After being placed in the curing room for a week, the cement boat was finally ready for launching and fitting-out.
The summoned workers were dumbfounded. When the prince ordered that this hard-earned bathtub be pushed into the water, everyone wondered if they had misheard.
However, Roland's command was indeed so.
He had the shed temporarily dismantled and moved away, then dug a slope at the bottom of the cement boat, leading directly to the river. This part had to be done with extra care, because cement products have extremely poor tensile and seismic resistance. A few cracks would be minor, but if it hit the ground and shattered into pieces, all the work would be for naught.
Using logs as rollers and ropes to control the sliding speed, when everything was ready, the workers wrapped the wrist-thick hemp ropes around the newly driven wooden stakes, pulling them into a straight line. With shouts of command, they slowly loosened the ropes, and the bottom of the boat slid on the logs, producing a grating friction sound.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly. Roland watched the cement boat gradually fall into the river, the entire boat sinking about half a meter deep, with about a meter of the hull still exposed above the water. The workers were surprised to see that this thing, heavier than a stone, did not sink to the bottom of the river with a thud, but floated on the water like a leaf.
"Quickly wrap the ropes around the wooden stakes a few more times, then tie them tightly!" Roland directed. The ropes tied to the hull could not be untied, otherwise the cement boat would drift south with the river water.
Although Nightingale did not reveal her figure, her incredulous tone revealed her shock: "Why can it float?"
"Uh... simply put, its average density is lower than water, so it can float on the water," Roland answered after a moment of thought. "As for whether it's an iron block or cement, it doesn't matter much. Actually, you should understand when you see a sailboat, such a big boat is much heavier than a stone."
The voice did not sound again, and he guessed that she had fallen into deep thought. Even Anna might not be able to react immediately. Roland smiled and continued to direct the workers to carry out the next step.
The subsequent fitting-out was a long period of time. When heavy snow fell, work had to be stopped, and only when the snow was light could they rush to do it for a while. The main content of the fitting-out was laying the deck. Pieces of tongue-and-groove wooden boards were installed on the boat, and many short wooden stakes stood between the deck and the bottom of the boat as support. Although it was a bit of a waste of space, considering the main purpose of the cement boat, they didn't care too much.
Then came the anti-corrosion treatment. The carpenters knew very well how to do this. They first brushed a layer of pungent oil on the deck, and after it solidified, they repeatedly coated it with several layers of red paint. After everything was done on the deck layer, the fitting-out entered the superstructure installation stage.
The so-called superstructure was just a wooden shed standing between two masts, used to store cannons and ammunition. When it rained, the crew could also have a place to shelter from the rain. A platform for one person to stand was specially added to the top of the wooden shed, obviously for Wendy. As long as she stood on the top of the shed, the range of her ability could cover the entire sail.
The rudder at the stern was melted from pig iron. The installation was a bit troublesome, requiring the rudder stock to pass through the reserved hole underwater so that it was exposed on the deck, and then an iron ring was put on from the deck, and the buckle was welded. The buckle was a right-angled triangular iron plate, with the long side welded to the rudder stock, and the short side could rotate freely in the groove reserved in the iron ring.
The welding work was naturally left to Anna. After expressing the same shock and incomprehension at the stone bathtub that could float on the water, she asked the exact same question as Nightingale.
Roland repeated the answer, and then saw Anna squatting aside, deep in thought.
Hmm... popularizing education is a long and arduous task.
*******************
On the other side, Vanna was hesitant about whether to join the artillery team or the musketeer team.
It all started with an order three days ago.
His Royal Highness the Prince decided to select outstanding personnel from Militia Team One and Militia Team Two to reorganize a special team, and Vanna was happy to hear his name on the list. But when Iron Axe asked him whether to join the artillery team or the musketeer team, he was confused. He knew muskets. They were neat and efficient at dealing with evil beasts on the city wall, and their penetrating power was much stronger than hand crossbows.
Currently, only Iron Axe, the Chief Knight, and a few hunters could use such a fierce weapon. Vanna should have joined the musketeer team without hesitation, but he was too talkative and asked what a cannon was.
When he learned that it was a musket magnified ten times, and its power was a hundred times stronger than a musket, he fell into a dilemma.
Obviously, the more powerful the weapon he could use, the more it proved that His Royal Highness the Prince valued him. Joining the artillery team seemed to be a better choice than the musketeer team, but carrying that straight musket and walking through the streets of the town, attracting everyone's attention, was a scene he had always dreamed of. Although the cannon was powerful, after being magnified ten times, it certainly couldn't be carried, right?
Until the last day of the deadline, he gritted his teeth and chose artillery. The last straw that broke the camel's back was the monthly salary, which was 5 silver wolves higher than that of a musketeer.
Then strict training began.
It took five people to operate a cannon, and Vanna's group included Yupi, Maozhua, Nelson, and Rodney. Vanna was appointed as the gunner because he had served as the deputy captain of the spear team.
Compared to muskets, this thing was ten times more troublesome to serve! For more than a month, he had secretly observed Iron Axe's musket operation process and thought he had mastered it thoroughly. But just converting the cannon from traveling state to ready-to-fire state required a complicated set of operations.
Stopping the horse, pulling out the pin, pulling up the hook, moving the gun carriage, pushing it to the firing point, and dropping the support required five people to coordinate. For example, when pulling up the hook, the others had to immediately push the cannon to separate the hook from the tractor, changing from four wheels to two wheels before the support could be dropped. The conversion had to be skillfully coordinated, otherwise the heavy gun carriage would be difficult to remove from the tractor.
After positioning was complete, it was time to load the ammunition and prepare to fire. This part was very similar to the musket, except that cleaning the bore required alternating two brushes to poke it once, and the gunpowder was also packaged and could be directly loaded into the barrel. The ignition method used a fuse, so it seemed difficult to exert its power when it rained, Vanna thought.
Fortunately, the gunner only needed to stand aside and direct the others on what to do most of the time, so he didn't have to expend too much effort.
In the first three days, the four artillery teams selected only had one cannon for training. So, under Iron Axe's command, a group of people loaded the gun carriage onto the vehicle, unloaded it, prepared to fire, and then went back to load it onto the vehicle. These two steps were repeated over and over again, and Vanna suspected that the gun barrel, after being cleaned continuously, might be cleaner than his own face.