Ma Cheng came from later generations and still has some insights on some science and engineering subjects, after all, the cramming teaching of the college entrance examination in later generations can fill your brain with various formulas whether you like it or not. However, Ma Cheng, a highly specialized discipline like the military, did not understand it at all. For military horses, he only knows how to stand in a military posture and walk right, and he doesn't know anything about other tactics such as straggler lines, three-three systems, etc.

However, Ma Cheng has this advantage, if you don't understand, you can follow the crowd, the Mandarin Duck Array invented in the middle of the Ming Dynasty can fight the wolf, and naturally has its clever reasoning, so in the cold weapon army, Ma Cheng didn't want to directly use the Mandarin Duck Array invented by Qi Jiguang.

According to Ma Cheng's understanding, the Manchu Eight Banners are similar to the Japanese Invaders of the year, and the individual force exceeds the Ming army soldiers a lot.

At the same time, Ma Cheng also improved the Mandarin Duck Array, at present, Ma Cheng's current task is mainly to rely on Yangzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, which has a strong city wall to defend the city, the Mandarin Duck Array is about three meters long in the city wall battle is really not able to perform, so Ma Cheng will replace the wolf with a flintlock pistol, and at the same time replace two of the four pikemen with a thunderbolt.

The Thunderbolt is a miniature version of the Franc machine, with four guns per musket. Ma Cheng improved this kind of thunderbolt gun, and the caliber was increased, so that it could be filled with five to six lead bullets at a time, and under the impetus of new gunpowder, it could maintain a killing distance of 15 meters, and because there were four guns, the shooting speed was very fast.

Of course, this change is not unique to Ma Cheng, but is improved with reference to the shotgun of later generations, when the shotgun was first invented, it was to clear the remaining enemies in the trenches, so the melee firepower is very strong. Ma Cheng could not develop a qualified spring in this era, but the spring could not be used on the sub-gun, although the sealing was not good, but the width of the city wall was only five or six meters, and the widest point was only twelve meters. With the blessing of powerful gunpowder, each shot can penetrate a layer of iron armor within fifteen meters of the front, even if the enemy wears three layers of heavy armor to protect the torso, but the hit to the face, limbs and other defenseless parts is deadly enough.

The mandarin duck formation, which has been improved by Ma Cheng, is still eleven people, with the commander's small flag in the center, and the two standing players wearing heavy armor and holding steel knives in the front, they are responsible for fending off the enemy's bows and arrows and muskets in the distance. Behind them are two improved Thunderbolts, who are responsible for clearing enemies from medium range. Behind are two pikemen with spears, who are responsible for the enemy at close range. Behind were two musketeers armed with flintlock pistols, who were tasked with clearing the enemy from a distance. There are also two rattan players who belong to the mobile unit and are responsible for clearing the enemies that rush into the formation.

The five mandarin duck formations are organized into one team and are managed by one general banner, and the ten mandarin duck formations are organized into one hundred households. Baihu is the lowest-level battlefield commander, he is responsible for the entire formation of more than 100 people, when to change the formation, when to concentrate the musketeers to make a decision. It is precisely because of the importance of the official position of 100 households that all the 100 households in the new army are personally trained by Ma Cheng to ensure loyalty and improve combat ability.

Above the hundred households is a thousand households, and one thousand households are in charge of 1,160 people, and in addition to a hundred mandarin duck arrays, they are also equipped with small-caliber Franc machine artillery. This large shotgun with a caliber of five centimeters is extremely powerful when defending the city, and can kill most enemies within 30 meters of each shot, and even if you are wearing three layers of heavy armor within 10 meters.

According to the military system formulated by Ma Cheng, there are guerrillas on top of 1,000 households, and there are also staff generals above guerrillas, but now there are only 5,000 soldiers under each of the four major general soldiers, so there is no such high-level officer as guerrilla and staff generals, and each of the four general soldiers who are not worthy of the name can only lead 5,000 households.

Although the power in their hands has shrunk, the four general soldiers have not complained at all. At first, they thought that the cold weapon unit that Ma Cheng said was a unit without firearms at all, but after the equipment was completed, they found out what kind of cold weapon was there, it was the most elite Liaodong iron cavalry in the Ming Dynasty, and the number of firearms could not catch up with their 5,000 people. The increase in power in his hands represents the complete satisfaction of the four general soldiers to Ma Cheng, you must know that the Shenji Battalion directly under Ma Cheng, although the number of firearms is more than that of the four general soldiers, but the quality is the same, and there is no difference.

Well equipped, well fed, and six dollars of silver every month, Ma Cheng gained the loyalty of this army in a short period of time. After half a year of training, this army has been fully formed, and it is almost ready for a formal war.

Ma Cheng stood on the high platform of the large school field, watching the soldiers practice various formations under the command of thousands of households, and at the same time, bursts of gunsmoke and artillery sound came from the school field. Ma Cheng stipulates that all drills will be conducted in live-fire drills, and Ma Cheng will never do anything to deceive himself, which is a joke with his own life. Now Ma Cheng's weapons and equipment are insufficient, but the supply of gunpowder can be guaranteed. Quite simply, Ma Cheng invented a method to purify potassium nitrate from nitrate, which was not used in the Ming Dynasty. Ma Cheng has arranged for the Ordnance Bureau to send special officials to collect the nitrate of each toilet in the city every day, and at the same time asked the order of Tianfu to strictly prohibit individuals from cleaning up the toilet soil, and the Ordnance Bureau must send someone to clean it up. However, this is Ma Cheng's little heart, the dung can be sold for money, as for the toilet soil, no one in Nanjing City has gone to grab this stinky business with Ma Cheng for the time being.

