A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

Looking at the bewildered craftsmen, Xiao Pingtai looked at each other and stared at each other for half a minute. Then Xiaopingtai, who was very thin-skinned (butt!), was defeated first and waved his hand, "I'm just going to mention it like this. If you don't understand, just forget it."

There was an older craftsman who saw that Xiaoping seemed to have lost face as a samurai. He asked questions and no one answered him. He was afraid that Xiaoping would be too angry, so he took the initiative to say: "Sir Tanzheng, can you tell me more about the shape."

Little Pingtai doesn't know how to make a two-shot pistol. She has seen pistols before. After all, she has watched so many movies and TV series involving firearms. But the handgun in the form of a matchlock gun has a black eye, so I don’t understand it.

"I only heard someone mention his name in Sakai, but I haven't seen him before." Xiaoheita had no choice but to lie.

The craftsman looked embarrassed and said, "I know about horse barrels." Koheita knew about horse barrels. After all, they were equipped by the cavalry of Date, who was said to have wiped out all friendly forces thirty years earlier.

It mainly increases the caliber and shortens the barrel length to ensure that it can be loaded relatively easily on moving horses and to ensure a certain killing distance. Because the caliber is larger, the projectile is heavier and larger, and the corresponding charge is increased. Although the muzzle velocity of the projectiles is insufficient because the barrel of the gun is not long enough, it is enough to be able to spray people from a distance of twenty to thirty meters. Even from such a short distance, even on horseback, it is basically possible to hit a dense military formation blindly. .

After all, today's firearms, from cannons to muskets, from the Urban cannon that can squeeze people in, to the fire door gun that can only shoot one or two heavy projectiles, are all the same. The more gunpowder the projectile has, the more gunpowder it needs. This is basically the rule. The larger the projectile, the farther away it is (it’s good to hit it more than once before the battle), and the damage will naturally be guaranteed.

I briefly talked to the craftsman about the matter, and the man understood immediately. There are no technical difficulties with this thing, as long as it is slightly modified during the building process.

It's nothing more than replacing the core iron rod with a thicker and larger one when making the barrel, and the barrel is only fifty or sixty centimeters long, which feels much more convenient than shooting an ordinary iron cannon. The barrels of some iron cannons are one meter and two meters long. They are not industrially manufactured today. They are all hand-made by blacksmiths. They are definitely not formed in one piece. The better ones will give you two pieces, the lazy ones will give you three pieces, and the disgusting ones will give you three pieces. You fight four times. The more splicing, the higher the instability and the greater the possibility of the chamber exploding.

Xiao Pingtai asked him to make two samples first, which would be enough for him. How can you get dragoons without strong strength support? Moreover, at this time, Western Europe's revolving cavalry has passed its prime. The cavalry is most effective if it dares to charge and fight.

It is worth mentioning that the Nordic lion Gustav had 30,000 soldiers. Needless to mention his infantry, Swedish infantry has been famous in Europe since the first Swedish king Olof Shetkonon in 1000 AD. In a decree issued by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitos at the same time, it was also mentioned that the Swedes in Roslagen had brave infantry and prosperous national power.

The main reason why Sweden has strong infantry is its strong rural communes and independent and wealthy yeoman farmers. Even in the dark Middle Ages, the king only controlled 5.6% of the cultivated land, while the tax-paying yeoman farmers owned 52.4% of the land. Finnish tax-paying farmers accounted for 96%. soil of. In addition to serving as Gustav's line infantry across Northern and Eastern Europe, wealthy farmers also provided the famous Finnish light cavalry.

After the "Forstros Decree" (this is the seat of the various estates of all or part of the territories of Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Livonia, that is, the seat of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sweden), the King of Sweden Stepping on the corpse of the Catholic Church, they had the huge wealth to arm the entire army, and the cavalry were equipped with expensive spring-wheel pistols.

The prosperity of the peasants and the prosperity of the king directly led to the fact that half of Gustav's army was cavalry. He hated it so much that he was finally forced to recruit those slippery mercenaries in Germany who did not work hard. The reason is that a large part of his cavalry is the so-called revolving cavalry. This group of people has broken away from the original intention of cavalry. Each person has four or five muskets, shooting around the enemy but not charging upwards.

Xiao Pingtai definitely doesn't want to spend a lot of money to get the revolving cavalry and raise a bunch of trash who don't dare to fight hand-to-hand, so the matter of the revolving cavalry must be put on hold for Xiao Pingtai.

As for the month of waiting for the musket and ashigaru training, Xiaoheita had one more thing to do, which was to get a better war horse. It's very embarrassing to say that Xiaopingta has been relying on the small Kiso draft horse, which is less than 1.2 meters tall. The main reason is that Xiaoping Tai's riding skills are too poor and he can't fight on horseback at all. However, the more he avoids fighting like Xiaoping Tai, the more he fights every year, so it's better to get a horse.

The horses in Shinano itself cannot be said to be very good (compared with the horses in Western countries, they are already great). Although Japanese horses are all Mongolian breeds, the horses in the north are better, which may have something to do with the living environment.

This is not to say that there is regional discrimination. Generally speaking, in this era, the colder the north, the creatures are taller than the south, including people.

The scientific explanation for the reason is that in order to obtain more sunlight and warmth than the same kind, all living things form competition among the same kind of creatures, continue to grow taller, and are genetically inherited from generation to generation. Therefore, Siberian tigers are larger than South China tigers, Siberian leopards are larger than clouded leopards, and people in the north are generally taller than those in the south.

In theory, Echigo's horse must be taller and stronger than Shinano's horse. Kodaira had seen the Echigo cavalry. They were very capable and powerful. And it’s not that Yamauchi doesn’t have Echigo horses. Yamauchi Yoshikatsu has a pair of Echigo horses given to him by his uncle.

Xiaopingta knew from the pleased look on Yamauchi Yoshikatsu that it was not an ordinary horse, and indeed much better than his own little pack horse.

I took the opportunity to take a leave and go to Echigo to see it. It was a pleasure. Besides, I had many acquaintances in Echigo, could I still be deceived about buying a horse? Don't be afraid of taking detours. If you take detours, Uesugi Teruhu's sword will avenge you.

Koheta was afraid that he would go to Yamauchi Yoshiharu to ask for leave in person, and he would also need to get some money for Koheta to pay for it, so he simply asked Uncle Tsunaliang to go in his place, and it would be better for him to run away first. Otherwise, it will be too much to buy some high-return financial products. (In reality, daring to do this is equivalent to leaving the feudal clan, and you will be wanted nationwide)

He wrote a very sincere letter and asked his uncle Tsunaliang to take him to the city. Miraculously, Koheita got up at five o'clock and ran to Hokushin with the three of them.

We passed through the hills and plains of Hokushin, passing by Hachimanhara, Mount Tsumame, and Chikuma River, and paid our respects at Zenkoji Temple. I lament that I don’t have a camera, otherwise I would definitely have to take a group photo.

As we walked, the mountains of Echigo were right in front of us.