Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 665 Two kinds of phalanxes and expansion of the army
The elders’ report lasted for half a day. Since the elders were not young in grades, especially the elders guarded by Ota Sukomasa and Kagawa Jingjing, they were all over 70 years old, and they could no longer sit for a long time. Everyone saw that the meeting was almost over, so they asked them to leave first.

However, there were still a few family elders left behind by the Xiu family in the venue. They were the old writer Todo Takatora, the old family Qiu Shangjiujia, Tachihara Hisakuna, and the old alternate's assistant Yawa Jiuhu.

Because the next report will be a secret that only a few people will know.

After the Xiu family kept a few elders together for lunch, they opened their mouths to tell everyone what they knew, "Guan Bai is ill, and it has only been two years since he saw it."

This news was enough to shock the world. Even though everyone knew that Hideyoshi was getting old, it was beyond their expectation that Hideyoshi had locked his deadline within two years.

As the old writer of the family, Todo Takatora asked the Hide family for confirmation, "My lord, is this news confirmed?"

Xiujia nodded and replied, "It's almost the same. So we have to prepare in advance. After the death of His Highness Guan Bai, there will be no peace."

After all, he looked at Qiu Shangjiu's family and said, "The reorganization of the military system must be carried out as soon as possible. Within three years, no less than 3 combatable troops must be prepared." Then he handed it over to Qiu Shangjiu's family A handbook on military training.

The biggest difference between the Morris phalanx and the Spanish phalanx is that he alternately arranged the arquebus phalanx and spearman phalanx in the formation, just like the black and white squares of chess.

When the enemy approached, the arquebus soldiers exchanged positions with the infantry in the back row, the spearmen went to the front line, and the arquebus soldiers continued to output from behind.

For this series of formation changes, it is impossible to wait for the Xiu family to issue orders from the formation. They can only form muscle memory through training. When the enemy engages in melee combat, the infantry in the phalanx will actively change the formation under the leadership of the superior warriors.

As the main army, it may be possible to train directly in the manner of the Morris phalanx, but such a high proportion of iron cannons cannot be equipped in a short time.

Therefore, according to the situation in Japan, Xiujia once again simplified the proportion of troops in the Morris phalanx, and used this as the establishment of the second-class reserve team.

The first is to reduce the proportion of iron cannons, from 250 in history to 150, and at the same time increase the number of pikemen (samurai and ashigaru mixed) to 350.

In this way, the total establishment of the phalanx is still 500 people, but there is no longer a brigade for the following scale, including the iron artillery unit and the spear unit, and there are 150 squadrons of 3 people under the unified jurisdiction of the 50-man wing.

The 500-man battalion consists of 3 companies plus a samurai spear squadron directly under the battalion.

It seems that the long-range firepower output of the phalanx has been weakened, but it is not.Don't forget that the Xiu family has always followed the [Minyi bow system] in Jibei and Kanto.

The Xiu family requires all the people to use bows and arrows. The main content of the annual military training for the preparation and defense soldiers is to practice archery in addition to the spear phalanx.

Especially for the soldiers on the garrison military service certificate, Xiujia requires them to complete an additional 15 days of archery training in addition to the annual military training, which can be evenly divided into a year to go to the county for military training on their own.

Hideka intends that in the 300-person spear phalanx, 150 people will be composed of pure spear ashigaru. This part will mainly be filled by soldiers who are not skilled in archery, and the remaining 150 will be soldiers with excellent archery skills. Use the longbow to shoot at the right time, and wait until the enemy has entered, and then switch to the long spear array to defend.

In this way, the strength of a battalion is still 500 people, but the firepower is actually equivalent to that of the Morris phalanx.Even because the design of the bow and arrow is faster, it can effectively fill the gap between the filling gap of the matchlock gun and suppress the firepower of the enemy.

In addition, Japanese armor is generally not very defensive, and in terms of actual long-range firepower strikes, it will definitely not be worse than the Morris Phalanx.

As for the specific training and adaptation plan, it cannot be concluded in a few words.The Xiu family just told Qiu Shangjiu's family to let him stay for a while, and explain the specific plan later.

秀家也不指望秋上久家可以在1~2年的时间内全部改编完成。在秀家的计划中若是可以在2年之内训练出15个备队莫里斯方阵，加上2~3个备队的骑兵备队，再加上其他原始的军制部队就已经足够使用了。

Moreover, because Xiujia reduced the number of arquebus equipment and increased the number of pikemen, this made Xiujia's infantry phalanx different from the Morris phalanx.

First of all, as the last 200 soldiers with guns and bows in the infantry phalanx, it is needless to say that they shoot when the enemy is close to shooting.

