Mid-June 1538, Capital city, Dharanikota Kingdom.
The fire burned hot in the forge providing enough heat for the required tasks. The sound of metal being hit repeatedly reverberated in the air. Most of the smoke was channeled up through a tall chimney, making the work area smoke-free.
A shirtless man was working on something with a hammer, taking great care in its shape. Sweat oozed from his body, making the abs and scars more visible. The man took the item he was working on with tongs and dipped it in water.
'SZZTTT!!!'
"That completes all of the parts, Your Majesty. I must say, for someone who only learned blacksmithing and metalworking in the past few months, you are very skilled. I have never seen someone as skilled as you in this art" Ramana, the blacksmith, said to the king of Dharanikota.
Rudra was too distracted in inspecting the workpiece to acknowledge the praise. He began learning blacksmithing among many other skills, as his memory library helped him in that. He had now progressed enough that, he was able to the some projects on his own.
"Do you think this spring is too brittle? I don't think it would be able to generate sufficient force." Rudra replied absent-mindedly as he inspected all the parts he crafted in the last few days.
He was currently in a fort's blacksmith working area. It was generally used to repair metal items in the castle, but after Rudra took over, it drastically changed. Proper ventilation was added, lighting was enhanced, Bellows and the forge were upgraded, etc.
He learned the blacksmithing from Ramana, a prominent blacksmith, from the capital city region. He was not the most skilled one in the city, but in crafting small items and teaching, he was good.
What Rudra was crafting was a spring that could be used in the trigger mechanism of a musket. He had promised Kadhumalla that, he would solve the problem of new weapons for the troops, and he intended to fulfill it.
"I think it is good enough to work as a proof of concept, Your Majesty. The matchlock mechanism uses a much simpler mechanism than this." Ramana said. He was only thirty years old and yet, very skilled in the art.
"It is, isn't it? You are right. We should proceed with the prototype." Rudra muttered as he looked over the gathered parts. Trigger, check. Flat springs, check. Plates, check. Frizzen, check. Cocking mechanism, check. All the parts of the Trigger mechanism are there.
"Should we complete the final assembly?" Ramana asked the king, who thought for a moment and shook his head.
"Not right now. Tell me, how is the progress of your other students going? We need them to manufacture the muskets after the design is finalized." Rudra asked. Not everyone is as supernaturally gifted as him, and it normally takes years to learn blacksmithing.
"Your requirement, or lack thereof, that even apprentices are ok, helped it somewhat. I don't know your reasoning behind not needing full blacksmiths. They would be able to grasp the design much more easily, Your Majesty." the blacksmith questioned the king.
"We need to maintain consistent production, to our required specifications and nothing else. A blacksmith apprentice will be perfect for that, as a full blacksmith is too overqualified." the king explained.
Rudra wanted to establish a basic form of assembly line factory, where each worker is specialized in one specific thing. It would reduce the skill barrier, and make production faster.
After hearing Rudra's explanation, Ramana sighed and muttered something about strange ideas, and brought him a bag full of items. Several items in it resembled the things he was making, and some were even perfect too. But there was one fatal flaw in all of them.
"They can make acceptable parts individually, but all of them need to be able to fit together!" Rudra exclaimed lightly as he examined each of the parts.
"There is no proper measure available to them Your Majesty. I had only set up equipment for allowing a few students to work at a time." Ramana reasoned, defending his students.
"Don't worry Ramana, everything will be solved in due time." Bringing in standardized measurements was a very difficult process, and will take some time to properly implement.
"The barrels were the only relatively consistent things, Your Majesty. But hand boring and reaming of them takes hours for each one. Even then, the holes are not consistent." Ramana explained as he brought forth the barrels made by his students.
"Consistency is the key here Ramana. We don't want to burden our logistics with carrying multiple types of rounds for our soldiers." Rudra answered as he checked the barrels.
Bhairava and Bhashir, are standing at the opening of the room, which itself was an open-air shed inside the fort. The Royal Guard's training area inside the fort was visible, from where they were standing, and they were used to the king working there.
"Wouldn't it be a lot easier if we equip the soldiers with matchlocks your majesty? You distributed a few to the blacksmiths in the capital city, and that looked significantly easier to make than this." Bhairava asked them, as he finished inspecting.
