When the flintlock pistol became the standard equipment of the Ming army, the Ming army gradually transitioned from the rigid military formation in the past to the straggler formation.

In this era when there is no radio, no telephone, and no long-term communication channel, no general dares to let the formation be too scattered, resulting in a situation where the soldiers do not know the general's orders and collapse.

However, the flintlock pistol's area coverage ability, when facing cold weapons, if you want to pursue maximum lethality, it will naturally be placed in a larger formation directly facing the enemy.

When the enemy also has flintlock pistols, in order to reduce their own losses, this formation naturally becomes more and more scattered.

Moreover, the war on the line of demarcation between Asia and Europe, there were almost no siege battles. It's all about killing and wounding the enemy, occupying territory, and such fronts are often hundreds or even thousands of miles long.

There are only a few cities on the vast plains southwest of the Ula Mountains, and many of the cities that were famous in later generations have not yet appeared.

Even if there were a few siege battles, they were not the mainstream of warfare.

So unlike history, the development of artillery fell into a stage of stagnation, and this difficult to transport weapon was left out in the cold after the Ming conquered the country of Timur.

Another key reason for this is the lack of resources.

Europe is a continent with very few resources, and except for a few coal and iron mines, almost all precious metals are very scarce.

In addition to metal resources, saltpeter resources are even more scarce, and there are only four large-scale saltpeter producing areas in the world, one in Siberia, one in India, one in China, and the largest in Chile.

But these four regions are all controlled by the Ming Dynasty.

The Europeans and Arabs knew how gunpowder was made, but they did not have saltpeter.

Before the thirteenth century, Europeans didn't even know what saltpeter was, and they called saltpeter "Chinese snow" in the Arabic parlance.

From the Arabs, they learned to boil the soil for urine to obtain saltpeter.

Thirty years ago, at the end of the Hundred Years' War, when the British army captured Le Havre, it used only three small cannons, which consumed no more than two kilograms of gunpowder per day, and fired 20 cannons, about 200 lead bullets, and 120 lead blocks.

It's not that they didn't recognize the power of artillery, it's just that they didn't have saltpeter.

After learning how to make flintlock pistols, in order to collect saltpeter, the big cities of Europe began to build toilets like the Ming Dynasty, and then there were special people to cook dung every day.

Human feces are already noisy and smelly, and after being boiled at high temperatures, the smell can be imagined. Those European cities are so stinky that they can only obtain saltpeter in this way.

Historically, Europe had a stable source of gunpowder only after the discovery of saltpeter ore in India in the 16th century.

But in this plane, it is impossible for them to occupy India again.

If they don't have gunpowder, they won't be attentive to the manufacture of artillery, and they can't even supply gunpowder for muskets, so where is the heart to develop artillery?

They did not have artillery, and it was naturally impossible for the Ming army to spend countless manpower and material resources to transport artillery from the wilderness forest with no roads to the front line.

Therefore, under such conditions, although both sides now have nineteenth-century weapons in their hands, the mode of war is still medieval.

And when the repeating rifle was reloaded, the range was tripled, and the power of the bullet was tripled. The effective killing range of 400 meters has regained absolute superiority in the face of flintlock pistols, which in the past could only effectively kill the enemy within a range of 100 meters.

And the change of this weapon, in order to adapt to the change of weapons, the military formation of the Ming Dynasty has once again undergone a huge change.

In the past, the effective killing distance of 100 meters did not have an absolute advantage in the face of powerful longbows and crossbows.

Therefore, although the army of the Ming Dynasty is a combat unit with two soldiers and ten people, it is still composed of two shield soldiers, six combat soldiers, and two logistics soldiers.

It is equivalent to saying that four out of 10 people will not be able to exert their direct combat effectiveness in normal combat.

However, when the repeating guns appeared, the firing range could be extended to four hundred meters. Don't say 400 meters, even 200 meters, and the opponent's weapons have lost their threat.

Moreover, after the guns and bullets are separated, the soldiers do not need to put two more shots to reload the gunpowder and bullets, which greatly saves the time of loading the bullets.

