Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 80 New Equipment
Zuo Zongtang rushed to Kunming one after another. This 70-year-old veteran has been running around for the Qing Dynasty all his life.But Guan Xuqing really didn't have any handsome talents who could be trusted and overwhelmed by so many generals.The only thing is to let the old general work hard for a few more years, and wait for the army officers who went to study in Germany to come back and take over.

Zuo Zongtang first arrived in Kunming, and it was recorded in the documents of the imperial military department that Kunming was garrisoned by the newly formed Feng Zicai Department.

Because of his outstanding performance in the Sino-Vietnamese War, Guan Xuqing specially promoted Feng Zicai to be a general. However, because the newly recruited soldiers are still in training and the equipment is not ready, there are no combat missions for the time being.However, as Feng Zicai's old superior, this time he went to Vietnam and passed by his residence, so he made a special trip to take a look.

The one who turned over from the horse was the Minister of Military Aircraft, Zuo Zongtang, Minister of the Ministry of War. He did not wear the court uniform today, but changed into his general's military uniform.Feng Zicai wanted to help him off the horse, but he refused, and jumped off the horse himself.

"See Commander." Feng Zicai knelt down on one knee and gave a standard military salute.

Behind Zuo Zongtang, Liu Yongfu, Liu Mingchuan, Wu Ping, Nie Shicheng and Pan Dongmin dismounted together.

Zuo Zongtang glanced at him as if, and said with a smile: "I heard that you, Feng Zi, have recently made a fortune. I came here to check on your vision. You won't hide it."

Since the last talk with Guan Xuqing, Zuo Zongtang has been ordered to leave Beijing secretly.Started to form the Southwest Group Army in Vietnam, with five troops of Nie Shicheng, Liu Mingchuan, Wu Ping, Liu Yongfu, and Pan Dongmin with 25 troops ready to enter Burma at any time.

Feng Zicai chuckled and said, "Why are you making a fortune? The poor are about to lose their pants, and the equipment and truckloads from the Hubei Firearms and Artillery Bureau are all sent to Vietnam. I'm so greedy. My brothers still don't have money. Practice assassination and aiming with a wooden gun. I have never practiced with live ammunition. The Mauser recoil is quite strong, and practice with live ammunition is equivalent to no practice.” He looked at the generals behind Zuo Zongtang, meaning that the equipment Let them take it.

"Go, go, who is talking nonsense to you. The emperor told me that a grenade recently developed by the Hubei Gun Bureau has been equipped with it for you, so that recruits are training. Walk around and take me there Look, what the hell is this thing?"

Not long after, everyone came to an open field, not far away, hundreds of soldiers were throwing things into circles drawn by some coal powder.Zuo Zongtang led the general behind him forward, picked up a black hard iron block on the ground, and said, "This is the grenade you are equipped with?"

Feng Zicai looked at the things in Zuo Zongtang's hand and said, "There are too few grenades, so I don't want to take them out for training. I usually use iron blocks of the same weight instead." Feng Zicai took an olive-shaped grenade and a grenade from the soldier next to him. A grenade with a wooden handle said: "This is the real thing."

Zuo Zongtang looked at it and said, "How to use it? Can you give me a ring?"

After hearing this, Feng Zicai told the surrounding soldiers to retreat, pulled out the fuse on the grenade, and threw it out with his arms.

Before the grenade exploded, Feng Zicai pulled the string of the grenade again, and when he lost it, he saw two loud noises, one before and one after, and the soil, sand and gravel were splashed everywhere. A small pit.

Liu Mingchuan, Liu Yongfu and others behind Zuo Zongtang were so shocked that they couldn't speak a word, obviously stunned by this murder weapon.Both of them are people who have experienced the Sino-French war, and they have a deep impression of the trench warfare in the war.When the artillery gap between the two sides is not large, it is almost impossible to break through the trenches with machine gun firepower.

This is a successful use of the trenches. Once it is our turn to break through the enemy's trenches in the future, what method will we use to break through them?This is a question that military officers who participated in the Sino-French War have been thinking about.

Now the method has finally appeared. Everything in the world generates and restrains each other, and grenades are the best weapon for trench warfare.

At this time, Liu Yongfu couldn't stand up at first.He said cheekily: "Brother Feng, do you think this grenade will support our Black Banner Army with hundreds of boxes? The country brothers under me have never seen this thing. If they go to the battlefield in the future, they will throw these things as sweet potatoes. If you catch it, it will be a big loss, so you must give me some, anyway, you can’t keep this thing as a cub.”

"Hundreds of boxes?" Feng Zicai's flushed face turned red at the moment, "You are really arrogant. Now I have ten bidders, and each of them can't get five. You will think when you touch your lips." I have to go so much, I don’t even think about it, I don’t have a box.”

"Brother Feng, wait until the grenade given to us by the Ministry of War arrives and you're done for. Anyway, you don't have any combat missions right now. The weather is bad, so you're not afraid that the grenade will get damp?" Liu Mingchuan said aside.

"Okay." Zuo Zongtang frowned at this moment and said: "These grenades are for Feng Zicai's department. I will write a letter to the emperor to ask each bureau to speed up the production of this kind of grenade to equip each department." Then everyone gave up.

Then everyone came to the artillery mark, and there was no artillery group with many barrels, only a few dozen 75mm battalion artillery sparsely, and the artillerymen were conducting artillery training.The crowd passed the trained soldiers and came to the gate of a warehouse. Led by Feng Zicai, a group of people walked in through the small gate.

The sunlight from the skylight allowed everyone to quickly see the situation in the warehouse clearly.There were rows of smoke-like things standing in front of them, and Zuo Zongtang was quite puzzled: "This is a mortar?" In his impression, artillery should be heavy and heavy, weighing hundreds of catties or even thousands of catties. Things, which are as light as the mortar in front of you.

Feng Zicai nodded at this time and said: "These mortars are all made by Ningju. Originally there was only one inch gun (33mm) that could shoot three miles away. Later, Ningju built a larger one that could shoot five miles away. There are more than 500 such mortars in our department. At first, we wanted to have one for each company. But later, we found that the power of a few mortars is no less than that of ordinary artillery, and the heaviest of these mortars is only 15 catties. They can still walk like flying and are extremely useful in combat. So I gathered them together to form a cannon target."

At this time, Zuo Zongtang also thought of the advantages that mortars can bring in mountain confrontations. Just imagine that the enemy can only carry light weapons because of heavy artillery, but our side has the help of artillery, and the outcome is unpredictable.

At this moment, Pan Dongmin regretted greatly. When he met the emperor in the capital, the emperor asked him to train the recruits, saying that there were new equipments for early adopters.At first, he thought it was the emperor coaxing him, so he was reluctant to leave the old army.Seeing Feng Zicai shooting grenades and mortars now, the regret in his heart is like a torrent of water flowing eastward.

(End of this chapter)