"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! ”

The muzzles of the twelve guns on the port side of the battleship burst into white flashes one after another, and a thunderous sound shook the entire military port, followed by thick smoke rising from the sky.

This movement frightened the war horses on the shore, and they all stood up. The riders on the side froze in place, forgetting to even comfort the frightened horses.

Cleopatra and Drogon, too, were startled, flapping their wings and letting out a sulphurous roar.

Margaery and Daenerys were also taken aback, even though Samwell had reminded them and asked them to cover their ears, but they were still shocked by the scene in front of them.

In the blink of an eye, the disemboweled iron cannonballs smashed down on the water two hundred yards away with a whizzing sound, splashing one wave after another.

Until the choking smoke cleared, Margaret and Daenerys had not yet recovered from their senses.

Bachelor Coben has seen such a scene a long time ago, so naturally he will not be surprised, and he is holding his head high at the moment, waiting for praise.

Unfortunately, what he didn't know was that Samwell was a little disappointed in the power of this kind of thunderous and small artillery.

However, this is also because Samwell is accustomed to seeing the roar of the earth-destroying cannon in later generations, so he naturally looks down on this most primitive front-loading smoothbore gun, let alone the solid iron cannonball still used.

According to the power of this kind of artillery, the average large sea warship is estimated to be hit by dozens of bullets, and it is scarred that it may not be sunk.

"Not bad." Samwell bowed slightly, not wanting to discourage his subordinates, "Try it with blasting bombs." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Maester Coburn passed the order on, and the soldiers began to reload.

The reloading process of this front-loading smoothbore gun was quite lengthy, and the gunners had to first clean the chamber of any remaining gunpowder before reloading the shells and propellants.

The gunners who were able to be sent to demonstrate to the Storm King were naturally carefully selected and moved with great skill and fluidity, but even so, it generally took about five minutes to complete the reload process.

As the herald waved the flag down with all his might, the gunners lit the fuse almost simultaneously.

"Boom! Thundered! ”

The continuous sound of artillery rang out again, and the huge force of the shock pushed the battleship of nearly 1,000 tons to shake.

Due to the use of explosive shells this time, the splash was noticeably larger than that of the first wave of shots.

Of course, in Samwell's opinion, it is still not satisfactory.

Moreover, the range of the blasting projectile is only half that of a solid iron bullet, and the accuracy is much worse.

In fact, the accuracy of the solid bullet is not very high, after all, it is a smoothbore gun and there is no rifling.

"Is this magic? That's amazing! Daenerys opened her mouth wide and didn't come back to her senses for a long time.

Margaery saw some clues: "Sam, this is probably the gunpowder you used to blow up the city walls, right?" ”

"Yes." Samwell also had a smile on his face.

He felt that he should not be too demanding, after all, with the productivity of the Middle Ages, it was already rare for a bachelor of science to be able to tinker with artillery under the casual guidance of his half-man, even in the most primitive version.

Although the power of this artillery is not great, it can already be called an epoch-making product.

With it, the warship has a systematic long-range attack method, unlike the previous naval battles, which can only be rammed with the bow spike, and then the broadside battle.

It is said to be a naval battle, but in fact it is nothing more than a land battle that changes the battlefield to the deck.

But now, with the addition of artillery, naval warfare will slowly turn to a new form.

If the enemy encounters this new type of warship in the Storm Land, if it wants to fight hand-to-hand, it will have to take several rounds of artillery fire first.

As early as the time when Bachelor Coben developed gunpowder, Samwell came up with the idea of artillery.

In fact, the principle of artillery is very simple, and it is not difficult to manufacture, but the difficulty is how to increase power, increase accuracy and reduce weight.

Today's artillery is quite a chicken rib in Samwell's opinion, not much more powerful than a catapult machine crossbow, and the accuracy is not very accurate due to the lack of rifling, and the weight is a big problem.

In order to prevent the bore, the barrel walls were made very thick, which also led to the fact that if you wanted to pull a gun, you needed at least two horses, and you could only walk the kind of well-paved flat roads, and it was easy to break the axle if you encountered a little pothole, and when you encountered slightly more complex terrain, such as forests and hills, you would immediately have no ruts, let alone mountains.

Therefore, although the artillery has long been developed, it did not come in handy at all in the process of attacking the stormy land.

Instead of wasting manpower and material resources to transport these artillery pieces to the front line, it is better to bury explosive packs directly to blow up the city walls.

However, if you load the guns on the battleship, you don't have to worry about transportation, and such a weight is nothing for a large battleship with a displacement of thousands of tons.

"Sam, is this the secret weapon you are going to use against the Qingting Island fleet and the iron fleet?" Margaery's eyes flickered.

