In order to invite He Dahua to the firearms workshop, He Kewei did not put much effort into it. At the beginning, He Dahua asked to build a Catholic Temple in the capital of Xiangyang Prefecture, but He Kewei dared to allow it, and only promised that he would not hinder him from preaching in Xiangyang Mansion. After some negotiations, he took a step back and promised that Shen Ya's Catholic Temple would also send people to guard it, and all the Catholic monks in the temple would be supported by Zhao Ying.

He Dahua has been preaching in the Ming Dynasty for more than ten years, and he knows that the people's wariness and prejudice against God cannot be eliminated in a day. Moreover, it also cost him money to preach and maintain the operation of the Catholic Temple, and seeing that Zhao Ying's generous gesture was indeed sincere, he officially joined Zhao Ying in early June, and together with Lao Chonghan and other Franc machine people, he was controlled by the firearms workshop under the Department of Internal Affairs.

Most of the Westerners who came to Daming to spread God had stunts, otherwise they had no long skills and no place to stand, so how could they convince others and be willing to convert to God? He Dahua is especially good at mathematics and astronomy, and before coming to the Ming Dynasty, he had studied military books by himself, and he was no stranger to artillery. He moved to Fan Hecheng, and at the same time brought many telescopes, rulers, clocks and other items and tools from the West from Shen Ya, which amazed He Kewei and other Fan Hecheng scholars and martial artists, and opened their eyes.

Ying Huiyi also lived in Fan River City with him. Of course, not many people know her Chinese name, and people only know that the extremely learned fan in the firearms workshop has a beautiful daughter named "Luya". The girl has a lively personality and is articulate, and she is the pistachio of everyone's hard work.

Because he was born in the Franc machine, He Dahua communicated with Lao Chonghan and other Franc machine people without hindrance. Compared with Lao Chonghan, he is proficient in Chinese, so it is extremely efficient to communicate with the owner Lu Pu and the rest of the Han craftsmen. With his expertise in all aspects, he quickly integrated into the workflow, and between mid-June and early July, he overcame several technical difficulties that had previously plagued the workshop.

Lu Puyi had great respect for He Dahua, and asked several times to give him the position of the owner of the firearms workshop, but of course He Kewei refused. Fan people are powerful, after all, it is difficult to believe all the aliens. Especially when I think of this shallow eagle-nosed fanren who is still from his own family, He Kewei always feels very different in his heart.

In any case, business matters. The Department of Internal Affairs and the personnel of the firearms workshop worked together to finally cast all three cannon types set by Zhao Dangshi in late July. As expected, the barrels of the three guns are made of copper, and bronze and brass are used together, which is wear-resistant and has good heat dissipation effect. With the same volume, copper is heavier than iron, and the five Hongyi cannons bought from Guangdong are all iron cannons, He Dahua and others took this as a reference standard, Jiao Laoxin attacked the fortifications day and night, and finally achieved the result of using heavier copper to create the same power but lighter gun body, which is quite difficult.

Zhao Dangshi carefully looked at the inscriptions engraved on the bodies of the three cannons on the shooting range, and found that the No. 1 Hongyi cannon weighed 4,500 catties, and the No. 2 Hongyi cannon weighed 1,800 catties, which was actually lighter than the original stipulated weight, and he couldn't help but be even more impressed by the research and manufacturing ability of the firearms workshop.

Seeing that Zhao Dangshi nodded with satisfaction, He Kewei greatly increased his confidence and said: "Before the lord arrived, the three kinds of cannons were tested many times, and the most recent one was also transferred to the army under the command of Xu of Yunyang Mansion to block the thieves. The subordinates were present at the time, and they saw the No. 1 Hongyi cannon mounted at the head of the city, and a cannon blasted out, and the people and horses on the other side took off, and there were countless people who fell from the air, and the power was really terrifying! ”

Zhao Dangshi smiled and nodded, stood in the shade of the shooting range, and asked, "So now only the artillery carriage is left?" ”

He Kewei nodded and said: "The artillery carriage has also been in full swing design, and there has been great progress. Not to mention the field battle at the moment, there is no problem in defending the city with the artillery of our battalion's own casting! ”

Just talk about it, don't practice fake tricks. A few horns sounded, and Zhao Dangshi immediately plugged his ears with thick cotton with the people present, waiting for the cannon to be fired. Under the command of the instructor and the instructor of the Franc machine in unison, some of the gunners held gauges and rulers to measure the distance and the amount of ammunition, some of them "hummed and hummed" and gritted their teeth and stuffed the muzzle of the cannon with solid iron bullets in their arms, and some began to hold a wooden rod wrapped with heavy cotton cloth at the top to dip water into the barrel to prepare in advance for the cleaning work after the cannon was ejected, and all of them were nervously carrying out the preliminary work. Zhao Dangshi noticed that at this time, the gunners of the drill were basically still Franc machine people.

