City Defense Facilities

For the next ten days or so, Vitus and his men were busy repairing their ships. Vitus did not disturb them, instead leading his caravan to continue on his way to visit his brother, Theodore.

March, Mistra.

During this meeting, Theodore was far more enthusiastic. He had been locked in a power struggle with Centurione for years, gaining only minor advantages at best, and he had never imagined that Vitus would make such smooth progress.

"Tell me, how did you manage it?"

Vitus spoke in a relaxed tone, as if discussing some trivial matter. "Centurione led his troops to ambush me, but I discovered them in advance. His knights could not break through my Hussite wagon fort, and as a result, they suffered heavy losses. Later, he tried to raid my camp at Andravida, but failed again..."

After exchanging some pleasantries, Vitus moved on to the main topic. He wanted to persuade Theodore to allocate funds to build a new type of wall outside the Hexamilion Wall.

Theodore instinctively demurred. "You want to imitate the defensive system of Constantinople and use two walls to resist the Ottoman advance? The idea is good, but I truly have no money."

Vitus spent a long time persuading him, but Theodore remained hesitant. His wife, Cleopa, however, supported the proposal.

"Three years ago, the Ottoman Bey Turahan led his army to break through the Hexamilion Wall and plundered the Peloponnese on a massive scale. If the enemy comes south to raid every so often, we cannot go on living like this. Consolidating our defenses is beneficial to both our houses."

(Note: Bey is an Ottoman Empire official title, which can be understood as "Lord" or "Governor.")

Since Cleopa agreed, the matter was essentially settled.

Vitus spread out his sketches and introduced the new wall design. "The outermost layer of this wall is brick and stone, with the interior filled with rammed earth. The rammed earth can absorb the kinetic energy of cannonballs, significantly weakening the lethality of heavy siege artillery. At the same time, it reduces the amount of brick and stone needed, saving costs."

The specifications for the outer wall he envisioned were as follows: a height of six meters, with the thickness significantly increased to an estimated eight meters. The vertical outer wall face would be replaced with a gentle slope, preventing the attacking side's cannonballs from hitting it perpendicularly, thereby reducing damage.

Outside the wall would be a moat, and outside the moat, a glacis, forcing Ottoman soldiers to remain exposed to the defenders' fire while charging up the slope, while also preventing them from seeing the bottom of the moat directly.

Additionally, at regular intervals, a protruding bastion would be built, from which defenders could fire matchlock muskets and heavy crossbows at enemies climbing the nearby walls. The bastions on the left and right would coordinate to form crossfire, ensuring every enemy climbing the wall remained within the line of fire.

"Where on earth did you learn this?" Theodore was shocked by his brother's cunning and ruthlessness. "You first provide a fundraising plan; as long as I can afford it, I will certainly support you in building the outer wall."

In Theodore's understanding, building defensive fortifications required a massive amount of capital. The outer wall had a total length of six miles, and the estimated cost exceeded 100,000 Florin. Where could he find so much money?

The population ratio between Achaea and Morea was 1:3. Vitus suggested they contribute funds according to this 1:3 ratio, first raising 80,000 Florin. They would spend four months preparing materials and officially begin construction in July.

Theodore: "60,000 Florin, can it be any cheaper?"

Vitus countered: "Is money more important, or is your life?"

Theodore and Cleopa whispered to each other and finally agreed to Vitus's plan. The prerequisite was that he build a "sample" section and then bombard it with heavy siege artillery to prove that this new type of wall was indeed effective.

Having settled the matter of building the outer wall, Vitus returned to Andravida along the same route. After entering the city, he did not go home, but headed straight to the blacksmith shop to inspect the progress.

"How is the situation?"

Lambert nodded confidently, leading the lord to the backyard, where he took an assembled matchlock musket out of the warehouse. "I made the parts according to your instructions; there should be no problems."

The total length of the matchlock was about one meter. Vitus weighed it in his hand for a moment; it was about 5.5 kilograms, complete with a trigger, serpentine, flash pan, and stock.

He took out a canister of black powder, poured some into the flash pan at the end of the barrel, and then closed the flash pan's cover to prevent the powder from spilling or being blown away by the wind. Next, he poured a small amount of powder into the barrel, inserted a lead ball, and rammed it home with a ramrod.

Afterward, Vitus picked up a piece of hemp rope that had been soaked in a saltpeter solution in advance, allowing it to smolder slowly and steadily. The rope was fixed to the metal clamp at the top of the serpentine. Just as he was about to ignite it, Vitus suddenly stopped.

"Bring a table over; I'm worried this thing might explode."

After some setup, the matchlock was fixed to the table, its muzzle aimed at a breastplate fifty meters away. He tied a thin string to the trigger and gave it a gentle pull.

The trigger was pulled, and the match at the top of the serpentine fell, igniting the powder in the flash pan.

Bang!

After a loud roar, the muzzle spat out fire and acrid white smoke. Vitus walked over to inspect it; the barrel was still intact, and the breastplate directly in front had been pierced by the lead ball.

He reloaded and aimed at a breastplate one hundred meters away, but missed. He patiently tried again, finally hitting the breastplate on the fourth shot, though it failed to penetrate.

Vitus swapped the breastplate for a piece of plate armor with lower defensive capabilities and found that the matchlock could barely pierce it. Based on this, it could be inferred that lamellar armor and chainmail had even poorer protective performance and could not withstand a shot from the matchlock at one hundred meters.

Once the demonstration was over, Lambert and two apprentices gathered around. The Italian blacksmith sighed from the bottom of his heart:

"Your Highness, this thing is truly excellent. Its range exceeds the currently popular hand cannon, its armor-piercing capability is slightly better than the current heavy steel crossbow, and the production cost is cheaper and less time-consuming than a heavy steel crossbow..."

Early crossbows had lower draw weights and could be cocked using the arms. As the protective capabilities of armor increased, the draw weight of crossbows increased accordingly; soldiers could no longer pull the bowstring with their arms, so a metal stirrup was added to the bow body. When loading, the soldier would step on the stirrup and pull the bowstring upward with both hands, using their waist strength to complete the loading.

After plate armor appeared, European armies were in urgent need of weapons with stronger armor-piercing capabilities. Eventually, craftsmen creatively adopted all-steel bow limbs and invented the heavy steel crossbow.

This weapon required a terrifying amount of draw force, exceeding three hundred kilograms, which could not be achieved by human strength alone; it could only be cocked using a special winch. During combat, soldiers had to continuously turn a crank to slowly pull the bowstring to its highest point.

In addition to the slow loading speed, another flaw of the steel crossbow was its high cost. Lambert had once forged steel crossbows; the bow limbs were made of high-quality steel, requiring frequent quenching and tempering to achieve optimal elasticity and strength. The cost of a single heavy steel crossbow reached eight Ducats.

In comparison, the barrel material of the matchlock was wrought iron. Lambert estimated its cost to be only half that of a steel crossbow, or even less.