Chapter 287： Artillery ranging

"What? Suspend the surveying and mapping operations and let us return to Huxin Town?"

The students were dumbfounded, the news came so suddenly.

Joss spread his hands to them helplessly: "This is an order from above, and we have just received it."

He secretly complained in his heart, why did he let me deliver this unpleasant news.

"Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we will head to the south to fight the enemy. Only the necessary garrison forces are left here, which may not be able to guarantee your safety."

The leading student was the first to react and whispered, "Mr. Joss... maybe we can..."

Before he finished speaking, Joss shook his head like a rattle: "I'm just a private, and I can't decide anything. If you have any ideas, you can go to Bryce or Joyce, only they can decide Your stay or stay."

The leading student nodded: "Thank you for your reminder, let's discuss this first..."

Joss said good night and left the room, leaving behind the students who were discussing things in a low voice.

"We can't just leave like this. The surveying and mapping work has only completed a small part."

"If we go back so disheartened, our group's results must be at the bottom."

"It's unfortunate that such a place was drawn by lottery."

"Go and discuss it with Lord Brass and Lord Joyce tomorrow."

…

Early the next morning, Bryce and Joyce were discussing the matter of going south. They were scheduled to leave today, but later found that they needed to make a lot of unplanned preparations.

The guards standing guard outside came to report that it was the students of Weiss College who asked to see them.

Bryce thought for a while, "Those students? Let them in." The Earl still attaches great importance to these students.

"What? No way!"

The students came in with a request that took Bryce by surprise—they wanted to stay and complete their surveying assignments.

"Huxin Town has repeatedly asked us to ensure your safety. I can't let you run around without guards."

The leading student—the leader of their group—named Nick, with an anxious look on his face, begged again: "Master Bryce, thank you for your concern about our safety, but drawing a map is a very important job. , It’s impossible to give up halfway. Arda is developing the mining industry. Maps are inseparable from mineral exploration. Maps can also provide convenience for merchants to travel around and promote the development of commerce. It is also of great significance to your army. With accurate maps, It would be much more convenient to arrange troops and formulate a battle plan. The Lord's Mansion attaches great importance to this matter, otherwise it would not have sent us students who have not finished their studies."

Bryce just shook his head: "Even if you have ten thousand reasons, I can't let you run around."

There was a stalemate between the two sides for a while, but no one could convince the other.

A student suddenly suggested: "Since we can't be left behind alone, let's follow you to the south! Anyway, the geography there will have to be surveyed sooner or later."

"Hey? That's a good idea! Please let us follow you!"

Nick agreed with the classmate's idea, and the other students also nodded.

"Still messing around! We're going to fight? Do you think we're going on a tour?"

Bryce frowned and continued to object. Although he had 100% confidence in his troops, and it was a feint, but the battlefield was changing rapidly, and he couldn't guarantee that one or two people wouldn't make any mistakes.

Seeing that Bryce could not be persuaded, Nick slapped his head and thought of a good idea.

"Master Bryce, what do you think of this? If you take us there, we will teach your artillerymen a simple method of measuring distances. Standing on the gun emplacements, you can accurately measure... er... relatively accurately. distance to the target."

"Oh?"

Bryce and Joyce pricked up their ears at the same time, and Nick's suggestion hit their pain point.

The artillery units of the Arda Army rely on the naked eye to estimate the distance to the target when aiming, which requires a high level of experience for the gunners. Some experienced gunners with a high "talent for shooting guns" can estimate that they are almost inseparable at a glance. gun. But such talents are rare, and most gunners—especially new recruits—have to move the impact point closer to the target shot by shot.

If there is really a method of relatively accurate distance measurement while standing on the artillery position, it can make the role of artillery to a higher level.

Nick smiled smugly, and the two officers were whetted by him.

Bryce asked, "Tell me about the method?"

Nick shook his head: "Then you have to promise us that you can go south with the troops."

Bryce is a little annoyed, you bastard, you dare to negotiate terms with me even before your hair is fully grown. For such an important skill as artillery range measurement, I have nothing to say if you directly deduct your lord.

But I thought it was a bit of a joke for me to be a lieutenant colonel and a bunch of half-children, so I suppressed my unhappiness.

He looked at Joyce, and the eyes of the third battalion commander, who was not much older than the students, were filled with [agreement].

"Cough!" Bryce cleared his throat: "Okay, I agree with you to move with the troops."

"Is the lieutenant colonel telling the truth?"

Bryce blew his beard and stared: "Is my majestic first battalion commander still lying to you guys? But you, tell me how to measure the distance first!"

"yeah!"

A group of students cheered, their surveying and mapping homework can continue.

Although Joyce is currently serving as the battalion commander, he was still very young as Schroeder's former knight retinue. Seeing the cheering appearance of these students who were a few years younger than him was very touching.

He took a pen and paper and put them on the table, and said to Nick with a smile: "Congratulations, our Commander Bryce is not easy to talk on weekdays. But don't be busy celebrating, let us disclose it to us first, if I If the guess is correct, it is likely to use the so-called [mathematics], right?"

"Crack!" Nick snapped his fingers, nodded and said, "Indeed!"

He picked up the paper and drew on it, "This is the method we often use in surveying and mapping..."

Everyone moved their heads closer, and saw that Nick had drawn a triangle on the paper, but this triangle was a bit special in that two of its sides intersected perpendicularly, one of which was very long and the other very short.

Students will recognize that this is called a right triangle.

"Assuming your artillery is deployed here!" Nick drew a circle at a right angle.

Then he controlled the nib to move slowly from the right angle along the longer side (strand) to the smaller acute angle, and finally stopped at the tip of the corner, "This is your bombardment target."

"This line," Nick thickened the long straight edge (strand) through which the nib passed, "is the distance between the gun and the target."

"And this line segment," Nick thickened the very short right-angled side (hooked line), "is a known fixed distance directly to the side of the artillery. For the convenience of calculation, you can take an integer, such as one meter or Two meters, you can call it the [baseline].”

"Now, just measure the size of this angle," Nick circled the larger acute angle, "combined with this known fixed distance of one meter or two meters..."

"You can measure the straight-line distance between the gun and the target."

He heavily stroked the very long right-angled edge (strand).

"That's the line!"