Qiming 1158

Chapter 668
The staff of the General Staff Office agreed with the key points raised by Su Yonglin.

And they further believed that more sufficient supplies should be prepared for the navy immediately, and the navy should be pulled out to make emergency adjustments before the war to prepare for the war.

Su Yonglin accepted all of them, and then ordered the entire Jiaolong Army to gather for war drills, and at the same time ordered the Privy Council to prepare sufficient logistical support for the Jiaolong Army.

Especially the main battle firearms, rockets fired with crossbows, this powerful firearms beyond the expectations of the Song army should be one of the important reliances for the Ming army navy to gain the upper hand in the war.

After the navy's problem was properly arranged, Su Yonglin began to arrange the army's actions.

Geographically, the most suitable for this task is of course the Henan Corps under Zhang Yuejing.

After their victory in the Battle of Guanzhong, they returned to Henan to continue their garrison, while Guanzhong was handed over to Su Haisheng and the Qilu Corps for garrison.

Right now, they are directly bordering the Jinghu Theater and Huainan Theater in the Southern Song Dynasty. There is no problem in dispatching a unit to participate in this war. Even if they are transferred nearby, they will definitely be very happy.

An army of 3 people may not be enough to perform this task, so additional troops are needed.

Su Yonglin decided to dispatch 2 elite cavalry from Zhongdu to the south to cooperate with an army of the Henan Corps to fight.

After capturing the Central Plains, Yanyun and grassland horse farms, the Ming army completely threw off the Southern Song Dynasty in terms of cavalry, swept away the huge disadvantage of the two Song Dynasties in terms of cavalry, and established an extremely powerful cavalry force.

Through the catalysis of the war, the number of cavalry that can be used by the Ming army has exceeded [-].

The Yanshan Racecourse and the Liaodong Racecourse under construction already have more than 80 horses. Su Yonglin plans to expand the number to more than one million in five years, and build a standing elite cavalry of 10 people, galloping across the empire Northern Xinjiang.

In addition to the 10 elite cavalry, Su Yonglin also intends to vigorously broaden the professional skills of Ming soldiers.

He intends to strive for the Ming army to reach the point where everyone can ride a horse, and in the end, he will directly use excellent war horses as weapons of war, and ordinary horses, mules, donkeys and the like will be used as means of transportation. Mobility of the army.

Professional cavalry naturally requires professional training, but ordinary soldiers just ride on horses, which is not too difficult.

The Ming army he planned would be a highly specialized, motorized and powerful army with a level of tactics far beyond the reach of any army of this era.

Of course, this is a story.

But for now, the Ming army still possesses a cavalry force far beyond the reach of the Song army.

If the navy side of the Southern Song Dynasty can still compete with the Ming army, Su Yonglin has the confidence to directly penetrate the Southern Song Dynasty on the cavalry side.

These 5 people plus the navy's 3000 troops, and 3000 elite troops to carry out this mission are generally sufficient for the strategic purpose of the Ming army.

Afterwards, Su Yonglin and the staff discussed which troops should be recruited to fight.

After some discussion, the top officials of the Ming army unanimously decided to recruit Zhou Zhi's army, You Yi, who had the most combat experience in the Henan Corps. Zhou Zhi should be the commander-in-chief in this battle and ordered him to command [-] troops to attack the Jianghuai Theater in the Southern Song Dynasty.

The order was quickly determined and sent to the relevant departments for preparation as quickly as possible.

The cavalry in the Central Capital Forbidden Army, the You Yi Army under the Henan Corps, and the Navy Jiaolong Army, the three forces need to work together to complete this military mission.

After everything was arranged, Su Yonglin took the time to go to the Firearms Department of the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry to inspect the current research and development of gunpowder weapons in the Ming Dynasty.

Earlier, he handed the design of the tube-shaped firearm to the firearm craftsmen, hoping that they could build a successful artillery as soon as possible according to the gourd drawing. A major revolutionary change.

Not to mention the army, if the navy is equipped with artillery that can be bombarded, it will basically be able to let the water battle say goodbye to the era of jumping and gang warfare.

Su Yonglin was busy with war and survival before, so he didn't pay much attention to the research and development of firearms. Apart from providing money and materials, he didn't care about the research and development of firearms.

After occupying the central capital, he basically stabilized the situation, and then he devoted some energy to the research and development of firearms. At that time, he learned that the craftsmen had already experienced four failures.

