Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 98 Armament Planning
"Speaking of the army, then we really have to talk about it." Yang Menglong didn't beat around the bush, and went straight to the point, "I admit that I have forgotten you all this time, but it can't be all my fault, you can also see When we first came here, the crops were in a state of disarray, and if we didn’t find a way to solve the irrigation problem, we didn’t even have food to eat!”

Han Peng was a little helpless: "Food is the most important thing for the people. We used to plan food in the ground. I understand."

Yang Menglong said happily: "If you can understand, that would be great! Well, now that everything is moving in a good direction, I can breathe a sigh of relief. It's time for us to talk about the future of the army. I would like to ask the two , What kind of army do you hope to have, and what kind of weapons to equip them?"

Han Peng and Qi Hu looked at each other and felt that this question was a bit stupid.A person who leads troops to fight, of course, hopes that he can have a well-disciplined, loyal, reliable, and well-equipped army. Does it matter?It's a pity that there are not no such troops, but there are too few, too few!Take the present as an example, on the books, there were more than 100 million officers and soldiers in the guards of the Ming Dynasty alone. Is this figure scary enough?But in fact, there are still 100 million left in the army of more than 40 million. Chongzhen should laugh, not to mention that the 40 million people in Mali are mostly old, weak, sick and disabled, and they are simply vulnerable.The frontier army was not much better. All the troops that could fight were wiped out during the Tianqi period, and the rest was a mass of mud. Only the Guanning army still had a strong combat effectiveness, but that combat effectiveness was the largest in the Ming Dynasty. It was force-fed out, and it didn't quite listen to it.As for the Xuanda Army, the Ningxia Army, and the North and South Zhili Army, each one is worse than the other. The most exaggerated one is Shandong. As for Kong Youde's rebellion, there were only a few thousand Dongjiang remnants in Denglai, and the whole Shandong was helpless!
Qi Hu pondered and said: "Of course a general hopes to have a loyal, reliable and well-equipped army, but this is really too difficult, too difficult! Qi's army has swept the coastal Japanese pirates and Mongolian Tartars before, and they have never been defeated. The powerful troops are all fed by money, and a battalion of soldiers can cost tens of thousands of taels of silver, how can there be so much money now!"

Han Peng curled his lips and said, "How many taels of silver? It's not bad if you can eat enough. How do you expect the court officials to give us tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy mules and horses for us?"

Yang Menglong waved his hand and said, "Stop whining, tell me, what should I do to build a strong army?"

Han Peng said: "I can only fight in battle. As for how to train soldiers, Mr. Qi has the most say."

Yang Menglong cast his eyes on Qi Hu: "Old man, tell me."

Qi Hu sorted out his thoughts, and said: "For military training, you must first have excellent soldiers. If you are given a group of cowardly soldiers, even gods will have no way to lead them to victory. Therefore, as long as conditions permit, we will try our best. The places where the folk customs are aggressive recruit soldiers. As for the conditions for recruiting soldiers, the first is to be physically fit and courageous, the second is to have an innocent family background, honest and reliable, and the third is to have a calm personality and not be glib..." Summarize the criteria for the recruitment of Qi's army , Hearing that, Han Peng couldn't stop talking, my God, the emperor didn't select the Habayashi army so strictly, did he?Yang Menglong secretly rolled his eyes. To put it bluntly, he wanted a group of muscular men with well-developed limbs and a simple mind!But then again, in the era of cold weapons, such a source of soldiers is indeed the best choice.

"After the recruits join the army, they must be strictly disciplined. While strictly training, they must also strictly enforce military discipline, so that soldiers' words and deeds conform to military discipline, wear down their arrogance, and get rid of their morale, until they no matter what time they are. Until the whole country obeys the order unconditionally. Only in this way, after entering the battlefield, thousands of people can be integrated into one body. The brave will not fight for the first, the cowardly will not retreat, and the flag will be directed, and death will not follow..."

Han Peng couldn't help saying: "This is too demanding! No, this is simply impossible!"

Yang Menglong said: "Nothing is impossible. Chang Yuchun has a group of such subordinates, and Lan Yu also has them. Marshal Qi also polished the weak Zhejiang army into an invincible force that made Japanese pirates and Mongolian Tartars fearful. Yes. , This kind of troops is what I want. They don't need to be superior in martial arts and resourceful, as long as they can unite and obey orders, they will be a powerful force."

Qi Hu said: "Although this is the case, it is not easy to train such soldiers..."

Yang Menglong chuckled: "There is always a way... I thought of several fun ways to play, and I just tried them."

Han Peng shivered for no reason, and had an ominous premonition in his heart: those soldiers under his command might be in trouble!

