Chapter 297: Test Firing

Therefore, Hale, more than anyone, hoped that the Zheng clan could regain its strength. For this reason, he and Zheng Zhifeng, who had come seeking an alliance, hit it off immediately.

In his view, although Zheng Chenggong had the legitimacy and appeal of the eldest son, as well as the support of the Ming officials, and the decisive strategy he showed in capturing Anping made his group one to be reckoned with, his strength was ultimately the weakest—the most important fleets and commercial channels had been carved up, so he could not play a major role. Moreover, Hale himself had no contact with the main members of this group, and it was uncertain whether they could understand his power.

Zheng Zhifeng had a long-standing cooperation with him and was the most powerful figure in Weitou Bay. His appeal was much greater than that of the Zheng Chenggong group, which was plagued by a young leader and internal doubts. It was clear that his ships and ability to pay were also much greater.

“Mr. Feng, you look exhausted.”

Zheng Zhifeng took off his cloak. “The Zheng family is in a precarious situation, and the situation in Weitou Bay is treacherous. I can’t afford a peaceful night’s sleep.”

“Is that so? I feel that with your appeal and strength, you shouldn’t have such worries. Just a little less decisiveness.”

Zheng Zhifeng nodded silently and accepted the hot cocoa Marcos handed him, not continuing the topic.

“Are the goods I asked for ready?”

“Of course. Here are your goods. Please have a look first.” Hale, as usual, was efficient, with no unnecessary pleasantries.

In the open space outside the thatched hut, cylindrical objects wrapped tightly with straw ropes were piled up, each nearly ten feet long. There were also dozens of large and small wooden boxes.

Zheng Zhifeng’s gaze was inevitably drawn to the objects. As the packaging was opened, dozens of workers erected sturdy scaffolding, then used simple iron pulley blocks to lift the long-barreled objects out of the boxes and skillfully place them on pre-assembled gun carriages.

Zheng Zhifeng scanned the novel weapons back and forth with greedy eyes. There were a total of six fully assembled cannons, two large and four small. The larger ones had a caliber of about four inches (Ming inches, approximately 12.5 cm) and a length of over eight feet (Ming feet, approximately 2.5 meters). The smaller ones had a caliber of over three inches (Ming inches, approximately 10.0 cm) and a length of over seven feet (Ming feet, approximately 2.35 meters).

These cannons were not the Hongyi cannons familiar to the Ming people—which were generally semi-culverins or culverins—but were cannons manufactured using a more modern process of casting them whole and then milling out the bore. After being rifled, they were already quite formidable muzzle-loading rifled cannons. Hale, being well aware of the defects in his materials, had also added iron hoops to the cannons, which made them look very clumsy. Fortunately, Zheng Zhifeng’s needs were mainly for naval guns and fortress defense, so being a bit clumsy was not a major issue.

As for the better-performing Dahlgren guns he manufactured, they were few in number, and he was neither willing nor able to sell them to Zheng Zhifeng. However, even this modified version could, to some extent, counter the Australians’ warships.

“Mr. Paul, are these the powerful cannons you said could rival the Australians’? Why do they look even less impressive than the Hongyi cannons?” Zheng Zhifeng asked doubtfully. After all, the cannons before him were different from the massive Hongyi cannons he had seen before.

A hint of contempt flashed across Hale’s lips. He said coldly, “Mr. Feng, you have reason to question what you see. After all, not everyone understands cannons. Bigger is not always better.” He paused, completely ignoring Zheng Zhifeng’s ugly expression from the ridicule, and continued, “I said that my goods would not disappoint you. If you had acted a little faster back then, perhaps you wouldn’t have lost so disastrously in Xiamen.”

Zheng Zhifeng was silent. Indeed, if the cannon foundry had started production earlier, the “new cannons” to counter the Australians would not have been just the few cannons taken from the Australian ships. Throughout the entire campaign, apart from those few “Australian cannons,” no firearm of the Zheng family had posed any threat to the Australians. Whether on land or at sea, the Australians held the advantage in range. Even when they had no artillery support, their enemies used muskets to rout their own gunners. The most terrifying thing was their incredible accuracy; even the European gunners they hired could not achieve such precision.

The cannon fire of the massacres in Weitou Bay and Jin-Xia was deeply seared into his mind, leaving him unable to eat or sleep in peace. Although he had inherited the bulk of the Zheng clan’s assets and was ostensibly the most powerful figure in Weitou Bay, he knew his position was fragile. The Australians’ two-masted fast ships appeared off the coast of Jin-Xia from time to time, as if declaring their sovereignty over these waters. The command flags that once sold for two thousand taels of silver were now of no interest to anyone, because Australian patrol boats would capture any ship flying a Zheng family flag, and once caught, all its cargo would be confiscated. So, the shipowners sailing to the South China Sea began to fly the Australian command flags instead. The convoy and patrol system established by the Australians made them completely powerless against this, and they could only watch as this huge source of income was lost. Even some of the smaller factions that had split from the Zheng clan began to buy command flags from the Australians.

