An Ning pulled out the gun from his waist and handed it to the colonel.
The colonel picked up the gun and curled his lips: "The famous gunsmith Lotas's gun is a good thing. When fired at a duel distance, there is a two-thirds chance of hitting someone."
——Only a two-thirds chance!
Wait, is it actually two-thirds? So the hit rate seems to be okay?
The colonel looked at An Ning's expression and said with a smile: "You don't think that dueling with pistols means firing blanks at each other, right? No, in fact, most of the time, the first shot will hit each other, but it is always in a non-fatal position.
"The pistol duel is about who can endure the severe pain of being shot and complete the reload as quickly as possible.
"Generally, a pistol duel requires three shots at each other to determine the winner, and the winner also has one or two holes in his body bleeding. Therefore, a pistol duel is much uglier than a sword duel, and both the winner and loser are very embarrassed."
An Ning half-opened his mouth. To be honest, he had never imagined that a pistol duel would be like this.
If what the colonel said is true, wouldn't a pistol duel mean who has the highest health bar?
Then I have a huge advantage!
After all, I am a hard-working person who can bounce bullets from my head.
The colonel returned the pistol to An Ning, and then said to Talleyrand: "I checked the pistol and it's fine."
Then Edward Alice took out his gun and handed it to Duke Tollestaire.
Duke: "Can I have my servant come and check it? I personally don't know much about pistols."
Talleyrand nodded: "Of course, as long as the inspection is done in front of everyone, there will be no problem."
So the Duke snapped his fingers, and the groom who brought An Ning to the venue immediately came forward, took the pistol out of the Duke's hand, and inspected it carefully.
After a while, the groom said to the Duke: "There is nothing wrong with the gun."
At this time, Christina, who didn’t know why, also came over, said: “Isn’t it wrong to let the groom check it?”
The groom said to his eldest daughter: "Although I am a groom, I am also the Duke's guard. I am familiar with all kinds of firearms."
The Duke himself explained to his daughter: "This man is from Switzerland and once served the royal family as a mercenary."
An Ning raised his eyebrows. The Duke of Orleans had always wanted Louis XVI to abdicate and take his place, but the Duke's guards were actually Swiss mercenaries like the French Emperor. This was unexpected to An Ning.
Talleyrand said to Christina: "Princess, please go to the parasol and be with the ladies. This is a duel with pistols. You can't get too close, otherwise you may be accidentally injured."
Christina: "I'm just going over there."
After saying that, she held An Ning's hand and said, "If you want to win, I'm waiting to go to Briena Military Academy with you."
After speaking, Christina let go of her hand, turned around and walked towards the noble ladies.
Now several groups of noble ladies had gathered nearby. The servants opened big parasols and spread picnic mats on the ground.
The picnic box was also opened, revealing the exquisite refreshments brought by the servants of each family.
Edward Alice looked at Christina walking away and suddenly said: "The ladies are here for an outing, but we have to perform a bloody fight with pistols. You should really choose a sword, so that I can solve it cleanly."
You won't even shed much blood."
An Ning immediately retorted: "It won't be too bloody with a pistol, because it will be over soon."
"Maybe." Edward shrugged, "Then can we get started?"
Talleyrand: "We have finished checking the weapons. Please keep a distance of 15 fathoms between you two!"
The fathom here was one of the units of distance in France during this era. The iron ruler stipulating the length of one fathom was inlaid on the wall of the Chatelet Court in Paris.
At this time, French weights and measures were very confusing, such as length. Several length standards including imperial feet were popular in France: feet, fathoms (not fathoms), steps, etc.
It was precisely because weights and measures were so confusing that the Paris National Convention later decided to establish a new, unified, decimal system of weights and measures.
This is the origin of the later metric meter.
Anning and Edward distanced themselves, and Talleyrand instructed two followers to hold a 15-fathom rope and carefully measured the distance between them.
After confirming that the distance between the two met the regulations, Talleyrand raised one hand and said: "You two, start loading, but you can't raise the gun, let alone fire."
An Ning immediately pulled out his pistol and started loading it.
To load the current flintlock gun, you need to first take out the pre-made paper package of bullets, tear a hole, pour the gunpowder and projectiles into the barrel, and then put the paper package into a ball through the muzzle of the gun.
Press the bar tightly.
After completing this loading step, you still need to take out the horn gourd containing gunpowder and pour a little gunpowder into the ignition pool outside the gun.
In this way, when the trigger is pulled, the sparks struck by the flint fall into the medicine pool, igniting the gunpowder in the medicine pool, and then igniting the gunpowder in the gun through the hole between the medicine pool and the gun chamber.
An Ning tore open the pre-medicine package and found that the pellet the Duke gave him was not a whole pellet, but a large pellet with several smaller ones.
In this way, even if the big projectile misses, the small projectile may still hit, which can greatly increase the hit rate.
It is said that in this era, some countries' armies stipulated that when loading, they should load such large and small "shotgun shells" to improve the killing efficiency.
On the other hand, the British lobster soldiers on the other side of the sea were determined not to engage in such "evil ways" and only loaded one projectile, because the British believed that at the general engagement distance of line infantry, such small projectiles inserted had no power at all.
It doesn't hurt or itch when it hits someone.
But An Ning is only fifteen fathoms away from Edward, and small projectiles at this distance have enough lethality.
