Each cannon of the city fire artillery battalion has its own temperament, and each artillery group has its own habits. The gunners were no different from the other sergeants, they were stationed in the city for a long time, they did not have to retire to reunite with their families, and they did not have many opportunities for promotion. Therefore, it has been the same group of people for many years, most of whom are old guys who are more than ten years old. The gunners regarded the city defense artillery as a living companion, and they gave each iron barrel cannon a pleasant name, and the captain could not command the battle smoothly if he did not know the nicknames such as "Zhenyuan Marquis", "Red Whisk Girl", and "Iron Horse". This time, the field artillery battalion was formed, and the Firearms Division also transferred the entire elite artillery group, rather than individual gunners, to the new battalion.

And this is exactly what the Marching Division is extremely opposed to, and the Marching Division has always wanted to unify all the battalions by order. When Zhang Shanfu saw the battle regulations compiled by Zhao Xingde, he immediately realized that this was a rare talent, and this order was not necessarily very clever, but what it revealed, the taste of controlling everything with plans, military orders, and documents, was exactly the taste of the marching division.

"Yes, this is the person I need in the marching division." A rare smile of appreciation appeared on Zhang Shanfu's face, and his fingers tapped rhythmically on the manuscript of the order, which indicated that the general was in a good mood, "It's a pity that it was given to the Firearms Division, and in time, it will be transferred to be the marching commander." A ray of sunlight shone on the manuscript, and even the handwriting was so clear, which made it even more accurate and powerful.

When Zhang Shanfu picked up the other two files, his face became solemn, and Ross and Mobei showed signs of instability at the same time. Some Rus' nobles were secretly liaison, trying to borrow troops from the western barbarians to drive out the Xia forces. Mobei, on the other hand, was subjected to constant harassment by the Murbs. With the end of the Khitan civil strife, there were more and more signs that the Liao Northwest Envoy was sheltering these horse thieves. "After the artillery battalion is formed, there is no place to use it." Zhang Shanfu's eyes flashed with a cold light, and he muttered to himself.

The marching division issued a list of aiming according to the distance and direction of shooting, and Zhao Xingde first memorized it well. Not only that, but he will also use the various means of later generations to cope with the exam, while looking for the rules of the originally boring data set, and at the same time compiling all kinds of associative formulas, and teaching these formulas to his gunners without reservation. The older gunners were originally mentally dull, and it was much easier to memorize the mantra once they had it. After hearing the news, the other gunner teams of 100 people also asked Zhao Xingde's group for advice.

"Sure enough, he deserves to be 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, the clash on the training ground completely changed their perception.

After being reprimanded by Zhao Xingde, the ten-captain Guo Zidong repeatedly aimed inaccurately, and the cannonballs hit either far or near, and said indignantly: "Since Zhao Dutou said it lightly, there is a kind of you who can try it yourself, is the artillery so easy to aim?" After speaking, he clasped his hands in front of his chest, looking like a dead pig who was not afraid of boiling water, and said in his heart that this time Lao Guo Huo came from leading the army, and finally this nerd was deflated. The other ten's captains gathered around.

"It seems that Lao Guo doesn't want to do it anymore, how comfortable it is to stay in Chang'an City, and he is transferred to the new army, but he is just trying to get a military merit title." Ten Commanders Wang Zhi secretly thought that his gaze at Zhao Xingde couldn't help but feel a little more pity. Unlike the cavalry bow and crossbow, the craft of artillery aiming is very rare, and many gunners are passed down from father to son, and officers of the foreign line are not so easy to mix in the artillery battalion.

The sun was very hot on this day, and almost everyone on the entire training ground was waiting to see Zhao De's jokes. I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but the other two gunner hundred-man teams 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: "Disobey the military order and be confined for three days." I will report the truth to the Judge Advocate General's Office. "Confinement in the army is to be locked up in a black dungeon, where you can eat, drink, and Lazar, and you are not allowed to talk to others for three days and three nights, and you only have one scoop of water every day.

A trace of contempt flashed in Guo Zidong's eyes, and he snorted at the end of his nose. This punishment is expected, and it is worth it to lose the face of this nerd in front of the whole camp. He saluted Zhao De, turned around and wanted to leave the shooting range, and went to the military judge to lead the confinement.

"Wait." Guo Zidong was stunned for a moment, but when he turned around, he saw Zhao De unwinding his officer.

Zhao De strode behind the artillery, closed his left eye, raised his right arm, clenched his right hand into a fist, and gave a thumbs up. Overlap the left side of your thumb on a straight line with the distant target, then close your right eye with your right arm and thumb, and then look at the left side of your thumb with your left eye, and the edge line will be some distance from the right side of the target, so that the approximate distance from the target is approximated. This is a commonly used ranging method for field surveying and mapping terrain during prospecting.

"Nerds don't really aim at them, do they?" The gunners whispered.

"This nerd is pretending to be a good thing." Guo Zidong was secretly weak in his heart, and the eyes of the gunners around him also showed strong interest. Using the thumb of one's own arm to visually measure the distance is the means of very few skilled craftsmen. Because everyone's arm length is different, even if people are willing to teach by example, it is not something that can be copied by rigidity. Most gunners still relied on visual estimation and crosshairs to check aiming, because the gun body was heavy and there was no hydraulic labor-saving device to assist aiming, so they could not adjust the elevation angle as freely as later generations. It is also very important for the ten-man to visually measure the distance and estimate the elevation angle.

