Chapter 214: The Vastly Different Tech Tree
Owen had been paying close attention ever since the Battle of Mara Town began.
At this very moment, a giant one-eyed mechanical eagle puppet, comparable in size to a Wyvern, was circling thousands of meters in the sky. Under Flame Empress’s control, it constantly adjusted its perspective, transmitting live footage of the scene like a satellite.
This one-eyed giant eagle puppet was indeed a powerful weapon for war. Unfortunately, there were still many problems to be solved, such as signal transmission. Not only was there a distance limit, but there was also the possibility of the signal being tampered with.
Never underestimate the mages of this world. They have used their magical methods to create many black technology achievements, such as Crystal Ball Spiritualization.
Who would have thought that a crystal ball could be used as a computer, complete with holographic projection and touchscreen functions? This was something that his world before transmigration hadn’t fully realized.
Therefore, Owen rarely made these seemingly high-precision things because they were too prone to problems. Even more frightening was that when problems arose, you wouldn’t even know it. It was far less straightforward than Power Armor and Bolters.
However, since this area was considered their territory, it wouldn’t hurt to use it.
Right now, Owen’s focus wasn’t on the outcome of the Battle of Mara Town, but on the role that firearms could play on the battlefield.
The battle situation showed that seemingly primitive firearms were unexpectedly useful under certain circumstances. For example, in the current Battle of Mara Town, if traditional combat methods were used, even with one or two thousand professional soldiers defending, they would have already lost about half their forces. After all, close combat couldn’t avoid the spread of the Flesh and Blood Plague.
However, with sturdy walls and powerful firearms, Mutants, unable to gather for a strong assault, couldn’t break through the defenses. Therefore, their continuous attacks simply became a futile sacrifice.
Theoretically, as long as ammunition and food supplies weren’t exhausted and soldiers took turns on the battlefield, Mara Town could fight until the end of time.
Unfortunately, the firing rate of existing firearms couldn’t meet the needs of field battles. Forget about swift cavalry, even a large number of light infantry charging in a skirmish line could pose a significant threat to a pure firearm army. The reloading speed was simply too slow. Even with fixed ammunition, the maximum firing rate was twice per minute, and that was for elite musketeers. Ordinary firearm militiamen could only fire once per minute at most, and after a dozen shots, they needed to clean the barrel and cool it down, otherwise, there was a risk of the barrel exploding.
Even if that were the only problem, the accuracy was the most frustrating aspect.
If they started shooting when the enemy entered range and began charging, they might not even hit a single shot before the enemy’s blade reached their necks. That’s why musketeers paid so much attention to volley fire, all to compensate for the accuracy issue.
Therefore, even in positional warfare, primitive firearms might not be able to withstand a desperate charge from an equal number of enemies.
Of course, there weren’t many enemies like that. Generally, an army that could withstand two or three rounds of casualties without collapsing was considered good. There were definitely not as many who dared to charge desperately in the face of gunfire as one might imagine.
After weighing the pros and cons, Owen realized that the firearms he looked down upon actually had the feasibility of being equipped on a large scale because the performance of a weapon wasn’t the only factor to consider.
The fragile Panther and Tiger tanks from World War II were a prime example. In the early stages, they dominated everyone they fought, but later, facing the armored tractors of the Soviet Union, they were still overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
Although Owen felt somewhat helpless about this, there was nothing he could do. It wasn’t that the territory didn’t have good things, the problem was that the gap in the tech tree was too significant.
The top tier of technology in the territory was the combination of Owen, Bryan, and Flame Empress. The fusion of alchemy and technology allowed them to create black technology-level gadgets, such as Power Armor and Bolters.
If they kept increasing the amount of propellant and enlarging the Bolter shells, this thing would become an unguided Dongfeng Express missile.