On the one hand, there is no need to spend manpower for protection, and on the other hand, there is no need to use two people to transport ammunition and load guns. At such a time, the ten people who are fighting can play their best role.

In addition, the fighters no longer need to carry gunpowder bags and bullet bags, which enhances their mobility.

Therefore, this kind of repeating gun military formation, compared with the previous military formation, is closer to the straggler formation of later generations.

Although only 30,000 people were armed with repeating guns, each of them was able to exert his own combat effectiveness. And even if the enemy exceeds 200,000 people, at most half of them can exert their combat effectiveness.

Coupled with this suppression of firepower and spatial distance, even in the face of an enemy ten times its size, it will not be inferior at all.

As soon as the battle began, the white coalition could feel a different ferocity than before.

The previous Ming soldiers were not much different from their firepower, and the combat between the two sides was more often due to the suppression of troops, followed by the right time, place and people, tactics and other reasons.

But now, outside the firing range, the Ming army began to attack, they always maintained a distance of two or three hundred meters, and then fired at their own side.

What frightened them even more was that the previous bullets hit their bodies, and at most they were round bullets into the muscles. Even if it hits the vital point, as long as it is not caused by lead bullets, the lucky soldier can still survive.

But now, bullets hit the soldiers, and even wooden shields could not stop them. And the bullet becomes larger, and the degree of damage is greater.

Even if it is not hit at the vital point, it can make a soldier incapacitated.

And as long as they hit the vital parts, even their God could not save them.

The huge wounds caused by such powerful bullets made the "veterinarians" in the army unable to treat them at all, and the miserable howls of the soldiers made everyone's morale drop rapidly.

Since the White Coalition is a coalition army, it is certainly not composed of personnel from a principality.

In addition to the Novgorod principality, the Moscow principality, the Kiev principality, the remaining Lithuanian principality, the Polish principality, as well as the Holy Roman Kingdom, the Kingdom of Hungary and other countries soldiers fought only for money.

They can be very brave when they have the upper hand, but when the situation is not in their favor, they will run faster than anyone else.

The front line of the battle was on the verge of collapse, and the white coalition seemed to be back to two decades ago.

At that time, they were armed with broadswords and spears, and there was no room for resistance in front of the muskets of the Ming soldiers.

Now, the same is true.

At a distance of two or three hundred meters, the bullets in their muskets could not be delivered. But the other party's bullets ruthlessly harvested the lives of their own people.

When hundreds of thousands of troops scrambled to retreat and flee, the impact was very huge, and the entire army's military formation lost control, and they could only flee to the rear positions.

The generals of the coalition army did not expect the battle to be so one-sided, and they could only hurriedly find their subordinates and seize the time to consolidate their positions.

In this delta area, there are a large number of food and supplies that they have worked so hard to transport, and in order to fight a protracted war with the Ming soldiers, they dug more than a dozen trenches here, which is also their last honor guard.

When the enemy entered the trenches, the Ming soldiers did not storm. In terms of the number of people, the number of Ming soldiers is far less than that of the other party, and forcibly attacking the position will only make their sacrifice greater, and the advantage of guns will come to naught.

Such a result was expected by Tang Sai'er and Guo Ang, before the battle, they had already considered the advantages of the repeating guns against the enemy, including the enemy's retreat to the position, all appeared in their push.

Therefore, Tang Sai'er and Guo Ang did not attack, but left behind 10,000 troops armed with repeating guns and 20,000 troops equipped with ordinary flintlock muskets.

10,000 soldiers armed with repeating rifles were placed in each direction, in each squad, and whenever the enemy made a tentative attack, they would come forward and snipe at two hundred meters.

30,000 people surround an army of more than 200,000 people, this is not a myth, but a fact.

And when the coalition forces were preserved with most of their forces and sufficient supplies, they did not have the courage to break through.

The remaining 20,000 soldiers, armed with repeating guns, went north with the rest of the army to relieve the siege of Blackstone.

