Caesar remained in the Blackwing Court after preparing his future strategy for the Metal Dragons. While he was finally in the mood to deal with serious matters, he summoned the leader of the Red Lotus Goblins.
Caesar was his name. Originally, goblins did not have the concept of names. This name was bestowed by Emperor Black Dragon. When this goblin leader, whose head was twice the size of an ordinary goblin's, arrived at the court, Caesar had been waiting for a long time.
After the breakthrough in the development of mercury fulminate, Caesar immediately asked the goblins to put the development of a new generation of weapons on the agenda. After entering the era of firearms, the greater the power, the more glorious it was. The more turrets, the more righteous it was. Within the range of cannons, there was truth everywhere. However, the Blackwing Empire's current predicament was that, under the current circumstances, the nitric acid and sulfuric acid produced by the weapons research facility could not satisfy the research needs.
When Hageldin walked into the court and bowed, Caesar asked, "How's the mission I gave you?"
"All the goblins in the tribe are working day and night to produce fulminate. Your Majesty, please believe us. We can definitely keep up with the Empire's footsteps."
"Too slow."
The goblin leader's words of loyalty did not move Caesar. Caesar shook his head and said, "You have disappointed me. The Empire's fleet is barren. They are idling on the west coast, corroded by the storm and waves."
"I need more fulminate, more!"
The Black Dragon raised his head, revealing his chilling fangs. "You can't satisfy the Empire's demand for gunpowder with the little that you have painstakingly produced. I asked you to ask the Spellcasters for help to design a magic conduction system that can mass-produce fulminate. Did you listen carefully?!"
"I have already done it, Your Majesty."
The unintentional dimensional pressure caused the goblins to panic. Hageldin trembled and hurriedly said, "It's the Spellcasters, it's the Spellcasters!
Your Majesty, their actions are too slow. They can't provide us with any help at all. "
"Which Spellcasters?"
Caesar asked. As the Empire expanded, the number of spare parts increased. When one of the spare parts was disobedient, it would annoy him. "Let me take a look."
Hegeldin did as he was told and led Caesar to the place where the spellcasters of the Court lived. However, the news he received was that the system had already been completed and sent to the weapons research facility. However, the goblins' lives were too lazy, so the news did not reach Hegeldin's ears.
That was just a small interlude. The subsequent punishment and personnel adjustments were Hogg's responsibility, and Caesar did not need to pay attention to such trivial matters. After learning that the spellcasters had already designed a magical system to produce the two acids, his next step was to design a set of powerful ship-borne cannons to cover the three armoured fleets that had already been delivered.
Caesar thought for a moment and memorized the requirements of a qualified ship-borne cannon.
Firstly, as it was a naval battle, it had to have a sufficient range, power, and accuracy. It had to be able to penetrate the armor of the enemy ships from a distance of at least a thousand meters. Secondly, it had to be loaded with ammunition. That way, the angle of elevation could be adjusted freely, allowing the armoured ships to have the ability to retaliate even when facing enemies from a high altitude.
Lastly, considering the requirements of design and development, mold manufacturing, and ease of operation, such a cannon should be able to be used for multiple purposes. It could be used as the main heavy cannon of the armoured ships, or it could be pulled onto land and used as a fixed battery for fixed-point attacks.
Caesar tried hard to recall the memories of his previous life. He quickly remembered the sixteen to seventeen inch long behemoths on the battleships. Those things had a range of tens of kilometers, and a single shot could create a crater several meters deep in the ground. Its power was comparable to Meteor Magic.
Could it be done?
Caesar thought for a moment. If he had to do it by force, it was not impossible. With the support of magic engineering technology, the Blackwing Empire could forcefully avoid the problems of materials and processing. They could forcefully produce such a huge caliber, long-barreled super heavy cannon.
However, it was not worth it to forcefully produce it like this. The magic that the spellcasters expended here would be replenished in another way. The cost would be very high. Most importantly, it could not be mass produced. It could only be used as a special weapon.
If they relied on conventional factory production, the Blackwing Empire could only provide relatively high purity wrought iron and steel with relatively ordinary performance. Therefore, it was better to be conservative. The gunpowder at the current stage could not allow such a super heavy cannon to display its full power.
However, it looked very powerful.
Black Dragon muttered to himself. Then, he puffed up his cheeks and nodded repeatedly. Impracticality and high cost were all bullshit. As long as it looked mighty and majestic, it would be over. He thought for a moment and finally asked little Luna to help him draw a blueprint and hand it over to the Spellcaster Department. He wanted the Spellcasters to work together to first create three super heavy cannons with a caliber as high as 406mm and install them on the three armored ships as the main turrets.
As for the new cannon that could be used as a conventional weapon, Caesar chose 88mm, which was a classic number in the era of thermal weapons in his previous life. This would also lay the foundation for the land weapons that the new department was researching.
Different from the design of the magic cannons, the Northern Empire's cannon had something completely different. The new cannon used the vertical wedge breech. Compared to the screw breech and horizontal wedge breech breech, its firing speed was the fastest. Moreover, the principle behind it was also very simple. It was similar to a door that could slide up and down. When it was lowered, the barrel would be exposed and the cannonball would be loaded.
Of course, in reality, the internal structure of the cannon was far more complicated than the verbal description. However, Caesar was not an all-rounder. He did not understand those things and could not do them. As the ruler, he only needed to provide the design ideas and decisions. The rest would be left to his subordinates to take care of.
"Wait a minute."
After passing on the design ideas, Caesar suddenly remembered that as the range of the cannon increased day by day, even with the assistance of the aiming equipment, it would not be easy to hit the target within the range of the cannon. It was even more so for the ship-borne cannon. One would still have to calculate the projectile arc angle. This was not something that could be familiarized with in two or three days. The operator would have to understand the theoretical knowledge of the shooting trajectory.
Caesar suddenly realized that as the standards of the Blackwing Empire increased in all aspects, there were many things that could no longer be mastered by just two random people. Those who wielded swords were no longer popular in the North. He needed various kinds of specialized talents. Not only did he need them now, but he would also need more and more in the future.
"Should we set up something like an academy?"
This idea suddenly popped up in Caesar's mind. Although it sounded ridiculous for an evil dragon to establish an academy in his territory, he did have an urgent need for such an academy. Currently, there was no such thing as an "academy" in Eladia. Skills and job classes were usually taught by teachers and apprentices. People didn't value knowledge, and it was difficult for them to come into contact with it. Most of the knowledge was in the hands of the schools and churches.