Chapter 363: It Clearly Missed
The fleet drew closer.
On Bai Yuan's side, the cannons were loaded and ready. He moved behind one, peering left and right, beginning to adjust the barrel's elevation.
Wang Er couldn't help but interject, "Are we just going to open fire? Shouldn't we at least exchange a few words first? This doesn't seem to follow the unwritten codes of our world."
Bai Yuan retorted, "To talk, we'd have to let them get close. If they bring their boats right up to the dock, what good are our cannons? We might as well not defend Qichuan Ferry at all and just let them land."
Wang Er fell silent.
He had a point.
Wang Er realized that with gunpowder weapons, you couldn't let the enemy get close. All those pre-battle taunts and parleys? Utterly impossible.
A battlefield, it seemed, was no place for the old codes of conduct!
Never mind! Wang Jiayin's wife's brother and his own kinsmen hadn't bothered with any "codes" when they'd tried to kill him.
Bai Yuan grinned, taking a torch from Padi Tu's hand and lighting the fuse on one of the cannons.
As the fuse sizzled, all eyes were fixed on the cannon.
Bai Yuan and the Gao Family Village Militia quietly retreated, hands clasped over their ears.
They had witnessed matchlock firearms discharging; just a tiny amount of gunpowder could produce a deafening blast and considerable force. But this Red Barbarian Cannon was ten feet long, its bore countless times wider than a matchlock, and the great iron ball it fired was leagues beyond the lead shot used in smaller guns.
What kind of power would this thing unleash when it fired?
It was almost unimaginable!
So they backed away, and then further still, hands clamped tightly over their ears, unwilling to loosen their grip even slightly.
Peeking out from behind his hands, Bai Yuan noticed some of the Heyang County militia nearby hadn't covered their ears. He quickly roared at them, "Get back! Cover your ears!"
Startled by his shout, the militiamen came to their senses and quickly clapped their hands over their ears.
Then, the fuse burned down!
"BOOM!"
With a colossal, earth-shaking blast, the Red Barbarian Cannon recoiled violently. A furious plume of flame erupted from its muzzle, propelling a massive iron ball through the air. At the same instant, the barrel itself kicked back, spewing forth a colossal cloud of smoke.
Even the stone supports beneath the barrel were shifted considerably.
Though their ears were covered, the vibrations that rattled through their bones were still deafening.
"What incredible power!"
"Terrifying!"
The militiamen, witnessing the cannon's might for the first time, were all stunned into silence.
Bai Yuan's attention, however, was fixed on the enemy fleet. He wanted to see if the cannon, which he had aimed and adjusted for so long, would strike its target with this single shot.
However...
It did not!
On the distant river, a colossal plume of water suddenly erupted, a full ten feet away from the nearest ship.
A truly wild shot.
Bai Yuan let out a wail, clutching his head in his hands. "The art of the shot, cross it off, cross it off!"
Although the cannonball didn't hit directly, it sent a collective jolt through Bai Yuzhu's men.
Someone on a boat shouted, "Damn it, they have cannons!"
"Who knew a small place like Heyang County would have cannons?"
"Surely those aren't the magistrate's cannons. They must have been transferred from Xi'an, right?"
"Is it Shaanxi's Grand General Wang Cheng'en? No, that's impossible. Wang Cheng'en went to the capital to defend the emperor."
"Then who's firing the cannons?"
"Even if Wang Cheng'en isn't here, it could be the Shaanxi Provincial Governor himself."
A clamor of anxious shouts rose from the boats.
The rebels were starting to panic!
And they couldn't be blamed for their fear; they had received a harsh lesson from cannons not long ago.
Just days earlier, Wang Jiayin had dispatched them to "cross the river and attack the city" against Hequ County in Shanxi. Back then, they had been just like this, rowing boats and singing songs, confident that such a small county town would be easily taken.
Who would have thought that Shanxi's Grand General Wang Guoliang had mounted cannons on the county walls and blasted their fleet, sending them scattering in utter terror.
The memory of that shelling felt as fresh as if it had happened moments ago.
Still vivid in their minds!
Now, the sudden cannon fire brought back the terrifying memory of being dominated by artillery.
"Brother Bai," someone cried, "the enemy has cannons!"
"What should we do?"
On Bai Yuzhu's flagship, a group of fierce bandits also showed signs of panic, pressing around him with urgent questions.
Bai Yuzhu was not a man of outstanding strength, but neither did he have glaring weaknesses. Confronted with this situation, he didn't appear flustered. After a few seconds of thought, he declared, "Don't be afraid. They've only fired one shot. Perhaps they only have one cannon?"
No sooner had he spoken than...
...from the distant dock, a "BOOM!" echoed, and the second cannon shot arrived.
This time, Bai Yuan didn't aim any better—smoothbore cannons were inherently inaccurate—but his luck was better than the first shot. With a loud "SPLASH!", a column of water shot up very close to a small fishing boat.
The Yellow River's current was swift, making boat handling difficult enough. When a cannonball suddenly struck so close, sending up a water plume, the current naturally became violently turbulent. A larger vessel might have weathered it, but this was only a small fishing boat. It lurched violently, nearly capsizing.
On board were ten rebels and a boatman. The boatman, accustomed to life on the river, found such rocking insignificant. But the ten rebels were another matter.
As the boat swayed, seven rebels tumbled into the water.
Most northerners were poor swimmers, and as soon as they hit the water, they panicked. They sputtered, swallowing mouthfuls of Yellow River water, flailing their limbs desperately.
The boatman quickly extended an oar to help, but unexpectedly, one of the men in the water grabbed it and yanked, pulling the boatman in too.
The now uncontrolled boat careened forward, colliding with a crash into another small fishing vessel. This caused the second boat to lurch violently, and three more rebels plunged into the water.
Nearby boats rushed over to assist, and chaos erupted in the middle of the fleet.
Bai Yuzhu exclaimed, "Damn it!"
Meanwhile, Bai Yuan was ecstatic. "Hahahaha, a hit! A hit! I hit it this time! The art of the shot, add it back!"
Wang Er interjected, "It clearly missed! They just panicked on their own."
Bai Yuan pretended not to hear, swiftly leaping back to the cannon's side, laughing loudly. "Quickly, reload!"
But no sooner had he shouted than he realized something was wrong.
Both cannons, after firing once, had shifted out of position. Their muzzles no longer pointed in the direction he had aimed. They needed to be reset, but this heavy machinery was a troublesome thing to reposition, requiring many men to lift and carry it together.
Padi Tu, Zheng Gouzi, and others swarmed forward, ready to reposition the cannon. But the moment one militiaman's hand touched it, he cried out, "Ouch!" and snatched his hand back. "It's scorching hot!"
Bai Yuan immediately understood. "Too much gunpowder was packed into this thing! The explosion generated an immense amount of heat, scorching the entire barrel. We need to cool it down first, quickly, quickly! Bring water to douse it!"
The fortress had plenty of water prepared. Someone brought buckets, dousing the cannon with a loud splash. The scalding barrel immediately vaporized a good portion of the water, sending up a cloud of steam – clear evidence of just how hot the thing was.
Bai Yuan urgently called out again, "Once it's cooled, reposition it quickly! Bring brushes to clear any residual powder from the barrel. And don't forget to get cloths wrapped around sticks, we need to reach deep inside the barrel and dry out the water, or it can't be used!"
The entire gun platform was a scene of utter confusion.
Comments