Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 574 Testing of New Weapons
Tuohuan took Guo Kang to the Ministry of War first, where he explained to the officials on duty and checked the progress of various preparations. After that, he left the city and came to the training ground outside.

After more than half a month of screening of the Russians recruited by Guo Kang, only a small number remained. These people all have physical problems due to long-term malnutrition and overwork. Some of these young people with good talents recover relatively quickly. And most people, even if they gradually improve their food according to Guo Kang's requirements, they can't keep up with the training volume of the legion and can only be assigned to logistics positions.

There are also some people who either can't change their petty theft habits, or they often can't help but secretly drink, and they always ignore discipline and rules, even if they are beaten, it will be useless. Several of them were very brave and good at fighting, and had made meritorious deeds in previous street battles, but they had no choice but to clear out.

The remaining more than 300 people are still training with other recruits at the camp set up by Zhu Wenkui and others outside the city.

Captain Jessica has not been here for the past two days. It is said that he took a leave of absence to discuss matters with the envoy from his hometown. Guo Ponu stared at Theodora every day, looking for trouble with her whenever he had nothing to do, and had no intention of training. Fortunately, there are all kinds of people here, and there is no shortage of teachers. According to the guard guarding the gate, in the past few days, King Xiao Wu has arranged for Master Hans to replace him and is teaching them basic skills.

Guo Kang felt that it was still too early to teach swordsmanship now. However, there was no one at the training ground. After turning half a circle, they discovered that Old Hans was dragging the new recruits to practice wrestling on the soft mud outside the camp.

They got some straw, spread it on the ground, and started practicing. As a result, all the Russians were disgraced, covered in mud and hay, and looked like Nurhachi who was having fun.

"Teaching this..." Guo Kang scratched his head: "Forget it, just practice..."

He remembered that the people in Majiazhuang also liked wrestling very much. He estimated that these trainings were not only for exercising physical strength, but also were really useful.

Seeing that everyone had something to do, he didn't bother them and went to find Zhu Wenkui, ready to discuss the matter of carrying firearms. However, when they arrived at the center of the camp, they found that Zhu Wenkui was not there. Instead, Li Xuanying was at the door of the temporary workshop, banging several swords of different lengths and singing to the onlookers. Tang Sai'er and little Jeanne both led a group of children and mingled with the crowd, listening curiously.

"The ones at the back are there to help ignite and prevent flameout. I don't think it's a big problem." Li Xuanying said: "The dagger in the front is mounted on the muzzle, so I don't think it's necessary."

"That's a lot of them." Li Xuanying pointed to the weapons and armor next to him: "To be honest, they have a lot of weapons, and I don't think they are suitable for new recruits."

"Why are you nodding and bowing to us like this?" Tuohuan glanced at Guo Kang, decided to ignore him for now, and asked Li Xuanying: "Have you done anything untoward again?"

"Then you..." Tuohuan looked back and found that Guo Kang had been hugged by little Jeanne, so he had to shout again: "Okay, stop playing, we have to do business."

Seeing Guo Kang and Tuo Huan approaching, Li Xuanying stopped quickly, stood up, and greeted them.

"I'm really embarrassed to go back." Li Xuanying shook her head repeatedly: "I made an agreement with Xiao Zhu that he will also take people with the team to set off, and I will just follow his team. In the past few days, I have helped him test various methods. A weapon."

Guo Kang hurried over. Tuohuan had already picked up a musket, looked at the various accessories on it, and asked, "What are these for?"

Seeing a big shot coming, the onlookers greeted him for a while, then dispersed after seeing that they had nothing to do with him. Only little Jeanne and a group of children gathered around and greeted Guo Kang.

"Why are you pretending to be this?" Tuohuan asked curiously: "How is this used..."

However, it seems that he is quite popular here. The gang in Prince Wu's Mansion finally had a singer and music player just like a serious begging gang...

"No, I'm just here to help them." Li Xuanying explained: "Everyone will take a rest at noon, and I will rest here for a while."

"Okay..." Tuohuan thought about it for a while and felt that this was a hopeless solution, so he didn't object and asked instead: "Then what did you find out about it?"

