Chapter 1229: Ship Cannons and Shore Batteries

For example, the preset coverage of each battery added together could only protect a limited number of critical areas — after all, eighteen cannons couldn't cover everything. These four Western carrack ships exploited the gaps and blind spots between those zones, evading the shelling and beginning their counterattack. Each of these ships carried no fewer than twenty cannons; by any reckoning, they held the firepower advantage over the shore batteries.

"That fleet the day before yesterday was probing us!" Li Hai'ou shouted, suddenly grasping the truth. Those ships had charged in to test the cannons, to map out the firing arcs and impact points of the shore batteries, and then, by stalling, lulled the port defenders into complacency before striking without warning.

Just as this first round of shelling began, sails could be seen rising on all four carracks. Driven by the wind, they accelerated, then quickly lowered their sails again. These foreigners handled their ships every bit as well as the old sea dogs of the Great Ming — after all, they had braved wind and wave across ten thousand miles, their experience at sea far richer.

With this surge and halt, the four carracks' single-line formation shifted inward a short distance. All four ships were now within the firing range of the shore batteries, and by the same token, the batteries were all within the range of the ships' cannons. The three ships at the rear opened fire the moment their sails dropped, while the port's defending batteries had yet to finish reloading.

The roar of cannons thundered in succession, shells howling as they slammed into battery positions across the site. Li Hai'ou no longer dared to stay on the observation platform. Ship cannons weren't known for accuracy, but with a dozen or even dozens of cannons firing in volley from this one side, the carnage was bound to be immense. The only cover was the stone block fortifications of the batteries themselves. Amid such dense, thunderous roaring, even the family retainers inside the battery stared at each other in terror, their reloading halted for a moment.

"Get down!" Someone screamed hoarsely, because the shriek of incoming shells could be heard — this battery was about to be hit.

When Li Hai'ou had arrived here, he had been trained to know he must drop and lie flat at critical moments, to avoid being struck by flying stone shards and debris when shells hit the ground. Many of the Li family sons who came with him thought it a pointless nuisance, but Li Hai'ou was deeply interested in artillery and followed every drill regulation to the letter. Hearing that shout, he instinctively threw himself down. Then the earth shook and the mountains swayed, and for an instant, he knew nothing at all...

Even lying flat, Li Hai'ou's cheek was still cut in several places by flying sand and gravel. His ears rang. He vaguely felt that a long time had passed, yet he also knew it had only been an instant. In a daze, he heard someone far away shouting his name. Shaking his head, he saw that his battery's deputy commander was right beside his ear — the shock and roar just now had left him unable to hear clearly.

"Get up and help! Fire the cannon, blast the bastards! Move!" The deputy commander shouted and kicked him. Li Hai'ou instinctively jumped to his feet. A corner of the battery's fortification had been blown open. There were several bodies on the ground, blood and flesh everywhere. The squad leader lay slumped over a cannon mount nearby, several shards of stone embedded in his body, blood already pooling across the ground.

At that very moment, another roar came from the sea inside the harbor. Everyone in the battery flinched involuntarily — that first ship must have finished reloading and begun firing too.

"Quick! Quick! I'm going to sink them! Ship cannons think they can duel our shore batteries — they're missing a few screws in the head!" The deputy commander shouted, his voice hoarse. The family retainers stumbled a bit as they scrambled into action, but soon their movements grew crisp and efficient. Some cannon mounts had been smashed, but there were two spare sets near each battery. At a time like this, the firing drill steps could not be skipped even more.

First, a wet swab cleaned the bore and extinguished any lingering sparks. Then a dry swab went in to wick out residue and moisture. Next, a bore hook was rotated through once. After that, they roughly estimated and loaded the powder charge, using a gunner's rule to confirm the amount, tamping the powder down firmly, then inserting the cannonball. The wrought-iron gun carriage proved its sturdiness — though caught in the earlier shelling, it had merely been knocked out of position.

After all this, Li Hai'ou and the others shouted together as they muscled the cannon back into position. Righting this twelve-pounder was no easy task. The battery's deputy commander stood at the breach, ranging and estimating the firing angle, calling out numbers continuously. Following his shouts, the surviving retainers drove wedge-shaped wooden quoins between the cannon and its carriage, steadily adjusting the muzzle.

Those four ships on the harbor waters were far too large a target — there was no way to miss!

"Fire!" The fuse was lit. The retainers scattered to both sides, all covering their ears. The entire battery shuddered. Li Hai'ou didn't even bother tending to the cannon; he rushed to the breach to look, desperately hoping this shot had struck the enemy ship!

"Get back to your post, now! Go!" The deputy commander roared, shoving Li Hai'ou back. But before that, they had all already seen that this shot had missed, sending a towering column of water into the sky beside the second ship. They could also see the gun ports on both sides of these enemy ships, cannon muzzles protruding once more — a second round of shelling was coming. Li Hai'ou's heart turned to ice. Then he gritted his teeth and ran back, thinking that if it came to it, he'd stake his life on this fight!

