CHAPTER 477: CHAPTER 455: AMPERE-STYLE HELICAL SPRING GUN PROTOTYPE

The arms factory was originally the site of a country villa belonging to the Ancient Aier nobility, and because there was already a foundation, the entire arms factory was straightforwardly established on the site.

Approximately dozens of acres of land outside the arms factory were enclosed by wooden walls two meters high, and behind these wooden walls were temporary sheds.

White steam rose under the sheds as fresh base-coal was processed into loose dry coal, emitting pale blue flames.

Blacksmiths wielded hammers, making white phosphorescence fly everywhere, while Alchemist Priests waved their hands to transform pounds of refined iron into mountain copper in the blazing fires.

The area around the arms factory was perpetually filled with clanging noises and scorching winds.

Through narrow passages formed by the sheds was the factory’s gate, guarded by assigned guards and constables.

The factory’s perimeter was a high circle of mortar walls, built using square stones one meter long and half a meter wide, adhered together with mortar.

Inside, apart from a temporary two-story wooden office, several research cauldrons, and alchemy reaction kettles, there was a spacious shooting range.

Under the shading canopy at the range, Horn was dressed in a simple sleeveless jerkin, head down and twisting his wrist, winding the spring of a new-style spring gun in his hand.

The gears meshed with creaky sounds as Horn twisted four or five times, tightening the spring of the gun in his hand.

He weighed the polished oil-soaked grip, emitting an amber glow, with the silver-thread rose decorated on the slanted L-shaped stock.

Raising the spring gun single-handedly, Horn did not feel it was heavy, only a slight solidity in his hand.

After all, unlike heavy spring guns, this spring gun was only 35 centimeters long, naturally light when held.

He casually aimed at the target ten meters away, squeezing the trigger to leave a small hole at the target’s edge.

"Feels less powerful than... heavy spring guns." Smelling the linseed oil emitted from the spring case, Horn pondered while weighing the handcannon, "But it’s quite good for officers’ self-defense."

With her waist akimbo, Haimodin almost lifted her nose skywards: "Considering it has such a short firing rod, the power achieved is already remarkable."

This handcannon was a gift Haimodin presented to Horn upon his arrival at the arms factory.

Previously, Horn had acquired a batch of mithril and refined gold from the Secret Faction and local nobility.

Incorporating mithril into metals can magically reduce weight but decreases hardness, often used to lighten armor.

Adding refined gold to metals enhances hardness and ductility, turning into Extraordinary Knight Swords in knights’ hands.

This mithril is a product of the Furnace Plateau, extremely rare, and only the dwarves possess the skill to craft it.

Thus, Horn had a sudden thought — could mithril and refined gold be incorporated into firing rods to create an alloy, solving the issue of the spring gun’s firing rod length?

As for the mithril skill problem, wasn’t there Brock?

Brock even brought along a dozen or so dwarves, and although mithril was scarce, asking them to create some prototypes wasn’t a problem.

As the head of all governmental institutions in Pope Country, Horn immediately wrote about this idea to Haimodin, requesting they attempt this.

Well, well, they actually managed to do it.

This handcannon designed by Haimodin was one such success, not only miniaturized, but it needed only five twists to fire instantly.

Haimodin also tweaked the spring case and firing rod so Horn could pre-load the lead slug, lodging it at the needle end, requiring only a temporary five twists of the spring for use.

However, because this firing rod requires both refined gold and mithril, only one was produced, prepared for His Holiness the Pope’s self-defense.

After all, in previous incidents, the Pope always rolled up his sleeves for shooting practice, frequently frightening officers and cardinals.

"A very nice gift, love from the Pope’s Palace." Horn contentedly holstered the handcannon at his waist, "A good appetizer, but where’s my main course?"

The so-called main course was the new rifled gun, or according to Haimodin, the prototype of the Helical Gun had been completed.

"Look," Haimodin gestured with her mouth, as a young artisan in a gray robe approached, nervously handing over a Saint Gun resembling a heavy spring gun.

Feeling a weight on his shoulder, Horn clamped the Helical Gun onto the gun rack, aimed at a distant target, and again squeezed the trigger.

This time, surprisingly to all, the shot struck the fifth ring, much better than before.

Immediately, the surrounding artisans offered words of praise.

"Truly the marshal among marshals, the general among generals, this sharpshooting is remarkably precise."

"Hail! Praise! Offering homage to the Sun."

While the artisans praised him, Horn knew that he had fired the same way, with the same sight and hold.

His marksmanship hadn’t improved one bit, but the bullet had become more accurate.

Ignoring the clamorous artisans, Horn frowned as he horizontally held the spring gun in his hands.

