1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 62 Sharpening the Gun in Battle
Although Zhou Songqing was illiterate, he could understand the illustrations drawn by Peng Gang.

Peng Gang's illustrated training manual for musket users is much more intuitive and detailed than the manuals used by the Green Camp.

As a seasoned gunner, Zhou Songqing felt that with Peng Gang's meticulousness and conscientiousness, if his subordinates honestly followed the illustrated manual and were willing to spend money on ammunition, they could let this young man fire a few dozen live rounds to practice.

Finally, they'll practice their courage in battle. In less than a year, Peng Gang's arquebusiers will be no worse than the elite veteran arquebusiers of the town and the advanced ones.

After completing the training manual, Zhou Songqing took his leave and returned to Shangdongtang. Peng Gang did not let Zhou Songqing help for nothing and gave him three qian of silver as a thank you.

In this expansion, most of the outstanding members from the original Group 1 and Group 2 in terms of production performance, learning performance, and combat training performance were appointed as group leaders and deputy group leaders in the new groups.

Although Zhang Ze is relatively young, he has been promoted to the leader of Group Three because of his excellent performance and quick wit.

The three musketeer groups are Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3.

"Master, what is a second?" Zhang Ze had no concept of the second as a unit of time.

Not only Zhang Ze, but the other team members were also very unfamiliar with the second as a unit of time.

Peng Gang now has the financial means to buy a watch, but unfortunately, after wandering around Guiping City, he couldn't find a single watch shop.

Clocks were not uncommon in Guangdong, where foreigners frequently traveled, especially in Guangzhou, which was an open port. However, they were not common in Guangxi.

So far, Peng Gang has only seen a pendulum clock in Qiu Gusan's fortress, and Qiu Gusan also seems to have a silver pocket watch on him.

The Wang family of Mengchong in Zijing Mountain is not as wealthy as the Qiu family of Muge in Guixian County. Peng Gang doesn't know if Wang Zuoxin's family has clocks; if they do, he could get them from Wang Zuoxin for free.

If not, the only options are to source it from Guangzhou or buy one from the Qiu family.

“One inhale and one exhale is four seconds.” Peng Gang gave a brief explanation of the concept of a second to the young men who were gathered around him, looking puzzled, and demonstrated one inhale and one exhale.

Previously, when Peng Gang trained the young men in groups one and two in marching drills, the most common unit of time he used was breathing.

The younger guys from the second group probably had a vague concept of seconds, and they shook their heads to indicate that they understood.

Of course, the exact duration of each breath varies from person to person; not everyone takes four seconds.

A normal person's breathing time is generally three to five seconds.

With preparations complete, Peng Gang officially began live-fire training for the three groups of musketeers.

Giving commands by shouting and banging gongs during training is exhausting for the voice and hands, tiring, and troublesome.

Peng Gang now uses a bamboo whistle instead of the original gong for his daily training.

The bamboo whistle produces sound by creating air cavities through cutting bamboo nodes. In his previous life, he made such whistles as toys when he was a child. They were very simple to make, and he knew how to make them himself.

Peng Gang equipped each group leader and deputy group leader with a bamboo whistle for issuing commands.

He blew the assembly whistle and first conducted dry-fire simulation training for the three groups of musketeers. He personally watched over each musketeer and required them to repeat the loading and firing action three hundred times a day to form muscle memory.

The young men who were using the musket for the first time were very clumsy at first. On the first day, they practiced from sunrise to sunset, and more than half of them failed to complete the standard loading action of 300 times.

The situation was slightly better on the second day, with about 70% of the young men able to complete the 300-repetition training target in the same amount of time.

By the fourth day, the young men had gradually developed muscle memory, and everyone had completed the daily training target of 300 repetitions.

On the fifth day, Peng Gang began conducting live-fire training with them.

Considering the limited lifespan of bird gun barrels and the high cost of gunpowder.

Peng Gang didn't dare to be extravagant enough to let the young men conduct live-fire training with standard propellant charges.

Instead, they established a standard propellant charge of 40% as the standard for training rounds and conducted live-fire training.

The wooden target was also moved to a distance of fifteen meters.

During the live-fire training phase, Peng Gang established a reward and punishment system and personally assessed and recorded every bullet fired by each musketman. Initially, each person fired thirty rounds of training ammunition per day.

