1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 160 The Combat Strength of the Haihan Militia
Since most of the official military forces of the Ming Dynasty were concentrated in the cities, and their ability to protect the vast non-urban areas was very limited, it was common for the big gentry to organize paramilitary forces such as militia groups and security groups.Especially in the southeast coastal area, which is often harassed by pirates, almost all villages have militia groups, and in some densely populated areas there are several large militia groups for joint defense of villages, with the number of militiamen even exceeding a thousand.Li Nai has lived in Guangdong all the year round, and has been in many militias, but this is the first time he has seen a militia trained like the Haihan people.

In general militia training, big households invite a few martial artists or veterans who have retired from the army to teach some basic fighting skills to the militiamen.Yes, it's just a fight, not a battle. This is because very few of the instructors have a clear concept of combat or war, let alone command skills-it is unlikely that this kind of militia instructor will be invited by senior military officers.The direct consequence of this level of training is that militia commanders can only effectively command squad-level battles. As for larger-scale military force mobilization and combat command skills, there is a serious lack of relevant training, and often they can only rely on battles Play to fight luck.

The content of the militia training is basically based on physical training and fighting skills.In view of the fact that most people in this era have two meals a day and their calorie intake is very limited, so the physical training is mostly just for show.Fighting skills are more about personal combat power, but not the collaborative combat skills of the army.As for the training of the queue, there is really very little. At most, the militiamen learn to gather and stand in line. As for the maintenance and change of the queue during the march, there is no need to think about it.

Of course, what is more important is that the patrons of the militia are all big local gentry families, and how much military expenses the patrons are willing to pay is directly linked to the combat effectiveness of the militia—regardless of when it really needs to fight, even if it is For daily training, these amateur soldiers have to be rewarded, otherwise no one will seriously participate in the training.

This bad habit was learned from the Ming army. The regular army of the Ming Dynasty practiced every four or five days. Because of the slack system, the guards often practiced every ten days or even half a month. In some places with poor conditions, they practiced once a month. Not surprising.And the training frequency of the militia is definitely lower than that of the regular frontier army. The better ones are comparable to the guard soldiers, and the worse ones are not even as good as the guard soldiers. They only organize a joint training every few months.No matter from the perspective of training methods, conditions or frequency, it is hard to believe that the armed forces trained in this way have any combat effectiveness at all.

The ancestral home of the "Fu Ruifeng" Li family is in Panyu, Guangzhou Prefecture. As one of the local gentry, the Li family also maintains a militia group of about 80 people all year round.Every time Li Nai returned home with his family to worship the ancestors, this militia soldier would be dispatched to maintain local order.Now looking at this militia group of Haihan people, Li Nai silently compared the two teams.

When it comes to the level of parade performance, the Haihan militia has undoubtedly put the Lijiazhuang militia far away from the eight streets. In Li Nai's memory, the Lijiazhuang militia has never even conducted such professional queue training.However, the Haihan militia ordered and prohibited, and there was no phenomenon of whispering or looking around in the team, showing a strong discipline, which is also an aspect that the Lijiazhuang militia is far behind.

However, Li Nai still does not think that the actual combat power of the Haihan militia is higher than that of his own militia. This is because the Li family invested a lot of capital for this militia. He paid a lot of money to hire a senior general of the Guangzhou government garrison to give advice on the skills of marching and formation-this will be a proper military advisor in future generations.

In addition, the Li family also spent a lot of money to equip all the members of the militia with leather armor, single swords, long spears and shields, and there were even five archers in the team, which were rare in the militia.As for the blunderbusses that were widely used in the Ming army, the Li family also spent money to buy ten of them and gave them to the militia.In terms of combat power, Li Nai thought that it would be difficult to find a few village militias in the whole of Guangzhou that could be compared with the Lijiazhuang militias.The militias of the Haihan people are well trained, but no matter how skilled the formation is, can these unarmed militias beat a fully armed opponent?

The parade here is over, and Li Nai's thoughts haven't returned to the scene yet.It was He Qiang behind him who coughed dryly and said: "Mr. Tao, the military discipline of your militia is excellent, but why didn't you carry any weapons during the drill? Could it be that your side lacks sophisticated weapons?"

Tao Donglai smiled and said: "That's not true, it was just a simple formation practice just now, since the two of you want to see the ordnance, that's good."

He turned his head and said loudly to Gu Wei: "Instructor Gu, our guests want to see the ordnance practice."

Gu Wei was taken aback for a moment, then nodded and said: "Okay, no problem, then please follow me to the shooting range."

This shooting range is located at the foot of the mountain in the east, very close to the playground, and it will be there in a blink of an eye.When Gu Wei gave an order, someone went to set up a wooden target 50 meters away, while several other militiamen, led by other instructors, carried several long wooden boxes.

