Silence fell over the room.
“Is there anything else we need to discuss?” Charles asked.
No one replied.
“Then it is settled,” Charles said. “As soon as WanSow is fit to leave, we shall all be on our way. Now, I suggest we all get some rest. Tomorrow I'd like to start changing the look of my sloop.”
CHAPTER 12
The next few weeks were among the most trying of ShaoShu's life. Unable to leave the fortress, he spent nearly all of his time following Lei around like a lost puppy. His orders were to learn as much as possible about firearms in preparation for a future assignment, but without knowing what the assignment was, it was difficult for him to concentrate.
To make matters worse, he had an excellent memory, whereas most of the soldiers did not. Lei had to show the men the same basic tasks over and over before they finally understood the proper way to load a cannon or aim a musket. ShaoShu was certain he could now do these things in his sleep, even though he doubted he ever would. Firearms still frightened him.
Three weeks into the training, things finally began to get interesting. While Tonglong was off drilling a legion of foot soldiers, Lei took ShaoShu and several of the officers out to Tonglong's ship for a demonstration. The cannons aboard were Lei's, and the gun crews were made up of men Lei had previously trained to an extraordinary degree of efficiency. The soldiers and officers on shore had fired numerous muskets and pistols up to that point, but their cannons had remained silent, because the long-neglected weapons had not yet been fully refurbished. So far, their cannon training had involved only practice loading and pretend firing.
There were fourteen cannons on Tonglong's man-o-war, five along each side, plus two at the bow and two at the stern. Lei took command of the center-most cannon along the port side and unlashed it from the ship's side rail with a practiced ease. He ordered the fortress's small transport boat to release six large floating barrels at varying distances from the ship, and once the transport was safely retied to the ship's stern, Lei called all hands to their battle stations.
Amidst a flurry of activity, Lei leaned over, sighting his right eye along the length of his cannon's glimmering bronze barrel. He directed his gun crew to position the cannon to his liking by having them shift the barrel up and down and turn the cannon's carriage side to side on its heavy wooden wheels.
Lei explained that he always left the cannons loaded in case they were attacked, and this particular cannon was packed with a single twelve-pound ball. The floating targets were heavy-duty barrels constructed of wood nearly as thick as the planking on a Chinese junk or a typical Round Eye ship. This exercise would give an accurate representation of what would happen to an enemy vessel in an actual battle.
A gun-crew member lit a section of slow match with a flint firestone and a metal strike bar and handed the slow-burning fuse to Lei. Lei stepped off to one side of the cannon, well away from the bone-crushing undercarriage wheels, and leaned toward the cannon's back end. He timed the roll of the ship in relation to the roll of the targets upon the waves and touched the slow match's burning embers to the cannon's priming hole.
KA-BOOM!
ShaoShu leaped involuntarily at the deafening roar. Flames burst forth from the cannon's barrel, and the carriage recoiled sharply backward on its heavy wheels. Acrid smoke poured out of the cannon, filling half the deck. Across the water, the farthest barrel exploded into a thousand splinters, and the men on deck cheered with delight.
Inside its pouch, ShaoShu's mouse shivered uncontrollably.
Lei barked commands to the other gun crews.
“Men, prepare your guns!”
“Aim your guns!”
“Fire!”
The remaining five barrels were blown out of the water with alarming accuracy. The entire deck was awash in cannon smoke, and ShaoShu was left half blind and mostly deaf, wondering what Tonglong had in mind for him. He didn't want any part of this.
Hours later, his ears still ringing and his eyes still burning, ShaoShu sat hidden in an empty crate on deck, feeding his mouse. Shouts from high overhead and the sound of men scrambling about on deck drew his attention over the side, where he saw six large Chinese junks approaching. He was worried at first, wondering if the ships were going to attack, but then he realized that the activity on their deck was the sound of men furiously cleaning and straightening after the earlier cannon exercises. They were stowing their great guns, not arming them. No one was going to fire on anyone. ShaoShu breathed a sigh of relief. That is, until Lei called out his name.
“ShaoShu! Where are you hiding now? Meet me in the main cabin at once!”
ShaoShu tucked his mouse into its pouch and hurried to Tonglong's cabin, where he found Lei alone, seated behind Tonglong's desk. ShaoShu considered saying something about Lei being in Tonglong's chair, but then he thought better of it.