The 18th-century infantry smoothbore musket was a very tall firearm designed to be used with a bayonet, and its height was considered tall even for European Caucasians of that era. Initially, these muskets were used in conjunction with pikemen because the muskets' range was so short that they often had to face close-quarters combat after only a few shots, relying on the pikemen's melee capabilities to protect the musketeers.
Later, soldiers using smoothbore muskets often picked up broken spearheads and jammed them into the muzzle of their muskets during close combat with enemies, which led to the invention of the bayonet.
With the addition of the bayonet, the smoothbore musket could replace pikemen in close combat, so pikemen gradually faded from the infantry stage, and an all-musket force truly took shape.
While examining the muskets in the hands of the old militiamen, Charles noticed a detail: the ammunition at this time already used a paper cartridge—a pre-measured charge containing carefully weighed gunpowder (which ensured consistent bullet trajectories) and a bullet, with the bullet weighing one-eighteenth of a pound or between one-eighteenth and one-twentieth of a pound.
However, Charles had few such weapons at hand; after all, he wasn't going to be on the battlefield fighting with bayonets.
Scarlet Manor, though, had an abundance of rifles.
Rifles were originally relatively heavy and somewhat unwieldy handheld firearms.
They were initially designed as sporting guns; the rifling in their barrels imparted a spinning force to the bullet, making them more accurate and longer-ranged compared to smoothbore muskets.
Rifles crossed the ocean from their place of origin in West Rhineland (where hunters had been using them for nearly two hundred years) to North America.
German craftsmen in Pennsylvania then modified them into lighter, longer-barreled rifles for the Colonies' lumberjacks.
The firing rate of rifles was slower than that of smoothbore muskets because each bullet (wrapped in a greased cloth) had to be hammered into the barrel with a wooden mallet, making loading very time-consuming.
Rifles also weren't fitted with bayonets, as a bayonet could reduce shooting accuracy and hinder the marksman from mastering higher shooting techniques.
The rifle was a single-person weapon used by plantation owners, hunters, and frontiersmen along the western edge of the Thirteen Colonies in North America.
However, due to their higher cost and slower firing rate, rifles were rarely used in armies.
Additionally, according to information Charles gathered, hand grenades had already appeared, though they were completely different from modern hand grenades.
Soldiers using hand grenades were specially selected, all tall and robust, so they could throw grenades weighing three pounds or more.
Charles believed that he could certainly make small-scale improvements to these weapons.
Bayonets would be changed from needle-style to dagger-style, gunstocks would be lengthened to reduce recoil, and while he initially wanted to change bullets to modern styles, after much thought, he realized it was impossible, so he ultimately unified them into a conical shape.
However, this would mainly be used in rifles; smoothbore muskets would cause bullets to tumble after firing, increasing destructive power but significantly reducing range.
Although modern bullet manufacturing was difficult, Charles still drew up blueprints, preparing to have them manufactured once he had the right talent later on.
However, all of this would slowly be implemented only after he went to Philadelphia.
First, he needed to survey the roads and choose suitable transportation methods to Philadelphia and the east before he could begin his dream of becoming a steel magnate and an arms magnate.
Even the technologies mentioned above would likely only be truly realized after he went to Philadelphia and hired professional skilled workers.
For now, he would just let his subordinates practice to ensure there would be people to assist when skilled workers arrived.
"That's good, sir. Many people left a while ago, and now that there's fighting in the east, several families have successively moved to Pittsburgh.
Although the mill's profits aren't much, we can assign many tasks to the slaves, which will save a considerable amount in overall expenses," Greenspan considered before agreeing.
Charles secretly nodded, watching Greenspan.
This was a shrewd old man; the old lord had truly misassigned him by having him manage horses and carriages.
Fortunately, he discovered it not too late; he and he might bring him miracles.
"Good! Have someone bring the slaves who haven't been assigned work in Pittsburgh so I can see their situation," Charles nodded with satisfaction.