While facing a strong enemy from the outside, Weitou Bay was not peaceful either. The Zheng Cai brothers were entrenched in Xiamen and did not acknowledge him at all. Zheng Chenggong occupied Anping, relying on his official status, which was also a thorn in his side. As for the other small factions, although not a major threat, they had already colluded with each other, acting in unison and providing mutual support to avoid being swallowed by the three major factions. This repeatedly thwarted his plan to pick off the small ones first, then take down the big ones, and reunify the Zheng family.

Zheng Zhifeng knew very well that the Australians’ current silence was temporary. They were deliberately not intervening in the disputes in Weitou Bay to let them fight each other to the death, wear each other down, and then swallow them whole, not even leaving the bones.

To break the stalemate, the only way was to upgrade his armaments. The Australians’ attack had been a real eye-opener, a true lesson in what “disparity” meant. In the past, the Zheng clan had also experienced their own backwardness in ships and cannons in armed conflicts with Europeans, which was why they had introduced European ships, artillery, and technicians. But the gap between the two sides was not so large that the Zheng clan was completely powerless to fight back. In several conflicts along the Chinese coast, they were mostly able to use their geographical advantage to win. They had heard of the Australians’ sturdy ships and powerful cannons, but due to a lack of direct experience, the core members of the Zheng clan had initially had great disagreements on whether to cooperate with Hale and build a new-style cannon foundry. After all, the expense was too great and would inevitably affect the distribution of profits.

More than once, Zheng Zhifeng had lamented the time wasted in discussions back then. If the cannon foundry had started production a little earlier, although it might not have turned the tide, at least they would not have been defeated so miserably, his brother would not have met a tragic end, and the current state of division would not have occurred.

Now, his only hope lay with Hale. Zheng Zhifeng’s men had already traveled between Manila and Kinmen many times, bringing not only Hale’s letters but also what they had seen and heard in Hale’s factory and shipyard. This made his determination to upgrade his armaments at all costs even stronger.

“As part of our initial agreement, I will show you the power of this type of cannon. You will know that your expense is well worth it.”

With that, Hale waved his hand, directing his men to begin operating the cannons.

“Do you need to designate a target?” Hale asked. “I don’t want to be accused of playing tricks by burying gunpowder in a pile of dirt.” He handed over a telescope.

Zheng Zhifeng nodded, took the telescope, and looked towards the interior of the island for a moment.

“Mr. Paul, I want your cannon to hit that mound two li away. Is that difficult?”

Hale picked up his monocular telescope: in his field of view, a little over a kilometer away—to be precise, from his professional perspective, it should be about 1150 meters—there was a mound about 9 meters in diameter, standing alone on the cape, very conspicuous. It was barely visible to the naked eye, but it was indeed a certain degree of difficulty for cannon aiming.

“No problem,” Hale said. “Marcos, you take a few gunners and fire. All six cannons fire together.”

With professional skill, Marcos first adjusted the position and balance of the cannons, and silently calculated the compensation for recoil to minimize error when repositioning. Then, using firing table data from numerous previous experiments, he set the elevation with a wooden quadrant inserted at the muzzle and an adjustable sight at the breech, and moved the trail of the gun carriage to set the direction of fire.

Afterwards, the gunners loaded paper-wrapped powder cartridges with the charge specified by the firing tables, and conical shells with copper bases.

All the cannons were placed on a single firing line and assigned serial numbers: the four-inch cannons were A1, A2, A3; the three-point-two-inch cannons were B1, B2, B3. Each cannon was spaced 6 meters apart and had been aimed and positioned. After all preparations were complete, Hale first conducted a calibration shot with cannons A1 and B1.

After all, the cannons had been transported over a long distance and reassembled, so their condition would certainly have changed compared to their original optimal state. Therefore, newly assembled cannons also needed to be calibrated.

Under normal circumstances, each cannon’s situation is different, and at least one calibration shot is needed to determine the deviation compensation. But Hale was very confident in the results of his numerous previous firing experiments and very satisfied with the professionalism of the assembly personnel, so he only chose one of each of the two types of cannons as the calibration benchmark.

“Boom, boom!” After two deafening cannon reports, two puffs of smoke could be clearly seen through the telescope, rising from a distance of less than 30 meters in front of and behind the small mound, and less than 15 meters to the left and right.

Hale nodded to himself. After all, it was a rifled cannon, its accuracy far superior to that of a smoothbore, and to achieve such accuracy on the first calibration shot was impressive.

“Muzzle up two degrees!” Marcos lowered his telescope and shouted a new command. The gunners immediately swung their mallets, striking the wooden wedges to raise the muzzles.