Chapter 871 (2/2)

“No, hang on… it was hard for our cannon to hit the enemies now unless we add snow powder.” Willian shook his head. Now he regretted his proactive strategy a little. He had thought that an early firing would help to finish the adjustment earlier, but he did not expect the enemy to halt after seeing their first firing. Now the sight of the enemies busy in mud gave him a disturbing feeling.

The 100 men, dividing into a dozen teams, shoveled and created an empty space that could merely accommodate two people. It was unlikely that it was prepared for camping. After the cleaning, they started to fiddle with those green long barrels.

Through the telescope, Wilion could spy the enemy’s every movement. It seemed that the long barrel was only a component supported by a tripod beneath it and was padded with a concave iron plate at the bottom. Other than that, a few sticks were strangely attached to the barrel. All the parts were separately carried by a different person, but it only took those men less than 15 minutes to assemble all of the components. How ingenious the design was!

However, the Duke almost could not believe his eyes as he saw what happened next.

A spindle-shaped can was put into the barrel before a puff of white smoke ejected out of the mouth of the barrel.

As the nobles were wondering what that thing was, all of a sudden, a dozen dark red fireballs blasted on either side of the city wall, followed by a series of thunderous booms.

As the houses close to the inner side of the city wall had been replaced with all kinds of traps and obstacles, the explosions did not cause much damage, but the mighty scene gave Wilion an ineffable shock.

At that moment, there was only one voice left in his mind.

“That is a cannon? Really?”

How can it be?

The Duke had not witnessed Roland’s cannon troop, but he had heard so much of it. The cannons they equipped could categorized into two types based on their lengths: one portable type that could be placed on a wagon, and the other must be transported by boat. Nither was, however, light enough to be carried by ordinary men.

It took all the craftsmen and materials in Valencia, and two years to forge the two cannons that barely worked. Wilion admitted that it all attributed to the lack of techniques and experience, but he believed that the principle they had applied was no different from Roland’s. He was confident that with a few more years, his craftsmen would surely be able to make similar weapons.

But what happened in front of him totally blew his mind.

How could such barrels with such thin tubes bear the enormous pressure generated by the explosion of snow powder?

“It doesn’t make any sense!”

“Replace the rock shell with half a bag of snow powder!” Duke turned around and growled to his servant. “Fire right after you finish loading. 10 gold royals for one man you shoot down.”

The servant was a little uncertain. “Half a bag? My lord, that may destroy the cannon…”

“If we let them strike our wall without any defense, the huge rock cannon will be useless!” Wilion grabbed the servant’s collar and said, “Do as I say! Now!”

That was when another cloud of white smoke rose from where the enemies were stationed.

“How could they fire again within no more than 30 seconds?”

This time, Wilion heard a soft buzzing, like birds’ singing or the whistling sound when arrows pierced the air.

“Whew——”

The next moment, several blazing fireballs soared on the top of the wall. Scalding heatwaves spread and knocked down the bonfires and the oil basin. Within a blink, the wall was ablaze.