China by Edward Rutherfurd (latest novels to read TXT) 📗

Lin descended from his litter and signaled Shi-Rong to stand just behind his shoulder. Nio stood close to his master. Then the captain of the guard shouted an order, and the archers loosed a flight of arrows, one, two, three times—at amazing speed. Nio was impressed.

“Those are the most powerful bows in the world,” Shi-Rong told him. “The arrows are so heavy they can go through two men.”

Now it was the turn of the musketeers. The captain shouted the first order. “Prime your pan!”

Swiftly the men took out small horn flasks and poured a little gunpowder into the small pan on the stock of the musket.

“Close your pan!” They slipped the lid across the pan, shook their musket, then blew any last traces of gunpowder safely away.

“Cast about. And load!” They tipped up the muzzle end, took one of the little packets of powder they carried on their jerkins, and emptied it down the barrel. Then the musket ball was dropped in, followed by a little cotton pad.

“Ram your charge.” Taking the scouring stick from its socket under the barrel, they rammed it down the barrel several times to push the ball and charge firmly into place. “Return your scouring stick.” The stick was put back in its socket for future use.

During all this complex process, Nio watched intently. Sea Dragon’s pirates hadn’t used firearms, and he’d never seen this drill before.

Shi-Rong glanced at him and smiled. “Just like loading a cannon,” he remarked.

“Fix your match!” the captain ordered. And the musketeers took the smoldering cord they carried in their left hands and attached it to the S-shaped metal lock above the firing pan. First they made sure it would come down exactly on the firing pan. Then they blew on the smoldering end to produce a tiny flame.

“Present!” the captain called, and they took aim. “Open your pan!” With right finger and thumb, each musketeer slipped back the cover of the pan to expose the gunpowder.

“Fire!” the captain shouted. The triggers were pulled, the lock descended onto the open pan, the gunpowder ignited, there was a loud bang, and a narrow flash of flame issued from the barrel of each gun, followed by a great plume of dark blue smoke. All, that is, except for three muskets that had failed to fire.

“Excellent!” cried Lin, and turned to Shi-Rong.

“Splendid,” Shi-Rong agreed, and turned to Nio. “Well,” he asked, “what do you think of that?”

Nio frowned. The process, from the first order to the firing of the musket, had actually taken a full minute. “It seems rather slow, sir,” he murmured hesitantly to Shi-Rong. And thinking of the speed with which Sea Dragon and the pirates used to move: “Wouldn’t the enemy rush at them before they were ready to fire?”

“What does he say?” Lin demanded.

As Shi-Rong told the great man, Nio cringed. How could he have been so stupid, when all he had to say was “Wonderful, sir,” or something of that kind? Would the commissioner be enraged and throw him back in jail?

But he mistook his man. Lin prided himself on knowing how things worked.

“The question is correct,” he announced. “Explain to him,” he told Shi-Rong, “the reason that the order of our army is so perfect is because each part supports the others. While our musketeers load, they are protected by a wall of pikemen. But when they fire, not only does the noise and smoke terrify the enemy, but the musket balls, which are made of lead, spread out on impact—and make a huge wound. I have seen a shoulder hit take off a whole arm. Any hit, you probably die.” He nodded grimly. “For over two hundred years, the world has trembled before our armies.”

—

As they mounted the huge baked-mud ramparts in front of the granite-walled fort, Shi-Rong looked around admiringly. Every wall had been reinforced. The same was true at the fort on the opposite riverbank. And as they reached the shore battery and gazed at the long line of big cannon set in their granite emplacements, he murmured, “Magnificent.”

Here again, the commissioner was treated to a demonstration. First, the whole line of cannon fired with a deafening roar. And everyone watched as the cannonballs made a line of splashes far out in the water. A moment later, they saw puffs of smoke, followed by a roar, from the battery almost two miles away on the opposite side. After this little show, the gunnery officer conducted Lin and Shi-Rong along the line of cannon to inspect the gun crews.

Nio waited. But when Lin was halfway along the line, he sidled up to the nearest cannon and looked at it curiously. It was a handsome monster. The outer surface of its mighty barrel was deeply pitted. “It looks old,” he said to the senior gunner.

“More than a hundred years, but it’s good as new,” the sturdy gunner answered.

Nio inspected the great gun more carefully. Its weight must be enormous, but he couldn’t see any mechanism for directing its fire.

“How do you point it?” he asked.

“The barrel’s fixed. No need to point it. We wait until the ship’s in front of us. Then the whole battery fires. So does the battery opposite.”

“It seems a long way to the far bank. Would the cannonballs reach ships out in the middle?”

“Ah, but the channel’s narrower between the next pair of forts, farther upriver. Nothing can get past them.”

“What if a dragon boat came in close to the bank, under the line of fire?”

“The troops would take care of them, wouldn’t they?”

“I suppose so.” Nio considered. “What if an enemy ship fires at you with their cannon?”

“Ships’ cannon aren’t that big. Nothing could get through the rampart walls, anyway. Not a chance.” The gunner laughed. “We’ll smash them to pieces, all right. They’d never get upstream.”

“I see what you mean,” said Nio politely. “Thank you.”

When the commissioner and Shi-Rong got back, they were looking very pleased.

“Ask him what he