The projectile fired from the musket left a cone-shaped penetrating wound on the first mate's chest. Looking from this side of the body, one could even see the scenery behind him.
With a surprised expression, Jinya lowered his head to look at the wound on his chest. Before he could say a word, he fell down and died.
Holding on to the edge of the wooden platform, Ayesha struggled to get up. She raised her dagger to protect her chest and shouted loudly: "If there is a bastard with evil intentions, I don't mind opening such a one on him."
hole!"
The resisting pirates witnessed the death of the first mate with their own eyes, and immediately lost their fighting spirit. Losing their backbone, they were captured and tied to the mast by the captain's cronies.
Ten minutes later, the armed clipper under the night returned to its usual calm.
Those who died in the battle had their throats cut with knives and then thrown into the sea. Their bodies were instantly buried by waves and storms.
The blood stains on the deck were washed away, but the strong smell of blood in the air lingered for a long time.
Instructing her cronies to keep an eye on the rebels, Ayesha invited Todd and Rachel back to the captain's cabin. After entering the room, she lifted up her trouser legs without any scruples and slowly opened the wound with a red-hot knife.
skin.
There was an inaudible hissing sound, little curls of white smoke, and the faint smell of burnt meat in his nose. Todd frowned in discomfort.
Big drops of sweat rolled down her forehead. Ayesha gritted her teeth. She gently opened the bloody wound with one hand. She picked up needle-nose pliers with the other hand, clamped the tail of the crossbow arrow, and pulled it out hard.
came out.
The blood-stained crossbow arrow fell to the floor, making a dull sound.
Taking a closer look at the bleeding wound, Aisha's pale face finally felt a little relieved. She breathed a sigh of relief, threw the tools back on the table, bandaged them briefly, and looked at the two guests in the room:
"Why do you want to help me?"
Hearing the other party's question, Todd shrugged incomprehensively and responded: "Why don't I help you?"
"I have carried a lot of cargo, and when they encountered trouble during the voyage, I never thought of helping them."
Todd glanced at the musket on the table and said with a smile: "If something happens to you, I don't believe those guys will continue to fulfill the delivery agreement you promised before."
Ayesha nodded, accepting the answer.
Later, she noticed Todd's observation, followed his line of sight to the musket in front of her, and asked, "Are you interested in this?"
The latter smiled and stretched out his right hand: "If I can get your permission..."
Aisha thought for a moment, then picked up the musket and handed it to Todd, saying, "Mr. Derek, be careful, don't break it!"
After nodding in agreement, Todd picked up the musket and looked at it again and again.
This weapon is heavy to start with and made of fine materials. It uses a single-shot loading design in the front chamber and a double magazine design at the tail.
He got closer and smelled with his nose. In addition to the smell of gunpowder, Todd also vaguely smelled the smell of castor oil. Then he looked carefully by the light of the fire. The burned linen cloth looked like a piece of black when placed on the mouth of the fire.
Huge ashes.
Ayesha watched Todd's movements, her aqua and amber eyes gently flowing, and she remained silent from beginning to end.
Todd held the musket and sat there thinking hard for a long time.
In college, he and the boys in the same major would often discuss military affairs and weapons. Although he was not his major, he still knew a little bit about firearms.
The evolutionary history of early firearms development can be roughly divided into matchlocks, tinder-fired guns, spring-loaded guns and flintlock guns.
From a technical point of view, this otherworldly musket in hand should be somewhere between a fire starter gun and a flintlock gun; from a chronological point of view, it probably came out in the late 15th century in Europe.
Speaking of the history of muskets, it can be traced back to the late 10th century AD. The Northern Song Dynasty invented the world's earliest matchlock gun, the bamboo musket. After that, in the 1430s, the earliest prototype of the Western matchlock gun was born in medieval Europe.
——Firegate gun.
In 1206 AD, after the rise of the Mongols, they not only destroyed Xixia, defeated Western Liao, and destroyed the Jin Dynasty in a short period of time, but also went south to overthrow the Song Dynasty. As a result, the research and development of gunpowder weapons in the East plummeted and failed to recover. On the other hand, in the Middle Ages in Europe, due to gunpowder
Weapons were introduced late, and coupled with the suppression of church forces, it was not until the early 16th century that Europe began to upgrade matchlocks.
