The Rise of the European Emperor

Before the British scourged the Irish region, Van Gore and his men withdrew because Marin abandoned the Tara lead-zinc mine. Fortunately, they withdrew early, otherwise, they would have been discovered by the British troops who went to the countryside to sweep.

It's just, pity the remaining 70,000 British semi-fine wool sheep of Earl Edward. They were all caught by the British army and made into mutton jerky...

To be sure, after this war, Earl Edward lost his independent capital again and had to rely on the aid of France, Scotland and Marin.

However, after hearing that the British army had killed all those semi-fine wool sheep, Marin felt so distressed. He paid a huge price to get 10,000 ewes from Edward. The more than 70,000 British semi-fine wool sheep that he could save were turned into jerky by the British army. It was a waste. now...

Fan Gaolei and a group of his men took a boat around the north for a long time before returning from the North Sea. Fortunately, the British fleet blocking the northern end of the Irish Sea had not yet arrived. Otherwise, Fan Gaole and others will definitely be blocked by the British fleet.

Van Gorey sent people to monitor the Battle of Dublin for a long time and brought back a lot of information. For example, the British army and Edward's defenders were in a stalemate. Moreover, most of the British troops took advantage of the rain to attack. In this way, Earl Edward's 2,000 arquebusiers lost their advantage. You must know that the matchlock and the medicine pool of the matchlock gun are open, which is greatly affected by the weather. In rainy weather, it really becomes a fire stick.

This matter gave Marin a great shock. He understood that the arquebus can only bully the enemy on sunny days. On a rainy day, those musketeers would be a burden.

Marin can't imagine that if the weather is cloudy and rainy, will the Marin phalanx, which he is proud of, be chopped up and cut into vegetables?

So Marin decided to make a change...

After thinking about it, Marin felt that before the flintlock gun was born, the clockwork musket was the best choice. Therefore, Marin decided to expand the black knights who specialize in clockwork muskets.

Anyway, black knights don't need years of training, as long as they know how to shoot with a clockwork gun on a horse.

The most important thing is that in the case of losing the arquebusier, the greatest threat to the Marin phalanx is those plate knights and plate infantry.

The main ones are the infantry who wear breastplate armor and the first three rows of half-body plate armor with iron helmets. Those infantry were elite and adept at melee combat.

But whether it is a plate knight or an elite heavy infantry in half plate armor, they are not the opponents of the musket. Marin's plan was to use the characteristics of the clockwork musket not to be afraid of rainy weather, and to use black knights to attack the opponent's plate knights and half-plate heavy infantry. At the same time, it also reduces the morale of the opponent. After all, the death or injury of the elite will inevitably affect the morale of the entire army.

However, with only those 800 black knights, the firepower seems to be insufficient. So, Marin decided to expand the number of black knights to 2,000.

After the war against Denmark, Marin's current horses, including the 1,000 Don hippos imported from Crimea, are almost 5,800. However, the number of cavalry was only 2,600, including Sauer's 800 scout cavalry, 1,000 lancers and 800 black knights. In addition, there were about 1,000 horses, belonging to officers of all ranks and nobles. Therefore, there are still 2,200 war horses, which are idle.

Just in time, Marin decided to take out 1,200 of them and add 1,200 black knights. The candidates for the black knights are very easy to choose, they are directly selected from the infantry musketeers. Of course, when choosing, you must choose those who can ride and ride well.

Infantry musketeers have the foundation of using muskets to shoot, plus they can ride horses, it is relatively easy to train them into black knights.

Although it is said that riding shooting is much more difficult than standing shooting. However, the black knights have summed up a set of experience in shooting right away. For example, when a war horse is galloping, when its hoof touches the ground, this time is the most bumpy. Shooting at this time, it is easy to miss the target.

But the moment the war horse jumped up, it was not bumpy. If your riding skills are good enough, you can use this moment to fire at the enemy formation. Not to mention how accurate it can be, at least it won't be a handicap, but it can smoothly shoot out and drive the bullet into the enemy's line. As for which unfortunate one will hit, it's up to God...

Of course, not only the novice black-shirted knight has to get used to riding and shooting, but the horse also has to get used to the sound of gunfire. Therefore, for a long time to come, the recruits of the black knights will generally practice to aim their guns ahead on their horses. When you have nothing to do, use your mouth to simulate gunshots and scare the horses. Wait until the war horse is used to it, and then use the real gunfire to test it. Only when the horses are fully used to the sound of the guns can they be pulled out to fight. If you really can't stand the fright of the gunfire, you can only be eliminated.

However, Marin also prepared earmuffs for the horses to reduce the impact of gunfire. After all, with 2,000 people riding and shooting together, the sound of gunfire was very loud. Wearing earmuffs, although not completely soundproof, can also reduce the impact of the warhorse.

Also, there is the issue of gun supply. You know, the difficulty of producing a clockwork musket is very different from that of a arquebus. Among them, the difficulty lies mainly in the production of clockwork. That one requires advanced craftsmen and takes a long time to lay.

Fortunately, when the 800 people used the clockwork shotgun before, the watch craftsmen from Italy created a lot of spare clockwork. There are about 2000 sets, which can make 2000 clockwork muskets. However, the standard for a black knight is five clockwork pistols. In other words, 4,000 sets of gun springs are still missing.

There are only 20 or 30 experienced craftsmen who are good at making clockwork, and each skilled craftsman can create a qualified gun spring in three or four days...

However, this was not the case. When Marin went to the watch workshop to find out the situation, Anthony, the head of the watch workshop, told Marin that their scrap rate was very low now. Unlike before, to build a qualified stainless steel spring, several have to be scrapped. This is why it takes a watchmaker several days to make a good steel spring.

However, since the successful development of spring steel, the watch workshop has introduced spring steel for the manufacture of shock-absorbing carriage springs to create the spring, and found that the yield is several times higher. Now, build a few clockwork before scrapping one.

More importantly, they also brought out the hundreds of apprentices they brought. Even if the apprentices build gun springs, as long as they use spring steel, they can create an average of one gun spring per day. Thirty masters, on average, can make two gun springs a day. In this way, the production efficiency of gun springs is greatly improved. The 4,000 gun springs Marin needed could be built in less than a month.

Marin was very happy to hear this great news. The power of the material is really powerful. A spring steel can actually increase the yield of the clockwork by several times, which is really powerful.

So, Marin instructed the musket workshop to build 6,000 carbine gun bodies, triggers, springs and other materials. Then, a spring for a gun is loaded, a flint rod is attached, and a clockwork-fired carbine for black knights is formed.

The clockwork gun is not afraid of wind and rain, and it can shoot freely in rainy days. As for the issue of loading ammunition on rainy days, Marin plans to arrange a group of rain-proof carriages to accompany him, and arrange for some young people who are relatively quick in loading ammunition to sit in the carriage and wait for the loading.

On rainy days, once the knight in black shirts ran out of ammunition for the 5 spring-fired carbines, he would come to the convoy behind the infantry phalanx, put the 5 carbines in the carriage window, and wait for the loader in the carriage. In sheltered conditions, help them reload and wind up the clockwork. After loading it, pass it to the black knight through the carriage window. Then, the black knights went to charge and shoot 5 times, causing damage and destruction to the enemy.

2,000 black-shirted knights shot 5 times in one round, shooting a total of 10,000 bullets, and the damage caused is definitely considerable. In today's European war scale, the blow to the opponent is very deadly.

In order to train these 1,200 new black knights, Marin decided to call back Steindorf, the former black knight commander who served as an adjutant to Stade in Rome, and let him train the black knight recruits. After all, he is a veteran, and he is also talented in this area...