The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 35
The situation in Shaanxi is collapsing, and news has come from the southwest.

Just like in history, He Renlong and Zhang Quanchang led the troops all the way through Fengxiang Mansion and entered Gongchang Mansion, chased the enemy in Zhangjiachuan, defeated the bandits and strangled thousands of people, and the victory was sent to the battalions. some.

But not long after, another military report spread to the battalions. This time, only the officers at the general level knew the inside story, and the ordinary military schools were kept in the dark.

After defeating the bandits, He Renlong marched again but was ambushed. The capital, Tian Yinglong, died in battle, and more than [-] soldiers were killed or injured. He retreated all the way to Anrong Pass, more than [-] miles east of Zhangjiachuan, before he stabilized his footing.

Then when guarding Anrong Pass, from above the pass wall, you can see the mountains and plains in the distance full of people and flags.

Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and other ministries were so mighty that tens of thousands of people left Zhangjiachuan and came all the way east.

He Renlong and Zhang Quanchang had only nearly [-] remnants after losing their troops.

The two sides fought fiercely with Anrongguan for three days, and the Ming army lost another 300 people.

He Renlong ordered the soldiers to burn the checkpoint and retreat overnight while taking advantage of the chaos. At the same time, he hurriedly sent the news of the bandits' eastward advance back to Guanzhong.

Chen Wang's expression was slightly gloomy, and he looked towards the bustling school field beside him.

Sufficient food and a stable garrison allowed Chen Wang to have enough time to train his soldiers, and also allowed them to have enough physical fitness to undertake heavy training. In fact, there are not many such opportunities.

The bandits plundered the place and broke the city, so they could rob food and supplies on the spot, without having to carry food.

But the officers and soldiers can't do this. All food, grass and military salaries need to be allocated by the central government, or supported by officials from the surrounding cities.

But sometimes, the local officials refused to supply food and grass for less than three days.

In fact, in many cases, when the Ming army attacked the rogues, the rogues were full of wine and food, but the Ming army was hungry and exhausted.

The food and grass dispatched were rarely sufficient, and sometimes the sergeants were required to cut firewood and cook by themselves. Almost all the soldiers in the attacking and suppressing army were hungry and full, and even did not receive any supplements for several days.

The law is harsh, the soldiers are poor, and the number of soldiers and horses from all walks of life is increasing day by day.

In the eighth year of Chongzhen, the prestige of the Ming court was still there, except for the arrogant and domineering soldiers and horses in Liaozhen, the soldiers and horses from all walks of life did not dare to mess around, they were all honest and obedient.

Although there are things like killing good people for false meritorious service, burning, killing, looting, etc., they don't dare to make it clear, and they don't dare to mess around in cities such as county government roads.

The real degeneration of the Ming army actually began 13 years after Chongzhen, when the Ming court lost its prestige and owed wages for a long time.

From then on, the soldiers and horses of the various advances and suppressions gradually lost control, and then the real thieves passed like a comb, and the soldiers passed like a grate.

It was also from then on that the rogues began to transition to the uprising army, while the officers and soldiers transitioned to bandits.

"Raise the gun!"

On the school field, Hu Zhili Yanling Dao, who was wearing a red arrow jacket, shouted orders.

Beside him, twelve soldiers in narrow-sleeved Tsing Yi lined up and immediately raised their guns after hearing the order.

The twelve blunderbuss soldiers did not stand close together shoulder to shoulder, there was about one person between each of them.

Bird guns are arquebus guns, which ignite gunpowder with a match that can continue to burn slowly, and then launch the projectiles in the gun chamber.

Because of the characteristics of matchlock guns, they cannot stand shoulder to shoulder like soldiers holding flintlock guns, and form a tight formation like flintlock soldiers. There should be at least a distance of about one person between the same row.

When in a panic, the matchlock on the matchlock gun and the firelight can easily accidentally ignite the gunpowder carried by the musketeer, and its trigger probability and damage rate are much higher than those of the bomb.

Coupled with the poor rate of fire of the arquebus, the arquebus cannot form the firepower density of the flintlock in the same formation width.

"put!"

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

The twelve blunderbusses were fired almost at the same time, and with the explosion of the row of blunderbusses, clouds of gunpowder smoke suddenly rose from the matchlock guns.

"The front team retreats, the squadron moves forward!"

The order came again, and the twelve gunmen walked quickly to the rear with the guns in their hands, and then another group of gunmen standing behind walked to the front row holding the guns that had been ignited .

"Raise the gun!"

"put!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!!"

