Chapter 53: Oxhide Bamboo Tube Water Cannon

  Isn't it a pleasure to have friends come from afar?Ji Yue Xiu brought Jiang Shi Ji over and they scooped up a few cups of wine, Zhang Fu Chen rushed over from Liaodong, covered in dust. Lin Yu Shan accompanied the Yin sisters on a stroll along both banks of the Baishui River. Liu Shi took charge of receiving guests and welcomed friends who came to visit from all directions. Cao Kun and Wu Zi Yu were busy with military training, so they just sent a congratulatory telegram. Peng Ying Jia and Yang Zeng Xin came together to offer congratulations, and also brought a handwritten congratulatory letter from the Governor-General.

  Chen An directly opened a three-day banquet in the increasingly prosperous county town, letting all men and women, old and young, have a good time.

  The wedding night soon passed, and the bustling county town slowly quieted down.

  Jing Xiu returned to Yulin from Hanzhong, Zhang Fuxiang passed through Hubei and took the Beijing-Hankou Railway back to Liaodong, Peng Yingjia and Yang Zengxin went to Xiguan to Lanzhou, the Yin sisters sailed down the river, Chen Anyi saw off the rare guests.

  Lu Si worked very efficiently and came up with a preliminary plan in just over a month, noting the sources and reasons.

  "Lihe Company's preliminary idea for renovating the Jialing River waterway?" Chen An read out loud, finding it quite amusing.

  Laine named the company after a river. Lucy thought the phonetic translation sounded bad, like the name of a monkey, and suggested changing it to Minsheng Company (meaning "people's life" in Chinese). However, Chen An vetoed it, saying that "Minsheng" had a revolutionary party flavor and couldn't be used casually. So the company still used the phonetic translation "Lifo Company".

  According to Lu Si's idea, the first thing is to remove dangers and widen the river section below Bai Long Jiang Bi Kou, ensure that large-tonnage wooden ships can pass through first, then govern the six dangerous shoals of Jialing River such as Ju Liang Tan, so that 100-ton ships can sail upstream, and finally thoroughly govern the river section of Bai Long Jiang, so that it can also be reached by 100-ton ships.

  As for the method of blasting, Lu Si directly listed the "cowhide bamboo tube water cannon method" obtained from the old boatman as the first choice, but also wrote that this method requires a large amount of explosives.

  "Explosives?" Chen An muttered to himself, this was exactly what he didn't need.

  Lu Si's face tensed up, if there wasn't enough explosives, dredging the waterway was just empty talk.

  Chen An hesitated for a moment before speaking up, "Lu Si, can we use cannonballs to blast it?"

  Almost dropped the cup, just worried about no explosives, boss said can use artillery shells? Lu Si cried and laughed, hurriedly reminded, "Mr. Chen, this seems to be more expensive than explosives, and it's for blasting hard rocks underwater, I don't know if artillery shells can be used."

  "It doesn't matter, let's find a military expert and we'll know." Chen An had another idea in his mind, to train the artillery troops.

  Soon, Xu Shangwu was invited to the general office. After listening to Chen An's idea, he burst out laughing, "Mr. Chen, if you're not afraid of spending money, using cannonballs is also feasible, but we need to manually make delayed-action fuses for the cannonballs."

  "Delayed fuse?" Chen An was puzzled.

  "Nowadays, shells are all triggered by fuses, which explode upon impact. However, when it comes to clearing underwater targets, it's not convenient. We have to use delayed-action fuses, so that the shell explodes a few seconds after entering the water, just in time to shatter the rocks."

  Chen An nodded, "Alright then, I'll use a cannon to blast it."

  Soon, Liu Shi, who had just returned to Qishan, was transferred back to Chenjiazhuang, and Hu Zi temporarily took over as the commander of the vanguard. The purpose of Liu Shi's return was to prepare for the transformation of the middle camp into a heavy firepower camp, with two squads of twelve large cannons and one squad of six Vickers machine guns. As Liu Shi was more familiar with artillery, he naturally took charge.

  Xu Zongban led several old craftsmen to nervously engage in the trial production of delayed-action fuse shells. Liu Shi took the middle camp south to Biku, preparing to test-fire on the river course in this county first, and then practice their skills later.

  Bikou Wharf quickly posted a notice that live ammunition shooting training will be conducted every day at noon for one hour, and the river channel will be closed at that time.

  The merchants were in an uproar, but when they saw the bright red seal was from the Northern Army, they suddenly fell silent. Chen An is now so arrogant and domineering that no one dares to provoke him, just wait and see.

  The five-day live-fire training is over, and the twelve large-caliber guns fired countless shells, stirring up a lot of mud and small fish. The accuracy of the artillery fire has indeed improved significantly, especially in the first test of the longest-range artillery tactics, which was quite effective.

  However, the report written by Lu Si pointed out that the 75mm shells were not powerful enough and might have difficulty effectively clearing the hard rocks at the bottom of the river even with delayed fuses. This was his conclusion from the effect of the shells exploding on the rocky wall of the riverbank.

  Chen An hastily consulted with Director Xu's office.

  "In that case, we can only use larger caliber cannons, such as 105mm. However, our country has never equipped the army with this type of cannon, and it is impossible to get naval guns." Xu Zongban replied to Chen An after studying the data provided by Lu Si.

