The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 94
Chongzhen eight years, August [-]th.

On the official road outside Chunhua City, a group of soldiers in blue uniforms stood at attention.

The fiery red banners fluttered in the wind, and the sound of hunting lingered in everyone's ears.

The east is getting whiter and the sky is getting brighter.

Chen Wang wore a red-tasseled felt hat and a crimson arrow jacket, holding the rein in his hand, riding a war horse and leading a dozen personal guards to walk slowly on the side of the official road.

On the official road, nearly [-] soldiers from the two battalions under his command have already completed the assembly.

Thanks to the defeated Ai Wannian and Zhang Waijia, Chen Wang seized a large amount of military equipment from the defeated army.

But I don't know why the third batch of ordnance promised by Hong Chengchou was not delivered.

Chen Wang guessed that Hong Chengchou felt that he had captured a lot of military equipment in this battle.

The battle on the front line was tight, so the transportation of ordnance was simply cut off.

Naturally, Chen Wang would not send someone to ask if this batch of ordnance would be delivered.

Hong Chengchou is not easy to get along with. According to the records in the history books, Hong Chengchou is a man who must take revenge.

I would rather trust it to have it than to trust it to have nothing.

If you don't have eyesight, it will not be a good thing to be remembered by Hong Chengchou.

Anyway, the number of ordnance, armor and weapons sent was only about a hundred or so.

The capture of Chunhua after the war, together with the ordnance allocated by the army before, is actually quite sufficient for Chen Wang now.

There are currently 950 cloth face armors in the army, 970 seven lock armors, and [-] cotton armors.

There are more than [-] pieces of iron shield arms, more than [-] pieces of high-topped helmets and hats, and more than [-] pieces of military uniforms.

The ranger battalion directly under Chen Wang divided it into two divisions according to the infantry, the cavalry was the front and the infantry was the rear.

There are 890 Liaoqi seven people in the front, not counting the more than 50 servants sent by Cao Wenzhao, all of them are now fully armored.

A high-topped helmet, a cloth face armor on the outside, chain mail on the inside, and covered arms.

They are all wearing double armor, sabers, bows and arrows, and three-eyed guns are all ready.

They were even better equipped than when they were under Zhang Waijia's command.

The quality of the cloth face armor is uneven, and the inside is inlaid with iron pieces. The amount of iron pieces affects the protection ability of the cloth face armor.

And Chen Wang specially selected a group with more armor pieces for this group of Liao cavalry to ensure their protection.

There are two divisions and eight divisions of infantry in the rear, three of which are recruits from Binzhou, and one division is a division of veterans belonging to the Zuo Division in the front of Cao Wenzhao.

The other four rounds were reorganized by Ai Wannian and Liu Chenggong's remnants who fled back from Xiangle.

To tell the truth, Chen Wang didn't want them.

But Hong Chengchou had already sent someone to send it, and it was also included in the ranks of his battalions.

Chen Wang now has to have it if he doesn't want it.

Most of these people are also from Shaanxi. After all, Ai Wannian was originally a general of Shenmu, and then the deputy commander of Gushan, who was stationed in Pingliang Mansion. Naturally, most of the battalions under his command were from Shaanxi.

When the army broke into the fortress before, the remnant army after the reorganization of these four rounds was at the forefront.

Unexpectedly, these soldiers could not be seen to be after the reorganization of the defeated army.

Whether it is defending the city or fighting in the field, they dare to fight and rush, perhaps because the enemies are extremely jealous when they meet, their morale is so high that it is a bit scary.

Not long after, Liu Chenggong also deliberately found Chen Wang again.

Briefly talk about the incident in Xiangle.

These remnants followed Liu Chenggong and Wang Ximing to break out of the siege. Liu Chenggong meant to let Chen Wang not be too harsh.

After all, Wang Ximing did not survive this difficulty, and died of illness in Xi'an not long ago.

Chen Wang did not refuse Liu Chenggong's request. Although Liu Chenggong was demoted to general, his qualifications and connections have always existed.

Moreover, the remnants of the four rounds did not do anything against military law, let alone any thorns.

Now it is not a situation where we can completely rely on the new army. The old army still has its merits at this stage.

These eight rounds of soldiers, after experiencing the Battle of Chunhua, had a total of 870 soldiers.

However, Chen Wang divided 140 people from the three bureaus recruited from Binzhou to serve as the banner chief and deputy banner chief of the new army.

In fact, there are 720 eight people left, and there is no supplementary force for the time being.
The mail armor was rationed to Liao cavalry, and after some officers, it was basically gone.

Therefore, these 720 and eight people wore only cloth face armor, and also wore high-topped helmets and veiled arms.

The rest of the armor, except for a part left as a spare, was sent to the new barracks.

In 930, the seven cloth face armors and the remaining iron shield arms were given priority to the officers and sword and shield soldiers in the new army.

The 970 two pieces of cotton armor that have not been used have been given priority to the gunmen in the army.

Today, about one-third of the new army is firearms soldiers.

There were not many bird guns captured in this battle, most of them were three-eyed guns.

The reason is naturally that Li Zicheng's firecrackers are basically equipped with three-eyed blunderbuss, and they don't use bird blunderbuss very much.

Among the ordnance that Hong Chengchou sent people to bring in, there were not many bird guns, and most of them were three-eyed guns.

Therefore, all of the one-third of the firecrackers are equipped with three-eyed blunderbuss.

Chen Wang did not insist on using the matchlock gun.

After carefully weighing the pros and cons, after repeated thinking.

