Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party that Traveled to Another World

Paul came to the reception room and saw a middle-aged man sitting there uncomfortably.

"The person standing in front of you is the owner of the Northwest Bay Arda Territory, Lord Paul Graman." The servant who led the way said loudly to the man, then turned around and whispered to the Lord Earl: "Sir, he is the casting craftsman Marlow, who came at your call."

"Sir... Sir." Perhaps because of nervousness, Marlow's voice was a little stuttering. He saluted unskillfully and asked: "I wonder if you are looking for me...what is going on? I have always been law-abiding..."

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

"Yes." Seeing that the lord was not As if he was going to embarrass himself, Marlowe breathed a sigh of relief and spoke more fluently: "I cast the bell of the Lake Town Church a few years ago, uh... if it hadn't been replaced."

"Very good, to be honest, I have rung that bell before. As an outsider, I think the craftsmanship is pretty good, and the wall surface is very smooth."

"Hehe, your Excellency is too kind."

The lord took out a piece of parchment and slowly unfolded it, "I need you to cast something like this, can you do it? This is a cross-section diagram, and the real shape should be a tubular object. I call it a cannon."

Marlowe came over and looked at it carefully.

This is an early cross-section diagram of a cannon drawn by Paul based on the information he saw when he was browsing the forum in his previous life, and the size was marked. The barrel is thin in front and thick in the back, with a length of about 1 meter and an inner diameter of about 84 mm. It has a breech, ears, and fire holes. It can fire 4-pound solid iron bullets or grapeshot. Not to mention the difficulty of making it, in terms of structure alone, this kind of artillery is much simpler than a musket. As a pseudo-military fan, he did not dare to draw randomly and made a rather conservative design.

Marlowe had never seen such a thing before, "I wonder what the adults use this thing called 'cannon' for?"

"Let's not talk about this for now. I need a long-term job here. 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?"

"I am willing to!" Marlowe nodded repeatedly like a chicken pecking at rice. Craftsmen like him who specialize in casting do not often get jobs in the economically underdeveloped northwest region. Sometimes they are even requisitioned by the lord for free in the name of corvée. Now that he has a long-term and stable meal ticket, and the salary is so high, only a fool would disagree.

"Okay, here is a labor contract, the so-called contract. You just need to put your fingerprint on it later. I'll read it to you first."

In addition to a few words about salary, the content of the contract mainly includes confidentiality, such as not revealing the work content to others, not leaving the workplace without permission, etc. A lot of confidential matters made Marlowe dizzy.

It was the first time that Marlowe met such a "particular" lord. He had never heard of nobles asking civilians to do things and sign any contracts. Although some of the clauses restricting freedom in the contract made him a little unhappy, he had no choice but to put his fingerprint on it because the treatment was too tempting.

"Perfect!" The Earl was secretly happy and immediately put away the contract. He thought Marlowe would go back and think about it for a few days, but he didn't expect him to decide so quickly.

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

"Let's continue to talk about this artillery. Since you stay to work for me, you will know some things sooner or later. You know about catapults and crossbows, right?"

"Yes." Marlowe nodded.

"The function of the cannon is similar to theirs, but I replaced the projectile with an iron projectile, called a 'cannonball'. The cannonball is placed in the inner tube of the cannon, and the bottom of the cannon is filled with a substance called 'gunpowder'. This substance will explode violently when ignited by fire through the small hole behind the cannon, and then the cannonball will be pushed out. Do you understand my explanation?"

"I understand, your explanation is very simple and easy to understand."

"First cast some with bronze, and then try to cast with iron." According to Paul's understanding, bronze has better ductility, and the cannon made is less likely to explode. Even if it explodes, it will not cause catastrophic consequences. The new army he has worked hard to train is not used as cannon fodder. Every soldier is his baby, and he can't die inexplicably because of his own weapons.

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

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

Paul was shocked. Why is it so expensive!!! This is almost as much as the pension of ten soldiers. It is true that a cannon is worth a lot of money. By the way, I haven't asked Philip how much he spent on the development of firearms some time ago. At that time, I just told the craftsmen to provide whatever they needed. I hope I won't hurt myself again.

But now I can only swell my face and pretend to be rich. People have been recruited and they are in a hurry to use them.

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

"I have never made this thing. I can only estimate that it will take at least one month."

"This... is too long!!!"

Looking at the lord's wide eyes, Marlowe was entangled in whether to mention the concept of scrap rate to Paul again.

"Okay, one month is enough. I will arrange a group of apprentices for you. Let them learn from you well. You can cast more guns in one batch. Don't ever think of teaching your apprentices to starve the master to death. The more apprentices you teach, the higher your salary will be, and there will be extra rewards."

"Yes, I will do my best. But Lord, why don't you just use iron? If you use iron, I am sure that the price can be controlled at about a quarter of bronze."

"Alas - I don't want to brag, this is also my kindness, for the sake of you craftsmen. As far as I know, iron is relatively brittle. If too much gunpowder is loaded during the experiment and the barrel explodes, it will be bad."

No mistake, one sentence, one content, one 6, one book, one bar, take a look!

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

"It was just that the explosion inside was too strong and blew the barrel open."

Damn, you are kind-hearted? Marlowe then realized that he had taken a job that might cost him his life. "My Lord, this... this..." He started to speak incoherently again. "I have elderly people to support and young children to feed. You see... you see... can you just focus on casting?"

"What are you afraid of? When the time comes, you can build a mound, make the fuse longer, and run behind the mound to light it. Isn't it safe? Forget it. I just captured a group of pirate captives. I will give you a few of them. You can use them as you like."

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

"The working principle of the cannon is similar to another weapon called a musket. This one has been made. I will send someone to take you to the place where we specialize in making weapons. You can have a good exchange with the craftsmen who make muskets and think carefully about the details of the next work. I require that the casting of the cannon be started immediately."

"Yes, my Lord." Although he agreed, Marlowe was still a little uncomfortable with becoming a craftsman responsible for weapon manufacturing.

This is the housekeeper Philip who came in, "Count, Father Anderson and his teacher Brother Leonard are here to visit. Brother Leonard is the abbot of the North Shore Monastery."

"Oh? Anderson is the one who treated me, I have heard of the other one, why did they come to our door. Let them come here, and arrange for Master Marlowe to go to our training camp to participate in the development of new weapons. Provide whatever he needs."

Thanks to the data provided by "Red Left Hand Sword", the caliber of the artillery was modified accordingly. I checked it online and it seems that there are two versions of the information, one says that the inner diameter of the 4-pound gun is 84mm, and the other says that because there is no smaller inner diameter data for the 4-pound gun, it is temporarily 84mm. Please forgive me if there are any errors.