BXBX NOVEL Chapter 450: fire me
Looking at the muddy situation on the ground, Edward frowned slightly, and then a smile appeared on his face. He kindly walked up to a bald chemist, lifted his lowered head, and asked:
"Academician Abt, may I ask, is there any progress in researching this cement?"
Academician Abbott has a Mediterranean head, a big red nose, and doesn\'t look like a scientist, but a blacksmith.
Edward\'s nose twitched, and he could still smell a sulfur smell, which he guessed came from gunpowder.
"Your Majesty, please forgive us for our dereliction of duty!" Although being helped up by His Majesty the King, Academician Abt still lowered his head, his cheeks flushed slightly, and said in embarrassment.
"Although we have put in all our efforts, please forgive us for our dereliction of duty! So far, we still haven\'t found a suitable formula for the task of cement, and it can\'t achieve the effect you requested!"
At this moment, not only him, but even the other academicians in charge of this matter all lowered their heads with embarrassment on their faces.
In two years, His Majesty the King gave the materials and general direction. They haven\'t made a breakthrough after two years of research, which is really embarrassing.
"Academicians..." "But, my lord, we have made some sudden progress!"
Edward raised his hand, and was about to comfort these chemists who had worked hard for many years, but they suddenly said such a sentence, which made Edward feel a sense of surprise.
Could it be?
"After repeated tests, we finally discovered that if bricks and tiles are crushed into crushed sand or clay, mixed together with lime and a small amount of gypsum, and then calcined, something similar to cement can be obtained!"
As he spoke, Academician Abt half-bent and led the way. After a while, he came to a gray-black wall, about two meters long and wide at chest height.
At first glance, Edward has a sense of familiarity.
He walked quickly and kicked a few times, the wall was as stable as Mount Tai, leaving only a few footprints.
The bachelors on the side were surprised to see the king\'s rude behavior, full of disbelief.
"Well, are there any shortcomings in this cement?" Edward was also a little embarrassed at this time, glanced at the concrete wall in front of him, and began to change the subject.
"Our experiment found that this cement often does not solidify. We fired a stone (112 pounds, 50.8 catties) of cement, but only about ten pounds could be solidified to meet the requirements, and the others were completely unqualified!
However, such a wall can withstand the impact of dozens of people, and it is safe and sound, stronger than a castle! "
Speaking of this, everyone\'s face is full of regret, the ratio of eleven to one is indeed a failure.
For chemists like them, if the conditions are not met, it is of course a failure.
But Edward doesn\'t think so, no matter how much money is spent, the situation is tense.
"How much does this cement cost if one stone is produced?"
At this point, Edward started to care about the cost.
"Well, since the clay and lime are cheap, and the materials are readily available, it costs only one shilling per stone of cement!"
Afterwards, Academician Abt glanced at the king and said hesitantly.
Edward didn\'t care so much, and began to calculate silently in his heart.
The ten-meter-long and three-meter-high courtyard wall at home used ten bags of cement. If each bag was fifty kilograms, then one ton of cement was used.
Calculated in this way, it takes twenty shillings, which is less than one pound, which is cheap.
For the current plan, there is no better way, so just use it!
After reaching a cheap conclusion, Edward put a smile on his face again.
"If the situation is true, Academician Abbott, and fellow academicians, each of you will receive a reward of one hundred pounds!"
Looking at the team of nine people in front of him and their dirty clothes, Edward announced loudly.
"Long live, long live my king!" "Thank God!"…
Just two days ago, facing Rennes, the capital of Brittany, the Marquis of Edinburgh was full of thoughts.
As the capital of the Brittany region, the city of Rennes is naturally high and strong, making it difficult to conquer.
Moreover, the Marquis of Edinburgh also heard that there were more than a thousand soldiers and a large number of civilians in the city, which made the British army with only 3,000 people not know how to start.
Although the Celts inside could not come out, it was also difficult for the British troops outside the city to enter. For a while, it entered a stalemate.
So, two days ago, the British army was still outside the city.
The reason why the city of Rennes was breached was because the British artillery came.
Speaking of cannons, the first ones were bronze cannons, the so-called bronze cannons.
This kind of gun is huge, extremely heavy, and has a wide muzzle. It shined during the Hundred Years War between Britain and France.
How should I put it, this cannon has always fired stone projectiles in the West, similar to our catapults, but it requires a lot of gunpowder to fire.
It was around 1450, more than a hundred years ago, that iron bullets began to be fired.
In this era, there is a good place in the UK—Sussex. Since the iron cannon technology was introduced to the UK, Sussex\'s ironmaking technology is among the best in Europe.
So, after Edward passed some of his superficial knowledge to the military factory, especially the teaching of clay sculpture technology, the iron cannons were mass-produced.
Although iron cannons are not as far away as bronze cannons and are prone to bombing, they are cheap!
Especially the long-barreled guns are only built on a small scale at present, and the cannon is still an important factor in determining the outcome.
This time, 3,000 British troops, armed with twelve iron cannons weighing a thousand catties, came to Brittany without hesitation.
Due to the heavy artillery and difficulty in walking, they still arrived two or three days later than the main force.
As soon as the artillery arrived, the Marquess of Edinburgh immediately swept away his worries, and his whole body was in high spirits.
Twelve cannons were placed neatly in front of Rennes City, and the black muzzles faced the Rennes City Wall at a forty-five-degree angle, which looked extremely scary.
Although there are a few cannons on the city of Rennes, God knows if they can still be used. From the Hundred Years War to the present, the city of Rennes has never experienced a war again.
The soldiers on the city wall looked at the cannons with **** mouths, their faces were pale with fright, and their bodies shook uncontrollably.
"Hey! Let you not surrender, let you taste the taste of artillery!"
Looking at the standing city of Rennes, which still stubbornly closed the city gate, the Marquis of Edinburgh immediately laughed.
"Fire me, blast the city of Rennes—"
Staring at the city of Rennes, the Marquis of Edinburgh suddenly took a breath, his eyes widened, and he shouted hoarsely.
Suddenly, the artillerymen who had already prepared ignited the gunpowder.
In an instant, twelve huge stones flew directly forward in a parabolic manner.
In the middle of the night, I tried anti-piracy. Forgive readers of the original version.
Refresh after half an hour, and you can see the real content!
(end of this chapter)