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 received a gift more valuable than iron. The diver he hired to fish for pearls soon discovered an "unexpectedly large cannon" on the reef more than two meters deep. Evaristo Okamoto personally went into the water, 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 the doors was originally removed from the ship by a naval rescue team using a winch. This door sank deep into the reef and could not be salvaged. This typhoon pushed it from the depths of the reef to the shallows. The storm destroyed its gun mount, but the entire gun body was intact, and the sea creatures did not even have time to cover the entire gun body.
Hale immediately ordered the salvage of the cannon. 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 of.
"As far as Dahlgren guns are concerned, 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 in the defense of Manila. In addition, it also provided him with a reference sample for the next step of experimentally manufacturing this kind of artillery.
Soon he got a second, even better gift: a small cannon. He had already seen the small naval artillery made by the Australians on the Hong Kong Coast Guard No. 64, and it was still a traditional smoothbore cannon. But this gun is completely different. It is a 75mm 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. It is not uncommon for the Dahlgren guns on many coastal forts in the United States to have Dahlgren guns of caliber above.
These Chinese actually make 75mm Dahlgren guns! This is beyond Evaristo Okamoto's imagination. Except that they are unwilling to waste resources and make their warships overpowered. Hale could think of no other reason.
"Immediately ship the two cannons back to Manila and hand them over to Marcos." He ordered, "Tell him that I want them to be restored to their best condition soon!"
"Yes, sir."
"Give twenty pesos 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 water under the scorching sun became more energetic. More things were fished out, first a number of cannonballs, and then a powder barrel containing propellant packets. Of course, these things were of little value, but he still did not hesitate to pay a reward.
So a steady stream of junk of all kinds was scooped up: several damaged short-barreled Navy Minie rifles, a 12-gauge shotgun, more cannonballs and a small amount of propellant. Then came the remains of boilers and steam engines, which had been blown to pieces by storms and blasts. Much of the wreckage has 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 could be repurposed. Hale knew this very well. The other party was a veteran and had completely destroyed Nong Chao. But from observing these wreckage, we can still deduce what kind of industrial capabilities his opponents probably possess.
According to the intelligence collected in the past and the analysis of the wreckage this time, these Chinese people 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. The shock in my heart could not be greater. It's one thing to know what they have, it's another thing to see it with your 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 he had worked so hard to create in Manila was really vulnerable to them.
If this group of Chinese decides to intervene forcefully in Manila, everything they have done in the Philippines so far will be wiped out. Evaristo Okamoto was secretly worried. fortunately. God sent him this artillery to give him a little more leverage. Now it is necessary to upgrade Manila's defense level as soon as possible at all costs. Construction of new large-caliber rifled cannons must begin 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 a part of the anchor chain and windlass wreckage were salvaged from the water. All the iron ribs were dismantled. Evaristo Okamoto didn't even let go of the remaining copper skin on the bottom of the ship, and organized the coolies to peel it off bit by bit.
"The barrage located on the lower San Juan River has been completed, and the water stored in it is used to propel multiple sets of water wheels, each set including two to four water wheels of different sizes. I observed that all water wheels are installed to drive gear sets so that the power they deliver to factory machinery is smooth and efficient...
Even the local Spanish in Manila were surprised by the colonial government's vigorous work efficiency, because procrastination and laziness were its normal style. An explosion occurred recently in the newly built gunpowder factory, which burned down all the wooden sheds used as factory buildings. However, in less than half a month, they transported new wood and repaired the damaged buildings. Even under the governor's strict order, workers had restarted production before the factory repair work was completely completed. At present, this military-industrial complex has recruited no less than a thousand Chinese workers and thousands of Tagalog coolies. The director of the Royal Dockyard publicly complained that the new munitions factory had attracted so many Chinese craftsmen that he lacked the manpower to fulfill orders from the Royal Colony. Therefore, the Manila authorities decided to further expand the recruitment of Chinese craftsmen. Special personnel have been sent to Macau for this purpose. The salary of Chinese working in the military-industrial complex was twice as high as that of odd jobs in Manila and Parian. Craftsmen with specialized skills earned more, but they could only receive it after reaching the service period stipulated in the contract. And they were concentrated in camps attached to several specially built factories, and their every move was closely monitored and controlled, almost like prisoners...
"The Fortress of San Antonio added a large-caliber artillery piece that looked similar to the Dahlgren gun. The artillery was brought by ship. It is unclear the specific origin of this gun and whether it really has rifling. However, the Spaniards were interested in the Dahlgren gun. 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 valley within 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 and there is no governor for outsiders. No one can 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 officious 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, I could read English directly, otherwise this thing would be as slow as the Japanese Embassy's declaration of war. . He was writing the report as a novel, Jiang Shan thought, it would be a pity for this guy not to be a reporter or write a 007 story.
It was already late at night, and the only sounds in the office building could be heard were the movement of the night shift staff, and the sound 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 to the dormitory downstairs to take a quick shower. Apart from work, he has not returned to his apartment for several days and only asked his life secretary to deliver meals and a change of clothes to the door. If I hadn’t run five kilometers or swam 1,500 meters in the ocean every day, I might not have been able to continue working like this.