The middle tier of technology was the combination of Gremlins and Goblins. One was a master craftsman, the other was a clever tinkerer. With the addition of the hardworking Earth Goblins and Bear Goblins, the Puppet Factory and manufacturing plants established with them as the foundation had already reached the peak of the steam age. Especially with the existence of mechanical puppets, they had already begun to take shape of steampunk.
There wasn’t much to say about the bottom tier of technology. It was just the blacksmith shop and armory in the Town Center, capable of manufacturing muskets and small to medium-caliber cannons.
The three tiers were miles apart, with no connection between them.
Even if Owen worked tirelessly, he could at most expand the scale of Limit Warriors by one or two times, and he still couldn’t take care of logistics and ammunition, so it wouldn’t help much in a real war.
Moreover, the high-level creations of the territory’s technology were heavily reliant on Progress Value and Black Glue Bugs. Even if handcrafted, some high-precision things still couldn’t be self-sufficient and had to be exchanged through the system. The Black Glue Bug’s bodily fluids were important fuel and explosives for high-level technology, and this was entirely limited by the scale of Black Glue Bug breeding in the territory.
Unfortunately, Black Glue Bugs needed to feed on the sap of Magic Horn Trees to grow, causing the breeding difficulty to skyrocket and making it difficult to increase production.
Considering that this thing was a strategic reserve, it couldn’t be used as much as it was produced, and it couldn’t be expanded.
As for the middle tier of technology, it was limited by the level of Gremlins and Goblins. Unless they spent decades researching and developing a system of their own, it could only remain as it was for the time being.
On the contrary, the bottom tier of technology could be mass-produced with the help of the middle tier technology. For example, wheels, bearings, steam engines, muskets, and cannons coming off the production line.
Especially muskets and cannons. To put it bluntly, they were just iron cylinders of varying thicknesses with holes drilled in them. If strength wasn’t a concern, a bunch could be produced in a day.
And propellant was even simpler. Magic Horn Tree blocks could be ground into powder and mixed, and at most, some egg whites could be added. The yolks could even be used to make bread.
This gave Owen the idea of forming a regular army of pure firearms, and the military colonization camps were a ready-made foundation.
Mara Town was shrouded in the lingering smoke of gunpowder for three whole days. A large number of scrapped muskets were discarded on the ground, and one-pound cannons were piled up on the roadside like used firework tubes, still radiating residual heat.
Finally able to come down from the walls, the musketeers, their eyes red and irritated from the gunpowder smoke, stuffed food into their mouths with trembling hands, ravenously replenishing their strength. The women on the side, ignoring their fatigue, were busy cooking pots of hot soup to distribute to the soldiers.
Now, the witches had taken over this place. They flew around on their brooms, scattering nectar to purify the Flesh and Blood Plague brought by the Mutants.
Incidentally, these witches were riding their broomsticks normally, with Cushioning Charms, brooms held horizontally, and nectar being actual nectar, a magic potion with purification effects.
Ai Mi Er shifted her hips a little awkwardly, rubbing against the Super Broomstick, suppressing some personal habits, and dutifully commanded the witches not to miss any spots, preventing the Flesh and Blood Curse from reigniting.
The witches had studied the Flesh and Blood Plague of the Flesh and Blood Church. Moreover, the former veteran assassin of the Flesh and Blood Church, Bloody Witch Chima, now known as the Nine-Turn Intestine Chima in a glass jar, was in their hands. They had already extracted all the information from her. Now, after summarizing it, the effect was unexpectedly good.
However, this method was difficult to popularize. Both the purification potion and the fuel for burning Mutant corpses were important strategic reserves, often requiring a long time to accumulate before they could be used once. Even the cheapest Magic Horn Tree blocks weren’t inexhaustible.
Magic Horn Trees grew very slowly. The seemingly vast Magic Horn Tree Forest had grown over thousands of years. If they were overused, the territory’s technological system would suffer a fatal blow.
For this reason, Owen was even prepared to cultivate Magic Horn Trees across dimensions to prevent the collapse of the territory’s energy system.