When arranging the phalanx, the musketeers of the two battalions will be merged and organized into a new musketeer phalanx (300 people in total), so that it will become two 350-man pike phalanx, sandwiching 1 A new phalanx of musketeers.The 150 people behind the spear phalanx hold bows when facing long-distance enemies, as a supplement to firepower output.

If it is the biggest difference between the modern army and the ancient army, it must be the degree of organization and discipline.

After the arquebus revolution, before the line infantry came out, the phalanx formed by arquebus and infantry was undoubtedly the best fighting method to maintain the balance of offense and defense on the battlefield.

But if you want to maintain the integrity of the phalanx, especially when facing a charge, this is a test of the psychological quality of the soldiers who use matchlock guns in the infantry phalanx.

Although it is very rude to say it, training such as standing in a military posture, turning left and right, and walking in unison is indeed the training method that can best maintain the discipline of soldiers.

Hideka officially handed over the task to Akigami Hisa, asking him to train a Morris phalanx reserve team of at least 3 people and a simple version of the Morris phalanx with 2 people within 3 years.

Of course, at this time, the Morris Phalanx had just started to punish in Europe, so it was naturally impossible for them to be introduced to Japan, so Hideka directly named them Qinglong Iron Cannon Formation and Xuanwu Cannon Arrow Formation.

As for the so-called establishment, the Xiu family still uses the battalion as the most basic combat unit.As for the formation of the team, Hideka canceled the method of naming the sub-counties in Jibei in the past.

The standing team of the new training will be directly named by Xiujia as the Qinglong First Team and the Qinglong Second Division.

As for the reserve team recruited from the garrison and reserve, because the recruitment is carried out in the unit of the leading country, the order is given in the form of the name of the neighboring country + the team number, for example: Saitama 4th team.

Of course, there are 4 special units in the Xiujia army that will still be retained. The first is the Red Army that has just returned from North Korea under the command of Nobushige Sanada.

They fought and fought in North Korea for 5 years. They fought against North Korea, the Ming army, and the Jurchens. They had extremely rich combat experience. Vermilion oil replaced the original armor.

Those who did not have cotton armor used the cotton armor captured in North Korea and combined it with their own contemporaneity to create a new contemporaneous armor.

The second is the Goben Fanzhong formed by the Jibei samurai as the backbone to fill in the Kanto samurai. The number of this reserve team has been maintained at a scale of 1500 people. It is mainly responsible for the garrison of Fengchun City, and when necessary, travels with the family members of the Xiu family. guard of honor.

The third is that Xiujia brought out from the time of Jibei. There are many banners who specialize in riding and archery, and now there are 1000 people.

The lack of expansion before was due to the limited number of horses, but Xiujia sent people to transport many horses from Jeju, and the problem of lack of horses in Xiujia's hands has been well improved.

This time, I just took this opportunity to select those who are good at riding and arching from the Kanto warriors to enter the banner and train into the army.

In the end, it was composed of Jurchen strong men from Ezo and North Korea, dressed in white iron cotton armor, wearing a layer of chain mail vest inside, and holding heavy weapons such as ax shield, two-handed axes, long spears, and large iron rods. .

Its main force lost a lot in the previous battle with the Jianzhou Jurchen Burhatong River. It is interesting that its selection is extremely harsh. Now it has only been supplemented to 800 people and divided into two battalions.

What Xiujia has to do now is to expand and supplement the above-mentioned reserve teams.

Hideka looked at Takatora Todo and said to him: "Genjiro is still in North Korea, but the Akabi in his hands has basically returned. There were 2000 people in the battle, but only 1300 people came back.

I need you to use them as the basis to reorganize the Red Army and expand it to 5000 people, which are composed of 2 Qinglong squads and 3 cavalry squads of 800 people, which can be used as rangers when necessary.

The task of the Iraqi job agency is already very heavy, and the task of Chibei is handed over to you to be responsible for the reorganization. "

"How can we say that we are now a super daimyo of 260 million koku, and the city of Fengchun City is constantly expanding. The original 1500 Gohon Fans are no longer enough, and people are ordered to select elite soldiers from the defense and preparations to enter the Goben Fans. , expanded to a scale of 3500 people and two teams.

The organization of Goben Fanzhong has been changed. It consists of 3 training battalions of Qinglong Iron Cannon Formation and 3 regular battalions staying in Fengchun. The remaining 200 people are used as guards of honor.

When I go out to fight, these three Qinglong battalions will follow me out of the formation and be incorporated into the guards of the formation, instead of temporarily selecting troops from the lower-level troops as the guards of the formation. "

"Do you have a record of how many good horses you brought back from Jeju?" Hideka asked Fujido Takahu another question.

