It had been three years since the last orc invasion. Seeing that the war was approaching, in order to strengthen his military equipment, 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 craftsmanship of making trebuchets has been very mature in Dawn Continent. However, the 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 ammunition 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 kind of 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 projectile is different. It is difficult to use it to attack the enemy by calculating the trajectory.
The operation of this kind of 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 also 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 can't hit the enemy accurately with several projections. The orcs are already close to the city wall and 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 kind of trebuchet uses the principle of leverage, 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, 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 projection 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 legion.
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 a meat pie after one hit.
Counterweight trebuchets also have disadvantages. This kind of trebuchet is very large and heavy. It needs 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 is 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 planned to build a few of them in Vicksburg.
Unfortunately, Vicksburg's wood reserves were insufficient and only two counterweight trebuchets were built.
Now that the war is approaching, wood is also a very important strategic resource. Even if Sophia wants to buy wood, the wood near Black River Fort is already owned.
There is no shortage of timber in the Harland territory, and Richard's most important job in the past two years has been to direct the slaves to cut timber.
The felled timber has filled the warehouse.
However, the two places are tens of kilometers apart, and transporting timber requires a lot of manpower and livestock.
After all, there are no rivers in the two places, and the roads are mainly mountainous.
In the end, Richard sent troops to participate in the transportation, and then replenished some wood for Vicksburg. Six of Sophia's counterweight trebuchets were equipped.
In addition to the counterweighted trebuchet, Richard also installed some bed crossbows at the head of Fort William.
After killing the rhino-horned beast, the Harland family obtained a large amount of animal tendons.
The tendons of Warcraft are very tough and can be used to make enchanted bowstrings for crossbows.
It's a pity that for a while, I couldn't find the bow arm materials, otherwise I could make several enchanted crossbows.
Now that the enchanted crossbows cannot be constructed, Richard simply used rhinoceros sinews to make four bed crossbows.
The bed crossbow made of Warcraft sinew has a very long range and can project a spear up to two thousand meters away.
Even if a strong tauren professional is shot by a bed crossbow, his body will be penetrated instantly. Without the treatment of a priest, his life will be difficult to save.
The disadvantage of the Warcraft bed crossbow is that it is difficult to string the bow. It requires the cooperation of sixteen soldiers to draw the bowstring.
Despite this, the addition of four crossbows on the top of the city can greatly strengthen the protection of Fort William.
Just when Richard was preparing for the battle step by step.
In mid-March of the Dawn Calendar 3255, a squadron of orcs appeared at the entrance to the Harland Valley.
After receiving the news from the scouts, Richard immediately sent soldiers to report the enemy situation to Black River Fort, and also notified relatives and friends of the Harland family.
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 a task that would be difficult to complete.
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 the 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, an achievement that makes Soros very envious.
After setting up a mercenary group and working hard for many years, Soros's military exploits are far from enough to achieve a knighthood.
Now he has plans to lead a mercenary group to serve the Harland family.