Chapter 91 Organization and Configuration

Since the Song Dynasty, more and more firearms have entered the military field.

When Lao Zhu was conquering the world, he often used firearms to conquer the north and south.

Today's firearms are hand-held fire blunderbuss and bird blunderbuss. The caliber is generally relatively large, loaded with lead bullets and iron bullets, etc., and the range is only a few dozen to 200 steps.

While various artillery pieces of different calibers and shapes are loaded with solid bullets such as stone, lead, and iron, only a very small number of them can be loaded with explosive ammunition. The range ranges from hundreds of steps to two or three miles, and can be used to defend and siege cities.

It can be used in field battles, water battles and naval battles.

Li Wenzhong's ability to do things is still very reliable. As a veteran in the army, he quickly collected information. Not only that he collected all firearms, but all the information on standard firearms was complete.

When he came to the palace again, Li Wenzhong even brought some firearms, and the preparations were very complete.

Looking at Zhu Xiongying, Li Wenzhong also began to introduce, "Your Highness, this is a musket. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were muskets that could shoot 150 steps. But most of those things were made of bamboo tubes and blunderbuss tubes."

Burst gun, this is also the world's first rifle that fires bullets. Normally, the range can reach about two hundred meters.

Li Wenzhong continued to introduce the situation and said, "During the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties, most fire blunderbuss were made of iron. They were divided into three parts: the chamber, the medicine chamber and the tail. Now in the Ming Dynasty, we have hand blunderbuss, as well as those equipped for warships and pass guards.

The medium-sized bowl-mouth blunderbuss, and the third are large blunderbuss and cannons specially used for city defense fortresses."

Zhu Xiongying picked up a firegun. It was estimated to be about two centimeters in diameter, almost half a meter long, and weighed about three kilograms.

This kind of fire gun is a common fire gun in the Ming Dynasty army. This kind of one-handed gun is mostly used by infantry. Compared with the hand gun of the Yuan Dynasty, the caliber of the current fire gun is smaller, the barrel is longer, and the craftsmanship is more sophisticated.
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Zhu Xiongying looked at the blunderbuss body. There was an inscription on it: Xiaoqi Weisheng, with the word number 401. The long blunderbuss barrel weighed 30 kilograms and 100 taels. It was made in the August War Bureau of the fifth year of Hongwu.

Lao Zhu, who attached great importance to the firearms force, even had the place of manufacture, manufacturing department, name of the craftsman, supervising officer, weight and date of manufacture engraved on the body of the gun.

The Bingzhan Bureau, one of the twenty-four royal yamen, together with the Ordnance Bureau and the weapons production of local defense stations, supported the military industry of the Ming Dynasty and played a certain leading role in it. The weapons produced by the Bingzhan Bureau sometimes

It became the standard for weapons made by various guards.

After all, they are the emperor's personal soldiers like the Shang Twelve Guards, and it is normal for the Xiaoqiwei to hold firearms made by the Bingzhan Bureau.

Li Wenzhong continued at this time, "Your Highness, these are also handguns and bowl-mouth guns specially made by the Ordnance Bureau and the Warfare Bureau."

After saying this, Li Wenzhong also asked people to bring a bowl-mouth gun. This is a small artillery with no sight, short barrel, slow rate of fire, and short range. This thing is almost one meter and a half long, with a caliber of about seventy centimeters.

, the weight also reached more than fifty kilograms.

The bowl-mouth gun showed its prowess in the Poyang Lake battle against Chen Youliang. The bowl-mouth gun brought by Li Wenzhong was just one of the models. The bowl-mouth gun weighed fifty kilograms, one meter long, and another five or six meters long.

, a big guy weighing more than a hundred pounds.

In fact, many of Zhu Xiongying's two naval battleships were equipped with bowl-mouth blunderbuss.

Zhu Xiongying asked at this time, "How to use these firecrackers?"

Li Wenzhong immediately said, "When you return to your highness, you must first pour the gunpowder into the barrel and tamp it tightly, then load the bullet, and then light the line of fire to detonate the gunpowder and shoot the bullet. Ordinary soldiers carry gunpowder urns when they go to war. These are mostly pottery urns to avoid getting wet."

."

Zhu Xiongying nodded and asked, "Are the many border crossings in Ming Dynasty equipped with firecrackers?"

Li Wenzhong immediately replied again, "Back to Your Highness, Your Majesty issued a decree last year that all garrison garrisons in various places should be equipped with muskets according to 10% of the total establishment. It is stipulated that each sea-going ship of the Navy is equipped with two bowl-mouth blunderbuss and fifteen muskets.

, twenty fire attack arrows and twenty divine machine arrows each."

The Shenji Arrow is a hot weapon in the form of a rocket. This is a small solid rocket wrapped in a paper tube tied to the arrow used in a crossbow to increase the range and destructive power, and a metal block is installed on the arrow rod to make it more powerful.

The arrow cluster remains stable in flight.

It existed in the Song Dynasty, and in the Ming Dynasty, it has now become a variety of combined artillery, which can be called an ancient cluster artillery.

Fire attack arrows and magic arrows have similar principles. These two weapons are also important weapons in water warfare. They are very powerful in burning enemy ships.

These are also some of the more common firearms in the Ming Dynasty. In fact, some bowl-mouth guns with larger calibers are now also called "cannons". However, those artillery pieces are all hundreds of kilograms of iron cannons, which are used to defend the city.

More.

Zhu Xiongying asked carefully about the production capacity and usage methods of some firearms. Most of them had seen and heard of them, but they did not understand these things in such detail.

