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Chapter 679 Strange Army
"Brother Xiao, the Mongols are much more powerful than the Jurchens. Why can't they defeat the Jurchens in Liaodong?" In the third trench on the west side, there was an army soldier squatting every few steps. They all lowered their heads, hugged their spears, and did not move.

But there are also those who are more talkative, or who want to use chatting to distract their attention and avoid being too nervous. The centurions don't care about this situation. As long as they are well prepared and it doesn't affect the command system, they can chat about whatever they want.

"I heard from Captain Zhang that the Jurchens and Mongols have different tactics. The Mongols are fast and rely mainly on cavalry, while the Jurchens are ruthless and have many heavily armored infantry, and their bows are more lethal. If the numbers of the two sides are similar, it will be difficult for the Mongols to find an opportunity, and once they are defeated, it will not be easy for them to escape."

It's obvious that this man is a veteran who has participated in many battles. His analysis is very insightful. Even if he doesn't have the brains to summarize the enemy's strengths and weaknesses, there will be officers who force him to know, and he will have no choice but to know.

"I think it has something to do with the terrain. For example, here, the Jurchen infantry may not be very useful. There are wastelands everywhere, and nothing grows except grass. After a long time without food or water, they will die of thirst. Hey, what do you think is the meaning of giving each person two more pistols this time? Are you going to let us go out and fight the Mongols?"

Although the other person is about the same age, he is obviously less experienced. However, the less experienced one is, the more he likes to express his opinions, and he speaks very convincingly.

"You kid, don't listen carefully to the centurion's lecture. Sooner or later, you will lose your life because of this. Who said you were going to fight the Mongols? It was to let you lie in the trench and shoot the horse's belly.

This place is almost as flat as a parade ground, and is most suitable for a quick cavalry charge. No matter how powerful the artillery is or how accurate the muskets are, with too many horses they will still be able to break through the defense line.

When the time comes, don't lean out and chase after them and shoot. Just lie down like me, shoot horses when you see them, shoot people when you see them, and when you can't see anything, just prick up your ears and listen to the centurion's whistle.

You haven't married yet, have you? Don't always think about risking your life. Governor Li said that as long as we obey orders and have a little bit of luck, we, along with the 30,000 soldiers of the Engineer Guard, will be able to live to retirement safely. If you have made great contributions, you will get a lot of rewards.

When the time comes, find a factory to work in, where you won’t be exposed to the wind or rain, and you can go home to hug your children after working for a few hours every day. It’s so wonderful! If you don’t want to work, you can use the salary to open a small shop, or simply go home and buy a few acres of land, grow something to feed yourself, and you don’t have to listen to others yelling at you. "

The veteran named Xiao finally couldn't help it and planned to teach his teammates the correct way to be an army soldier. The superior said so much, but he only said two sentences, but they were all the key points. He no longer had the urge to make great achievements, and only hoped to finish the battle smoothly, preferably without getting injured, and to survive until the end of his service period would be victory.

Is he a veteran soldier? If he were in the border troops of the Ming Dynasty, he might be considered a veteran soldier, but it was very common in the army. This was because it was instilled in them by the Army Governor Li Ruzhang.

Being a soldier in the army does not require you to fight for your life, you just need to obey orders. When the army really needs to fight for your life, soldiers can choose to surrender or escape, and they will not be punished as deserters afterwards.

But the commander will be severely punished, and the lightest punishment may be death, but his family will not be implicated. According to Governor Li, if the commander leads the team to a point where they may not win even if they fight hard, then he deserves death.

There is no such thing as risking your life and bravely killing the enemy in the army. There is only the rule of firing guns and artillery according to orders. Don't make your own decisions on where to fire and how many times to fire. Listen to the orders of the captain.

Doing this well during training is qualified, and being able to maintain it during war is victory. If you not only do it well but also meet higher standards, such as high shooting accuracy and fast loading speed, then it is considered meritorious service. After the war, you can report it and get rewards, such as medals or promotions. "Beep...beep..." Just as they were chatting happily, a shrill copper whistle suddenly sounded nearby. The soldiers in the trenches quickly picked up the rifles in their arms, opened the cover of the flintlock's powder pool, and pulled out a small copper kettle with a pointed mouth from their collars to pour gunpowder into the powder pool.

Don't underestimate this simple step. It takes at least a year of training in the army for most people to barely pass.

Soldiers who have just joined the army, whether they are recruited from the civilian sector or from the factory protection team, do not engage in live-fire shooting except for physical and drill training in the first five months. The most they do with their rifles every day is disassembly and maintenance.

Dismantle, clean, clean, and put back together again and again. When the physical fitness and formation tests are passed, the squad leader will teach shooting techniques and take everyone to the shooting range to see what real guns and live ammunition are.

But in this process, the centurion would tirelessly remind the soldiers again and again that the biggest threat to the army soldiers was not the enemy, but themselves and their companions.

Some soldiers, due to panic or lack of concentration, and the centurions deliberately disrupted the rhythm, would put ammunition into the barrel twice during training, or simply forget to put it in. On the battlefield, either the barrel would explode or the firepower density would be insufficient, both of which were very fatal.

If a soldier makes this mistake many times, he cannot become an army soldier no matter how good he is in other subjects. The centurions said that this is called mental instability, which is more troublesome in the army than being blind.

In fact, when they are on the battlefield, some soldiers who don't usually have this problem will also suffer from it and forget everything. In order to keep this hard-earned job, some smart soldiers have invented several auxiliary technologies to avoid this kind of situation.

Take the old soldier named Xiao as an example. If you look closely, you will see a round piece of paper the size of a soybean stuck on the steel wheel of his flintlock. Its official name should be the bottom seal of the outer packaging of fixed ammunition.

The Ming Army and the Ming Border Army both had firearms units, but the two armies used different types of firearms, with the biggest difference being the barrel and the firing device. The first musket used by the Army was called the Jingyang Type 5, which was developed by Zhao Shizhen in the fourth year of Jingyang. It was officially finalized and produced in the fifth year of Jingyang, and was first equipped to the Marine Corps.

这种火枪属于前装线膛燧发枪，口径5分、重8斤、长4尺3寸，换算成新尺寸大约等于16毫米、4.7公斤、140厘米。

There are two rifling grooves in the barrel, and the flintlock is driven by a steel spring to ignite. Using a 30-gram cylindrical cone-shaped hollow-tail lead bullet, it can still penetrate a layer of armor at a distance of 400 meters. After six months of training, the soldiers can fire four times per minute.

But the emperor felt that it was not enough, so he asked the craftsmen of the Royal Gunpowder Factory and Zhao Shizhen to improve the loading method, which significantly increased the firing rate from four rounds per minute to six rounds per minute.

(End of this chapter)