The First Shot at Ember Ridge

Chapter 124 The First Shot at Ember Ridge

Two days later, Matthew and the others returned to Emberstone Ridge.

After more than ten days away, Jinshi Ridge has undergone visible changes, the first being a significant increase in the number of inhabitants.

The day after Matthew went to the Wind-Eroded Highlands, Conrad, with more than 530 newly recruited subjects, successfully returned to Emberstone Ridge with the strong assistance of the Golden Flower Merchant Guild's secret channels.

The composition of this recruitment has also been further optimized, including seventeen complete artisan families, covering carpenters,

Blacksmiths, leatherworkers, potters, shoemakers, tailors, and a few literate "cultured people," along with over three hundred healthy young and middle-aged laborers and nearly two hundred young women and children, significantly improved the gender ratio in Jinshiling.

These new inhabitants have long since adapted to life in the territory under the care and guidance of Will and Conrad, and have become part of the territory.

In just over ten days, most of the new settlers had overcome their initial period of confusion and thrown themselves into the bustling production and construction, becoming a new force in managing the Blood River, building new houses, and working in workshops.

The children adapted to their vibrant and lively new home, and their laughter echoed throughout the territory.

Even many teenagers help their parents with whatever tasks they can at workshops and construction sites.

For example, at the standard housing construction site in the territory, there were many boys helping to move bricks and work with mud.

Another visible change at Emberstone Ridge is the newly built standard houses, which will become the future homes for the residents.

After returning to Jinshi Ridge, Sun Zhengwu led the military team to hold a meeting to plan how to reclaim their coal mine, since there were only a dozen or so warriors from the Giant God Tribe guarding it.

The reason we didn't dare to attack them before was because we were afraid of the Giant God Tribe's subsequent support and didn't want to attract external enemies to Emberstone Ridge.

Now that the potential troubles have been completely eliminated, those dozen or so people are no longer a threat.

Matthew didn't rush to rest; he immediately threw himself into his work, eager to understand the current situation of the territory and the progress of the work.

Will gave Matthew a brief report, focusing on the progress of standard housing construction and the management of the Bloodstained River, in addition to the situation of the new residents.

After a month of hard work, and with the mobilization of most of the territory's labor force and resources, the project has achieved phased results.

The simple dam and diversion gate upstream have been initially completed, which can regulate the water flow.

The main channel near the core area of ​​the river has been widened, deepened, and straightened, significantly enhancing its flood discharge capacity.

An arc-shaped diversion and flood discharge channel protecting the core area has been fully connected and successfully diverted its end into a natural gully, eliminating the hidden danger of mountain torrents directly impacting the terrace.

The rammed earth dikes along the edge of the downstream riverbank have been mostly completed, and several main irrigation canals have been excavated and connected to the main river channel via the sluice gate currently under construction.

Although the reservoir has not yet been built, the basic framework for flood control and initial irrigation has been established.

This means that unless a once-in-a-century catastrophic flood occurs, the core area of ​​Jinshiling will remain safe during this year's rainy season.

Downstream, nearly a thousand acres of riverbank land are ready for initial reclamation and irrigation, providing valuable time for autumn sowing.

Of course, the flood control project will continue, but judging from the current progress, the project can be fully prepared to deal with the rainy season when it actually arrives.

This will free Jinshi Ridge from the torment of floods.

Afterwards, accompanied by Will and Evelyn, Matthew inspected the achievements of the territory's industrial zone.

The territory's third and fourth, more powerful steam engines are now operational.

One of them was specifically used in the newly built steel rolling mill.

With the help of rolls engraved with the runes of "Sturdiness" and "Even Heating" by Evelyn, the steel billets produced by the blast furnace are efficiently rolled into steel plates, angle steel and rough steel rails of uniform thickness, providing key materials for more equipment manufacturing and infrastructure construction.

Evelyn also played a very important role in the entire industrial manufacturing process.

She successfully combined "micro-fossilization into clay" with "shaping techniques" to improve the sand casting method, which greatly improved the precision and smoothness of the castings.

The "cleaning" and "dehumidifying" runes are engraved on key parts of precision machine tools to reduce the impact of iron filings, dust, and moisture corrosion.

The "Constant Temperature" magic array was applied to the newly built simple annealing furnace, improving the consistency of heat treatment for metal components.

Although they are all clever applications of low-level runes and formations, their combination with mechanical craftsmanship produces a catalytic effect of "1+1>2".

Relying on more precise machine tools and magically aided casting and heat treatment processes, the weapons research and development team successfully trial-produced several prototypes of the "Flying Thunder Cannon".

The final design was a muzzle-loading smoothbore mortar with a caliber of approximately 120 mm, a barrel length of 1.2 meters, and a detachable tripod.

It fired specially made cast iron shells with tail fins, and in the test, it launched a five-kilogram simulated explosive charge to a distance of 400 meters, with an acceptable dispersion of impact points. Although the rate of fire was slow and the accuracy was average, its indirect fire capability and area-effect power were enough to shock veterans like Conrad who were watching the battle.

Meanwhile, "breastplates" and "helmets" made by stamping rolled steel plates began to be issued in small batches to elite soldiers and sentries, resulting in a qualitative improvement in their defensive capabilities.

However, the loss of the coal mines did have some impact on the efficiency of industrial production in Jinshiling.

"By tomorrow at the latest, the coal mine will be back in our hands!" Matthew said to the engineers with a smile, confident that the military team could take back the mine tonight.

