I want to be emperor

Chapter 118 Weird Homeland Protection Army
When Luo Zhixue led people to observe the Ming army on the hilltop of Zhaozhuang, Chen Yongfu, who was several miles away, also took his son Chen De and several generals under his command to climb a short mountain to observe the Ming army from afar. The situation in Zhaozhuang ahead.

Although Chen Yongfu had learned about the basic situation of Zhaozhuang from the scouts many times before, after he led his army to arrive yesterday, he also climbed up to observe the opposite Zhaozhuang in person.

But looking at it today, it still makes Cong Yongfu feel weird.

These thieves of the Township Protection Army looked weird no matter how they looked, they didn't look like a thieves at all.

Even Chen Yongfu had the feeling that the rural guards on the opposite side were more like officers and soldiers than himself...

Look at the rural protection army on the opposite side, all gray military uniforms, which are very rare among the thieves, not to mention that there are very few such uniforms in the thieves, even some officers and soldiers cannot achieve uniform uniforms.

And I don't know why the military uniforms of these thieves insist on choosing an ugly gray color, it's very ugly...

Of course, he couldn't know that the rural protection army chose gray military uniforms at the beginning, purely because it was convenient and cheap to dye the fabric gray, not out of aesthetics or other needs.

In fact, after going out of Lushan County in the east and going south to Nanzhao County, the rural protection army has a large scale and the sources of various materials have also increased. It has already begun to try to use more colors in military uniforms, such as the under-production In spring and summer, military officers' uniforms are scheduled to be navy blue.

What surprised Chen Yongfu was not just the unified military uniforms of the Rural Protection Army.

But it doesn't have much impact on actual combat effectiveness.

However, in Chen Yongfu's view, the large number of guns equipped in the rural protection army is a serious threat.

This is also one of the main reasons why Chen Yongfu regards them as the elite bandits.

Although the thieves of the Rural Protection Army were far away in sight, they could still see that the camp of the Rural Protection Army thieves was set up around a small hill. There was an obvious artillery position on this hill, with At least a dozen artillery pieces.

In Chen Yongfu's eyes, these cannons were also strange, and they were quite different from the cannons he knew.

In Chen Yongfu's cognition, artillery, some heavy artillery are often fixedly deployed on the city head, using very thick and low gun mounts.

This kind of heavy artillery often cannot be directly pulled down to fight in the field, because maneuvering is too troublesome.

Only some artillery weighing less than two or three hundred catties can be maneuvered more conveniently.

However, some of the artillery of the Township Protection Army are big guys, weighing at least several hundred kilograms, but the Township Protection Army can drag them around, and they are extremely fast.

The most important thing is that these cannons have obviously been deployed on the top of the hill, but the cannon mounts have not been removed. Their artillery is directly installed on this large two-wheeled gun mount.

Judging from his many years of military experience, the artillery of the bandit army itself is nothing special. Even the long-barreled artillery of several hundred catties in the bandit army is not surprising. There are a large number of Hongyi artillery in the Ming army, and there are many Self-imitation light Hongyi artillery.

In fact, there are quite a few Hongyi artillery equipped with a whole artillery of about [-] kilograms in the Ming army.

However, the cannon mounts of the Rural Protector Army on the opposite side are very weird. They turned out to be iron gun mounts instead of common wooden gun mounts, and there are two big wheels at the same time.

In addition to artillery, another major feature of the thieves of the Township Protection Army is that it has a large number of musketeers.

To be honest, Chen Yongfu couldn't even understand why the bandit army had to equip so many musketeers.

Musketeers in the Ming army are generally equipped with bird guns, and bird guns seem to be able to shoot far, but the rate of fire is too slow, and they can't fire a few shots when facing the enemy. In addition to burning fire sticks, it is not as good as the three-eyed blunderbuss, at least the three-eyed blunderbuss can also be used to smash people...

Moreover, even the bird gun lacks accuracy, and it is often difficult to hit the target at a distance of forty feet.

At the same time, the power of this bird's gun is actually not very good, and it can't even break through heavy armor at a slightly longer distance.

This musketeer is not as easy to use as an archer. The power of an archer with heavy armor-piercing arrows is also quite good, and the firing speed is extremely fast.

Therefore, although there are quite a few musketeers in Chen Yongfu's army, they are far less exaggerated than those bandit soldiers on the opposite side. Almost all the infantry are musketeers.

Moreover, Chen Yongfu didn't dare to use the gunners together. They were all distributed and assigned, mixed with spearmen, sword and shield hands and other arms to form a combat team.

However, Chen Yongfu didn't know at all that although the muskets in the Baoxiang Army originated from bird guns, they had actually been upgraded and modified.

For example, use a more ergonomic wooden buttstock.

For example, paper-packed quantitative ammunition is used to facilitate loading and speed up the rate of fire. In addition to increasing the rate of fire, paper-packed ammunition has an additional effect, that is, paper will also be stuffed in when loading to reduce the rate of fire. The effect of air leakage.

For example, the addition of a socket bayonet is very important.

At the beginning, the Xiangbao Army used a straight-forward spearhead, but later found that it was too inconvenient. It was okay to install it for defensive operations in situ, but it was not suitable for charging or stabbing with a bayonet, because If the plug is too tight, it cannot be pulled out; if it is too loose, it will fall off again...

The most important thing is that there is no way to shoot after stuffing it in...

