CHAPTER 50 - A boom in the wrong place.

October 1538, Capital City, Dharanikota.

Parade Grounds.

The sun was rising fast in the sky. Even though it was a sunny day, the temperatures were bearable. Birds flew their migratory patterns, travelling from faraway places to gaze upon the land's beauty. They were among the few creatures with access to the world like no other being. They had seen the cold Siberian winters and the warm summers of the subcontinent.

It had been a few days since Rudra and his workers made a cast iron cannon in his workshop. They were now in the parade grounds to test the thing. After the casting that day, a lot of things had happened.

The cannon's bore was properly checked, and any problems were smoothed out. The barrel was heat tested, for thermal expansion, and annealed for good malleability. A carriage was jerry-rigged for it so that it could be moved around.

Now in that field was the future of the kingdom's artillery forces. The metal cannon shined in the light of the sun, its meticulous polish informing everyone of the care that went into its making. It had a shiny black coat, which it acquired after it had undergone heat treatment.

The wheels while made of wood, were large and capable of carrying the huge weight of the cannon around. It needs to be replaced with more finesse and engineering than whatever went into making the one they are currently using. 

There was an audience, this time civilians, instead of the expected military troops. It mostly consisted of some high-ranking officials and some nobles and their scions. 

Normally such people were not allowed to do such things, as Rudra aimed to keep the military and the Government as separate entities, both working under him, but the council stepped up and put their leg down, basically forcing Rudra to do this. 

They sprouted off excuses such as the fact that he has poor public relations and that having a working relationship with the governmental staff is important. Ignoring the fact that this happened after he became the minister of Royal affairs, Vasekar took advantage of this situation and added a list of important nobles, who wanted to meet their king, in a place outside of the courtroom.

They did support him after all, and while Rudra would have one without the support of one or two of their nobles, or wealthy landlords, he certainly would have a harder time. Rudra was avoiding such things, confining himself to the palace and trying to run the government.

Who would want to listen to the overblown egos of these landlords/nobles as they complained to him about how a minuscule fraction of their land was being illegally occupied by another noble of a similar position?

But he finally buckled to the requests of the council, and Vasekar. It would do him no good to isolate his supporters and people needed to be reminded from time to time, who is the king, and who is the subjects.

"The weather is calm. It is not windy. A slight breeze from the southeast. Probably from the coast. The field is clear of people. Test fires are a go." One of the soldiers remarked, checking the checklist, that is made to ensure safety.

The parade grounds were just as full of life, as they always were. Soldiers were marching, recruits were being trained, and Gunshots from the flintlock training could be heard from a distance—just a regular day.

The cannon test range was newly established, clearing the forest, that forms one of its borders. That newly flattened land was marked with distance markers, and large targets, making it easy to notice from far away.

The distances were marked in the local measurements. Rudra was using the Si units in his labs, but making the kingdom adopt it was a big task, they are not yet ready for.

As for the targets, they only served as distance indicators. Nobody expects a cannon, especially one from this era, to be accurate. There were often several meters off from their targets, and sometimes even more.

"Gunpowder, in." a soldier took a premeasured amount of the black powder, and poured it into the barrel. Then took a ramrod, and stuffed the powder in, to pack it tight.

"Cannonball, in" Another soldier, took a metal ball, and gently rolled it into the barrel. The previous soldier once again used the ramrod to push it in.

"Loading complete. Prepare to fire." as the preparations to fire were complete, The final sequence before firing began.

The soldiers were well-trained artillerymen, who had ample experience with how they worked. It was not like cannons were new to the Kingdom. Every fortress and military encampment in the Kingdom had some sort of defensive cannon. While some of them were made here, others were not.

Nearly 60 to 70 per cent of the kingdom's defensive cannons were the result of the war between the Vijayanagara Empire and an alliance between Golconda and Bidar Sultanate. When the alliance attacked the Empire, Rudra's father, ever eager to prove his worth, attacked the Sultanate's troops to assist the Empire.

While the role that Dharanikota played was debatable, they were rewarded handsomely by the Vijayanagara's then Emperor, Krishna Deva Raya. The emperor trusted heavily in his troops and was disillusioned by the supposed effectiveness of the cannons.

So, since the alliance was defeated, and the time came to punish the sultanates, he gave away their cannons as war trophies. Sure, he didn't believe in their effectiveness, but the emperor would not let his enemies keep them.

The problem with cannons as war trophies was that every one of them was extremely heavy. These were not the lightweight field cannons of the future, but heavy bombards placed on fortresses' walls. 

While some lords claimed many cannons captured from the Bidar Sultanate, most of the cannons of Golconda were taken by the troops of Dharanikota. After all, the Empire's troops did not care, and the next faction with the highest manpower was them. It also helped that Golconda was bordering the Kingdom.

After painfully transferring the cannons of the Sultanate, to the kingdom, they were placed in the forts of the kingdom and left unbothered. Aside from the regular firing exercises, that were conducted on them, to keep up the readiness, they were left alone.

Then there were the new cannons, which were made by the kingdom's blacksmiths, and tried to imitate the war trophy cannons. From time to time, a new blacksmith would pop up, and try to make a cannon based on the older cannons.

It was always a hit or miss. While the kingdom had taken the cannons from the Sultanate, they didn't bother to know more about how to make them. Most of the skills to make the metallurgic monsters were not transferred. 

The sultanates had help from Ottoman cannon makers to help them manufacture them, while the kingdom's blacksmiths had nothing to rely upon. So, in the 20 years since the war, the Sultanates were rebuilding their lost capacity, while the kingdom's ability to make them went nowhere.

