38 A weapon
Shortly after the Great War in the year 012 S.T., legendary alchemist, Lucien Damevar stumbled upon the explosive properties of black powder (a combination of saltpetre, sulfur and charcoal) while seeking the cure to an unknown ailment plaguing his only son.
The Ivonnian alchemist wrote in his diary an account of the substance, saying, "After heating together the saltpetre and carbon of charcoal with sulphur; smoke and flames result, so much so that the crucible broke and with such a loud noise that the monastic men of the king's palace all fled in fear."
Initially, firepowder, as it was known, was used for fireworks within the walls of the kingdom of Ivonne, but under the influence of other great scholars and craftsmen of the Sanctuary of scrolls, the substance soon found its way into weaponry, quickly becoming widespread throughout the kingdoms of Udoris.
Grenades were among the earliest weapons to incorporate gunpowder, followed by cannons, which consisted of wrought iron strips placed over a cylindrical wooden core, and hammered over this were heated metal hoops. The whole cannon was then heated to burn out the core and fuse the wrought iron together. Packed with black powder and iron projectiles, these devices had great range, hence were quick to replacing traditional siege weapons.
The discovery of Black powder proved pivotal in the reformation of Udorian politics, strategic thinking and warfare, changing life in Udoris as we know it.
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Excerpt from Jintao Downey's book on Alchemy - Greatest elixirs.
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Aden's Study.
Levi sat with his legs propped up against the table's edge with a bottle of Ale in his hands.
Taking a light sip, although the beverage could never compare to the high-quality liquors he had tasted on earth he still relished in the numbing respite it provided.
Glancing down he looked at a long to-do list on his table, only half complete. With a sigh, he took another sip letting the bittersweet alcohol flow slowly down his throat.
His expression the embodiment of exhaustion, he sighed a second time.
'Running a town is a lot harder than anticipated.' he muttered
Looking again at the list in front of him he fell into deep thought.
Udorian economy was previously based primarily on farming, It wasn't until the reform resulting from the prolonged war that trade, industry and autonomous economics became slightly more important, towns grew in number and size, and merchants became more important.
Due to the prolonged conflict, aristocrats quickly came to the realisation that the power they can muster is usually proportional to the number of resources that can be gathered in a relative amount of time compared to their competitors. Hence the growing importance of capitalism.
But despite the reform, these economics was generally only applicable to larger, more strategically important regions in Udoris. At the grassroots level like in Greenfields, this system was not applicable at all.
The economics of towns this size is mostly dependent on their rulers. The duke or baron generally decides the direction of growth and tends to have a stranglehold on the town's resources.
In such conditions, small farmers and landless labourers exchanged their freedom and pledged their services in return for the protection of powerful landowners who had the military strength to defend them. In this way, the poor, defenceless, and landless were ensured permanent access to plots of land which they could work in return for the rendering of economic services to the lord who held that land. This arrangement developed into the system, which in turn supported the feudal aristocracy of kings, lords, and vassals.
While this ensures the self-sustainability of a region and its lord's absolute control over the territory this eventually results in micromanagement which stunts the growth of such a region. The excessive control provides no room for autonomy hence restricts the region's potential.
Sighing at the inefficiency of this system, Levi ticked off some things on the list. Making the decision to initiate a massive restructuring when the duke has been dealt with he walked out to complete yet another objective on his ever-growing bucket list.
Walking through the town under the protection of one of his knights he expressionlessly watched as the townsfolk went about their daily lives, stopping occasionally to pay obeisance.
A while later he arrived in front of a two-storey building. The building was built mostly of stone with clay roof tiles and a large open-air forge by the side.
Outside the building stood three men, blacksmiths, two just slightly older than Levi while the third in his middle-thirties, all looking alike with dirty blond hair and chiselled faces. With curt bows, they paid their respects.
"Good day milord, the item has been prepared as per your request." The older man said to Levi who gave a silent nod, leading him into the forge.
Walking in Levi noticed the uncharacteristic cleanliness of the workshop. Apparently, the blacksmiths took care to prepare for his arrival.
Arriving at a stone table inside the building were two bundles neatly wrapped. Picking up the thicker bundle Levi unfurled it, revealing a rifle.
More appropriately referred to as an arquebus, the weapon bore an uncanny resemblance to Japanese muskets of the 16th century.
With a white lacquered wooden stock and forestock, reinforced wrought iron barrel, brass matchlock components, delicately crafted Iron sights and intricate carvings on the barrel the rifle looked more like a work of art or a musical instrument than it did a weapon.
Inspecting the item, Levi confirmed that it was returned undamaged. The rifle, one of the few things that escaped Sean's grasp during the looting, belonged to Aden, hence it probably had great worth asides from its research value.