Soon, these slaves were brought before Charles by Greenspan.
Not many slaves were brought; most were already farming at Scarlet Manor, and few remained in Pittsburgh.
Now, several more had been left to work in the three workshops, leaving only about twenty-something people.
Most of them were white indentured servants who, having offended powerful figures or for other reasons, were forced to flee to the New World.
Upon arriving by ship and lacking money, they became indentured servants.
They were not competent slaves; many, after committing various mistakes, had their indenture periods extended repeatedly, with the longest reaching seventy-nine years, and he had already given up hope of becoming a freeman.
The remaining few black people also had some education or skills.
In fact, the old lord had previously kept them in the trading center, waiting to be sold, precisely because they were not ordinary slaves and were not particularly adept at farming, nor did he wish to torment them further.
Those who could only farm and were skilled at it had long since been clearing land at Scarlet Manor.
Charles' method of assessing them was simple: he gave each person a small slip of paper and asked them to write their name, profession, and special skill, then hand it back.
These indentured servants, while not adept at manual labor, were very skilled at writing, and soon the completed slips were laid before Charles.
However, Charles found their talents and skills quite vexing for a modern person.
Among them were accountants, shepherds, singers, secretaries, noble attendants, translators, coachmen, carpenters, masons, gardeners, and so on—all people Charles could use, but none of great importance.
"Moulton, the translator, do you speak French?" Charles picked out someone he could currently use.
"Yes, My lord!"
It was a very honest-looking middle-aged white man, whose classic aquiline nose Charles found very off-putting, but he still smiled and nodded in satisfaction upon hearing the reply.
"Besides english, what other languages do you speak?"
"My esteemed lord, I also speak Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin."
"Good!" Charles was completely satisfied.
In the future, he would certainly have a lot of contact with the French and Spanish, and now having a translator would prevent communication problems.
"You stay behind alone.
From now on, you'll be my translator and foreign language teacher.
I'll return your indenture in a few years."
Amidst the envious and jealous glances of the other indentured servants, Moulton stepped aside.
Charles ignored the slaves' reactions, merely asking casually:
"Among the rest of you, does anyone understand metal smelting or firearm manufacturing?"
He had already checked; the professions and special skills written on the small slips of paper contained no relevant information for these two.
Now, he was just making a hopeful inquiry without much expectation.
After waiting a short while and seeing the slaves still looking at each other, with no one speaking up, he regretfully stood up, preparing to announce the end of the assessment.
"Wait, esteemed lord, I can... I once built firearms," a scruffy young man nervously raised both his hands.
This was clearly an indentured servant who had been treated poorly; while others' clothes might be a bit dirty, they were still relatively formal.
He, however, was disheveled, his face unshaven, looking as ragged as a beggar.
"Oh? What's your name?" Charles glanced at the man, then turned his gaze to the pile of small slips of paper.
"My name is Connally, Bergnan Connally.
I used to be a gardener."
Charles noticed that there was indeed a gardener named Connally on the slip, but his special skill was clearly listed as "animal training."
"Well, I used to be a gardener at baron Shawbernan's house, and I often used a gun to help tame some unruly wild and domestic animals.
Of course, I used a hunting rifle for taming.
Later, I paid a bottle of wine to a blacksmith for materials and help to build a hunting rifle.
That rifle had three barrels, two rifled and one smoothbore, and it fired three shots at once, which was very useful.
But it was accidentally discovered by the baron, and when he took it to test fire, that damned gun somehow exploded—you know, the barrel burst, blowing off one of the baron's arms!
Then, then I..."
"Then you took a boat and fled to America!" Charles said with a smile, finishing his sentence.
This was truly a talented individual.
Shotguns appeared relatively early, and rifles are a type of shotgun, originally single-barreled, and were already in use in the seventeenth century.
Double-barreled shotguns appeared in the 1730s, and soon after, multi-barreled shotguns emerged.