Looking at Li Wenzhong, Zhu Xiongying asked with a smile, "What would my cousin think if three thousand people were holding firecrackers at the same time?"

Li Wenzhong was even more serious. In fact, he was also prepared, "Your Highness, although the fire blunderbuss is powerful, its range is not as good as some hard bows and crossbows. Three thousand people use blunderbuss at the same time, but they can kill a lot of enemies when approaching the enemy. It only costs a lot to reload the ammunition.

Many times, if you are facing cavalry, you may only be able to shoot one shot."

Zhu Xiongying also understood this and continued, "I have thought about this too, so I thought about three-stage shooting."

After listening carefully to Zhu Xiongying's explanation of the principle of three-stage shooting, Li Wenzhong's eyes lit up. In fact, there is such an operation in the military, but it is not so perfect.

Now, if we adopt three-stage shooting, we should be able to ensure the continuation of firepower.

At this time, Li Wenzhong said again, "Your Highness, in normal battles, soldiers who use firearms are mostly protected by their fellow soldiers..."

"I understand that the fire blunderbuss is an unusual weapon." Zhu Xiongying said with a smile, "When facing the enemy, the fire blunderbuss can only shoot bullets, but cannot fight at close range when facing the enemy. So my battalion has a thousand

The cavalry is accompanying them, and three to five thousand soldiers are attached to them."

No, the number of soldiers who use firearms is almost equal to one guard, and there is also a guard who specifically assists and protects the soldiers who use firearms?

No wonder His Highness calls it a ‘camp’. This is not a normal Ming Dynasty military establishment.

However, Li Wenzhong didn't say much. As a relative, he naturally knew very well the status of His Royal Highness the Grandson.

His Highness's status is already stable, and His Highness's intelligence has long been proven. Therefore, let alone a special firearms camp, Li Wenzhong would not be surprised if one day His Highness personally controls the emperor's personal army like the Twelve Guards.
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After all, he is now Cao Guogong, the left governor of the Central Military Governor's Palace, and the judge of the five armies. But even as the chief governor during the period of the Metropolitan Governor's Palace, Li Wenzhong was used to obeying the crown prince's orders.

That is to say, there is just one more leader. Li Wenzhong will not worry or doubt some matters of the royal family. He only needs to do his duty as a minister and obey the orders of the prince and grandson until the emperor issues no special orders.<

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Zhu Xiongying didn't care what Li Wenzhong was thinking, and just said, "Cousin, you are looking for people who are good at using firearms in each guard these days. There are five thousand people in the army, and we are ordering to recruit one thousand cavalry. I want one thousand of the most elite cavalry."

”

Li Wenzhong immediately advised, "Your Highness, the cavalry can use the army's horses, and the baggage and other people have their own baggage camp."

"My Shenji Battalion has a thousand mobile cavalry to protect it." Zhu Xiongying looked at Li Wenzhong and said seriously, "In an ordinary small battle, the Shenji Battalion can block it. If there is a big war, the Shenji Battalion will belong to the main army."

Li Wenzhong seemed to understand now. It seems that His Highness has very high requirements. He is truly leading the army alone.

Isn't this an obvious thing? Even though the configuration of the Shenji Battalion seems to need to coordinate with the army, but among His Highness's requirements, the Shenji Battalion must not only have the ability to cooperate with the army, but also have the ability to fight independently.

.

Such a divine machine battalion must be pro-army, and must have a higher status than ordinary pro-army troops. And raising such a divine machine battalion consumes more food, wages, and materials than those of the same number of elite cavalry.

.

Although Zhu Xiongying's requirements are not low, Li Wenzhong will definitely handle these things well, and this matter must be handled well.

In the Wuying Hall, Zhu Biao said, "I am going to send Wu Gao there. He is cautious and a junior. He also worked under Xiongying in the past few years, so I think he is more loyal."

Lao Zhu was happy and said, "Everyone says that your mother and I are spoiled by Xiongying, but you are the same! There is no news about his matter, and you have already figured out how to arrange it!"<

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"That's my son, of course I have to take care of it." Zhu Biao said matter-of-factly, "Heroes are the same! The first time is training the new army, how much trouble there is! It's just that, at most

Say hello to Sun Yingming. If you don’t do well, there will be some criticism from outside.”

Lao Zhu didn't care, he looked very relaxed, "If it works, that's my grandson's destiny. If it doesn't work, it's because of the incompetence of the people below. I'm a hero or the emperor's grandson of the Ming Dynasty. Who will arrange it?! I can't."

Let me tell you, when a hero is training a new army, we will give him whatever he wants. Don’t worry about it, we will just keep an eye on it.”

Zhu Biao understood immediately and smiled, "That's right, we can't take more care of him. It's rare for that kid to do something serious. If we don't let him go, he will complain that we don't trust him. Let him go and let him experience it."

If he wants someone to give it to me, I won’t arrange for him to go there.”

"That's right!" Lao Zhu looked at Zhu Biao happily and said, "My eldest son can handle state affairs, and my eldest grandson can also take charge of the army. I don't care about big or small things, so that you can have more experience. If there is really some trouble, I will

Come forward, otherwise you will be restrained in doing things, and people outside will say that it was done by Emperor Hongwu, how can you be famous!"

A young eunuch entered the palace cautiously, knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, Your Highness, Duke Cao Guo is asking for an audience outside the palace."

Lao Zhu showed a warm smile and said, "Bao'er, this kid still hasn't made any progress. Just go and do things when Xiongying asks him to do them. This kid is here now, how will we explain to Xiongying then!"
Chapter completed!