Daming kill

Chapter 68
Although Li Ping fell asleep just now, it should not have been long. Anyway, after talking with Song Baolai, the sky seemed far from dark.

Now that they have rested, they can't just lie down all the time. Song Baolai wanted to ride a fast horse back and make arrangements for them, especially since Zuo Menggeng hadn't received the reward that Zuo Menggeng publicly wanted to give them!

But Li Ping left Song Baolai behind, and Li Ping wanted to see the newly acquired weapons and equipment.

Li Ping was very sensitive to the serious lack of equipment all the time, and he couldn't help himself a little bit, but bringing Song Baolai could help him better identify and save himself from being inseparable.

As for Hu Zhongshan, he is really not a good communication partner in this regard, and Hu Zhongshan has more important tasks.He needs to control the troops, because there are still a large number of people who do not belong to them, and this villa does not completely belong to them yet.

After entering a house dedicated to storing weapons, Li Ping and Song Baolai were overjoyed after searching for a while.

A surprise, an absolute surprise!The quality of these new weapons and equipment far exceeded their expectations.

Just by the luster of the metal of the knife and spear, it is known that its quality is far superior to that issued before. I tried the bow, and the pulling force was relatively strong.

In particular, those cotton armors are not as thin and soft as the original ones and are seriously lacking in components. Instead, each set is much thicker and harder, and the components are complete.

As for the iron armor, of course it is more impactful, but it is also a little disappointing. It is just a short fish scale armor and a set of chain mail with leg skirts.

Li Ping was more interested in those firearms.

Before coming here, Li Ping couldn't tell the difference between bird blunderbuss and fire blunderbuss, thinking that they were both similar things, just called differently.

When I got here, I realized that the bird gun is closer to the later musket, which belongs to the matchlock gun. The barrel is thin and long, with a rear sight, a star, a gun holder, and a gun machine. named.

He can't say well about the firecracker. Generally speaking, the barrel of the blunderbuss is short and thick, and most of them are a big straight pipe with a bulge on the buttocks, without a blunderbuss holder or the like.But sometimes it is not necessarily, some are more like large guns or small cannons.

The 10 firecrackers that Li Ping obtained this time were more like ten large guns, with relatively straight butts and no rear sights or mechanisms.

The quality of the 30 bird guns seemed to be very good, far surpassing those that looked like unusable ones he had obtained through various means before.Their barrels are smooth and flat, and the thickness is relatively uniform.

Even Song Baolai, a young strongman in the manufacturing industry who has already experienced a lot, was very surprised and repeatedly praised: "Look at the workmanship is not bad!"

It seems that there are good and bad things in everything, and it's not that Daming can't make good things, the key should be quality control.

Li Ping was still wondering, if the bird gun is really so bad, why was it equipped in a large amount during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it is possible that everyone is a fool.

Looking at it now, it is more likely to be the end of the dynasty, and the quality management system has completely collapsed.

Interested, Li Ping quickly found a soldier who had used the blunderbuss in the Ming army, and found a spacious venue for him to demonstrate it again.

This soldier is very tall.

Na Shichang was also very surprised when he saw these bird guns.He looked back and forth for a long time, and even said that the workmanship was the best he had seen.Although it's not like he hasn't seen good ones before, it's really rare.Anyway, the newer the bird guns, the worse they are, and only two or three out of ten can be used.

Li Ping ordered the chief to follow the standard shooting procedure he had learned, so the chief picked out a bird gun and prepared it.

He took a little longer to prepare, though, and there's a distinct sense that he's trying to remember.Anyway, it took a lot of time to reload for the first time, and some steps were repeated several times.

Fortunately, there was a "bang" sound, and the first shot was fired smoothly without exploding the chamber.

It's just that the lead pellets failed to hit the huge target that Li Ping deliberately set up only about 50 meters away.Fortunately, they caught the impact, and a fine puff of smoke rose from the ground not far in front of the target.

It should be too little gunpowder.

Na Shichang's already red face became even redder, and he couldn't help explaining: "I haven't used it for a long time, I'm a little rusty, and it's my first time playing, so I don't dare to add more gunpowder.".

Li Ping didn't care about it, it's better to take it slow than to explode.

So I comforted Na Shi with a few words, and told him not to worry, and to get acquainted with him a few more times.Li Ping just wanted to see how powerful this bird gun was and how long it would take to reload normally.

After shooting more than a dozen times in a row (and changing the blunderbuss a few times in the middle, mainly for fear of overheating and blasting the chamber), the chief became more familiar with the shots, and he became more confident in the shots, and he never missed the target. .

But Li Ping's use of the bird gun has mixed feelings, and he doesn't know whether to love it or hate it.

The main reason is that the firing process of the bird gun is too complicated.

