I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 314 The Players' Whimsical Ideas

The three rockets presented by the knife have both prominent flaws and advantages, while the killing weapons shown by the players later each have their own merits and are equally impressive.

For example, the player who came up after the knife pulled out a nasty weapon... a flamethrower.

His flamethrower was a large steel barrel with a pressure lever, which was placed on a two-wheeled cart and operated by two people. One person pushed the cart or pressed the lever, while the other held the nozzle. The two people worked together to use the flamethrower on the cart.

This flamethrower has two spray modes: atomized spray and linear spray. The former has a range of five meters and can cover the area in front in a fan shape, while the latter has a range of up to fifteen meters and can spray linearly.

During the range demonstration, in atomization mode, the flamethrower emitted a wave of intense heat that resembled a fan-shaped waterfall, instantly covering all targets within five meters in front of it.

The scarecrow and wooden target twisted and carbonized in the high temperature, bursting into flames within a second. Even the lamellar armor plates on the dummies were burned red and deformed, and kept peeling off as the ropes burned through.

A murmur rippled through the crowd, and some people instinctively took two steps back, as if they could feel the wave of heat emanating from them.

The player holding the nozzle then switched to linear spray mode. He held the nozzle firmly, and a straight stream of fire roared out, igniting the target fifteen meters away in the blink of an eye.

The flames, like pythons, pierced through the target with precision, even carving a scorched mark in the sand in the distance. In this mode, the concentration and penetrating power of the flames were astonishing. If used in actual combat, even enemies behind cover would likely be hard-pressed to escape.

As for the swordsmen and shieldmen?

If they run a little slower, they'll become roast suckling pig.

However, the demonstration also revealed obvious flaws in this cart-mounted flamethrower.

Although its atomization mode has a wide coverage, it consumes fuel extremely quickly, and the pressure gauge pointer outside the steel drum drops rapidly in this mode.

The linear mode has an amazing range, but it requires close coordination between two operators. The person pushing the cart must adjust the pressure lever in sync, otherwise the flame will suddenly stop.

Even more deadly is that after spraying continuously for half a minute, the copper outer wall of the one-meter-long nozzle becomes terrifyingly hot, hot enough to blister a person's palm.

Finally, there was the safety of the flamethrower. Chris, observing from fifty meters away, suspected that if a lead bullet hit the large steel barrel, it would very likely explode like the American flamethrower operators in the movies, turning into a giant fireball that would burn him to death and, incidentally, scorch allies around him.

This flamethrower is extremely powerful and also extremely dangerous; it is a double-edged sword that can harm both the enemy and the user.

So, after a moment's thought, Chris said to the workshop owner who had created the flamethrower.

"Could you consider converting this flamethrower into a fire-fighting device? I think it has a better future in serving the public."

The workshop owner player immediately looked humiliated.

"I plan to order one hundred units..."

"No problem, Your Highness!"

The humiliation on the workshop owner's face vanished instantly. The workshop owner, known as "Old Sheep," immediately put on a smile, rubbed his hands together, and leaned closer to Chris, his eyes gleaming with shrewdness.

"Your Highness is indeed farsighted!"

He assured, patting his chest.

"Converting my flamethrower into a fire hose is a piece of cake. Just increase the nozzle diameter, replace the pressure lever with a gear pump, and replace the steel cylinder with a rust-proof copper cylinder... Hey, it can do more than just put out fires, it can even demolish houses!"
And it's extremely good value for money; you can buy it wholesale for only 280 yuan.

The surrounding crowd burst into laughter, and some people jeered.

"Old Yang, if you modify this flamethrower into a fire hose, I'm afraid one spray could blow everyone in the fire away and collapse the building, right?"

Old Sheep chuckled.

"That's called efficient fire extinguishing, and besides..."

He lowered his voice and winked at Chris.

"If Your Highness ever wants to burn something during a 'fire drill'... our machine can be easily switched back with a slight adjustment of the fuel."

Chris shook his head helplessly, but a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"Make twenty fire-fighting versions first and give them to the fire department in Waterloo to test, to ensure safety."

"Got it!"

Old Sheep cupped his hands in greeting, then turned around and began calling out to his NPC apprentice.

"Quick, revise the design! We're going to be the firefighters!"

