A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 355

Wen Fangliang changed the subject, and suddenly said: "Now in our Shunxiang Army, each cavalry soldier will be equipped with two or three pistols. General, I have a proposal at the end. If every first-class sergeant is also equipped with pistols, in the future If you fight Dongnu or bandits, you will be more sure of defeating your opponent."

Wen Fangliang's words made everyone excited. No matter how high the misfire rate of flintlock handguns is, the accuracy is not as good as matchlock guns, but they can be compensated by quantity.Fighting the enemy at a short distance does not require much precision.

The firecrackers and pikemen under each general's command, don't say that they won't fall into a melee with the enemy in the future.At that time, if you fight in a melee, you may have to spend a lot of effort to kill those opponents wearing heavy armor with knives and guns, which will also increase the casualties of your own sergeants.

But if each sergeant hangs a few hand guns on his body, use the hand guns to aim at them and fire...

Wang Dou was also moved. In future hand-to-hand combat, facing heavily armored Qing soldiers, using broadswords and long spears, it would not be easy to kill a person.But if the sergeant is equipped with several guns, within a few meters of fighting each other, the Qing soldiers on the opposite side will be covered with triple layers, and they can be killed or maimed with one gun.

No matter how small the power of the pistol is, within a few steps, there is no armor that can resist it.Moreover, lead pellets are more poisonous than any poisonous arrow in this world. If you are shot on the torso, there is absolutely no possibility of survival. If you are shot on the limbs, you will also end up with amputation.

It seems that during World War II, the U.S. military was equipped with a powerful and large-caliber pistol, which greatly improved the offensive and defensive capabilities of soldiers.

It's just...it's good for each first-class army to have one or a few handguns, but the production requirements for their own military industry are higher.

In the future, the Shunxiang Army may need tens of thousands of flintlock pistols, as well as tens of thousands of bird guns.In Wangdou's budget, the first-class army and the second-class army are half pikemen and half firecrackers.After the Tunpu was revived, there were still tens of thousands of strong soldiers, all of whom needed to be equipped with a large number of firecrackers.

It turned out that Wang Dou's plan was to use three-eyed blunderbuss in the reserve troops of each fort, so that the production and cost were much lower.But he finally thought about it and ruled out the idea.In order to stimulate the demand for steel on the East Road and to develop the steel-smelting and iron-smelting technology in the road on a large scale, it is also necessary to widely use bird guns.

Seeing the general chatter and enthusiasm around him, Wang Dou also asked Qi Tianliang, the ambassador of the Logistics Department beside him: "Brother Qi, now our military engineering department can make bird guns every year, and how many self-generated hand guns?"

Qi Tianliang hurriedly said: "Return to the general, the military uniform factories of the military industry department have been contracted to various merchants on the east road one after another. It turns out that the mine craftsmen also took back a large number of military industry department. In addition, the craftsmen were selected from the victims. Now there are three thousand craftsmen in each military industry factory. There are more than 1000 craftsmen in the gun factory.”

"The fire gun factory uses a large number of hydraulic drilling machines, and the scrap rate has been reduced to [-]%. The finished gun tubes can be [-] to [-] rods a month. According to the calculation of the next official, [-] rods of bird guns can be produced in a year. Three thousand pistols from Zhongzisheng."

Qi Tianliang's words made Wang Dou very happy. This kind of productivity is definitely the first in Ming Dynasty, even the War Bureau and Military Weapons Bureau are far behind.

He said: "The rate of finished products can be improved. There are a large number of skilled craftsmen in each military factory. You can choose a craftsman head, each with a number of craftsmen, and each group is responsible for making a bird gun, just like the craftsmen's workshops in Qin State back then. "

The military engineering department now has the concept of "scrap rate". In the past, Wang Dou was always surprised that it took forty catties of wrought iron to make a blunderbuss barrel, but in the end it turned into fine iron, only seven or eight catties.Wang Dou also thinks that those craftsmen are very good, and the "concentration rate" of a few catties of wrought iron into a catty of refined iron is too high.

Later, Wang Dou found out that he was wrong. It wasn't that a gun barrel needed forty catties of wrought iron, but that the yield rate of the weapon was too low at this time.Of the ten gun barrels, only two or three are usually qualified, and the rest are left as waste products.

In ancient times, there was no concept of "rejection rate", and craftsmen could not explain the problem of "rejection rate". Therefore, in the records of literati, it became that a gun barrel required forty catties of wrought iron.Misled Wang Dou for a long time.

