Chapter 544: ？The Portuguese War Preparations (2)

April 9, 1631. Only a short time remained before the ultimatum.

A large group of Portuguese nobility, led by Governor-General Jerónimo de Silveira, arrived at the Bocarro Foundry — located on what would later become Rua do Comandante João Belo, formerly Cannon Foundry Slope Lane... and in the Ming Dynasty, part of Haojing'ao West Bamboo Village — for an inspection.

This was only to be expected. Facing an imminent war, the leadership was certain to inspect the military industry departments.

Historically speaking, the Macau Bocarro Foundry could be considered a provincial-level top enterprise.

Because after the Portuguese occupied Macau, they frequently faced harassment from various pirates and English and Dutch rogues, so as early as the thirty-sixth year of the Jiajing era, Portuguese cannon-casting expert Pedro Bocarro established a foundry here.

From its inception, the Bocarro Foundry produced two types of products: bronze cannons and iron cannons. The iron cannons were mainly produced by Chinese laborers, while the more costly and technically demanding bronze cannons were manufactured by Portuguese under Bocarro's personal command.

Because the Bocarro Foundry's products were of excellent quality — the cannons not only had long range but were also sturdy and durable — its reputation quickly spread, and it became the most famous weapons factory in the Far East.

In the years that followed, the Bocarro Foundry not only supplied all the cannons for Macau's various forts, but its products were also provided to the armed merchant ships of various nations that stopped at Macau. Colonies across East Asia, including the Philippines, also sent people to purchase cannons.

The Bocarro Foundry's fame even reached the ears of the Ming Emperor in Beijing. As early as seven years ago, during the Tianqi era, the Ming Court purchased four cannons from Macau. And just two years ago, the Chongzhen Emperor also paid silver for ten cannons, and bestowed upon the Macau cannons mounted on Beijing's city walls the name "Divine Might Great General."

And in this plane of the Transmigrators, the Bocarro Foundry was still just as busy.

Bocarro was a middle-aged Portuguese man with wavy black hair and a face full of wrinkles. Although he wore work clothes when greeting the dignitaries, his face smudged with soot and his hands covered in calluses and grease, due to the foundry's vital importance to Macau, Bocarro held considerable standing among Macau's upper echelons — or rather, he was already a member of those upper echelons himself.

"Honorable gentlemen, what you are seeing now is the bell-casting workshop."

Historically, the Bocarro Foundry only cast cannons when first established. Later, as its scale expanded, it added a bell-casting business. After all, casting bells and casting cannons are both large-scale metal castings, different approaches but equally satisfactory results. Moreover, in this era, both East and West had a huge demand for bronze bells. The West had monasteries, the East had Buddhist temples — both were wealthy establishments comparable to state-owned enterprises. It was only right for the foundry to cast bells; it would have been unreasonable not to.

However, following the direction of Director Bocarro's pointing finger, the current bell-casting workshop was a scene of desolation. Apart from empty work sheds and floor pits, there were only some scattered wooden and iron workpieces. No workers, and the furnaces were not lit.

The councilors quickly understood: "Has the bell-casting business been halted?"

Bocarro bowed slightly with some sadness: "In fact, as early as three months ago, all bell-casting operations ceased, gentlemen."

Things are constantly influencing and changing one another. In this plane of the Transmigrators, the Bocarro Foundry's days were not easy.

First, as early as two years ago, Macau, which historically had always imported copper from Japan, had its material passage cut off by the Transmigrators.

At that time, the Transmigrators used raw silk export rights to win over major Japanese merchants, and then, through high-level Japanese contacts, cut off the purchasing channels of the Dutch and Portuguese in one stroke.

After this, as the Crossing Faction's power grew day by day and patrol ships covered the strait from east to west, the Japanese copper, silver, and ore shipments increasingly could not pass this checkpoint, all of them intercepted by the Transmigrators at the Tai River Dock.

Consequently, the Macau Portuguese's source of copper ore became increasingly scarce, forcing them to rely on smuggling from Ming territory and supplies from the Indian direction for replenishment. This led to a contraction of the Bocarro Foundry's business.

Then, within the last half-year, as relations between the "Cao and Portuguese" sides deteriorated daily, the Bocarro Foundry simply halted the bronze bell business entirely. The Portuguese were no fools; since military pressure in this plane had greatly increased, limited metal resources had to be allocated toward war preparations.

After walking past the empty work sheds, not far ahead was the cannon-casting workshop, bustling with intense activity.

In the workshop piled with large quantities of charcoal, copper, and iron materials, everything was a dusty gray, and the choking air was filled with suffocating particulate matter. Upon arriving here, the gentlemen all covered their mouths and noses with their silk handkerchiefs.

Large numbers of bare-shouldered workers, their faces masked with cloths, were casting cannons with various tools. They channeled the molten iron and copper from the smelting furnaces into molds laid out on the ground, then followed standard operating procedures, using the ancient clay-mold casting method to produce bronze and iron cannons one after another.

"The Ming workers haven't left yet?"

Seeing that among the workers there were still many yellow-skinned Ming people with hair tied in buns, Andrade, serving as Secretary of the Macau Municipal Council, could not help but ask curiously.

"A portion of the Ming workers did leave." Bocarro nodded. "But many remain. After all, the foundry increased their wages. You understand — those who went back face unemployment... There is great pressure to survive in Ming territory."

