Chapter 19： god of war

When Paul came to the reception room, he saw a middle-aged man sitting there awkwardly.

"Standing in front of you is the owner of the Arda Territory in the Northwest Gulf, Sir Earl Paul Greiman." The servant leading the way said loudly to the man, then turned around and introduced softly to the Earl: "My lord, he is the founding Artisan Marlowe, here at your summons."

"Sir... Sir." It may be because of the tension, Marlowe's voice stuttered, he bowed in a blunt way, and asked: "I don't know if you are looking for me... What's the matter, I have always been law-abiding... "

"Okay, okay, I'm looking for you for a good thing, otherwise the place where we meet will be a prison cell. Are you better at casting bells?"

"Yes." Seeing that the lord didn't seem to be embarrassing himself, Marlowe breathed a sigh of relief, and spoke quickly: "I cast the church bell in Huxin Town a few years ago, er... if I haven't replaced it if."

"Very good, to tell you the truth, I have also rang that bell. From my layman's point of view, I feel that the craftsmanship is not bad, and the wall is very smooth."

"Hey, my lord has praised you."

The lord took out a piece of parchment and unfolded it slowly, "I need you to cast such a thing, can you finish it? This is a cross-sectional drawing, the real shape should be a tubular object, I call it—cannon .”

Marlowe leaned over and looked carefully.

This is the cross-sectional drawing of the early artillery drawn by Paul according to the information he saw when he visited the post bar in his previous life, and marked the size. The gun barrel is thinner at the front and thicker at the back. The length of the barrel is about 1 meter, and the inner diameter is about 84 mm. In terms of structure alone, this kind of artillery is much simpler than muskets. As a puppet army fan, he didn't dare to scribble, so he made a rather conservative design.

Marlowe had never seen such a thing before, "I don't know what the master made this thing called 'cannon' for?"

"Let's not talk about this. I need to work here for a long time. I will pay you 800 copper coins a month. If you do a good job, it will increase. Are you willing to work here for a long time?"

"Yes, yes!" Marlowe nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. A craftsman who specializes in casting like him doesn't often get jobs in the economically underdeveloped Northwest region, and sometimes he is even used as a corvee by the lord. Expropriation in name without compensation, and now there is a long-term stable meal ticket, and the wages are so high, only a fool would disagree.

"Okay, here is a labor contract, the so-called contract, you can just press your fingerprint later. I will read it to you first."

Apart from a few words about salary, the content of the contract is mainly about confidentiality, such as not disclosing the work content to others, not leaving the workplace without permission, etc. Marlowe was dizzy after hearing a lot of confidential items.

It was the first time that Marlowe met such a "fine" lord, and he had never heard of nobles signing any contracts for commoners to do things. Although some clauses restricting freedom in the contract made him a little unhappy, but the treatment was so attractive that he pressed his fingerprint without hesitation.

"Perfect!" The earl was secretly pleased, and immediately accepted the contract. He thought Marlowe would go back and think about it for a few days, but he didn't expect to make a decision so soon.

"If you do a good job, I promise I won't treat you badly. Oh! By the way, you will stay in my territory from now on, and I will send someone to take over your family and settle them properly."

"Let's continue to talk about this artillery. Since you stay here to work, you will need to know some things sooner or later. You know about trebuchets and ballistas, right?"

"I know." Marlowe nodded.

"Cannons have similar functions to them, except that I replaced the projectiles with iron projectiles called 'cannonballs'. The cannonballs are placed in the inner barrel of the cannon, and the bottom of the barrel is stuffed with a substance called 'gunpowder' , this kind of material passes through the small hole at the back of the gun barrel and ignites it with fire, and it will explode violently, and then push the shell out. Do you understand my explanation?"

"Understand, understand, what the adults said is very simple and easy to understand."

"First use bronze to cast some, and then try to cast iron later." According to Paul's understanding, bronze is more ductile, and the artillery made is less likely to explode. Even if the chamber explodes, it will not cause catastrophic consequences. The new-style army that has been trained hard is not to be used as cannon fodder, every soldier is his baby bump, and he can't die because of his own weapons inexplicably.

"According to your experience, how much does it cost to cast a bronze cannon of the size in the picture?"

"Such a cannon is estimated to require more than 300 kilograms of bronze. According to the current price, the cost is about 500 Aldo silver coins or 50 Aldo gold coins."

Paul was taken aback, why is it so expensive! This is almost catching up with the pensions of ten soldiers. It really is ten thousand taels of gold when the cannon fires. By the way, I haven't even asked Philip how much he spent on the development of firearms a while ago. At that time, I just told the craftsmen what they needed. Just give me what I want, I hope I won't hurt myself anymore.

But now I can only smack my face to pretend to be fat, and people are recruited, and they are eager to use it.

"How long will it take for such a cannon to be cast?" He raised the question he was most concerned about.

"I haven't built this thing before. I can only estimate it. It will take at least a month."

"This... is too long!"

Looking at the lord's wide-eyed eyes, Marlowe wondered whether to mention the concept of scrap rate to Paul.

"Well, just one month, I will arrange a group of apprentices for you, let them learn from you well, and you can make a few more doors in a batch. Never have the idea of ​​​​teaching apprentices to starve to death of the master, what you teach The more apprentices you get, the higher the wages you will get, and there will be additional incentives."

"Yes, I will do my best. It's just that my lord, why not use iron directly? If I use iron, I am sure that the price will be controlled at about a quarter of bronze."

"Well—I don't want to boast. This is because I am kind-hearted and considerate of you craftsmen. As far as I know, UU Reading Iron is relatively brittle. If there is too much gunpowder in the experiment and the chamber explodes, it will not be a problem. Wonderful."

"What? Explosion??" Marlowe heard a word that seemed very dangerous.

"It's just that the explosion inside was so violent that it exploded the barrel of the gun."

Damn, are you kind-hearted? It was only then that Marlowe realized that he had taken on a job that could kill him, "My lord, this... this..." He began to speak incoherently again, "There are elderly people who need to be supported, and children who are waiting to be fed. Look...you see ...can you just focus on casting?"

"What are you afraid of? When the time comes, you build a mound of earth, make the fuse a little longer, and run behind the mound to light the fire, won't it be safe! Forget it, I just captured a group of pirate prisoners, and I will give you a few. Just call them."

"Oh, okay." Marlowe breathed a sigh of relief, "I was so rude just now, I made you laugh."

"The working principle of the cannon is similar to another weapon called musket. This one has already been made. I will send someone to take you to the place where we specialize in making weapons. You can communicate with the craftsmen who make muskets. After carefully thinking about the details of the next work, I request that the casting of the cannon be started immediately."

"Yes, my lord." Although he agreed, Marlowe was still a little uncomfortable when he suddenly became a craftsman in charge of making weapons.

This is Philip, the housekeeper, who came in. "The Earl, Father Anderson and his teacher, Brother Leonard, are here to visit. This Brother Leonard is the dean of the North Shore Abbey."

"Oh? Anderson is the one who treated me. I've heard about the other one. Why did they come to my door? Let them come here, and arrange for Master Marlowe to go to our training camp Participating in the development of new weapons, he provides what is needed."