Chapter 34: The Trial Blasting
Translator:Transn
Editor:Meh
Right when the firing room for cement was built, Roland had already assigned labs for the several follow-up projects. Most of the labs were being built around the North Slope Mine area so that the labs could be efficiently guarded—the construction of the labs was speedy due to their simple composition of adobe walls and wooden roofs. And their construction would not intervene with the construction of the city wall.
The saltpeter purchased from Willow Town was delivered to the nearby warehouse to be stored. It would be ground, measured, and sent to the labs when it was time to use them. Charcoal and sulfur would go through the same process. The transport and mixture of the three ingredients would be completed by different groups of people. This way, Roland could eliminate the risk of the plan being leaked out.
Roland took 20 pounds from the pre-made gunpowder, and slowly poured it onto a cropped sheepskin.
The gunpowder all went through the process of soaking, compressing, drying, grinding, and screening. They were all in similar sizes and extremely inflammable. To prevent any accidents due to the collision of sparks, the entire manufacturing process did not use any metal products. Instead, they used ceramics or wooden products.
After pouring the gunpowder, Roland folded the sheepskin to three folds and tied it with string.
"That's all I need to do?" Carter asked. This object in front of him could also be called a weapon? Although it was the modified version of the snow powder, it would not do any damage just by its loud noise. Perhaps it would be effective to farmers who had never been to the battlefield, but it certainly would not frighten the trained soldiers and mercenaries. However... the chief knight pondered cautiously, although the things that His Highness had been doing seemed unreasonable, they all turned out to be extremely efficient. If the demonic beasts had similar intelligence to ordinary beasts, perhaps this gunpowder thing would actually work? For example, a sudden loud noise could make them flee in startle. That way, the stress on the troop could be lessened.
Roland gave the wrapped up gunpowder to Carter and took a bag of the inflammable gunpowder that had been ground. "It's almost the time, let's head to the outside of the city wall. Iron Axe should already be prepared."
About two miles from the city wall to the west, the vacant space between Misty Forest and the Impassable Mountain Range would be the area to do the trial blasting.
Iron Axe and the other hunters had already been waiting here for a long time. Besides Iron Axe, everyone was local and also the ones with the best archery skills. Hearing that Prince Roland had a mission to assign them, they immediately followed Iron Axe over.
Everyone knew now that the new Lord of Border Town was generous about giving remunerations.
Following Roland's command, they set up long wooden poles on the four corners, tied up strings, and enclosed a watch circle for half of a mile. Roland assigned knights to scout near the city wall in case anyone approached by accident.
Roland examined around the watch circle, and nodded. "Did you bring all the preys?"
"Your Highness, the preys are here." Iron Axe came up with a cage. Carter noticed the hens and rabbits in the cage.
"Very well, put them on 5 steps, 10 steps, 15 steps, and 30 steps away from the center and tie one on every wooden pole."
Carter shook his head and suggested, "Your Highness, I'm afraid the preys you selected could hardly have any test effect. These animals are timid by nature. They will flee if there're any noises nearby. Even if the noise could scare them, but it wouldn't be able to startle the demonic beasts."
"To startle the demonic beasts?" Roland paused for one moment and realized. "I'm not planning to scare them, even though this thing is astonishing when it explodes."
Roland brought the chief knight to the center of the circle, dropped off a bag of gunpowder, and tore an opening in the bag to allow some powder to leak out. Then Roland pulled out the leather bag with gunpowder, and continued to sprinkle the gunpowder from the opening while stepping backward.
It was a windless day, perfect for such a primordial explosive method.
Roland retrieved the leather bag only when they retreated to 100 meters away.
"That's enough, let's ignite it here." He repeatedly estimated the distance, making sure it was errorless, and then said to Carter, "Bring all the hunters here."
At this moment, Roland was quite excited. He had done a smaller scale of the explosion test so he was not that concerned with the outcome of the experiment. What he really cared about was that this moment would be a moment of great invention. The thermal weapon would officially step on the stage and Roland would be recorded into history as the chief leader.
After everyone gathered, Roland ignited the gunpowder.
Carter lay on the ground. He felt uneasy as he watched the spark furthering away.
With such a long distance, plus it was not even put in the bronze barrel, the exploding noise of snow powder might not even be reached here. It was unnecessary for Prince Roland to demand that everyone had to lie on the ground. However, there was nothing left to say since Prince Roland took the lead himself.
The ground was freezing cold during winter. Carter could felt the chill even if he was wearing chain armor. Carter moved a bit; an astonishingly loud sound broke out as he was about to lie on his side.
Because the distance was too close, the exploding noise and the shock arrived at the same time. He felt a sudden buzzing in his ears and the world became quiet. The shaking of the ground continued momentarily. He lifted up his head and saw a black cloud rising into the air, followed by the falling of stones and mud.
The shock that Roland received was much less than the chief knight's. As someone that would cover his ears even for firecrackers, Roland promptly prepared protection for himself. The explosive point was unlike in movies, where there would be huge fireballs; the glaring light of flame flashed, multitudes of mud were blasted off the ground, reaching a height of 10 meters in the air. When everything settled down, the only thing that Roland felt was this noise was much louder than firecrackers.
Regarding Iron Axe and the other hunters, they were flabbergasted by what they just saw and heard. Only Iron Axe knew that this experiment was to test a new weapon, but he also did not expect the momentum of the weapon to be so groundbreaking.
Only the thunder of God's Punishment could be comparable to this!
Roland stood up. He led the group to the center of the explosion. There was a half-meter deep hole on the ground. The bunny that was closest to the center had utterly disappeared, leaving only a short stake on the ground.
Roland examined every other prey. The hens that were placed on the 10 step point and 15 step point were lying on the ground, apparently dead. Although there were no physical damages on them, Roland knew that they died of the shock from the explosion.
The only survivor was the gray bunny that was placed on the 30 step (about 15 meters) point. There were drops of blood from its ear, and it even gave up struggling when people walked near it. It seemed like that the massive blast of the explosion had deprived its soul.
Carter swallowed. The buzzing in his ears was gradually recovering. Until now, he finally understood what Prince Roland meant by "not planning to scare them away." Was that the outcome of the modification of snow powder? With such accomplishment, the power of alchemists would be much superior to the power of astrologers.
The way Iron Axe looked at Roland had changed. "Your Highness, if the Militia could utilize such a weapon, then Border Town would no longer be threatened by the demonic beasts. Could this weapon be mass produced?"
Roland shrugged. "Probably not, we would only be able to produce 20 to 30 of them before the Months of Demons." The key issue was the saltpeter. The manufacture in this age was still quiet primordial. The only way of manufacturing was to collect the nitric acid crystals separated out by the lime mixture of human and livestock' waste. Other than the alchemists and the upper nobles that had a demand, there was almost no other uses. So there were few refining fields, if they were all used to do explosives, they would soon be exhausted.
As the ultimate weapon, it had to be used along with flintlock and crossbow bolts.