But just then, he heard the deputy commander let out a great roar — a roar that was unmistakably a cheer. Li Hai'ou braced himself and glanced back, and saw that the second ship in the enemy line had been blasted with a huge hole.

At most shore batteries in the Great Ming, cannons only sealed off the most critical points. Once a ship passed that point, the cannons were powerless. Readjusting their firing angle and range took time measured in double-hours — they could simply be ignored. After adjustment, the cannons had no accuracy to speak of, and calibration was a joke. But the Xuzhou-made cannons deployed at Haizhou Port were different. They could rapidly adjust range and angle, and their accuracy was vastly improved.

The enemy ships on the harbor waters had never imagined that these shore battery cannons could reload so quickly, that they could be adjusted, and even less that, after suffering heavy losses, they could still counterattack so swiftly and so resolutely! Eleven batteries still had cannons capable of firing, and the first to strike an enemy ship was a sixteen-pounder!

The twenty-catty shell punched through one side of the hull and struck a cannon inside the ship. That cannon had just finished loading. The violent collision triggered an explosion. Shattered metal fragments and wooden splinters swept through that deck, then blasted through the opposite side. Four of the shore battery cannons missed, but all the rest scored direct hits!

The Western galleons, carrying over twenty cannons each, were massive vessels. They made easy targets to aim at — only, from start to finish, they had believed they had evaded the shelling, that they would not be aimed at, and would not be hit!

By now, the men aboard the four galleons were panicking. Being struck by large-caliber shells — whether the damage to the ships or the casualties among the sailors — was an unbearable loss, not to mention that the shore batteries would certainly not stop at just this single round of accurate fire!

The ship cannons on the four vessels opened fire, but in their panic, they did not inflict the same carnage as the previous volley. Braving the flying mud, sand, and stone shards, Li Hai'ou and the cannon crew retainers pushed their cannon forward again. The deputy commander was smearing wet mud onto a wooden board, then stuffing it into the bore. Using a ramrod, he pushed it into contact with the powder charge. Then, with iron tongs whose handles were wrapped in wood, he plucked a red-hot cannonball from the brazier. Straining and careful, he placed it into the bore, corrected the angle once more, and gave the order to fire.

As this shell was launched, Li Hai'ou clenched his teeth so hard they nearly cracked, praying only that it would strike the enemy ship. A red-hot shot like this, if it hit, would set the enemy vessel's wooden structure ablaze. A shipboard fire was a catastrophe — let those red-haired, green-eyed foreign devils feed the fish!

The shell did strike. Ignoring the deputy commander's scolding, Li Hai'ou was about to cheer, but the next instant, his cheer died in his throat. The ship struck by this shell actually exploded, the entire vessel erupting in raging flames.

"It hit the powder magazine!" Li Hai'ou understood what had happened and roared in excitement.

As they watched that galleon burn fiercely on the sea, the surviving crew and sailors aboard leaping into the water — some visible with flames engulfing their bodies — this single shot terrified the other three ships. Abandoning their line formation, they began to scatter. The harbor waters were relatively cramped; maneuvering under full sail was difficult, but at this point, they could no longer afford to care.

But the port's several batteries were firing with mad abandon. Another galleon was struck; the shell skimmed across the deck and sheared off two masts outright. That ship slowed at once. The remaining two, firing as they went, began to turn and wheel about, preparing to charge out of the batteries' coverage zone.

Once they broke formation, once they raised sail and turned, and with the two ships splitting apart, the shore batteries' accuracy began to drop. Shells fell continuously into the sea around the ships or grazed across decks, but without the decisive results of moments before.

Yet at this moment, the bell on the harbor's observation platform rang incessantly. Someone looked toward the harbor entrance and saw boats laden with men entering. Those boats had already lowered their oars and were rowing forward. But now, these boats too were turning and wheeling about — the fate of those four carracks was plain for all to see.

"Quick! Quick!" Someone on the dock was also shouting. Four heavy cannons were being hauled up. Each cannon required over a dozen oxen and horses to drag. The iron wheels of the gun carriages crushed the gravel-strewn ground, grinding the stones beneath them to powder. It wasn't just the draft animals straining — the retainers shouted as they pushed the gun carriages, every man drenched in sweat despite the freezing wind.

They pushed them straight to a suitable spot on the dock, unhitched the oxen and horses, set up the cannons, and loaded the ammunition. Someone shouted, "Firing from here will hit the merchant ships in the harbor!"

"Forget it! We'll compensate them later. Fire! Aim at those foreign ships on the sea and fire!" The reply was equally hoarse and desperate. A roar of assent came from below. The man who had answered then shouted to the other side, "Wait until the cannons stop before you launch your boats, or we'll blast you too!"

The four heavy cannons, originally destined for the Third Brigade, were thus set up right on the dock, aimed at the galleons on the sea. Firing from here offered high accuracy, and repositioning and reloading were both easier. The order was given, and the four cannons fired in sequence. The ships anchored in the harbor were grazed by the shells — masts snapped, hull planks cracked — but the vessels themselves suffered no major damage. The shells, carrying immense momentum, howled as they flew past.

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