Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 219 The Invincible Caron Cannon in Close Combat is Born!
A deafening roar of thunder tore through the night sky, and crimson flames illuminated the heavens and earth in a fiery red.

The shotgun shells, blessed by the yang energy furnace, exploded in mid-air, each one transforming into dozens of small steel pellets that emitted a dazzling red light.

It was as if countless shooting stars were streaking across the sky.

"Oh no, they're all alright!"

"It's a trap!"

The [Pipa Master] and two elite genin, who were already preparing for victory, were shocked to see the thousands of lines of fire that suddenly illuminated the sky.

But at this moment, they had no time to retaliate.

The next moment, the massive, unavoidable skeleton was engulfed by a storm of scorching shot.

The great evil spirit futilely swung its bone katana into a chaotic windmill, managing to block very few projectiles.

A burst of red light erupted from his body, smoke and dust filled the air, and rotten flesh and broken bones flew everywhere.

Even with the smoothbore cannon's poor accuracy, most of the shot missed its mark, and the few remaining shells nearly shredded the entire upper body of the skeleton.

Only the strongest spine remained stubbornly supporting half of the skull, preventing it from collapsing completely, and the will-o'-the-wisps flickering in the eye sockets had become incredibly dim.

The pupils of the two elite genin suddenly contracted.

“I have seen the ‘Kunibyou’ that the Otomo family bought from the Franks. It can crush both foot soldiers and cavalry.”

But how could these firearms even injure a powerful evil spirit? This doesn't make sense.

The sixth-rank [Pipa Master] was more knowledgeable; his voice trembled slightly.

"This is not due to the collapse of the country. It is a secret military manual that the Great Zhao Dynasty strictly forbids the common people from possessing. It can combine the power of millions of ants into one and defeat ghosts and gods!"

I'm going to report this to Lord Aki and have him complain to the Emperor of Da Zhao. Yes, complain to Da Zhao, we absolutely must complain to Da Zhao.

The Secret Scroll of Military Strategy first shone brightly when the righteous energy of the Three Officials clashed with the ancient energy of the Six Heavens.

Countless Taoist soldiers attacked mountains and destroyed temples, wiping out all the third-rank ghosts and gods who were fond of blood offerings.

Now, suppressing the armies of the various daimyo on Yingzhou Island, which are filled with demons and monsters, is naturally a piece of cake.

The pipa master naturally felt a deep sense of crisis.

In the short span of those two sentences, the skeleton was just about to stagger around and turn back to escape into the bone urn.

The second wave of concentrated fire arrived once again.

boom! boom! boom! boom! boom!
Obviously, compared to long-barreled cannons that usually fired once every two minutes, this new type of artillery, which had never been seen by outsiders before, had a much faster rate of fire, compressing the firing time to less than one minute.

This time, the skeleton finally let out a mournful cry, its soul fire completely extinguished, and it exploded into a pile of charred bones.

"puff--!"

The three people who performed the ritual all suffered a backlash, spitting out a mouthful of blood, and their mental energy was greatly diminished.

The artillerymen stationed at the arsenal cheered in unison:
"Won!"

"Long live the prince!"

"Your Highness's invention is unparalleled in the world. When Your Highness is promoted to the third rank of living deity, he will surely be a god of artillery worshipped and revered by all artillerymen!"

Wang Cheng felt that the title "God of Cannons" was rather unrefined, sounding like he was trying to steal food from Guan Zhong, the patriarch of folk customs.

However, they were very satisfied with the Caron cannons that the craftsmen had just produced after working overtime.

"With the help of blacksmiths and silversmiths who are skilled in all kinds of crafts, the work is done quickly. In just a few days, this powerful weapon has been transformed from blueprints into a finished product."

Tsuchiya Copper Mine is the largest single copper mine on the four islands of Yingzhou. It has been a production base for making temple bronze bells since ancient times. During the reign of the old father, it was transformed into an artillery factory.

The artisans from Dazhao used the clay mold method and lost-wax method, which are used to cast bronze bells, to cast ship-mounted cannons as a whole. This technique is not fundamentally different from bell casting.

