In September, Northwest Bay was already tinged with autumn colors. The morning mist had not yet completely dissipated when a four-wheeled carriage rolled over the gravel road on the southern outskirts of Lakeheart Town and sped toward the 51st District, hidden in the forest.
Inside the carriage, Paul Greiman was looking down at a map of the territory after the Stonemason Clan surrendered, his fingertips repeatedly tracing the red lines marking the secret passages, while Catherine, sitting opposite him, had one hand on the hilt of her sword at her waist, her gaze looking through the rear window at the continuous mountain range to the north.
"Still thinking about the battlefield?" Paul suddenly looked up, put down the map in his hand, and smiled at his wife's serious and tense face.
"With your sword always at your side, are you afraid of running into bandits on the way?" he said, reaching out to pinch Catherine's fair cheek.
Catherine was taken aback by her husband's sudden little action, then glared at him. "Stop talking nonsense. Aren't you afraid that the Ironhammer Dwarves in the north will avenge their kin? There are already rumors circulating in the streets that dwarves are roaming the forests. It's always better to be careful."
Although she spoke seriously, a faint smile subtly curved her lips.
Paul laughed and said, "I'd love for them to come. Maybe we'll soon have a second route in and out of the grasslands."
" Imar surrendered faster than expected. The explosives were more powerful than anyone anticipated. The dwarves' underground fortifications were as fragile as paper in the face of the explosives. Their surrender came at the perfect time. Abar's activities on the plains are becoming more and more frequent. With the mountain pass in the eastern section of the Rocky Mountains, our army no longer needs to detour through the North Three Territories and Watchers Fortress. We can reach the edge of the plains in a week. This is a great opportunity to catch them off guard."
As they spoke, the carriage had already entered the depths of the forest, where a defensive line consisting of steel fences and sentry posts appeared before them. The guards stepped forward and showed their identification to the soldiers at the sentry posts, who immediately raised the fences to let them pass.
After passing through the defense line, rows of factory buildings with corrugated iron roofs came into view. The air was filled with the smell of burning coal sulfur and the scorching heat of metal forging. This was Alda's core military research base - 51st District. From firearms to cannons, almost all of Alda's military firearms were produced here.
The conference room of the firearms research and development department was already packed with engineers and technology officials dressed in gray overalls. When Paul and Catherine walked in, everyone immediately stood up and bowed, their eyes filled with both awe for the lord and a hint of expectation—this lord always managed to come up with some good ideas whenever he visited.
Paul walked to the long table in the center of the conference room and sat down, indicating that everyone should not be reserved.
"As you all probably know, the Stonemason Clan has officially surrendered, and we now control the secret passage on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. This means our troops no longer need to take the long detour through the North Three Territories or Watchers Fortress to enter the prairie; from this passage, we can reach the edge of the prairie in a week. But that is on the condition that we have enough firepower to deal with the Orc Cavalry charges coming from all directions once we are deep in the heart of the prairie."
His gaze swept over everyone present, his tone gradually becoming serious: "I previously had the Weiss Academy send here the mercury fulminate, a byproduct of their research into new explosives, requesting that you use it to develop percussion cap rounds and needle-fire rifles. To be honest, I didn't expect the Stonemason Clan to surrender so quickly. The plan to conquer the steppes was originally scheduled for a year later, so there was no rush for a mature product. But now the situation is different; the plan needs to be brought forward. We must acquire rapid-fire firepower, that is, breech-loading rifles, as soon as possible. How's the progress?"
Bonnie Johnson, the Technology Director in charge of firearms development, stood up with a troubled look on his face. " Marquis, following your ideas, we have produced three prototype breech-loading needle-fired guns and made matching metal-cased bullets, but we have encountered two tricky problems."
He pulled out a bullet and pointed to the small hole at the bottom of the cartridge case, explaining, "First of all, there's the issue of the airtightness of the metal cartridge case. When fired, some of the propellant gas will leak from the gap between the cartridge case and the barrel, which not only affects the range and accuracy but may also burn the soldiers ' hands."
"Another issue is the strength of the firing pin. The existing steel is not hard enough, and the firing pin will bend or even break under continuous firing. We have tried to improve it with various materials, but the results are not ideal."
He added, "Even if these two problems can be solved, it will take time to establish a production line for new firearms. Currently, the factory's equipment is mainly used to produce muzzle-loading rifles and Cannon parts. To switch to producing needle-fire rifles, we need to modify the equipment and train workers, which will take at least another year."
After he finished speaking, Johnson ordered someone to bring a test rifle and give it to Paul for inspection.
Paul carefully examined the wear marks on the firing pin, his brow furrowing slightly as he clearly pondered a solution. For a moment, only the soft breathing of the others filled the conference room.
The silence in the meeting room lasted for a moment. Just when everyone thought Paul would order an accelerated effort to overcome the technology problem, a young engineer in the corner suddenly raised his hand, his voice tinged with nervousness yet barely concealing excitement: " Marquis, I... I have an idea that might solve this urgent problem."
All eyes immediately turned to him; it was Tansimone Perez, a young engineer from the firearms development department. He had previously focused on improving the accuracy of muzzle-loading rifles and rarely spoke at such important meetings.
Paul gestured with his chin, indicating that he should continue: "Don't be nervous, just say whatever comes to mind. No one here will laugh at someone trying to solve a problem."
Encouraged, Perez took a deep breath and strode to the wall to hang up a gun blueprint: "Sir, our main weapon right now is this kind of muzzle-loading smoothbore gun. When loading, we have to push the bullet down from the muzzle, which is slow and laborious. I was thinking the other day, what if we could open a hole in the side of the gun and push the bullet in from the back? Wouldn't that be much faster?"
As he spoke, he gestured with his finger along the side of the gun: "You see, we don't need to remake the barrel. We can just open a loading port on this side and make a detachable metal box—like a small box for gunpowder. The bullets and gunpowder are pre-loaded inside, making it a fixed-load design. When loading, we open the box, push the bullet into the barrel, and then close the box to block the opening. This way, we don't have to slowly load it from the muzzle anymore."
"Although this gun has no rifling and its accuracy is still the same as before, it can't compare to a specially made new breech-loading gun, but the reloading speed will definitely be more than twice as fast!"
Perez became more and more confident as he spoke, and his eyes lit up. "Moreover, we don't need to build new machine tools. Our current equipment can open up old guns and make magazines. It takes a maximum of two days to modify a gun, which is much faster than building a new breech-loading gun from scratch!"