From the delta of the Kama River, it is six hundred miles from the city of Black Rock in the north. If it is in Guannai, the distance of 600 miles has separated several prefectures and counties, but in the vast and sparsely populated area south of the Ural Mountains, there are only a few settlements on the way.

The easiest way to get to Blackstone was via the Kama River, but today there are no ships that can carry tens of thousands of soldiers.

Now that the coalition forces have been surrounded, and they are not a threat in a short time, Tang Sayer plans to arrive in Blackstone City in four days to eliminate the coalition soldiers who have not yet laid their positions.

Zhu Zhanji, who was far away in Yingtianfu, immediately got the news that Tang Sai'er and the others had an absolute advantage on the battlefield, for him, the Ming soldiers who had repeating guns did not surprise him to play this kind of record.

As long as they do not fall into the encirclement of the other side, as long as there is sufficient ammunition, 30,000 soldiers armed with repeating guns can definitely sweep the whole of Europe.

Although he has always controlled the development of the River Army and Tang Sayer, in fact, he is still very interested in the land east of Ukraine.

First of all, Ukraine is the breadbasket of the whole of Europe, although the number of Europeans is still small, Poland, a European power, and Hungary in the south have enough food.

But without the granary of Ukraine, it is absolutely impossible for the number of people in Europe to develop.

Population is a resource, and population is strength. If the number of whites had been kept below 20 million, they would not have been a threat to the Chinese in another 500 years.

In contrast, the iron ore of Ukraine and the oil of Baku are not so important.

Zhu Zhanji never revealed this plan, not because he did not believe in his ministers, but because the time was not ripe.

Separated by the desert and the Gobi Desert in the northwest, as well as the Tianshan Mountains, the Ming Dynasty's control of the northwest was gradually stabilized after the completion of the railway.

Moreover, no one from Daming came.

Because the development of Daming Pass is so good, even if the people of Daming want to immigrate, they will only immigrate to Dongzhou.

There are countless fertile lands there that are uncultivated, and as long as you have a little money, buy a few harvesters and sowing machines, you can become a rich peasant there.

But what's in the Northwest?

Only land can be cultivated for the people, but the climate here is bitterly cold, and only one season of grain can be harvested a year.

There are abundant forest resources and mineral resources, but these resources belong to the imperial court and the internal affairs government, and no one can mine or cut them down privately.

Therefore, there has been a lack of selling points to attract the common people, and only some outlaws, lazy people who want to make a fortune, will want to come here to pan for gold.

What's more, there is also the threat of war there.

The imperial court has been pushing Han Chinese to emigrate to the West, but few are willing to go.

The slow increase in population was the biggest bottleneck for the westward development of the Ming Dynasty.

No people occupied the land there, and even if the army was defeated, they would eventually give up.

Otherwise, Zheng Neng and Lin San would not have waited for the next generation to grow up before they began to expand westward.

Even so, in the region west of Siberia, the number of Han Chinese in the three cities of the extreme west is only a million people.

In millions of square kilometers of land, there are less than a million Chinese living in it, and not even a single person can live in one square kilometer.

Not to mention the occupation of Moscow, the occupation of Kyiv, the Tang Sayer expanded five hundred miles to the west, and the number of people could not keep up.

Zhu Zhanji once thought about continuing to use the imperial court decrees to force immigrants, such as sending more troops and their families over.

However, the extreme west is not like the river, the tribes here are very weak, and they have a good impression of the Han people who do not oppress them, and are willing to trade with the Han people in exchange for salt, spices, and obey the arrangements of the Han people.

If a governor is arranged here, because there is no internal trouble, only external enemies, the imperial court can only support him to increase his strength, which will make the other party support his own army.

The conditions in the Governor's Palace in the river are not as good as here, and although the climatic conditions there are better, large areas of land are desert.

And in the middle of the river, there are millions of tribes and small countries of all ethnic groups.

The Governor's Palace had to deal with the disputes of various tribes internally, and externally it had to defend against the threat of the Persian tribes and white tribes.

