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The second militia recruitment in Border Town went much smoother than the first, thanks to the fact that militiamen received more and better food rations after the winter food distribution. Every family visit day, many members would secretly give the bread and dried meat they had saved up to their relatives. Roland instructed Carter and Iron Axe not to interfere, and those relatives happily took the food back home and spread the news to their neighbors.
A force composed of the people is an excellent example of propaganda in itself. Neighborhood conversations are much more effective than deliberate publicity from the town hall. Now most people in the old town know about it—the militia formed by His Highness not only has generous salaries and three meals a day, but the battle against the Evil Beasts doesn't seem so dangerous. Therefore, the number of people in the old town who signed up for the second recruitment greatly increased, and even residents of the new district came to register.
The number of people who met the requirements was far higher than Roland had expected, so the Second Militia was expanded to two hundred people, and Carter led the training on weekdays. When the horn sounded, they went to the city wall to stand by as an auxiliary force.
Both the Chief Knight and the Minister Assistant raised objections to this. Currently, the First Militia can already handle the battle missions against the Evil Beasts. Recruiting a second team at this time, and with more than twice the number of the first team, seems unnecessary. Food and salaries higher than those given to the general public will lead to an increased burden on financial expenditures, and the extra gold dragons spent will not have a significant effect.
But Roland insisted on his decision.
Because these people were not prepared to deal with the Evil Beasts.
He didn't dare to tell his subordinates the plans he had brewing in his mind for the time being. Before the Duke made a move, he already intended to attack the Fortress of Longsong—Carter and Barov would probably not be able to accept this idea at all if he said it now.
The Fortress of Longsong is different from Border Town. As the official border of the Kingdom of Graycastle, its city walls are ten meters high and made of bricks accumulated one by one. The Duke and the six major families of the Western Territory are stationed in the inner city, and the number of soldiers that can be mobilized is estimated to be around a thousand. Theoretically speaking, it is impossible to take the Fortress with his less than three hundred militiamen in a siege battle—even if they are equipped with epoch-making firearms.
And due to the existence of God's Stone of Retaliation, witches cannot be used as beheading weapons either, which Roland has repeatedly confirmed with Nightingale. Prominent nobles like Duke Ryan and the Six Families will definitely spare no effort when purchasing God's Stone of Retaliation—of course, the external statement is called donation. This kind of stone, which can be exchanged for several or dozens of gold dragons, can ban witches' abilities within a certain range. It is the most powerful weapon that the church claims to fight against the devils, and it is also their biggest annual income.
Roland's only chance lies in field battles.
Thanks to this era, wars between lords are mostly in the form of conscription. If lords want to summon subordinates who will not run away halfway, they will basically lead the team themselves, which gives Roland a chance to carry out annihilation warfare. But he is still at a loss as to how to seize this opportunity. After all, his experience in luring the enemy and arranging formations all comes from movies, TV shows, or historical stories, and he has never actually operated it.
Since he can't figure it out, he should do what he is good at first, he thought.
Roland stretched and walked out of the office, coming alone to the woodshed in the backyard.
The assembled Steam Engine No. 2 stood quietly in the center of the field. At first glance, its appearance is much smoother than that of the Steam Engine No. 1, and the traces of the welds on the large parts are no longer as uneven as before. This is Anna's new ability at work. Her green fire can drill into small gaps for welding, and the assembled large parts are more integrated than before.
In line with the R\&D spirit of "later models are stronger than initial models, and modified models are stronger than later models," the Steam Engine No. 2 has been equipped with a centrifugal governor. As the first automatic control system and feedback system in human history, its appearance can be described as extraordinary. The structure of the governor is very simple. The main body is composed of two articulated thin rods with iron balls welded to the ends and a rotating main rod. At first glance, it looks like the bamboo dragonfly that children often play with. As long as you quickly rub the bamboo pole, the two rotating blades will automatically rise due to centrifugal force.
For the governor, the two iron balls are equivalent to the blades—when the steam engine works, it drives the main rod to rotate. When the power output is too high, the speed of the small balls increases, and they gradually rise under the influence of centrifugal force, driving the pull rod to close the valve. When the power output becomes low, the speed of the small balls slows down, and their position decreases under the influence of gravity, thereby increasing the valve. This keeps the steam engine running at a relatively fixed power.
With the speed controller, the Steam Engine No. 2 can now undertake some more precise processing tasks.
The gears that were previously delivered to various blacksmith shops for production have also been completed and are now neatly arranged in one corner of the shed.
If viewed from the perspective of industrial assembly line production, none of these gears can be called qualified products. All of them would be thrown into the defective product box, waiting to be returned to the furnace. But in this era, they are already rare works of art—the involute-designed gears naturally have a sense of coordination and beauty, and the wheel disc exudes a unique metallic luster when immersed in lard.
In addition to the gear sets, the base and pedestal planed by the carpenters, as well as other parts, are ready. He asked the guards outside the door to call Anna to assemble the first steam-powered boring machine together.
In Roland's plan, this is the fastest way to mass-produce firearms.
It is extremely time-consuming and laborious to manually knock out a gun barrel with a blacksmith's hammer. With a boring machine, he only needs to cast iron rods and then drill holes directly with the boring tool, and he can produce more than a dozen gun barrels a day.
At the same time, by replacing the cutting head, the boring machine can also be used to cut rifling. The shooting accuracy of the flintlock guns with rifling will be further improved.
In this way, he is confident that he can arm both militia teams, nearly three hundred people, before the end of winter.
But Roland is still not sure whether his people can calmly load, aim, and shoot when facing a knight's charge, instead of dropping their weapons and running away. After all, these two teams were established too recently and have no experience in fighting others.
Therefore, he must bring more powerful firepower to the stage and completely defeat the enemy before they can form a charge.
That is artillery.
As the god of war in human warfare history, the lethality and deterrent power of artillery are unmatched by firearms. A six-pound field gun has a range sufficient to attack when the enemy is gathering. The mixed armies of this era cannot maintain discipline under the bombardment of artillery fire. As long as three to four field guns are equipped, the enemy will not even have a chance to charge.
He has made a step-by-step plan—with a manual milling machine, he can process usable gears. With gears and a speed-controllable Steam Engine No. 2, he can obtain a steam-powered boring machine. And with a steam boring machine, he can process various gun barrels and cannon barrels.
There are at least two months before the end of the Months of Demons, as long as the plan is implemented smoothly, the Border Town militia will have the power to fully contend with the Duke's army.
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