Seeing that the stove was so passionate, Duke naturally encouraged and praised him, praise is a virtue, and more importantly, praise should not be paid. So for those who help him, Duke never skimps on his praise.

I have to say that this is also one of Duke's advantages, compared to many nobles in this world who look down on people, Duke is not only approachable, but also often encouraging, which makes many simple-hearted young people grateful, and gives birth to a kind of idea of death for a confidant.

But in addition to the praise, Duke was not as excited about the front-loading smoothbore musket as he was at the beginning, because the reality is cruel, especially after Duke has been in this world for a long time and deeply understands the perversion of magic, he feels the powerlessness of this front-loading smoothbore gun.

Take a piece of data that Duke later saw, during the Franco-Prussian War in the eighteenth century, a similar front-loading smoothbore flintlock pistol, firing at a target three meters wide and two meters high, the hit rate of 100 steps (76 meters) was 60 percent, the two side steps were reduced to 40 percent, and only 25 percent of the 300 steps remained.

You must know that the human body is far from this hit area, and this is still an ideal test for shooting, if you add objective factors such as psychological fear on the battlefield, environmental influences, smoke noise, etc., the hit element will be greatly reduced. The data on the actual battlefield can reach more than ten or twenty percent each, which is very good, and this still requires an infantry column to fire a salvo, and if you pay attention to the single hit rate, it is almost equal to zero.

That is to say, the shooting limit distance of the smoothbore gun queue is about 200 meters, which is basically the same as most ordinary bows and arrows, and the requirements are much lower than those of bows and arrows, and there is no firing limit, plus the short training time of musketeers, it will have a great advantage in combination.

It's just that there are not only archers in this world, or countries have long since abandoned established archers. The reason is very simple, the long-range attack methods in this world are too perverted, according to the information that Duke saw, not to mention all kinds of unbelievable magic attacks, just the perverted magic arrows of the elf race, the longest distance can actually reach a thousand meters, and the close range can be called a hundred steps through the Yang!

Moreover, the physical fitness of the elven clan is far better than that of humans, and there is no problem in shooting a hundred or eighty arrows in a row, and human archers generally can't hold on to their bows after pulling their bows twenty or thirty times in a row. Not to mention the orcs whose physical fitness is also exaggerated, take the troll javelin man as an example, the farthest projection distance is actually five hundred meters away, which is a bidding gun, this is simply a projection mortar.

That is to say, the combination of many factors makes the long-range attack methods of human beings completely extinguished, not to mention firearms, and bows and arrows are about to retire from the stage of history. Only Ayutthaya still has some large equipment such as bed crossbows, which can compare to the attack methods of these perverted races.

Of course, humans are not in a position where they can't fight back after being beaten, relying on numerical superiority and magical talent. Humans defeated elves in numbers, dwarves in magic, and orcs in intelligence, and eventually became the ultimate overlord of this continent.

And with the blessing of various group magic, coupled with the emergence of magic heavy armor, in the case that the magic does not completely eliminate the opponent's long-range attack, the human knight can also forcibly carry the opponent's long-range output and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

And human beings also have powerful Warcraft cavalry, as well as griffins, dragon eagles and other air powers, which may not be as good as other races in one aspect, but their comprehensive ability far surpasses that of other races, standing at the pinnacle of this world.

Despite all the disadvantages of the front-loading smoothbore gun, Duke is relatively satisfied so far. After all, you can't become fat in one bite, and when rifling and Mini bullets appear, or even reloading bullets appear, it will completely change the current situation.

Even if it is the current power, as long as a platoon of guns is formed, it can have a huge advantage against the ordinary lord army, and even in the face of the Teutonic knights of the Holy See, as long as they spray musket regiments, it is estimated that they will suffer heavy casualties. Because the group magic defense of this world is still calculated according to the power of the bow and arrow, and the destructive power of the musket at close range is far from being comparable to that of ordinary bows and arrows, at least reaching the level of heavy arrows.

And there is such a thing as gunpowder, the dwarven musketeers of this world use the most primitive black powder, which does not burn sufficiently and has very limited power. As long as the gunpowder formula can be improved, the power of the musket can also be greatly increased. In general, the musket is still very promising!

After arranging the affairs of the musket team, Duke also greeted Bruno and asked him to improve the rifling of this world.

In fact, Duke later learned that there are not only front-loading smoothbore guns in this world, but also rifled guns that have already appeared. Originally, according to common sense, rifled guns are more advanced firearms, and after rifling, the bullet will rotate, greatly increasing the range and stability, and it is also a necessary thing for later generations of firearms.

As a result, I didn't expect that in this world, it is actually a smoothbore gun that gives priority to the elimination of rifled guns, and I am willing to do it because in the case of front loading and no independent bullets, whether there is rifling or not has little impact on the power and range of the firearm, and the cost is much higher.

Just like the T34 and Tiger tanks that have been emphasized, the best for the army is not the most practical, but the low-cost, rapid production and replenishment, which is the most needed. After all, the barrel is a consumable, the rifling is consumed quickly, and this world needs a lot of cost to replace.

Moreover, the limit distance of no rifling is about 200 meters, although it is better to have rifling and this distance, but because they are all in a queue of guns, they should not hit or miss. And in terms of loading, because there is no rifling obstruction, the smoothbore gun is much faster.

Under normal circumstances, a trained soldier can fire two to three shots in a minute, and an elite soldier can fire three to four shots. In modern Europe, elite veterans were able to fire five shots at their limit, but rifled guns averaged more than one shot per minute.

This shot was a fatal gap for the gun platoon, which could lead to the death of an entire platoon of soldiers. However, rifling is the future development direction after all, and it must be improved as soon as possible, only in this way can the range and accuracy be greatly improved.

After finishing the musket, Duke returned to the castle, intending to relax and rest. Just sitting in the position of lord, many things are not up to Duke, he barely lay down for long, and news came from the coastal market, Fasqi led a few fish-man warriors to the territory.

Moreover, several people were still wounded, and there was a mysterious fish-man behind them who were chasing them, but they gave up the pursuit when they saw the patrol cavalry of Storm Castle rushing over.