The other players nearby whispered among themselves. Some scoffed at Old Sheep for being opportunistic, while others secretly plotted... Although Chris didn't fancy the flamethrower, it was indeed a good thing.

Danger?

In military campaigns, there's no such thing as a safe journey. Besides, players aren't afraid of death; the risk of being burned to death is negligible.

I'll ask about the price when it's sold individually later.

Old Sheep left happily with the initial order of twenty units, and the next player eagerly came up carrying a large iron disc.

"Your Highness, Your Highness, look at my landmine! It explodes the moment I step on it..."

Chris looked down at the rusty iron disc, his brow furrowing slightly.

"You... this is a landmine?"

He reached out and tapped the surface of the discus, which produced a dull metallic echo.

"It looks like a burnt pancake."

A burst of laughter erupted around him, but the player didn't seem to care. Instead, he mysteriously squatted down, flipped the discus over, and revealed a complex gear structure on the bottom without an outer shell.

"Your Highness, this is no ordinary landmine!"

He explained excitedly.

"This is a 'steel wheel ignition trigger mine.' As long as a weight of more than 20 kilograms is placed on it, the internal steel wheel will rub against the flint, instantly detonating the explosive!"

As he spoke, he placed a landmine on the ground and stood on it.

With a crisp "click," the gears inside the landmine immediately began to spin at high speed, and the sound of flint striking each other was clear and distinct. The onlookers instantly took a few steps back, and Chris also subconsciously tensed up.

However, three seconds passed... five seconds passed...

"Uh, it... misfired?"

Someone whispered.

The player coughed awkwardly twice and looked down at the landmine at his feet.

"Ahem, well, I didn't actually install any explosive components... Secondly, the flint was a bit damp and couldn't produce a spark. If I tapped it like that, a clump of flour should have sprayed out from the middle... But, the mechanical principle is absolutely reliable!"

He quickly added.

"Furthermore, I can install anti-explosion mechanisms on these landmines. Once they're buried and the safety is pulled, if the enemy tries to dig them out, they'll explode as soon as they move!"

Chris raised an eyebrow.

"Then how will you bury it yourself?"

"Well..."

The player scratched his head.

"When burying it, you have to remove the trigger prevention mechanism first... uh, so I suggest bringing a few more engineers before burying it."

A chorus of boos erupted from the audience.

"There is a lot of room for improvement."

Chris sighed.

"However... if it can be fired stably, it would be a good defensive weapon. Also, the anti-self-destruct function is unnecessary, as it is easy to accidentally injure our own people."

The player's eyes lit up.

"Your Highness is wise! With just a little more research and development funding, I guarantee we can produce the perfect 'explosion upon stepping on' version next month!"

Funding?

You mean, your product is still half-finished, yet you dare to come to the weapons tender and ask me for funding?!
Chris was somewhat amused and exasperated, but considering the player's talent, he didn't pursue the matter further.

"How much does one of these cost? How powerful is it?"

"Fifty, no, Your Highness, thirty-five is enough... As for the power, I plan to use brown powder to fill the explosive components. Five pounds of explosive will have a blast radius of five meters, enough to blow up a horse or three or four heavy infantrymen."

"I'll give you an order for one hundred test samples first."

Chris waved his hand.

"But we need to add a safety device to prevent secondary explosions... I don't want my engineering corps to be blown up by you. The power of the landmines can be appropriately reduced, enough to sever human and horse legs. Too much power is not good."

Furthermore, the simpler the mechanism of a landmine, the better; a complex mechanism is more prone to failure and also increases costs.

"No problem, I'll improve on those!"

The player picked up the discus, happily left the arena, muttering to himself as he went.

"For security, should I install a bolt or a combination lock?"

This landmine is still in the experimental stage, but judging from this player's appearance, he is a technical expert. He may not be a professional, but an amateur player. However, given some time, he will definitely be able to make it.

Although they are not needed now, their future is bright, because landmines can indeed be very useful in defense and field operations, whether it is ambushing enemy troops or blocking key roads, they can play a remarkable role.

Chris watched the player leave, then turned to the scribe beside him.

"Make a note of this. The landmine project will be added to the long-term watch list. If the stability and safety issues can be resolved, we can place additional orders later."

Upon hearing this, the clerk quickly wrote down a note.