The next second, beyond everyone’s expectations, His Majesty Saint Sun actually turned the clockwork gun upside down and aimed the barrel at his right eye, peering inside.

This terrified the gendarmes, who even thought that a witch had possessed Saint Sun’s mind. They rushed forward, ready to snatch the helical gun from Saint Sun’s hands.

The leading gendarme kicked fiercely, sending the helical gun flying away.

The kick was so hard that it broke off the firing rod.

After pushing away the gendarmes surrounding Horn and asking "Are you alright?", he curiously asked Haimodin, "Didn’t you say you solved the issue with the rifled barrel craft? This helical gun clearly has no rifling."

Glaring angrily at the gendarme who kicked, Haimodin jogged a few steps, picked up the helical gun and firing rod from the ground.

Handing the firing rod that shone with a dim silver-gray glow to Horn, Haimodin said, "The secret lies in this firing rod, you’ll know just by looking."

Picking up the firing rod, Horn blinked in surprise. Unlike the usual firing rod, this one had a spiral straight line along the axis.

The shape resembled a spiral staircase.

As if recalling something, Horn opened the spring box of the helical gun, and indeed, the gears were helical gears.

His eyes brightened, it all made sense now.

When the Pope’s Palace ordered Haimodin, they asked him to develop a more accurate and longer-range holy gun.

They tried many methods, such as adding tail fins to the bullets, extending the gun barrel, even adding seven gears and chains to a holy gun, but none succeeded.

So Horn wrote a letter saying, "Remember the principle I provided, by carving lines in the barrel, spiral lines, you can shoot more accurate and further lead shots."

Analyzing the fundamental principle of rifling, it’s known to rely on the explosion and expansion of gunpowder gas to propel the bullet to rotate inside the spiral rifling, preventing the bullet from deviating from its trajectory.

But the clockwork gun isn’t propelled by gas, it’s propelled by the firing rod.

To achieve similar effects to rifling, just make adjustments directly on the firing rod.

That’s why the firing rod is spiraled; combined with helical gears, it advances while rotating, simultaneously causing the lead shot to rotate.

The flaw is slippage, so paper wraps, wood chips, and cork were added to increase friction between the lead shot and the firing rod’s pushing head.

"Wonderful."

Despite the barrel being kicked askew, Horn still caressed the helical gun lovingly.

You know this is an essential weapon for skirmish warfare, though it might not yet completely replace the holy gun (heavy clockwork gun).

But once the helical gun spreads, under the premise of long-range accuracy, Horn could deploy a batch of light clockwork gunners and helical gunners as skirmishers.

It’s just a small progress, yet it indicates that the era of his line-of-battle tactics is closer, boosting his confidence against the Church and Prince Kongdai.

"How many can be made each month?" Horn asked hopefully.

Haimodin thought for a few seconds: "Four to five per month."

"That few?" Horn’s freshly sparked enthusiasm was doused by Haimodin.

"This spiral firing rod requires first twisting narrow mithril iron plates into a spiral shape, then drilling a hole in the middle, inserting an iron rod for welding, which could easily twist wrong.

Since the spiral firing rod is thicker than ordinary firing rods, it cannot be used in firing rod mounts unless everyone drills a hole in their shoulder, so mithril must be used.

With our mithril supply, we can only make thirty to forty rods at most, and this is just the prototype; actual deployment may not happen even next year."

Haimodin rolled her eyes, pouring cold water on Horn’s passion.

Reluctantly caressing the helical gun, Horn consoled himself, the issue of existence has been resolved, as for the future, there’s still a long way to go, it can’t be achieved overnight.

"Alright, this helical gun will be called Haimodin Helical Gun, register it, and next year, I’ll increase your funding."

Upon hearing about funding, Haimodin’s eyes almost sparkled with gold.

Yet she wasn’t the kind of rookie who would snatch research results from students and colleagues, she scratched her head and said with difficulty: "I didn’t design or manufacture this, I only made handheld guns, this long-range and accurate gun was made by Ampere."

Only now did Horn shift his gaze back to the shy young man in gray clothes.

His presence was startlingly low, though he was standing close behind Horn all along, Horn hadn’t noticed him.

Seeing Horn notice him, he nervously saluted, "Good afternoon, Your Majesty, I am Ampere, a clockmaker from Ibe Village, it’s my greatest honor to see you."

"I am also delighted that the Arms Factory has such a genius like you." Walking forward, Horn patted Ampere’s shoulder affectionately, "Your name is Ampere, right? Since you designed and manufactured it, this will be called the Ampere Helical Gun."

Just like the legendary gunsmiths Ankan and Nick Di, Horn named this helical gun after him.