After measuring the distance of the target, Zhao Xingde silently recited the number table, and roughly knew the error of Guo Zidong's aiming at the guns just now. He pointed to the iron ruler in the middle of the gun and said to the other five gunners, "Drop five points." The four gunners standing on both sides of the artillery were stunned for a moment, and then came to their senses, according to Zhao Xingde's order, and lowered the elevation angle of the artillery, Zhao Xingde went to the back of the cannon body again, roughly aligned the front sight and the gun door, and then ordered: "Ready!" ”

The gunner hurriedly cleaned the bore of the gun according to the military order, pushed the gunpowder bag into the bottom of the bore, and pushed the cast iron round bullet into it, and the gunner behind slowly punched holes in the medicine bag, and the surrounding gunners looked at Zhao De with suspicious eyes. Looking at his calm expression, even Guo Zidong's heart couldn't help but beat a drum.

After the preparation was completed, Zhao Xingde did not hesitate at all, and ordered in a deep voice: "Fire!" Without further hesitation, the gunner, who was standing behind the artillery, lit the straw filled with black powder with a fire breaker.

Zhao Xingde's expression was still fine, but Guo Zidong's heart hung up, and he wished that the straw burned as slowly as possible. However, the sparks did not fulfill his wishes, and quickly burrowed into the fire door, and a moment later wisps of black smoke came out, and the medicine bag was ignited. Suddenly, there was a roar of "boom", the muzzle of the cannon flashed, and everyone's eyes involuntarily momentary, and then looked up into the distance, only to see a big hole broken by the target not far away, and a puff of smoke rose from the hillside behind.

"Hit!" "Hit!" The onlookers repeated the phrase with a variety of different moods. Guo Zidong's face was flushed, and he couldn't wait to find a crack in the ground to drill down. Zhao Xingde turned around and said to him in a deep voice: "Now you can go to lead the army." ”

After several practices, Zhao Dutou's reputation as the fastest and most accurate artillery aiming in the whole battalion gradually spread. When Wang Yunzhong, the general of the firearms department, heard about this, he was also so surprised that he couldn't help but speak, and secretly said that he was worthy of being a talent recommended by the master of cannon casting. However, Zhao Xingde compiled an endless stream of regulations, but he frowned, and the three regulations, together with various explanations added by Zhao Xingde, controlled the gunners' every move. At the end of each training session, all the gunners under Zhao De were as happy as if they had crawled out of hell.

In order to cultivate the gunner's obedience to the order, Zhao Xingde wrote the queue order. For a whole month, the self-righteous city defense gunners had little chance to touch the artillery, and day after day they practiced in the queue on the school parade ground. Anyone who did not act in place or resisted the slightest military order was immediately singled out for individual training, and the gunners complained in their stomachs, but they knew for sure that they were either shaped by the iron order, or the evil centurion was tortured to death. Aware of the times, they quickly succumbed.

"General, the brothers privately rumored that Zhao Dutou was deliberately sent by the Marching Division to Liwei, right?" Changshi Bai Baozhi said cautiously.

"Nonsense," Wang Yunzhong's eyes widened, "It's obviously recommended by the Ordnance Division, what does it have to do with the Marching Division?" A trace of doubt flashed in his eyes, this Zhao De's style is indeed like a marching Sima who is pointing fingers, Wang Yunzhong pressed this doubt in his heart, and said with a sinking face, "You go and tell those who chew their tongues indiscriminately, if you don't want to get mixed with the new army, just go back to Lao Tzu!" ”

"Yes, my subordinates understand." Bai Baozhi replied, he was a subordinate who had followed Wang Yunzhong for many years, and he still couldn't help but add, "The rules of our firearms battalion were established for hundreds of years, although the new army drills ......" Before he finished speaking, Wang Yunzhong held him back with a glare.

The General's Mansion attached great importance to the training of the artillery battalion, and Zhang Shanfu, General of the Marching Division, Wang Yunzhong, General of the Firearms Division, Yang Shaojie, General of the Ordnance Division, and even Emperor Chen Xuan all visited the training ground in person. Without exception, they were shocked by the neat queue training of the gunner team commanded by Zhao Xingde.

"The Tiger Wings should be allowed to come here and take a look." Chen Xuan turned around and joked to Wang Yunzhong, and the generals smiled slightly.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Wang Yunzhong smiled on his face, but secretly beat a drum in his heart, "Your Majesty, is this saying that I am useless in the new army?" ”

When the gunners' marching column reached a point where there was only a straight line from that angle, without any bends and personal jumps, Zhao Xingde began to train the artillery crew with combat orders. At the same time, the internal affairs regulations he had written were also put into practice, and if one gunner in the entire artillery group failed to meet the requirements of the internal affairs regulations, he would be reinforced by the whole group. Sixty gunners began to struggle with stacking tofu blocks, and they soon learned to sprinkle water on the quilt 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 the queue regulations were the means by which the "evil spirits" could rectify people, and they were extremely eager to return to the side of the artillery. Only the combat doctrine was still reasonable, and only the operation of the artillery was a relief, and the gunners were eager to conduct tactical exercises of artillery crew maneuvering all day long. Artillery crews that do not have a good grasp of the battle rules will be invited back to the school review ground from the shooting range, and continue to be ruthlessly destroyed by the queue regulations, so as to strengthen the coordination of the whole group of gunners. The firing speed of the six artillery groups under the command of Zhao Xingde began to be far ahead of the other artillery groups. The gazes of the other centurions looking at Zhao Xingde also changed, from the disdain at the beginning, to admiration and fear.