His hard work will not be in vain. At the very least, disassembling the iron ribs of the wreckage will be valuable to him - these are malleable iron, which can save him a lot of manpower and material resources invested in metallurgy.
However, he soon got a gift more valuable than iron. The diver he hired to dig for pearls soon discovered a "surprisingly large cannon" on the reef more than two meters deep. Evaris
Thomas Okamoto went into the water himself, and through the transparent blue water, he discovered that it was a Dahlgren cannon.
This is one of the two main guns on the 901. One of them was originally dismantled from the ship by the naval rescue team using a winch. This one cannot be salvaged because it sank deep in the reef. This typhoon will
It was pushed from the depths of the reef to the shallows. The storm destroyed its gun mount, but the entire gun body was intact, and sea creatures did not even have time to cover the entire gun body.
Hale immediately ordered the salvage of the gun. With the help of pulleys and reefs, hundreds of coolies worked for three days and finally fished the Dahlgren gun from the reef ashore.
Evaristo Okamoto, who had found the treasure, immediately measured the cannon. He soon discovered that the cannon was not made according to the imperial system. Although he did not have a metric measuring tool on him, he could easily guess that the caliber of the cannon was
130mm.
"For a Dahlgren gun, this caliber is a bit small." This was Evaristo Okamoto's first evaluation of this cannon.
With the technology and craftsmanship he currently possesses, he is still unable to manufacture such a powerful front-loading rifled gun. However, this artillery can be used as an important weapon to defend Manila. In addition, it also gives him the next step of experimental testing.
The manufacture of this artillery provides a reference sample.
Soon he got a second, better gift: a small artillery piece. He had already seen the small naval artillery made by the Australians on the Harbor Patrol No. 64. It was still a traditional smoothbore cannon. But this gun
But it's completely different. This is a 75mm caliber Dahlgren gun.
This is the first time Hale has seen such a small-caliber Dahlgren gun. Dahlgren guns rarely have small and medium-caliber artillery. In the mid-to-late 19th century when this kind of artillery became popular, it was basically responsible for coastal artillery and fortress artillery.
The role of the Dahlgren gun on many coastal forts in the United States is mostly above 200mm, and the 406mm caliber Dahlgren gun is not uncommon.
This group of Chinese actually made a 75mm Dahlgren gun! This is beyond Evaristo Okamoto's imagination. Apart from their unwillingness to waste resources and make their warships overpowered, Hale could not find any other reason.
reasons.
"Immediately ship the two cannons back to Manila and hand them over to Marcos." He ordered, "Tell him. I want them to be restored to their best condition soon!"
"Yes, sir."
"Twenty pesos will be awarded to the diver who finds the cannon!" Hale ordered, "One peso to each person who participated in the cannon recovery! Report any new discoveries to me immediately!"
Under material stimulation, the coolies who had been struggling in the sea under the scorching sun rallied their energy and fished out more things. First, they fished out a number of cannonballs, and then fished out the equipment for firing.
Medicine bags and powder barrels, these things were of course of little value. But he still did not hesitate to pay bounties.
So a steady stream of all kinds of junk was picked up: several damaged short-barreled Navy Minie rifles, a 12-gauge shotgun, more cannonballs and a small amount of propellant. Then there were boilers and steam engines.
The wreckage, these things have been blown to pieces in the storm and explosions, and many of the wreckage have disappeared. However, Evaristo Okamoto still carefully directed the coolies to roughly display the wreckage on the beach for his careful study.
Neither the boiler nor the engine can be reused. Hale knows this very well. The opponent is a veteran and has completely destroyed the tide. But from observing these wreckage, he can still infer what kind of weapons his opponents probably have.
industrial capabilities.
According to the intelligence collected in the past and the analysis of the wreckage this time, these Chinese who come from the same time and space as themselves cannot yet build iron-hulled ships. All their ships, including warships, are made of wooden hulls. Obviously, they do not think that this time and space
Whose firepower can threaten their ships is consistent with their thinking of equipping their main warships with small and medium-caliber Dahlgren guns - "just enough".
He browsed through these culminations of "Australian" industry, and his heart was extremely shocked. It was one thing to know what they had, but it was another thing to see it with his own eyes.
"The gap is too big!" He thought to himself. What he saw today completely confirmed all the intelligence collected so far. The Chinese on Hainan Island have an astonishing advantage in the power of the industrial system.
