Water Margin farming to become powerful

Chapter 377 Desperate Lang Shows off the Grenadier

In December, in the cold winter, amidst the heavy snow in Qingzhou City, Qiao Hong rode a donkey close to the camp of the reinforced battalion of the Protection Army.

It was still dark at this time, and Qiao Hong thought that the soldiers of the protection army must not have woken up, but when he approached the camp, he unexpectedly heard the sound of orderly footsteps coming from the camp.

Qiao Hong is the master of money and grain in Qingzhou City, who is responsible for managing the calculation of money and grain in Qingzhou City. It should have been a technical position, but now the entire Qingzhou government is strictly preventing Kong Liang from coming to borrow food. Qiao Hong was also transferred from Qingzhou by Murong Yanda The Fu Yali supported him and specially asked him to come to this reinforced battalion of the Protectorate Army to coordinate.

Murong Yanda still attaches great importance to Sun Xin's protection army. Before he came, Qiao Hong had accepted Murong Yanda's instructions, asking him to ensure that this team could obey Murong Yanda's dispatch when Qingzhou City was in danger. Nor can there be defections.

After entering the camp, before approaching, I heard a "password!"

Qiao Hong was taken aback, and the soldiers around him were also stunned. They quickly looked around in the dark, but they had no idea who was making noises to them in the dark.

After a breath, they saw a guard soldier suddenly flashing on the roof of the next street.

The soldier's figure flashed past, and then I didn't know who was notified, and soon two more soldiers turned out from the corner of the street.

"Who are you?" The soldier who came out pointed at Qiao Hong and the two with a long rifled gun.

Subconsciously, Qiao Hong was terrified by the black muzzle of the gun, and quickly said, "I am Master Qian Liang who was sent by the government office of Qingzhou to contact General Shi."

Seeing that the soldiers of Hu Baojun did not speak, he quickly added: "We are here today, and we have already agreed with General Shi Xiu and your Sun Zhuangzhu as early as yesterday."

The soldier looked at Qiao Hong and the soldiers guarding him, and took a look at the letter sent by the Qingzhou government office. He didn't dare to open the cover, nodded and said:

"I'll take you in."

Qiao Hong and the soldiers around him were a little scared.

This army of protection has entered Qingzhou Mansion for more than ten days, but it has been silent, and even rarely left the camp. Even as Master Qian Liang of Qingzhou Mansion, Qiao Hong himself has never seen this army It was the first time for a soldier of the army to come into close contact with him today, and he found that the other party was so imposing, and he never dared to underestimate him.

Following the soldier who turned from the dark whistle into the bright whistle, he walked into the camp, and the sky gradually cleared up after such a delay.

In the mist of the winter morning, Qiao Hong gradually saw the layout of the barracks that had been unknown to outsiders.

The camp was much larger than he had imagined, and it seemed that after some rest, some watchtowers and rammed-earth houses clearly showed signs of new repairs.

In front of the barracks, there were groups of soldiers of the Protection Army queuing up for duty.

Standing squad is also a common training content among the township army and the imperial army at this time, but Qiao Hong was still a little surprised by the appearance of those soldiers in the squad.

He often dealt with all kinds of troops and horses who came to Qingzhou to pay for the money and food, but this was the first time he saw such a neat queue. The sergeants stood horizontally and vertically, and the queue seemed to be drawn with ink fountain lines.

Taking a closer look, Qiao Hong found that the clothes and appearance of these soldiers were even more terrifying, and the sergeants around him were all tall and burly.

The soldiers of this reinforced battalion were all specially selected. According to the standard proposed by Sun Xin, their height should be at least 1.8 meters, and their attire was also very different from the other guard soldiers that Qiao Hong saw outside.

Qiao Hong was brought to the head of the battalion commander Shi Xiu, and found that General Shi Xiu was also a very tall and well-proportioned man with a well-proportioned figure and a small scar on his young face, but he didn't look too quack , On the contrary, there was a neat and calm breath.

"Good morning, General Shi Xiu."

Shi Xiu smiled at Qiao Hong: "I'm a soldier, I don't know much about etiquette, I hope Master Qiao won't take offense."

"Where."

Qiao Hong found that Shi Xiu really wasn't very talkative, so after talking to him for a few words, he turned to watch the soldiers training, feeling a little cold.

Qiao Hong thought for a while, then introduced himself and said, "The magistrate sent me to discuss the matter of strengthening the battalion. I'm afraid I will be stationed in the general's barracks in the future."

Shi Xiu nodded, "The owner of the village told me that I have asked someone to prepare a clean house and sent two tenants to take care of it."

After she finished speaking, Shi Xiu turned her head to look at the training ground again. The meaning behind the words seemed to be that she wanted Qiao Hong to visit his dormitory first, so as not to delay his work by staying here.

Qiao Hong was a little embarrassed. He was entrusted by Murong Yanda, and he came here to see the quality of the reinforced battalion of the Protection Army. Murong Yanda was also very curious about this exceptionally quiet team of more than 600 people. Once here, Qiao Hong naturally refused to leave so easily.

