King of Mercenaries - Chapter 83: Coastal Defense Artillery

Marin’s worries had turned into reality, through the information the merchants had brought him, he was informed that the Lordship of Frisia was extremely discontent about Marin’s rampant act of recruiting the Frisian fishermen.

As for these Frisian fishermen, originally, a large majority of their fishing harvest would have to be surrendered to the Lords of Frisia. However, when Marin recruited them over, it was equivalent to robbing the profits of the Frisian nobles.

That’s why, in the Groningen Summit between the Lordship of Frisia, they were currently discussing whether or not to teach Marin a lesson…

To kill Marin, was not something the Frisian nobles dared to do, as that would be breaking the rules, as well as offend the Emperor, which would provide a casus belli for the Emperor to annex them. However, sending troops to attack Texel, loot and ransack the place while recapturing the Frisian fishermen who were recruited over, was absolutely problemless, neither would anybody speak foul of them.

Because it was Marin who first stole away the Frisian fishermen.

Naturally, Marin would not act like a sitting duck, as such, he intended to increase the defense of Texel…

Although Texel was an island, it was a bit special. Because this island couldn’t be landed from all sides.

The main thing was, two-thirds of the coast around Texel were all very shallow ocean areas. Whenever the tide ebbs, two-thirds of the shallow ocean region would turn into beaches filled with mud. When the tide rises, it’ll turn back into a shallow sea. If people attempt to land through these areas, the ships would easily become stranded. Smaller vessels were fine, but the larger ones absolutely must not approach the coast from these areas, otherwise they would definitely run aground.

Throughout the entirety of Texel, only Marsdiep at the Southern region, which was connected to the Southeastern region of Oudeschild, had waters which were deep enough, and was suitable for larger vessels to dock, as well as disembark.

That’s why, to guard against attacks from the Lordship of Frisia, all they needed to do was place defenses on the Southern and Southeastern regions of the island coasts. Amongst them, the bulk of the defenses should be placed by ‘t Horntje and Oudeschild, and their neighbouring coasts.

And the best way to defend against the attacking vessels of the Lordship of Frisia, based on the most effective way in current times, was probably to build artillery batteries. Heavy cannons could be placed on artillery batteries, and exchange fire with incoming hostile warships.

Also, artillery batteries are usually built by stone, and was good at withstanding cannonballs. But the same could not be said for warships, the warships of the current times, all the way until the mid 19th-century, were all built from wood. So their durability against metal cannonballs were very limited. Wooden warships exchanging fire with artillery cannons in a stone fort, it was obvious which would lose. Besides, the coastal artillery cannons could be built very heavy and very large, maximizing the firepower. While the cannons on the wooden ships would usually have many limitations, and cannot be built too heavily. Otherwise, if a large cannon was installed on a small ship, with the recoil from the cannon, it might actually capsize the ship.

As such, Marin immediately made his decision, to construct artillery batteries at ‘t Horntje and Oudeschild, in preparation against the possible attacks from the Lordship of Frisia.

Texel currently did not have the ability to construct cannons, neither did they have the required smiths. It was currently the end of the 15th century, cannonsmiths were still the cream of the crop of European talents. Even in those strong countries, a smith who knew how to make cannons was amongst their elite. Marin could easily recruit gunsmiths, but it would be difficult to recruit cannonsmiths. As such, he could only purchase cannons.

For that, Marin sent out his men, and hired the Jewish merchants to have them seek out information of cannons…

After some information gathering, Marin was informed that the cannon-smithing ability of the Holy Roman Empire was quite average, they could only build small bronze cannons, for use in land warfare. This was because the Holy Roman Empire was a country mainly based inland.

Also, in the southern parts of the Empire, the places near the Alps, cannons must be easy to carry, as well as capable of scaling the Alps. That’s why, the cannons can’t be built too large. While the cannons required for the artillery batteries must be heavy cannons. That’s why, the cannons within the Holy Roman Empire obviously did not match with the required description.

Other than that, France was also a country which placed lots of importance in making cannons, their cannon-making techniques were not bad. However, because Marin had made Charles VIII turn into an embarassment.

It was basically impossible for them to purchase cannons from the French.

As such, Marin could only turn his gaze towards other countries — England, Portugal and Spain… However, the people sent over there did not return with good news.

The men sent over to Spain and Portugal returned news saying that the most popular cannons were bronze breech-loading swivel guns — which was what the people of Ming Dynasty called “Frankish cannons”.

