God of War

Chapter 20 God of War Paul arrived at the reception room and saw a middle-aged man sitting there uneasily.

"Standing before you is the owner of the Alarda Territory in Northwest Bay, Earl Paul Greiman." The servant leading the way said loudly to the man, then turned and softly introduced to the Earl, "Your Excellency, this is the master craftsman Malo, here at your summons."

"Lo... Lord." Perhaps due to nervousness, Malo stammered. He gave an awkward bow and asked, "I don't know... what you want me for. I've always been law-abiding..."

"Alright, alright, I'm looking for you for something good, otherwise, we'd be meeting in a prison. Are you particularly skilled at casting bells?"

"Yes." Seeing that the lord didn't seem to be trying to make things difficult for him, Malo breathed a sigh of relief and spoke more smoothly, "The bell in Lakeheart Town Church was cast by me a few years ago, uh... if it hasn't been replaced."

"Very good, to be honest, I even went to ring that bell. To my untrained eye, it seemed well-crafted, the surface was very smooth."

"Hehe, you flatter me, Your Excellency."

The lord took out a piece of parchment and slowly unfolded it. "I need you to cast something like this. Can you do it? This is a cross-sectional view. The real thing should be a tubular object. I call it—Cannon."

Malo leaned in and examined it carefully.

This was an early cannon cross-section that Paul had drawn based on information he'd seen on forums in his previous life, with dimensions marked. The cannon barrel was narrow at the front and wide at the back, with a barrel length of about 1 meter and an inner diameter of about 84 millimeters. It had a breech, trunnions, and a touchhole, capable of firing 4-pound solid iron balls or grapeshot. Ignoring the difficulty of manufacturing, the structure alone made this cannon simpler than a firearm. As a pseudo-military enthusiast, he didn't dare to draw anything too wild, opting for a rather conservative design.

Malo had never seen such a thing. "I wonder, Your Excellency, what is this thing called 'Cannon' used for?"

"Let's not talk about that yet. I need someone to work here long-term. I'll pay you 800 copper coins a month, and it will increase if you do well. Are you willing to work here for a long time?"

"Yes, I am!" Malo nodded repeatedly like a chicken pecking at rice. A craftsman specializing in casting like him didn't often get work in the economically underdeveloped Northwest region. Sometimes, he was even conscripted by the lord for corvée labor without pay. Now that he had a long-term, stable job with such high pay, only a fool would disagree.

"Good, here is a labor contract, what you might call an agreement. You just need to put your handprint on it later. I'll read it to you first."

Besides a few sentences about wages, the contract mainly covered confidentiality, such as not revealing work details to others, not leaving the workplace without permission, and so on. A whole bunch of confidentiality clauses made Malo's head spin.

This was the first time Malo had encountered such a "meticulous" lord. He had never heard of nobles making commoners sign contracts to do things. Although some of the clauses restricting freedom made him a little unhappy, the attractive benefits made him press his handprint without hesitation.

"Perfect!" Earl Paul thought gleefully, immediately putting away the contract. He thought Malo would go back and consider it for a few days, but he didn't expect him to decide so quickly.

"If you do well, I guarantee I won't mistreat you. Oh! By the way, from now on, you'll stay in my territory. I'll send someone to bring your family here and settle them properly."

"Let's continue to talk about this Cannon. Since you're working here, you'll know some things sooner or later. You know what a trebuchet and ballista are, right?"

"I do." Malo nodded.

"The Cannon is similar in function to them, except I've replaced the projectile with iron balls, called 'Shells'. The Shell is placed inside the cannon barrel, and the bottom of the barrel is filled with a substance called 'Gunpowder'. When this substance is ignited through the small hole at the rear of the barrel, it will explode violently and propel the Shell out. Do you understand my explanation?"

"I understand, I understand. Your Excellency's explanation is very simple and easy to understand."

"First, cast some with bronze, and then try casting with iron." According to Paul's understanding, bronze had better ductility, making the cannons less likely to explode. Even if they did, it wouldn't cause catastrophic consequences. The new army he had painstakingly trained wasn't meant to be cannon fodder. Every soldier was his precious treasure, and he couldn't let them die inexplicably because of his own weapons.

"Based on your experience, how much would it cost to cast a bronze cannon of this size in the drawing?"

"Such a cannon would probably require more than three hundred kilograms of bronze. At the current price, the cost would be about five hundred Aldo Silver Coins or fifty Auldo Gold Coins."

Paul was shocked. How could it be so expensive! This was almost as much as the compensation for ten warriors. As expected, cannons were gold-guzzlers. Right, he hadn't even asked Philip how much the firearm research and development had cost recently. At the time, he had just instructed the craftsmen to provide whatever they needed. He hoped it wouldn't cause him any more heartache.

But now he could only put on a brave face. He had already recruited the person, and he needed it urgently.

"How long would it take to cast such a cannon?" He asked the question he was most concerned about.

"I've never made this before, so I can only estimate. It would take at least a month."

"That's... too long!!!"

Seeing the lord's wide eyes, Malo hesitated whether to mention the concept of the scrap rate to Paul.

"Alright, a month it is. I'll arrange for a batch of apprentices to learn from you. You can cast several cannons in one batch. Absolutely don't have the idea that teaching apprentices will starve the master. The more apprentices you teach, the higher your salary will be, and there will be additional rewards."

"Yes, yes, I will definitely do my best. But Lord, why not use iron directly? If we use iron, I'm confident I can keep the price to about a quarter of the cost of bronze."

"Alas—I don't want to brag, but this is also because I'm kind-hearted and thinking of you craftsmen. As far as I know, iron is relatively brittle. It would be bad if the Gunpowder was loaded too much during the experiment and the cannon exploded."

"What? Exploded?" Malo heard a seemingly very dangerous word.

"It means the explosion inside is too strong and blows the cannon barrel open."

Damn, you call that kind-hearted? Malo realized that he had taken on a potentially deadly job. "Lord, this... this..." He began to ramble again, "I have elderly parents to support and young children to feed. Look... look... can I just be in charge of casting?"

"What are you afraid of? Just build a pile of dirt, make the fuse a little longer, and run behind the pile of dirt to light it! Forget it, I just captured a batch of Pirate prisoners, I'll allocate a few to you, feel free to use them."

"Oh, okay." Malo breathed a sigh of relief. "I was too flustered just now, I apologize for making you laugh."

"The working principle of the Cannon is similar to another weapon called a Firearm. That has already been made. I'll send someone to take you to our weapon manufacturing area later. You can communicate well with the craftsmen who make Firearms, think carefully about the details of the next work, and I require the casting of the Cannon to begin immediately."

"Yes, my lord." Although he agreed, Malo was still a little unaccustomed to suddenly becoming the craftsman in charge of weapon manufacturing.

Just then, the butler Philip walked in. "Earl, Father Anderson and his teacher, Friar Leonard, have come to visit. This Friar Leonard is the Abbot of the North Shore Monastery."

"Oh? Anderson is the one who treated me, right? I've heard of the other one as well. Why are they coming to my door? Have them come here. Also, arrange for this Master Malo to go to our training camp to participate in the development of new weapons. Provide him with whatever he needs."

Thanks to "Red Left-Handed Sword" for providing the data, based on which I modified the cannon caliber. I checked online, and it seems there are two versions of the data, one saying the 4-pounder cannon has an inner diameter of 84mm, and the other saying the 6-pounder cannon has an inner diameter of 84mm. Because I couldn't find smaller inner diameter data for the 4-pounder cannon, I'll temporarily use 84mm. Please forgive me if there are any errors.