Even so, Zheng Hong still has the heart of self-reliance, and if it is the extreme western region, there will only be a warlord who is more difficult to control than Zheng Hong.

Of course, these are still small sections, and the key problem is that after the railway was repaired, the various systems of the Ming army are now tending to be perfect.

Today's regular soldiers are all new recruits who are literate and literate, and their number is greatly reduced compared to the past, and it is difficult to implement it if you want to transfer people over.

And if such an outstanding talent is forced to come to the bitter cold land of the extreme west, no one can say whether he will hate the court because of this.

Therefore, for the time being, Zhu Zhanji can only provide a superior tax environment for the extreme west, attract more people to come and trade, and then let the locals slowly increase the population.

This matter is not in a hurry, anyway, there are now more than one million Han people in the Hezhong Governor's Mansion and more than one million Han people in the extreme west. These three million people are stuck between the Ural Mountains and the Volga River, and the land here cannot be lost.

If the white man dares to cross the bottom line of the Ural Mountains, Zhu Zhanji will definitely not mind mobilizing a large army and killing him like a river of blood.

"Your Majesty, Wang Cong, the Governor of Yilan City, Wu Keqin, the Governor of Tunguska City, and Xue Yao, the Governor of Beimingshan, are all asking for war. How to reply to this matter, I hope Your Majesty will have an idea. ”

The Ming Dynasty has been peaceful for too long, and those generals and nobles have not fought, so they will not be able to make meritorious contributions and be promoted to knighthood.

Although he appreciated their willingness to take the initiative to ask for war, Zhu Zhanji would not easily give the military power that was gradually withdrawn to the generals.

Zhu Zhanji has been brewing the separation of soldiers and generals, and the generals take turns to garrison different areas to prevent them from supporting their own troops.

The border areas do not dare to move now, and those places outside the Guanai have not moved, but the current generals in the Guannai region are all rotated every three years.

Before this policy matures, he will not give tiger charms to the generals in the land outside the border for the time being.

Looking at Chen Shu in front of him, Zhu Zhanji said: "Reply to the telegram to let them calm down for a while, now that the three cities of Tanglin have the advantage, they don't need to send troops." Is the second batch of repeating guns now delivered? ”

"Nearly 100,000 repeating guns have been produced in recent months, but the production of bullets is too slow to be supplied. Last month's explosion at the ammunition factory, which killed hundreds of people, has slowed production even more and is now producing less than a million bullets. ”

Although the Ming Dynasty now uses safety explosives to produce bullets, the production of safety explosives is extracted from various raw materials that are flammable and explosive.

Like picric acid, mercury thunderate, nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin are all explosive raw materials that need to be cautious.

The explosives factory, located on the Yangtze River's Jiangxin Island, has already exploded several times. In many cases, accidents are not caused by manual errors, and those raw materials will explode when they encounter high temperatures or are closed for a long time.

However, this accident was caused by Zhu Zhanji's request to the Ministry of Industry to rush to work, and the factory's bullet molds had some deviations after being used for a long time.

With this slightest deviation, it is possible that sparks will emerge when the warhead and the cartridge case filled with ammunition are assembled.

After the large-scale accident that caused hundreds of deaths, Zhu Zhanji no longer dared to let the craftsmen rush to work, so he could only let people add two more production lines.

Zhu Zhanji pondered for a while and said, "Escort all the bullets and 20,000 muskets to Tanglin City and deliver them to Cheng Anbo." In addition, the border armies in various localities replaced new muskets with new muskets at a frequency of 2,000 batches. ”

"Where's the bullet?"

"For the time being, ammunition will not be provided, and the commanders of the various units will be allowed to train soldiers in new tactics and the use of firearms in accordance with the new training manual. A few months later, there will be a live-fire exercise. ”

Chen Shu received the order, bowed to Zhu Zhanji and said goodbye, and walked quickly to the outside of the hall.

Although he is in his fifties, Chen Shu still acts vigorously. Seeing him, Zhu Zhanji would think of Sun Lin who had left him in the thirty-fifth year of orthodoxy.