"Mr. Qi will come back and make a military training plan. By the way, let me have a look at the military regulations. My requirements are not high, as long as I can serve those thorns." Yang Menglong smiled until his eyes narrowed. Get up, like a weasel who has seen a chicken, "Now let's study, what kind of guys should we equip the troops? Use your brains to think about it, don't make me any weird requests for magic weapons like Dragon Slaying Sword and Yitian Sword !"

Qi Hu pondered and said: "Equipment...According to the standard configuration of Qi's army, one-third or even half of the people should use guns..."

Han Peng was the first to object: "No! You can't use the blunderbuss. The blunderbuss are too bad! When we were fighting Jiannu in Dingxing, hundreds of brothers used blunderbuss. A volley of guns hit them. Not many Jiannu fell, but some More than a dozen guns blew up, and the fingers of the brothers were blown off, and the eyes were blown out!"

Yang Menglong felt concerned: "Yeah, muskets... that is to say, the blunderbuss you are talking about is too bad. It took a long time to shoot the second shot after one shot. Before the second shot was loaded, the enemy's spears I stabbed it into the musketeer's chest!" Neither of them gave face, and Qi Hu couldn't do anything about it, because the matchlock guns were really lackluster. First, the quality was unreliable, and second, the firing procedure was extremely complicated, from mounting the gun to the fork. From firing to firing, there are a total of 25 steps. Soldiers with extremely fast hands and feet can only fire two or three bullets in one minute, while soldiers with slower hands and feet can fire three bullets in two minutes.The second is that the shooting range is short. If it exceeds 1 steps, it will be completely inaccurate. However, Houjin's archers can shoot targets 2 steps away with great precision. Can shoot fifteen to sixteen arrows!It is not difficult to imagine that under such a terrible rain of arrows, the musketeers standing in the front row would turn their backs on their backs, and most of them would have no chance to fire a second shot.Triple shot?Don't be ridiculous, even if you use three-stage shooting, you can only shoot six to nine times a minute, which is far behind the speed of an archer!This is the limitation of weapon performance, which cannot be compensated by training.If a matchlock gun is used to deal with infantry advancing on foot, it will play an excellent role, but in the face of the post-golden cavalry who come and go like the wind, its effect is really limited, which is why the frontier army of the Ming Dynasty would rather The reason why bows and arrows are not used.

"But Jiannu grew up on horseback. They have strong bows and strong horses. They come and go like the wind. The strength of their armor is far better than mine. Without matchlock guns, it is difficult for us to kill them effectively." Qi Hu frowned. He frowned and said, "You know, at least half of the frontier soldiers who died in battle were shot to death by Jiannu's bow and arrow!"

Yang Menglong also frowned: "That's right, those bastards' arrow skills are not bad. They shoot arrows when attacking, shoot arrows when retreating, and keep shooting arrows even when fleeing. There is no powerful long-range weapon." Assault weapons, we may not be able to reach them at all, let alone fight, we will be so angry!"

Qi Hu said: "So, I can only use muskets. As long as they are strictly checked, the quality is still reliable, but now the guns made by armorers..." sighed, and was very speechless about those arquebus guns that exploded into a trumpet shape at every turn.

Yang Menglong said: "Then we don't need the Ministry of War, we make it ourselves!"

Qi Hu smiled wryly: "Make it yourself? It's not that easy! Apart from other things, it's hard to get the fine iron for making the gun barrel..."

Yang Menglong said: "We make steel ourselves!"

Qi Hu squinted at this guy who didn't know the heights of heaven and earth: "Do you know how difficult it is to make a good piece of steel?"

Yang Menglong said: "Don't underestimate me, give me some time, I will definitely be able to forge the best steel in the world!"

Qi Hu had no choice but to say, "Okay, even if you can make it, what about the gun tube? It depends on the craftsman's drilling bit by bit. It can only drill an inch a day, and it takes a month to drill a gun tube. If you don’t pay attention, it will be scrapped! Although the Ordnance Department of the Ministry of War makes poor things, but the best craftsmen have been recruited by them, this is an indisputable fact.”

When Yang Menglong heard that it would take a month to fix a gun barrel, he felt bad all over. Your sister, isn't this a waste of time!He said angrily: "No more muskets, no more muskets! In the Qin, Han, Tang and Song dynasties, our ancestors did not have muskets for thousands of years, and they still beat the Hulu all over the place. I don't believe that we can't deal with them without muskets." !"

Han Peng smiled wryly: "Then how can it be compared? Although they don't have blunderbuss... muskets, they have crossbows that can shoot farther than muskets! It's ridiculous to say that our weapons are not as good as those of the Song army hundreds of years ago. The sharpness of the swords and bows of the previous dynasty, the fineness of the armor, far surpassed that of the present, the Qin bows and Han crossbows, the Tang swords and Song armors, far surpassed all others, it is amazing..."

