The Release That Witch
Chapters 69's

Four days later in the backyard.

Two deep holes were dug in the ground. Each hole is circular, and the deeper the hole, the narrower the radius. At ground level, the diameter is about 40 cm but the deepest part extends to only 26 cm. These holes were the prints that Roland would use to produce his cannon prototype. The inner wall of the hole was baked and hardened by Anna. He burned it for so long that its surface was flawless, like a shell. He began to harden the shell at the bottom and carried all the air bubbles and trash with him as he moved upwards. Over the course of history, there were several sizes of cannons; roland roughly remembered that the so-called six-pound and eight-pound cannon got its name from the weight of its shell. Roland's first step to producing the cannon was to produce several twelve-pound balls,

In the absence of measuring instruments, Roland only created his own custom standards. He took out an iron rod and separated it into many small pieces with the width of his ring finger, hoping to get close to a centimeter. After that, he made many copies of the iron rod.

The diameter of a twelve-pound iron ball, when measured with a new iron ruler, measures about twelve centimeters. Therefore, the thinnest wall of the shell should be four centimeters, and the back end used as the blasting chamber should be seven centimeters thick to prevent self-explosion. Regarding its length, there were many types of cannons, such as the cannons used on battleships, modern tanks, or antique front-load artillery, so he really did not know which one to choose.

Taking into account that the shorter the tube, the lighter the cannon and the more materials it could store. Roland waved his hand indifferently, I will only make a cannon with a length of 1.5 meters; if the test results are unsatisfactory, I will adjust the length later.

When the cannon was first invented, it was built with a wooden core and reinforced with iron rings, like barrels. Roland still remembered that this type of cannon had the risk of leaking and exploding on its own, so it would be best to form a cannon body entirely at once. When drilling a cannon with a steam engine, there was no difference in producing a 6-pound cannon or a 12-pound cannon.

That so-called caliber is just a concept to distinguish its size. If the muzzle is larger, it becomes 12 pounders. Everything outside of it could not be used as field artillery. But the actual weight of the bullets or cannonballs is not important as long as they shoot in a straight line. After all, he only got ideas from history and did not imitate them.

Roland took a deep breath, then gave Anna the signal to start "start now". The latter nodded his head, took out a steel rod, and placed it over the hole. Under the force of his green fire, the wooden trunk quickly turned red and began to melt, forming a small waterfall of molten iron that flowed into the hole. The molten iron glowed orange-red and became so bright that it was hard to see. In order to protect Anna's eyes, Roland specially installed a buffer frame on the edge of the hole. He only had to take a good position first and then he could lean on the buffer frame to produce the cannon without looking into the hole.

Ingot sticks are usually used only slowly. After all, Anna herself could not start the era of hot steel, but producing it in small quantities was no big deal - the most difficult problem to solve was to withstand the temperature at the same rate, he said, but with Anna's help he was able to produce a small amount of high-quality steel.

This was also the reason why Roland dared to produce a five-meter-long cannon. Compared to cannons made of bronze or iron, cannons made of steel were clearly much stronger. Even if Roland made a cannon of the wrong size, the chances of him exploding himself were much smaller.

The amount of molten steel continued to increase inside the hole, but the amount of ingots was also decreasing. Seeing this, Roland could not help himself but feel heartache. In the end, he could only wait until he could build some blast furnaces in his territory. The number of steel and iron rods that nobles could produce was one of the criteria used to measure strength and strength during this time.

When the two prints filled up, Anna's cheeks became bright red due to her efforts. So, Roland took out his handkerchief and gently wiped the sweat off his nose. Unable to receive this shameful attention, Anna showed resistance at first, but after a few seconds she obediently closed her eyes and let Roland take care of her.

His face glowed red due to the melting steel light, causing Roland to think of biting him. However, as he looked further down his neck, his slender open collarbone entered his gaze. The two were so close that Roland could smell her gentle scent.

"Ahem, okay ..." Roland timidly took the handkerchief while trying to control his agitated emotions, "that's everything for today. Nice work! I'll tell the kitchen to specially prepare a pepper steak for you."

When Anna opened her eyes, she could feel that Roland had wiped away all of her sweat, but her face looked even redder than before. He gently nodded to Roland and thanked him.

*

In the next few days, Roland traveled between the castle and the North Slope Mine several times.

Other than cannons, he also needed to make quite boring equipment.

The production methods of drill tools for rifle barrels and cannon barrels are very similar. Once removed from the mold, Anna would heat it up again, so that it could be processed with a hammer. This is very different from making a regular knife. At a glance, it looked like a blunt iron rod. However, the only difference was that there was a crack in his head, which was used to dispose of metal debris. In the final step, the iron was extinguished to increase its hardness.

The production method is very different from modern high-precision drill. After all, Roland only needed them to drill into iron. Considering their high wear rate, Roland and Anna produced five boring tools within a week. Thanks to this boring tool and the use of steam engines for drilling - the production of gun barrels increased rapidly from 2 every month to ten every day.

Once everything is ready, the miners will dig up two cannon embryos, then clear the trash from the surface and transport it to the workshop carriage.

For the production of these two cannon embryos, almost all of Roland's steel rods were consumed, a test that was priceless. So Carter and his entire bodyguard were in charge of the transportation protection, which made the Knight Chief feel a little excessive. Who stole so many inflexible things?

As per the Prince's requirements, the blacksmith began to polish and flatten the appearance of the embryo, after the grindstone. After they finished it, the embryos were sent to the castle's backyard. Currently they only looked like two solid iron rods with a dark gray and round appearance, emitting a heavy metallic luster.

Roland could not wait to start drilling, so with Carter he brought the embryo to the right place, and placed the end of the cutting head on the top of the steel rod.

With a face full of hope, Roland pulled the valve in the steam engine. The boring tool slowly began to operate, but not long after that it was already working at a steady pace.

"Start!" The prince shouted loudly.

Hearing this, the Knight Chief pushed the pedestal downwards so that the drill tool came into contact with the embryo. When the tip of the drill bit came into contact with the embryo, a loud noise that even covered the sound of the steam engine could be heard. As a lubricant they use lard, which is fed into the drilling, out of the wire as black foam. The magicians who looked retreated from the wooden warehouse, and only Lightning insisted on staying. To him, seeing this machine was much more beautiful than any sight.