1840 Indian Rebirth

Chapter 156 [Cannon and Artillery]

(The previous text has been slightly adjusted)
Then, in the name of justice, the horse sentry will implement labor reform on these whites, extract their labor force, and try to transform their minds, just like what he did to war criminals.

It would undoubtedly be much easier if there were a white agent or "white traitor", Brannan being this "white traitor".

"Starting today, the fort is renamed 'Fort West Springs' - the Apache military base, and labor camp."

Then the horse post ordered the soldiers to clean up the battlefield and collect all the corpses and supplies.

"This is the cannon of Fort Sutter?" The most noteworthy spoils are undoubtedly a few cannons, and the horse sentry asked, looking at the copper cannons in front of him.

"Yes, Great Chief." Du Wang said, "In addition to the one in the tower, we also found a cannon in a room, but it was damaged."

The so-called cannon is actually a long-barreled cannon, and its name means "pipe" in Latin.

Of course, the meaning of cannon gradually became wider, or the distinction between cannon and howitzer became gradually blurred.

The cannon in front of the horse post is a standard long barrel, and the barrel is quite slender than other cannons.

The gun barrel is made of brass with some Cyrillic letters on it.

"This is...Russian?" He didn't understand Russian, but he had seen these strange letters.

Du Wang: "This brass cannon is indeed from Russia, but no one in the fort seems to know how it came here in the first place. Anyway, Sartre bought it from a captain in South America."

He added: "Probably something to do with Roseburg to the west, that's the only reason I can think of."

Horse whistle nodded.

Roseburg is the southernmost settlement of the Russians in North America, located one or two hundred kilometers west of Sacramento, close to the coast.

The horse whistle touched the brass barrel of the cannon.

For him, these trophies from Fort Sutter were his first artillery pieces.

He always wanted to equip his troops with artillery, but it was difficult to achieve.

Buying outright is necessarily difficult.

No matter how poor the management level of the government in this era is, it's not that they don't even care about the sale of artillery.

Therefore, as an Indian, if he wants to equip artillery, the more appropriate way seems to be to manufacture it himself.

It sounds feasible. As a future man, Ma Shuo is also a physics teacher and keyboard strategist, at least he should be able to make a flying thunder cannon or a "conscientious cannon".

But after all, he did not do the so-called "conscientious cannon".

Because he knew that the performance of this ultra-simple artillery was actually not very reliable, and it was far from being as miraculous as some rumors said.

The operation is cumbersome, the conditions of use are limited, the accuracy and range are poor... these are not mentioned, and more importantly, the safety of unscrupulous guns is also a big problem.

In real history, due to the extremely limited range and the problems of the artillery itself, the operators of the Feilei Cannon are always in a dangerous environment, which is just better than blowing up the bunker.

Moreover, this thing is mainly for siege purposes. The strategy that Apache should implement at present is undoubtedly a defensive strategy, at least there is no need for siege.

So after some consideration, Ma Shao decided not to make guns for the time being, but to accumulate more foundations in industrial technology.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't want to have some guns soon, in fact he's going to buy them from Mexico or Europe.

Needless to say in Europe, since the United States began to fight for independence, the British have supported the Indians in order to cause trouble for the Americans.

When the Anglo-American war was fought, the British even produced a trade rifle exclusively for the Indians.

This rifle has undergone many simplifications and improvements. It has a simple structure, low price, and huge output, which has effectively promoted the popularization of firearms among the Indians. It can be said to be well-intentioned.

Until now, this youth version of the British rifle has been one of the most common firearms for Indians.

Ma Shao believes that as long as the British can pay attention to him and his tribe, it is not difficult to obtain some arms support.

Then there are the Mexicans.

After Mexico's defeat, it will lose about half of its territory, retreat to Central America, and basically no longer overlap with the Apache territory.

Beauty is created by distance, there is no intersection, and naturally there is no contradiction. There is no need for Mexicans and Apaches to be hostile to each other as they used to be.

