Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"Thank you, San?"

"You are Choi Nan-yi's superior, and you were awarded the title of baron because you shot Hauge with him?"

Mao Wenlong looked at Xie San and spoke.

This man's name became known in the army as the luckiest officer.

The original mission was just to ambush the Jianlu general, but his subordinate Cui Nanyi accidentally shot and killed Hauge.

He was also granted the title of Baron because he participated in the shooting and was the leader of the mission.

There are countless people in the Ming army who envy this man and say that he is so lucky.

But after Mao Wenlong's experience of the battle just now, his opinion of Xie San changed greatly:

This is not just luck, it's clear that he has the ability.

Even if Haoge had not been shot, Xie San could still have been granted a title of nobility after shooting Shuotuo.

Moreover, he was a viscount of two thousand households, one level higher than baron.

This made him look at Xie San with great appreciation and asked:

"You are a good archer. Are you interested in coming to Dongjiang Town?"

"I have specially organized a fire-gun battalion and put it in your charge."

Xie San was unmoved and said:
"I am from the Patrol Battalion, the emperor's personal guard."

"The Marshal wants to make a transfer. He needs to send a transfer order to the patrol battalion."

This made Mao Wenlong speechless. How could he, a general from a border town, compare with the emperor's personal army, the Jinyiwei?
Even though Xie San's rank was not high, each of these people was the emperor's treasure. Most of the high-ranking officers in the future army would come from them.

What's more, Xie San shot and killed Shuotuo and was about to obtain the hereditary title of viscount. Even if he became an earl, he would not be qualified to recruit this person.

This made Mao Wenlong even more sad, and he felt that he was getting old in front of these rising young generals.

Fortunately, he will most likely be made an earl after this battle, which means he has landed.

Those in Liaodong who dare not go to war may be eliminated in a few years.

Thinking about the high salaries of those people, Mao Wenlong felt malicious:

When the imperial court decides they are useless, let’s see what they still get paid for!
Putting aside these sighs, Mao Wenlong was quite interested in the musket used by Xie San.

In this battle, if Xie San had not shot and killed Shuotuo, and also shot and killed several generals who were preparing to organize soldiers, they would not have achieved such a great result. At most, they would have captured two or three hundred heads as before.

Now we have obtained six or seven hundred heads at once. It is so simple that even Mao Wenlong cannot believe it.
When did the Jianlu become so weak? They easily defeated six or seven hundred of them.

This also made him understand why Hong Chengchou had high hopes for Cui Nanyi and even treated him the same as himself.

This long-range sniping tactic is really a powerful weapon for getting kills.

Mao Wenlong was very curious and asked Xie San:

"I heard that Choi Nam-yi shot and killed more than fifty Jianlu by himself, and was called the Sniper God by the Koreans."

"How many kills have you confirmed so far in your sniper team? How many heads have you obtained?"

Xie San hesitated for a moment, and without keeping it secret, he replied:
"Since I led the team to North Korea, the sniper team has shot and killed a total of 542 people."

"We didn't get many heads, only 62."

"We won't cut off any heads until we have completely killed all the enemies."

This is the characteristic of sniper operations. They rarely expose themselves and will not cut off heads to double the credit.

Moreover, beheading would leave a bloody smell, which would easily attract pursuers. Unless all the surrounding Jianlu were shot dead, they were strictly prohibited from beheading.

In fact, if Mao Wenlong had not won this battle and defeated all the Red Banner soldiers, they would not have come to divide the heads.

Mao Wenlong was almost stunned when he heard this number. He never expected that the piecemeal attack of the sniper team would be comparable to his launching a major war.

Even one battle was not enough. Normally he would have to fight at least two battles to get so many heads.

This made him roll his eyes, and he said to Xie San generously:
"I heard that the credit is split 20% between your observers and snipers. Let's divide the heads this time as well."

"Bring 124 heads, exactly twice as many as you had before!"

Without further ado, he gave the credit for the 124 heads to Xie San and others, and then asked him:

"How many people are there in your sniper team?"

"Is there anyone willing to come to Dongjiang Town?"

"No matter what his previous position was, I will let him lead a team."

It is planned to form a sniper brigade in Dongjiang Town to be used for ambushes in the future.

Xie San was quite alert to this and did not reveal all these things. After careful consideration, he replied:
"It's difficult to train snipers. Including joint kills, we only have 108 snipers with kill records."

"The others are reserve snipers, observers, and ordnance officers."

"Moreover, the sniper muskets were issued by the imperial court, and every shot must be strictly recorded."

"Marshal Mao wants to train snipers, so he needs to get the weapons first."

It is difficult to train snipers because not every soldier can be a sniper.

Even among archers, not every sharpshooter is as adaptable to firearms as Choi Nam-yi.

Until now, Xie San's sniper brigade is not fully staffed, and there are only ninety official snipers.