After discovering this problem, Wang Dou introduced the concept of "rejection rate". Now he controls the East Road and can build gun factories in many places with abundant water power.Various factories in the military industry widely use hydraulic forging machines and hydraulic drilling machines. The power output is stable, and they are not as prone to fatigue and mistakes as craftsmen, so the yield rate has been greatly improved, reaching [-]%.

Now Wang Doujun's engineering department only needs a dozen catties of wrought iron to make a bird gun, and there is still a lot of possibility of improvement in the future.

"What this general means is that the production of long-stemmed self-generating guns can be postponed, and more self-generating hand guns can be produced. At least [-] to [-] guns can be produced a year..."

The flintlock gun has just been produced, and there are not many skilled craftsmen. The flintlock gun has a series of fine parts. Compared with the mature matchlock gun, the production is not so easy.

At present, the Shunxiang Army has a lot of matchlock guns in stock. Wang Dou means to produce a series of flintlock pistols first, and then equip the cavalry commander Qian. At present, only half of Li Guangheng's army owns pistols.In the future, the entire Shunxiang Army will have a large demand for flintlock handguns, and it is necessary to tilt its forces in this direction.

Qi Tianliang took orders respectfully and raised the issue of money and food.According to the current production cost of Daming bird guns, one rod is about three to five taels of silver.Of course, in the Wang Dou craftsman system, this cost is greatly reduced.However, if the military engineering department makes tens of thousands of bird guns a year, the cost of money and food will be quite a lot.

Wang Dou told him not to worry about this problem. He would order the financial secretary to draw up the funds. He could still pay the cost of tens of thousands of guns a year.He also asked about the Lumi gun: "The imperial court pulled out a thousand Lumi guns, and originally ordered the [-] rods in the middle to be replaced with self-generating fire guns. Has the military engineering department been completed?"

……

After receiving the news that all five hundred flintlock Lumi blunderbusses had been completed, Wang Dou decided to take these batches of flintlock Lumi blunderbuss into the army, and see how the battles will be in the future.

However, all the generals were uninterested, and the high misfire rate of the flintlock made them unable to lift their spirits.

All the troops lined up on the battlefield and fired in salvo. If the firecrackers in the hands of the firecrackers misfired, there was almost no chance of pulling the trigger again, so they had to quickly return to reload.Under high tension, many people may forget that there is still ammunition in the barrel, and then reload it...

It's not like using handguns in melee. If this kind of long-shafted flintlock is used in the army, the risk of burst fire chaos may be too high. How can it compare to the mature arquebus in the army?So it is understandable that the generals are not interested.

Even if there are a large number of flintlocks in stock in the future, Wang Dou can't force all the soldiers to use flintlocks. He can only gradually improve the performance of flintlocks in future wars, so as to improve the army's ability to use flintlocks. Confidence.

Of course, Wang Dou ordered the military engineering department to make more flintlock handguns, so that the annual output could reach [-] to [-] shots, which still made the generals very excited.Discussing how to fight against the enemy in the future after each soldier under his command is equipped with one or two handguns.

……

After watching the cavalry training, Wang Dou led the generals back to Yongning City. The next stage is mainly about the recruitment and training of more than 5000 new troops.

At present, Wang Dou's army has six infantry commanders, one cavalry commander, and one supply army commander. There are about [-] people here, most of whom are veterans.

Wen Daxing's Ye Bu Shou Qian Zong, because it is more difficult to recruit battlefield detection personnel, so Ye Bu Shou has only four teams of more than [-] people in the army.In order to improve the future battlefield detection power, Wang Dou has decided that the cavalry under Li Guangheng's command are usually idle, and they also need to train battlefield detection.

There are 300 direct guards in the Wangdou camp. They are divided into six teams, three teams of Lumi musketeers, and three teams of sword and shield players. They are also used as guards of honor on weekdays.These 300 people also need to train Ye Bushuo in various skills, so that the future battlefield detective, Wang Dou, will have a military force of more than [-] people.

Not only that, because all the infantry troops have horses, they must also select some smart and strong men to train them, so that they have the skills that will never be harvested at night, and become the eyes and ears of each infantry general on the battlefield.

After removing Zhao Xuan's Artillery Chief Qian (not enough, currently there are only more than [-] people), Wang Dou's [-] veterans, there are still more than [-] people who have not entered the establishment of the first-class army, as the second-class army to be trained Officers exist.

