Chapter 114 Black Powder Completed
"Today, I will teach you the first training subject after you become recruits. First, you need to learn how to listen to commands and change your body shape. Laurie, Audrey, you two should learn together."
Seeing the guards' eyes shining, and Laurie and Audley looking somewhat interested, Gervis was very satisfied, and started the first training subject of this afternoon.
Gervis planned to train these new recruits according to the methods taught by the instructors during military training in his previous life. Although this world has titled knights, large-scale battles are decided by these ordinary soldiers. In the era of cold weapons, the necessary factors for a strong army have always been discipline and unity. As long as these two points are possessed, it will be a combat-ready army.
The soldiers under the petty nobles in this world are more like thugs. They don't look like an army at all. They are usually scattered around, and even during training they mostly practice single-player hacking and killing skills. When fighting, they are more like a group of gangsters fighting in a group, rushing forward to fight.
Therefore, some small nobles will always be small nobles, because in addition to their limited military strength, they don’t know that even if there are only dozens of people, if they can consciously train to fight in formation, they will exert exponential combat effectiveness.
Because the great nobles have a large number of soldiers under their command, they will consciously order their soldiers to fight in formation. Often, the troops of these great nobles are the main force on the battlefield and can decide the outcome of the war. After the guards of the small nobles are recruited, they are actually pioneers, or cannon fodder to put it bluntly. When the main forces of both sides meet, the soldiers under the great nobles will go into battle.
As a modern man, Gervis deeply understands that a strong army must first learn to obey orders, and at the same time cultivate their awareness of unity and cooperation, so that they can fully integrate into a collective, so that they can exert their greatest strength.
Next, Gervis first taught the guards how to turn left and right, forward and backward. However, what Gervis did not expect was that the task, which he thought was the simplest, actually took him nearly half a day. Even after nearly half a day, many recruits could not tell the difference between left and right.
In desperation, Gervis even asked them to hold branches in their right hands so that they could better distinguish left from right, but some people still turned wrong. Finally, Gervis realized that it was impossible to make these recruits figure out the difference between left and right within one day. They had no awareness of left and right at all. So Gervis stopped today's turning training. Turning training could only be mastered by them over time.
Next, Gervis started training the next subject, asking them to march in step. In this training subject, Gervis also encountered the same problem as before. Many recruits did not know how to distinguish between their left and right feet, and often could not keep up with the commands, and walked in a mess with inconsistent steps. Gervis patiently corrected them over and over again, but still to little effect. This made Gervis deeply doubt whether the training methods on Earth were suitable for this alien world.
Gervis didn't know that besides himself, the new recruits were also terrified. It was the lord who taught them, and they made mistakes again and again in front of the lord. They were worried that not only would they lose the chance to join the guard, but they might even be kicked out of the guard if the lord got angry.
After training in marching for a while, Gervis saw that it was still early and decided to teach them how to stand as well.
What Gervis didn't expect was that these recruits failed in the first two subjects, but performed very well in the final standing posture training. After Gervis corrected some incorrect standing postures, they all stood with their heads held high, chests puffed out, and eyes straight ahead, without moving a muscle. They stood for half an hour without anyone shaking.
You know, the afternoon sun is extremely strong. During the previous training, they were allowed to drink water in the middle, but there was no time to rest. This surprised Gervis at their endurance.
When the sun set, Gervis asked Laurie, Audrey and the other recruits to take a bath in a stream outside the castle. The leather armor and swords had not been made yet, but the castle had prepared two sets of brand new linen shirts for each person.
Although they had trained for an entire afternoon, the new recruits all smiled happily when they got their brand new clothes. They had worn the same set of clothes for several years. When they were torn, they would mend them, and then they would be torn again after being worn again. In order to prevent the clothes from being damaged too quickly, they would even intentionally control the number of times they washed them. Anyway, if they were washed today, they would be dirty tomorrow as well. As a result, the most common disease among civilians and serfs in this world is skin disease.
These recruits will be stationed in the wooden houses in the castle's front yard in the future. Cleanliness and hygiene are a must. The wooden houses prepared for soldiers in the Viscount's castle can accommodate at least more than two hundred people, so Gervis does not need to worry about their accommodation.
After returning to the castle and taking a nice bath, Gervis ran to the study to check. After making sure that Betty and Wall-E were fine, he took the maid Anna to the restaurant for dinner.
After dinner, Gervis ran to the mill without stopping and picked up three balls of black powder to check. After checking, Gervis determined that the three balls of black powder were dry, so he immediately found tools to crush the clumps of black powder and then screen them.
In order to prevent static electricity from igniting the unfinished gunpowder, Gervis used wooden tools, such as a rolling pin, which he used as a roller.
He is just experimenting now. If he wants to produce in large quantities in the future, Gervis feels it is necessary to make a millstone as big as a millstone. Otherwise, the efficiency of crushing gunpowder with a rolling pin would be unbearable.
After crushing and screening three different proportions of black powder, Gervis placed them in small wooden bowls and marked each bowl so that he could distinguish the proportions of each type of black powder.
Now that all three types of gunpowder were ready, Gervis scooped a small spoonful of each and placed it on the ground next to him, then leaned over and ignited the three piles of black powder one by one.
In an instant, the entire mill was illuminated, but the burning process of black powder was not long. It was impossible to determine which ratio of gunpowder was better by burning like this. So Gervis thought for a while and decided that it would be more intuitive to make it into a grenade and test it.
He did as he said. Looking at the black powder in the three wooden bowls, Gervis instructed Anna.
"Anna, ask the servant to bring three small clay jars!"
The kitchen in the castle used small-mouthed clay jars to store spices, the size of two fists. Gervis estimated that they were just right. When he was a child in his previous life, he was an expert in this area. He could take apart small firecrackers and put them in Wahaha jars, then seal them with mud. The noise they made when they were set off was louder than firecrackers, so Gervis had some confidence in this.
"Yes, sir!"
While Gervis was making black powder inside, Anna had been waiting outside. When she heard Gervis's instructions, she immediately ran to the inner castle.
While the maid Anna was away, Gervis started making the fuse. Due to his limited knowledge, he could only make the simplest one, which was also the one he often played with when he was a child.
Gervis spread the pre-prepared paper on the wooden board and wet it, then sprinkled a small amount of black gunpowder evenly on it. After the paper was covered with gunpowder powder, Gervis rolled the paper with gunpowder into thin strips. As long as the thin strips dried, they would become the most primitive and simplest fuse.
Of course, since it is the most primitive and simplest, it also has some disadvantages. That is, it is afraid of water and burns quickly. So to be on the safe side, Gervis reserved the length of each fuse to be more than two meters. Otherwise, the fuse is too short, just like a long string of firecrackers, which will explode as soon as it is lit.
"Sir, is this the pottery jar?"
Gervis stopped only after he had made four leads. When he had just finished, Anna came to the mill with a servant. The servant was holding two small clay pots, and the other one was in Anna's hand. Anna handed the small clay pot to Gervis as she spoke.
"Very good, this is the pottery jar!"
After taking the small clay pot, Gervis nodded with satisfaction, and then immediately began to fill it with black gunpowder. When it was almost at the mouth of the bottle, Gervis stopped. However, because the fuse was not dry yet, he could only seal the small clay pot with a piece of paper to prevent moisture, and would have to wait until tomorrow to do the final sealing work.
(PS: The above are all my nonsense, please don’t imitate! It will hurt your brain!)
Thank you very much for the reward from "忠义者曹公" and "Wish"!!!
Is the plot a bit slow? I will speed it up. I am preparing the story of the Countess now.
(End of this chapter)
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