Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 663 Military system reform, building a big ship

Hideka is quite satisfied with the work of Qiu Shangjiu's family, but the times are advancing, the methods of war are also improving, and the requirements for the army are also increasing.

Xiujia has decided to adapt and train with reference to the Morris phalanx in the regular and defensive teams of the family.

In fact, Xiujia originally wanted to refer to the Spanish phalanx. After all, this is an infantry formation that combines advanced cold and hot weapons that is most suitable for the current era.

However, when the Xiu family had nothing to do in North Korea, they led some Fengchun family soldiers to carry out reform training, only to discover that there was a huge problem with the Spanish phalanx.

Since Spain arranged the spearmen in three horizontal lines, each line had 50 to 60 people in front and 20 rows in depth.On the four corners are arquebus soldiers lined up in dense squares.

The width is about 150 meters and the depth is 100 meters.A column of arquebus soldiers was lined up on each of the four sides of the phalanx, and an independent detachment was sent out to engage in small-scale sorties.

This makes the number of troops in a phalanx as high as 3000, with 10 phalanx companies under its jurisdiction, each with 100 heavy musketeers, 50 light musketeers and 150 pikemen.

Heavy Musketeers and Long Gunners are the most important combat units, and the role of Light Musketeers is mainly to provide cover.This makes it have a good ability to deal with anti-cavalry and close combat, but its maneuverability is very poor, and its shooting coverage is very narrow, which is not conducive to artillery coordination operations.

The most deadly reason is that Japan's terrain and Japanese army establishment are not suitable for a large square formation with 3000 people, which is also very difficult in terms of command.

But the Morris phalanx is different. A phalanx consists of 300 long-soldiers and 250 musketeers to form the most basic battalion. This is different from Xiujia’s previous military system reform when each reserve team used 480 people as a unit. The battalion is roughly the same, and it is relatively easier to reorganize.

In this way, after reorganization, our unit can still be used as a backup team to control, but the number of backup teams has increased from the initial 1500 to more than 1650.

A force of this size is moderate in size in Japan. It can be used as a ranger alone, or it can be organized in twos and threes to fight as a corps.

The most important thing is that after such a change of troops, the cavalry can be liberated from the reserve team, and it is convenient for Xiujia to gather the cavalry warriors in his territory to form a special cavalry reserve team. After training, they will become the frightened Japanese cuirassiers.

In fact, many time-traveling parties made mistakes when choosing military training phalanxes when they went back to the ancient times to carry out the cold weapon revolution. The three phalanxes famous in history have different emphases, and there is no absolute advantage or disadvantage in essence. advanced points.

If it is necessary to distinguish between the Spanish phalanx, the Morris phalanx and the Gustav phalanx, some comparisons can be roughly made:

The Spanish phalanx——is a large-scale spear phalanx based on the Swiss phalanx. It has a large number of people and a high proportion of spearmen. Only arquebuses are arranged between the four corners of the phalanx and the front row of spearmen.

The Morris phalanx——reduces the number of people, reduces the depth, increases the width, and increases the proportion of arquebus gunners on the basis of the Spanish phalanx. It is only deployed on both sides of the spearmen. (actually close to "horizontal array")
Gustav’s phalanx——Based on Morris, the position of the arquebus gunners is pulled back (deconstructed), and the number of spearmen is increased appropriately (doubtful), and light artillery is deployed in front of the spearmen.

In terms of shooting ability: Gustav > Morris > Spain

The aspect ratio of the Spanish phalanx made it difficult to display firepower. The artillery under the Gustav system strengthened its shooting ability.

In mobility: Morris > Gustave > Spain

The smaller the number, the stronger the mobility, and the artillery lags behind.

In terms of infantry hand-to-hand combat ability: Spain > Gustav > Morris

The Spanish phalanx has a large number of spearmen, even if the musketeers suffer a large number of casualties, they still have certain combat capabilities, but this advantage becomes less and less obvious with the development of musket technology.

In terms of anti-cavalry capabilities: Spain > Gustav > Morris
Maurice has historically had a strong cavalry advantage against its main opponents, so this shortcoming is not obvious.The Gustav system suffered from the difficulty of the Swedish cavalry against the imperial cavalry, so it strengthened related capabilities.

But when fighting in Japan, the last thing you need to fear is the charge of cavalry. After all, cavalry has always been a weak item in Japan. It can be said that the biggest shortcoming of the Mosley phalanx is not established in Japan.

Even if it is true that the opponent has a certain amount of cavalry on the battlefield, Xiujia is confident that his cavalry has more advantages than the opponent, just like Morris and Gustav in history.

After the introduction by Qiu Shangjiu's family, it was the chief officer's general invitation and the project's Kagawa scene to report.

