Xie Ming

Chapter 277 Sidecar

Inside the Wei Cang in the west of Zhending City, the several cannons that Xie Sufu had so much to say about were actually just some broken copper and iron, piled up under the eaves of the east wing of the backyard. Looking at them, some of them seemed to be unusable.

At this moment, while Xiao Lang was watching the cannon fire, Master Liu in front of him also looked to the west and saw something else.

After they tore off the tattered straw covering it, several large sidecars suddenly appeared!
"oh?!"

"Hey! Lu Bao, this sidecar"

Xiao Jingchuan was also quite surprised when he saw this, so he turned his head and asked Lu Bao, the warehouse keeper under Xie Sufu, who was nearby. He thought that Lu Bao had been guarding the warehouse for a long time and should know something about it.

"Ah! General!"

“This, this car?”

"It's been years since I last touched it!"

"It's been almost twenty years. It was abandoned before I took over as the head of the guard here!"

"General, please take a closer look. The wheels and axles underneath are probably so rotten that they are unusable!" Lu Bao answered truthfully.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Lang had no time to react, but Qin Jing, who was standing next to him, had already rushed towards the car with his eyes shining.

"General, general!"

“This car is a great thing!”

"I heard from old soldiers in the army in my early years that during the time of Taizu and Chengzu, the chariot camp of our Ming Dynasty was so majestic!"

"In the desert and Gobi, to the north facing the grassland, the chariot camp is out, invincible!"

"General! Please give this car to me. I'll find someone to repair it. This thing will be very useful in future battles in the wild!"

"Although there are only a few cars at the moment, and the array seems a little small, but...but as long as we are willing to work hard in this area, we can form a car camp in the future, then...that is not impossible!"

"You, you said so, right?!"

As he spoke, Qin Jing stroked the slightly moldy hardwood body of the car with his hands. He couldn't let go of it and was extremely eager for it.

"Hahaha"

"Feiyu? Feiyu (Qiu Zhizhong), look at what this kid is like now!"

"So, he likes this! Haha." Xiao Lang watched Qin Jing's excited behavior and said something teasing.

"Haha, alright!"

"Old Xiao, don't even mention it. Just looking at this big guy, it's intimidating enough!"

"Don't even talk about adding repairs. It's obviously broken. As long as it can be placed in front of the formation, its imposing manner may have some deterrent effect!" Qiu Zhizhong added with a laugh.

After he finished speaking, Xiao Jingchuan smiled bitterly and shook his head, and Kanxing also walked a few steps closer to the side carriage.

"hehe."

"Ugh!"

"This type of large-scale side-carriage vehicle is usually a three-layered chariot!"

"It's huge, and can hold more than 20 people inside!"

"The exterior is made of hard wood or steel plates, and has extremely strong defense!"

"In terms of firepower configuration, the bottom layer is equipped with multiple attack ports, which can be equipped with fire gun barrels."

"As for the top, it can also carry artillery!"

"As many as six or seven gates, no problem!"

"So, the firepower of this sidecar is a huge deterrent on the battlefield!"

"Within a radius of 100 meters, the enemy cannot get close!"

As he was speaking, Xiao Lang had already walked close to the car.

As he spoke, he groped for and pulled open the right wing door.

"oh?!"

"Sure enough, this car is actually a modified model of the one Qi Jiguang used when he fought against the Japanese pirates!"

"Come and look!"

"This car model, improved by General Deqi, has side doors on both sides of the car body, and the entire side car is in a semi-enclosed state!"

"It's driven by dozens of wheels, like a mobile fortress!"

"Haha. This car, I think when it was first planned and built, it must have cost a lot of money!"

"Qin Jing just said that this type of car was used to establish its prestige in the northern grasslands!"

"What you said is indeed true!"

"Recalling the past, Emperor Chengzu Yongle launched five northern expeditions and headed straight to the northern desert!"

"At that time, the Mongolian cavalry had tens of thousands of soldiers charging into our formations, and their momentum was unstoppable." "Moreover, they often encountered our army's formations being undetermined, and they would break through and take advantage of the situation to ravage us, leaving no one alive."

"If the enemy wants to fight, our army has no choice but to fight!"

"The enemy doesn't want to fight, I just watch!"

"When the tide is on the enemy, the enemy often changes from guest to host. Our army is afraid of weakness, loses its morale, and cannot resist the tide."

"So in response to this dilemma, our Ming Dynasty set about establishing the Chariot Camp!"

"Each battalion has 128 chariots, each with two wheels and a long shaft, and two mules, both of which can be used as mule carriages, for easy movement. There are side carriages on top, placed on the left and right. They are 15 feet long, with a door at each end for opening and closing, and two large Portuguese engines are mounted on the chariots!"

"If we put all the vans in a row, we can build a wall of more than 100 meters!"

"Combined with more than sixty long-barreled wolf machine guns, this will form a solid mobile fortress position!"

"In this way, if we fight against the nomadic cavalry in the field, the situation will be completely reversed!"

"We have turned the guerrilla warfare in the field into positional attack and defense!"

"Ah! What good times those were!"

“But later.”

"As the armored and cavalry-equipped King Shunyi of the grasslands finally fell north of the Great Wall, those enemies with fine armor and invulnerable swords and knives gradually disappeared!"

"Instead, we have the traditional nomadic cavalry that mostly fights with bone sticks!"

"The pressure on the border defense of our Ming army has been greatly reduced!"

"So, these heavy and huge box trucks were gradually replaced by lighter vehicles and no longer had their glory days!"

"hehe."

"Qin Jing!"

"This car! It looks impressive, but I told you about its advantages just after I got off the car!"

“But, this is a flaw.”

"The carriage is huge and heavy!"

"It's expensive and the action is slow!"

"It is really incompatible with the guerrilla warfare tactics of our army at present!"

"Qin Jing, I don't think I have the energy to think about the car camp in the short term!"

"That's not necessary!"

"Hehe, if you really like it, we can discuss it later after we have established a firm foothold in the southeast half of the wall! Ah, it's not too late to discuss it later, hehe."

Xiao Jingchuan made a good speech, not only accurately pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of this side carriage, but also refuted Qin Jing's proposal in a polite way at the end.

However, Qin Jing over there still had a look of regret in his eyes, hesitating and unable to let go.

"That"

"All right!"

"General, you just said that the chariot camp formed by light chariots is very prosperous now. I don't know if this is true." Qin Jing seemed to want to fight for it.

"Definitely!"

"You kid, are you going to stop?!"

"You've done nothing in the car camp?!"

Seeing that Qin Jing was still refusing to give up, Xiao Lang pretended to be impatient and took the opportunity to ask him questions.

"Uh"

"I, haven't done that!" Qin Jing replied unwillingly.

"Still!"

"You have never done it before, what are you doing organizing a car camp?"

"Our Ming army's standard chariot battalion organization has 127 officers of all levels in the battalion!"

"We need 4,000 to 5,000 cavalry, infantry, messengers, and other men to support us!"

"We may need another 500 baggage drivers!"

"Equipment vehicles: 128 side carriages or light vehicles, 256 front-end vehicles, and 256 baggage vehicles!"