Chapter 47: Firing a Musket
"If you know of an open area of land where we won't disturb anyone with loud noises, I can show you what it does." Said Ethan, while taking out a small bag of gunpowder.
"My lord, I may know an open area where we will not disturb anyone." Said Lo Bogenschütze, one of Ethan's knights who was with him.
"Really? Where?" Said Ethan.
"Just outside of the city walls there is an abandoned field where I practice archery sometimes. No one ever really goes there so I set up some targets to shoot at with my bow when I'm in the capital." said Lo.
Ethan, Cnut, Magnus, and Cyr Aanvalswagen, the other knight who was with Ethan, then followed Lo outside of the city walls and to the field that Lo mentioned.
The field was overgrown with tall grass and weeds, and even had small saplings growing in it. It did appear that the field had been plowed many years ago, but there was little evidence that it had been used for agriculture in more recent years. At one end of the field, there were indeed several archery targets made of wood, just as Lo had described.
"Cnut, did you also make that small lead ball that was also on that diagram?" Asked Ethan.
"Yes, here it is." Said Cnut, handing ethan the musket ball.
Ethan had done some American Revolutionary War reenacting back on earth, at the request of his freshman roommate in college who was a big history buff, so he was pretty familiar with how to operate a flintlock musket. He pushed the hammer back, half-cocking the musket. He then opened the frizzen forward and primed it. After that, he pulled the frizzen back and measured out the correct amount of gunpowder, and poured it down the barrel. He then used a small scrap of parchment that he would use as wadding, and wrapped the musket ball in it, and used the ramrod to push the ball wrapped in parchment down the barrel. He then put the ramrod back in the channel, and lifted the musket, pulling the hammer back all the way, fully-cocking it. He did all of this in under 25 seconds, which would not have been nearly as fast as 18th century professional soldiers, but still was not slow for an amateur. After that, he aimed at one of the targets and fired the musket, with a loud "Bang!" piercing the air, and a large amount of smoke.
The target was twenty-five meters away from Ethan, and the musket ball pierced it about fifteen centimeters to the left of its center.
[Well, it worked. Too bad that it's not all that accurate. I know that I'm kind of a bad shot, but the target isn't all that far away. I guess that's a smooth bore musket for you. With a round ball, primitive gunpowder, and no rifling on the barrel, it can't get that accurate at a far distance. I guess that there's no improving on the primitive gunpowder, as I do not know how to make modern smokeless gunpowder, so primitive black powder is the best that I can do. As for rifling, that would get complicated, but I suppose that with blacksmiths with enough skill, we could create small grooves on the inside of the barrel to make the projectile spin, making it more accurate, but that will have to wait until later. I only have two months until the war starts, and I need to be focussing my efforts on building an ironclad ship, and training soldiers with firearms.] Thought Ethan.
"Wow! It makes a projectile go so fast that one can't even see it, and it penetrated that wood like it was nothing!" Said Magnus.
"Yes. Anyway, Cnut and Magnus, now that I know that it works, I am of course prepared to hire both of you at the price that I offered you, five gold coins up front plus eight gold coins per year. I'll give you both thirteen gold coins right now, taking care of your first year's salary, and you will be the leaders of my blacksmiths and carpenters respectively. I'd like you both to hire other blacksmiths and carpenters to work under you. Cnut, I want you to hire eleven other blacksmiths, and you can offer each of them up to four gold coins up front plus six gold coins per year. Magnus, I want you to hire five other carpenters, and you can offer each of them up to four gold coins up front plus six gold coins per year." Said Ethan as he paid both Magnus and Cnut.
"Yes sir." Said Cnut and Magnus, and they left, presumably to hire other blacksmiths and carpenters, agreeing to meet ethan at noon the next day at the east gate of the city to leave for Kastell.
[The salary that I'm offering is a little bit high, but I really need carpenters and blacksmiths to come to my barony soon. Anyway, while I'm in the capital, I should probably go to the Miners' guild, and order some iron, copper, tin, and coal. I can use the iron to make the armor for the ironclad, as well as most of the weapons. I'd like to make the cannons out of bronze ideally because while iron fails suddenly, bronze will bend and show damage before failing, letting the people operating the cannon that it is not safe to continue to use it if it is damaged beyond repair, so that it doesn't blow up in their face. I can have the copper and tin mixed to make bronze. I'd like to have some coal to power the engine on the ship.] Thought Ethan.
Ethan, Lo, and Cyr then went in the direction of the Miners' Guild. The inside of the building looked like a small general store with offices in the back. There was a counter with a clerk standing behind the counter.
"Hello sir, how can I help you?" Said the clerk.
"Hi. I'd like to order some iron, copper, tin, and coal." Said Ethan.
"Alright. We do offer free shipping here for orders more than 20 gold coins in value. Here's an order form." said the clerk, handing Ethan the order form.
"Thank you." said Ethan.
Ethan then filled out the order form, ordering significantly more coal, iron, copper, and tin than he thought that he would need for the ship and the weapons.
[It won't hurt to have extra] Ethan thought.
He then handed the order form back to the clerk and paid. The total price for all of the materials was 55 gold coins.
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