Fortunately, the survival pressure of snipers is not great now, and it can even be said that they have no natural enemies at all. The Jianlu have no suitable weapons to threaten them.

Except for the loss of three snipers in the army's search, the others were not even injured.

This is also the reason why North Korean sharpshooters flocked to the sniper brigade to learn firearms.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that bows and arrows were about to be eliminated in the military.

Mao Wenlong also had this awareness, and he also felt that the breech-loading muskets used by Xie San and others were very suitable for ambush operations.

If his subordinates were also equipped with this kind of musket, the casualties in this battle would definitely be more than six or seven hundred, and it might even be possible to keep the Red Banner completely.

In the future, he would be able to gain greater gains by raiding Liaodong. Even when facing the Jianlu camp without artillery, he could directly use fire guns to shoot the enemies in the camp from a long distance.

He got excited just thinking about it, because it meant he could capture more camps and the number of heads he could take during raids would increase significantly.

If they were equipped with light artillery, many Jianlu camps would not be able to stop them.

Therefore, Mao Wenlong has decided that even if he has to spend his own money, he must equip himself with this type of musket and form a sniper brigade.

However, after asking Xie San about the price of this breech-loading rifled musket, Mao Wenlong was immediately shocked:

"Thirty taels!"

"This is more than ten times more expensive than the old bird guns, and more expensive than many artillery pieces."

"Even a matchlock gun carefully crafted by the imperial court costs only a little over four taels." "Why is your matchlock gun so expensive?"

Xie San patted the gun barrel, pointed at the rifling of the muzzle and said:
“This is where the expensive places are.”

"This pipe alone will cost at least ten taels of silver."

"Not to mention the spring wheel and the steel receiver at the back."

This is why the cost of a breech-loading musket is much more expensive than a muzzle-loading musket.

The rifling in the barrel is difficult to draw, and the rear receiver is not easy to cut.

And you have to use good steel. If the material is poor, it won’t last long.

In addition, snipers such as Xie San also proposed many suggestions for improving the musket during use, which may further increase the cost of the musket.

For example, Xie San himself suggested that the rifling could be increased and a longer gun barrel could be used to increase the effective range of the musket to about 600 meters.

This will inevitably cause the cost of breech-loading rifled muskets to continue to increase.

Moreover, this type of fire gun is only being used for trial, and is entirely hand-made by skilled craftsmen. There is no mass production of equipment, and the whereabouts of the fire guns are strictly controlled.

This made Mao Wenlong completely helpless, because at the price of thirty taels per pole, he could still buy a few hundred poles with gritted teeth. But the court did not produce many, so what could he do?

However, he was still keenly aware that this was the most suitable weapon for harassment, and he planned to submit a petition to the court to request at least a hundred rods.
-
Mao Wenlong was not the only one who had this idea. Almost everyone who fought an ambush in Korea realized the advantages of the breech-loading musket.

There were so many petitions for the imperial court to transfer breech-loading muskets that even Zhu Youjian was alarmed by such a small matter:

"You mean, many musketeers in Korea would rather use breech-loading muskets without rifling?"

"Why is this?"

"Aren't the steps for loading a muzzle-loading musket the same as for a breech-loading musket? There's no need to pour the primer."

This is why Zhu Youjian chose to mainly equip himself with the flintlock smoothbore musket after comparing it with the breech-loading rifled musket.

Due to the emergence of the gravity-fed priming system, although the muzzle-loading musket needs to use a cleaning rod to push ammunition from the front, it eliminates the step of pouring priming powder.

Unlike a breech-loading musket, after using a paper-wrapped bullet, you need to first poke open the paper-wrapped bullet and then pour the primer on it.

The loading steps for both are similar, so he naturally prefers the lower-cost flintlock smoothbore musket.

Min Mengde, the Minister of Logistics, thought about the opinions raised by the ordnance officers at the front and explained carefully:

"It is inconvenient to load a muzzle-loading musket while lying on the ground. This is the main reason why soldiers prefer breech-loading muskets."

"When using a muzzle-loading musket, you need to stand up to reload, regardless of whether you are spotted by the enemy or not."

"But the breech-loading musket is different. Even if you are discovered by the enemy, you can lie on the ground and continue to reload and shoot."

"If there is a stone or a wooden board in front of you, the arrows of the Jianlu will not be able to hit you at all. If you wear a helmet and a back armor, you will not be fatally injured."

"It is much safer to use than a muzzle-loading musket. Soldiers all want to be equipped with a breech-loading musket, as well as a helmet and a back armor."

Zhu Youjian didn't understand at first, but after thinking carefully about Min Mengde's explanation, he nodded in agreement.

He had somewhat overlooked the fact that the Jianlu were now mainly using bows and arrows, which not only had a shorter range, but were also far less powerful than muskets.

