Lieutenant Colonel Antoine de Villefort, commander of the fortress, was a tall man in his forties. He seemed very happy about Joseph's visit.

"Ah, Mr. Bonaparte, I thought you would have a few more days to come." Commander Vilford said, "I didn't expect you to come so quickly. Well, do you need a rest?"

"Thank you, but not," said Joseph. "In fact, I arrived last night. It was just too late when I arrived, so I took a night off in the hotel. So, I didn't need more rest."

"Young is enviable." Commander Vilford smiled, "I was so old with you, no matter how busy I was, I didn't feel tired. Since you didn't need to rest, we can start the work of expanding the fort. Well, Captain Cice, you should first take Mr. Bonaparte to settle down, then take him to the library to check the relevant information, and take him on the field. Ah, Mr. Bonaparte, if you have any needs, you can also tell Cice directly."

"Thank you for your care," Joseph replied.

After coming out of the small building, Cice asked, "Mr. Bonaparte, where are your luggage?"

"It's still in the hotel," Joseph replied.

"Which hotel?" said Cice, "I can send two people to bring your luggage over. Well, we will arrange for you to live in the officers' dormitory over there. The conditions here cannot be compared with Paris, so I can only feel wronged."

"It's a small hotel called the Claude Hotel." Joseph replied, "In addition, just call me Joseph."

"Ah, 'Claude Hotel'?" Cice laughed, "Joseph, you must have lived there because you saw that it is close to the port, and it looks good outside and is affordable, right? Well, you must have not slept well last night. The bed bugs on their hotel beds are famous!" As if afraid that Joseph felt that he was laughing at him, Cice added: "Well, I've been fooled by them before. The boss Claude is a capable guy, but he has no intention of running the hotel at all. Well, I'll take you to the officer's dormitory first..."

The officer dormitory in Calais Fortress is actually slightly better than that in the teacher dormitory of the Paris Officer's School. After all, the price of land and other things here is much cheaper than that in Paris.

After settling down, it was already noon. Cice took Joseph to the officers' cafeteria for lunch. Calais was near the sea, and various fish were much richer and cheaper than Paris.

"I want to tell you that your life is much better than Paris. The money we get in Paris is no different from you, but the prices in Paris are much more expensive than here." Joseph stuffed a piece of fish into his mouth and said vaguely.

"But Paris is Paris after all," Cice said. "The prices in Paris are indeed more expensive, but most people here are more willing to go to Paris. Well, these places in other provinces are actually more suitable for elderly care, but not particularly suitable for young people. If young people want to achieve something, they should go to Paris. If I can go to Paris, I would rather tolerate higher prices. If it is just for money, it would be more money to go overseas. But for people like us who have no choice, it is not easy to go to Paris."

Indeed, Paris has more opportunities, and for ambitious people, Paris is unmatched by any other province city.

"Maybe, well, Cice, you are an artillery captain?" Joseph said suddenly.

"Yes? What's wrong?" Cice asked.

"I want to ask you some things about the turret. After all, I am just a math student. I am not very clear about many things about the cannons," explained Joseph.

"Oh, I thought you knew what you could help me to Paris." Cice joked.

"Well, as far as I know, the Paris Officers School has actually lacked a marine expert. If you can do it..." Joseph also said with a joke.

"Hey, I'm seasick!" Cice said, "Is there no shortage of people elsewhere?"

"I haven't heard of it yet." Joseph shook his head, "Aren't you a navy? How could you get seasick?"

Xisai's face turned slightly red: "The Navy...the Navy doesn't have to take a boat, and the Navy guarding the port turret is also the Navy. I serve in the port turret and don't have to get on the boat. My artillery skills are very good. You can't find a few better gunners in the entire navy. If it weren't for seasickness... By the way, don't your school need artillery instructors?"

"I really haven't heard of this yet," said Joseph. "And you know that even if you need it, you will probably choose an army officer at this position."

Unlike Britain opposite the sea, France has always been a so-called land-powered country. In the French army, the status and influence of the army are greater than that of the navy.

