Our Family Has Fallen

It’s easy to recover the bombs after completing a round of shooting during training, but in reality, there’s seldom an opportunity to recover them on the battlefield. Only after the fight, and only if victorious, do you have the right to clean the battlefield.

If you lose or make a tactical retreat, it’s equivalent to abandoning that part of the ammunition. In this era, the production of metal is still very low, otherwise Lance wouldn’t need to import iron ingots from Totnes.

It can be said that every shot fired with iron shot and gunpowder is not just bombs flying out, it’s money flying out!

Not to mention, the cost of iron shot is expensive, and the craftsmanship is troublesome. Therefore, it’s difficult to replenish the consumed projectiles after such a battle, putting enormous pressure on logistics.

Moreover, if you encounter a siege warfare, when facing enemy fortifications, using iron shot could potentially allow enemies to reuse them.

This is where the advantages of stone shot are demonstrated: it’s cheap, and you can shoot as much as you want without feeling distressed.

Furthermore, the craftsmanship is straightforward, and the raw materials are readily available everywhere. Even if logistics can’t keep up, soldiers accompanying the army can quickly replenish them.

During a siege warfare, once stone shot hits a hard object, it shatters, leaving no room for reuse.

It all comes down to two words—cost.

”Compared to iron shot, how’s the power?”

”Back at the academy, we tested many types of stones, among which granite exhibited the best results, no worse than cast iron, and the fragmented shrapnel can still cause damage. However, processing difficulty is relatively higher because this stone is quite hard.”

Lance wasn’t swayed by Barton’s words; in reality, casting iron bombs is simpler than crafting stone shot. The high cost mainly lies in the metal material itself and the consumption of melting metal.

Crafting stone shot sounds easy, but in fact, manually fashioning a stone into a spherical shape is no simple task. Polishing is labor-intensive.

In modern times, craftsmen manually creating stone shots would be praised as the gods of stone shot.

The low cost is primarily because stones are not valuable.

More importantly, manpower is also not valued.

That bit of time cost can basically be ignored.

Lance felt deeply about this; nowadays, there are so many refugees, they don’t even demand payment. Just feed them and they’ll do whatever you want.

”Train according to your rhythm.” Lance did not deny this situation, as he is a beneficiary of such circumstances.

Without this free labor but each worker charging money, the funds required for him to open up the wilderness would be something Hamlet simply couldn’t afford.

”Sir, look over here.” Barton knew he narrowly escaped, and seeing the Lord relent, he shifted the focus.

Lance followed suit and looked over. It’s also artillery, but this type of cannon has a much shorter barrel, yet a large mouth, looking like an iron barrel mounted on a gun carriage.

”These are the three latest delivered mortars, compared to those cannons...” Barton went up to introduce the circumstances, advantages, and disadvantages of the mortars.

Since the techniques of rear-loading and rifling have not yet been highlighted, the current artillery can be collectively called front-loading smoothbore guns, with distinctions even in the specifics.

Cannons refer to those that have longer barrels and low-extend straight trajectories, which are now artillery equipped with these six-pounder cannons.

Because they are mainly used in field battles, they can also be called field guns.

Cannons have small shooting angles and straight trajectories, so they’re easily hindered when encountering obstacles.

Mortars, however, have large shooting angles and high arc trajectories, hence they are often used to bombard targets at short distances, separated by walls or other barriers that preclude direct fire.

Similarly, there are also disadvantages.

Cannons have high bore pressure and an initial velocity; for example, the currently equipped six-pounder cannon has an effective range of 500~800 yards, even with conservative powder loads.

If taken to the extreme, increasing the powder load can strike enemies even a thousand yards away.

But mortars have low initial velocities, and their high projectile trajectories mean their attack range can’t be too far, based on Barton’s verification, merely within a range of 100~200 yards.

”Trying to fire explosive bombs with cannons is risky, as high bore pressure can cause various accidents, potentially triggering spontaneous explosions and bursting the gun barrel.

But the characteristics of mortars are very suitable for launching explosives and explosive packs, causing greater damage to some fortifications; however, they have higher usage difficulty, often being used as auxiliary.”

Lance listened as Barton repeatedly mentioned the difficulty of using artillery, realizing this issue needs resolution if artillerymen are to form combat capabilities.

”Thus, collect the data on the amount of gunpowder and the artillery shooting angle—these two variables—and then match them with the trajectory and point of impact, making a chart and drawing lines.

They don’t necessarily need to understand the principles; they just have to remember several sets of data to ensure there’s not much deviation.”

Lance used a very simple method, which is to control the variables, let statistics help find the pattern.

First, resolve whether it can be used, then think of ways to resolve how well it can be used.

After inspecting the artillery training, Lance inexplicably felt a bit uneasy.

During this time, he has focused most of his attention elsewhere, outposts, beast lairs, leprosy, and mysticism.

Although he also pays attention to the construction of the army, his main focus remains on the Honor Guard.

Now that the main action is the army, he needs to conduct a thorough inspection of the current army and understand the situation anew.

The plan was originally to go to the school, but now from the artillery camp, he directly went to the training camp for inspection.

The recruitment of refugees has been orderly, and conscription hasn’t stopped either. Every day, people are attracted by generous conditions, but very few can join.

This is because ordinary refugees are in poor physical condition, usually taking one to two months to recover through labor.

Yes, refugees coming to labor in Hamlet can actually nurse their bodies back, knowing full well Lance is not a benevolent person; the intensity of the labor for land reclamation is significant.

Of course, what they eat isn’t bad either; bread and fish are the most common, with good performance earning them eggs and milk.

Labor combined with protein supplements, although not necessarily strong after a month, is enough to make them look human.

It’s evident how absurd their previous lives were.

And this allows them to feel the glory of Hamlet, unavoidably developing reverence for the Lord who saved them.

Thus, the seeds of the training camp are generally those who perform well in farms or wilderness development, and these people inherently carry some fanaticism.

And this is just the training camp; to truly join the army, they need to undergo a period of rigorous training, and even fewer are left.

All the new recruits enter the training camp, choosing according to their abilities during basic training. Those gifted receive priority enlistment.

Good horsemanship leads to cavalry, good shooting leads to infantry, strong swimming leads to navy, proficient arithmetic leads to artillery, after the first round, then comes allocation.

After leaving the training camp, the various arms train separately, with the navy directly boarding ships for sea exercises.

Due to different training requirements and methods among them, managing them together is unreasonable; only during joint training can they see the various arms train together, hone together, and complement tactical training.

So the training camp is more of a cradle for the army.

Lance’s entry into the training camp didn’t cause much commotion; those inside were not surprised by his appearance.

Because Lance, while in Hamlet, generally spends time available to visit the training camp.

Teaching them how to fight, weapon usage skills, strategies for different enemies, and how to exploit enemy weaknesses to defeat the strong with the weak.

Teaching them to understand human anatomy and principles, and also battlefield first aid, whether for themselves or for teammates.

If anyone wants to challenge the Lord’s might, Lance doesn’t mind personally stepping in to let them feel what strong and powerful really is!

It’s said that almost everyone in the camp has been beaten by him, yet it doesn’t alienate him from the trainees.

Instead, it makes these people even more fervent, for they’ve never heard of a Noble Lord mingling with ordinary folk like them.

Lance’s activities here keep these new recruits tightly in his grasp; they all know the Lord, knowing who gave all this.