"It has great potential and needs further optimization, with a focus on reliability, cost and practical applicability."

After the landmine, what the other players showed Chris was a bit hard to describe.

"Boom..." Thirty meters away from Chris, in the heavy explosion that sounded like rolling thunder, seven or eight armored straw figures were swaying wildly in the smoke, crackling and popping, their power seemingly impressive.

"You thing..."

Chris looked down at the object in his hand. It was a strange cylindrical thing weighing five pounds. Its outer layer was wrapped in oiled paper, and the inside was rolled up with a particularly thick paper structure. The fuse was at the top, and it would light as soon as it was pulled.

Just now, the player who sent this, "Spring Festival Firecrackers," threw one out in front of him. The whole process, from pulling the cord to detonation, took about three to four seconds, and the power was decent.

It has both shockwave and shrapnel, so he obviously put something like small iron beads or iron pellets inside this cardboard grenade. It can make the armored straw man shake and naturally overturn the Miniese sword and shield man.

Furthermore, this cardboard grenade has a problem that is hard to tell whether it's an advantage or a disadvantage: its explosion is extremely loud, like the deafening sound of firecrackers set off at ancestral graves during the Qingming Festival. If set off on a hilltop, it can be heard for a radius of five kilometers.

wait?

Could this cardboard grenade be a modified version of that thing?
This kid is trying to fool me, this "uninformed" NPC!
Chris glared at the person setting off firecrackers during the Spring Festival, who still had an innocent look on their face.

Forget it, there's no need to argue with him. It doesn't matter if a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat.

Chris carefully weighed the cardboard grenade, recalling its performance when it exploded.

Weighing five pounds, with a kill radius of about three to five meters, it has moderate lethality. Shrapnel and shockwaves can knock down heavy infantry, but it doesn't seem to kill quickly. However, that's enough.

The problem lies in the weight of this cardboard grenade. It's too heavy. A normal grenade weighs about one kilogram, and the border-area-made grenades currently in service with players and legions, after multiple improvements and optimizations, also weigh one kilogram.

In other words, carrying one cardboard grenade is equivalent to carrying five border-area-made grenades, and it is obvious which one is more cost-effective.

Chris remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he had already sentenced it to death.

How much does it cost?

"Two silver dollars... well, that's two copper coins!"

Oh, that's the opposite of the price of the border region-made ones. Five cardboard grenades are only worth one border region-made one.

If that's the case, then this cardboard grenade does have some merit. It's just a pity it was born at the wrong time. If Chris had just returned to Bagnia, such a cardboard grenade would have been very popular because it was cheap.

However, now... perhaps some players who are new to the game and still quite poor will like it.

Chris waved his hand, signaling the end of the firecracker-setting activity for the Spring Festival.

"The product is good, but it's too heavy. If it were half the weight, it might have a good prospect in the military market."

Yes, there's also the issue of moisture. You don't even need to test it to know that cardboard grenades are more susceptible to moisture than wooden or metal grenades.

Seeing Chris's state, the firecracker set off during the Spring Festival sighed and left dejectedly.

The kid's back looked a bit pitiful, but Chris really couldn't convince himself to spend money to buy some bulky cardboard grenades for the soldiers. No matter how powerful they were, their weight meant they wouldn't be easy to use and wouldn't go far.

Next!
What Chris was shown later became quite interesting.

It's a front-loading 3-pound field gun!

This cannon is entirely black, with a long barrel and a simple wooden gun mount and iron wheels underneath. Its overall design is simple and practical, clearly modeled after a six-pound field gun and scaled down.

Chris stepped forward, ran his hand over the cold cannon barrel, and a hint of admiration flashed in his eyes.

"What is the range? What is the accuracy?"

The player in charge of the demonstration, Tiezi, grinned and patted the cannon.

"Your Highness, this cannon uses three-pound iron projectiles, has a maximum range of eight hundred meters, and a precision kill range of three hundred meters. As for its accuracy..."

He pointed to a player in the distance who was pushing a horse-drawn carriage.

"Would you like to see it for yourself?"

At a command, the players pushing the carts ran away, and the gunners behind the three-pound field guns quickly loaded gunpowder and shells and lit the fuse.

"boom!"