When Wang Cheng took over, he naturally introduced a more efficient hydraulic boring machine, just like when the manufacturing process of flintlock musket barrels was upgraded.

Before his "pioneered" drilling technology, artillery was made using molds for both the inner and outer surfaces.

Because the inner and outer molds cannot be strictly coaxial, and factors such as deformation and stress release when the hot molten metal cools down result in the gun barrel not being very regular.

Therefore, in order to prevent the projectile from getting stuck in the barrel during firing and causing it to explode, the projectile is usually much smaller than the inner diameter of the barrel.

There is a certain "gap" between these two, which can lead to technical air leakage when firing.

The drilling technology, however, is different.

It first casts a thick, solid copper or iron pillar using an outer mold, then uses a water-powered flywheel to drive the barrel to rotate, and gradually pushes a fixed, hard steel pillar into the solid barrel to slowly drill out of the cannon chamber.

The shape of the cannon barrel that is drilled out by rotation is much more regular.

The spherical projectile of the Caron gun fits more tightly against the inner wall of the barrel, making it less likely for the propellant gases to leak during firing, thus resulting in greater effective thrust.

The barrel walls can also be made thinner, and the projectiles can be made larger.

Therefore, its destructive power at a distance of several hundred meters far surpasses that of a standard cannon of the same weight.

There are many other advantages, such as the fact that the Caron cannon, which fires a 32-pound projectile the size of a grapefruit, weighs only one-third of a cannon of the same diameter.

A 32-pound long-barreled cannon, which served as the main gun of a second-class battleship, often weighed up to 3 tons, while a 32-pound caron gun weighed less than 1 ton, about 860 kg, making it much easier to operate on deck.

It's similar to a 12-pound or 9-pound cannon that fires projectiles the size of a fist.

This type of cannon was originally designed specifically for merchant ships that were not very sturdy, and it could be directly transplanted to the 400-500 liter Fujian ships that needed modification without any problem.

Of course, the Karon Ironworks that produced the Karon Cannon is nowhere to be found now, so Karon has naturally lost its meaning. Following the naming rules of the Great Zhao Dynasty, Wang Cheng gave it a new name—Iron Rod Flying Thunder Cannon.

[Firepower advantage: It can fire projectiles ranging from 18 to an astonishing 68 pounds. At close range, it can also fire grapeshot or grapeshot, with a kill density three times that of ordinary artillery. Its close-range firepower is extremely strong.]

In the Trafalgar Sea, Britannian casualties equipped with this gun were only one-tenth of those of the opposing coalition forces. Rate of fire: one round per minute, far exceeding the two-round rate of fire of other cannons of the same caliber.

Disadvantages: Its range is only one-third that of a long-barreled cannon, with an effective range of about 300-700 meters. However, it has less recoil and is easy to operate.

Short range is a fatal flaw in the family of field artillery on land, but on the rough seas, all artillery has almost no accuracy beyond 100 meters, so this flaw is not a big deal.

If the Celestial Master had possessed this kind of equipment when he was cutting down mountains and destroying temples to expel the lingering evil spirits of the Six Heavens, the efficiency would have been increased countless times.

Looking at the artillery factory behind him that had resumed operations, Wang Cheng felt a surge of pride and ambition.

"As long as the 42-pounder, equivalent to the main gun of a first-class ship, and the 68-pounder, the largest caliber heavy coastal defense gun, are mounted on the [Mirage Cloud Dragon Ship], it will let all enemies know what the king of close combat really is!"
We, the Wufeng Banner people, are neither pirates nor naval forces, but rather a group of 'peace-loving' armed maritime merchants engaged in trade.

Our slogan has always been: Open the door! Free trade!

One can imagine the power that the first Karon, no, the Iron Rod Flying Thunder Cannon, which he had treasured, would possess after it was transformed into a talisman by gathering the power of people's wishes.

"I guess it would at least have the power to blast open the country's doors and make the phrase 'national collapse' truly live up to its name, right?"

Not far away, a raging fire broke out after the fallen skeleton.

The countless points of light that the dead had been bound within its body were released.