If you miss a stationary target at a distance of 15 meters with a long rifle, it's really hard to believe.

A score of 27 out of 30 is considered passing. A score of 27 is neither penalized nor rewarded. A score of 28 is rewarded with one work point. A score of 29 is rewarded with two work points. A score of all 30 is rewarded with five work points.

Those who fail to meet the standard will have to practice empty-fire shooting twenty times a day for each missed shot, and will have a white cloth strip tied to their head as a sign of shame, until they achieve the standard in the next live-fire shooting test.

Those who exceed the loading time limit will have to practice empty gun loading and firing 100 times a day, and will be tied with a white cloth strip until they achieve the required score in the next live-fire target practice.

Of course, reasons other than force majeure may be excluded from the score once confirmed.

This non-force majeure reason is that the engine misfires.

Normally, a 40% charge would prevent a bullet from misfiring and failing to fire; the problem lies with the matchlock and gunpowder.

The matchlock ropes purchased from Huang Zhenyue were mostly inferior hemp ropes, which were not fully nitrated, easily absorbed moisture, and had uneven smoldering speed.

The quality of the gunpowder was also worrying, with too many impurities and insufficient nitrate content, making it weak and difficult to ignite.

Despite Peng Gang's efforts to sift out impurities from the gunpowder, preserve it properly, and keep it dry, the misfire rate was still as high as 38%.

The weapons used by the pro-independence camp are unusable. If they want to use firearms comfortably, they need to make their own matchlock guns and mix their own gunpowder.

After the musket operators' training was on track, Peng Gang assigned the group leaders and deputy group leaders to be responsible for their group's daily 300 dry-loading and firing drills.

The standard for live-fire shooting has been reduced from thirty rounds per day to five rounds per day.

Peng Gang shifted his focus to training the artillery crews and rifle crews, while occasionally conducting spot checks and supervision of the musket crews.

As for tactical training in volley fire, we'll teach them that after the artillery crews have finished their training.

Late June 1848.

The heavy rains in Guiping County have long since stopped, and the floodwaters are gradually receding.

After the rain comes the sweltering heat and humidity of Lingnan's summer.

Inside the signing room of the Guiping County government office, Magistrate Yang Xun, who had removed his official hat, lay on a rattan chair with his robes open, constantly urging the servant beside him to fan him faster with a palm leaf fan.

Yang Xun now misses the days when it rains heavily. Although it was humid during those times, at least it wasn't as hot.

"Guangxi is no place for a human to live. If I had known this would happen, I would have rather gritted my teeth and borrowed more money to buy a lucrative post than come to Guangxi to suffer." Yang Xun said to his servants while drinking a refreshing winter melon and barley soup.

"Go quickly and fetch a bucket of cool well water to chill some watermelons and lychees to eat."

Before long, Master Chen personally carried a wooden bucket filled with watermelon and lychee into the signing room and placed it next to Yang Xun. He whispered, "Master, news has come from Zijing Mountain that the former Zijing Mountain gang leader, Wang Zuoxin, is colluding with boat bandits and harboring boat bandits Luo Dagang and Qiu Ersao."

"Is there any evidence?" Yang Xun peeled a crystal-clear, cool lychee and popped it into his mouth, asking lazily.

"There are several letters from Luo Dagang and Qiu Ersao to Wang Zuoxin." Master Chen took out several letters from his sleeve and handed them to Yang Xun.

Yang Xun didn't even bother to glance at it, continuing to peel his lychees as if nothing had happened, and said without looking up, "The messenger only gave you a few letters? No other indication?"

"He also gave me ten taels of gold." After hesitating for a long time, Master Chen took out a gold bar weighing ten taels.

"I just dismissed Wang Zuoxin from his post as head of the militia, and now news and evidence of his collusion with pirates have arrived. What a coincidence!" Yang Xun said with a sneer.

"This gold bar, was it a gift from Peng Gang? That kid is young, but he's got quite a bit of money to burn, and he's got big ambitions too."

"Master, should we give that boy a stern reprimand to teach him a lesson, so he won't become arrogant and reckless?" Master Chen asked, his mind focused.

(End of this chapter)