An idea flashed in Yang Menglong's mind: "Crossbow? Qin bow and Han crossbow?"

Qi Hu said: "The crossbow has always been a sharp weapon for us Han people to restrain the Hulu in the north. Its range and power far exceed that of the Hu bow. The Qin general Meng Tian was able to defeat the Xiongnu's 30 cavalry in one fell swoop in the Hetao area, relying on the Qin crossbow. The Xiongnu cavalry has not yet entered The sharp arrows shot by the Qin crossbow penetrated their chests within the range of the horn bow. The rhubarb crossbow of the Han Dynasty was better than the Qin crossbow. The Xiongnu cavalry chased after him, but he refused to ride. He killed and wounded nearly 340 people, relying on the rhubarb crossbow. At the time of the most intense fighting, the Han army fired [-] arrows a day, killing and wounding the Xiongnu cavalry Countless, before they finished shooting their arrows, they still couldn't move the thousands of tired soldiers in this area. As for the God Arm Bow of the previous dynasty, it was even more amazing. Within half a day, within a hundred paces, even if the soldiers of the Hulu rushing into the battle wear double armor, they will not escape the fate of being shot through their chests!"

Yang Menglong pondered: "So, the war between us Han people and Hu people is a war between crossbows and bows?"

Qi Hu said: "You can put it that way."

Han Peng sighed regretfully: "Unfortunately, these sharp weapons have long been lost due to various reasons. If you can still equip a large number of sharp weapons such as magic arm bows and rhubarb crossbows, ghosts will use muskets!"

Qi Hu said: "You can't say that. Although the magic arm bow is powerful, it is too expensive. It is far less expensive than the gun..."

Yang Menglong said angrily: "These are soldiers who are risking their lives with the enemy. Can we save this money?" He stood up: "Wait, I will get you two things to show." He ran back to his room, Not long after, he came out with the crossbow and the dog-leg knife, handed the crossbow to Qi Hu, and handed the knife to Han Peng: "You guys, what will happen if I equip the soldiers with such weapons?" ?”

Qi Hu looked at the crossbow in his hand over and over again, with a frenzied light in his eyes: "Good thing!" He tried to pull it with his hands, but unfortunately without Lu Xiangsheng's terrifying arm strength, he couldn't pull it away no matter how many times he tried. The next time, he gave up, thin beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and he repeatedly praised: "It's ingenious! What a powerful crossbow! It's not a problem to shoot three hundred steps, right?"

Yang Menglong said: "To be precise, it is 320 steps."

Qi Hu swallowed his saliva: "This is far beyond the range of muskets! If we can equip a large number of crossbows like this, Jiannu will be shot to the ground before we even touch our hairs!"

Han Peng lightly touched the edge of the blade with his fingers, and said: "A good knife, even sharper than the Qi's knife! The most wonderful thing is that it has a thick and blunt back, and it is not afraid of cutting against each other, while the Qi's knife is too light and thin, so it is good for you." , but easy to break! Good knife, really good knife!"

Yang Menglong said: "My opinion is that we don't want muskets. We should use long spears and strong crossbows. Shoot those far away with strong crossbows, and stab those close with long spears. If they are stabbed with spears, they will be stabbed with spears. Even if they have nine lives, they will only be stabbed into funnels." At the same time, we need to equip the crossbowmen with this kind of scimitar, if someone breaks into the formation and gets close to the pikemen, the crossbowmen will abandon their crossbows and draw their knives, and help the pikemen eliminate these hidden dangers, what do you think?"

Qi Hu pondered for a long time this time before he said: "It's good, but there's an old saying that 'you don't get three arrows before the battle'. Although the crossbow is strong, it takes a lot of time to reload, at most it's a little faster than the blunderbuss..."

Yang Menglong said: "You can calculate it faster...Yes, the musket can't be thrown away completely, wait!" He ran back to the room again, and this time he took out the six-barreled lightning gun given by Lu Xiangsheng. Arranged in a circle, it looks like a big stick. "We have also equipped this. When the enemy comes within sixty steps, let the musketeers open fire. The firepower of one hundred lightning blunderbuss is equivalent to six hundred muskets. It’s enough for Jiannu to drink a pot. If we make two hundred of them and shoot them in two stages, it will be equivalent to 1000 or two hundred muskets. This firepower density... Hehe, it’s a real rain of bullets. I’d like to see what happens. After the rain of arrows and rain of bullets wash away in turn, there are still a few people who can rush in front of our pikemen!"

(End of this chapter)