Release that Witch

Chapter 80: The Artillery Squad

A week after the concrete ship was placed in the curing room, the day to launch the vessel finally arrived.

All the workers were left stunned when the prince ordered to put this oversized bathtub that had taken them a lot of work into the water, making everyone wonder whether they had misheard him.

However, that was indeed Roland’s order.

He had people temporarily dismantle the shed and had them dug a slope below the concrete boat, leading into the river. This part had to be handled with great caution because of the weak tensile strength of the cement products. A few cracks would not cause a problem, but in case it hit the ground that would be enough to destroy the whole vessel.

The ship was placed on top of logs and the speed at which it slid would be controlled by ropes. When everything was prepared, the workers let the wrist-thick rope slowly slide through their hands, making sure that it would always point in a straight line. While the workers were shouting their slogan in sync, the vessel slowly slid over the logs, creating an intense sound of friction.

Fortunately, everything went well, and Roland could see the boat slowly slipping into the river. The boat sank nearly half a meter into the water, with more than one meter staying above the surface. The workers were extremely surprised to see that this massive stone and metal made construction would not directly sink into the riverbed with a loud noise, but instead it floated on the surface like a leaf.

”Hurry, take the ropes and tie them tight around the bollards!” Roland ordered. If the ship was not tied to the bollards, the current of the river would carry the concrete boat southwards.

Although Nightingale did not show herself, she still was not able to stop herself from asking in a voice full of surprise, ”Why does the boat float?”

”Well… it’s quite simple. The boat’s average density is lower than that of the water, and this is the reason it can float on water,” explained Roland and after a moment of thinking, and he added, ”The fact that the boat is built out of iron and concrete doesn’t matter. In fact, you must have understood it from the sailing ship that was huge and weighed much more than a stone.”

Since he did not hear her voice again, Roland assumed that she was still comprehending what he had said. Even Anna was not able to immediately understand the concept he had just explained. Roland smiled and continued to direct the workers to move on.

The subsequent hardening of the concrete took a lot of time, and by the time it began to snow heavily, the work had to be stopped. Only when the snowfall was minimum, were they able to continue their work. The most time-consuming task was the construction of the deck, which was built out of many wooden planks, and supported by many small stakes which were placed between the bottom and the deck. Although this was a waste of space, taking into account the primary purpose of the concrete boat, it did not matter much.

Next, it was time for the corrosion proofing. The carpenters knew very well how to do this. First they brushed a layer of oil with a pungent smell onto the deck. When the oil had dried, they repeated this procedure with red oil several times until it was finally coated with a red paint. Once the deck construction was completed, the installation phase of the upper building began.

As for the so-called upper part, it was just a wooden shed which was placed between the two masts, and which later would be used to store cannons and ammunition. In case of a rainy day, the shed could also be utilized by the crew as a shelter. A platform was added at the top of the roof where a person could stand, obviously created for Wendy. As long as she stood on the roof, the range of her magic ability would be enough to cover the entire sail.

The stern rudder was made of pig iron, and its installation was a bit troublesome. The tiller had to go through a reserved hole under the water, and then appear again on the deck, where an iron ring would be put on it. The buckle was a right-angled triangle plate, with the long side welded on the tiller, and the short side could freely rotate in the groove of the iron ring.

The welding was naturally done by Anna, who was also astonished and puzzled by the fact that a stone bathtub could float on the water. Thus, she also asked the same questions as Nightingale.

So Roland repeated his answer and watched Anna went aside and sat down to think about it.

Well… The task of universal education still had a long way to go.

*******************

On the other side, Van’er was still trying to decide whether to join the Artillery Squad or to stay with the Flintlock Squad.

Everything started with that order three days ago.

His Highness decided to transfer out some members of the first and second militia team, who performed exceptionally, to build a new elite force. When Van’er’s name was called, he felt very pleased. But when Iron Axe asked him if he wanted to join the Flintlock Squad or the new Artillery Squad, he felt confused. He was aware of the new flintlock, which was effective in the fight against the demonic beasts, with its penetrating power much stronger than that of a hand crossbow. Currently, only Iron Axe, the Chief Knight and a number of senior hunters were allowed to use this deadly weapon. Van’er was supposed to join the Flintlock Squad without any hesitation, but instead, he could not help himself asking, ”What’s a cannon?”

When he found out that a cannon was ten times larger than a flintlock and that its power was a hundred times stronger than the strength of a flintlock, he fell into a dilemma.

Apparently, the ability to use a more powerful weapon could prove one’s own value for His Highness. So joining the artillery seemed to be the better option of the two, however, the advantage of carrying a flintlock was that it was possible to carry it while walking through the town, attracting the eyes of the people, which was always Van’er’s dream. Even though the cannon’s power was ten times that of a flintlock, surely it would not be possible to carry such a powerful weapon while walking through the streets, right?

By the last day of the deadline, he finally decided to join the Artillery Squad. The last point that affected his decision was that the salary of an artillery soldier was five silver royals higher.

Afterwards, began the rigorous training.

The operation of a cannon requires five people, and Jop, Cat’s Claw, Nelson and Rodney were assigned to Van’er’s team. Since Van’er was previously a vice-captain within the Spear Squad, he was now appointed as the artillery captain.

Compared to flintlocks, the cannon was ten times more troublesome! For almost a month, Van’er had secretly observed how Iron Axe operated his flintlock, he was sure he was able to memorize the operation of a flintlock without mistake. As for the cannon, a series of complicated operations were required in order to switch it from transportation mode to firing mode.

Stopping the horse, pulling out the pin, pulling the hook, moving the cannon cart, pushing it towards the shooting spot, putting down the crutch, all these processes required five people to cooperate in tandem. For example, when pulling the hook, the other ones had to push the support cart right away from the cannon, turning it from a four-wheel vehicle into a two-wheel vehicle, so that the cannon’s crutch would drop to the ground. During the process the cooperation should be perfect or else it would be hard to separate the heavy cannon from the cart.

After settling the position came the load of ammunition, and ready to fire. The firing process was quite similar to the flintlock, but the clean-up of the cannon after its usage requires two different mops. The ammunition would also be packaged properly and could be inserted directly in the cannon. The firing method was done though gunpowder line ignition. It would be hard to display its power when it rained, Van’er thought.

Fortunately, as an artillery captain, most of the time he just stood aside and ordered the others to do the job, which saved him a lot of energy.

For the first three days, the four newly selected artillery teams had only one cannon to train with. So under the command of Iron Axe, all the groups had to go through the process of stopping the mount, unloading the cannon, preparing it to shoot, loading the cannon on the cart and then restart the whole process. These steps were always repeated, and Van’er even suspected, that with the continuous cleaning of the cannon, the cannon would be even cleaner than his own face.