Chapter 464
2021-01-06
Chapter 464 War PreparationIn the modern world before the crossing, some hot spots often exploded Some examples are: which armed group used a certain domestic seamless steel pipe to assemble a cannon, which force changed a certain domestic gas pipe into a rocket... Tools like this - it sounds funny, but it's not joke news. But in addition to being interesting, behind the epiphant's back of these jokes is actually a manifestation of the advanced metallurgy and manufacturing level of the modern world: when both of them reach a certain level, the boundary gap between military and civilian will indeed become surmountable.
Unfortunately, at this stage, the basic technology tree height of Ice and Fire World is still far from the "act wilfully line".
The first batch of gun barrels produced in Queenscrown's first foundry had been poured and cooled to form two months ago, but they were ordered to be sealed without even a single real test shot, which is why Igor did this , not deliberately hiding the great killing tool to deal with the living, but indeed encountered difficulties.
The technology of casting gun barrels at the moment is actually basically born out of... No, it should be said that it is completely the existing bell casting process of Westeros. The general operation process is as follows: In big cities such as King's Landing and Oldtown, they spend a lot of money to openly recruit and hire experienced bell-casters, and then show them the schematic diagram drawn by Igor himself, and ask them to start construction according to their needs. After a busy work, you can say that it is a bronze cannon, but it is essentially an elongated + slender version of a bronze bell. It is no suspense that it can be sounded immediately when it is hung a little higher, but to become a cannon, But it's still a long way off.
Since the material is copper with better physical properties rather than iron, risks such as breakage and blasting can be lower on the priority list. However, "Bronze Bell to Gun" still needs to go through the following steps: first, use a grinding tool such as a file to grind the surface of the metal gun barrel, remove the burrs and holes that are easy to cause stress concentration, and then use a boring tool to grind the gun barrel. The interior is polished to make it as straight as possible to ensure the firing speed and accuracy. Finally, a fire gate hole is drilled in the tail section of the "Bronze Bell".
As long as you are willing to spend time and energy, the above operations can still be done with the technical level of this world. None of this is the biggest thing preventing Igor from putting his guns to work before the Others arrive, the real obstacle is: gunpowder...to be precise, a serious shortage of nitrate.
......
Even if a real gun is successfully cast and subsequently processed, no one in this world will use it - the same gunpowder weapon, anyone can throw explosive bombs, To operate the artillery, it is necessary to train specialized artillerymen. The latter requires a lot of teaching, practice and live ammunition to test the reasonable charge and use of the gunpowder produced by the Night's Watch industry, and let the soldiers thoroughly remember the correct gun operation process, master the basic ballistics and observe the sight. Know the skills.
Of course, and most importantly, rely on habituation to ensure that oneself people are not frightened by the roar of artillery during wartime.
The above conditions are not theoretically difficult, just need to consume fire medicine recipe to carry out. In the case where the land grant has not yet established a stable gunpowder supply chain, and only Igor ventured out and brought less than two tons of saltpeter from the King's Landing Industrial Park, forcibly launching the artillery launch plan will inevitably face one of the following two outcomes:
Either they hurriedly faced the battle without training qualified artillerymen, and as a result, they were in a hurry on the battlefield and could not exert the true formidable power of launch-type thermal weapons; In this process, too much gunpowder resources were consumed, resulting in no gunpowder at all when the real battle was fought, and it was difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice.
Not to mention, the efficiency and reliability of artillery in dealing with the ghoul tide and Others are not necessarily as high as the simple and rude "Bomb + Wildfire". Not to mention, the Night King, who was hiding 300 meters away in the night in the Queenscrown defense battle, was the target that Dragonglass artillery could not deal with decisively - the shotgun can't reach, the solid bullet can't hit accurately, as for the blooming bullet... light A small fuse can't be made in a short time at all.
It doesn't need to be explained too much, the Dragonsteel bomb projectile is a feat, and the entire land grant after the Battle of Long Lake adds up to less than 100 Dragonglass bombs - it turns out that Igor didn't spill it impatiently. things through excessive enthusiasm The decision to forcibly throw in an immature weapon was the right one.
