Calais Battery (2)

The fortress commander, Lieutenant Colonel Antoine de Villefort, was a tall man in his forties. He seemed quite pleased by Joseph's arrival.

"Ah, Monsieur Bonaparte, I thought it would take you a few more days to get here," Commander Villefort said. "I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly. Hmm, do you need to rest for a while?"

"Thank you, but that won't be necessary," Joseph said. "In fact, I arrived last night. It was quite late by the time I got in, so I stayed at an inn for the night. Therefore, I don't require any further rest."

"Youth is truly enviable," Commander Villefort laughed. "When I was your age, I never felt tired no matter how busy I was. Since you don't need to rest, we can begin the work related to the battery expansion. Hmm, Captain Cissé, please take Monsieur Bonaparte to get settled, then take him to the library to review the relevant materials and conduct a site inspection. Ah, Monsieur Bonaparte, if you have any needs, you can speak directly to Cissé."

"Thank you for your consideration," Joseph replied.

After stepping out of the small building, Cissé asked, "Monsieur Bonaparte, where is your luggage?"

"It's still at the inn," Joseph answered.

"Which inn?" Cissé asked. "I can send two men to fetch your luggage. Hmm, we have arranged for you to stay in the officers' quarters over there. The conditions here cannot compare to Paris, so I hope you will bear with it."

"It's a small place called the Claude Inn," Joseph replied. "Also, you can just call me Joseph."

"Ah, the Claude Inn?" Cissé laughed. "Joseph, you must have stayed there because it's close to the harbor, looks decent from the outside, and is affordable, right? Hmm, you must not have slept well last night. Their beds are notoriously full of bedbugs!" Seeming to fear that Joseph might think he was mocking him, Cissé added, "Hmm, I fell for their trap once, too. That owner, Claude, is a capable fellow, but he doesn't put his heart into running the inn. Hmm, let me take you to see the officers' quarters first..."

Truth be told, the conditions at the Calais fortress officers' quarters were actually slightly better than the faculty dormitories at the Paris Military Academy; after all, land and other costs here were much cheaper than in Paris.

Once settled, it was already noon. Cissé took Joseph to the officers' mess for lunch. Calais was by the sea, so the variety of fish was far richer and much cheaper than in Paris.

"If you ask me, your lives are much better than in Paris. We get paid the same in Paris as you do here, but the cost of living there is far higher," Joseph said, stuffing a piece of fish into his mouth and speaking indistinctly.

"But Paris is Paris, after all," Cissé countered. "The cost of living in Paris is indeed higher, but most people here would still rather go to Paris. Hmm, these provincial places are actually better suited for retirement, but not particularly for young people. If a young man wants to achieve something, he should go to Paris. If I could go to Paris, I would gladly endure the higher prices. If it were just about money, there's more to be made overseas. It's just that for people like us with no connections, getting to Paris isn't easy."

Indeed, Paris held more opportunities; for those with ambition, Paris was incomparable to any provincial city.

"Perhaps, hmm, Cissé, you are an artillery captain, aren't you?" Joseph asked suddenly.

"Yes? What about it?" Cissé asked.

"Regarding some matters of the battery, I still need to consult you. After all, I only studied mathematics, and there are many things about cannons that I don't fully understand," Joseph explained.

"Oh, I thought you knew some connections that could help me get to Paris," Cissé joked.

"Hmm, as far as I know, the Paris Military Academy has actually been lacking a maritime expert. If you are qualified..." Joseph said, also in a joking tone.

"To hell with that, I get seasick!" Cissé said. "Isn't there any other place that needs people?"

"I haven't heard of any for the time being," Joseph shook his head. "Aren't you in the navy? How can you get seasick?"

Cissé's face flushed slightly. "The navy... the navy doesn't mean everyone has to be on a ship. Those guarding harbor batteries are also in the navy. I serve at the harbor battery, so I don't have to go on ships. My gunnery is excellent; you wouldn't find many better gunners in the entire navy than me. If it weren't for the seasickness... tell me, doesn't your academy need a gunnery instructor?"

"I really haven't heard of any for now," Joseph said. "And you know, even if there were a need, the position would most likely be filled by an army officer."

Unlike the British across the channel, France had always been a so-called land power. In the French military, the status and influence of the army far exceeded that of the navy.

