King of German Mercenaries

Obviously, the reason why Marin formed the black knights is to deal with the Saxons' plate knights and artillery positions.

Saxony has a lot of money and can pull out thousands of plate knights. How terrifying is the charge of thousands of plate knights on the battlefield? The group of tin cans rushed up, and the earth trembled.

If it was replaced by an ordinary infantry team, it would have been washed away by thousands of plate armor knights. That is why Marin has the Spanish phalanx that restrains the plate armor knights, so he dares to face the Saxons.

However, Marin began to frown at the thought of the Saxon artillery...

In this era, the use of iron balls was not very popular in artillery. Because European iron prices are not cheap. During this period, because the blast furnace had not yet appeared in Europe, the iron output was not high, and the unit price was relatively expensive. Therefore, during this period, a lot of artillery used stone bullets.

There are dozens of Saxon artillery, according to Marin's inquiries. Moreover, most of them are light rear-mounted cannons that are convenient for transportation, which is what the Ming Dynasty people call the Fran cannon. The material of its manufacture is also bronze.

Because of the backwardness of steel technology, most of the light guns in Europe now use bronze. Because, under the same caliber, bronze guns are much lighter than cast iron guns. Moreover, because the furnace temperature is not high enough (mainly because the coke has not yet been used), Europe lacks wrought iron and pig iron cannons, which are similar to the iron cannons of the Ming Dynasty, and frequently explode. Even King James II of Scotland was killed by an iron cannon.

Because the early pig iron guns were so dangerous, later, Europeans generally equipped bronze guns as field guns. However, early copper prices were too expensive. At the end of the 15th century, the ratio of silver to copper was about 1 to 15. In other words, it would cost 40 pounds of silver to cast a 600-pound 3-pound bronze gun, which is simply too expensive.

In short, in this era, artillery is a big game, and the poorer than the aristocrats cannot afford artillery. Even the Swiss were unable to equip artillery at the beginning. In the Swabian War, they captured dozens of the emperor's artillery before they had artillery. Of course, this is the original historical Swabian war. Because of the arrival of Marin, the emperor did not fall into the pit between the Swabian League and Switzerland, but he did not lose dozens of artillery pieces.

Marin attached great importance to the dozens of rear-mounted bronze cannons in the Duchy of Saxony, because the destructive power of the artillery on the Spanish phalanx was too great. A musket can only hit one person, but a cannon can hit a line.

Even a less powerful three-pounder can kill 15 opponents in a straight line. And the more powerful Napoleon cannon can penetrate the opponent's platoon...

Fortunately, the rear-mounted bronze guns used by the Saxons are only 2-pounder and 3-pounder, and their power is not large. The main reason is that no matter how big the artillery is, the body of the gun is too heavy, and the artillery is inconvenient to lift...

Yes, it is inconvenient to lift...

In this era, artillery was still transported on horse-drawn carriages. On the battlefield, the artillerymen have to lift the gun body down, carry it to the front of the formation and fix it, and then fire it.

Most countries play like this, so the gun body can't be too heavy. The body of the three-pounder gun weighed five or six hundred pounds, and it was already very difficult to lift. If a six-pounder gun weighs 500 kilograms, it is more difficult to lift, and even requires the use of machinery.

However, the situation on the battlefield is critical and ever-changing. Where is the free time for you to slowly raise guns? Moreover, the angle and direction of the artillery also need to be adjusted at any time. Therefore, in order to facilitate the lifting of the gun, the gun body should not be too heavy. Therefore, a 3-pounder gun weighing five or six hundred pounds is already the limit that artillery can move. No matter how large-caliber guns are, they are generally naval guns and fortress guns.

Only in France, a craftsman invented the cannon lug and invented a carriage-type gun mount with 4 wheels, which is a little more convenient than other countries. However, it is still not as convenient as the two-wheeled fixed gun mount that was popular later.

Of course, another important reason for the use of small-caliber artillery,

It's just that gunpowder is too expensive. For example, a 3-pounder gun will consume nearly 1 pound of gunpowder each time it is fired. And a pound of gunpowder is worth about a shilling. If dozens of guns are fired at the same time, the money will really flow away...

Now the popular use of stone bombs in European countries is also due to cost considerations. Before the appearance of modern blast furnaces in 1709, the smelting of steel was carried out in small furnaces, and the cost was relatively high. Iron ball shells also cost a lot of money. Therefore, generally on the battlefield, when hitting people, stone bullets are often used. Faced with flesh and blood, even if you wear plate armor, stone bullets are enough. When bombarding fortified city walls and fortifications, iron balls were used. After all, when blasting the stone city walls and sturdy city gates, the ability of stone bullets to break the defense is not as good as that of iron balls. However, there are also wealthy nobles who basically use iron balls.

The 3-pounder rear-loaded bronze guns used by the Saxons, Marin knew, had an effective range of less than 200 yards, even with iron balls. Because they use powdered gunpowder. In addition, due to process problems, the air-tightness of the rear-mounted artillery in this era is relatively poor. Therefore, the effective range of the rear-mounted bronze gun is generally less than 200 yards.

But even so, the Saxons' rear-mounted bronze guns were enough to pose a huge threat to Marin's Spanish phalanx. The iron ball flew, and it hit ten or eight East Frisian warriors. The threat was very big.

Therefore, Marin came up with a way to use black knights to attack the opponent's artillery positions. However, Marin thought about it and felt that it was not safe to do so.

The Duke of Saxony is a wily old fox. Unlike the more stupid Prince George, since the Duke of Saxony is going to confront him, he will definitely make all-round preparations.