Carefully putting the rifle aside, he turned back to the other bundle laying on the stone table.
Unwrapping it Levi saw yet another weapon, a musket. This one slicker and less adorned. The musket had a dull appearance with its brown lacquered stock and an unadorned, reinforced wrought iron barrel. At the edge of the rifle, a bayonet was clipped on while a carrying strap extended across both ends of the stock.
Placing both weapons side by side, although Aden's rifle looked much more exquisite Levi only had eyes for the newly made gun.
Levi pulled out a crude schematic and compared the brown rifle with the one in his drawings, making sure everything was manufactured up to his requirements.
The gun was six feet long with the bayonet attached and weighed about ten pounds. It was a muzzle-loading smoothbore long gun that was designed to be loaded exclusively with 15mm lead shots.
Levi had ordered its creation a while ago, leasing out Aden's matchlock to be studied by the blacksmiths in order to quicken the production of the new design.
Guns had existed in Udoris for close to a century and have been continually developed and improved on due to fanatism brought about by their devastating power. Shortly after the invention of the cannon, innovators sought to create more portable variants and soon the hand cannon, an iron pipe filled with black powder and stone shots came into existence followed by it, multiple iterations of the design.
Several decades later the matchlock was developed becoming widespread but not as a weapon of war, but more as a collector's item amongst aristocratic weapon enthusiast.
Glancing at the exquisitely made weapon, Levi sighed. Although the Udorian variant of the matchlock was about as advance as matchlocks went with its rifled barrels, gun sights and slow-match it was not very applicable for widespread use in Udorian warfare.
The reason? Well, that could be accounted for the lack of a suitable combat system, the Udorians still hadn't come up with a suitable volley fire system suitable enough to be used with the new weapon.
Several attempts were once made to revolutionize the use of matchlocks in warfare but all were quickly met with failures. It was found that during unorganized fighting, which was common on Udorian battlefields reloading carried the risk of an explosive accident, a problem that arose on many occasions, some of which led to the collapse of many forces even before the enemy came within range.
And while many scholarly men conceptualized many systems similar to volley fire most didn't catch on due to being overly complicated and structurally rigid, while the ones that had hopes of catching on didn't gain any traction due to the intense stringent requirement of possessing disciplined troops who would have to repeatedly practise such drills to perfection.
In an era plagued by peace, there wasn't any incentive for aristocrats to waste resources to train such forces so plans for the introduction of matchlocks into general warfare died in their infancy.
But Levi wasn't surprised at the slow development of matchlocks as a weapon of war. Even on earth during the early years of the development of volley fire many Europeans found this new way of conducting warfare ridiculous such that in the beginning the Dutch who were primarily involved in the development of volley fire were subjected to open mockery.
The beginnings were very difficult, and many people felt, because it was all so unusual, that it was odd and ridiculous. The Dutch were mocked by the enemy, but with time the great advantages of the practices became clear … and eventually they were copied by other nations.
Soon the reorganized Dutch army displayed the virtues of the countermarch volley and the practice spread across Europe.
But still, from historical sources, it was clear that it took many trials and experiments for the process to be refined even on earth.
Aware that matchlocks, either on Earth or Udoris, were devasting weapons. Being faster to reload than arbalest crossbows while having more devastating power than a longbow, more portable than antipersonnel ballista, while remaining easy to train personnel in its usage the weapons filled a niche unoccupied by any ranged weapon before it.
It didn't come as a surprise that Levi wanted to develop forces wielding these weapons even though the rest of the continent was reluctant to do so. With his memories, he clearly knew what paths to take and avoid making some of the mistakes his earthly predecessors made.
Picking up the rifles Levi under the escort of his knight and the middle-aged blacksmith made their way to a clearing north of the town were they tested the safety and effectiveness of the new weapon.
A while later Levi was satisfied with the results.
Putting aside the weapons Levi turned to face the middle-aged blacksmith standing at the side watching expressionlessly as Levi examined the new creation.
"Well made blacksmith, what is your name?"
"Thank you, milord, this humble one goes by the name Braun."
"Now that you have experience working with this how long with it take you to manufacture another one?" Levi asked gesturing to the newly made flintlock.
"A week milord." The blacksmith replied.
After contemplating for a short while Levi nodded turning to leave, saying in an off-handed manner.
"In a short while, a servant would arrive with my new orders. Do well to please me and I will remember you, Understood?."
With a faint understanding smile, the blacksmith replied.
"Understood milord."
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A.N.:
Contrary to popular belief, despite their glaring effectiveness firearms did not instantly replace armour and melee weapons. This transition took over 250 years, and firearm technology went through several transformations and much opposition before it finally became widely accepted as it is today.