If you are facing an opponent with firearms, no matter what kind of armor you have, it is basically useless. And if you lie on the ground, you may be hit by bullets that penetrate the obstacles in front of you, or by ricochets that hit the ground.

However, arrows shot from a bow and arrows will not bounce when they hit the ground, and there is no possibility of them penetrating stones.

This meant that the musketeers were rarely hit by the Jianlu's arrows when they lay behind rocks or trees, unless many Jianlu archers gathered together and shot at someone.

However, soldiers using breech-loading muskets can also reload bullets while lying on the ground, and can continue shooting at the Jianlu before the Jianlu's arrows can hit them.

Therefore, the musketeers who fought in Korea generally preferred breech-loading muskets and liked to shoot while lying on the ground. The advantages of self-flowing gunpowder could not be brought into play in this situation.

This made Zhu Youjian's mind lean towards the rear-loading musket. He also thought of something that could make the musketeers lying on the ground safer.

Zhu Youjian drew a picture with charcoal pencil and said to Bi Maokang:
"In addition to the helmet, you can also add two detachable shields to the musket."

"This way, when the musketeers lie prone on the ground, they will be less likely to be shot by arrows."

This is something that all machine guns in later generations will be equipped with, similar to the gun shield of an artillery.

Bi Maokang was dazzled at the sight of it. He felt that the emperor was worthy of being an emperor, with so many fantastic ideas.

Zhu Youjian then said:
"The breastplate and back armor can also be made of such steel plates. You can make a vest and insert the steel plates directly into it."

"We need to prepare several different thicknesses of steel plates, and we can even use cotton armor, ceramics and other materials to make composite plates, so that soldiers with spare capacity can choose for themselves."

This would not increase the cost much, because steel plates are much simpler to make than lamellar armor, cloth armor, chain mail, etc. The most troublesome thing is the iron plates and iron rings that need to be strung together.

The Protection Research Institute of the Equipment Academy has therefore ushered in a long-awaited task: to create helmets and protective steel plates that are more suitable for defending against arrows while lying on the ground.

Zhu Youjian took into account the steel helmets used in later generations and added bulletproof plates to the helmets. He also asked the Protection Research Institute to produce safety helmets as labor protection products.

He did not draw any more pictures about this point, because the people of the Ming Dynasty had buns on their heads, and the steel helmets and safety helmets of later generations were not suitable to be directly taken out.

However, he drew a round-brimmed hat in imitation of the later Bennie hat, which was similar to the Fanyang hat and the hat-shaped helmet used by the Ming Dynasty. He asked the Equipment Institute to select suitable fabrics to make it as a daily soft hat and helmet lining.

(Left: Fan Yang hat, middle: Ming Dynasty hat-shaped helmet, right: modern bennies/round-brimmed hats)
From this he also thought of camouflage, and asked the Equipment Institute to explore mixing different pigments to make camouflage uniforms that were easier to camouflage.

Especially the pure white snow camouflage suits, as well as the white, gray and black snow camouflage.

This is urgently needed on the current Korean battlefield and must be produced and tested as soon as possible.

From then on, new military uniforms were also put on the agenda. Zhu Youjian proposed three types of clothing requirements based on the later training uniforms, daily uniforms and formal uniforms.

Combat uniforms are used in combat and training. They should be designed according to the needs of soldiers, with the priority being durability, convenience and ease of use.

The uniform is worn for daily work and needs to be beautiful and elegant. Especially for civilian personnel in the military, they usually wear the uniform.

The formal dress was mainly issued to military officers and had to conform to certain etiquette. It was improved on the original military officer's crown and uniform and was allowed to be worn at court meetings.

This is the least urgent and also the most expensive, so it is placed last.

Zhu Youjian's request was to match the shoulder straps, collar badges and armbands of the military rank he set, which are now called military officer honors, to the new uniforms.

The clothing should be simple and concise, in accordance with the needs of the military.

To this end, he not only proposed using buttons, but also drew a zipper structure and asked the Equipment Institute to make it with copper alloy.

This is an invention that is very suitable for military use and can greatly facilitate the wearing of clothing.

Especially long boots with zippers make them easier to put on.

Bi Maokang and others found a familiar feeling when listening to the emperor's series of new inventions.

Although they couldn't keep up with the emperor's pace and didn't understand the new things he proposed, after getting used to it, they already knew that they just needed to write it down.

These things were made by specific craftsmen, and as long as they could be made, the craftsmen in charge would most likely receive a reward. For some that could be used by civilians, there would even be patent dividends waiting for them.

This made the craftsmen in the Wensi Academy and the Equipment Academy very enthusiastic about making these new things. Every time the emperor proposed a plan, many engineers and craftsmen would divide into groups to realize it.

This allowed Zhu Youjian's rich insights to be further developed. (End of this chapter)