1. Cleaning (cleaning the barrel);
2. Pour the gunpowder (pour the gunpowder from the medicine tank into the medicine tube, and each tube will fire 1 round);
3. Charging (pour the gunpowder from the gun mouth into the gun chamber);
4. Press the fire (compact and press with the gunpowder in the chamber of the gun);
5. Loading (take out the projectile and put it into the gun chamber, and then press the projectile into the gunpowder with a stick);

6. Loading the gunpowder (pour the gunpowder in the powder tank into the fire door of the medicine chamber, fill up the medicine chamber so that it is connected with the gunpowder in the gun chamber, and then cover the fire door to prevent moisture) ;

7. Install the matchlock (put the matchlock into the faucet clamp of the trigger, ready to ignite);
8. Open the fire door cover and light the match;

9. Aim and pull the trigger to launch.

These steps don't seem to be many, but if you want to follow the battle and ensure that each step is 100% complete and error-free, you must break it down a little more, and there must be at least a dozen steps.

With so many movements, one would feel dizzy during training, and one could almost imagine the chaos in combat, and mistakes were almost inevitable.

It is no wonder that many famous iron soldiers in history had to chop off their hands, ears or even their heads every wrong step in combat to force the gunners to desperately improve the accuracy of their operations.

However, although Li Ping could understand this method, he did not intend to adopt it. It was not because of barbarism, but because it was a double-edged sword to destroy a soldier casually like this!
It is inevitable that people will be confused sometimes. Extremely harsh methods can bring out a strong army, but it is also easy to make the army completely lose their feelings, and eventually become a group of machines.In a country with a stable regime, this may be a good way to train the army, but it is by no means suitable for troubled times where the morale of the army needs to be grasped.

In battle, the simpler is often the best. The key to the problem is to reduce cumbersome steps and strengthen daily training.

However, it was not without surprises.

After more than a dozen shots, Li Ping roughly judged that the effective killing range of the bird gun can reach about 100 meters.

Such a shooting range actually exceeds the shooting distance of many no-name archers, and there are not many elite archers and strong bows, even for a strong army, but the blunderbuss troops can complete mass production in a short period of time.

What is even more surprising is that Na Shichang even added that if gunpowder with fewer impurities and finer grains is used, the range should be longer.Anyway, he personally thinks this batch of gunpowder is relatively average.

Li Ping was shocked. If he could increase the shooting range by another 30 meters, the blunderbuss would be far superior to bows and arrows.It is estimated that this product was established in the world when the early artisans were under strict management.

It seems that in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, it was not an exaggeration in the history books that the Ming army used firearms to beat the rest of the Mongolian and Yuan tribes to hide in Tibet on the grassland.No wonder it is said that firearms are the terminator of cavalry.

As for the refinement of the gunpowder, Song Baolai was left to it.

However, Li Ping quickly thought of another problem. So many reloading steps mean a long time for firepower preparation. If you want to maintain firepower continuity, three-stage strikes may not work, right?

Sure enough, Na Shichang said that they used to ask for five-stage or six-stage kicks in training, but they never used them.

The only time he ever opened fire in actual combat was when a group of people made a fuss and fired at the opposite side far away. More than a dozen were wounded by gunshots.

Although the bird guns they used today were replaced several times, each of them fired two or three rounds of lead bullets, and a few times they deliberately loaded more gunpowder, but there was no sign of danger or even explosion. , it seems that the quality is indeed better.

Knowing the performance of the blunderbuss, Li Ping also casually asked how the officers and soldiers came to command the blunderbuss soldiers in battle.The answer he got was basically the same as the firearm command method of the Ming army that he had learned from Zhao Jin last time.

When fighting, go to the front of each army to set up the team. It must be the first step.

When the enemy came into range, they heard a blowing of the trumpet, and the first row of bird gunners began to fire, and then the first row retreated to the rear row to reload.Hearing the blowing of the horn again, the second row began to salvo, and then returned to the rear row to reload, and proceeded sequentially.

When the enemy is close to the battle, they usually blow the trumpet continuously. At this time, all the gunners should start firing in salvo, and then retreat into the infantry formation, and the infantry behind will move forward under the order of the drums. Engage in battle.

This kind of command method is actually very mature and well-organized.

It's just that those who can fight strictly according to orders are very rare. Anyway, this chief has never seen a unit that can command and fight according to the drill, but he has only heard of it.If there is such an army, he thinks it must be the so-called elite soldiers!

After playing with the bird gun, Li Ping tried the fire gun again.This thing is even more inconvenient to operate, it is heavy and heavy, and it takes several people to fiddle with it.

Needless to say, battlefield mobility, there is not even anything to aim at, it is entirely a probability shooting.But its power is quite large, but the range is not far, only within a hundred meters. This should be due to the low muzzle velocity of the projectile caused by the short and thick barrel.

The three-eyed blunderbuss (a reward announced by Zuo Menggeng) that they haven't got yet but Li Ping already knows is probably similar, because its barrel is shorter.

After trying the firearm, Li Ping's confidence in the bird gun suddenly increased. He had been quite half-hearted and unconfident about whether it could replace the bow and arrow, but now he became completely clear.

