"Mr. Kafta, can you elaborate on that?" Roland walked into the lobby of the armory, smiled and asked the warlock, "Tell me what you think of the air defense methods we are currently using." Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"Good morning, Mr. Roland." Kafta stood up and raised the brim of his hat to greet him, "After the battle on Dragon Point Heights, my assistants and I carefully examined the corpses that had been gathered together, and among all the corpses that could be identified, there were a total of seven hundred and sixty-nine half-dragons belonging to the Blue Dragon Corps, and among all these enemies killed in the sky above the heights, sixty percent of them were killed by the Heroes of Kitland, thirty percent were killed by the airship cannons, the Giant Eagle Wing, and the Fortune Angels, and less than one percent were actually injured by the ground anti-aircraft batteries. And we paid at least 2,000 shells for this, and the hit rate was simply terrible! ”

"Hey, two thousand shells......" Jack whistled exaggeratedly, "It costs at least five gold coins to make a cannonball, and we fired a hundred thousand gold shells into the sky, and we only killed less than a hundred enemies, there is no more cost-effective deal in the world, we have a way to change the situation." ”

Compared with the vast and vast sky, the shells fired into the sky are too small, and the anti-aircraft artillery densely arranged in the position looks spectacular to shoot out a barrage in the sky, but in fact, the vast majority of the shells are only fired by chance, and there is not much accuracy to speak of, and it is difficult to hit fast-moving flying targets. If the number of anti-aircraft guns is small and the barrage is too thin, the probability of hitting the enemy is even lower, and it can only play the role of scaring the enemy and emboldening oneself.

Roland fully agreed with their criticism, in fact, not only the anti-aircraft guns were too inefficient, but even the latest rapid-fire guns mounted on airships did not have a satisfactory hit rate, especially when shooting small high-speed targets.

Jack suggested adding a "viewing crystal" to the anti-aircraft gun, which could instantly capture the location of air targets and improve shooting accuracy. Kafta believes that this idea seems simple but is actually quite troublesome to implement, and the most important thing is that the cost is too high, the cost of an observation crystal is three times more expensive than the cannon itself, and the installation of observation crystals may not work.

"The observation crystal only helps you see the target, but it is a long process from seeing the target to loading and firing the shell and then flying to the designated position, during which the target is likely to have moved its position, causing the shell to pass by."

Kafta's idea was to increase the rate of fire of the anti-aircraft gun while installing the observation crystal, which required the design of a more efficient automatic ammunition feeder......

Roland listened to the discussion between the two and felt that their ideas were reasonable, but was there any more practical way of thinking besides improving the accuracy of shooting and improving the speed of ammunition feeding?

Looking back at the history of artillery development on the earth before World War II, Roland vaguely remembers that before World War II, the anti-aircraft guns of various countries also had the disadvantages of low efficiency, especially the anti-aircraft guns mounted on large warships, which performed quite clumsilyly in the face of enemy aircraft group bombing, wasting thousands of shells but not even a single enemy plane, and at the same time, ships in need of anti-aircraft fire protection were blown up by enemy aircraft.

So when did this passive situation start to change? What kind of technological improvement is it possible for antiaircraft artillery to get rid of its position as a chicken rib and really pose an effective threat to enemy aircraft?

With the knowledge he had accumulated while reading the history of the war before he traveled back in time, Roland quickly came up with an artillery technology, an invention that was considered to be as important as the atomic bomb among the many military technologies used in actual combat during World War II.

This epoch-making great invention is the "proximity fuse".

The "proximity fuse" is the size of a can and is equipped with five tubular radio receivers on the head, which constantly transmit and receive radio signals. When the warhead equipped with a proximity fuse flies to about 21 meters away from the target, it will automatically detonate under the control of radio signals, so that the shell does not have to directly hit the enemy plane, and can effectively kill the enemy aircraft through a large number of fragments generated by the explosion, thus greatly improving the air defense efficiency of the antiaircraft gun.

The "proximity fuze" on the earth is a delicate device that looks inconspicuous at first glance but is actually quite complex, involving radio, transistors and even integrated circuits and other technologies, which cannot be copied at the scientific and technological level of the world of Vares, not to mention that Roland, a liberal arts student, does not know any radio technology at all, and he doesn't know where to start if he wants to imitate it.

Fortunately, he doesn't need to copy the technology on Earth exactly, just borrow its ideas. Compared to Earth, the world of Varess is indeed backward in terms of technology, but don't forget that this is a fantasy world, and a highly developed magical civilization can replace the role of technology in many fields, such as the "proximity fuse", using magic to create similar devices is easier and more sophisticated than using radio technology. For example, the first generation of proximity fuzes invented during World War II on the earth, limited by transistor technology, could not be made too small, mainly for 127mm anti-aircraft artillery equipment, until the rapid development of integrated circuit technology after the war, the size of the proximity fuze was reduced, and it can be installed for small and medium-caliber shells. If magic is used to achieve the same function, there is no problem of being too large, because the enchantment technology itself does not need to take up space, and therefore does not require the size of the carrier.

Thinking so, Roland opened his mouth to interrupt Jack's argument with Kafta, "Boof, I have an idea for improving the fuse of the cannonball, do you want to hear about it?" ”

"Aha! Mr. Roland's idea must be brilliant, I'll have to get some accompaniment to it. "Gnomes are a pleasure-hungry race, and there is always food and drink to be found in Jack's room.

Roland opened the wine and poured himself a glass, and talked about his ideas over pickled cucumbers and cottage cheese.

In order to make it easier for Jack and Kafta to understand the principle of the "proximity fuze", he did not talk about radio technology that he could not understand, but instead started with the naval battle that broke out in the North Gulf not long ago.

"We had just won a decisive naval battle, and then we assembled our fleet to launch a fierce attack on the pirate lair Trolle Island, but as we crossed the strait, we encountered unexpected trouble."

"What's the trouble?" Jack asked curiously.

Kafta listened attentively with his glass in his hand. As a citizen of Baigull Harbor, he knew some about the details of the naval battle, but he couldn't guess what Roland meant by "trouble", and what it had to do with the improved anti-aircraft fuse.

"Mines." Roland swallowed a slice of sour cucumber, took a sip of red wine, and continued, "The pirates have laid a large number of mines in the waters leading to the harbor of the Giant Demon Island, these mines are moored by heavy objects, floating at a depth of ten to fifteen feet above the water level, and camouflaged with seaweed, you will be difficult to spot these traps when looking down from the water, but as soon as you get within 20 yards of the mines, they will immediately trigger an explosion, and the shock wave will be enough to overturn the battleship. ”