So he stayed there and watched the people on the field training with Shi Xiu.

Taking a closer look, I saw a pair of soldiers on the field, listening to the beep, beep, beep, came forward. They all came to a big sandpit, and each of them picked up the big stone ball in front of the sandpit and held it on the back of their necks. place, and then slammed forward.

Those men seem to have practiced this kind of stone ball throwing for a long time, and all of them moved neatly, but the stone ball flew a very long distance and landed in the middle of the bunker. After the password was given, those men who threw the stone balls consciously went up to pick up the stone balls, moved them back to the edge of the bunker, and then returned to the end of the line by themselves, just throwing and picking up the balls in a cycle.

Among them, there were a few that were not said to be "good". It seemed that the throwing distance was wrong, so they became ashamed and walked to the other side of the team, where there were more stone balls and a special officer. Explain, a group of people are constantly practicing throwing there.

Qiao Hong looked curiously, these men seemed to be practicing throwing something, but he couldn't figure it out for a while, so he simply asked Shi Xiu.

"I don't know what kind of weapons the general's team practiced in throwing? Also, why the general's team is dressed so differently from other teams, the hats are much narrower, and there is no brim."

Shi Xiu watched the training for a while and saw that Qiao Hong was still there, knowing that this guy probably wouldn't leave, she felt a little annoyed, but remembered that the owner of the village sent someone to tell him to treat the people sent by Murong Yanda well, I tried to tell him everything I could, so I calmed down.

"We are a special type of troops in the protection army. The people you saw wearing civilian clothes and caps before were musketeers or artillerymen. They specialize in killing and wounding the enemy with muskets and cannons, but we are another A kind called a grenadier."

Shi Xiu said as she picked up the grenadier cap she put aside and put it on her head.

The shape of this kind of hat is a bit strange, like a cockscomb, and also like the French hat worn by the Yellow Sect lamas, but it looks smaller.

After wearing this exaggerated hat, one looks taller. The soldiers of the Grenadier Reinforcement Battalion are all tall and tall. After wearing this hat, they instantly feel taller visually.

From a distance, Shi Xiu didn't realize that when she stood in front of her, she was two heads taller than Qiao Hong, causing Qiao Hong to subconsciously take a step back.

This deterrent effect is exactly what the grenadier cap was designed for.

Seeing Qiao Hong's reaction, Shi Xiu couldn't help but also smiled, feeling a sense of pride in his heart. He pointed to the hat on his head and introduced: "This kind of hat is specially designed without a brim. When the hand throws the grenade, there will be no hat brim blocking the top of the head."

Qiao Hong watched Shi Xiu throwing a grenade while wearing a grenadier hat, and he understood instantly, but soon had more doubts.

"What are grenades?"

Shi Xiu watched the training of his soldiers every day, and knew that they could practice well even without himself on the sidelines. It was just that according to the rules, the battalion commander had to be present when the drills were performed every day. At this time, he chatted with Qiao Hong , he simply asked a soldier to fetch a grenade.

The supervisory committee has not yet developed a touch fuze, so the style of the grenade equipped for the grenadiers is also very simple. It is an iron egg poured with cast iron, filled with gunpowder inside, and a fuse is added on the outside.

The size of this thing seems to be about the size of an iron apple, but when Qiao Hong took it in his hand, he was startled by the weight of this thing.

The first-generation fuse grenade produced by Sunjiazhuang did not take the shape of the most common wooden handle grenade in the Huaguo army in later generations.

Different shapes of grenades have different throwing skills. Whether the grenade can be thrown far has nothing to do with whether a wooden handle is installed, but adding a wooden handle will definitely increase the cost. It is the most economical way to throw an iron shell out by the grenadier with pure arm strength.

Qiao Hong took the grenade and shook it. After knowing the weight of this thing, he looked at the volunteer soldiers who were practicing throwing live ammunition in the distance. Only then did he realize how capable he was. A group of tigers and wolves."

Shi Xiu likes to hear people praise the soldiers he has trained. Hearing this, he has a good impression of Qiao Hong, and laughs.

Only then did Shi Xiu finally open up the conversation, and sincerely introduced Qiao Hong about her grenadier unit.

"Master Qiao, don't think that our team is just being lazy in the camp all day long. Our training is really busy. If we don't receive a transfer order, we would rather spend more time training than go out and walk around."

Qiao Hong nodded, but he didn't know whether what Shi Xiu said was true or not. Shi Xiu saw that he was dubious, so she called the sentinel who brought him in just now.

"Master Qiao, take a look at the equipment on his body."

When Qiao Hong walked into the camp just now, he only saw that the sentry was full of clothes, but he couldn’t see it clearly. At this moment, he took a closer look and found that the equipment on the soldier’s body was really complicated. Except for a rifle, the sentry’s body was on the left. There are a few grenades like iron eggs hanging on the side, a hatchet hanging on the right side of the body, and a bayonet bayonet on the chest at any time, and there are four kinds of weapons on the body.

(End of this chapter)