Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 31 Night Hunting

Four people walked silently through the sparse woods.

Claude suddenly remembered a question: "By the way, Vero, when I read the history books, the history of the continent says that there were firearms more than 500 years ago. Why did it take so long for us to use them? ”

In my memory, the process of developing firearms in previous life seems to have been less slow, from the appearance of firerope guns to modern advanced automatic rifles, the process has been around for two or three hundred years. Speaking in a forward-looking military forum, it was said that countries were now developing more sophisticated soldier weapons, and that what laser gun electromagnetic guns were evolving towards miniaturization. But in this alien world called Faslan, the past five or six hundred years, technology seemed to have stagnated. Fire rope guns or fire rope guns, the most important armies on the continent equipped weapons, could not even push forward the renewal and development of weapons.

And Bok Al next to him laughed, “What do you use, a crossbow or a knife gun? The war has long proven that the fireline gun is the most reliable and sharp weapon in the hands of soldiers, without which the kingdom would have been extinct. ”

“I didn't mean it that way, fool.” Claude scolded Boquer: “I mean, why not improve the rope gun, make it easier and faster to operate, or cancel the rope, and use more reliable ignition methods, such as rock, and loading the rear chamber...”

“There has been an improvement, the Kingdom has been working to increase the range of the fire rope guns. Now the latest Obash type 2 guns are said to have reached a range of 350 meters, with an effective kill distance of 240 meters. They can also be fitted with bayonets at the gunpoint and used directly as spear assaults. They do not require soldiers to go to battle with both fire rope guns and weapons of physical combat..." Villicro buzzed in front of them.

No... Improving range alone doesn't help, it doesn't even hit... Claude feels like he's almost a chicken and a duck, and the minds of his partners aren't even on the same line. He decided to change the way: “I think it's too inconvenient to fire with a fire rope, so we should improve the way guns are fired. Didn't those who built the guns think about it? ”

“This is what my father used to say. Villicro thought,“ We have four major gun mills in our kingdom, and our county gun mills are among the smallest. The four major gun factories produce nearly 200,000 guns of all kinds each year. In addition to the privately customized guns, the share of guns and drawings they produce are issued by Wangdu's Gun Research Institute and must be produced in strict accordance with the requirements of the drawings.

My father said he had been a vigilante soldier at Wangdu's Musket Institute for two years, and he said that many of the musket institutes were madmen, and had seen many strange musket inventions. Like what you just said about rock ignition, the rear chamber is not loaded without it, but with less range and power than the old-fashioned firerope gun.

Security was also problematic, and even seventeen of their soldiers were on guard to test the guns because they had been maimed by the barrel of the gun, so my father later applied for a transfer to the front-line unit to avoid a disabling ending, just like his comrades. It's just that he's unlucky. When he gets to the front, the war is over, and he's standing in the back... ”

It turns out that there is also a gun research institute in the Kingdom dedicated to research and improvement of firearms, but in addition to increasing the range and power of firearms for so many years, there has not been any further improvement of firearms rope gun generation, can not even build firearms, it is simply incompetent.

“Isn't there anyone else who invents guns but this Wangdu Institute of Guns? Like some private gun enthusiast? ”

Claude recalled some of the information he had read on computers in previous generations, recalling that two of the most important factors in the development of firearms were the need for war to make more sophisticated weapons work faster in warfare, and that the second was the firearms enthusiasts who had made an indelible contribution to improving their weapons in a variety of ways, from the age of firearms to automatic rifles. It seems that a few of the well-known arms producers and arms companies of previous generations originally developed from a small private workshop.

“Perhaps so…” cried Villicro. "My father should also be a personal musket enthusiast, and he designed those two shotguns himself. It's just that all privately designed firearms end up being customized in the kingdom's gun factory, which requires that the design drawings be reviewed to make sure there are no security incidents and that they are officially numbered.

If a blacksmith shop were to be found to build it, it would violate the Kingdom's prohibition, and both the client and the builder would be arrested and sentenced. So the blacksmiths are fine with a sword and a crossbow, but it's a big sin to build a firearm privately. Of course, there are also people who take guns home from the gun factory and rebuild them, as long as they don't destroy the numbers on the guns. ”

There was also a ban on the construction of firearms, which should also be a measure of Kingdom control over firearms. In this way, however, the further development of the firearm has also been constrained invisibly. As for Wangdu's Gun Research Institute, it seemed to be going in the wrong direction. Claude really doesn't understand why the range and power of a gun is a priority. Shouldn't it be easier and faster to shoot and load? Increased range and power should be studied for bullets, not guns...

Claude silenced down, the world is a bit odd, like as a student, there is no physics in the course, two basic classes in chemistry, ask teaching and classmates, and they ask themselves what this physics and chemistry is...

No wonder he's been using a fireline gun for five or six hundred years...

Villicro suddenly waved his hand twice in front, which meant stopping everyone. Claude listened, turning out to be somewhere. I didn't even notice the noise of running water when I was thinking about it.

“Okay, go over there and ambush.” Vericulo weighed for half a day, pointing to a pile of rocks not far away and whispering, “See that big rock? We hid behind it, and the place was wide open and downwind, and the animals came drinking water and they couldn't smell us. The creek just turned next to the rock. The creek within 50 meters is within range of my musket fire. I can't see it any further. I hope we have good luck...”