During this period, although the Queen Mother, Pai Saihan and others tried to persuade and nominally settled things, Li Xuanying still did not dare to go home. She wandered around during the day and went to friends' houses to eat and sleep at night, and lived in the streets. Liuzi. Later, I simply joined Zhu Wenkui's team, and we all worked together to eat every day.

As he spoke, he took the musket and took off the unedged experimental dagger to show Tuo Huan. Under the gun barrel, near the front, there is an iron seat hooped with an iron ring. There is also an iron ring on the guard of the dagger.

"I don't need help, I can do it myself." Li Xuanying explained: "I also stole the horse. When the time comes, I will chop off some heads and show them my military achievements. It will be hard for my family to say anything about me."

"To save trouble." Li Xuanying shook her head: "Anyway, the bracket under the muzzle is used to fix the dagger."

"Then..." Tuo Huan looked at Guo Kang, hesitated, and had to give way: "Then you just have to agree with him. The people from Prince Wu's Mansion also followed Guo Kang Anda. See if I can leave some space for you. Get a better seat and try to recruit as many helpers as possible.”

"Are you really living here?" Tuohuan asked doubtfully, "We are about to go on an expedition. Why don't you go home and ask your father for help?"

"I fixed it like this with the head facing forward." He put the iron ring on the muzzle of the gun. The metal part of the tail of the dagger was aligned with the iron seat under the barrel. He slapped it hard and it just stuck in. "It's installed like this. Yes, the button over there can catch it."

"If you want to remove it." He pulled out a short stick from the metal base, and the tail of the dagger fell off: "There is a mortise and tenon with a slope at the end. When the top is opened, it will automatically release. Then The front can also be removed so that the knife can be removed for easy reloading.”

"When someone gets close, just use this to poke them, right? The dagger will be longer." Tuo Huan probably understood: "Then is this thing easy to use?"

"It's definitely not easy to use." Li Xuanying said with a smile: "But it's really fun. I feel like the knives we carry every day can do this. I guess we can do a lot of tricks." "It's okay, he often designs Such inexplicable things." Tuohuan didn't care, and turned to ask Guo Kang: "Tell me, are there any undiscovered advantages?"

"Uh... I'm not very sure myself. However, those are just theories. I thought it would be better to try it out, so I ordered one." Guo Kang hesitated and said.

"I haven't heard of anyone using this thing." Li Xuanying said truthfully: "If you know their experience in using it, or other people's secrets, tell me, maybe you can use it - although I don't expect it. This is it.”

"Is there any secret to this thing?" Tuohuan said in surprise.

"There are many strange weapons, and they are quite important." Li Xuanying told him: "Because the weapons in the army are generally relatively uniform. The more bizarre the weapons, the worse the effect. Therefore, when everyone has the conditions, , wouldn’t choose those things.”

"However, many times, users have no choice. For example, in civilian fighting and self-defense, there are more restrictions on weapons. Sometimes they just use whatever they find. At this time, those strange weapons , it will come in handy. Because the conditions for use are relatively harsh and the experience of inheritance is insufficient. Unlike the weapons training in the army, there are systematic rules and inheritance. Therefore, if you can get a secret, learn from the predecessors. Experience has a greater impact.”

"Look at this thing." He took it back and weighed the musket and the dagger on it: "This is obviously not a serious weapon."

"You want to say it is a spear, but it is too short and too heavy. If it is used as a two-handed fighting weapon, it is not powerful and has a poor center of gravity. What is its positioning? I don't understand..."

"Look here." He led the two of them to the edge of the field. There were several target dummies used for training, and they were covered with iron armor. Li Xuanying held the musket in both hands, used her waist strength, and stabbed with all her strength. Sparks flew off the top of the dagger and the armor, but as expected, she still failed to destroy the armor.

