Chapter 363: Clearly Missed
Chapter 363: Clearly Missed
The fleet was getting closer and closer.
The cannon on Bai Yuan’s side was also fully loaded.
He moved behind the cannon, aimed left, aimed right, and began adjusting the elevation angle of the barrel.
Wang Er couldn’t help but say: “Fire directly? Not talk to them first? This seems against Jianghu rules.”
Bai Yuan said: “To talk, you have to get close. If we let them bring the ships near the dock, what use is our cannon then? Might as well not defend Qiachuan Port and just let them land directly.”
Wang Er said: “…”
That made sense!
Wang Er realized that once they used firearms in battle, they couldn’t let the enemy get close; pre-battle shouting wasn’t possible at all.
The battlefield seemed like no place for Jianghu rules!
Fine! When Wang Jiayin’s brother-in-law and kinsmen tried to kill me, they hadn’t discussed Jianghu rules with me either.
Wang Er stopped speaking.
Bai Yuan chuckled, took a torch from Ground Rabbit’s hand, and lit the fuse on one cannon.
The fuse was burning, and everyone’s attention focused on the cannon.
Bai Yuan and the Gaojia Village Militia silently stepped back a bit and covered their ears with both hands.
They had seen firearms fire; a small amount of gunpowder could produce a huge noise and powerful blast. This Red Flag Cannon was a zhang long, with a caliber many times larger than a firearm, and the giant iron ball inside was far bigger than the lead bullets used in firearms.
How powerful would this thing be when fired?
It was too terrifying to imagine!
So they backed farther away and farther still, not daring to loosen their grasp on their ears even a little.
Bai Yuan, holding his ears, looked over and saw some members of the Heyang County militia weren’t covering theirs. He quickly shouted at them: “Step back farther and cover your ears!”
The militia members snapped out of it at his shout, and everyone covered their ears.
Then, the fuse completely burned!
“Boom!”
A tremendous roar, truly earth-shattering; the Red Flag Cannon shook violently, its muzzle spitting a burst of angry flames that propelled a giant iron ball forward. At the same time, the barrel itself bounced, spewing a vast cloud of smoke.
Even the rocks supporting the cannon barrel were seriously displaced.
Although everyone was already covering their ears, the sound vibrating through their bones was still deafening.
“What immense power!”
“How terrifying!”
The militia members witnessing the cannon’s power for the first time were all stunned with terror.
Bai Yuan’s attention, however, was on the enemy fleet; he wanted to see whether the cannon he had aimed and adjusted for so long had hit the target in one shot.
Yet…
Not at all!
On the distant river surface, a huge water column suddenly erupted, and that water column was a zhang away from the nearest ship.
What a terribly crooked shot.
Bai Yuan let out a pained “Ah!”, clutching his head with both hands: “My archery skill should be crossed out, remove it.”
However, although the cannonball hadn’t scored a direct hit, it caused the people aboard Bai Yuzhu’s forces to collectively startle.
Someone shouted from the boats: “This is bad! The enemy has cannons!”
“Who would have thought that tiny little Heyang County has cannons too?”
“Definitely not the county magistrate’s cannons. Sent over from Xi’an?”
“General Wang Chengen of Shaanxi? No, impossible. Wang Chengen has left to enter the capital to serve Wang.”
“Then who fired the cannon?”
“If Wang Chengen is absent, it might be the Provincial Governor of Shaanxi arriving personally.”
A chorus of panicked yells arose from the boats.
The bandits were flustered!
Their panic was understandable, for they had recently been taught a lesson by cannons.
Just a few days ago, Wang Jiayin had sent them to “cross the river to attack a city” and assault Hequ County in Shanxi. Back then, they had also been rowing their boats, singing songs, confident they could easily take the small county town.
Little did they know, General Wang Guoliang of Shanxi had set up cannons on the county walls and unleashed a barrage on the boat flotilla, blasting them into utter disarray.
What had happened last time seemed only like yesterday, they remembered as vividly as they did back then.
That vivid memory came flooding back now!
The sudden cannon fire made them recall the terror they faced when they were under cannon fire.
“Brother Bai! The enemy has cannons!”
“What should we do?”
Even aboard Bai Yuzhu’s flagship, a group of fierce bandits was also unsettled, surrounding him and pressing him urgently for answers.
Bai Yuzhu wasn’t particularly outstanding in strength, but he wasn’t particularly weak. Facing this situation, he didn’t seem too panicked. After a few seconds of contemplation: “Don’t be afraid. They only fired one shot. Maybe they only have one cannon?”
As soon as he finished speaking.
Boom! A second cannon blast rang out from the distant pier.
This time, Bai Yuan hadn’t aimed any better – aiming a smoothbore cannon was inherently impossible. But his luck was better than last time. With a loud splash, a jet of water surged up very close to the side of a little fishing boat.
The Yellow River’s current was swift and treacherous, making boat handling difficult even under normal circumstances. Suddenly, a cannonball landed so close to the boat, throwing up a water jet, naturally causing violent churning in the water. A larger boat might have withstood it, but this was only a little fishing boat. It lurched violently and nearly capsized.
Aboard it were ten bandit soldiers and one boatman. The boatman, who earned his living on the river, was unfazed by such turbulence. But the ten bandits were not so steady.
The boat pitched, and seven of the bandits tumbled into the water.
Most northerners weren’t swimmers. Falling into the water threw them into a panic. They sputtered, gulping down two mouthfuls of the muddy Yellow River, flailing their arms and legs wildly.
The boatman quickly stretched out an oar to help them. Unexpectedly, someone in the water, in their panic, grabbed the oar and yanked with all their might, dragging the boatman into the river as well.
The boat, now unmanned, careened wildly forward and thudded into another little fishing boat. The impact caused the second boat to lurch violently as well, shaking three more bandits into the water.
Nearby boats rushed to rescue them, causing immediate chaos in the center of the flotilla.
Bai Yuzhu shouted: “Damn it!”
Meanwhile, on the shore, Bai Yuan was overjoyed: “Ha ha ha ha ! I scored a hit! I got one this time! My archery skill, add it back!”
Wang Er countered: “You clearly missed. They just panicked themselves.”
Pretending not to hear, Bai Yuan leaped over to the cannon with a flourish and laughed heartily: “Quick now! Reload!”
But as soon as he yelled the command, he realized something was wrong.
After firing, both cannons had shifted position. Their muzzles were no longer pointing where he had roughly aimed them. They needed to be reset. But these heavy monstrosities were a major hassle to reposition. It would take several men lifting together just to move one.
Ground Rabbit, Zheng Gouzi, and the others swarmed forward, ready to reset the cannons. But as soon as one militia soldier put his hand on a cannon, he yelped “Ouch!” and snatched it back: “It’s scalding hot!”
Bai Yuan understood immediately: “The amount of gunpowder loaded inside was too much. The explosion generated immense heat in an instant, heating the entire barrel. Cool it down! It needs cooling first! Quickly, quickly! Fetch water to douse it.”
The stockade had prepared numerous buckets of water nearby. Someone lifted a bucket and splashed it over the cannon. With a loud hiss, the red-hot barrel instantly vaporized much of the water, sending up a plume of steam. The intensity of the heat was clear to see.
Bai Yuan yelled urgently again: “It’s cooled! Reset it quickly! Bring a brush! Clean out the residue left in the bore! And also, get a roll of cloth! Tie it onto a rod! You need to push it into the barrel to dry the inside, otherwise we can’t fire it!”
Chaos reigned around the gun emplacement.