Verricolo is looking for a really nice place, and this messy rock beach should be flooded a lot when the creek hits the water, so it's clean around this big rock and there's no snakeworm lizard scorpion or anything like that. Four people were hiding behind the rock, and Vericulo climbed up a few steps, framed a fireline gun on the rock, and revealed a head to see the movement of the surrounding stream.

Ericsson's short flaming rope gun is of little use at this time, even if animals come to the stream to drink water, unless within 10 meters of the eye, more than 10 meters is not enough range to kill enough, so it can only be used for alert.

Bok Al's stone crossbow and Claude's long bow range were enough, but neither of them had been trained to shoot at night, and even if they found out the prey could only aim in a rough direction, God knows where they would shoot the arrows, so the only way this night's hunt could really rely on Verricolo's fire rope gun.

The night breeze is cool, the moonlight sprinkles a little freshness on the creek through the shade of dense trees, the stream runs water, and from time to time it makes a dinging noise, as if singing an endless song.

The shadows of the trees sway with the wind. In the moonlight, the leaves make loud noises from time to time. Sometimes strange sounds are heard between the trees. Sometimes sharp, sometimes rushing, sometimes still a frightening scream...

Bok Al shrunk his head and couldn't help but approach Claude.

Claude found his body shaking slightly and cracked his mouth, smiling softly: “Don't be afraid, it's all normal sounds, the wind blows through the trees, some of the sounds in the woods are animals screaming, it sounds a little scary...”

Thanks to that documentary I saw in my previous life, I watched an episode, the world of night, documenting the movement of night animals in the forest. No, I didn't know, I was scared, I saw the noise in the forest at night, although it was all black lights, the loud one that could scream, all kinds of voices, what infrared cameras also captured the leopard's scene of catching food at night, and the screams of the scared monkeys.

Compared to that documentary, the sound in the woods over here is already the witch, so Claude is very calm.

“Aren't you scared at all?” Eriksson asked surprisingly.

“What's so horrible, in fact a lot of it's your own association, when you hear a horrible scream, you think of a horrible monster, and you don't want to think of a horrible monster that rushed out of the woods to catch us, it took so much effort to scream in the woods for half a day? Besides, didn't Ike catch a toad last time? You remember how loud the toad screamed. If you throw the toad in the woods at night, it sounds terrible too...”

“You three shut up and don't talk!” Véricolo was angry and lowered his voice to scold: “Don't you know that animals are sensitive to hearing, they won't come to drink water if they hear you talking! ”

So the three of them shut up and stopped talking and continued to lie down behind the big rock.

I don't know how long it's been since Claude was about to pass by and suddenly Villikro stabbed him a few times: "Shh, don't make a sound. There's movement. ”

Véricolo spoke almost with his ears attached, and Claude dared not carelessly, carefully probing from behind the rock and looking in the direction of Véricolo's fingers.

Yet there was a sound of leaching in the weeds and bushes between the distant woods. Several shadows in the shadow of the trees ran out of the bushes and ran to the creek to drink water. Several shadows also ran into the creek to play with water.

Vericulo sighed softly, sliding down the rock, and pulled Lachlode's clothes, indicating that he also came down.

“What's the matter, don't shoot?” Claude asked somewhat strangely and softly. Those shadows are only about 40 meters away.

Vericulo shook his head, and he answered with a low voice: "It's useless, it's a boar, I can't die with this big gun, I beat up the little ones and went mad to get revenge on us. Now we are here in Stone Beach, the wild boar rushes over and we can't even run away...”

Those dark shadows are wild boars... Claude didn't really see them clearly.

“Nevertheless, wild boars come to drink water and play in the stream. Soon other animals will come to drink water, we will wait patiently...”

That's when Claude found out that Bok Al and Eriksson actually fell asleep together. Fortunately, they didn't snore and didn't shock the boars...

Verricolo was right, more than half an hour later, a group of animals, about seven or eight, reappeared by the creek.

“What is this? ”

“We're lucky, this is a mountain deer...”

The two spoke almost with their ears closed, and Vericulo slowly and gently cut off half the rope wrapped around the gun clamping the handle and the cannula: “You take the matches, I'll let you light them immediately...”

Claude nodded nervously, indicating he understood.

After a half-day of sighting, Vericulo finally said softly: "Ignite. ”

“La la” sounded, the fire lit up, igniting the fire rope.

Claude just felt that time was passing too slowly and the fire line was burning too slowly. He glanced at it, and the mountain deer herds in the distance seemed to be struck by the light on this side, but instead of running, he looked up curiously at this side...

It seemed like a long time ago, Claude finally heard a "boom” sound, a mountain deer shook his body a few times in the distance, one fell into a stream, his four legs were still beating powerlessly, and the rest of the mountain deer next to him turned back to the woods...

Bok Al and Alexon jumped under the rock, “Thunder raining? ”

Verricolo slipped off the rock excitedly: "Hit it, light the torch, let's go. ”

Claude saw his face blackened by the smoke of the gun.

The hill deer in the stream is a little bigger than the goat, and there's a short dozen centimetres of antlers on its head, which should be a half a dozen big deer, not a baby deer, but a minor.

Verricolo's gun was so accurate, he went in from the side of his face and punched a hole in his head, no wonder he planted it in a stream all at once.

“The three of you stuck the torch on the ground and held the weapon next to the station to be vigilant, and here I peeled the skin and split the meat, lest we bring it back to the camp and make it all bloody, so we wouldn't be at peace all night...” said Vericulo, pulling out the knife between his waists.