What they did manage to learn was Black Powder production. It kept the cannons running, and now, it was supplying the powder required for the muskets. But Rudra did hear that, they were reaching a bottleneck soon, so he has to look into that sometime in the future.

"Aim," instructed the gun commander, who coordinated the whole thing and got firing solutions. 

"Aim, acquired." the gunner sergeant replied, setting the cannon to the correct trunnion position, effectively aiming the cannon at the target. Trunnions were metal joints used to properly aim the cannons; without them, you couldn't properly use one.

"Fallback." the commander instructed and, the loader, cleaner and the rammer moved away from the moth of the gun, to prevent themselves from getting caught in the debris field.

"Prepare the match." upon that instruction, the other gunner, who was making sure that the match hole of the cannon stayed close, removed the obstacle, and put a slow match in it. 

The whole crew was well-trained. They were one of the more experienced ones and were stationed at the Royal palace. Although those cannons were rarely used, the crews were trained well on the spares regularly. It was stupid to not use every cannon, but stupidity was not a consideration, for whomever thought that some cannons are needed for spare.

The crew were also one of the first ones to defect to Rudra's side. So, loyalty was also not a question. That was the reason, they were chosen for the new cannon trails. 

After moving back from the aiming position, the gunner sergeant took a firing stick, which is just a slow match on a long stick, and hovered it over the cannon, waiting to light the cannon's match.

"Fire!"

"BOOM!"

The resounding thunder was almost enough to crack eardrums, but fortunately, it did not. Downrange, a huge mud splash occurred, and dust was thrown into the air, as the cannonball just impacted the ground. Instead of staying there, it bounces a few more times, covering a few hundred feet, and finally going out of view. Every person who was there stood in stunned silence. 

The cannon fired.

The cannon actually fired.

It fired and did not get blown up. 

Cheers could be heard and people broke down into celebrations. Congratulations were being thrown around, and some officials, who even bothered to appear, started to brag about how they totally knew this was gonna work.

In that chaotic atmosphere, Rudra approached the Artillery crew and congratulated them. "What you did now was something revolutionary for the kingdom. It may seem like any other cannon you fired, but what you did, changes our destiny."

Then there was another round of congratulations by the government officials, this time aimed at the artillery crew. One even started spouting about how the cannon is so accurate, and it is going to be utilized for assassinations during wars.

Rudra hated these types of people. But sadly he couldn't do anything about them. Well, he could fire them, or have them imprisoned, but a little bragging had never hurt anyone. This was their way of politicking. Besides, these people, while not as important as the ministers, held key positions in his government. 

What would people think, if he showed his impulses on the members of his own government? People would first see his reaction and will swiftly ignore the reason for it in the first place. It was always that. No matter whether the opposing side is a king or an ordinary person, people want to point their fingers at the bigger fish.

After all, the privileged are the ones that caused all their misfortunes in their lives, at least to them. What did the government official do? he just, while being completely innocent, bragged about a few things. Who wouldn't? He was praising the cannon after all.

But, ooh. Look at the evil king. He is the big man, who made the big, scary cannon. He doesn't like anyone praising him, and would even punish his well-wishers. How evil. Maybe he eats children and is secretly a lizard man? 

To, divert from his swimming thoughts, and refocus his mind, Rudra ordered the artillery crew, to fire another shot. After all, how would the cannon be a success, if it was only test fired once?

That order quickly broke apart the festivities. All the members in attendance, once again had to fall back to the safety line. The safety line was the ordered distance it took, for the people to be safe if something happened to the cannon.

The cannon was designed and made by Rudra, and even though he had vague ideas about how to make it, he was not a master at it. He was a good blacksmith, yes, but all it took was one mistake, for the cannon to go boom, instead of it making the cannonball go boom.

A bronze cannon would not have that problem, as it just cracks, instead of violently exploding. But bronze cannons were more expensive, and tin was particularly harder to find. There was supposedly a mine, in the forests of Bastar, but it would still be expensive to import, even more than the cost of already ballooning iron.

He assigned his chief blacksmith Ramana the ask of bronze cannons, while he took it upon himself to make the more difficult cast iron one. There is also the method to make the cannons from wrought iron barrels welded together, but he concluded that it went nowhere. 

As soon as Rudra stood back with the others, some people started to make conversation, with him. Abt how much he reminded them of his father, how evil his uncle was, and one even mentioned something about him knowing Rudra from earlier, as he attended one of his father's court meetings, and bumped into Rudra.

To escape that, Rudra quietly crossed the safety line and ignored the warnings of his guards. Bhairava was patrolling the perimeter with his Royal guards, and now, Bashier stayed back at the safety line, to stop any civilians from getting closer. 

The artillery crew continued their firing test. The gun commander calculated new positions for the cannon to fire, while the cleaner did his job of clearing the barrel. The loader then followed it up by adding the gunpowder, and cannon balls, while the other soldier packed the whole thing down.

"Barrel clear?" 

"Check!"

"Gunpowder?"

"Check!"

"Cannonball?"

"Check!"

"Prepare to Fire!"

"Fire!" 

Instead of the immediate bang of the cannonball, followed by it hurtling down the Horizon, the ball never exited the barrel. 

Rudra and the Artillery crew immediately knew something was wrong. The cannonball was pushed out by the rapid deflagration of the gunpowder after it was lit. If something is blocking the way, of an exiting cannonball, the pressure would build up in the barrel, and would essentially turn into a ... 

"PIPE BOMB!" Rudra realized, but it was too late.

"BOOM!"