His mind was already full of images of troops being gunned down and shooting in line, so he immediately talked to Song Baolai about the production of bird guns, but Song Baolai directly gave him a critical blow.

In the past few months, Song Baolai has not been idle, he has already done some research on this thing.

He and Li Ping explained that the bird gun looked simple, but the complexity of the craftsmanship far exceeded his original imagination.In fact, many books in the Ming Dynasty also have detailed records on the production of bird guns. As long as you do not cut corners and follow the standards and requirements of the craftsmanship, it is extremely time-consuming to produce a qualified bird gun.

A good bird gun is produced, and its barrel is made of refined iron.It takes 10 jin of crude iron to smelt 1 jin of this kind of refined iron. Only the barrel made of such refined iron can be strong and durable, and will not burst when shooting.

And when making it, two iron pipes, one large and one small, are usually rolled with refined iron first, and the large one is wrapped with the small one so that the two are tightly bonded, and then a steel drill is used to drill into a gun pipe with a smooth and straight inner wall.The drilling technique is very precise, each person can only drill about 1 inch per day, and it takes about a month to drill one.

Song Baolai made some improvements in technology and production equipment, but it took ten days and half a month to drill a gun barrel, and the biggest problem was the serious shortage of complete craftsmen and raw materials.

He only produced three of these guns, which are farther than the current guns.But he felt that such a short range was not very useful on the battlefield, and it was so complicated to operate, especially in wet and rainy environments, so he didn't pay much attention to it, let alone reported it to Li Ping. Test situation.

He really felt that this thing was no different from the large Sky-piercing Monkey (fireworks), and Li Ping rolled his eyes when he heard it.

Of course, it was also an important factor that Li Ping's mind was not on Bird Gun at all.

As for the purification and improved formula of gunpowder, Song Baolai didn't think it was a big deal.As long as you keep comparing and testing, it is a matter of spending more time.It is not difficult to use primary granular gunpowder with better detonation effect, but he doubts whether the current gun barrel can stand it.

Li Ping didn't care about Song Baolai's difficulties. Now he was more worried about when Kaifeng would be breached. Maybe Li Zicheng's time to go south was not far away.If the troops move around in the future, it will be even more difficult to replenish ordnance. Not having enough long-range strike means will be a major hidden danger for them.

There are more shooters in the north than in the south, which is determined by the location of the border.In this battle, long-distance strikes have played a very important role, but most of their soldiers are southern soldiers, and archers are hard to find, and there is no rush to train them, because the training of archers is calculated in years .At this time, the bird gun with short training time is very critical.

Therefore, he directly ordered Song Baolai to die.

No matter how difficult it is, there is no need to improve it much, as long as it is better than the current bird guns. Within 40 days, he needs at least 100 brand new bird guns, and needs to fill the hole in the long-range strike firepower.

As for better and newer bird guns and larger-scale mass production, we can talk about it later.

After playing with the blunderbuss, Song Bao came to see the sky, but still wanted to leave.

Anyway, their original hometown is not in the city, and they got some new horses, and if they change horses to ride, and arrange more soldiers who can ride horses to escort them, the problem is probably not too big, and they may even be able to go back before dark.

In the end, Li Ping had no choice but to reluctantly agree.

But when Song Baolai was leaving, Li Ping asked him to give Ma Yong another order: Ma Yong should come forward and provide three days of food and grass for the three groups of newly rowed teams. Within three days of receiving the grain, all staff must arrive in Zhuangzi for reorganization.

After Song Baolai left, Li Ping continued to think quietly by himself, and kept scribbling.

He had a new idea about the formation of troops in the next step.

He is fully aware that there is no fixed organization, let alone an organization that is taken for granted. The organization must be determined based on the performance of tactics and weapons and equipment.

Whether it is a three-three system, a five-five system, or a mixed system, they are actually the product of actual battlefield needs. The ancients may have limited knowledge, but they are not stupid.

Notes:

There are many books in the Ming Dynasty that mention the range of the bird gun, but most of them are obviously exaggerated, which may be for the purpose of secrecy and intimidation, or it is just the author's hearsay.

Xu Guangqi, a famous scientist in the Ming Dynasty, described the shooting range of the blunderbuss as "a hundred steps to exhaustion". Song Yingxing's non-military book "Tiangong Kaiwu" also said: a hundred steps will make the blunderbuss exhausted, and the distance can be more than [-] steps.The description of the two of them should be more credible.

Considering that the five-foot step is about 1.635 meters in the future, it is estimated that a bird gun with good quality and high-quality gunpowder can injure people (not kill) at a range of about 160 meters, which can guarantee effective killing (losing or partially losing combat effectiveness) of unarmored targets The range is estimated to be 120 meters or less.

In actual combat, considering the quality of blunderbuss and gunpowder, as well as the training level of blunderbuss players, the effective killing distance of most blunderbuss troops is likely to be within 100 meters.

(End of this chapter)