The opponent's artillery positions will definitely be surrounded and protected by the opponent's soldiers. It's okay to use 800 black knights to attack those plate armor knights that chased out, but it is unrealistic to completely solve the opponent's artillery positions.

The best way is actually to use more powerful artillery to destroy the opponent's artillery positions. Originally, Marin planned to use the arquebusier to move forward and use the musket to deal with the opposing artillery. However, consider that the arquebusier needs the protection of a thousand-gun trench. Otherwise, the quackery will be overwhelmed and slaughtered by the opposing plate knights. Therefore, after thinking about it, it is more realistic to use more powerful artillery to bombard it.

Therefore, Marin decided to build a batch of 3-pounder guns to attack the opponent's artillery and attack the opponent's battle formation at the same time.

The reason for choosing the three-pounder is actually very simple: first, it is to save gunpowder; it is also convenient for transportation... Finally, it is to save copper...

However, the three-pounder that Marin intends to use is not a rear-mounted bronze gun, but a front-mounted gun, similar to the three-pounder gun during the American Revolutionary War.

Due to the urgency of time, it was too late to use the clay mold cannon. Therefore, Marin intends to use the iron mold casting method to cast the gun.

Because the iron mold cannon is very efficient. To cast a cannon, if you use a clay mold, you have to wait a few months for the clay mold to air dry. The war between Marin and the Saxons was about to break out soon. So, you are too slow to cast the gun.

And if you use iron mold to cast guns, the speed is very fast, and you can cast a few guns in a day, rather than a few months in a few months. However, the use of iron die casting guns is fast, but it is not a small defect. In his previous life, Marin had read a lot of analysis articles on the Internet, saying that if the iron cannon is cast iron, even if wrought iron is used, the speed is happy, but the performance of the artillery will be problematic. For example, the whitening of the iron on the surface of the artillery is serious, resulting in increased brittleness and easier blasting. Because the heat dissipation of the iron mold is too fast, the cementite in the molten iron has no time to precipitate, and the graphite solidifies. Therefore, the cementite in iron mainly exists in the form of iron carbide, which is white iron. In order to be safe, the cannon cast by the iron mold cannon must be much thicker than the clay mold cannon to be safe.

However, the field guns used by the army must be light. Therefore, the cumbersome artillery cast from the iron die-casting gun is not suitable for the army to use, and it is mostly used for naval guns and fortress guns. Because, naval guns and fortress guns can not pay attention to the problem of portability.

However, the defect of the iron die cast gun is for the cast iron gun. For bronze guns, there is no such problem. Therefore, there is absolutely no problem in casting bronze cannons using iron die casting cannons. The speed is fast and the quality is not bad.

Due to time constraints, Marin couldn't wait for the clay mold to dry. Therefore, he decided to use the method of casting iron cannons to cast a 3-pound front-mounted bronze cannon to fight against the Saxon army.

Marin had seen the translated American TV program broadcast by BTV in his previous life. He knew that the caliber of the 1776 three-pounder gun was 74mm, the barrel was 0.65 meters long, and it used granular gunpowder. The effective range was as high as 365 meters, far exceeding the Saxon army. 200 yards of the rear-mounted bronze gun. Using such bronze guns against the Saxon army, it was clear that the front-loading guns won.

The only thing that hurts Marin is the huge cost of making the bronze cannon. It takes three or four hundred pounds of bronze to cast a 1776-style three-pound front-loaded bronze gun, and now the price of copper is so expensive, it's just terrifying...

That's why Marin didn't cast the more powerful 6-pounder and 12-pounder Napoleon - copper was too expensive to cast...

Marin intends to cast 50 front-mounted bronze cannons. Then, the cost of copper material is as high as 20,000 pounds, and it will cost about 1,333.33 pounds of silver, which is about 111.11 pounds of gold, or about 14,000 gold coins. This is only the cost of materials, but also requires various expenses such as craftsman expenses and transportation costs, and 20,000 gold coins cannot be beaten.

However, this is just the beginning. Because, after the artillery is cast, it still needs a lot of iron balls. Marin was reluctant to hit stone bombs. The gap between the stone bullets is large, which is even worse for breathing. Therefore, Saxony's artillery, the effective range can only hit less than 200 yards. If it is replaced with an iron ball, it should be able to hit farther and be more powerful.

As for iron ball casting, it is actually relatively simple, that is, simple sand casting. Get a sand box, the upper and lower halves, first put the iron ball as a standard mold in the sand box to press out the imprint, then remove the iron ball, pour molten iron into the space where the iron ball is pressed from the funnel and channel, so that , an iron ball is made.

Sand casting, although the use of wet sand, may cause some honeycomb structures in the iron ball due to evaporation of water vapor, resulting in an insufficient structure. If the artillery is cast like this, it will definitely not work, because it will easily explode. But it is no problem to cast iron ball cannonballs. What is the iron ball with a honeycomb structure? Could use even worse stone bullets. Anyway, it's just something to smash people, not so demanding.

Therefore, the casting of iron ball shells is very easy. The only trouble is the cost of iron. Now, Marin's iron materials are basically iron blocks imported from the United Kingdom, and the price is not cheap. Therefore, the cost is relatively high.

However, compared with defeating the Saxons and standing up, this investment is still worth it. Therefore, Marin did not hesitate, and decided to use iron ball shells in an all-round way to smash the Saxons...

In fact, iron balls are nothing, and the cost of gunpowder is the most astounding. One pound of gunpowder to fire one shot, and one shilling is gone. If dozens of guns are fired in a day, and 50 guns are fired together, the speed of gold coin consumption is like a waterfall...

But in any case, as long as you can win, this investment is worth it. Marin is already fantasizing about the amount of ransom he needs after defeating the Saxon army and capturing the Duke of Albrecht...