Chapter 567: Blooming Shell!
Neverwinter City, outside the western city wall.
The massive roar attracted many citizens to climb the city wall to watch. The First Army had already blocked the entrance to the Misty Forest to prevent anyone from intruding on the testing grounds.
Although the location was far from the city wall, what was happening there could be clearly seen with binoculars. It seems I need to find a remote location specifically for ammunition testing in the future, Roland thought.
“Your Majesty, the second round of firing is ready!” a cannon operator reported.
“Everyone into the shelter,” he waved his hand. “Count down after confirming that no one is outside.”
What was underway was the test firing of the 152mm howitzer – while researching magic stone runes, Roland had not neglected improvements to hot weapons. Now that Tiefeco had been destroyed, the Northern Lands had declared their allegiance, and the situation in Graycastle was excellent, he had the time to calm down and make a new round of improvements to the shells.
But it must be said that howitzer shells with impact fuses were several orders of magnitude more technically difficult than solid shot. Anna made four shells by hand every day for testing, but for three consecutive days, not a single shell detonated successfully. On the second day of testing, one shell even exploded in the barrel, bending the new cannon tube halfway. Fortunately, Roland had prepared in advance and dug several trenches around the testing site to prevent accidents, so there were no casualties. As for the soldiers closest to the cannon, their eardrums were shattered, but Nana Wawa healed them in time.
“Can this thing really explode when it hits an enemy, like you said?” Agatha stood in the trench and couldn't help but stand on tiptoe to look. “I asked Anna, and it's just made of a few pieces of metal. It's not a living thing, so how can it tell if the other party is an enemy?”
She was one of the most enthusiastic witches in the Alliance about weapon testing. After learning about this, she even temporarily put aside the production of the chemical plant and came to observe the research progress of the new shells.
“It doesn't explode when it hits an enemy, but when it falls into enemy territory,” Roland corrected. “This is also a requirement that howitzers must meet – without a safety to ensure this, the shells could go off at any time, which would be too dangerous.”
The impact safety was the core technology of the new shell, and the focus of the test.
To avoid accidental explosions caused by collisions or accidental drops, he painstakingly set up three safeties.
The first was to store and transport the fuse separately from the shell, and only install it on site when using it – the fuse was shaped like a cone with a handle, about the size of a fist, with threads at the end. When installing, it could be screwed into the slot at the top of the shell, which was quick and convenient. Since the shells were filled with double-base chemical propellant, it was difficult to detonate without a primer, which fundamentally ensured the safety of logistics work.
The next was the inertial safety in the fuse.
It was similar to a door lock, normally held in place by a rigid spring and unable to move. When the shell was fired, the huge inertia would cause the lock core to recoil, overcoming the resistance of the spring and releasing the catch, disengaging the second safety.
The principle was simple, but it was not easy to achieve. The first two days were basically spent on this – if the spring was too hard, the lock core could not recoil enough distance, and if the spring was too soft, it was not safe enough. This could only be adjusted slowly by Anna based on the test firing situation. After six rounds of testing, a more reliable spring compression data was obtained.
The final safety was the centrifugal primer device.
It was also the most technically advanced thing in the fuse. Simply put, the primer was embedded in a half-circle iron disc the size of a coin, which normally stood obliquely in the center of the fuse, fixed by a spring. At this moment, the firing pin, primer, and priming charge were not in a straight line. Even if the shell fell from a height, the firing pin would not touch the primer, avoiding the risk of misfire. Only after the catch of the second safety was released from the lock position, the iron disc was in a movable state.
Due to the rifling of the barrel, the shell would spin at a very high speed after leaving the barrel. Under the action of centrifugal force, the inclined primer would gradually return to its original position, like a spinning top, the center of gravity
moving towards the central axis. This process was completed within about two or three hundred meters after leaving the barrel. In this way, even if the muzzle was blocked, or there were branches overhead, the warhead would not detonate prematurely.
When the primer was fully returned to its original position, it formed a straight line with the firing pin and priming charge. At this time, once the fuse touched the ground, the firing pin would plunge into the primer, and then the high-temperature propellant jet would be injected into the warhead's combat section, tearing the surrounding enemies to pieces.
The advantage of the centrifugal safety was that if the shell was a dud, the primer, losing centrifugal force, would be pushed back to its original position by the spring, returning to its inclined state, making recycling work much safer.
In addition, if the entire shell was captured by the enemy or accidentally picked up, it could only be used as a solid shot if fired by conventional means without obtaining sufficient centrifugal force. As for dismantling and imitating it, it was even more impossible.
“Prepare to fire, count down five times!”
The observer issued the order.
The firing cord, which had been lengthened several times, slowly tightened, and the cannon operators hiding in the trenches gradually recovered the rope.
“Fire!”
As the soldier pulled hard, the ground shook instantly.
The violent muzzle blast and roar swept over the heads of everyone present. Roland felt many small grains of soil rolling into his collar. Even with his ears blocked tightly, he could feel the tremor coming from under his feet.
“Observed the landing point, no explosion, repeat, no explosion.”
The voice of Lightning quickly came from Nightingale’s Listening Rune.
“Understood, we’ll go over immediately,” she took out another magic stone and replied.
“...Failed again?” Agatha couldn't help but feel a little frustrated.
“Failure is normal when exploring,” Anna comforted. “Once we find the right direction, we can ensure that we won’t fail again during mass production.”
“Well said,” Roland patted her head approvingly. “And now, with the assistance of Aoxia and Sylvie, the progress of this research and development is amazingly fast.”
In later generations, it would not be a big deal to fire thousands of shells for the type-approval test of a grenade. It would be like a fantasy to find the problem with just two or three rounds.
Arriving at the landing point of the warhead, Anna first cut off the fuse with Blackfire to ensure the combat section was safe, and then the soldiers took away the waste shell - both the propellant and the metal warhead could be reused, so naturally they could not be wasted.
“Aoxia, it’s your turn,” Roland gestured to her.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” she nodded and used her playback ability. Instantly, a phantom of a shell about to fall appeared in front of everyone.
Aoxia’s magic level was still low, and she could only support four playbacks after months of training, but by precisely controlling her magic, she could now freeze the replayed scene at a certain moment.
Moreover, this kind of playback was a perfect replica of the scene. In other words, Sylvie’s vision could see the inside of the illusion – except that it could not be touched, it was no different from the real scene.
This was Roland’s reliance on solving the spring strength problem with just a few rounds of firing.