The cannon spewed out scorching flames, and the shell whistled out, accurately hitting the wrecked carriage three hundred meters away, blasting it to pieces!
"good."

Chris nodded, but that was it; he didn't feel particularly surprised because he could see through Tiezi's little tricks during the presentation.

First of all, the player operating the cannon was too skilled; he was probably a professional artillery player. In his hands, an ordinary cannon could be turned into a sniper cannon with perfect accuracy.

Secondly, the carriages used as targets must have had problems, either structurally or too old, probably the kind that would collapse if kicked, which made the visual effect of the artillery bombardment particularly impressive.

"But what about the loading speed?"

Tiezi wiped his sweat.

"A skilled gunner can fire four to five rounds per minute. Plus, this gun is lightweight; a donkey or two people can tow it, making it perfect for field operations!"

"What's the price?"

"Your Highness, it costs 1,500 silver dollars per door."

Chris nodded, then shook his head.

This cannon is good, but the improved six-pound field gun can achieve a similar effect. However, it is too arbitrary to deny its value. After all, we are not front-line artillerymen. We can only know what they need after they actually use it.

"Talk to my quartermaster, he'll procure a batch for testing based on our army's needs... Next."

When the next player ran over, the weapon he and his companion were carrying looked rather amusing to Chris… a large, raised gun.

This large musket is over two meters long, with a dark barrel as thick as a child's arm, requiring two strong men to lift it. It has a simple wooden stand underneath and thick burlap tied to the stock to cushion the recoil.

Chris looked at the "monster"—a famous gun that was actually a small-caliber cannon—with great interest and asked a question.

"How far can this thing shoot?"

"Reporting, Your Highness!"

The leader of the players, "Astro Boy," excitedly patted the barrel of his gun.

"It has an effective range of 300 meters and can penetrate three layers of lamellar armor. Its maximum range is 500 meters. We call it the 'City-Breaking Gun'."

"Someone, get the target ready!"

As the demonstration began, two players worked together to set up the large musket, and the loader stuffed a bag of special gunpowder and a steel arrow about the thickness of a thumb into the chamber before quickly stepping back.

"boom!"

Amidst the deafening gunfire, a steel arrow whistled out, striking the armored straw doll three hundred meters away... without moving an inch, while the wooden stake a meter away shattered. The arrow, still powerful, drove deep into the earthen wall behind it, creating a fist-sized hole.

"Hiss..."

Astro Boy, who was controlling the large-caliber gun, was immediately embarrassed. He scratched his head and looked at Chris, who had just put down his binoculars and was looking at him.

"It's alright. Only one meter off within three hundred meters, that's pretty good accuracy."

Chris comforted Astro Boy.

"How's the recoil?"

Astro Boy rubbed his shoulders and chuckled awkwardly.

"This... is indeed a bit big. The last test launch dislocated one of our shoulders, but..."

He quickly added.

"We installed a buffer device, and it's much better now!"

Chris circled the large lance, clearly quite interested in it.

"Did you just fire an arrow?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Can't we use iron bullets instead of lead bullets?"

"If you're using other round-nosed bullets, you can only maintain an accuracy of 200 meters."

"Two hundred meters is enough, there's no need to shoot too far. Also, can this gun fire shotgun shells?"

"Yes, I recommend loading one large bullet and then two smaller ones. This way, you can reliably kill heavy infantry within 150 meters and create a relatively dense barrage."

Astro Boy answered Chris's questions fluently, clearly very confident in his creation, while Chris was indeed a little unsure about this thing.

It seems to work, but it also seems to be useless; he couldn't say for sure what exactly was going on.

Buy some first and send them to the front lines for practical experience.

Can it be fitted with a stand?

"OK."

Astro Boy's eyes lit up.

"In fact, we are developing a tripod and rifling version."

"Give me twenty first, I'll send them to the front lines to test them out."

No problem! The players happily carried their large muskets out of the arena, discussing improvement plans as they went.

Just then, a commotion suddenly came from afar. A dozen players were seen pushing a strangely shaped machine slowly into the arena. It was a steam-powered repeating crossbow!

"Your Highness, behold our 'Steel Rain'!"

The leader of the players shouted loudly.

"It can fire 500 arrows per minute!"

Sometimes, even Chris has to admit that players' wild ideas are really quite outrageous.

(End of this chapter)