Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 186 But Wants to Live in Pengying (2)

Each cannon in the city fire artillery battalion has its own temperament, and each artillery group has its own habits.Gunners are no better than other sergeants. They have been stationed in the city for a long time, and they can reunite with their families without retiring, and they don't have many opportunities for promotion.Therefore, the same group of people have been cooperating for many years, most of them are old buddies of more than ten years.The gunners regarded the city defense artillery as their living companions, and they gave each iron barrel artillery a pleasant name. , It is simply impossible to command the battle smoothly.This time to form the Field Artillery Battalion, the Firearms Division also transferred the entire elite artillery crew, rather than individual gunners, into the new battalion.

And this is exactly what the Marching Division is extremely opposed to. The Marching Division has always hoped to unify all battalions with regulations.When Zhang Shanfu saw the combat regulations compiled by Zhao Xingde, he immediately realized that this is a rare talent. This regulation may not be very clever, but what it reveals is the taste of controlling everything with plans, military orders and documents. It's right for the taste of the marching division.

"Yes, this is the person I need in the Marching Division." Zhang Shanfu rarely showed an appreciative smile on his face, and tapped his fingers rhythmically on the document, which indicated that the general was in a good mood. Well, in time, let’s transfer it to be the commander-in-chief of the army.” A ray of sunlight shone on the manuscript, and even the unevenness of the handwriting was so clearly illuminated, which made the order even more accurate and powerful.

When Zhang Shanfu picked up the other two dossiers, his expression turned solemn, and Ross and Mobei showed signs of instability at the same time.Some Ross nobles are secretly contacting each other in an attempt to borrow troops from the western barbarian country and drive out the forces of Xia.And Mobei was continuously harassed by the Mierbo people.With the end of the Khitan civil turmoil, there are more and more indications that the envoys in the northwest of the Liao Kingdom are sheltering these horse thieves. "After the Artillery Battalion becomes an army, we don't have to worry about having no place to use our troops." Zhang Shanfu said to himself with a slight gleam in his eyes.

The Marching Army Department issued an aiming table written according to the distance and shooting direction, and Zhao Xingde memorized it thoroughly first.Not only that, but he will also use the methods of later generations to cope with exams, while looking for the rules of the original boring data set, while compiling various associative formulas, and will teach these formulas to his gunners without reservation.Those older gunners were originally slow-witted, but it was much easier to recite the formulas after they had the formulas.After hearing the news, other Gunner Centuries also asked Zhao Xingde's group for advice.

"As expected of a nerdy centurion." The gunners joked with each other, and began to have a good impression of Zhao Xingde, but they were still not convinced in their hearts.Until one day, a conflict on the training ground completely changed their views.

The Ten Commander Guo Zidong repeatedly failed to aim accurately, and the shells hit either far or near, after being reprimanded by Zhao Xingde, he said angrily: "Since Zhao Dutou said it lightly, if you have a feeling, try it yourself, is the artillery so easy to aim? "After finishing speaking, he folded his arms around his chest, looking like a dead pig who is not afraid of boiling water, and thought to himself that this time, Lao Guo fought his own way to lead the army, and finally this nerd was devastated.The other ten husbands also surrounded them.

"It seems that Lao Guo doesn't want to do it anymore. It's so comfortable to stay in Chang'an City. He's dispatched to the new army just for the sake of a military title." The Ten Commander Wang Qizhi secretly thought, and couldn't help but look more at Zhao Xingde A trace of mercy.Unlike riding a crossbow and shooting a crossbow, the skill of aiming a gun is very rare. Many gunners are passed down from father to son. Officers from foreign departments are not so easy to mix in the artillery battalion.

The sunshine this day was very vicious, almost everyone on the training ground was waiting to see Zhao De's jokes.I don't know if it was a coincidence, but the other two gunner centurions training not far away also stopped at the same time, and the empty shooting range seemed very quiet.Zhao Xingde looked at Guo Zidong coldly, and said in a deep voice: "Defy the military order, confinement for three days. I will report the facts to the Military Justice Department." The confinement in the military is locked in a dark dungeon, where all food, drink, and casualties are included, three days and three days He was not allowed to talk to others at night, and had only one ladle of water every day.

A trace of contempt flashed in Guo Zidong's eyes, and he snorted.This punishment was expected, and it was worth it to lose face to this nerd in front of Quanying Paoze.He gave a military salute to Zhao Dejing, turned around and was about to leave the shooting range, and went to find the military judge himself for confinement.

"Wait." Guo Zidong was taken aback, but when he turned around, he saw Zhao De take off his officer's cloak.

Zhao De strode to the back of the artillery, closed his left eye, raised his right arm, made a fist with his right hand, and gave a thumbs up.First let the left side of the thumb overlap with the distant target in a straight line, then keep the right arm and thumb still, close the right eye, and then use the left eye to observe the left side of the thumb, this sideline will be a distance from the right side of the target Distance, which roughly estimates the approximate distance from the target.This is the distance measurement method commonly used in field surveying and mapping terrain during prospecting.

"Nerds can't really take aim, can they?" whispered the gunners.

"This nerd is serious, and he pretends to be." Guo Zidong felt guilty secretly, and the gunners around him also showed great interest in their eyes.Using the thumb of one's own arm to visually measure the distance is the method of very few skilled craftsmen.Because everyone's arm length is different, so even if people are willing to teach by example, it is not possible to apply it mechanically.Most of the gunners still rely on visual estimation, combined with the front sight and the gun port to check and aim. Because the gun body is heavy and there is no 'hydraulic' labor-saving device to assist aiming, it is impossible to adjust the elevation angle as freely as later generations.It is very important for the commander to visually measure the distance and estimate the elevation angle.

