Ch.172Firearms (3)

BOOM!

It goes without saying that gunpowder isn’t just for warfare.

Even dynamite wasn’t originally developed for blasting ground, was it? Though its exceptional safety eventually led to military use against its inventor’s wishes.

Whoosh—

“…Wow.”

Pre-modern excavation work heavily relies on luck.

In modern times, we can use ultrasound to detect obstacles in advance or prepare countermeasures, but pre-modern technology doesn’t allow for that. When digging into the ground or tunneling through mountains, suddenly hitting solid bedrock is nothing short of a disaster.

Above all, solid bedrock falls into the category of “gentle disasters” that don’t pose mortal danger. If liquefied soil or groundwater suddenly erupts, miners could be wiped out in an instant.

Of course, there are warning signs like sudden changes in soil quality or muddying of the soil, so it’s not a disaster that strikes without any chance of escape.

“How is it?”

While liquefied soil and groundwater remain unconquerable natural disasters, solid bedrock has now become a challenge humans can overcome.

With gunpowder blasts, there’s no bedrock that can’t be broken.

The concept of blasting is still relatively new, so the science remains rudimentary with many aspects handled through trial and error, but so far, no major problems have occurred.

This is due to Claude’s will, who understands that reckless blasting can damage the ground. Claude has mandated through decree that a university-educated technician must be employed as a safety assessment officer to evaluate ground stability before any explosion.

Thanks to this, while tunnels have occasionally collapsed out of necessity, no human casualties have been reported so far.

“Excellent. This will make waterworks construction much easier. But… it seems we won’t be the only ones wanting to use it.”

“Haha, that’s right. Everyone’s clamoring for gunpowder.”

Unlike modern times where ground and bedrock can be handled without gunpowder, in this era’s construction and mining sites, gunpowder is truly a panacea. Besides blasting bombs, the only excavation tools available are shovels and pickaxes.

Because of this, many industrial groups are eyeing gunpowder, but no one dares suggest to the war-obsessed king that gunpowder should be diverted for civilian use.

It would be like arguing that the king, who keeps making weapons despite limited gunpowder supply, should stop making more weapons.

“Hmm… isn’t there any way? Come on, I’ll do you a favor later.”

“No, sir, it’s impossible. We have to report usage and inventory daily to prevent external leakage, and they even send people from the palace every few days to audit for real.”

“Is that so? Aish… His Majesty really…”

Above all, civilian-use gunpowder is subject to extremely strict quantity control.

Having experienced numerous information leaks and corruption due to the average medieval citizen’s awareness and common sense, Claude worried about gunpowder leaking through the same process. To eliminate this risk, he created a system where gunpowder is only provided based on reported usage.

He even deployed state-led peer reporting and secret police to prevent false reporting to obtain more gunpowder, and periodically dispatched officials for inspections. In such a harsh environment, pilfering gunpowder is nearly impossible.

Of course, those who witnessed this shook their heads at the king’s stinginess in preventing what everyone else does. They simply couldn’t understand why he was so adamantly blocking something so common.

……….

BOOM!

“…Wow.”

I had only given a slight hint.

I even explained that since we were already researching hand cannons, it would be too burdensome to research other things simultaneously, so there was no need to start right away.

I had earnestly requested this when I gave the research director my idea for a new bomb, but… the laboratory, which was in the midst of developing hand cannons, went absolutely crazy after hearing my idea for a new bomb and completed the research and development in no time.

Well, given the research director’s known preference for large things, I wasn’t completely unaware this might happen. The structure was very simple and not particularly difficult, so I somewhat expected the research to finish quickly… but this is still terrifying.

“What do you think, Your Majesty?”

“Excellent.”

The explosive power is weak.

At the blast center, there’s only slight ground depression and scorching. Compared to the bomb’s size, the explosive power is quite weak.

The bomb is about the size of a basketball, yet it produces only that much explosive power. Generally speaking, the bomb isn’t living up to its size.

But this bomb shouldn’t be judged primarily by its explosive power.

“How far did it reach?!”

“It reached the fifth row, Your Majesty!”

‘So the definite kill radius is about 15 meters…’

Triangular-cut metal fragments and bomb shrapnel from the explosion were embedded in dummies set up at 3-meter intervals from the blast center. If people had been there instead of wooden dummies, they would have died as steel porcupines.