Wang Dou will expand his troops to more than 920 people. Based on a total of [-] people in one thousand, another six thousand people are needed.

This means that many people are about to be promoted, and every thousand generals in the new army will naturally have to be selected from among the senior generals.Among the generals, Lei Xianbin, Huang Yujin, Wu Zhengchun, Shen Shiqi, Tian Zhijue, Yin Yijin, Gao Xun and others are good candidates.

Lei Xianbin and Huang Yujin were originally the subordinate officers of the Han Dynasty. They had outstanding performance as early as the ninth year of the Chongzhen War.The remaining Qianzong candidates are also in the process of intense selection.

In addition to these thousand generals of the second-class army, there are more than [-] generals, more than [-] team officers, and many new army chiefs, corps chiefs and other officers and leaders.The huge demand has aroused the interest of many veterans of the first-class army. Many people move up and down, hoping to enter the new army as officers.

In the Shun Township Army, the commanders-in-chief, commander-in-chief, and team officers all have the power to recommend subordinates, and the governors also report the performance of the officers on weekdays together as one of the references for the promotion of officers and soldiers.A huge promotion battle begins.

……

In addition, many people on the East Road are also staring at the new army quota of more than [-] in the Shunxiang Army.

The current Shunxiang army has a high status in the East Road and is treated well. Their heroic appearance makes many young people salivate with envy.Especially those military households in Baoan Prefecture, all of them walked outside with their backs straight and triumphant.

Not to mention the military households in Shunxiangbao, both literati and businessmen from all over the world will curry favor with them, because you need these military households as guarantors if you want to set up a factory and open a store in Shunxiangbao.Without a good relationship with these military households, it is impossible to settle down in the local area.

And Shunxiang Fort is now the richest place on the East Road. Most of the Shunxiang Army is from Shunxiangbao. Every time they go to war, they bring back a lot of rewards. Every family is rich and there are many business opportunities.Which gentry businessmen would give up this place full of opportunities?
But it’s not like the ninth year of Chongzhen. At that time, all the people in Baoan Prefecture were soldiers, and every qualified child of a military household was required to join the army.Now General Dingguo has started to pick and choose. It is not so easy to join the Shunxiang Army.

Wang Dou's original intention was to select the number of soldiers from the new military households in the newly established forts, but the forts were not perfect, and there were many refugees and victims who had not been arranged.Moreover, the land camp system is implemented in all the forts, and there is no division of land to households for the time being, so after careful consideration, Wang Dou decided to recruit the more than [-] new troops from all over the road.

Apart from being issued with armor and uniforms and responsible for the food in the army, these five thousand new troops still have no food and salary, but they are given rewards for killing the enemy in daily battles, and they can retire after five years.After retiring from the army, they had the household registration of the East Route Army, and they were allocated [-] mu of cultivated land, farming tools and other things, and the armor and weapons used for daily combat were also owned by their families.

On the first day of September in the 12th year of Chongzhen, the Shunxiang Army was stationed in Acropolis, Huailai City, Yanqing Prefecture, and Yongning City. The recruiting offices in various places were crowded with young people who came to try their luck.

The recruitment will be held for seven consecutive days, and today is the first day.

As early as a few days ago, countless young people flocked here, waiting for the recruitment to start.This is a rare opportunity. In the future, the Shun Township Army will only recruit soldiers from the military households in the new Tunpu, and the children of those who have performed well in each Tunpu will be selected into the army.If you miss this batch, I don’t know how long it will take before you have a chance.

This time, General Dingguo recruits soldiers regardless of their status and household registration. Regardless of the children of military households and civilian households in the cities on the East Road, they all hope that they will be the lucky one...

On this day, by coincidence, Chen Xinjia, governor of Xuanda, Hu Dawei, commander-in-chief of Shanxi Town, and Wang Pu, commander-in-chief of Datong Town, met Ji Shiwei, governor of Xuanfu Town, at the Xiangshuipu station in Zhencheng. Commander-in-chief Yang Guozhu, deputy commander-in-chief Zhang Guowei and his party.

They walked together, entered the East Road from Jiming Station, and came to Yongning City.

Cabinet ministers Yang Sichang and Xue Guoguan also joined Hong Chengchou, governor of Jiliao, and his party in the outskirts of Beijing. They passed Juyongguan and entered the boundary of Yanqing on the East Road.

(End of this chapter)