In comparison, the situation that I worked so hard to create in Manila was really vulnerable to them.
If this group of Chinese decides to intervene in Manila with force, everything he has done in the Philippines so far will be wiped out. Evaristo Okamoto is secretly worried. Fortunately, God sent him this artillery, giving him more money.
A little bit of bargaining chip. Now it is necessary to upgrade Manila's defense level as soon as possible at all costs. The new large-caliber rifled cannon must be started as soon as possible, and the progress of mines and rod mine boats must also be accelerated.
The scrap-picking operation on the Tidemaker is still going on. Although the boiler and steam engine have no possibility of repair or use, the pile of scrap copper and iron is still loaded on the ship and shipped back to Manila. Then it was salvaged from the water.
Part of the anchor chain, the remains of the windlass, and the iron ribs of the ship were all dismantled. Evaristo Okamoto didn't even let go of the remaining copper skin on the bottom of the ship, and organized coolies to peel it off bit by bit.
"The barrage located on the lower reaches of the San Juan River has been completed, and the water stored in it is used to drive multiple groups of water wheels, each group including two to four water wheels of different sizes. I observed that all water wheels are installed
The drive gear set makes the power they deliver to factory machinery smooth and efficient...
Even the local Spanish in Manila were surprised by the resolute work efficiency of the colonial government, because procrastination and laziness were its normal style. An explosion occurred in the newly built gunpowder factory recently, burning all the wooden sheds used as factories. However,
In less than half a month, they transported new wood and repaired the damaged building. Even under the governor's strict order, workers had restarted production before the factory repair work was completely completed. At present, the military-industrial complex has
No less than a thousand Chinese workers were recruited, as well as thousands of native Tagalog coolies. The person in charge of the Wang family shipyard publicly complained that the new munitions factory attracted so many Chinese craftsmen that he lacked enough manpower to complete the Wang family shipyard.
Therefore, the Manila authorities decided to further expand the recruitment of Chinese craftsmen. For this purpose, special personnel have been sent to Macau. The salary of Chinese working in the military-industrial complex is twice as high as that of odd jobs in Manila and Parian.
Craftsmen with specialized skills earn more, but they can only receive it after reaching the service period stipulated in the contract. Moreover, they are concentrated in camps attached to several specially built factories, and their every move is closely monitored and controlled.
to prisoners...
"The Fortress of Saint Anthony added a large-caliber artillery that looks similar to the Dahlgren gun. The artillery was brought by ship. It is not clear the specific origin of this gun and whether it really has rifling. However, the Spaniards used Dahlgren.
The Lun Cannon is heavily guarded and no one is allowed to approach it. It is said that a new fort is being built for this cannon in the fortress, and the gun mount is also newly designed.
"Droideka's whereabouts and specific address are still unknown. According to colonial officers and priests who had close contact with him, he sometimes lived in a church, but more often he hid in a cave outside Manila or secluded himself.
He lives in a hermitage in a certain valley in the territory - it is said that he built a hermitage in the valley. But I personally think that he mainly operates in the newly built arms factory outside Manila. It is heavily guarded there and there is no governor for outsiders.
No one was allowed to enter the factory. The guards were ordered to shoot anyone who tried to enter the factory without permission.
"No doubt, he did this to avoid the interference of stupid and nosy Catholic priests in the design and testing of weapons. I think it is very necessary to take some proactive actions in moderation at this time. If droideka feels some kind of threat, he will
It would be beneficial to us if our whereabouts were limited to Manila City or the arms factory..."
Jiang Shan put down a thick stack of translation manuscripts and pressed his temples. Every time Weiss Lando's report was a long and eloquent article, it kept the translation room busy for a long time - fortunately he could
Read English directly, otherwise this thing will be as slow as the Japanese Embassy's declaration of war. He is writing the report as a novel, Jiang Shan thought, it is a pity that this guy doesn't become a reporter or write a 007 story.
It was already late at night, and in the office building you could only hear the movement of the night duty personnel, and the crackle of typing could be heard from time to time from the secretariat. Jiang Shan packed up the documents, locked them in the safe, locked the door, and then went downstairs.
He went to the dormitory for a simple shower. Apart from work, he had not returned to his apartment for several days. He only asked the life secretary to deliver meals and a change of clothes to the door. If he did not insist on five kilometers of long-distance running every day or in the sea
1,500 meters upstream, I am afraid that I will no longer be able to sustain such continuous work. (To be continued...)