Chapter 287: Artillery Ranging

Chapter 287: Artillery Ranging

“What? Suspend the mapping operation and return to Lakeheart Town?”

The students were dumbfounded by this sudden news.

Josh had no choice but to spread his hands to them: “This is an order from above, and we just received it.”

He secretly complained to himself, wondering why it had to be him delivering this unwelcome news.

“Tomorrow or the day after, we will depart southward to engage in battle with the enemy. Only essential defense forces will remain here, and it might not be possible to guarantee your safety.”

The leading student was the first to react, whispering, “Mr. Josh... perhaps we can...”

Before he could finish, Josh shook his head like a rattle-drum: “I’m just a private; I can’t decide anything. If you have any ideas, you should talk to Lord Bryce or Lord Joyce. Only they can decide your fate.”

The leading student nodded: “Thank you for the reminder, we’ll discuss it among ourselves...”

After wishing them a good night, Josh left the room, leaving the students to quietly discuss their situation.RêAd lateSt chapters at novelhall.com Only

“We can’t just leave like this; we’ve only completed a small part of the mapping work.”

“If we go back so meekly, our group will definitely be at the bottom of the standings.”

“Such bad luck, getting assigned to this place.”

“Let’s talk to Lord Bryce and Lord Joyce tomorrow.”

...

The next morning, Bryce and Joyce were discussing their plans to move south. They were supposed to leave today, but they realized they needed to make many additional preparations.

A guard standing outside came to report that students from Weiss Academy requested to see them.

After a moment of thought, Bryce said, “Those students? Let them come in.” The count still highly valued these students.

“What? No way!”

The students, after being let in, made a surprising request that shocked Bryce – they wanted to stay and complete their mapping work.

“Lakeheart Town has repeatedly asked us to ensure your safety, and I can’t let you roam around without guards.”

“Cough!” Bryce cleared his throat: “Alright, I agree to let you accompany the troops.”

“Is the colonel serious?”

Bryce bristled: “Would I, the commander of the first battalion, lie to you kids? Now, tell me about this range estimation method!”

“Yay!”

The students cheered, delighted that they could continue their mapping work.

Joyce, now a battalion commander but previously a young knight attendant to Schroeder, was moved by the students’ youthful enthusiasm.

He fetched paper and pen, placing them on the table. Smiling at Nick, he said, “Congratulations, our Commander Bryce is not usually so agreeable. But don’t celebrate just yet; let’s hear your method. If I’m not mistaken, it probably involves what you call ‘mathematics’, right?”

“Snap!” Nick snapped his fingers, nodding: “Exactly!”

He took the paper and began drawing: “This is a method we often use in mapping...”

Everyone leaned in to see Nick draw a triangle, but it was a special kind of triangle, a right triangle, with one very long side and one very short side.

“The artillery is deployed here!” Nick marked a circle at the right angle.

He then moved the pen tip slowly along the longer side (the hypotenuse) towards the smaller acute angle, stopping at the tip, “And this is your target.”

“This line,” Nick emphasized the long side (the hypotenuse), “is the distance between the artillery and the target.”

“And this line,” Nick marked the shorter side (the base), “is a known fixed distance to the side of the artillery, an integer for easy calculation, like one or two meters, which we call the ‘baseline’.”

“Now, by measuring this angle,” Nick circled the larger acute angle, “and combining it with this known fixed distance of one or two meters...”

“You can calculate the straight-line distance between the artillery and the target.”

He heavily marked the long side (the hypotenuse) a few times.

“This line right here!”

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