"That's it." Cice was a little disappointed, but he still said, "Joseph, you know a lot of news in Paris. If you know any way, I hope you can remember me."

"I definitely remember it," said Joseph.

Joseph's answer was not entirely polite, and he also needed to make some connections with the navy. In the next few years, the harvest in northern France will not be very good, but southern France is actually not short of food, but France is just because at this time, France is still a feudal country with many domestic checkpoints, which artificially leads to the increase in the cost of commodity transportation. If the navy can be connected, the food can be directly obtained from the south and then transported to the northern port by naval warship, there will be a lot of benefits. If it is directly smuggled from Britain across the sea, the benefits will be even higher.

"Actually, Calais is also a good place. It is one of the most important ports in the north. There will be many economic opportunities," Joseph said again. "You are actually many opportunities here. Maybe I need your help if I have something to do. In short, we are friends. If you have the opportunity in the future, you must help each other, don't you?"

"You are right. Then just say it." Cice said.

In the following days, Joseph discussed with designer Michelle about the plan to renovate the turret. As the commander of the artillery on the turret, Cice was also involved.

"The first requirement of the fort is to be able to control the waterways in and out of the port. Our current fort is not enough to control the entire waterway. So we plan to build a new turret at this location so that the two turrets can control the waterways in and out of the port..." Michel pointed to the drawing and introduced.

"This location should be good." Joseph looked at the drawings and said, "Is there anything I need to calculate?"

"The main thing is some data on artillery ballistics. There are also a lot of opinions needed in the specific design of the entire fortress." Michel replied.

"It's a pity that the existing artillery and the lack of suitable high ground nearby have caused our cannons to have a very close range. Although they can barely cover the channel, they are far from enough to cover the fleet's departure from the port to develop formation. If the fleet is blocked in the port, they still cannot leave the port to fight." Joseph said again.

Navy operations need to be lined up first. This will facilitate the use of firepower to maneuver, and not for a while their own people block the shooting range of their own people, and then their warships will collide with each other when they are maneuvering. The space in the military port is limited, and the fleet will definitely not be able to complete the formation within the port. To complete the formation, the ship must first drive the ship to the wide waters outside the port. Once the enemy fleet blocks the entrance to the port first, they will naturally not allow the warships in the port to open the port and then form the formation. They will definitely attack them before the fleet leaving the port has time to form the team. If the range of the artillery of the port is far enough, it is possible to provide protection for the fleet's outbound formation.

To do this, there are generally two ways. One is to install giant cannons on the turret. One of the major advantages of the turret over warships is its load-bearing capacity. The turret is built on a solid ground, so there is no need to worry about being crushed by cannons, so giant cannons that are much larger than those on warships can be placed on it. Larger cannons are always easier to have a larger range.

However, there are problems with this approach. The first is that the production cost of giant cannons is too high. The fire rate of giant cannons is too low. For example, the Turkish Urban cannon cannons cannons at most seven cannons a day. Of course, that was something from the fifteenth century, but the current giant cannons have a relatively limited increase in the rate of fire. Such a slow fire rate is not enough to complete the task of covering the fleet.

The second method is to set the artillery at the highest possible position. This can significantly increase the range of the artillery. Considering that the cannons on the turret are stable, unlike the cannons on the ship that will sway with the ship (because the naval guns sway, as long as the target distance is slightly farther, the shells will not know where they will fly). Therefore, the effective range will naturally be larger. In this way, it can provide warships in the port with space for unfolding formation.

However, there is no natural highland near the port of Calais. If you want to achieve this effect, you must manually pile up soil and build a highland in a manual way. This requires more manpower and material resources, or to be more straightforward: it requires more money.

"The Navy believes that there will be no fleets in the Port of Calais that need to be arranged in battle lines. So the turrets only need to be able to block the waterway and prevent the enemy from attacking the port." Designer Michel replied, "After all, Calais is not Toulon. There will be at most one or two patrol ships here. Calais is mainly commercial ports, merchant ships, etc., and there is no need to be arranged in battle lines. Look at Dover opposite, there are natural highlands, and it is much more convenient to build turrets than here, but even so, the British did not place a few warships there."
Chapter completed!