The Mexicans, who have just experienced defeat, definitely hate the United States more than the British, and they have a great chance of getting artillery from them.

In this regard, Ma Shao had already had some plans in mind, and in fact this was what he needed to do after his trip to California.

He observed the cannon in front of him for a while, then turned his gaze to the white captives next to him.

"How many of you are artillerymen?" Ma Shao asked.

The captured soldiers lowered their heads: "Yes."

Horse whistle: "I think, you should already know the punishment you will face."

"As John Sutter's accomplices, you will face at least five years of reform through labor."

"If you don't quite understand the meaning of labor reform, it can also be understood as 'imprisonment'. In a word, you have no freedom."

After a pause, Ma Shao changed the topic: "However, Apache pays attention to convincing people with reason and virtue."

"Our goal is not to punish anyone, at least not only this, we also want the world to be a better place."

"So... if you can make up your mind and make some contributions, you will be rewarded accordingly, such as gold coins and a reduced sentence."

A captured artilleryman hesitated: "What do we need to do?"

Horse whistle: "You just need to teach my soldiers the skills of artillery."

Artillery requires knowledge of mathematics and physics, but only mathematics and physics are undoubtedly on paper.

Therefore, if you want to train a group of qualified artillerymen, you will definitely not be able to do it by yourself.

He needs professional artillery.

And he is very clear that teaching work cannot be done by coercion, but largely depends on the attitude of the teaching staff.

The profession of a teacher can be so sacred that it cannot be added, or it can be degraded to the point that it cannot be added.

Whether it is teaching or destroying, it is all in one thought.

Therefore, in addition to some necessary coercive means, the horse sentry also needs to come up with generous rewards as incentives, and of course there is a competition mechanism.

This is artillery, and the teacher's intentions are crucial.

A prisoner couldn't hide his contempt, and said in a tone as normal as possible but still somewhat eccentric: "First of all—you have to be literate."

Most white people are illiterate, and the popularization of education in the United States came after the Civil War and the Electric Revolution.

The vast majority of Indian tribes don't even have their own script, so they are naturally illiterate.

These artillerymen living in California, the Indians they come into contact with every day are basically the most primitive and backward group. They do not believe that Indians are qualified to learn artillery knowledge.

Even as captives, they maintained such arrogance.

Ma Whistle smiled casually, and pointed at the Apache soldiers around him: "Everyone of them can read and write."

"They are not very familiar with English and Spanish, but you may not be as good as some of them when it comes to the language of mathematics."

The captured artillerymen obviously didn't believe it, but they didn't say anything.

Ma Shao only said: "As long as you are willing to serve as artillery instructors, you can be exempt from hard labor and receive a salary. Twenty dollars a month."

"Twenty dollars?" The figure caught the eyes of the artillery prisoners.

Generally speaking, the income of soldiers is not high, and their income as a private armed force in the California area is even less.

Even they can hardly be regarded as professional soldiers, even if they were, it was before. For example, these artillerymen have served in the regular army.

But after becoming Sartre's personal armed forces, most of these soldiers worked part-time in other jobs, and at least kept a few serfs.

Horse whistle: "That's right, twenty dollars, and the real twenty dollars, gold and silver coins, not bank notes."

"In addition, according to your training results, you can also get at least one year's commutation of your sentence and get your freedom in advance."

"You can also refuse, as long as you are willing to do heavy manual labor, receive meager wages, and have fewer opportunities for sentence reduction like most prisoners do."

The prisoner asked, "Do the other prisoners also get paid?"

"Yes, but most of them only earn three dollars a month and work about fourteen hours a day," said Ma Shao.

"The artillery instructor can not only get a salary of twenty dollars, but also work no more than ten hours."

"Twenty dollars and three dollars, fourteen hours and ten hours, you who are proficient in mathematics should be able to understand the difference between the two."

