Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 392: Matchlock Gun

Ibrahim's hands were shaking a little. Although this was not his first time to operate a firearm, facing the overwhelming cavalry, Ibrahim felt scared even though he knew that the enemy would not be able to cross the camel wall so easily.

Nowadays, the army under the Kingdom of Jerusalem is no longer organized separately according to ethnicity.

Instead, training is integrated based on regions.

As an Arab, Ibrahim was also incorporated into Roger's army and became a militia musketeer to participate in the war.

Although Roger's troops are militia, their organization is not chaotic but rather quite mature.

The organization of each company is actually the same. The first row is sword and shield soldiers, the second row is shield and spear soldiers or pike soldiers, and the third row is archers or musketeers.

Sword and shield soldiers were of course useless when fighting inside the camel wall, so they also changed to spears, or found bows and crossbows to shoot arrows out.

Shield-spear or pike-wielding soldiers filled the gaps in the camel wall, guarding against enemies that might directly climb over the camels.

But the main means of output is still three rows of crossbows or musketeers.

Only the crossbow arrows from powerful crossbows or matchlock guns can effectively kill attacking enemies.

Garys did not push for technological progress in a very forceful way, nor did he force many weapons and equipment that were difficult to produce directly at present.

But the matchlock gun is really not difficult to make.

In a sense, this is actually a hand cannon that has been shrunk down and can be held with the help of a bracket.

The whole can be divided into two parts. The front part is a thick iron pipe, which is not long overall, and the back is a wooden stick for easy holding.

When in use, it is like a cannon, with gunpowder and projectiles loaded from the front. Even like a cannon, a hand-held open flame is used to ignite the gunpowder in the barrel from the firing port.

This weapon is not light at all, and has no range, accuracy or distance.

But the advantage is that it is easy to manufacture, simple to train, and can ensure efficient armor penetration at close range.

In Civilization VI, there is actually a very interesting design, that is, both the musketeer and the crouching tiger cannon have a range of one square, while the archer that has existed in the classical era has a range of two squares.

This is also a restoration of history, that is, the musket is not an upgrade or replacement for the bow and crossbow, and there is a qualitative difference in functionality between the two.

To put it bluntly, almost all bows and crossbows wielded by individuals are unable to effectively penetrate armor.

No matter how high the poundage of those crossbows is, even those so-called steel crossbows weighing hundreds or thousands of pounds are not as exaggerated as many people think because of the problem of recoil efficiency.

The kinetic energy formula Ek=1/2mv, Ek represents kinetic energy, m is the mass of the object, and v is the speed of the object.

Although a crossbow with a higher poundage can shoot heavier arrows, its speed will not change fundamentally.

Even the rebound speed of steel is much slower than that of a high-quality wooden bow, and its speed is actually reduced.

Assuming an arrow weighs 30 grams and flies at a speed of 60 meters per second, its kinetic energy is 54 J.

Assuming that a crossbow arrow weighs 100g and flies at a speed of 40 meters per second, its kinetic energy is only 80J.

It can be seen that a so-called steel crossbow weighing several hundred pounds has greater destructive power than a longbow, but its power is also limited.

But a matchlock gun, firing a 30g projectile, because it uses chemical energy, is free from the rebound speed limit of the material itself, and the flying speed out of the muzzle can reach 300 meters per second. A rough calculation shows that the kinetic energy is 1350J.

In this case, even though early firearms had various problems and could not shoot far or accurately, they could not shoot far or accurately.

But anyway, it is not intended to replace the bow and crossbow, but to provide a weapon that can penetrate armor.
Therefore, those problems were no longer a problem. There were not many musket gunners like Ibrahim in the entire battalion, only 36 in total.

But during the defense, the four small cannons caused more than half of the casualties.

As long as the arrows didn't hit the vital parts, the attacking nomadic cavalry could return alive.

When hit by a crossbow arrow, the injury is more serious and it is easier to lose combat effectiveness.

Once hit by the bullets fired by Ibrahim, the worst case scenario is that your hand will be broken, and the worst case scenario is that you will die on the spot.

Time passes by minute by minute, and every moment seems so long.

Load gunpowder and bullets, tamp them down with a stick, then insert the fuse into the barrel to ignite the gunpowder. Regardless of whether you hit the enemy or not, quickly pour out the residue in the barrel and repeat all the above steps.

In these tense breaths, Ibrahim had almost forgotten that they had fought off several attacks and just kept thanking himself for being alive again.

Just now, their camel wall was almost breached.

Unlike the previous rounds of attacks, for some reason this wave of cavalry was particularly brave and better coordinated.

First, a group of people tried to jump over the camel wall on horseback, which attracted the attention of nearby soldiers. During the confrontation, some defensive loopholes appeared unknowingly.

Then, at some point, a group of people dismounted, took off their heavy armor, and climbed over the camels through the gaps in the camel wall to create chaos. Then, the heavily armored soldiers rushed in amid the chaos.

After entering the melee inside the camel wall, many of the previous advantages no longer existed.

A musketeer like Ibrahim didn't dare to fire bullets inward - it was too easy to hit his own people!

But at this time, Heinrich Paladin, with the battalion's direct team, came up to put out the fire. In the cold weapon combat, many people were sacrificed to strangle the enemy who broke into the camel wall.

Even Lord Heinrich himself was seriously injured and had to receive treatment from a military doctor.

Fortunately, they repelled the enemy's attack again, and before they knew it, the sun had already set.

The whole day was spent in fighting.

On the other side, not far outside the camel wall, Aziz had clenched his fists until veins were bulging.

The nails pierced deeply into the flesh, but I didn't feel any pain.

He had just sent some of his personal guards into the battle, and although they did perform better than other troops, the result was still unsuccessful.

But at least there is hope for a breakthrough.

And according to the descriptions of some soldiers who retreated, the other side also suffered heavy casualties in the process, and even its generals were seriously injured.

When Aziz thought about the injured enemy general, he was reluctant to leave.

Just like a gambler who has lost all his money and sees a chance to win, Aziz decides to keep the other party here for another night.

Wait until the next day to see whether the other party is determined, and then decide whether to continue the attack.

Just stay one more night, maybe nothing will happen, Aziz thought.

(End of this chapter)