The first test gun was fired with the barrel parallel to the ground and at no angle. The person in charge of ordering the launch was the instructor Ge Haishan, and Lu Puyi beside him was holding a cannon watch, responsible for recording and giving suggestions for adjustment.

Zhao Dangshi didn't hear any order to launch, only saw He Dahua's mouth open widely. In an instant, I felt that the ground under my feet shook repeatedly, and the cannon bodies of the two Hongyi cannons shrank back slightly, and the green smoke overflowed from the muzzle of the cannon when it landed. In the distance, in front of the small earthen ramparts that were targets, the mud and sand flew like waves.

"The projectile and gunpowder are too compact, and there should be some gaps between the bullet and the medicine."

Zhao Dangshi temporarily removed the cotton from the ear. At this time, He Dahua was loudly reprimanding several Franc gunners who were operating the Big Buddha Lang machine gun, and the other Franc machine men disassembled the Big Buddha Lang machine gun from the fixed frame and separated the son and mother from the back. Zhao Dangshi saw it very clearly, only the iron pellets of the two Hongyi cannons were shot out, and the Big Buddha Lang machine cannon was smoldering but not exploding. He's also had a cannon and can see the problem at a glance.

"Yes, yes...... "He Kewei had a cold back, and secretly scolded this group of Franc machine people for not being angry and not being able to get on the stage. There will be no accidents sooner or later, but it is Zhao Dangshi's turn to be dumb and deflated, "This group of Francophone people have never seen the world, and the lord is present to supervise, so they can't help but be flustered and embarrassed." He only pulled the cotton in his ears loose, and two balls of white cotton protruded from the piercings on both sides of his ears, matching his angry expression, and the image was slight.

Zhao Dangshi saw that the Franc machine man had quickly replaced the smoking Franc machine gun with a normal reload, and said while stuffing the cotton back into his ear: "Test the gun, it's normal." Then he said, "After that, put more pressure on the instructor and envoy Si, and let them quickly train my own gunners in Zhao Ying." ”

"Subordinates take orders!" He is not afraid to be stupid, with the cotton also re-stuffed.

After several guns were cleared and deployed, they continued to fire, and after each round of artillery fire, some soldiers immediately flew out to measure the firing range, the depth of the gun pit, and the degree of deviation from the target, and reported them one by one. After several rounds of testing, we only saw that the fixed gun body was used to hit the fixed target, and the results were generally satisfactory.

Zhao Dangshi praised a few words, and spurred a few words, He Kewei and the others agreed. He Dahua, Lao Chonghan, Lu Puyi, and Ge Haishan all turned around to meet Zhao Dangshi, and Zhao Dangshi talked with them for a few words and said: "Now that the cannon is cast, there must be nothing to worry about as for the artillery carriage, which can help the position." ”

"Thank you for the praise of the lord, the subordinates are overjoyed, and they will be more diligent in the future and live up to the high expectations of the lord!" Ge Haishan replied as a representative, "But during the period of making artillery, the subordinates also discussed some opinions and hoped to report to the lord." As he spoke, he turned his gaze to He Dahua and Lao Chonghan. In particular, He Dahua, because of his own military knowledge, not only participated in the manufacture of artillery, but also visited various places in Xiangyang Prefecture and Yunyang Prefecture in the past two months, investigated and analyzed the composition of the Zhao Ying army, and summed up his own views.

"What do you have to say, sir?" Zhao Dangshi asked with a smile.

He Dahua saluted Zhao Dangshi, and said: "As you can see, the number of firearms in the army today is as little as three or four percent, and as many as five or six percent. For example, Xu of Yunyang Mansion commanded the battalion soldiers, and even seventy or eighty percent of those who operated firearms. There is no doubt that the firearms are powerful, but if the soldiers are left empty without proper training and tactics, they will not be able to fully exert the combat power of the army. He also said, "Xiang Ri made a special trip to Yunyang Mansion to take a look at the army from Xu's command, but seeing that the infantry artillery was alienated and the army was sluggish, it was still acceptable to deal with the enemy who was completely disorderly. ”

"What do you mean by that?"

"The firearms tactics in today's army are unified as a salvo of guns in the front, and if the enemy charges with sharp pawns and iron cavalry, our side will exchange one gun for three arrows, which is a great disadvantage. When the fierce enemy fights in close proximity, the formation is thick and difficult to stop, and it is clumsy and bloated and difficult to dispatch, and there is nothing to be done immediately. In exchange for chariot consolidation, it is even more simple and slow, bumpy like a wave, and it is really a move to tie up your hands and feet! ”

In Zhao Dangshi's ears, He Dahua's words can be described as hitting the nail on the head.