Sun Lin, who was in charge of the Advisory Intelligence Department at the beginning, was a spy officer, but unfortunately, because Zhu Zhanji no longer accepted eunuchs, there was a shortage of internal servants, and now the Advisory Intelligence Department has long since declined and has become a commercial intelligence agency of the Internal Affairs Department.

Chen Shu is the youngest son of Chen Cheng, the first general envoy after the reorganization of the best diplomatic envoys in the Ming Dynasty.

Because he was carefully taught by his father since he was a child, and because he himself was also interested and talented in intelligence work, after an interval of more than ten years, he took over the post of general political envoy.

The reshuffled General Secretary is not just a virtual title with no power, as in the past. The General Administration Department is not only in charge of the Tianxia Post Station and responsible for the exchange of letters in the world, but now it has become the CIA of the Ming Dynasty, planting eyeliner everywhere in the world.

In terms of rank, the general political envoy is half a rank lower than the foreign minister, and he is also a vice minister, but in terms of authority, he is actually greater.

It is only because many of the actions of the General Administration Department cannot be separated from the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that in some areas it is under the unified management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After Chen Shu walked out, Zhu Zhanji turned his head again and said, "I am no longer eating in the palace." Lan Guifei is giving a lesson to everyone in the Truth Church today, and I am also going to join in the fun. ”

As soon as his mind moved, the people below had to work for half a day, preparing cars and arranging protection along the street.

Just as Zhu Zhanji was about to leave, he saw Ma Di coming in a hurry under the leadership of the chamberlain.

Zhu Zhanji stood still, and without waiting for him to see him, he said, "Excuse me, didn't you arrange for the noble concubine to give a lecture to the researchers in the Shinrikyo Sect?" Why did you come in a hurry? ”

Ma Di took a breath and wanted to say something, but hesitated for a moment before he spoke: "The minister doesn't know what to say, the dog Mingguang has made a new thing, and as soon as the concubine heard about it, the class was stopped and ran to the Electric Power Research Institute." He also said that he would ask His Majesty to come and have a look...... Phone...... Yes, telephone. ”

"Are you sure, Lan Guifei is talking about the phone!" Zhu Zhanji was stunned for a moment, and immediately overjoyed. Commanded: "Go to the dismount bridge." ”

Zhu Zhanji has been bent on developing a telephone since he had electricity, but he has no understanding of the principle of the telephone.

When he was a child, there were very few telephones in the countryside, and when he grew up, he was exposed to mobile phones. Although he knew the telephone, he didn't know what the principle of the telephone was.

Blue Smoke is worse than him, he knows that the phone was invented by Bell, and Blue Smoke Face doesn't know this.

If you don't know the principle, it's impossible to make a phone call.

When he was making an electric speaker, he had people study telephones based on the principle of vibration of the eardrum, but it never worked.

But he never thought that just when he was about to be disappointed, Ma Dian would give him such a big surprise.

The convoy soon arrived at the Electric Power Research Institute, which had been surrounded by many researchers.

They had all arranged it today, and they wanted to listen to the lecture of the concubine Niangniang, but now that the concubine Niangniang came here, they naturally followed.

Seeing Zhu Zhanji coming, everyone saluted one after another. Zhu Zhanji waved to others and walked quickly into the gate of the courtyard.

Although Ma Electric was appreciated by Zhu Zhanji and set up a laboratory in the Electric Power Research Institute, he had little qualifications, and the laboratory was located in a corner on the third floor.

Zhu Zhanji was led over, and as soon as he entered the door, he saw Lan Yan standing in front of a loudspeaker talking, and in her hand, she was holding an earpiece to her ear.

Seeing Zhu Zhanji come in, she said with a smile: "Although it's a little ugly, it can indeed talk." ”

(I recommend my friend Guan Sheng's new book "Ming Ting", he is an old author of history, the last book "Arbitrary Ming" has very good results, and it is also very well written, and this book should not disappoint everyone.) ）