Theoretically, someone should be able to make multi-barreled shotguns by now.
Since he could manufacture them, he was certainly a talent, or at least someone with a great deal of research and passion for firearms.
"Yes! Yes!" Connally nodded meekly, unsure of how Charles would deal with him.
"What books have you read then? Math? Physics? Do you know ballistics?"
"Oh! I only know a little math and can write a few words, which I learned from my father." Connally ran a hand through his messy hair, a little embarrassed.
"Hmm! Very good." Charles was already quite satisfied with this answer.
Even if he manufactured them without theoretical knowledge, Charles would still have to use him.
"You stay too.
You'll design and manufacture double-barreled shotguns for me, all rifled.
Don't make triple-barreled ones; they're unsafe.
Start making them when the new steel comes out, and they must not burst.
I have some other things here for you to look at, to see if you can make them."
Charles handed him the bullet design drawings.
"These are bullets I designed, made of copper, with gunpowder at the back, and the bullet head connected by a copper ring."
Connally rubbed his hands, took the drawings Charles handed him, and examined them carefully.
"These are bullets?" Connally looked at the drawings in surprise.
"Of course, there are two kinds of these bullets: one for smoothbore and rifled guns, and another specifically designed for short guns.
Manufacturing them shouldn't be difficult; it's just a matter of loading gunpowder at the back and fitting the bullet at the front.
The main thing you need to do is simplify bullet production and increase its speed.
Of course, the premise is that these bullets must all conform to the gun barrel's dimensions, meaning the barrel and bullet must be standardized... Do you understand?"
After talking for a long time, Charles realized that Connally was just staring at him without reacting.
"Uh, but, esteemed lord, how would such a bullet be fired once loaded into the barrel?
Is it a two-stage ignition?
How far can such a large, long bullet shoot?"
Although Connally looked a little fearful, he still insisted on voicing his concerns.
"Two-stage ignition?" Charles lightly slapped his forehead.
He didn't even know the principle of bullet firing, so why was he giving blind commands?
Two-stage ignition?
He only knew that a bullet should have a propellant.
Was there really something else, or else with just the explosive performance of black powder, a firing pin directly hitting the propellant, the effect of single-strike ignition would certainly not be very good.
However, this aspect could be slowly experimented with later.
Direct ignition or two-stage ignition didn't greatly affect the requirements for manufacturing the bullet itself.
Making these bullets wasn't difficult, but the transition from muzzle-loading to breech-loading guns was harder, especially leaping directly from muzzle-loaders to modern breech-loading bullets.
The leap was too great.
This also involved the issue of cartridge ejection.
In old war films, one often saw that after firing a shot, the bolt had to be cocked, not to mention modern automatic ejection systems.
Without breech-loading firearms, producing these standardized bullets would not be very effective.
"Oh, forget it.
You should still make double-barreled guns first.
But you can try to design a breech-loading firearm, as long as it's breech-loading."
He wasn't too knowledgeable about firearms, so it was better to leave these matters to a professional like Connally to solve.
"Yes, lord.
I've made breech-loading guns before, but the gunpowder leaked, and the bullet range was too short.
As long as I have enough opportunities for experimentation, I will definitely be able to make a breech-loading gun for you with the same range as a muzzle-loading smoothbore." Connally bowed and agreed.
Researching breech-loading guns was not a new thing; people had actually been researching it before, but due to conceptual issues, they hadn't thought of combining the projectile, primer, and propellant for firing, thus failing to achieve a technological breakthrough.
But there was another very important reason: black powder was not the most suitable bullet propellant, and when airtightness could not be guaranteed, only more explosive gunpowder could propel the bullet, which clearly did not meet the conditions.
Achieving a breech-loading gun required solving several problems.
First, it had to use fixed metallic cartridge ammunition.
Only fixed cartridge ammunition could be loaded from the breech.
Early ammunition was separate.
The Dreyse needle-fire rifle used paper-cased fixed ammunition, and later transitioned to metallic-cased fixed ammunition.