"This is a better design you fool. Sure, it is less sure-fire than a matchlock, but it has the added benefit of not worrying about the matches. Do you know how cumbersome they are? And what would you do in the rain, or when the enemy attacks and your match is extinguished? You would be left with a wooden stick for a weapon!" Ramana vented to Bhairava while answering the question asked to Rudra.
As the guard leader said, Rudra distributed several old matchlocks to the skilled blacksmiths of the Capital city and asked them to remake and improve them. Rudra had confidence that they would be able to make it, as the mechanism is relatively simple, but not improve the design.
That is why he took it upon himself to make a flintlock-style musket, as a demonstration. He would have provided the documentation required for such firearm, to make it easier, but he wanted them to experiment.
Muskets were still not as widely adopted both in and especially outside of Europe, and those who did mainly relied on the early Pike and shot tactics. Normal melee weapons were a lot more prevalent in the world.
Those who did use a musket used them with a matchlock. Some simpler Matchlocks were just, jamming a burning thread called the match, into a hole in the breech of the barrel, to make it fire.
Some advanced ones use the matchlock mechanism. In these, when you press a trigger, an already burning match will move and ignite the gunpowder in the barrel, firing the shot.
A flintlock works by hitting a flint against metal, creating a spark that ignites the gunpowder. Its production is a little bit more complex than the matchlocks, as it uses springs to power the trigger and flint.
"It is more complex, but progress is important Bhairava. Besides as Ramana said, there are a lot of advantages. If it could be reliably produced, I would much prefer a wheellock, but alas it is beyond us." Rudra explained to Bhairava.
Not counting the Matchlock unreliability in rainy weather, in which a flintlock also suffers, the reloading is a lot slower as you have to hold the match with a hand while reloading with the other.
Not to mention, handling an open flame, where a bunch of soldiers were handling gunpowder, is just a recipe for disaster. To prevent this, the soldiers have to stand further apart, thus reducing the effectiveness of volley shots( combined fire) and making them more vulnerable to cavalry charges.
"Let us start the assembly of the prototype Ramana. If we complete the proof testing today, I will personally make time to explain the working of the musket to your students." Rudra instructed the blacksmith and they both went to work.
After a few hours, before the eyes of Rudra laid the first flintlock musket of the world, produced nearly a hundred years ahead of its time. The gun was crude, lacking a proper wooden stock, but to Rudra, it was beautiful.
It was the first meaningful change he brought to the world, that has the potential to change history. Sure it was not that different than any other firearm of the era, but that did not matter. If it can be mass-produced, his army will have a significant advantage against a conventional army, or even a matchlock-equipped one.
Rudra turned to look at Vasekar, his assistant and overseer of Royal properties, who had arrived at the room recently. He was the one who stayed in the capital and managed it when he was roaming around to find his advisory council.
"Vasekar, it is good to see you here. Can you send someone to arrange a horse carriage? We need to visit Kadhumalla's Training grounds to test the musket!" Rudra said enthusiastically. But it was cut short by Vasekar's reply.
"Isn't it better to properly organize an event, your majesty? Invite all the blacksmiths whom you instructed to make the matchlocks to show them the demonstration. Also, invite the generals too. They seem eager to know more about them." Vasekar reasoned. Hearing that Rudra just sighed.
The generals were not that eager to equip their troops with these. It would mean changes in the battlefield, that they may not be able to cope with. After all every single major advance in military technology had led to decadence in the older military structure. If they cannot adapt to the changes, they will lose power.
That is the reason, some generals may oppose change and progress and want to fall back to the old reliable traditions. Even though Rudra cleaned up the disloyal officer from the military, he had yet to act on the officers who supported him, no matter how incompetent they may be.
"No, not a big event. And not the generals. I will personally speak with them after this is over. Do, this. I will visit the training grounds after court tomorrow and conduct initial testing. Invite the blacksmiths to visit in the afternoon. I will explain how this works to them." Rudra instructed Vasekar while showcasing the musket.
"I will find someone to make a proper stock for it by then Your Majesty," Ramana said as he picked up the the musket. The stock currently used was only a trail one, to check for fitting and assembly. It can be fired, but it lacks a proper shoulder stock.
"The carpenter should be about done by now. Remember to check the shoulder stock properly, or the collar bone will be affected." Rudra said as he left the room with Vasekar and the guards.