After measuring the distance to the target, Zhao Xingde silently recited the count table, and roughly knew the error of the few shots that Guo Zidong aimed at just now.Pointing to the iron ruler in the middle of the cannon, he said to the other five gunners: "Drop five points." The four gunners standing on both sides of the cannon were stunned for a moment, then came to their senses, followed Zhao Xingde's order, and tried their best to lower the elevation angle of the cannon. Low, Zhao Xingde went to the back of the gun body again, roughly aligned the sight and the gun door, and ordered: "Get ready!"

The gunner quickly cleaned the gun chamber according to the military order, pushed the gunpowder bag into the bottom of the chamber, and pushed the cast iron round bullet in. The gunner behind slowly punched holes in the gunner's bag. He looked at Zhao De suspiciously.Seeing his calm expression, even Guo Zidong couldn't help beating his heart.

After the preparations were completed, Zhao Xingde did not hesitate at all, and ordered in a deep voice: "Fire!" The gunner standing behind the artillery did not hesitate any longer, and lit the straw filled with black gunpowder with a torch.

Zhao Xingde's expression was still as if nothing had happened, but Guo Zidong's heart was suspended, wishing that the straw would burn as slowly as possible.However, the sizzling sparks didn't do what he wanted, and quickly penetrated into the fire door. After a while, wisps of black smoke came out, and the 'medicine' package was ignited.Suddenly, there was a loud roar of "Boom", and the muzzle flashed suddenly. Everyone's eyes blinked involuntarily, and then they looked up into the distance. There was a puff of smoke.

"Hit!" "Hit!" the sergeants on the sidelines repeated these words with various moods.Guo Zidong blushed, wishing he could find a crack in the ground and slip through.But Zhao Xingde turned around and said to him in a deep voice: "Now you can go to lead the military law."

After several times of practice, Zhao Dutou's reputation as the fastest and most accurate gun aiming in the whole battalion gradually spread.General Wang Yunzhong of the Firearms Department heard about this, he was so surprised that he couldn't hold back his tongue, and secretly thought that he was indeed the person recommended by Master Cannon.However, Zhao Xingde compiled an endless stream of regulations, which made him frown. The three regulations and various explanations added by Zhao Xingde temporarily controlled the gunners' every move.At the end of each training session, the gunners under Zhao De's command seemed to be rejoicing as if they had crawled out of hell.

In order to cultivate gunners' obedience to the regulations, Zhao Xingde compiled the queue regulations.For a whole month, the self-righteous city defense gunners had almost no chance to touch the artillery, and they practiced queues on the review field day after day.Those who did not move properly or resisted the military order were immediately picked out for additional training. The gunners complained, but they realized that they were either shaped by the iron rules, or tortured to death by this evil centurion .Time-conscious, they quickly succumbed.

"General, there are private rumors among the brothers that Zhao Dutou was deliberately sent by the Marching Army Division to stand up, right?" Chief Shi Bai Baozhi said cautiously.

"Nonsense," Wang Yunzhong glared, "it's clearly recommended by the Ordnance Department, so what does it have to do with the Marching Department?" There was also a trace of doubt in his eyes, Zhao De's behavior was indeed like a gesticulating march Sima, Wang Yunzhongxuan was about to press this suspicion to the bottom of his heart, his face darkened, and he said, "Go and tell those tongue-twisters that you don't want to be in the new army anymore, so get the hell out of here!"

"Yes, this subordinate understands." Bai Baozhi replied, he was a subordinate of Wang Yunzhong for many years, but he couldn't help adding, "The rules of our firearms battalion were established only a hundred years ago. Fuck..." Before he finished speaking, Wang Yunzhong stared back at him.

The General's Mansion attaches great importance to the training of the Artillery Battalion. General Zhang Shanfu of the Marching Division, General Wang Yunzhong of the Firearms Division, Yang Shaojie of the Ordnance Division, and even the Emperor Chen Xuan have all visited the training ground in person. In order not to disturb the training of the new army, none of these big men Exceptionally light and simple.Without exception, they were shocked by the uniform training of the gunners under Commander Zhao Xingde.

"The Tiger Wing Army should come here to observe." Chen Xuan turned around and joked to Wang Yunzhong, and the generals smiled slightly.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Wang Yunzhong smiled, but secretly drummed in his heart, "Is Your Majesty saying that I'm not good enough in the new army?"

When the marching ranks of the gunners reached a straight line no matter from which angle, without any bending or personal jumping, Zhao Xingde began to train the artillery crew with combat rules.At the same time, the internal affairs regulations written by him were also put into practice. If a gunner in the entire artillery group failed to meet the requirements of the internal affairs regulations, the entire group would be trained in additional queue regulations.Sixty gunners began to worry about stacking tofu cubes, and they quickly learned to sprinkle water on the quilt without a teacher and bite the neat creases with their teeth.

"Evil ghost" became Zhao Xingde's new nickname.In the eyes of all the gunners, the internal affairs regulations and queue regulations are the means by the "ghosts" to punish people, and they look forward to returning to the artillery.Only the reasonableness of the combat regulations still exists, and only the operation of the artillery is a relief. The gunners can't wait to conduct tactical exercises of the artillery crew's "operation" all day long.The gun crews who do not master the battle rules will be sent back to the review range from the shooting range, and will continue to be ruthlessly destroyed by the queue rules to strengthen the coordination of the whole group of gunners.The firing speed of the six artillery groups commanded by Zhao Xingde began to be far ahead of the other artillery groups.The eyes of the other centurions looking at Zhao Xingde also changed, from disdain at the beginning to admiration and fear gradually.