Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 158
March 1592, 1 AD.

After more than ten days of hard work by all the officers and soldiers of Wuzhai Fort, the Wuzhai Fort Heroes Garden at the foot of Kelan Mountain was completed. All the remains of Wuzhai Fort soldiers who died in battle were buried here.A custom will also be formed in the future, and all soldiers who died in battle will be buried here.Every year, Wuzhai Fort will also hold a grand memorial ceremony.

The cold wind was bitter, and snowflakes were floating in the sky. All the people were wearing thick cotton robes and wrapped their heads and faces with scarves.

At this time, in the Garden of Heroes and Martyrs, the coffins of the soldiers had already entered the tombs. Besides the family members of the soldiers who came to see off their sons and husbands, tens of thousands of military households inside and outside the fort and on various farms, They all rushed over to watch from the sidelines, filling up the inside and outside of the garden.

And those reinforcement soldiers from Bajiao Fort and Shenchi Fort who hadn't left Wuzhai Fort also crowded together to watch.

In addition, all the three thousand soldiers of Wuzhai Fort were neatly lined up beside them.

"salute."

In the shout of the master of ceremonies.In front of the garden, headed by Huang Laifu and Ma Jiuying, all the officers and soldiers of Wuzhai Fort, as well as the heads of various farms, and representatives of merchants in the fort, bowed down to salute the tombs neatly.Xu Xueshi, the eldest brother-in-law, and Tian Dafu, the third brother-in-law, also clasped their fists in salute.Slowly, weeping sounds came from the crowd, and they slowly gathered together.

"farewell!"

The desolate music sounded, not to mention that the widows in hemp and filial piety next to them couldn't control their emotions, and all of them knelt down and cried bitterly, even the crowd watching couldn't help but shed tears.The third sister, Huang Birou, was standing beside Gu Yunniang, her eyes were also red, and she wiped her eyes with her hands from time to time. The little baby Han Niuer from Shenchibao just lay quietly in her arms, looking cute.

"put!"

Beside the tomb stood several teams of Wuzhaibao warriors holding firecrackers. At this time, they pointed the birdcracks in their hands to the sky, and after listening to the officer's order, they fired the firecrackers.

"Boom, boom, boom." The ringing of the firecrackers spread throughout the fields, causing echoes in the valley.

"Let it go!"

Amidst the sound of gunfire, led by Huang Laifu, the three thousand soldiers of Wuzhai Fort slowly sang the military song of Wuzhai Fort: "When all people are united in one mind, Mount Tai can be shaken! Only loyalty and righteousness, and the spirit of bullfighting. The Lord and General I am better than my parents. If you violate military orders, you will not be free. The orders are clear, the rewards and punishments are trustworthy, and you are going to the water and fire. How dare you stay?"

The majestic singing slowly gathered into one piece and spread far into the sky.This is "Song of Triumph" written by Qi Jiguang. At this time, it was the military song of the troops from all over the Ming Dynasty, and the same is true for Wuzhai Fort.

After a series of funeral ceremonies, not to mention that the soldiers of Wuzhai Fort were sublimated and had a higher cohesion, but many people watching below were deeply envious and envious.Especially the sergeants of the Octagonal Fort and Shenchi Fort, all of them were extremely envious. With such treatment, even if they died in battle, so what?
The status of the soldiers in the Ming Dynasty was low. Even if they died in battle, there was no compensation, not to mention, there were often no bones left, or they were buried in random graves. How can there be such glory as Wuzhaibao soldiers?

All of a sudden, everyone inside and outside the fort yearned even more to join the army of Wuzhai Fort.Even Yang Dawei, the Jinyiwei Qianhu next to him, and several school captains were envious after seeing it.

※※※

The Garden of Heroes has since become a sacred place in Wuzhai Fort, where incense is continuously burned every day.

Next, there is the issue of rewards for the soldiers.This time, the Wuzhaibao army beheaded 3150 levels. Not to mention the imperial court, according to the regulations set by the Wuzhaibao army, each level rewarded 40 taels of silver. It is a very large number.