On the whole, the standby formation of the Ming army was dominated by solid phalanxes, so most of the troops with a high proportion of firearms were accustomed to forming hollow phalanxes, in order to be able to quickly change formations and shoot from all sides to block the enemy. However, when changing formations, because the order and prohibition were not in place, almost all gunners would try their best to spread out to the periphery, so that the area of the entire phalanx would expand several times in a short period of time.

Such tactics were mainly developed from the early stage of dealing with the Outer Mongolian tribes, and the situation occurred in the open plain without major problems. However, since the beginning of the Liukou and the rise of Manchuria, the main battlefields where the Ming army fought against them often took place in mountainous and narrow areas, and it was difficult to spread out large formations, so they could only accommodate the terrain and disperse into various small formations and their own groups.

Theoretically, each small formation can provide fire support to each other to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the gap, but in practice, considering that the maximum firing range of the cannon is generally far away from the bow and crossbow, in order to prevent the fire from crossing and accidentally injuring the robe, the distance between the small array and the small array can only be increased. Although Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, once said that "the two armies are opposite, victory or defeat lies between breaths, although a hundred steps cannot save each other", such words warned the generals not to easily disperse their forces when they came to battle, but time has passed, and in order to give full play to the maximum effectiveness of firearms, these "ancestral trainings" have long been left behind by the various Ming armies that only rely on the "benefits of firearms".

Xu Hui came from the northern border army, and most of the firearms tactics he used inherited from the achievements of Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou and others in the previous dynasty. In the era of Qi and Yu, the cavalry units outside the Saiwai were the main enemies of the Ming army, and they were especially keen to use firearms-carrying chariots to resist the enemy. The command battalion, cavalry battalion, and infantry battalion worked together to control more than half of the firearms in the middle of the force, and placed them at the forefront of the line during the battle to form the heaviest firepower.

When Qi and Yu were there, this set of tactics was handy and there were no mistakes. But after their deaths, most of the Ming generals who succeeded were illiterate martial artists, who could only ride horses and shoot arrows, and they actually knew little about the content of the military book. With such a lack of progress, and no successors, the tactics of the Ming army's firearms units naturally lacked people to promote reforms that suited the development of the times.

It was only after several decades that the Ming army was faced with a well-organized Manchurian army and a cunning and fickle man, and the old tactics and tactics were obviously outdated.

The firearms unit of Zhao Ying was brought out by Xu Hui, and although his long-term infiltration in the Shanxi border army made him familiar with various old tactics, it also limited his ability to innovate. The Zhao Ying firearms unit, which was trained according to his old-fashioned thinking, was indeed invincible in fighting against the thieves and demoralized officers and soldiers in Sichuan, but once they bumped into a slightly mobile opponent, the shortcomings of sluggishness and rigidity were immediately exposed, as evidenced by the battle of Fanhe City in the past.

Zhao Dangshi privately asked Ma Guangchun, who was the opponent at the time, his opinion on this battle, and Ma Guangchun did not directly judge the gains and losses of this battle, but directly pointed out the shortcomings of Zhao Ying's firearms troops. He believes that Xu Hui did bring the method of using firearms into the Zhao camp, but he inevitably brought some bad habits in the border army. For example, most of the phalanx during the drill was superficial, although the golden drum sounded vibrating and orderly, but on the entire formation, the soldiers were carefully asked, and "the soldiers who asked, the soldiers did not know the reason." If you ask, you will not know why". If they are counterattacked by a hard hand that cannot be defeated by several rounds of volleys, they will hastily change the phalanx to a linear formation like "a wall", dig trenches and continue to fight brutally, but their heels are uncertain and their momentum has gone, how can they defeat the enemy again. Therefore, looking at the more than ten battles before and after the Zhao camp, it has always been difficult for the firearms unit to become the key to determining victory or defeat. This is a regret and a pain point that must be addressed.

"The contemptible people have now begun to compile a training book based on what they have learned in their lives, and summarize the methods of military struggle among various countries as seen in the West. It is expected that there will be a success in one or two months, and Zhao Shuai will be dedicated to participate in the research at that time. He Dahua said, "The main content is that the various arms are familiar with each other, and the appropriate ratio of the arms is selected from among them, which must be based on the actual situation of your army." ”

"Sir, bothered......" Ma Guangchun's view is faintly consistent with He Dahua's view that all arms should understand each other's purpose of maneuvering. Zhao Dangshi deeply felt that at a time when the proportion of firearms in the Zhao Ying army was rising day by day, a change in the tactics of the army was imminent.