Backed by Nanjing, a city with a population of one million, Ma Cheng's gunpowder can be supplied sufficiently, even if the new army expands in the future, Ma Cheng is not afraid, there are many cities like Nanjing in South China, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Wuchang, Changsha, etc., these are hundreds of thousands of cities with a population of millions, and their daily urine is Ma Cheng's strong backing.

Zhang Guozhu standing behind Ma Cheng really had mixed feelings, and he knew the young man Zhang Guozhu standing in front of him too well. Ma Cheng didn't learn before, and he flew eagles and lackeys every day, Zhang Guozhu really didn't believe that the second ancestor in the past could become what he is now.

Thinking of this, Zhang Guozhu sighed secretly in his heart: As the saying goes, dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes give birth to phoenixes, the son of a mouse will make holes, and this sentence is right to put it on Ma Cheng, who would have thought that Ma Cheng, who used to look like a loser, would become a general who trained the army as soon as he turned around! 61 Library

Just when Zhang Guozhu sighed, a personal soldier ran to the high platform, knelt down on one knee and shouted: "Lord Junmen, there is an adult's family outside the camp to visit, saying that the old lady asked Lord Junmen to go home at noon, there is something important to discuss!" ”

Ma Cheng frowned when he heard what his soldiers said, he had been squatting in the barracks for more than two months, and he really didn't dare to slack off at the beginning of the new army's training, but the old lady at home told him to go back, and Ma Cheng didn't dare not go back.

"What did you say?"

The soldier shook his head and said, "No, the family went back after speaking, and they didn't explain anything!" ”

Ma Cheng sighed, it seems that his wife misses her son and wants to see him. Ma Cheng thought for a while that he had been in the military camp for more than two months, and he should indeed go home to take a look, and at the same time find his father Ma Shiying to find out what was going on in the DPRK.

Thinking of this, Ma Cheng said to Zhang Guozhu behind him: "Lord Zhang, this governor has something to do to go home now, today's drill will be commanded by you, the brothers are very hard, and the order will go down to eat at noon today!" ”

Ma Cheng's army had three dry meals a day, and there was a large piece of fat to eat at night, which was already a super high standard in the Ming Dynasty. However, Ma Cheng knew that the intake of carbohydrates alone was not enough for daily consumption, so Ma Cheng would give the soldiers a meal every five days when he would exercise, that is, a chicken for every three people to increase the intake of animal protein.

A person needs 400 grams of rice a day to ensure a day's energy supply, 400 grams of rice is equivalent to eight taels in the Ming Dynasty, which is an ordinary person's meal, but the new army because of the large amount of training, the amount of food is more than twice as large as that of ordinary people, and the daily need for rice is about one pound (one pound in the Ming Dynasty is sixteen taels).

Ma Cheng's new army had a total of 25,000 men, and they needed 250 stone of rice every day. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, because of the chaos in the world, the price of grain rose sharply, even in the Nanzhili grain-producing area, each stone of rice also cost about one or two or five yuan, so that it took nearly four hundred taels to eat rice every day, not counting vegetables, meat and other non-staple foods, so Ma Cheng's new army had to spend six hundred taels of silver on food every day, and it cost eighteen thousand taels per month.

The Ministry of War, which has spent so much money, has come many times to inquire about the number of people, and wants to supply Ma Cheng's new army according to the specifications of other Ming armies. But fortunately, Ma Cheng's Lao Tzu is the first assistant, so every time the military department comes to check the number of people, it finally fails.

This is just the money for food, if you count the equipment of each soldier, Ma Cheng's 25,000 new army has already spent millions. In the past, Ma Cheng thought simply, thinking that he could feed an army by relying on sugar production. It wasn't until the field that it turned out that it was not the case at all.

Ma Cheng's sugar workshop can now earn more than 3,000 taels of silver per month, if it is a huge amount of money for an individual, but when used for the army, this 3,000 taels of silver is not enough for half a month's food for the new army.

Now Ma Cheng's biggest difficulty is to make money, but the imperial court collects so much money every year, and it has to satisfy the four towns of Jiangbei that swallow gold, and there is really no money to support Ma Cheng.

Ma Cheng got off the high platform, took off his armor, changed into official uniforms, and took 200 soldiers out of the camp gate and rushed home. Now the whole city of Nanjing is very good-looking, but Ma Cheng has something to do to see the scenery, and now he is full of thoughts on how to get more money.

Ma Cheng came to the door of his house, and the housekeepers who guarded the door saw that the second young master had come back after not going home for a long time, and hurriedly stepped forward to lick his belly one by one. Ma Cheng is now full of worries and can take care of them, and he promised to enter the door twice, when a dark shadow rushed out from under the porch and shouted: "The person in front of you is the second master Ma Cheng?" ”