But in the long history of past lives, there is a country that has been selectively forgotten by the world regarding the research and application of gunpowder weapons.
That was the Arab Empire.
Through trade and missionary work, gunpowder technology from the Northern Song Dynasty was introduced to the Arab Empire as early as the late 11th century.
Compared with the turbulent current situation in the East and the repressive religion in the West, the Arab Empire's relatively stable political situation, relatively enlightened religious tolerance and advanced scientific concepts created an unparalleled golden age for the development of gunpowder.
There were some incredible gunpowder weapons in the Japanese army at that time. Today they are regarded as black technology and have been left in the history books. For example, the Syrians in the 13th century created a powerful anti-ship weapon.
Torpedo, the famous Discovery Channel program MythBusters, even made a special episode for this purpose.
However, later academic circles held a negative and questioning attitude towards the gunpowder weapons of the Arab Empire, whether from the East or the West. The reason is simple. Because of years of war and division, as well as man-made wanton destruction, the region did not have
What relics and antiques have been preserved, and the lack of evidence has caused this gunpowder history of the empire to be gradually lost in history.
Ayesha interrupted Todd's thinking: "You don't seem to be unfamiliar with this musket."
The latter avoided the question: "Captain, can you tell me how you obtained this weapon? Of course, if it's inconvenient, just pretend I didn't tell you."
Ayesha raised an eyebrow: "There is no inconvenience. About a year ago, I robbed an Abbasid Empire messenger ship, and this musket came from an officer on the ship."
"A year ago?" Todd turned the gun over and looked at it several times, and found a line of small words under the base of the handle.
Only the meteors in the night sky can keep up with the pace of Allah
"Aisha, I am very interested in things in the south. Can you please introduce me to them?"
Hearing Todd's words, Ayesha laughed: "Finally, there is a church people who are willing to prick up their ears and listen to the deeds of God instead of indiscriminate and wanton slander."
Ayesha took back the musket, put it on the shelf and fixed it, then limped to the bedside and said loudly: "The south you talk about is actually composed of two major empires and many small countries. These two major empires
The empires are Abbasid and Ayyubid, and they have been at war since the end of last year."
"Ayyub? I heard others say that the two great empires in the south are not Abbasid and Fatimid?"
"The Fatimid Empire has perished... Just last year, the original Prime Minister of the Fatimid Empire, Saladin, overthrew its last generation of caliphs and established a new empire-Ayyubid."
"So that's the case, so in your opinion, who can win this war?"
Aisha tilted her head and pondered for a moment, then said uncertainly: "I am optimistic about the Abbasid Empire. It has more soldiers, a wider territory, and more wealth... However, the Ayyubid Empire has a
The wise Caliph - Saladin..."
Todd nodded and brought the topic back to muskets: "So, how many such weapons are there in the Southern Empire, and how are they made?"
Ayesha didn't say anything. She looked at the man in front of her warily. Finally, she smiled self-deprecatingly and said nonchalantly: "It doesn't matter if I tell you anyway. As far as I know, as early as a hundred years ago, the technology of muskets
It has been introduced into the territory of Allah. I don’t know the specific number of firearms, but unlike you cowards who are afraid of new things, the Abbasid Empire specifically focused on gunpowder as a key direction of military research."
Rachel, who was sitting next to her, couldn't help but interject: "It's just a hundred years of research, how far can we reach."
Ayesha laughed: "So I say, people in the north are weird! They have obviously heard the sound of progress of the times, but they want to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that nothing happened!"
"The Abbasid Empire had 19 provinces, each with a capital city of no less than 500,000 people, and no fewer than a hundred well-known universities and colleges across the country. Maryam University in the capital of the empire was home to thousands of scholars
The empire's harbor is filled with hundreds of Antorah-class three-masted battleships..." Aisha turned her gaze to Todd, whose face was getting darker and darker: "It's just the Caliphate Guards of the Abbasid Empire.