Chen Wang's eyes did not stay on the soldiers who fired the gun at the front, but stayed behind.

The blunderbuss soldiers who had just finished their blunderbusses in the first row had now retreated to the third row, and were busy loading the blunderbusses in their hands.

The blunderbuss soldier who had retreated to the last row held the blunderbuss in his left hand, and skillfully took out a paper tube from the bag on his belt with his right hand, put a corner of it in his mouth and bit it open.

They held gunpowder in paper tubes in their hands, which were not available in the first place. The officials who distributed the military supplies prepared bamboo tubes for the powder, and the gunpowder was shipped directly in large barrels.

Packing gunpowder in a paper tube is to pack a fixed amount of gunpowder and projectiles in a long paper tube.

The amount of gunpowder loaded can greatly affect the power of the bullet. If the charge is small, the lethality of the bird's gun will be greatly reduced. If the charge is too high, the gunpowder will be threatened with explosion, and it will not be able to fire a few rounds at all.

On the battlefield, even veterans are inevitably frightened, not to mention recruits, because of fear and panic, it is common to pretend to be more or less.

It is not difficult to make fixed gunpowder in paper tubes, and the quantity in it is clearly written in "Ji Xiao New Book".

Binzhou was nearby, and the paper shells were not worth much, so Chen Wang ordered a lot of paper shells from the city of Binzhou for only a little money.

Packing gunpowder in a paper tube can not only guarantee the power of each shot, but also omit many steps, which greatly reduces the loading time of the bird gun
The shooting steps of bird guns are cumbersome. Each firing requires repeated pouring, charging, pressing, reloading, and matchlock. It is also necessary to clean the ignition hole and the priming pot to prevent residues from clogging.

If the gunpowder is not fixed in a paper tube, a skilled shooter can generally only fire one round within 1 minute, which is already a very fast speed.

The average shooter may only be able to fire two shots in 3 minutes. If you are in a hurry on the battlefield, it may be difficult to fire one shot in 2 minutes. As for whether there is more or less charge, only God knows.

Chen Wang stood on the side of the school field and observed the training. During this time, he also took note of the reloading time of the gunner.

After using the fixed gunpowder in the paper tube, a skilled shooter can fire two rounds in one minute. Although it is still far lower than the shooting speed of the bow and crossbow, this speed is already extremely fast on the bird gun.

Looking at the rising gunpowder smoke, Chen Wang frowned slightly.

There is not much gunpowder deployed in the camp, and the quality is also worrying. There are even some problems with the proportioning.

The gunpowder currently used in the camp is all configured by Chen Wang according to the ratio in "Ji Xiao's New Book". The materials are basically purchased from commercial banks, and more than [-] taels were purchased before and after the purchase of paper shells.

Chen Wang didn't have much money in his pocket, and most of the money for winning the first class was put in Liaodong. Now he only has 50 taels of money left to spend, which is already a bit stretched.

Chen Wang turned his head to look at the other side of the school field.

On the other side of the school field, Tang Shiping and Hu Zhiyi were leading the new troops respectively, forming formations, fighting and cooperating with each other, and rehearsing formation changes.

After more than half a month of training, these newly recruited recruits have lost a little rusticity and put on a trace of capable and decisive aura, becoming more and more like an army.

There is an assessment method in "Ji Xiao New Book". The skills of generals and soldiers are subdivided into nine levels. Each level can enjoy different treatment. The higher the level, the better the treatment.

But now Chen Wang is only divided into four grades in the division: top, middle, bottom, and unqualified.

The ninth-class system is not used because there are not enough manpower, and the statistics are complicated and difficult, and the effect is not proportional to the effort.

The most important thing in military training is to adapt measures to local conditions, not to apply mechanically.

The assessment is done every three days, and the grades are graded. The food for each grade is different.

The highest class is the best, and the lowest class is the worst. Those who fail not only need to practice more, but also have their monthly salary deducted and tied with a military whip.

The assessment level of each person in the team is also linked to the treatment of the captain and deputy. If more than one person fails to pass the qualification, he will be the captain and deputy.

The most significant impact after the implementation of the evaluation system is that none of the recruits dare to be lazy and play tricks, and no one wants to be evaluated as unqualified. After all, the army whip hurts people to the bone.

A little more ordnance was dispatched back and forth, more than 100 waist knives were sent, more than 40 sets of cloth face armor were sent, and more than [-] pieces were sent to cover the arms. It was barely enough for the team officer to have one .