"Now the Honmaru and Ninomaru of Toyochun City have been completed, and the Sannomaru is in the process of being built. Due to the expansion of the scope, it is estimated that it will take about 2 years to complete the construction of the Sannomaru.

We plan to start the leveling of the Waimaru land ahead of schedule, and the construction of the entire Toyochun Castle will take about 5 years to complete. "

Talking about the construction work of Fengchun City, Xiujia interrupted Xiangchuan Zhijing's narration for the first time and said, "The construction work of Fengchun City has been postponed a little bit, and there will be no additional overdue recruitment except for the general requests for military service every year. There will be no extra labor costs for the construction of the folks."

"If this is the case, the construction progress of Fengchun City will be greatly slowed down." Xiangchuan Zhijing responded, "Just the construction task of Sannomaru may be delayed to more than 3 years."

"Not only the construction of Fengchun City, but also the renovation work of the Kanto River, Arakawa, Tone River, Sumida River and other Kanto rivers will also be slowed down. The overdue allowance of all carpenters will be reduced by 3%, and the overdue time limit will be limited to 3 months at most. Mason's The overdue allowance is also reduced by 3%, and the court period is not allowed to exceed 3 months.

If the masons want to get the original full wages, let them polish the spherical stones, and the carpenters organize to prepare the wood blocks of a certain standard specification. "

What Hideka wanted to build for the scenery of Kagawa was naturally a counterweight trebuchet whose restoration drawings had been rotten in later generations.Even in the Internet era of later generations, this trebuchet has been optimized, and all related parts can be produced in a standardized manner, and can be directly disassembled and reassembled on the battlefield for convenient transportation.

Although Japan's battlefield has gradually changed from cold weapons to hot weapons warfare, artillery equipment is not common in Japan now.

And just as the daimyos began to gradually move the main city from the mountain city to Pingcheng, Pingshancheng, and Haicheng, the trebuchets that were not suitable for siege in the mountains once again entered the field of vision of Xiujia.

The biggest feature of the Japanese city is that the earth wall (stone wall) on the platform is very high, but the thickness of the screen (stone screen) on it is not ideal, and it is often only the thickness of a thick wall in later generations.

The counterweight trebuchet can even crush a city wall as thick as the pilot test, and it is more than enough to crush such a stone screen.

In order to cope with the wars that may be faced in the future, Xiujia felt that the investment in infrastructure was greatly reduced, and the limited funds were invested in the production of armaments.

However, unlike the forging of iron cannons, armor, knives and guns, which was covered by the Korean War, it is very difficult to produce siege weapons such as trebuchets in a hidden way.

Fortunately, Xiujia now has the construction of Fengchun City, the renovation project of Donghe Road, and the renovation project of Dongchi Road. A group of stonemasons and carpenters have gathered in the territory to ensure the efficiency of Xiujia's production. .

After all, although these weapons are not as difficult to manufacture as cannons, it is unrealistic to build them in large quantities in a short period of time.As Hideyoshi's health deteriorated day by day, Hideyoshi had to prepare in advance for possible wars.

But Xiujia remembers very clearly that in history, Tokugawa Ieyasu launched a crusade against the Uesugi family by using the fact that the Uesugi family built a castle in the territory. When the Xiu family produced these heavy weapons, confidentiality was crucial. .

However, the Xiu family wanted to cover up with the above-mentioned projects.

It is the work of the stonemason to polish the stones. As for the shape of the stone, it is the Fengchun family's business. The wooden pillars repaired by the carpenter are all standard shapes. As long as they have not been assembled, you cannot say that the Xiu family is in Build siege weapons.

"After the things are built according to the drawings, Sado will store them in the warehouse directly, and then take them out for use when necessary."

This is also the reason why Xiujia entrusted this task to Xiangchuan Zhijing. After all, he is the elder in charge of the general recruitment and engineering of Xiujia.Of course, these things are siege weapons after they are built, and they must be kept by people who are absolutely trustworthy.

Although Xiangchuan Zhijing didn't know the reason why Xiujia did this, he still agreed, and then continued to introduce the projects in the collar.

"Today, the Chichibu Iron Forge in Hachigata, the Furukawa Iron Forge and the Tsukuba Iron Forge in Hitachi have all been put into use one after another. The shipyards in Chiba and Sain currently have three Fuchuan and one Clark sailing ship under construction. .

We are already laying the keel of the plank boat drawings sent by His Highness last year, and it will take about 5 years to complete the construction.

The renovation work of the Tonegawa River has been preliminarily completed from Tate Forest to the mouth of the sea. Among them, the Futate Forest-Furu River section has been repaired with stones due to perennial flooding.

The renovation work of the Arakawa River Basin mainly consists of building dams and dredging the tributaries. Today, the total-Koshigaya line has been repaired and reinforced with stone walls, and Koshigaya has excavated 3 diversions to the south to flow into the sea.

