RTW

81-90

Chapter 81 Artillery training

Every day Van'er's group had to train for two to three hours with the new weapon, and even after the training was finished, Van'er had to return to the wall to continue his old, boring job. One of the men from Van'er's dormitory had signed up for the new firearms squad, and now he had a brand-new firearm and stood behind him to show off the weapon. If the discipline didn't forbid infighting, Van'er would have already sewn up his hateful mouth.

However, Van'er also thought that there was something fishy.

Didn't my compatriots join the firearms squad only several days ago? Yet, they were allowed to directly start their shooting training through fighting against the demonic beasts, but what about our artillery team? We aren't even authorized to shoot. Moreover, the cannons are so heavy, it's impossible to transport them onto the wall.

When he looked at the top of the wall, he could see that the wall-walk was almost full with people standing side by side in pairs. Usually, everyone was used to running on the inside of the wall-walk. Even if it was steep, it was still better than interfering with teammates' fighting movements. As for cannons... the two wheels alone were wider than the whole wall-walk, and using a cannon to shoot downwards didn't seem very practical.

Could it be... this cannon wouldn't be used to fight against the demonic beasts?

The next exercise confirmed his conjecture.

Iron Axe brought the four artillery teams to the river. There, Van'er discovered- though he didn't know when it happened- an actual, huge "ship"! No... he wasn't sure if it was right to call it a boat. The shell looked to be made out of the same gray stone that was used for building the wall, and its dimension was very wide but short. So in addition to two bare masts, was there any other similarity with a ship? Regarding this point, he and his teammates had a heated discussion.

"This is clearly a pontoon bridge," the first one who came up with a conclusion was Jop, who belonged to the team that followed the ships transporting the ore to Longsong Stronghold. Because of this, he often thought himself well-informed. "They built the deck so wide to make it more stable! During my travels into the south I saw many of them, and if this is a ship, then how can it be moved by the wind? Previously, the river was too wide to ford, and a decade ago the former bridge was washed away by a flood. Now the former bridge should be replaced with this pontoon bridge. They will just place several of them side by side and connect them with an iron chain to make it more stable!

"The furthest place you have traveled to is Longsong Stronghold, yet you call yourself knowledgeable," Rodney sneered, "If this was a pontoon, why would it have two masts? Wouldn't they need to worry about it being blown away by the wind?

"And when you look towards the end, don't you see the steering wheel? Pontoons don't need this." Nelson directly jumped into the frying-pan to help Rodney. These two brothers would take every given opportunity to vent some anger, "In addition, look at the construction between the two masts, doesn't it seem to be a cabin? it's just not finished yet. This is a ship, no doubt.

To Van'er this discussion was of little interest, he was only concerned about the next training's content. To his luck, he soon got his answer when Iron Axe asked them to drag the horses that pulled the cannon towards the Small Town – yes, this was the ship's name, personally appointed by His Highness. After listening to Iron Axe's introduction, Jop's face became suddenly stiff, while the two brothers showed a triumphant expression instead – and then they began to drag the cannon onto the deck of the ship.

On the deck were two groups of stopping poles, each group consisting of four poles. These stopping poles were located in the middle of the deck, with one group behind the other. This apparently indicated that one ship could store two cannons.