It's not that the craftsmen are not good at craftsmanship. They used their ingenuity and technical ability to quickly build a tubular firearm out of iron. The huge gun body about three meters long looks really mighty and extraordinary.

Then the craftsmen began experimenting with firing iron bullets.

Fortunately, they remembered Su Yonglin's warning that they should stay away from the test site and find a good cover during the experiment, otherwise Su Yonglin would not be able to wait for today to collect the corpses of these craftsmen.

To put it simply, it was three tragic failures without incident.

The first batch of five iron cannons exploded in five consecutive bursts. The explosion was crisp and thorough, and the sound was thunderous. The shattered iron blocks even shattered a wooden watchtower, scaring everyone.

A piece of iron directly rubbed the scalp of Qiu Yuan, the head of the firearms department, and flew over, making Qiu Yuan's heart almost jump out of fright.

After Su Yonglin's transformation, the explosive power of the gunpowder was greatly improved. The gunpowder craftsmen continued to improve the explosive performance of the gunpowder, but the iron cannon couldn't hold such a powerful force, and it cracked directly.

The first experiment was a complete failure.

The craftsmen learned their lesson and knew that the strength of the iron they smelted was not enough, so they worked hard and made the best use of the iron smelting technology they mastered. guns, and then experimented.

No accident, it was five consecutive frying, and the frying was crisp and thorough, which blew most of the craftsmen's hearts.

They began to reflect on what was going on, what went wrong, how to improve their iron cannon casting skills and the strength of iron, etc. A group of veteran blacksmiths thought hard day and night, and even called blacksmiths from other departments to study together .

After a full demonstration, they began the third operation, casting five iron cannons again, and continued the experiment.

It's still five consecutive blasts, but it's less broken than the last blast.

The craftsmen looked at the dilapidated testing ground and cried without tears.

They collectively frowned and thought about it.

Suddenly, Qiu Yuan, the head of the Firearms Division, remembered that Su Yonglin had told them that if iron was not enough, try using copper.

So at his suggestion, the Firearms Division seconded a group of copper and coppersmiths to assist the Firearms Division in casting. Because copper is relatively expensive, they cast two doors to test the effect.

Not to mention, the copper cannon made of copper was successfully fired, and the spherical iron projectile successfully hit the mountain where the test site was located, and smashed a pit out, which seemed to work well.

The craftsmen were so excited that they hugged and celebrated each other, feeling that they had finally fulfilled their promise to Su Yonglin.

But at this time, Qiu Yuan raised a question.

"Bronze is very expensive. It is used to cast money. If it is really used to cast guns, it will be used by the infantry and the navy. If there are hundreds or thousands of doors, how much copper will be used? Is there any copper I can use to make money?"

Craftsmen, look at me, I look at you, and don't speak.

And they really don't know much about economic issues. They only care about technology, and they have determined the feasibility of new gunpowder weapons from a technical level.

However, Qiu Yuan felt that such a report would definitely not be approved, it would inevitably lead to some economic criticism, and the Ministry of Finance would definitely not agree, so he still asked the craftsmen to use iron to try.

The craftsmen tried hard to persuade Qiu Yuan, saying that iron was really not good. After three attempts, all of them were bombed. When the iron cannons were taken out, they had not killed the enemy, but killed their own people first. What is this?
It's not that Qiu Yuan didn't know the key here, but he just felt that the cost of casting bronze guns was too high, and the current financial situation of the Ming Dynasty might be unbearable.

"I know it's not enough to use iron alone, but I can't stand it with copper. The imperial court will definitely not agree to use copper to cast guns on a large scale. Iron must be used."

When the two sides were arguing, a craftsman had a whim.

"It's not enough to use copper alone. Why don't you try to use copper and iron together to cast the gun body? What do you think?"

Everyone on the spot looked at the craftsman with strange eyes, making him feel uncomfortable.

But I have to say that this is a brand new idea. Qiu Yuan thought about it along the way, and felt that he had found a delicate balance between the utility of firearms and the government's finances.

So he allowed the craftsmen to experiment.

The stall Su Yonglin came to was when the Firearms Division decided to use copper and iron to jointly cast the gun body. As for how to combine it, they also found a preliminary direction—iron core copper body.

This is related to a physical property that the melting point of copper is much lower than that of iron.

The artisans don't know it's a physical property, but they have experience, and their long-term work has taught them these lessons, and with that experience, they can find the right way.

Although their efforts are still in progress at this time, it is not known when such a cannon will actually be completed.

When Su Yonglin came to visit, the cannon-casting work was still underway.

(End of this chapter)