"I don't dare to use any more force." He showed the musket head to Guo Kang and Tuo Huan: "The base for this connection is already a little deformed. If the force is increased, the dagger and barrel will probably be fine. This connection is There's bound to be a problem. I tried a bladed dagger before, but it didn't work - of course, when dealing with armor, it really doesn't make any difference whether it's bladed or not. "

"Nowadays, conventional spears are not very good at breaking armor. Many veterans don't like to use them very much. They think it is difficult to use against armored soldiers. They can either lengthen the spear head and make it harder, make the pole harder, and make it similar to a rifle. Or just use big swords, big axes, pumpkins, and white weapons. This kind of heavy weapon with a barrel is definitely not suitable. "

"I read in a book that in the pre-Qin period, there were weapons with short swords fixed on long handles. Those with swords and tangs were called 铩, and those without swords were called beryllium. However, after the popularity of iron armor, no one used these weapons. And this thing What's even worse is that it's not a very good offensive weapon even against people without armor." He patted the gun body: "The back part is too heavy, and the length and weight of the handle can be adjusted. It can’t be adjusted—the core of this weapon is the barrel, so we can’t omit it, right?”

"This is just an accessory." Guo Kang explained: "It is for the musketeers to protect themselves. It cannot be compared with those main weapons."

"It's useless to pretend to be this." Li Xuanying said: "It's better to carry another weapon. Instead of using this nondescript thing, it's better to carry a real spear or long knife."

"Wouldn't that be in the way?" Guo Kang asked.

"Definitely not." Li Xuanying said with conviction: "Just throw it on the ground and you'll be fine. If you win, you can come back and pick it up. If you lose, you don't have to think about it..."

"so……"

"In the system of the Tang Dynasty, the archers and crossbowmen were all in the forward position. If the enemy came, they would shoot first; when the enemy approached, they would switch to swords and sticks to hedge against them." Li Xuanying introduced: "Gongs Crossbows are very delicate things, but you can't feel bad about them at critical moments. You still have to throw them on the ground and use heavy weapons to fight. Your musket is just an iron pipe, which is much stronger than other people's bows. Why do you feel bad about it? "

"Moreover, although this thing is heavy, the crossbow is not light, and it takes up more space. The Tang Army has formed a mature system, and of course we can learn from it."

"Soldiers with the same level of training, if one person holds a pointed musket and another person switches to a lance, the one with the lance will definitely win." He finally concluded: "I think any general who has some knowledge of weapons will win. I don’t approve of anyone using this.”

"Then why do you have such an idea?" Tuo Huan also felt a little strange.

"Yes... this thing is cheaper, right?" Guo Kang was no longer confident.

"It's not cheap either." Li Xuanying said: "Don't look at the simple structure of this rack, but it is quite laborious to build. The blacksmith told me that the buckle is a delicate thing and it is very troublesome to make. This dagger is not expensive. But if we want to mass-produce this buckle, the cost will definitely not be low. After our research, we found that it is not only difficult to use, but also a waste of money.”

"Let's wait until the technology matures in the future." Guo Kang said: "With further development in the future, the muskets should be more efficient, and these accessories will be better manufactured."

"You can already produce this thing, why don't you give the soldiers something better..." Li Xuanying didn't believe it: "If the musket is modified to be more useful, and the armor is modified to be lighter and more flexible, this thing will be more useful." It’s no longer useful.”

"The speed of the development of armor is hard to match the speed of the increase in the power of muskets. If muskets were more useful, no one would use armor, and this kind of spear stab would be of some use." Guo Kang suggested.

"I don't think it's possible." Li Xuanying said: "It is indeed difficult for armor to defend against muskets, but it is too simple to defend against them. You see, the improvements in armor in recent years are all to deal with large muskets and powerful crossbows, not to deal with them. If these ordinary weapons are as powerful as cannons and are completely unable to resist, the armor can be made lighter and more flexible, which will help save physical strength and give it an advantage when dealing with such light weapons. "

"No matter how powerful the long-range weapons are, as long as there is still demand for close combat and the enemy is still using these weapons, light armor will be useful and will not be eliminated; unless one day the enemy himself will no longer use it." He judged: "Compared to For the soldiers themselves, armor is too cheap, so it doesn’t hurt to give some to everyone—of course, if someone’s soldiers are cheaper than armor, then that’s a different matter..."

"When this happens, our advantage will be even greater than it is now." He pointed out: "I think there are very few people in Europe who will do civil engineering work in the field, but if the power of firearms increases, only fortifications can do it." The defensive effect is sufficient. If we continue to fight around the fortifications, it all depends on the quality of the soldiers, which is what we want."

(End of this chapter)