  Chen An sent a telegram to Nissenberg, with whom he had maintained a long-term cooperative relationship, asking him to purchase at least one 105mm or larger caliber cannon and shells as soon as possible.

  Upon receiving the telegram, Nissenbaum nearly went mad. Could cannons be made of tofu? Can they be procured quickly? Considering the high commission, curses aside, Nissenbaum immediately contacted various arms dealers.

  After much difficulty, a Japanese arms dealer named Kameda secretly contacted Nissenbaum.

  "Do you have 105mm field guns in stock?" Nissenbaum was somewhat skeptical, the Japanese had a questionable reputation.

  "Mr. Nelsen, do not doubt my sincerity," said Kameda with confidence. "If you need it, I can deliver six 105mm field guns to Shanghai within half a month." Then he nodded to the interpreter to convey his words to Nelsen.

  "Nonsense!" Nissenbaum waved his hand. "No, Mr. Kame, you're mistaken. I only need two pieces, not the equipment for an entire artillery company."

  Turtle Tian was stunned, "Only two doors, how is the freight calculated?"

  A few days later, Kameda found Nissenberg again with some helplessness. "Alright, two doors for two doors, add 200 rounds of ammunition, a total of 76,000 taels, we are only responsible for delivering to Shanghai."

  Nilsen immediately agreed, but it was strange that Kame didn't seem like the type to be involved in arms trafficking within the military, and yet he was willing to do a small business deal involving two large cannons. Usually, people who engage in such small businesses are those who work in the logistics system of the military and only act when they have something to gain from it.

  Dragged Kameda to the bar, called over a few beauties to entertain him, and after a whiskey binge, Kameda, who was only used to drinking clear liquor, immediately lost his bearings.

  Nissenberg soon got to the bottom of things. Kameyama was a dealer for the Kokura Army Arsenal, and in 1905 not only did they finalize the Type 38 75mm field gun but also the Type 38 105mm field gun and 150mm field howitzer.

  The 75 mm field gun was immediately purchased by the Imperial Japanese Army, but the 105 mm field gun was temporarily rejected. The Japanese army believed that only a 75 mm field gun was needed for field battles, and siege warfare required heavy artillery of 150 mm or more, so there was no need to duplicate equipment with a 105 mm field gun.

  The Ogura Army Arsenal once produced a dozen or so 105mm field guns, but the army only purchased three for testing and the rest were left to gather dust in warehouses.

  Just as Nissenberg wanted to buy 105mm field guns, Kameda came to try his luck and could sell the accumulated large cannons. However, the transaction volume of only two doors made Kameda very disappointed. But the telegram from Japan indicated that two doors should also be sold, which can remind the Japanese army that there are many people interested in our 105mm field gun internationally.

  Nilsen immediately sent a telegram to Chen An.

  Chen An quickly replied, adding two 38-year-style 75mm field guns and two 150mm field guns to the purchase. Chen An was eager to know what differences there were between the final version of the 38-year-style 75mm field gun and the one used by his own troops. As for the procurement of the 150mm field gun, it was entirely a sudden whim of his, wanting to see the power of heavy artillery.

  Kameida was overjoyed to receive Nissenberg's order and immediately wired the news to Tokyo headquarters. This unexpected windfall of nearly 190,000 taels would bring him sufficient bonuses and accolades.

  While waiting for the arrival of three new field guns, the 75mm delayed-action fuse shell developed by Xu's office was successful, and after three test firings, it was officially finalized. Chen An produced a hundred rounds in one breath and sent them all to Liu Shi's side, letting the artillery thoroughly blast the hard rocks at the bottom of the river.

  Twelve large cannons, each with no more than eight rounds of ammunition, were soon exhausted after a few shots.

  As expected, the 75mm field gun attack was not ideal, and Chen An immediately ordered the troops to withdraw and wait for replacement with other artillery.

  This wait alone would take at least two months. Chen An had no choice but to let Liu Shi return to the garrison, Hu Zi came back with new recruits for training, and the middle camp was led by himself to continue training in Beizhai.

  Lu Si, after the troops withdrew, did not rest and immediately organized experienced old sailors to use cowhide bamboo tube water cannons in areas where big guns could not be fired, conducting manual blasting one by one.

  As a result, the river section below Biku, day and night, would hear the rumbling sound of explosions. The boats going up and down were surprised to find that the river section had been widened unintentionally, many dangerous sections had been blasted open, and the upper and lower reaches had become much smoother.

  Just then, an urgent telegram arrived from Shanghai. The imperial court was conducting a massive manhunt for members of the Guangfu Hui in Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui, the Guangfu Hui's Shanghai base had been raided, and the Yin sisters were forced to flee for many days on the streets of Shanghai. Krause ran into the two sisters, disguised as refugees, while out one day, and quickly took them into hiding at the Northern Bank.

  Krauze contacted Laine and hastily prepared a withdrawal route in case of an emergency to send the two directly to Jiāngzhōu.

  What's going on? The Shanghai Restoration Society's headquarters has been raided! How was it raided, Chen An was shocked. What about the others, why is there no news?

  Immediately, Chen An informed Lin Yushan that he would temporarily take control of the troops himself. He brought some of his men and rushed to Shanghai to investigate the truth, find Xu Bohui and Tao Chengzhang, and hopefully bring the two sisters back to Jiaxing.