According to the comprehensive evaluation, Chen Wang selected the Banner Chief among the recruits in the three bureaus, promoted the new captain and team deputy, and the officers in the bureau were already fully staffed.

Now the officers at the first level of the Banner General of the Recruits' Third Bureau are all wearing arm coverings, chain armor inside, and rivet cloth face armor exclusive to officers on the outside, high bowl helmets, and waist knives.

Officers at the first level of the regiment also wore covered arms and red tasseled helmets. Although there was no mail armor, the cloth face armor was still complete.

However, most of the ordinary soldiers still didn't have any armor, only a hat and a long spear that didn't even have a red tassel, and they didn't even have a waist knife.

Finally, more than 60 sides of the shield were pulled down, and Chen Wang also selected 20 people from each of the three rounds to practice the sword and shield.

Sword and shield soldiers are far more useful than pike soldiers when fighting close to each other and rushing into battle.

Looking at it now, there are many banners and flags, the army formation is well-organized, and the armor is bright, but it has the appearance and momentum of a strong army.

But of course, this is only the appearance, in fact the gap is still very large.

"Last month, if someone told me that they could train those refugees outside the city into an army, I wouldn't believe it even if they were killed."

Chen Gong has been following behind Chen Wang. Although he has watched the changes in these soldiers these days, he is still a little unbelievable.

Because of the grain and grass delivered by Binzhou, during this period of time, everyone had a full meal every day, and the meat delivered was also full of meat.

After entering the camp and the food improved, these recruits quickly recovered from the weight loss caused by hunger, and many of them even became much stronger than before.

As farmers, they can improve some food when the weather is good and the weather is good.

Although the price of goods was extremely low during the Wanli period, as long as you are willing to make a living, there is hope, but that is already more than ten years ago.

Since the apocalypse, it has been much worse than before, and life has become more and more difficult.

How could it be possible to eat three full meals a day and see meat like now.

What running training and weight training, military training is not as hard as working as a part-time job in a rich family, let alone one or two and a half a month's military pay.

Although some things are really difficult to learn, beating people with military sticks and whips is really painful, and the military pay is not as much as other battalion soldiers.

But all of this is bearable, at least ten thousand times better than having no food.

"But brother, aren't you going to recruit some servants?"

"I'm afraid it's not enough to have only these soldiers in a war."

Chen Gong frowned slightly, Chen Wang only had nine servants around him now, and these people were still the servants under the command of the general who died in battle.

"These soldiers have never seen blood, and they seem to have a good momentum now, but it may not be necessary to fight with the thieves."

The servants in the company are only five servants under Tang Shiping, and the eight servants under the original Baizong, plus the nine servants beside Chen Wang, there are only 22 servants in total.

Generally, the general manager will have about thirteen or four servants, and the deputy general manager will have seven or eight people. The general manager needs thirty or forty servants who are brave enough to fight. The ratio is about ten to one.

The wind in the west is turbulent, and the movements of the thieves are unknown. The investigation of the Pingliang mansion has not been accepted at night. It has gradually changed from reporting every two days to once a day, and now it has become three reports a day. The thieves seem to have left. Pingliang is heading east.

"It's enough."

"The rogues in Pingliang Mansion are nothing but a mob."

Chen Wang shook his head, Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong are now in the southwest, Pingliang Mansion is just a partial division.

If the soldiers have been strictly trained for nearly a month according to the military training method written by Qi Jiguang, and they will be defeated in battle with a group of mobs, then it is better to go directly across the ocean and flee abroad as soon as possible.

Although it is estimated that there are [-] to [-] rogues in Pingliang Mansion, there are only a few of them who can fight, and even fewer elites.

Moreover, when the two armies were fighting, how could the 10,000+ troops all fight at the same time? Not many actually fought, and the others were just pretending.

Zuo Liangyu now has a total of 500 soldiers with them, and there are more than 1000 or [-] elite cavalry alone, and the infantry is fully armored.

Cao Wenzhao is not dead, the current situation is different from the history, and the morale of the Ming army is acceptable.

Binzhou is difficult to defend, and it is very difficult to defeat the more than [-] rogues, but it is not a problem to retreat completely, and most of them will definitely not be defeated like in history.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

A deep horn sounded from the direction of the Chinese army.

Chen Wang stopped and turned his head to follow the prestige.

In the field of vision, just beyond the outline of the tall military tents of the Chinese army, several streaks of black smoke had already shot up into the sky.

　The chapter is 4000 words long, and the length of the military training has come to an end. The time has entered the seventh month of the eighth year of Chongzhen, and the next is the battle in Guanzhong.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)