"Yes." Samwell laughed, "Do you think you have a chance of winning?" ”

"How many such warships are there now?" Margaery asked.

Samwell looked back at Bachelor Coburn.

The bachelor immediately quoted a number:

"Your Majesty, we have built a total of twelve of the same new warships, each with a displacement of 1,200 tons, equipped with twenty-four guns, and thirty smaller warships, with a displacement of 600 tons, all equipped with paddle wheels and artillery, but the number of guns is also a little less, only ten guns each."

"It's still a little less...... Sam Wilmo rubbed his chin and frowned.

However, he did not blame Master Coben, after all, it was not easy to build a fleet of this size in such a short time.

The key is that the storm land has lagged too far behind in naval construction, and it is naturally extremely difficult to catch up now.

Obviously, the gap in naval talent cannot catch up in a short period of time, so it can only be made up by scientific and technological means.

Needless to say, the artillery can greatly increase the long-range attack power of the battleship, and the design of the paddle wheel is also to make up for the lack of paddle hands.

Paddle may seem simple, but it is not easy to play all kinds of tricks, and the experienced paddlers are familiar with their ships and the hydrological conditions, and they work together with the sailors and helmsmen to make the ship move forward, backwards, turn and turn around quickly, and be as agile as a fish on the water.

It will take at least ten years for such a veteran to be cultivated, and Samwell obviously can't wait that long.

The paddle steamer is relatively simple to operate, the sailor only needs to step on the wheels, the technical requirements are much simpler, and ordinary soldiers, even if they have not been on the ship much, can basically be competent with a little training.

And the power output of the waist and legs is definitely greater than the power output of the back of the arms, more durable, and the continuous operation of the paddle drive is also an advantage that the paddle drive does not have, especially in the inland waterway, the wind and waves are less when sailing against the current, and the advantage of the paddle wheel is more obvious.

Coupled with a simple set of levers and gear structures, the output efficiency of paddle wheel rotation and water is significantly higher than that of oars, the traditional paddle ship needs hundreds of paddle hands, and the rotation operation can ensure the continuous navigation of the warship, while the new paddle wheel ship needs to be equipped with half the number of wheel-stepping hands to continue to drive the warship.

Of course, paddle steamers are not as agile as galleys, but for stormlands that lack naval talent, paddle wheel technology is the most suitable means for them to overtake in corners.

And Samwell envisioned that the paddle wheel would be powered by a steam engine in the future—provided that the bachelor could tinker with the steam engine first, of course.

Steamships powered by steam engines, equipped with artillery, are the real killers who dominate the inland waters.

But now, this big killer is still in a half-finished state, and time waits for no one.

"Your Majesty, we currently have three thousand-ton warships under construction." "It will be completed in two or three months, and if you can wait another year, our fleet will double in size, and even if the Qingting Island fleet and the Iron fleet join forces, we will be confident that we will fight against it." ”

"I'm afraid we won't be able to wait that long for a year......"

With winter approaching and the situation in the North eroding faster than he expected, Samwell had planned to attack King's Landing as soon as the Unsullied army arrived in Westeros in three months' time.

If it's too late, maybe the strange ghosts have already broken through the Great Wall of Desperation.

In Samwell's plan, it would be best to enter King's Landing before winter officially arrives.

In this way, it is the best plan to unite the forces of the Seven Kingdoms and stop the strange ghosts on the Great Wall of Desperation.

Thinking of this, Samwell said, "Since we can't deal with the combination of the Qingting Island fleet and the Iron fleet for the time being, let's bring out one of them first and take him by surprise." They do not yet know the power of the new warships, and they will definitely be paralyzed, and this is our chance. ”

Margaery proposed:

"Horace Redwyn is currently leading a fleet of Qingting Island in the Green Blood River Valley, maybe we can lure them over and annihilate them."

"Horace in the River of Green Blood?" Samwell was stunned for a moment, then came to his senses, "They're sending supplies to Halberd City." ”

"Yes." Margaery added, "Ever since the food embargo on Dorne was issued in Riverlands, the food in Halberd City has been in short supply, and if it weren't for the urgent assistance provided by Qingting Island, the captives in Riverlands and Vale would have almost rioted. ”

Samwell was not surprised by this, as the Earl of Paxter must have hated himself for Lady Olenna's death, and he was willing to support any enemy in the Stormlands.

"How's the civil war in Dorne going now?" Samwell asked.

"It's still burning." Margaret said, "The House of Ellenwood has sent a messenger to ask for help, but since he is not there, I have not agreed to it, he has been waiting for Storm's End for months, do you want to meet him?" ”

"Okay, take him to the Hall of the Storm."

(End of chapter)