These cannons only had a range of 2000 feet, and was unsuitable to be used as coastal defense artillery. Even as cannons for warships, the firepower was considered lacking.

However, because the world was just entering the Age of Exploration, Europeans did not value cannon firepower that much. That’s why, these bronze swivel guns being popular was also within reason.

The development of European cannons was around the 16th century, due to necessity for naval warfare, heavy cannons like the muzzle-loading culverins were invented.

Also, bronze swivel guns weren’t capable to be made with large calibers. Because there was a major flaw in bronze — it becomes malleable when heated.

The bronze guns with smaller calibers were fine, but it was different for the larger ones. The guns with large calibers have high pressure. When the barrel gets heated, the barrel walls turn soft. Although bronze wouldn’t be as soft as pure copper after heating, it still would become soft. That’s fine for small caliber cannons, but because large caliber cannons have high pressure, so it would easily cause the barrel walls to contort when it was fired after overheating. If that happens, then that cannon would be scrapped.

As such, bronze swivel guns can’t be made too large, and only medium-sized ones can be made. If one wants heavy cannons, then the only option was iron-cast artillery cannons. Also, the cost of making iron cannons was much much lower than making a bronze one. After all, before the development of copper mines in Falun, Sweden, and the Dutch obtaining Japanese copper, the price of copper in Europe was still very expensive. To use large amounts of copper to make an artillery cannon, the price of one would definitely be exorbitant.

Marin was originally very disappointed, but there came good news frm England…

The personnel sent to purchase cannons from England had been split into several parties. The first few parties did not bring back any good news. But the ones sent to Sussex County brought home good news.

Sussex County was a coastal area Southeast of England, and had always been the developed area of England, as well as the heart of iron smelting in England. Since Dijon, France had discovered iron smelting in the mid 15th century, this technique had slowly been spreading outwards, and a dozen years ago, reached Weald of Sussex County, located across the shore of France.

As such, with the cannonsmiths of Sussex County, they attempted to make cannons out of iron-cast. Because the cost of iron-cast was much cheaper than copper.

After a dozen years of experimenting, the cannonsmiths of Sussex County had managed to craft culverin cannons out of iron.

According to the description of his underlings, the iron cannon prototypes were considered 12 pound cannons. Originally, the old cannonsmith, Johnson wanted to make 18 pound culverin cannons. However, with the ironsmithing technologies in this day and age…

When old Johnson wanted to make 18 pound calibers, because of the quality of the steel, the cannons keep misfiring. Because of that, Old Johnson’s nephew was heavily injured from the explosion and became crippled. Without any choice, Old Johnson had to reduce the caliber without reducing the overall weight of the cnanon, as such the iron-cast cannon was a 12-pounder class.

In order to research and develop this front-loading heavy iron cannon, Old Johnson had basically used up all his wealth. For the time being, he had only achieved preliminary progress. Old Johnson’s goal was to upgrade the iron cannons into 18 pound heavy cannons. Then, with his unmatched skill, to receive his reward from the king… “18 pound culverin cannon… could it be… this is the legendary culverin cannon? Marin was astonished.

He remembered, a century and sometime later, the first batch of culverin cannons the Portugese sold to the Ming Dynasty, appeared to have been 18 pound culverin cannons salvaged from a sunk British ship. As for this old cannonsmith called Johnson, it was very likely that he was one of the earliest developers of the culverin cannon.

…

“That’s a talent, we must not let him escape our grasp!”

As such, Marin ordered his men to go to Weald in Sussex County, England, and recruit Old Johnson and his family over to Texel, to make cannons for Marin.   Marin’s underlings have already scouted information ahead of time, because there was still the aftermath frm the “War of the Roses” in England, Henry VII was still having headaches to clean up the remaining opposition within his borders. That’s why, he wasn’t paying attention to cannonsmithing. As for Old Johnson, he wasn’t one of the imperial cannonsmiths within the army, and was just a civilian cannonsmith, only having assisting the official smiths in making cannons. Also, the iron cannons made by Old Johnson weren’t finalized and mass produced, so it was not recommended to the king, let alone being accepted or valued.

As such, Old Johnson was still not considered a cannonsmith at the level of a national treasure. That’s why recruiting Old Johnson wasn’t anything difficult, at the very least they wouldn’t be stopped from the English officers.

Marin had specifically sent out Mayor Haider Lermann of Denburg to lead the party, to head towards Weald of Sussex County, and secretly recruit Old Johnson and family. And after offering the young adults of Old Johnson’s family a “high” daily wage of 1 sterling (the daily wage of the average smith was 3 pennies), Johnson’s entire cannonsmithing family had uprooted and moved to Texel’s Denburg as a whole, and started making cannons for Marin.