However, the right decision is also time-sensitive. Although the bombs are easy to use, they can't be used to conquer the world. With the discovery that the saltpeter has been produced in the Hearth Boiler Field, and the news of the smooth progress of the resource collection in other places in the North, the suspended snow, the name is all. The mysterious project that can't be said is finally time to restart.
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Preparing for war is not complicated, but if you want to do it secretly...it can't be done remotely by Igor. Even though he understood that it was impolite to leave the Queen at the end, Hearth oneself left first, he still had to solemnly explain in person and say goodbye temporarily - after leaving Warner Buckwell to lead more than a thousand reliable elites to protect Daenerys and the injured dragon, Igor took the rest with him. The main force dragged the first batch of tanner back to Queenscrown.
Life is endless, and strategic cheating can't stop. The first thing Igor did when he returned to Queenscrown was still acting: he made no mention of competing for the Iron Throne for the Queen, and instead started organizing the "beyond the wall expedition".
The simple and short celebration ended, and the first all-land-grant orders after the bloody battle at Long Lake were carried by Raven and the messengers to the fortresses. The Lord Commander of the Night's Watch solemnly announces that this war against Others has officially shifted from the strategic defense stage to the strategic counter-offensive... The series of specific orders are as follows: 1. Carry out personnel and force mobilization, and draw personnel from each fortress and village to recover and repopulate the previously destroyed Take the initiative to give up or be slaughtered by Others to break through many fortresses between Gorge-Nightfort; 2. Resume pre-war patrols, strictly prohibit the soldiers of each fortress from leaving the station and the area of responsibility without authorization, re-start daily drills and even increase the intensity, select strong and strong residents to expand Ranger military strength; 3. Order the reconstructed Shadow Tower, Castle Black and Eastwatch three fortresses to dig through the wall tunnels blocked by water before the war as soon as possible to prepare for the expedition.
After arranging this series of work that can both act as a smoke bomb and strengthen oneself's control over land grants, almost all the weapons research and development departments he sent in advance have arrived in the hall. Igor left his personal office and headed to the conference venue for a not lengthy but informative session - a workshop where he grouped Queenscrown's entire technical admin staff according to a plan he had planned earlier. The sub-departments have arranged many missions such as artillery firing tests, recasting improvements, artillery research, writing and training...
With the changes in rank and status, the modern people's advanced concepts and ideas are in mind. Knowledge is no longer Igor's only trump card and reliance. On the contrary, the time and cost of trial and error by the people under his hand are all borne by him - so, he not only assigns missions, but also keeps oneself in memory. The poor, popular science-level related knowledge is also given out without reservation, pointing out the general direction for the "ancient" researchers in front of them, and I hope they take as few detours as possible.
The deployment of artillery is the "hard" part of war preparations. But it's clear that the "soft" part of waging a war actually covers a wider range. After the workshop, Igor disbanded most of the participants, leaving only one outsider -- Tobho Mott, an outside metallurgist from King's Landing.
When he personally brought it in from the capital of the Seven Kingdoms to reforge "Lightbringer", Igor offered a high price for a fifth of the Dragonsteel, but at the same time demanded that it be at the end of the war. Pay later. Tobho Mott was afraid that Igor renege on a debt chose to stay in Queenscrown and wait for oneself's reward - being idle is also idle. After thinking about it, he also accepted the high salary offered by the former, and asked the Night's Watch industry to pay during the waiting time. The technical staff imparted metallurgical knowledge and experience... I was just looking for something to do, but I was infected by the vigorous spirit of the entire land-grant capital (of course, the money is essential), but I really put some thought and energy into it. "disciple", as he came and went, he gradually changed from an external expert to half an insider, and his relationship with Night's Watch was as close as he had known for many years.
......
"Master Mott." Igor reached out and asked the other person to sit in front of oneself, and said with a smile, "Thank you for giving up the goodness of King's Landing. The environment came to support Night's Watch in this cold and freezing ghost place. Without your serious and effective work, Night's Watch would have to pay a higher price even if it could still win this battle. This credit cannot be overstated. But, now, the war is over... It's basically over, we negotiated one-fifth of the reward, one-fifth of seventy-one is fourteen and one-fifth, I..."