Wang Cheng scattered paper money everywhere, activating his "minting power," and the wailing souls of the fallen warriors vanished in the golden light.

Wow.
Countless incense sticks and donations rained down from the sky, like a heavy rain.

Wang Cheng looked at Qian Yu, somewhat lost in thought.

"It is known that the underworld does not exist in this world. Reincarnation is a privilege enjoyed only by a few powerful deities and demons, not a standard feature for every ghost."

So much 'money' has accumulated on just one skeleton.

If one day, my father and the Heavenly Princess put me into the eye of the East Sea, which has been suppressed by the Cursed Mountain and Sea for thousands of years.

How much money do those evil spirits, especially the most powerful evil spirits, have?
"If we were to release this information, wouldn't the entire cultivation world experience inflation?"

The Wealth-Bringing Boy, of course, had no idea what his master was thinking. He carried a bag bigger than himself and picked up money, and he didn't mind if ordinary people only had a dozen or a few dozen.

They deeply understand the principle of being diligent and thrifty in managing a household, and that little by little, one can accumulate wealth.

They quickly collected a full 30,000 to 40,000 coins, proving that this great evil spirit had devoured nearly a thousand people on the battlefield.

It looks like a lot, and it really is a lot.

The cost of a flintlock musket, including labor and materials, is about seven taels of silver. This amount of money is enough to make nearly 6000 flintlock muskets, which should be enough to fight a war on the island.

At this moment, the demons finally recovered from the astonishing scene before them.

"retreat!"

The older seventh-rank demon ninja, Yasuke, clasped his hands together and gave a low shout:
"Ninja Art: Hellish Ukiyo-e!"

The demon tattoos, similar to those of the two elite genin from before, slithered rapidly across his skin before suddenly leaping out.

It transformed into a giant wheel with an ugly, ghostly face, burning with raging ghost fire.

—Evil Spirits and the Path of Wheels!

The young Shiki-nin also used the same ninjutsu, summoning a malevolent spirit, the Azure Heron, from the tattoos on his body.

The pipa master opened a jar on his back and released a smoke-smoking geisha demon called Yanyanluo.

But before they could use these speed-adept evil spirits to escape, a golden sword light flew over, suddenly splitting into three, and flashed through the air.

The three evil spirits, not known for their combat prowess, were instantly killed by the [Veto] with 60% of its power.

The team wanted to run again, but the Lucky Boy had already blocked their way.

This little boy doesn't know any fancy moves; when he fights, he's just like any other child.

But He Himself is the pinnacle of the art of cursing, and every move He makes is a form of cursing.

As He subtly stepped on their shadows, the three people froze instantly, as if struck by a heavy weight, unable to move an inch.

Only the [Pipa Mage] had the strongest resistance. Even though she was seriously injured, she could still move her hand and throw out a communication talisman, wanting to send back the information she had obtained at great cost.

Unfortunately, the Heavenly Ruler and Earthly Ruler manifested above his head, transforming into a giant hand that instantly extinguished the information contained within.

Then, with a "snap," the pipa-playing monk's head was ripped off by a small hand.

The little boy in red also took out the 9782 coins of incense offerings from his head and happily stuffed them into his pocket.

He turned his insides over and hid all the money inside, making him look like an adorable piggy bank.

Wang Cheng opened his mouth, but before he could stop Him from killing, he had to lower his outstretched hand.

'You little rascal, don't cry when I steal your piggy bank next time.'

Then he turned his head and smiled at the two genin whose faces were covered in the blood of their comrade's neck, who were standing there dumbfounded:

"Come on, let's make a fair deal."

You have two choices: become my dog, or be crippled by me and then become my dog.

Yasuke, who had just been teaching the younger generation that as tools of war one must have a spirit of sacrifice, stepped forward and stood in front of his comrade.

Under the admiring and respectful gaze of the younger generation, he addressed Wang Cheng with righteous indignation:
"Wang Wang Wang"

Then, with a "plop," he knelt down on the ground in a dogeza (a traditional Chinese form of prostration).

"Your Highness, I'm willing! Please don't kill me!"

(End of this chapter)