooner or later, they won't just be contented with cities at the borders.
Hence in the past, Lucius had always been sent to the borders to fight and kill the Deiferus soldiers.
Although all the leaders of each empire signed peace treaties with each other hundreds of years ago, humans were always greedy beings who want more than what they had. And since Arcadina was the biggest empire in Pyno, they didn't mind, taking some of it's cities.
Once new rulers ascended the throne, they always looked for more power and cities to conquer, so the treaty wasn't always applied.
Even till this day, there are always wars around the borders.
If Lucius had this kind of weapon, then most of his friends wouldn't have died in the battles.
He had been involved in intense battles that went on for 12 days straight, with each side sending backup every single day. He had even seen his friends being cut down before his eyes. Although they had succeeded in keeping their border cities, Lucius felt that there was nothing to be happy about.
As Lucius looked at the cannon, although he was happy for the creation of this weapon, he felt sad at the thought of his lost friends... (sigh)
Landon walked around and checked the animals.
The one that was targeted was dead, as its face was blown away into smithereens. The other 4 around it also died from the shock wave impact.
The last 2 that were furthest away from the target, didn't die... But had their knees split open and blood gushing out of their ears.
'Excellent' Landon thought.
The knights had cold sweat on their backs seeing the damage it caused.... If they were faces with this kind of weapon, they would have no means or chance for survival.
Tim and chief Wiggins laughed and hugged each other like a bunch of 5 year old kids.
"Hahhaha.This is great, Marvelous .. ..Genius" Tim Mayers said excitedly.
"That basic chemistry book basically changes the game for Alchemy..... hahahaha.....what is matter? this is matter!! ...Ahhh his highness is a godly genius.... Old Tim, I'll buy you a drink today... " Chief Wiggins said while patting Tim Mayers back.
"Peiiiy!! no way.. I have to keep reading my basic Chemistry book... I want to see and create more materials.... Did you know that even Iron itself has different temperatures for which it can be welded by? Damn..there's even something called Enthalpy and entropy.... When we created Glass for the first time, I almost lost it.... Genius.. simply genius..." Tim said
"Oh!! dont forget about air my friend.... what we are breathing has different elements in it...blah blah blah...."
As the two men spoke, their apprentices looked at each other and smiled. Today they had witnessed history.
Although everyone was shocked silly, deep down, they knew that with this new weapon, Baymard would have a means of protecting itself.
They couldn't help but looked at his highness with awe.
'Godly genius'