"Just ten will be fine." Thinking that Igor wanted to talk about what to do with the extra one-fifth, Tobho Mott replied with a smile, "To be able to guard the Seven Kingdoms pulling with Night's Watch in such a battle. It was the greatest honor of my life to stand side by side in the great battle against a crazy tide. The night Queenscrown was attacked by the dead, I could have my grandson blow it to his grandson—the extra four and a fifth Dragonsteel arrows, my respect and homage to the Night's Watch Legion!"
Fighting side by side is obviously a good idea, the truth is: Tobho Mott was huddled in a room in the inner castle that night during the defense of Queenscrown. Shiver coldly under the quilt, I didn't even see the shadow of half a ghoul, and I kept scolding Igor for bringing oneself to this ghost place, and regretting how oneself hid back to King's Landing before finishing his work.
But as Sun rose from the east again, he came out of the room where he had been hiding all night, and looked at the Queenscrown Outer City, which was almost in ruins and still smoking, and saw the piles of fire outside the walls. Unfinished corpses, smelling the stench of burning protein and fat in the air... and then witnessing the Queen riding a dragon to descend from the sky, watching the Queenscrown troops who dared to organize and chase the enemy away after the catastrophe. All panic and annoyance turned into shock and pride - although he did not kill half of the active ghouls, but he did experience this battle!
As long as Igor is willing to admit, as the official Night's Watch, that he made the arrow that shot the King of the Others, it doesn't matter if he doesn't get paid. In an industry, he took the position of Peak, and he didn't care much about money and other external things. Fame and bragging capital were what he valued the most!
"Ah? Oh, you misunderstood, I'm not tangled." Igor was stunned for a moment, then smiled even more, "I'll give you one, fifteen! You can choose fifteen Lightbringers. Take it back to King's Landing, as long as you accept the official number and name of Night's Watch, you can collect or sell it as you like. But I would like to ask you another favor."
"Sir, as long as I If you can do it, you can do it!" Tobho Mott felt that a promise had never been so sincere.
"Only seventy-one pieces of the real 'Lightbringer' were made, and the other six were made by me from Valyrian Steel. In addition, after the Others breakthrough canyon captured a series of fortresses along the Wall, We also temporarily took out 20 of them and cast them into pieces and put them in the bombs, which means that there are only 51 of the real Lightbringers in the world. This is known only by a small group of insiders. You keep it a secret, you shouldn't say it everywhere, right?"
"That's natural, we're not little children, so it's not clear what words can be said and what can't be said!"
"Thank you for your cooperation...Unfortunately, the bad news is that even these 51 real Lightbringers were all used once in the war. Although I ordered them to be recycled as much as possible, they only recovered less than half of them. , less than thirty. As for whether the remaining twenty or so were really damaged in the melee, lost, or were secretly hidden by the soldiers below and planned to sell for money, I will never know, and it is impossible to trace them with great fanfare.” Igor sighed, expressing helplessness: "It is conceivable - when the war is completely over, there will soon be a bunch of people holding a 'Lightbringer' that is not known whether it is stolen, picked up or hidden, and it is not clear whether it is true or false, claiming Picked it up on the battlefield, and then sold it everywhere, trying to make a fortune from the heat of the Legendary victory of Night's Watch. Rather than letting such a chaotic situation arise, the value of the remaining 'real Lightbringer' in our hands has shrunk, and the sense of Legendary And authenticity is also discounted, why don't we just oneself to eat this bonus?"
Huh?
Tobho Mott is over 500 years old, so shrewd and sophisticated, after listening and thinking for a while, he gradually stared wide-eyed: "is it possible that .>
"Where I come from, there is a saying that history is written by the victors." Igor smiled, neither nodded nor answered directly, "The truth of Lightbringer is not the same as the so-called 'history' The truth' is the same? True or false, it doesn't matter at all, as long as the two of us admit that it is true, even if it is false, it is also true, and conversely, even if it is true, as long as we do not admit it, then it is also false! True and false, false and true, the two of us—the caster and the first owner—say it all!”
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(end of this chapter)