After hearing this, Takatora Todo looked through his brochure and replied, "In half a year, 22450 horses were shipped from Jeju, including 3470 stallions, 1635 were lost by sea, and 5020 arrived in Iyo.

Among them, 1350 were used for animal power in agricultural production and cargo transfer, 1500 good horses were dedicated to Guanbai as a gift, and 800 military horses were dedicated to Gifu Neifu as a gift.

1000 horses were given to Maeda, Tokugawa, Tachibana, Kobayakawa, Hachisuka, Kato, Fukushima and other daimyos, 50 horses were given as dowry to the Hosokawa family with Ms. Kyoko, and the remaining 220 horses were sold at 210 per horse. Sold to wealthy merchants in Osaka and Sakai.

1133 horses were transported to Ezo, and they were used to equip cavalry cavalry in Ezo and use them as livestock power during farming.

In the end, 14662 horses arrived in Kanto, including 6798 good horses. According to your arrangement, the 1000 horses sold to the samurai families in the collar have been sold out, and the 600 horses have basically been distributed as rewards to the samurai who have made meritorious service in the Korean War. There are still 4928 Yu Liangma stocks in stock.

The 4500 second horses and draft horses reserved for farming have been distributed to the county divisions of the neighboring countries. Some county divisions will deploy them uniformly during the busy farming season, giving priority to helping the families of the soldiers in farming.

Edo, Fengchun, Chiba and other places used more than 1200 horses for cargo transfer, mainly for the transfer of armament goods, and transferred more than 2000 horses for military use, mainly for the transportation of guns for firearms and other standing armaments. "

After thinking for a while, Xiujia ordered, "The stallions can't move, the most important thing is to let them breed happily, and set aside a special piece of land in Ueno, Shimono, and Saitama as horse farms.

Supplies 1600 good horses for the red reserve team, and transfers another 800 horses to the Banners, Attendants and Gomoto Fans. I plan to expand the Banners to 4 independent cavalry battalions (400 people), and the rest will be used as attendants Complement with the horses of Gomoto Fanzhong.

The remaining horses, together with the horses transported from Iyo and Ezo in the past two years, formed two cavalry reserves as much as possible.

Their training methods are the same as those of the Red Reserve Team and the Banner Army, but they are included in the regular reserve and are not used as an independent ranger. Later, I will select experts from the Banner Army to be responsible for the Red Army and the two new reserve cavalry teams. Build and train. "

After chatting with the first three independent reserve teams, Xiujia turned his attention to Yuwa Jiuhu and said, "You pick a time in the next year to go to Ezo, and give me a statistics on the military strength of Ezo, and will They are organized into an independent legion, and I will be of great use at that time.

In addition, the Baijia Army suffered a lot of losses in the previous battle of Jianzhou, and they should be replenished to 1500 as soon as possible. "

The construction of the army is undoubtedly the top priority of Xiujia's response to the crisis, but at the same time as the construction of the army, the production of armaments is undoubtedly crucial.

After instructing Takatora Todo, Hisawa Takatora, and Hisaka Akigami, Hideka turned his attention to Hisakuna Tachihara and said, "Next, your burden is not light at all. You have to finish the 2nd mission in such a short period of time." The forging storage of ten thousand iron cannons and the manufacturing tasks of other armaments.

I have ordered to suspend the renovation work of Fengchun City, Guandong River and Chidao. It is estimated that 15 yuan can be saved every year, and all will be handed over to you to expand production.

But I am afraid that these are still not enough. I want to form a special artillery battalion for the red reserve team by that time.

And change the firearms to the artillery squadron. At that time, it will be equipped with no less than 50 large and small golden cannons, Guobeng cannons, and Franco machine guns, which are specially used for fire support and siege.

So I would like to ask you, what is the current situation in Ezo, and how much financial support can the four gold mountains provide us in a short period of time.

In addition, whether the associated copper mine of the Konomai Gold Mine can be put into production of copper ingots, and whether the production of copper at the Besshi Copper Mine can be increased, I want to expand the workshop for artillery casting. "

It can be seen from Xiujia's arrangement that in Xiujia's plan, the red reserve team will be a special unit with extremely complete equipment, specially used for quick support and emergency response, and can also be used as an independent continuous corps as a ranger. Post-combat use.

But in this way, Xiujia's artillery production scale must be expanded. The existing artillery is not even equipped for sea ships, let alone equipped with wheels to equip the army.

Although it is not impossible to remove the cannon of the sea-going ship for emergency, after all, the molds of the two are different from the beginning of casting the cannon.

The artillery of the sea ship is fixed on the slideway of the hull, while the land artillery has a long fulcrum to be used as a support for loading the gun mount.If the guns of the sea-going ship are forcibly removed, they can only be used as agitating gun positions.

(End of this chapter)