Even though Huang Laifu has a good income this year, it is still a bit difficult to spend such a large amount of money.The eldest brother-in-law didn't say anything, but the third brother-in-law persuaded Huang Laifu, why do you have to give such a large amount of reward to your subordinates, you are stupid.Back then, Grandpa Qi set a first-level reward of 30 taels of silver. It was because he was backed by the chief assistant Zhang Juzheng at that time, and the amount of silver reward was paid by the imperial court.And you have to pay for the money yourself.

Many soldiers in Wuzhai Fort also felt embarrassed that their adults had to pay so much money. Many people said that the amount of silver reward this time should be forgotten.Even Huang Laifu's parents, father-in-law, mother-in-law, wife and concubines, numerous uncles and aunts, etc., were all heartbroken about the large sum of money to be moved from the Huang family.

However, Huang Laifu insisted on paying the money in the end, and no one could stand without faith, especially in the army.

In the end, Huang Laifu rewarded the money according to his words. In this way, almost every sergeant received a first-level reward of 40 taels of silver. Inside and outside the fort, there were cheers. The eldest brother-in-law and the third brother-in-law could only feel that the brother-in-law was rich and powerful.

The post-war experience summary is a necessary subject for the Wuzhaibao army. The experience and experience of all officers and non-commissioned officers must be compiled into a book for future study.

This time, Wuzhaibao's firearms showed their talents, and they also had a large gun. The effect was also good in this battle, and it was very good for horses.Therefore, Huang Laifu and the soldiers felt that it was necessary to increase the number of firearmsmen in the army.Right now, the number of gunners in Wuzhai Fort accounts for less than one-third of the total number of sergeants, and it will increase to at least half in the future.And it also requires a large stock of firearms.

Therefore, Huang Laifu ordered that Wuzhaibao Arms Workshop, from now on, the main task is to make iron armor and bird guns and guns. As for knives, guns, bows and arrows, you can go out to buy, and military uniforms will be made by Wuzhaibao Woolen Mill.However, the main contradiction in the current military workshop is the contradiction between technological development and urgent needs.

According to the technology of the Ming Dynasty, it takes at least one to two months to manufacture a bird gun, drill the bore tube, as well as the forging, joining, triggering and other processing procedures of the gun tube.

In fact, in the bird gun part, other parts can be grouped and cooperated, similar to the assembly line production at the level of the 17th century.However, the two parts of forged barrel and bored barrel are rough and clumsy work, and there is no way to replace them with an assembly line, and the process still cannot be saved.

"Ji Xiao's New Book" records: "The original hole of the bird gun is very small, and it is drilled with a steel drill. It can be drilled an inch a day, until the bottom is drilled, and the light is drilled in one month." This can only be said by one person It takes at least one month to do it, and another half a month to do other work.

In the end, Huang Laifu came up with a way to work in groups, with a group specializing in forging barrels and bores, a group specializing in making triggers and other parts, and finally assembling by a group of people. Everyone concentrated on doing their own work.In this way, the efficiency has been improved a bit, and a qualified firecracker can be produced in less than a month.

At present, there are more than 500 military craftsmen and soldiers in Wuzhaibao, 300 of whom specialize in making blunderbuss and carrying guns, and more than 200 make iron armor.It is estimated that 1000 firecrackers and [-] armors can be made in a month.This achievement, placed in other places in Ming Dynasty, is estimated to be very brilliant, but Huang Laifu is not very satisfied. He decided to expand the number of military craftsmen to reach [-].

The above is the manufacture of firecrackers. As for artillery, don't think about it.Not to mention the strict control of the Ming court, even if it is allowed to make, Huang Laifu does not have the talent to make cannons.Compared with firecrackers, the tiger crouching cannons and Frang machine cannons made by Ming Dynasty are still of good quality. Anyway, the only enemies right now are the Mongolians in leather robes. With these two cannons and the birdcracks, it is enough to deal with them.What kind of Hongyi cannon, put on Huang Laifu, is just killing chickens with a sledgehammer.As for the heavy armored cavalry and armored heavy infantry that may be used to fight the Manchus in the future, it will be more than [-] years later.