"Commander, I've got something good for you!" Wang Qinian said with a big smile as he led Matthew into a special workshop in their factory.

The room was very tidy, with tools neatly categorized and hung on the wall. A cowhide was laid on the workbench, and on it lay a long, rectangular object wrapped in burlap.

"Haha, we finally got this thing working!" Wang Qinian carefully picked up the long package, his smile filled with a pride and excitement akin to that of a loving father looking at a newborn.

He laid the package flat on the clean leather of the worktable, glanced at Matthew, and then slowly, layer by layer, peeled back the burlap.

The first thing to be revealed is a dark wooden support that has been polished smooth and has a dull, oily sheen.

The wood grain is fine, the handle has a curve that fits the palm, and there is a simple, slightly upturned steel "hook" at the end.

Gun butt plate.

The wooden support extends forward, joining tightly to a metal component about four fingers wide and a palm long, where simple,

The L-shaped brass hammer and flint clamp.

Further ahead was the most crucial component—a steel gun barrel about 1.2 meters long and roughly the thickness of an adult's index finger, gleaming with a cold, dark gray hue.

The barrel was firmly secured to the wooden stock by several brass hoops, making it appear exceptionally sturdy.

A cleaning rod is inserted into the groove of the wooden stock below the barrel.

"This is our first musket in Jinshi Ridge—let's call it the Jin 01 flintlock musket for now." Wang Qinian stroked the cold barrel, his tone filled with emotion.

"From having the idea to making this qualified barrel, it took us the most effort." He pointed to the locking area at the breech of the barrel. "Look here, we used the flexible iron alloy formulated by Miss Evelyn as the sealing gasket, which solved the most troublesome air leakage problem. As for the barrel itself, we first drilled a rough hole in a steel bar from a new rolling mill, then gradually enlarged and straightened it with a self-made deep hole drill driven by a steam engine, and finally put it on a simple broaching machine to draw out three right-hand shallow rifling grooves."

The rifling isn't deep, but it works.

He opened the flintlock trigger, revealing its intricate, gleaming silver-white steel structure. "For the flintlock, we skipped the complex spring-and-wheel structure, referencing a dog lock from a museum" and later trigger designs, optimizing the spring force and the angle of flint impact to ensure a high ignition rate. Looking at it now, it's quite reliable."

Then he picked up a small cylinder made of thick paper soaked in grease, and a ball made of soft lead, slightly smaller than the muzzle of a gun.

"Regarding ammunition, we've got it all figured out from the start. This is called a fixed-load cartridge." The paper tube contains black powder, precisely mixed in the optimal ratio and granulated and polished with graphite—approximately the optimal charge for this gun. To fire, you bite open the paper tube, pour some powder into the priming chamber, and then fill the barrel with the rest. Then you insert this lead bullet and tamp it down with a tamping rod.

"Look at this lead bullet, there's a small indentation at the bottom, that's called a Minié bullet." The design means that when fired, the propellant gases cause the base of the bullet to expand, embedding it tightly into the rifling. This makes it accurate and far-reaching, much better than a smoothbore gun!

Wang Qinian spoke slowly but clearly, touching on each key point briefly yet making the difficulty and ingenuity of the conversation clear.

Matthew nodded repeatedly as he listened. He could imagine how, in the absence of specialized equipment, these top minds from various fields on Earth pieced together their fragmented knowledge, used alchemy as an aid, employed rudimentary methods, and endured countless days and nights of experimentation and failure to prematurely "bring forth" a weapon that should not have existed in this era.

"Come on, Commander, let me show you what this thing is all about!" Wang Qinian couldn't wait any longer. He picked up the gun, grabbed a few more rounds of ammunition and a cleaning rod, his eyes gleaming with eager anticipation.

Matthew was also thrilled and nodded, "Okay!"

The group arrived at the testing ground dedicated to the weapons development team.

Located on an open area on the edge of the industrial zone, backed by a cliff, this place has marked targets at different distances, the closest being fifty paces and the furthest being a full two hundred paces, or about 150 meters.

The target was a thick wooden board and a bundled straw mat.

Wang Qinian called over the professional soldier who had previously been in charge of the testing to operate the equipment.

He first used a small horn-shaped pot to pour a little fine-grained ignition powder into the ignition pool of the engine, and then closed the ignition pool cover.

Next, he picked up a fixed bullet, bit off the tail with his teeth, poured some gunpowder into the muzzle, stuffed the rest in along with the cardboard, and then put the round-nosed lead bullet into the muzzle.

Pick up the ramrod, and with a steady and powerful motion, press the bullet firmly to the bottom.

Finally, he switched the flintlock hammer to the half-fire position, raised his gun, and aimed at the wooden target fifty paces away.

"Attention, everyone, it's about to go off!" Wang Qinian warned, then immediately gave the order to fire: "Fire!"

"Click!"

Driven by the spring, the hammer slammed forward, the flint scraping hard against the steel surface of the priming tank cover, and a trail of dazzling sparks splashed into the priming tank.

"Swoosh—Bang!!!"

First came a slight ignition sound, followed by a deafening explosion.

A sound far louder, more muffled, and more violent than firecrackers exploded in the air above the test field. More than a foot long orange-red flames spewed from the muzzle, and thick white-gray smoke spread out, engulfing half of the gunman's figure.

In the distance, the wooden target fifty paces away suddenly shook, splintering wood and revealing a clear, bowl-sized hole in its center.

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