As for Old Johnson’s problem of the cannons misfiring, Marin actually had a solution for that. The reason why the iron-cast cannons misfired was no other than the iron they used contained high amounts of impurities, for example, sulphur and phosphorus, which caused the barrel itself to become brittle. Also, raw iron contained high amounts of carbon, although it was strong, it lacked in tenacity, and wasn’t suited for making cannons. The suitable steel for making cannons, were actually wrought iron and mid-low carbon steel.

As for how to smelt iron, Marin may not be a professional, but he had already learned plenty of theoretical knowledge from other transmigration novels. For example, he knew that the most important secret why the early iron cannons made by the Britons did not misfire easily, was because they used reverbatory furnaces to perform secondary refining on molten steel.

A reverbatory furnace, was basically a relatively sealed furnace (including the air inlet and outlet). After adding raw iron and scrap iron into the furnace, because the heat energy was trapped in an enclosed space, it could not be dispersed, after reaching the top of the furnace and furnace walls, it was reflected back and focused onto the melting iron. After several hours of refining, and adding slagging agents (the most crude slagging agent was quicklime, which can be used for clearing sulphur and phosphorus). Then, after cleaning the slag (because of the difference in density, the slag would float on the surface of the molten metal, fishing it out would be fine), wrought iron or steel (need to control carbon content) would be obtained.

As for the renowned open hearth furnace, it was just adding a regenerator chamber within the reverbatory furnace.

The British Empire had completely mastered the technique of reverbatory furnace refining in the 18th century, this also allowed the Britons to craft well-made iron cannons which do not misfire easily. While the French did not understand this technique, and until the early 19th century, their ship cannons still misfire easily. Until the mid-19th century, France and the other European countries had started to catch wind of the reverbatory furnace refining technique. But closely after that, the open-hearth furnace had appeared, and humanity had entered the era of refining steel using open-hearth furnaces. As for cannons, they have also entered the era of forged cannons from cast cannons.

(A forge cannon was made by placing a steel pillar under a large hydraulic press of several thousand or even ten-thousand tonnes, and with high-pressure cold forging, to make the inner structure extremely compact and solid. Then, with the forged steel pillar, a high strength drill would be used to drill holes into it, and one would obtain a cannon barrel with extremely solid and durable walls. As for cannons made frm casting, because the atomic structure of the cannon was more sparse, the chamber pressure it could withstand would be much lower than forged cannons of the same mass. That’s why, the casting cannons of the early days usually would have thick cannon barrels. And compared to the forged cannons of modern times had barrels which were much slimmer.)

Marin wasn’t someone who studied steel, but he did read a good amount of related technology articles. He himself didn’t know how to do it, but he could still direct others to do it.   For example, the structure for this reverbatory furnace was very simple. He could totally supervise his smiths to make one, then create high quality wrought iron and steel. Then, using wrought iron or mid-low carbon steel cannons, it would undoubtedly be much bnetter than the iron-cast cannons with plenty of impurities, as well as not misfiring easily.   Of course, the reverbatory furnace refining technique, was an “advanced technology” that only appeared in the 18th century, so Marin couldn’t reveal it easily. That’s why, he needed to consider if he wanted to have his serfs which were limited in freedom to perform this task. Because the serfs are unable to leave their residences without valid reason, so there were no circumstances they would leak this technology. To the point that the life and death of a serf’s family was entirely in the hands of their Lords, so the risk and cost of betrayal was extremely high. As for smiths like Old Johnson who were recruited, their identities were more free. If other people paid him a higher price, he would probably be unable to withstand the temptation and leak the technology. Also, before Old Johnson had arrived in Texel, he had already signed an agreement with Haider Lermann, stipulating that Texel must not restrict their personal freedom. To that, even Marin must obey that contract. Otherwise, he would be unable to recruit more smiths.

Of course, all of that was for the future. The most important thing for Marin right now, was for the Johnson family to craft more 12 pound cast iron cannons for him as coastal defenses.

Currently, 3-pounders, 4-pounders and 6-pounder cannons were popular in Europe, and those exceeding 10 pounds were considered heavy cannons. If Marin used 12-pound cannons on his coastal artillery batteries, it would definitely be enough to suppress the warships of the Lordship of Frisia.

Because based on their intel, onboard the few warships the Lordship of Frisia owned, the largest caliber cannon they had were 6-pounders, and was absolutely not a match for 12 pounders.