When Li Nai and He Qiang saw the targets set by the militiamen, they thought it was a bow and arrow practice, and thought that the Haihan people really had some skills, and even trained a group of archers.When the wooden box was opened and the militiamen stepped forward to collect their weapons, the two turned pale with shock.

"Bird gun!" Li Nai couldn't help but exhaled softly.

The militiamen received the firecrackers and ammunition, and did not rush to start loading the ammunition, but first lined up quickly under the command of Gu Wei, ten people in a row, divided into six rows.Li Nai's face turned pale—these Haihan people not only have bird guns, but also have trained a large number of bird gun soldiers!

"Check the guns!" Gu Wei ordered loudly after the line was lined up.

The militiamen first checked the three leather boxes worn on their bodies, which contained primers, propellants and projectiles.Among them, the propellant powder has been packed in paper bags to prevent soldiers from loading more or less propellant powder due to nervousness or negligence.Then there are the gunpowder holes and pots to prevent gunpowder residue from clogging the hole and causing launch failure.If someone finds that there is a problem with their equipment at this time, they will raise their hands to signal, and then back away, letting the people behind them add to their queue first.

"Load the ammunition!" Gu Wei counted the time and gave the second order.

The militiaman shakes the priming medicine into the priming medicine pot, and then closes the lid.Use your teeth to open the small paper bag containing the propellant, pour the propellant into the muzzle, then load the projectile, remove the cleaning rod from the barrel and tamp the projectile and propellant tightly.

"Ignite! Aim!" Gu Wei continued to order.

The militiamen ignited the matchlocks fixed on the matchlock clips with fire twirls, and then raised their guns to aim at the target.

"Five quick shots, launch!" Gu Wei waved his hand, and immediately there was a sound of ping-ping-pong-pong, which startled a group of birds in the forest behind the target.

After firing, the militiamen immediately retreated from the gap in the queue, and the soldiers in the second row stepped forward and raised their guns.

"Fire...aim...fire!"

Going back and forth like this, the six rows of militia musketeers each fired five bullets in a non-stop rotation, and then stopped amidst the whistle of the ancient guard.Then everyone checked the firearms on the spot, cleaned the barrel, and waited for the next order.

"What do you two think?" Tao Donglai asked the two dumbfounded guests with a smile.

"It's amazing!" Li Nai replied in a very dry voice.He had also seen arquebus drills before, but the striking power of the ten guns of his own militia was completely different from the rotating shooting combat method in front of him.If the two militias were to confront each other on the battlefield, wouldn't they have already been overthrown by the Haihan militia before even contacting each other?

Soon, some militiamen retrieved the targets, and looking at the bullet holes shot through the one-inch-thick wooden plank, anyone could fully imagine how lethal this musketeer unit was on the frontal battlefield.

Li Nai swallowed his saliva with difficulty, and still argued strongly: "This bird gun is powerful, but the ammunition is limited. Once it is used up, wouldn't it become a fire stick?"

Tao Donglai nodded and said, "That's right, the Ming Army's blunderbuss did have this problem, so we have already tried to overcome this defect."

Tao Donglai stretched out his hand, and Gu Wei knowingly handed him a matchlock gun, and then a two-foot-long bayonet.The end of the bayonet is a sleeve. Tao Donglai aligned the hole of the sleeve with the muzzle of the gun and put it in. After turning it around, the bayonet was fixed by the tenon on the gun body.In this way, the five-foot-long fire stick immediately becomes a seven-foot-long short spear.This must be thanks to the efforts of the military industry department. It is they who made the bayonet bayonet appear in this time and space more than half a century earlier.

Tao Donglai stabbed hard with his hand, and the bayonet pierced through the inch-thick target immediately.Li Nai and He Qiang, who had witnessed the whole process, opened their mouths wide, unable to utter a single rebuttal.

After being silent for a long time, Li Nai suddenly asked something that surprised even Tao Donglai: "May I ask Mr. Tao, how did you get these bird guns?"

Tao Donglai hadn't recovered yet, but Schneider next to him had already sensed a business opportunity from Li Nai's words, and quickly took up the conversation: "Does Mr. Li want to buy some?"

Li Nai did not directly answer Schneider's question, and said to himself: "I see that this bird gun is similar to the Ming army's equipment, but it seems to be more well-made, and it has a spear point that can be attached to the muzzle. Shouldn’t it be the standard of the Ministry of War?”

Schneider and Tao Donglai exchanged glances, and then directly explained to him: "We made these matchlock guns. If Mr. Li is interested in buying them, then we can have a good discussion about the business."

(End of this chapter)