Chapter 790 Train Cannon? Not so conservative.
Hughes was very satisfied with Gaia's weapon description; the grenades and grenade launchers were exactly what he wanted.
Unfortunately, none of them were designed for attacking fortified positions; they were at least somewhat inadequate against steam tanks.
“Heavy firepower, huh?” Gaia glanced at Tata beside her. “Let Tata talk about it.”
Tata immediately stood up, his face beaming with pride, and said, "Let's start with the railway cannons."
"Wait!" Hughes gasped upon hearing the name. "You mean this train cannon? Is it the kind of cannon with a gun mount on a train, or is it so big that it can only be towed by a train?"
Adding a cannon to the front of a steam locomotive is acceptable, but if it's the latter, Hughes would have many unpleasant associations.
"Neither. The train refers to the fact that its shells are as big as a train."
Hughes fell silent.
"Well, I saw that the airships were equipped with new aerial bombs, and I wondered if artillery could also use such large shells?"
"Isn't that bomb supposed to weigh over seven tons? How can you fit that into a gun barrel?!"
"So I didn't design a gun barrel this time."
Hughes: "???"
"In fact, I referenced the design of internal combustion locomotives—since they all burn nitroglycerin, there's not much difference."
"Cars can fly, and so cannonballs. Cars don't need brakes, and neither do cannonballs."
"Moreover, this kind of new energy vehicle has the advantage of being easy to explode, so I simply increased the amount of explosives to make it explode even bigger."
"Good designs often come from unspoken understanding. Monica removed the brakes from the car, and I put a steering wheel on the shell so that the shell could also change direction!"
A silence fell over the room.
After a long while, Hughes spoke in a trembling voice: "Quickly, quickly go and ask Monica to come back!"
Ash quickly returned carrying Monica, who looked anxious, her snake tail swaying back and forth.
"Boss, have I gotten into trouble again?"
“No, you’ve done a great job.” Hughes said seriously. “I’ve always felt that something was off about your car. Turns out it’s for this purpose. Now you and Tata are working together to design a new project.”
By having Tata and Monica team up, they can simultaneously solve the problems of the car not flying fast enough and the explosion not being loud enough.
"By the way, you've put a steering wheel on the shell, who's going to drive it?"
"Oh, I almost forgot to mention." Tata hurriedly pulled out a blueprint. "I designed sufficient safety features for the new train gun, including airbags, ejection seats, and even a parachute!"
So, they ejected people from the bomb before it exploded?
It seems there's no problem. As long as the ejection goes out of the blast radius, the driver has a chance of survival.
Something just feels off.
Hughes suddenly asked, "How does your ejection seat work?"
"There is a small amount of explosives under the seat. A miniature explosion will blast the person into the air—don't worry, this ejection seat is a very mature feature. It's used in internal combustion locomotives and has a 100% positive feedback rate!"
"You mean, you caused an explosion on a fired shell?" Hughes couldn't hold back any longer. "I think your approval rating is 100%. Notify the Guardians that you personally drive this train gun during its acceptance test."
Tata awkwardly sat back down.
Richard, what do you have here?
Hughes sighed and looked at Richard with a hint of despair.
He now has a feeling that he has traveled into some period drama, and the strategist can always offer him a superior, middle, or inferior strategy.
The best strategy can solve all problems, but it's impossible to implement. The middle strategy is safe and sound, but it falls short in some aspects. The worst strategy...
Hughes looked at Richard, wondering what kind of work he could possibly do.
"This is the Deepsea-III general-purpose self-propelled howitzer developed at our test range. It has a range of over ten kilometers and its shells weigh around fifty kilograms. Originally designed to deal with thick city walls and fortresses, it now appears that steam tanks are its best targets."
Hughes's eyes lit up: "It can shoot that far? A curved trajectory?"
"Yes, it's more like a projectile, but it's less flexible. It's a support firepower and requires specialized personnel to operate it. It also needs to be positioned in a dedicated location."
"That's not a problem at all. At a range of ten kilometers, it's hardly a drawback. What's the caliber?"
"Sixteen centimeters."
"This is it!"
Hughes clapped his hands. The cannon that Richard had created perfectly met all his needs. It was almost close to the parameters of the cannons used in World War I.
So this was the best course of action.
"By the way, how much does it weigh?"
"Well, about fifteen tons."
It's a pity that the weight is still too heavy. Even if the barrels are transported separately, it's estimated that they won't be able to reach many battlefields. It would be great if it were half the weight.
There's nothing we can do about it. Castells' current level of technology is already beyond expectations to have produced this howitzer, so some shortcomings are to be expected.
Hughes looked at Richard and found him more and more pleasing to the eye. This was exactly what he wanted. He never expected that Richard, who had been studying physical modification, could come up with this.
"By the way, you said this is a self-propelled artillery piece. What kind of power does it use? A steam engine? An internal combustion engine?"
Hughes felt it must be a steam engine; no wonder it was so ridiculously heavy. If you included a whole bulky steam engine crammed inside, it really would be close.
"Human resources".
"."
Hughes' smile froze on his face.
"It is so, my lord. I saw you riding the Nine Serpents in the assault coffin at the port before, and combined with my recent research on bio-modification, I created this self-propelled cannon."
"Strictly speaking, it belongs to a kind of mechanical prosthetic. This self-propelled artillery requires a superhuman as the core. Through the mechanical sanctuary's prosthetic and physical connection technology, the superhuman can inject superhuman power into the artillery to drive the artillery's mechanical soul and thus fire."
"Of course, a mechanical prosthesis is a limb, and it's normal for it to be used for walking; it doesn't need an additional power source."
Another unspoken silence fell over the room.
After a long while, Hughes rubbed his temples and asked, "Is your self-propelled cannon the same as the 'self-propelled' version of a bicycle?"
Richard was a little embarrassed: "It...it really can do it on its own."
"Why doesn't it move on its own? Remove the superhumans, and I'll design a steam-powered tractor to pull it."
"I'm afraid that won't work, my lord. The primary role of the superhumans is to communicate with the machine spirits. In reality, it is the machine spirits that are responsible for firing the cannons; otherwise, our technology wouldn't be able to achieve such precision and power."
Richard began wiping the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.
Removing the superhumans is certainly an option, but it would either require complete miniaturization like a grenade launcher, or a method like Tata's that would allow the projectiles to find their way to the enemy.
Hughes suddenly realized that he was absolutely right to reject those proposals.
The things these people come up with are all increasingly outrageous.
(End of this chapter)
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