The current progress of the project is to excavate a river to divert it into the Noda River, which has achieved a certain diversion effect on the water potential in the lower reaches of the Arakawa River.However, the Kofutai area downstream of the Noda River is flooded all year round due to excessive water potential. This problem may not be alleviated until the construction of the other two diversions is completed. "

The flat boat mentioned by Kagawa is a warship designed by Hideo based on the history and military knowledge of his previous life, based on the Clark sailing ship, and referring to the French double-deck 1715-gun battleship Lapi in 74.

This is a very cost-effective warship designed by France when the country’s finances went bankrupt. This type of battleship has strong ocean-going adaptability, but it is very suitable for offshore operations. Later, with the addition of oval ship ribs, its seaworthiness is poor. problem has also been improved.

一艘战船的船体长度大约是50~55米，取消了船首和船尾的炮位，在下层甲板假装28门36磅炮，上层甲板30门18磅炮，1/4甲板和前甲板16门8磅炮（露天炮位）。

This kind of shooting is tantamount to an epoch-making innovation. During the War of Austrian Succession, although four French battleships with 4 guns were finally captured by the British, the British paid a heavy price for it.

So that later the United Kingdom began to build its own new type of battleship with reference to the 74-gun battleship, so that until the end of the era of sail battleships, battleships of this shape have always been the main force of the navies of European countries.

Many players who have played the series of Total War Samurai must have been impressed by the British Warrior-class battleship and Kaiyang-class battleship. These two battleships are essentially 74-gun battleships equipped with fire turbines instead of sails. But in Basically the same shape.

Hideka is very clear that his own Japan has no intention of becoming an ocean-going power.But having an invincible ship near the sea will undoubtedly give Xiujia an absolute advantage in the Japanese naval battle.

But this kind of battleship does not mean that it can be built. It is essentially a deformation of the Clark sailing ship. Before mastering the construction technology of the Clark sailing ship, Xiujia has not produced the blueprint.

Even if the blueprint is taken out now, it is still a revised and reduced version of Xiujia. The length of the hull is only 38 meters, which is comparable to that of a large Fuchuan. The lower deck is equipped with 12 18-pound cannons, and the upper deck is equipped with 16 12-pound cannons. A total of 1 4-pound guns on the 6/6 deck and the front deck.

In this way, the number of single-sided artillery on the new ship has reached 17 guns. Although it is only half of the 74-gun battleship in history, and the caliber of the artillery is not comparable to others, it is already a novice in East Asia. Nothing to worry about.

In fact, it cost about 74 pounds to build such a 5-gun battleship, which was about the cost of the British royal family for one year at that time. Even the British government could only support the construction of two ships at the same time.

According to the ratio of the value of gold and silver at that time, 5 UK is roughly equivalent to 4 taels of gold and 10 taels of silver.

Even if Xiujia reduced the caliber of the hull and artillery, the boatman's estimated cost is still as high as 20 guns, about 5 taels of gold.

But this price is already quite cheap!
Xiujiayou still remembered that the carrack sailboat that was purchased from two Spaniards cost 5 taels of gold! Xiujia also borrowed a large amount of money from wealthy merchants and from Xiuchang for this.

If the biggest difficulty in building this kind of ship is what it is, it is probably the iron wood used as the keel.The wood in other parts of the ship can be replaced by pine and cypress, but the iron wood for the keel of such a long ship must be imported from Nanyang.

But think about it, why does a ship that can hold such a long piece of wood transport a piece of wood for you to Japan instead of transporting other more valuable goods?
Therefore, this piece of wood was actually replaced by the golden silk nanmu pillar that Xiujia had removed from the Korean imperial palace.

In addition to the problems with the materials for building ships, Japan has no experience in building such a large ship, and workers who need to pay attention to craftsmanship are not clear.

Fortunately, Xiujia let them imitate the Clark sailboat in advance, and they have some experience in the construction of European-style sailboats.

You must know that the structure of Japanese ships is basically the bottom ship plank against a wooden hull.

However, the hulls of Fuchuan in the Ming Dynasty and European hulls are integrated. If you want to expand the size of the ship, you need to rebuild a new hull.

In addition to the difficulties of shipbuilding itself, the artillery on board is still a long-standing problem.

Even though it has been 10 years since Xiujia began to cast guns in Bizen, now he can only basically complete the casting of 6-pound and 12-pound guns. The yield rate of the mainstream 18-pound guns on Nanban ships is ridiculously low. From 1592 Four years have passed since the first casting of the annual trial, and now only one cannon has passed.

Xiujia even planned to replace the 12-pounder with the 18-pounder for the time being if it was too late.

(End of this chapter)