Chen Wang found out that although Li Zicheng's learning is his tactics, he is superior to him in terms of understanding and application.

Although he has been very cautious, he still made a dogmatic error.

Copying it mechanically, blindly install bird guns instead of three-eyed guns and other firearms.

The power and range of bird guns are indeed greater and longer than those of three-eyed guns.

The reloading time has been improved by more than half after having the paper shell ammunition. It only needs five or six rows of skilled bird gunmen to fire in a loop, with an almost continuous effect.

But there is a very big flaw here. Even if it is continuous, the firepower density still cannot prevent the enemy from rushing forward.

Therefore, in this period when flintlock guns were immature and matchlock gun technology was mature, there were still a large number of soldiers armed with cold weapons, both at home and abroad, to protect musketeers.

After the three-eyed gun has shot the projectile, the subsequent loading is extremely difficult and cumbersome.

The reloading time is several times that of the bird gun, so it is generally only used as a one-time consumable.

But the three-eyed blunderbuss has an advantage, which is incomparable to the bird blunderbuss.

It fires quickly, and the instant fire coverage is denser, causing huge enemy casualties in an instant, and can effectively contain a large number of enemy troops.

Although the three-eyed gun has a short shooting distance, its armor-piercing ability is lower than that of the bird gun.

However, the armor rate of the rogue bandits is extremely low. Those who can wear iron armor are elite cavalry. Most horse troops only have cotton armor, not to mention infantry and hungry soldiers.

The three-eyed gun is actually the best choice now.

The main enemy he was facing now was the rogues with a very low armor rate, not Hou Jin who was wearing heavy armor.

Later Jin entered the customs again in the 11th year of Chongzhen. At that time, Lu Xiangsheng was conscripted to the north to defend.

The enemy is replaced by Houjin soldiers, so they have to wait until the 11th year of Chongzhen.

In addition to firecrackers, there are still a lot of artillery in the army.

Counting the seizures, there are a total of 56 tiger squatting cannons, [-] small Franglers, and [-] medium-sized Franglers.

One part was the ordnance dispatched by Hong Chengchou, and the other part was seized from Li Zicheng.

There are also four firing cannons, which were used by Li Zicheng in the ambush in Qiutou Town.

During the previous Chunhua War, Li Zicheng also used these cannons to bombard the city walls.

Maybe it was because of the limited effect, or maybe it was because of the lack of gunpowder, bullets, etc., so it only rang for a few moments and then stopped.

In the process of fleeing, it was naturally impossible for Li Zicheng to bring the heavy artillery with him.

The Fat Cannon is a large artillery used in the Ming Dynasty. It has been used since the Jiajing period, and generally weighs more than [-] catties.

The projectiles fired weighed more than four catties, and when the cannon was fired, it was deafening and thunderous.

When used to bombard closely-arranged military formations and crowds, it can cause a large number of casualties and deal a great blow to their morale.

The fire cannon is much lighter than the Hongyi cannon, and its range and power are naturally shorter and weaker than the Hongyi cannon.

The sword and shield soldiers are the least, there are only two people in a team, accounting for about one-sixth of the total number.

The pikemen were the most, accounting for almost half of them.

Naturally, there were not even half of the archers, and the recruits of the new army were all hungry soldiers.

If they knew how to shoot arrows, they would have been directly promoted to the team early on.

Those who know how to shoot arrows and ride horses don't need any achievements, they just need to speak out, and they can be selected as horsemen and troops.

Of course, there are many other positions such as standard bearer, trumpeter, drummer, and orderly.

The composition of the army is not all pure soldiers, and these military positions also have their own meaning of existence.

After all, marching and fighting, if you only rely on opening your throat and shouting loudly, it will be difficult to command even a battlefield with a hundred people.

In terms of the new army, including the appointed Banner General and Deputy Banner General, the number has reached 840 four.

Chen Wang formulated a new rule, all the military salaries in the two battalions, and all the military salaries of all the soldiers, would be paid by him personally every month.

Now Chen Wang is not short of money, everyone can pay full salary.

The disadvantages of the family system are too great, Chen Wang does not want to continue to implement the family system.

Most of the officers and academies of Liaoqi have died in battle, and no one has a family to support them.

The same is true among the pawns, there are not many servants, Chen Wang is going to let nature take its course for the time being.

As for the new barracks, Chen Wang naturally would not allow someone to raise servants.

In addition to the payment of everyone's salary according to the level of military rank, only the skill assessment level every three months can affect the salary.

The assessment level is divided into four levels, continuing the previous division of upper, middle, lower, and unqualified.

Two and a half per month for the upper class, two and a half for the middle class, one and half for the lower class, and one for the unqualified.

Those who fail not only need to practice more, but also receive punishment, and those who have poor performance in the assessment will also be deducted a certain amount of monthly salary.

The soldiers in the new barracks are paid one tael per month for the first three months, and the assessment period is set after three months, which is the middle of November.

Chen Wang took one last look back at Chunhua City, which lived to the east.

The team spread from his position to the Chunhua City Gate at the end of the official road to the east.

Now thinking of the war that happened in Chunhua not long ago, Chen Wang still has lingering fears.

There are too many variables in using the small to gain the big, and defeating the crowd with the few.

But the result was worth it. Not only was he promoted to battalion general, he also recruited a battalion of auxiliary soldiers.

The relatively spacious official road is already crowded by the soldiers under his command.

Chen Wang turned his head straight again, looked forward, and raised the whip in his hand.

It's still not time to stop.

Time is running out and the situation is critical.

There is no room for negligence and slack...

(End of this chapter)