Using metallic-cased ammunition, the casing could expand, tightly fitting the chamber wall, solving the gas sealing problem of breech-loading guns.
Moreover, after the gunpowder gas pressure dropped, the casing could automatically contract, creating a gap between the contracted casing and the chamber wall, facilitating extraction.
Secondly, breech-loading guns needed a robust and reliable locking mechanism to prevent burning gunpowder gases from escaping from the rear of the barrel when the weapon fired.
If the gas escaped, without pressure, it could not propel the bullet forward.
Hearing Connally's assurance, Charles, of course, would not be stingy with promises.
"Good!
As long as you make a good breech-loading gun, I will return your indenture contract and hire you as my engineer.
If you do other things well, I will also reward you."
"Thank you for your generosity, esteemed lord!" Connally bowed deeply.
Charles then asked the remaining people a few questions, hoping to see if there were any hidden talents like Connally, but unfortunately, those people were indeed as their papers stated, only possessing limited skills.
A few, seeing Charles as approachable, even rashly tried to gain Charles' important favor with their meager abilities, but were immediately scared back into submission when Jonathan called for a whip.
Charles was dissatisfied with the performance of the remaining people, but to comfort them, he still feigned telling them that as long as they were loyal to him and conscientiously completed the tasks he assigned them, he could not only shorten their indentured servitude but also allocate them a portion of land after their contracts ended.
However, these slaves clearly had no confidence in Charles' promises and merely expressed their gratitude for Charles' benevolence in a very polite manner, which left Charles quite depressed.
It was already late evening the next day when Charles returned to Scarlet Manor.
Although they had set off early in the morning, the return journey was naturally much slower because they brought these unsold slaves.
However, Charles wasn't idle; he often went among the slaves, chatting with them idly, and came to understand their situations.
Although most were troublemakers, after Greenspan and Jonathan's training, using them was not a problem, but their work efficiency was too low.
Charles had already decided that when he had sufficient funds, he would sign contracts to free them from slavery, letting them work freely first and then earn money to pay him back.
Just as he reached the manor gate, he saw several horses tied up in front of the courtyard.
Charles immediately realized that the person he was expecting had arrived.
Indeed, the maid Kassia came forward to announce that Mr. Antoine had been waiting for Charles for a long time.
Charles quickly ordered someone to arrange accommodation for the slaves, while he himself hurried to the living room.
"Hahaha! Antoine, my friend, welcome back to Scarlet Manor." Charles called out loudly from before even entering the door.
"Esteemed Mr. Godfrey, we have been waiting for you for a long time!" Antoine and a group of people in the living room simultaneously stood up and saluted Mr. Godfrey.
After exchanging greetings, everyone sat down again.
Charles saw that in the living room, besides Antoine and a few other old militiamen, there were also several new faces, including valiant ladies and young men.
However, these people shared one characteristic: they all looked sallow and not particularly robust.
Antoine introduced them to Charles one by one, explaining that they were the most influential representatives from other families.
The matter at hand was too important, and they hadn't made an immediate decision.
Instead, they wanted to meet Charles together first to clarify some things face-to-face.
"So, Antoine, what kind of issues are you prepared to tell me about?" Charles asked with a smile.
"Well... Mr. Godfrey, our families have discussed it and we think forming a self-defense force is fine, and moving here is also acceptable.
We can even work for Scarlet Manor to compensate you for the cost of lodging and food.
However, there are some minor details that need to be discussed.
You know, we have several families, and it's impossible for all of us to live in your house, so you might need to arrange some additional housing."
"That's not a problem." Charles immediately interjected.
Scarlet Manor had plenty of various supplies, and among the people brought this time were craftsmen in relevant fields, so building a few new houses shouldn't be a problem.
Charles even fantasized that his Scarlet Manor might eventually develop into an independent small town.
In a country with private ownership, he would truly be the local emperor of this area.