There is also iron armor. According to the current situation in the Ming Dynasty, except for the cavalry, the infantry and firecrackers in all armies do not have iron armor, and the Wuzhaibao army is the same.However, Huang Laifu still decided to put iron armor on his infantry and firecrackers, because his current soldiers are too expensive, and their value far exceeds that of weapons and equipment.And now that he has iron ore, he doesn't have to worry about having no iron materials.

Western plate armor is inferior to Chinese scale armor in terms of protection. Otherwise, in Western armies, officers would have to wear a layer of chain armor in addition to a set of plate armor.Western plate armor can face Western crossbows with a smile because their soft steel crossbows have poor shooting power. Huang Laifu can imagine the consequences of replacing them with Chinese composite hard bows and armor-piercing arrows.However, compared to scale armor, plate armor is relatively simple to manufacture and can be mass-produced. It is better to have a layer of iron armor on the body than leather armor.Huang Laifu decided that in the future, his cavalry and officers would wear scale armor, while ordinary soldiers would wear plate armor.

Finally, there is the issue of war horses. More than 3000 good war horses were seized this time.With [-] war horses, in wartime, the food and fodder eaten a day is equivalent to the consumption of [-] human soldiers.Even though Wuzhaibao had a bumper harvest of grain and plenty of green fodder such as alfalfa, Huang Laifu still struggled to raise so many horses.But there is no need for a horse, it is not Huang Laifu's style, he still gritted his teeth and persisted.

Everyone in the current Wuzhaibao army has horses. Except for Huang Laifu's [-] cavalry, the rest have become horse infantry, and their mobility has been greatly improved.

※※※

March 1592, 1 AD.

When the Chinese New Year was one month away, the imperial court's reward finally came down.

"I bow to the destiny, inherit the great rule of my ancestors, and rule the world. The way to govern and protect the country is to learn the classics from afar. Keeping the ancestors close to the law. I am cautious at night and never dare to violate it... Now there is Huang Laifu, the commander of Wuzhaiwei, His talents are worthy of great use, he defeated the captives, beheaded more than [-] people, received special rewards, added the title of lieutenant general, and each of the soldiers under his command received a reward..."

In front of thousands of soldiers in Wuzhai Fort, the court angel finished reading the imperial decree with ups and downs, and Huang Laifu was overjoyed and kowtowed: "Thank you, my emperor, long live, long live, long live!"

All the people around rushed forward and said to Huang Laifu repeatedly: "Congratulations, my lord, congratulations, my lord."

Huang Laifu smiled and said, "Congratulations, congratulations."
The news of Huang Laifu's promotion to lieutenant general came out, not to mention that everyone in Wuzhaibao was celebrating, and that his lord was promoted again, even everyone in the nearby Junbao prefecture and county heard about it, and they were all envious and jealous. , He was promoted from garrison to lieutenant general and enjoyed the treatment of deputy commander in chief. This kid is really lucky.But envy is envy, there is still an endless stream of people who come to congratulate.At the same time, the eldest brother-in-law Xu Xueshi and the third brother-in-law Tian Dafu were also promoted to guerrillas and generals, which made them very excited.

For several days, his father, Huang Sihao, led the family, young and old, to pay homage to the ancestors and report the luck of the family and the glory of the descendants.

The angel came this time, in addition to rewarding and passing on the decree, he also had the task of urging Huang Laifu to distribute the money. The Chinese New Year was coming, and Emperor Wanli's money was empty, waiting for the money to be used.

The final calculation result is that Emperor Wanli received a bonus of 17 taels of silver from Wuzhai Fort.Five days before the Chinese New Year, when Emperor Wanli saw this batch of silver, he and Concubine Zheng were so excited that they didn't sleep well all night.

(End of this chapter)