So later, with the support of Luo Zhixue, he began to switch to the sleeve-type spear stab, so that the stab will not fall off, and there is no need to worry that it will not be removed after the war.

And you can still fire after installing the gun bayonet, and you can also load ammunition after firing, because the gun bayonet is installed on the side, although it will affect the loading action, but if you have enough training, you can still load ammunition.

The appearance of this kind of sleeve-type stabbing can be regarded as truly enabling the musketeers of the rural protection army to have both long-range and short-range combat capabilities.

It’s just that the rural protection army still uses arquebus guns. In order to avoid misfires during combat, the arquebus gunners’ positions cannot be too close, which leads to a lack of dense formation. The lack of formation density leads to insufficient firepower density. Insufficient strength and other issues.

Otherwise, Luo Zhixue would have just formed an army of matchlock guns and went out to fight on his own, so what kind of spearmen would he need?

Finally, one more change that isn't exactly an improvement...

That is, the caliber of the muskets of the Baoxiang Army is very large compared to the blunderbuss used by the Ming Army!
The calibers of the blunderbuss used by individual soldiers of the Ming army varied from nine millimeters to thirteen millimeters. There were also heavy-duty long-barreled muskets that needed brackets to assist their use, and their calibers could reach about [-] millimeters.

Relatively speaking, the multiple diameter is relatively large, and it has a relatively large maximum range

The matchlock gun of the Baoxiang Army is actually a large-caliber short-barreled musket. Its weight and length are similar to the old-style light matchlock guns for individual soldiers, but the caliber is [-]mm, and the length remains the same. The caliber becomes larger. This is actually reducing the multiple diameter.

The 60mm caliber Baoxiang Army matchlock gun has much stronger penetrating power than the small caliber matchlock gun within [-] meters. Even wearing double-layer heavy armor cannot hold the bullets of this kind of musket within [-] meters.

As for the maximum range and the like, Luo Zhixue never considered this thing.

It is enough to guarantee an effective hit rate within 100 meters. If it exceeds 100 meters, if he dares to shoot at the enemy 100 meters away during the battle, Luo Zhixue will shoot him first.

In the era of front-loading muskets, a range of more than [-] meters is meaningless.

Under Luo Zhixue's leadership, the improved guns of the Xiangbao Army had basically reached the peak level of matchlock guns of this era in actual combat, and even surpassed them.

After all, these days, no one has put a sleeve-type stab on a musket, and if they are dead, they will put a straight-type spearhead on the barrel.

The matchlock guns of the Baoxiang Army, which have been improved by Luo Zhixue in many ways, are not the same as the bird guns of the Ming Army, there is a big difference.

And it was this improved matchlock gun that enabled the rural protection army to equip a large number of musketeers and directly promote it to the status of one of the main infantry.

And these are beyond Chen Yongfu's comprehension.

In Chen Yongfu's view, the bandits of the rural protection army equipped with a large number of guns looked weird no matter how they looked.

But this kind of weirdness didn't make Chen Yongfu despise the Township Protection Army, on the contrary, it made him pay more attention to it.

When he commanded the army to form a battalion one after another, the formations listed all reflected his caution.

The front is a phalanx formed by several guards, the rear is still the soldiers of the headquarters, and the west side is more than 300 cavalry, which is used to guard against the fine cavalry of the bandit army.

In the array, there are more than 20 cannons ranging from one hundred catties to two to three hundred catties. These cannons are installed on thick wooden frames with four wheels under the wooden frames, and mules and horses in front of them.

Chen Yongfu set up an extremely tight formation, and it seemed that he regarded the Xiangbao Army as a real opponent, and he did not dare to underestimate it.

Moreover, he arranged the guard soldiers at the front so that even if he was unfavorable, it would be the guard soldiers who suffered losses, not the soldiers from his headquarters.

As for the most elite soldiers in the whole army, each of the more than 100 soldiers in armor naturally stayed behind with Chen Yongfu.

These personal soldiers are either used to make a final decision, or to protect Chen Yongfu, and they will not rush forward to fight directly like those ordinary guards and soldiers.

Chen Yongfu led the army out of the camp and marched slowly. After walking a little distance, he would stop to form a team and maintain the battle formation at all times. This tossing took more than two hours. It was not until 09:30 that Zhao Zhuang kilometers away.

The Ming army was cautious and came slowly. Luo Zhixue and the others on the opposite side were also willing to wait. After all, the Township Protection Army also needed to delay.

Luo Zhixue and the others only needed to wait another hour and a half before the Fourth Infantry Battalion led by Wang Dazhuang could arrive at the battlefield.

In the morning, Luo Zhixue had already received a message from Wang Dazhuang.

According to the battle plan, Wang Dazhuang's troops will enter the battlefield from the west on time around [-]:[-] noon.

Before the fourth infantry battalion, second artillery post, and second cavalry post led by Wang Dazhuang arrived, the battle on Zhaozhuang's side would be mainly defensive operations.

And it was Zhang Marin's artillery post that started this defensive battle first.

When part of the Ming army in the front row was only 800 meters away from the Zhaozhuang defense center, that is, the artillery position, although the distance was still far away, it was impossible to accurately target the artillery, but facing a large area, he could hit the enemy without aiming. Zhang Malin Still ordered the gunners under his command to fire one after another.

As the six [-]-jin long cannons of the first artillery post of the rural protection army opened fire one after another.

It also officially kicked off this strategic decisive battle concerning the ownership of Nanyang Mansion and even the entire Nanyang Basin!
(End of this chapter)