"How are the cannon preparations progressing?"

Governor-General Silveira, who was responsible for actual combat readiness, interjected somewhat impatiently at this point. As the Commander-in-Chief of the Portuguese side in this war, he had been under immense pressure lately. The Commander had no time right now to study the survival pressures of Ming workers, and directly asked about the aspect that concerned him most.

"Your Excellency the Governor-General, in addition to the orders already delivered to the various forts, in the last week the foundry has rushed to complete twenty cannons of various poundages, including six 18-pounder bronze cannons and two 24-pounders."

"Excellent. That is the only piece of good news I have heard today."

The Governor-General's large beard, left on his face, tilted up at an angle. "Can you provide more bronze cannons? Respected Mr. Bocarro, as you know, our opponent also possesses cannons of excellent quality. They have already demonstrated this to us from their gunboats on the open sea."

"Your Excellency, what you see now are the cannons we manufactured with our last batch of copper materials. There are about fifteen of them."

Bocarro extended his arm and slowly swept it across. "The foundry has been unable to obtain sufficient copper materials for a long time, and can only increase the number of iron cannons cast. However, our cannonballs are plentiful... The Ming smugglers have brought in a great deal of pig iron."

"Esteemed gentlemen, this is a self-evident problem."

Governor-General Silveira, upon hearing this, said loudly: "If this war proceeds according to our conception, it will be a protracted war. We need a large number of cannons to inflict unbearable casualties on the Ming Government, so that we can obtain a decent post-war agreement."

"There will be aid." Speaker Laro gave the Governor-General a reassuring pill at this moment. "The Parliament's representative has already met with the Governor-General of the Philippines. Calculating by the shipping schedule, the Spanish will certainly aid us. If they lose this place, they will suffer losses as well."

After inspecting the sweltering workshop of the Bocarro Foundry, perhaps wanting a change of air, the gentlemen then proceeded to the scenic Fortaleza do Monte.

The Fortaleza do Monte is situated to one side of what would later become the Fortress of St. Paul, located on a hilltop 52 meters above sea level in the center of the Macau Peninsula. It is one of Macau's major historical landmarks.

The Fortaleza do Monte is also known as Saint Paul's Fort, the Central Fort, or Monte Fort. Construction began here as early as 1616 AD, during the reign of the Ming Shenzong Emperor.

Although there were several forts inside and outside Macau City, Monte Fort was the largest in scale, had the best position, and possessed the strongest garrison. This place was, without a doubt, the defensive core of Macau City.

The Macau Fortaleza do Monte of the seventeenth century held very practical military significance, and was still distinct from the tourist scenic area of later generations.

Although it also had a large open area, it lacked shade and ancient towering trees. Moreover, the current fort had no heritage relics or historical buildings, such as the Society of Jesus's old tower. In fact, apart from a circle of low brick buildings used to garrison troops, there were no superfluous structures inside the fort.

In terms of scale, the Fortaleza do Monte was essentially a miniature fortress. The fort, with a side length of about 100 meters, had its four corners protruding outward to form barbettes. The fort walls were built on a 3.7-meter-wide granite foundation, constructed with rammed earth, and solidified using oyster shell powder as cement — extremely sturdy.

The walls of the Fortaleza do Monte were about 9 meters high, narrowing upward to a width of 2.7 meters. The parapet was about 2 meters high, formed into battlements, and could mount up to 32 cannons.

Historically, the Fortaleza do Monte only had blockhouses at the two corners of the southeast wall. The northwest wall, facing Ming territory, had a lower parapet and no gun ports. This was primarily a gesture by the Portuguese to show their focus on maritime defense and a friendly posture toward the Ming officials of the time.

However, in this plane, everything was different.

As early as a year ago, the northwest parapet of Monte Fort had been intermittently reinforced and heightened, and gun positions were installed.

In the most recent period, the Portuguese had not only dug a foundation trench outside the fort on the northwest side and built a brick wall flush with the ground, but had also prepared a large quantity of construction materials... among them, red bricks and cement they had bought at high prices.

Then, counting from the day the ultimatum was received, six days later today, on the side of Monte Fort facing Ming territory, a solid blockhouse had appeared out of thin air. And on the gun ports of the parapet above, cannon muzzles gleaming with a bluish sheen had also appeared one after another.

When the gentlemen arrived at the fort, the soldiers were busy making preparations for the coming war.

The soldiers garrisoning the Fortaleza do Monte were not those mercenary types of uneven quality; they were regular Portuguese soldiers.

These soldiers were uniformly dressed in short brown jackets, coats, and shirts. They wore a wide cravat around their necks, with shorts, leg wraps, and leather shoes below. All soldiers wore wide-brimmed Western-style soft hats on their heads, with white or gold decorative bands on the hats. Additionally, those with bright feathers stuck in their hats were officers.

The soldiers garrisoning the entire Monte Fort, due to the war, had been expanded to 400 men.

These included 200 garrison artillerymen, and 200 close-guard troops composed of firearm soldiers and pikemen.

Furthermore, in Macau City not far behind the fort, there were reinforcement channels, allowing troops to be dispatched toward the fort at any time.

This large barbette, filled with irregular lines, was where the Portuguese placed their confidence.