And during the reloading process, An Ning got another piece of information: he reloaded faster than his opponent.
If you think about it carefully, this is normal. After all, he has a system, and this loading is probably under the control of the system. The evidence is that An Ning is not distracted at all from loading, and his body completes the loading as if it is completing a muscle memory action.
An Ning was a military musician in the army and had never received any training in gun handling, so it was impossible for him to form this kind of muscle memory.
Talleyrand saw that both of them had filled their bags and said: "I, Charles Maurice Talleyrand, Abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Remy, announce the marriage of Edward Alice and Andy Frost.
The duel has officially begun! Please raise your guns, both of you!"
An Ning and Edward raised their guns together.
As An Ning raised the gun, the crosshair appeared. At this distance, An Ning found that the crosshair was a circle larger than Edward's entire body - looking at the spread of the crosshair, it was impossible to have a two-thirds hit rate! One third was about the same!
Talleyrand took a step back and motioned to the two witnesses to step back as well.
After everyone had retreated far enough, Talleyrand ordered loudly: "Fire!"
Edward directly pulled the trigger, and the flint fired a spark to ignite the medicine pool. The pistol sprayed out a large cloud of white smoke, accompanied by a crisp gunshot.
An Ning felt her shoulders shake, she must have been shot.
But because of the massive secretion of adrenaline, he didn't feel any pain.
An Ning did not fire, but raised his gun and moved forward!
As he gradually gets closer to the enemy, the crosshair gradually coincides with the enemy's outline!
Obscured by the smoke produced by the shot, Edward did not notice that he was approaching quickly. He was busy loading his musket with his head down.
Marquis Richard, who was watching, shouted: "Foul! This is a foul! How can we close the distance?"
Talleyrand: "The rules in Paris are that the two sides must keep a distance of fifteen fathoms at the beginning. There is no rule not to get close to the enemy. In fact, some people rushed forward during a pistol duel and tried to shoot in the face!"
At this time, An Ning is already close to ten fathoms!
It feels like the outline of the enemy should have filled the entire crosshair! In other words, firing at this time will definitely hit the enemy!
But at this time, the white smoke generated by the enemy's attack had completely spread, and An Ning could not even see the enemy's feet.
An Ning decided to wait.
The enemy will definitely move to avoid the white smoke between the two of them. This is the moment An Ning has been waiting for!
Finally, Edward's figure emerged from the white smoke!
The moment he saw An Ning, he immediately raised his gun and took aim, but An Ning was faster.
After all, there is a ready-made crosshair.
An Ning put the crosshair on Edward's upper body and fired directly.
A large pellet and several small pellets loaded into the gun chamber immediately hit Edward's upper body.
Unfortunately, An Ning was blocked by the white smoke from the firing, making it impossible to observe the effect of the shooting.
He did one thing: took a step to the side.
The sound of enemy gunfire was heard.
An Ning did not feel like he had been shot. In fact, under the influence of a large amount of adrenaline, he even forgot that he had just been shot in the shoulder.
He loaded the pistol quickly and continued to move his position to avoid the white mist caused by shooting.
He saw Edward who was also loading bullets!
Not only that, he also saw that the opponent was obviously having trouble reloading due to injuries on his body.
The shot just now was obviously very effective!
An Ning pulled the purge rod out of the barrel and threw it away directly. This way he could not load the next bullet, but this greatly shortened the reloading time!
He is ready to decide the outcome with this one shot!
He raised his gun and locked the sights on the enemy.
Because the distance has been shortened again, this time the scope of the crosshair only includes the enemy's chest.
There is no possibility of flying!
An Ning opened fire.
The view was once again blocked by white smoke.
But the next second, An Ning heard the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground, and then the crisp sound of the enemy's pipes colliding on the ground.
The enemy's gun that was being loaded dropped!
Immediately afterwards, there was the sound of heavier items hitting the ground.
Then, the voice of Talleyrand came: "The victory has been decided! The one who is still standing is Andy Frost!"
Christina screamed.
An Ning breathed a long sigh of relief. Only then did he feel a slight pain in his shoulder. When he lowered his head, he found that his entire left shoulder was already a bright red.
At this time, Marquis Richard roared: "No! Are you blind? He broke the rules! That damn cobbler's son broke the rules!"
Marquis Richard rushed up, grabbed Talleyrand by the collar of his clerical uniform, and roared hysterically: "You have definitely been bribed by the Duke!"
Talleyrand: "How is it possible? I only found out last night that I was going to be a witness!"
"I don't believe it! I understand, these are the Duke's conspiracy, but we country nobles will not give in so easily!"
As he spoke, Marquis Richard pulled out the colonel's gun beside him, grabbed the gunpowder barrel and poured gunpowder into the medicine pool——
As a result, at this time, the bullets in the gun rolled out from the muzzle.
Colonel: "Your Excellency, Marquis, you cannot raise the gun so hard, or the projectiles will be thrown out. You must raise the gun gently..."
The Marquis didn't seem to hear the colonel's words at all, nor did he notice that the bullet had been ejected.
He aimed at An Ning and pulled the trigger.
After the gunshot, nothing happened to An Ning - the bullet had slipped away after all.
An Ning: "Everyone, you saw it! I want to sue Marquis Richard, he tried to murder me!"
An Ning spent so much energy to recruit a good lawyer before, wouldn't it be a pity not to use it?