Chapter 55 Counterweight trebuchet
It has been three years since the last orc invasion. Seeing that the war is approaching, in order to strengthen his weapons, Richard found Sophia and Wendy, commanded some slave craftsmen, and successfully created a counterweight trebuchet.
When the main army of the Grant Kingdom fights, they usually temporarily organize several auxiliary brigades, one of which will be equipped with trebuchets and crossbows.
The trebuchet manufacturing process has been very mature in Dawn Continent. However, craftsmen who are good at making trebuchets are basically controlled by the army and the big nobles.
When Richard was serving in the Mad Lion Legion, he saw the trebuchets equipped by the heavy equipment brigade.
This kind of trebuchet is a torsion trebuchet, which relies on twisted ropes to generate force to eject stone projectiles.
The ejection rod is usually upright. The top of the rod is a leather bag containing projectiles, and the lower end of the rod is inserted into a tightly twisted horizontal rope.
When ejecting, first use a winch to pull the ejection rod to a nearly horizontal position, and put the projectiles into the leather bullet bag.
When the winch rope is released, the ejection rod returns to the vertical position and the projectile is ejected.
This kind of trebuchet can launch heavy objects weighing more than ten kilograms, with a range of about 200 meters.
But this trebuchet has a disadvantage, that is, its accuracy is very low.
The elasticity of the rope is difficult to control, and the trajectory of each projection is different. It is difficult to use it to attack the enemy by calculating the ballistics.
The operation of this trebuchet relies entirely on the experience of the soldiers. Even if it is thrown dozens of times, it may not be able to hit the enemy.
In addition, the power of stone bullets weighing ten kilograms is slightly insufficient.
The main enemy of the Northern Lords is the orcs. The orcs are generally in good physical condition and march very fast. They cannot hit the enemy accurately with several projections. The orcs have already approached the city wall and are beyond the range of the trebuchet.
Therefore, this kind of trebuchet is not very useful in a city defense battle.
What Richard is planning to make is a counterweight trebuchet.
This trebuchet uses the principle of a lever, with a weight attached to one end and a stone projectile to be fired at the other end.
Before launching, the end where the ammunition is placed must be pulled down with a winch, a pulley or directly by manpower, and the other end with the heavy object is also raised at this time. After placing the stone bullet, release or cut the rope to allow the heavy object to move. One end fell, and the stone bullet was thrown out.
Counterweight trebuchets are not complicated to manufacture and the principle is very simple.
The projectile force of this instrument comes from the gravity of the heavy counterweight, rather than from the torque of the rope like the trebuchets equipped by the legions.
As long as the mass of the counterweight and the weight of the projectile are determined, the stone projectile can be projected to a fixed area more accurately.
According to the lever principle, after calculating the ballistics, you can formulate a shooting table.
Even if the soldier operating the trebuchet has no mathematical knowledge, as long as he operates according to the shooting table and sets the weight of the counterweight and the weight of the stone bullet, he can accurately project the stone bullet to a fixed area.
In addition, the counterweight trebuchet is very powerful and can project stone projectiles weighing 200 kilograms up to 300 meters away.
Stone bullets weighing 200 kilograms fell from the sky. Even a sixth-level orc would be reduced to meat pie after one hit.
The counterweighted trebuchet also had disadvantages. This kind of trebuchet was very large and heavy. It needed to fill 30 carriages with wood alone, making it very inconvenient to move.
But it is still very suitable for defending the city.
Richard and Sophia carefully measured the heights of various places in Fort William, calculated the most suitable ballistics, determined the weight of the counterweight and the weight of the stone bullets, and then began to make sixteen counterweight trebuchets. , placed at the head of Fort William.
With these sixteen counterweight trebuchets, it was enough to block the Harland Canyon valley.
If the orcs invade from here, they will definitely be beaten to death. Without paying a huge price, they will not be able to pass this road of death.
Seeing the outstanding effectiveness of the counterweight trebuchet, Sophia also planned to build a few in Vicksburg.
可惜维克堡储备的木料不足，仅仅制作了两架配重式投石机。 现在眼看战争将近，木材也是一种很重要的战略资源，苏菲亚就算想要购买木材，黑河堡附近的木材都已经有主了。
哈兰德领地不缺少木材，李察这两年很重要的工作就是指挥奴隶们伐木。
砍下的木材已经堆满了仓库。
但是两地相距几十公里，运输木材需要大量的人力与牲畜。
毕竟两地没有河流，道路又以山区地形为主。
最终李察派遣了军队参与运输，才为维克堡补充了一些木材，苏菲亚的配重式投石机，数量也装备了六部。
除了配重式投石机外，李察还在威廉堡城头安装了一部分床弩。
杀死了犀角兽，哈兰德家族得到了大量的兽筋。
魔兽的筋韧性非常大，可以制作附魔弓弩的弓弦。
可惜一时半会儿，找不到弓臂材料，要不然就能制作几张附魔弓弩。
现在附魔弓弩不能建造，李察索性就用犀角兽筋腱，制作了四张床弩。
用魔兽筋腱制造的床弩射程非常远，可以将长矛投射到两千米之外。
即使身体强壮的牛头人职业者被床弩射中，身体也会瞬间被穿透，没有牧师治疗，性命也很难保住。
魔兽床弩缺点是上弦比较困难，需要十六名士兵配合，才能拉开弓弦。
尽管如此，城头上增加了四具床弩，能极大地加强威廉堡的防护。
就在李察按部就班备战的时候。
晨曦历3255年三月中旬，一个中队的兽人出现在了哈兰德山谷入口。
收到侦察兵传来的消息后，李察立刻派遣士兵向黑河堡通报敌情，顺便通知了哈兰德家族的亲朋好友。
Sophia and Soros received the information one after another. Richard also wrote a letter to Soros, hoping that he would bring his mercenaries to Fort William to garrison.
In the northern region, mercenaries are cannon fodder that cooperates with the regular army in combat.
If it weren't for William's secret care, Soros might have been assigned an impossible task.
Despite this, the mercenary group under Soros's replacement of soldiers far exceeds that of the regular army.
Even if some mercenaries can survive the war, these mercenaries who have experienced the war will be recruited by the regular army.
If it hadn't been for his brother Baron Dark's interference, Soros might have served as captain of the Grizzly Bear Legion.
Although the mercenary captain has more freedom, his social status is far lower than that of the regular legion captain.
Now the Harland family has become a hereditary noble. Such an achievement makes Soros very envious.
After setting up a mercenary group and working hard for many years, Soros's military exploits were far from enough to achieve a knighthood.
Now he has plans to lead a mercenary group to serve the Harland family.
(End of chapter)