The next day, Gao pragmatic tested the artillery at Zhenhe Fort in the northwest of Datong City according to the planned itinerary, but due to Gao pragmatic's selfish intentions, the test of the artillery was far less strict than yesterday's test of the gun, so it was concluded that the artillery was barely usable.

Of course, Gao Pragmatic also found a good reason for this kind of test with obvious signs of water release - the cost of artillery is far more than that of firecrackers and there are not many equipment, and at present, if the army is pressurized, if the durability test is also carried out like testing firearms, in case of a large number of non-combat-damaged explosions of cannons, it may affect the next battle against the enemy, how beautiful is it?

However, this time he came to Zhenhe Fort, and there was another gain for Gao Pragmatic - he saw the serious Ming border army for the first time.

Before today's Zhenhebao and his party, the "border army" that Gao pragmatic saw for the first time was the army that Qi Jiguang brought with him when he met him last time, but he knew that it was actually the southern army brought by Qi Jiguang from the south, which was the so-called Qi family army. The second time he saw the border army, it was yesterday in Datong City saw the city defense troops, he thought that the city defense troops in Datong were Ma Fang's descendants, and then asked a sentence to know that it was not, the city guards of Datong City are only guards, a total of two batches: Datong avant-garde and Datong rearguard.

In other words, the armies he saw on the first two occasions did not represent the normal level of the "nine-sided" border armies - the former was too strong, the latter too weak.

The Qi family army that Gao Pragmatic saw at that time was well-equipped, not to mention his mental outlook, not to mention discipline. As a layman who doesn't understand the military, Gao Pragmatic feels that with these three points, this army will never be very bad.

And the Datong guards I saw yesterday made Gao Pragmatic frown, although because Wang Chonggu had issued a combat readiness order, all the soldiers were already on alert, but they were still a little lazy and lazy, obviously it should be a tense and orderly pre-war preparation, many people were still bumping around like headless flies, plus the mandarin duck jackets on their bodies that were washed white and patched, the overall look made people feel unreliable.

In this situation, Gao Pragmatic even took advantage of the gap to ask Ma Fang questions, but Ma Fang was very calm, telling Gao Pragmatic that the role of this group of people is mainly to make up the numbers, and when the real war starts, the success or failure depends on the main force of the descendant line - the main force of the descendant line generally has two parts, one part is the general army superintendent, and the other part is the armed family.

Gao Pragmatic has always been not optimistic about this situation, he prefers the model of Qi Jiajun: he would rather have fewer soldiers, but he must be elite.

According to the situation on the side of Xuanda, there are still elites, but only the general army governor is a serious Ming "official army", and the remaining part is not small, which is actually a "semi-private army" of the general army.

For people who adhere to the system-only theory like Gao Pragmatism, it is obvious that Qi Jiguang's model is what he hopes Daming to have, because the Qi family army has proved one of the biggest advantages in the original history: the other elite troops of the Ming Dynasty, as long as they change the main general, their combat effectiveness may plummet, while the Qi family army is different, no matter who changes to lead them, their combat effectiveness is as reliable as ever!

This is the true embodiment of Qi Jiguang's achievements in military training -- this is a unit that has been forged over a long period of time by relying on discipline and regulations, and the quality of the chief general can only affect the correctness of the troops' troop projection, but does not affect the combat effectiveness of the unit itself.

That is to say, a good commander can use this force in the right position and time node, while a bad commander may use them in meaningless positions and time nodes, but no matter whether the main general is good or bad, the combat effectiveness of this force itself has not changed.

If we want to divide it according to later generations, the army of this kind of performance actually has the main characteristics of a "modern army".

Gao Pragmatic can even say with certainty that if all the troops of the Ming Dynasty are like the Qi family's army, even if they don't change a piece of equipment, it will be easy enough to protect the family and defend the country, even after the rise of wild boar skin, there is nothing to jump on.

The reason is very simple, a normal ancient army, with more than 10% of the battle losses, is almost an inevitable phenomenon, but a modern army, 30% of the battle losses are completely drizzle, and even more than half of the battle losses can still persist in fighting There are many examples.

The gap between them is not reasonable at all, and the battle of Bali Bridge clearly shows this gap.

Don't say that if the equipment is not as good as the people, you can't fight, in the history of the British themselves, many British officers recalled that the Qing army was not afraid to shoot at them, even if the Qing army was pressed and beaten when the two sides fired at each other, it would rarely collapse, but as long as the British lobster soldiers launched a bayonet charge, the Qing army almost without exception collapsed immediately.

However, as a person who likes to think about problems from the system, Gao Pragmatic also knows very well that if the Qi family army model is to be extended to the whole Ming Dynasty, the difficulty is not to implement the training process of the Qi family army or the rules and regulations in the army, but that it is difficult to reform the deeper system.

To put it simply: if the guard system is not reformed, the army of the Ming Dynasty will never be able to enter modernization. The reason why the Qi family army has been stronger than the Weisuo army since its formation is that in addition to the obvious advantages of the selection and training system formulated by Qi Jiguang, another advantage is that they recruit soldiers: if you fight well, you will stay, and you will have salaries and rewards far beyond ordinary people; If you play badly, you will get out, go back and continue to mine and farm for a lifetime.

Even in Gao Shishi's view, the situation of the Qi family army can only be regarded as a primary modern army, because a real modern army also needs to have spiritual weapons such as nationalism and patriotism to arm the mind, and let the soldiers know who I am fighting for!

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, some domestic armies suffered so much that they lost so much that almost the entire army was wiped out, but they still did not retreat. They are because of national feelings and patriotic enthusiasm!

Of course, this article seems too far away at present, and it requires at least one or two generations of continuous strengthening and efforts in all aspects such as cultural popularization.

However, at least at the level of the Qi family's army, there is still a chance to achieve it through a thorough reform of various military systems such as the guard system.

Today, Gao Pragmatic went to Zhenhe Fort, the troops stationed in the army are Ma Fang's general army supervision standard, the number is not much, the scale of five or six hundred people, this Datong general army supervision standard gives Gao pragmatic feeling, and he is not much different from what he expected in his heart - more fierce than enough discipline is insufficient.

Fierce this kind of thing, you can see it by looking at their expressions and style, and the same is true of discipline - when facing Ma Fang directly, this group of people seems to be relatively honest, but as soon as Ma Fang turns around, that kind of feeling of being a child even Gao Shishi, who thinks he "doesn't know soldiers", frowns when he sees it.