Inside that bomb are a time fuse made by coiling a fuse like a spring, triangular-cut metal fragments, and gunpowder.

In other words, it’s a “flying cloud thunder”—a shrapnel bomb with various foreign objects embedded inside to maximize lethality.

I only shared the idea that such an item could be made this way… but seeing it in person is insane.

“Who led this development?”

“I did, Your Majesty.”

“So it was you, Research Director.”

This guy, come to think of it, wasn’t he dejected recently when I ordered him to reduce the caliber of the hand cannons?

After hearing my idea, he must have been excited by the potential firepower and devoted himself to researching shrapnel bombs.

Hmm… well, I understand.

The prospect of researching a weapon with tremendous firepower would certainly be exciting.

“How much material was used? What’s the possibility of mass production?”

“3kg of gunpowder, 9kg of iron, and if we have the molds, we can begin mass production immediately, excluding gunpowder.”

Indeed, the structure is quite simple.

You take a hollow sphere, fill it with gunpowder and metal fragments, insert a tube connected to the outside in the center, install a delay fuse coiled like a spring inside the tube, and close the lid.

Plus, since it’s as large as a basketball, precision work is easy— wait.

“Isn’t the bomb too large? I understand using iron instead of wood or porcelain to maintain the shell’s integrity upon impact, but isn’t it too unwieldy to throw by hand in combat?”

“This wasn’t designed for throwing, but primarily for firing from cannons. Wouldn’t a cannon naturally send it much farther than throwing? Hahaha.”

“…You’re clever, aren’t you.”

I asked for small cannons, and he’s trying to circumvent that by proposing large cannons.

Currently, our military only uses trebuchets with an insane caliber of 500mm. As I explained before, small hand cannons are sufficient for killing enemies, so there’s no need for medium-sized cannons.

But to fire a basketball-sized bomb from a cannon, we’d need to make a separate cannon with an appropriate caliber.

Roughly estimating about 25cm, this means we’d need to make a separate cannon with a 250mm caliber.

It would certainly travel farther than throwing by hand… tsk.

“Do you want large cannons that badly? I’ll approve it based on your achievements, but next time, make a formal request. There’s no reason I wouldn’t grant such a reasonable proposal, is there?”

“Pardon?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know.”

Stop playing innocent.

Well… given the limitations of the era, if the shrapnel bomb were any smaller, it would be difficult to achieve proper explosive power and lethality, so I’ll let it slide for now.

……….

“…Another thief? I suppose increasing security is the only solution?”

After enjoying the impressive display at the firearms research institute, I returned to the palace to find yet another report that seemed all too familiar.

Sigh…

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Anyway, we’ve never once used gunpowder as medicine, so why does this ridiculous rumor persist?”

I can understand stealing gunpowder to sell it because it’s expensive… Gunpowder is incredibly costly due to supply being ridiculously low compared to demand.

But stealing it for medicinal use? Is this a joke? I’ve never once used gunpowder as medicine, so where did this absurd rumor originate?

“That’s just how commoners are, Your Majesty. When something is rare, they attach all sorts of rumors to it.”

“…Tsk, executing people just for theft seems too harsh, so we should avoid capital punishment… but what to do? I hear the prisons are already overflowing.”

In modern prisons, inmates sentenced to imprisonment aren’t left idle but are diligently put to work in workshops—attaching eyes to dolls, sewing clothes on machines, and so forth.

I could follow that example and put the prisoners to work, but… the problem is that it’s not feasible.

Since they’re criminals, they can’t be given anything that could become a weapon, so agriculture and mining with farm tools and pickaxes are out of the question. That means we’d have to look at craftsmanship work like modern prisons do, but there are too few such jobs available, and it’s far better to give those to citizens than prisoners.

Above all, these prisoners lack motivation. Who wouldn’t hate being forced to work?

Sigh, no wonder medieval societies so readily executed criminals. Was it because there was no need to maintain dangerous individuals?

If only there were a way to utilize them that isn’t dangerous, doesn’t take jobs from citizens, and works efficiently regardless of prisoner motivation… Wait.

“Do we have waterwheels? Waterwheels that use hydraulic power to grind grain.”

“Pardon? Yes, we should have those.”

“Good.”

So we do have this.

One of England’s excellent inventions that created all manner of terrible things.