"I see," Cissé said, disappointed, though he added, "Joseph, you are in Paris and know more news. If you hear of any opportunities, I hope you will remember me."

"I will certainly remember," Joseph said.

Joseph's response was not merely polite; he also needed to build some connections within the navy. In the coming years, harvests in northern France had been consistently poor, but southern France was not lacking in grain. However, because France remained a feudal state with countless internal customs barriers, the cost of transporting goods was artificially inflated. If he could navigate navy connections to source grain directly from the south and use naval warships to transport it to northern ports, there would be significant profit. If he were to smuggle directly from the British across the sea, the returns would be even higher.

"Actually, Calais is a good place, too. It is one of the most important ports in the north. There will be many economic opportunities here as well," Joseph added. "You are here, so you actually have many opportunities. Perhaps I might need your help with something, too. In any case, we are friends. If there is an opportunity in the future, we must help each other, don't you agree?"

"You are right. It's a deal, then," Cissé said.

In the following days, Joseph discussed the battery renovation plan with the designer, Michel. As the commander of the artillery at the battery, Cissé also participated.

"The primary requirement for a battery is to control the shipping lanes for vessels entering and leaving the port. Our current battery is not enough to control the entire lane. Therefore, we plan to build a new battery at this location so that the two batteries can work together to control the lanes for all incoming and outgoing traffic..." Michel said, pointing to the blueprints.

"This location should be quite good," Joseph said after looking at the drawings. "Is there anything you need me to calculate?"

"Mainly some data on artillery ballistics. And there are many aspects of the overall fortress design that require your input," Michel replied.

"It is a pity that we are limited by the existing artillery, and there is a lack of suitable high ground nearby, which causes our cannons to have too short a range. While they can barely cover the shipping lane, they are far from sufficient to cover a fleet as it exits the port to form a line of battle. If the fleet were to be blocked in the port, there would still be no way for them to exit and fight," Joseph added.

Naval warfare required the fleet to form a line of battle first. This facilitated the deployment of firepower and maneuvering, preventing friendly ships from blocking each other's lines of fire or colliding during maneuvers. Space in a naval port was limited, and a fleet certainly could not complete its formation inside the harbor. To form a line, they had to sail into the open sea outside the port. Once an enemy fleet blocked the entrance first, they would naturally not allow the ships inside to exit and form up. They would certainly launch an attack while the exiting fleet was still struggling to organize. If the harbor battery's cannons had a long enough range, it would be possible to provide cover for the fleet to exit and form up.

To achieve this, there were generally two methods. One was to install giant cannons on the battery. A major advantage of a battery over a warship was its load-bearing capacity. A battery built on solid ground did not have to worry about being weighed down by cannons, so it could easily accommodate much larger guns than those on a ship. And larger cannons were always more likely to have a greater range.

However, this approach had problems. First, the production cost of giant cannons was too high. Second, the rate of fire was too low; for example, the Turks' Urban Cannon could fire at most seven shots a day. Of course, that was a fifteenth-century relic, but the rate of fire for modern giant cannons remained quite limited. Such a slow rate of fire was insufficient to complete the task of covering a fleet's deployment.

The second method was to mount the cannons at the highest possible position. This would significantly increase the range of the artillery. Considering that the cannons on a battery were stable—unlike those on a ship that swayed with the vessel (shipboard guns were inaccurate at long distances because the swaying made it impossible to know where the shells would fly)—the effective range would naturally be greater. In this way, it would be possible to provide space for the warships in the port to form their line of battle.

But there was no natural high ground in a suitable location near the port of Calais. To achieve this effect, they would have to rely on piling up earth to create an artificial height. This would require more manpower and resources, or to put it more bluntly: it would cost more money.

"The navy believes there won't be any fleet in Calais harbor that needs to form a line of battle. So, the battery only needs to ensure the blockade of the shipping lane and prevent enemy attacks on the port," the designer, Michel, replied. "After all, Calais is not Toulon. At most, there will only be one or two frigates here. Calais is primarily a commercial port, and merchant ships don't need to form lines of battle. Look at Dover across the way; there is natural high ground there, making it much more convenient to build a battery, but even so, the British haven't stationed many warships there."

Because the scale of the new battery was limited, the difficulty of the entire project was relatively low. For Joseph, who was involved in such matters for the first time, this was not a bad thing.