At the end, the horse sentry said again: "Okay, I'll give you some time to think about it."

"In addition, during this period, you can also discuss some mathematics and physics issues with my subordinates to see if they are illiterate as you imagined."

Later, the Apache soldiers did discuss mathematics and physics with the captured white artillerymen.

Of course, they sent the best person in this field-they didn't have that much confidence, thinking that just anyone with the level of mathematics and physics could defeat the white artillery.

"Forehead tattoos, it's up to you." The Apache soldiers patted a young man on the shoulder, "You are the man who won the top three in the mathematics and science training class, don't disappoint the teachings of the great chief."

"It's not the top three, it's No.3." The forehead pattern corrected.He frowned, furrowing his brow.

He looked at the white artillerymen in front of him: "Let's make a bet."

"What bet?" The white artillerymen looked at each other and asked immediately.

Forehead tattoo: "You also send a representative out, and then he and I will ask each other questions, and whoever can't answer will admit defeat and pay one dollar."

"Ten dollars!" The Apache soldier behind him booed, "One dollar is too stingy, if you don't have any money, I'll give it to you!"

"Yes, ten dollars!"

The forehead tattoo was booed by his companions, and the white artillerymen were a little unconvinced when they saw their confidence, and pushed out a young man: "Gauss, let them see how powerful you are!"

The forehead lines were taken aback by the name: "You...you are Gauss?"

Gauss seemed a little reluctant, but decided to fight: "It seems that you are not ignorant of mathematics, but I am not the great Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss, but Hans Gauss, it is an honor It's just a coincidence."

Gauss is still alive and has completed most of his contributions. He is a living god in the academic world at this time. Anyone who has a little understanding of mathematics must have heard of his reputation.

The forehead tattoo showed embarrassment, and he felt that his reaction just now was a bit embarrassing.You should think with your toes, how could Gauss appear among the captives of Fort Sutter?
His reaction was truly embarrassing.

The artilleryman Gauss in front of him undoubtedly despised him secretly, so he said casually: "Well, let me come up with a question, at the same time and at the same place, throw two iron balls, one weighing ten pounds, and the other weighing ten pounds." Five pounds, which one hits the ground first?"

This seems like an insulting subject.

After all, in the United States in the [-]th century, anyone with a little education, or even a life in a civilized society, would know about Galileo's experiments and know that light objects and heavy objects fall to the ground at the same time.

The forehead lines are also clear, but his behavior just now was really a bit stupid, so he didn't complain: "Fall to the ground at the same time."

He went on to add: "Galileo's law of free fall. Any object moving from rest will have the same speed if it is only subjected to the gravity of the earth."

"Yes, you got the answer right." Gauss nodded, "Now you can ask me."

After thinking about it for a while, I came up with a simple question: "A right-angled triangle, if its two right-angled sides are three centimeters long and four centimeters long, what is its hypotenuse?"

Gauss: "Of course it is five centimeters, Pythagorean theorem, this is common sense."

The Pythagorean theorem, also known as the Pythagorean theorem.But to answer this question, you don't need to know any theorems. Three, four, five is the most common Pythagorean number, and the ancients thousands of years ago knew it very well.

Goss added: "Before I move on to the next question, I'm a little curious, what does 'centimeter' mean?"

Americans are more accustomed to using imperial units, and have remained so until later generations.

What's more, this is the [-]th century, imperial units are popular all over the world, and relatively few people know metric units.

"It's one hundredth of a meter."

"And what does 'meter' mean?"

Forehead print: "A system of units that originated in France. A meter is approximately 39 inches long. This system of units has actually been around for decades."

Gauss nodded: "Oh, it seems so. But why do you use French units? As far as I know, the Apaches don't seem to have any special relationship with the French."

"The great chief said that the metric system is more scientific and reasonable than the imperial system, and more and more countries will adopt it in the future." Said the forehead.

"Why?" Gauss frowned slightly.

(End of this chapter)