Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 512 New Portable Artillery
"What? You're planning to hold this year's Winter Celebration in the form of a military parade?" Reiner shook his head like a rattle. "That's not right, sir... It would be fine if we just had the soldiers parade in formation, but a live-fire exercise would be a bit of a waste. We have several military plans to advance after the New Year. Wouldn't it be better to save these precious artillery and ammunition for the real enemy?"

Harvey smiled and said, "Don't worry about waste. During the live-fire drill, we can pre-plant some dragon flame powder and alchemical bombs at the shooting range. When the time comes, we can collectively detonate them. This will also create a massive firepower display, allowing outsiders to just watch the excitement."

Pierce suddenly understood and nodded immediately, "I understand. I'll hand it over to the logistics department right away..."

Harvey quickly stopped him, "Wait, last time we discussed the research and development of the new artillery, Chris and the others already have some ideas."

"Really? Is this the portable artillery you mentioned?" Pierce rubbed his hands in surprise and pleaded, "Sir, please take me to see it! Even if it's a semi-finished product, it's fine."

In fact, as early as the last military operation against Duke Carlo, the disadvantages of the heavy and inconvenient transportation of the magic-powered cannons were fully revealed. Without the convenient river transportation and the fast transportation of ironclad ships, even if they were towed by the extremely powerful alchemical camel beasts, the long cross-country march would cause the cannon wheels to frequently sink into the muddy meadow wetlands, dragging the alchemical beasts down with them, and the soldiers would have to rely on manpower to pull them out.

At the same time, due to problems with the barrel casting process and shell manufacturing, the magic-powered cannon has a relatively slow firing rate, and is much less powerful than the magic-powered naval cannons that need to be fixed on city walls and ships... Now that we have new heavy artillery with a longer range and faster firing rate, this relatively backward artillery seems a bit useless and is a target that urgently needs to be upgraded and eliminated.

"Is there really a portable artillery that can be carried by soldiers alone? What's the difference between it and a magic gun?" Asdalen was very confused.

Harvey brought a few people to the magic weapons factory next to the alchemy laboratory, and asked Chris and Benoit, who were still busy at the workbench, to show the semi-finished products.

Pierce looked at it for a long time, then scratched his head and looked at Harvey. "Sir, this looks more like a mana gun with a thicker barrel. How can it be called a cannon? The barrels of mana cannons and mana cannons are so thick that you can even fit your head in them."

Harvey smiled without saying anything, and signaled with his eyes that Chris should be responsible for explaining.

"This portable artillery comes in two different models, one for direct fire and the other for indirect fire. While its range isn't as far as heavy artillery... its portability makes up for this shortcoming."

"Portable artillery can be disassembled and divided, then carried by multiple soldiers separately, and then reassembled before battle. It is a firepower weapon very suitable for long-distance cross-country operations."

Asdalen bent his metal fingers and gently tapped on the barrel of the portable cannon. "It's not made of pure steel? No wonder it's so thin. Won't it explode easily during firing?"

You should know that during the design experiments and live-fire shooting of the two types of magic heavy artillery, there were several explosion accidents due to the high ratio of liquid magic energy in the shells. It was only after several bloody lessons that the appropriate pipe diameter and magic energy ratio were gradually adjusted.

Chris explained proudly, "Don't worry! We didn't use pure steel to cast it simply to save steel. Instead, the cast steel pipes are too heavy. The city lord requested that the weight be reduced as much as possible, so we experimentally mixed in some magical minerals."

Pierce pressed eagerly, "What are the production and power of the specialized shells?" Benoit replied slowly, "Reduce the proportion of liquid magic energy and increase the weight of dragon flame powder... The production line is already there. We just need to cast a new set of molds. The process is simple, and the output is absolutely huge!"

"As for its power... hehe, while it's not as powerful as heavy artillery bombardment, it can definitely make up for it with its high rate of fire and dense coverage. Besides, ordinary soldiers can easily master its use, and there's no need for specialized artillery units to coordinate with it."

Harvey smiled and said, "Yes, this is a true [Cluster Casting] weapon for ordinary soldiers!"

……

In fact, Harvey had already had many ideas for the development of portable artillery.

It was not until the expedition to the Duchy of Barclay that he immediately decided to put the idea into actual research and development after the Northern Army's long-distance march exposed obvious drawbacks in artillery transportation.

Although he was not an orthodox "military enthusiast" in his previous life, he had learned a lot of relevant common sense from war games and history. With the current level of technology in Spark City that integrates magic and technology, it was not easy to create thermal weapons that were completely suitable for ordinary soldiers to operate and use.

Considering that they have always faced not only noble cavalry and mortal armies, but also spellcasters and church forces with extraordinary powers, and that in the future they will face powerful alien races with strange weapons and special talents, after comprehensive consideration... they must expand their firepower coverage as much as possible, with heavy artillery responsible for long-range precision strikes, portable artillery to make up for medium-range firepower coverage, and machine guns and rifles alternating for close range.

The short range of portable artillery, which is considered a disadvantage, just fills the firepower gap between heavy artillery and guns. The indirect fire model also has unique obstacle-crossing bombing capabilities, which can be said to be a perfect piece of the puzzle to fill the gap.

When the offensive against Isengard officially begins, the portable artillery can be disassembled and carried by soldiers, and they can move easily over mountains and hills, establish artillery positions at any preset attack location in the border mountains, and suddenly launch a rapid and concentrated bombardment on the unsuspecting enemy military fortresses.

What satisfied Harvey the most was that... the portable artillery shells were several times more powerful than the two magical heavy artillery shells in terms of both manufacturing difficulty and material consumption. Due to the simplicity of the artillery's own structure and firing principle, the shell shell only needed to be pressed with the cheapest cast iron, and the interior was mainly filled with dragon flame powder to act as a launch booster. A small amount of liquid magic energy triggered the fuse after landing, and the violent magic fluctuations sprayed out the large number of tiny metal marbles filled in it. The damage effect was exactly the same as that of shrapnel shells.

Originally, he had also taken individual hand grenades into consideration, but after handing them over to Chris for experimental testing, he discovered that the Dragon Flame Powder, which was considered a substitute for gunpowder, still had many differences in its combustion and explosion properties. Hand-thrown grenades filled with Dragon Flame Powder alone were too weak, like a magical version of a Molotov cocktail. Once mixed with liquid magic energy, their performance became unstable. After releasing the fuse, they would either suddenly explode in the hand or not explode for a long time after being thrown.

Considering the safety of the soldiers, Harvey finally had to give up this plan.

(End of this chapter)