Chapter 382: East and West Positivity

The arquebuses of this era were much more powerful than the longbow, but they did not have any advantage in range. In addition to the lethal damage, the range of long-range weapons is also extremely important.

Imagine that on the battlefield, if two teams of soldiers shoot at each other, one side is an arquebus, the other side is a longbow, the short range is naturally only the fate of slaughter, the decisive role is artillery, the real archers from the battlefield is the artillery instead of the arquebus. The archer's long-range upward fire is only lethal if it forms a shooting density, so the archer must have a dense array, but the denser the array, the greater the role of the artillery.

The army of the Ming Dynasty originally attached great importance to firearms, hoping to restrain the Tartar soldiers outside the customs and other alien enemies around them, but the government-run craftsmen's workshops, the work of those semi-slave craftsmen, could not pay attention to any quality at all, and the cast artillery was in danger of exploding after firing a few rounds.

The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, if the other side is rushing over, your cannon can't go off, or the bore is blowing up and hurting your own people, isn't it possible to delay things, or cause a big defeat.

In order to win, in order to save life, the army naturally chooses more reliable weapons, and the current long-range weapons of the Ming border army are generally based on bows and arrows, after all, there will be no problems such as bows and arrows. The firearms, which had just shown some signs of firearms, quickly returned to the stage of cold weapons.

The same craftsmen, the same craftsmen, and even the same methods, in Jiang Jiajun's workshop, the quality and utility of the things produced are completely different, because as long as they produce good things, they are earning themselves a share of silver, and if they produce bad things, there is a danger of losing their heads.

Jiang Feng's army composed of arquebuses and spears, Jiang Feng was very confident in him. So far, he has been killed only by the overwhelming array of bows and arrows fired by the soldiers of the Tal valley, which completely overwhelmed the arquebuses in range, and if it were not for the presence of those small cannons, I am afraid that the endless rounds of fire would have killed the arquebusiers in the valley completely.

The existence of artillery shows how important it is, although according to Jiang Feng's system, every 2,000-strong brigade is equipped with three two-pounder guns or two three-pounder guns, such a force can be considered in the field, but if the other side has cover as a cover, I am afraid it will be quite a big trouble.

In this way, it is necessary to need a cannon for attacking fortifications, a larger caliber, but even a three-pounder gun needs four horses to pull, the heaviness of the artillery is on the one hand, on the other hand, the artillery mount is not suitable for horses to pull and move, the traditional shape of the gun mount in the Ming Dynasty is very similar to a large wooden box, and there are four small wheels under the wooden box, with grooves and wooden cards to carry the artillery.

That is, it can move within a small range of the position, and if it moves with the troops, it can only be unloaded from the gun mount and placed on the carriage, which is cumbersome, and considering the load of the carriage, so now only three-pounder guns can accompany the army.

Jiang Feng now needs his troops to carry more firepower with accompanying artillery, obviously the old-fashioned artillery mount cannot meet this requirement, with the style of modern artillery that can be dragged forward on two wheels, Jiang Feng still remembers it clearly in his mind, so he probably drew a sketch and handed it over to the following to do.

It seems to be a very simple thing, that is, two large wheels on both sides of an axle, and the artillery placed on it is dragged by horses when they move, but when the craftsmen make it according to Jiang Feng's method, they find that there are all kinds of difficulties, one is that it is difficult to ensure that the iron frame with such strength can carry six pounds and heavier guns now, after all, this is different from the ship, the guns on Jiang Feng's main battleship have a maximum of eighteen pound guns, that is because the buoyancy of the ship is enough to carry it. Second, if Jiang Feng's design is followed, it is impossible to ensure the center of gravity of the artillery when it is moving, and it is particularly prone to overturning.

However, Jiang Feng's design did not dare to be questioned by anyone, and the craftsmen could only try various improvement plans and methods in the workshop.

It wasn't until the first half of last year that two craftsmen who knew how to smelt metal among the immigrants from the Netherlands improved the iron-making facilities here in Jiangfeng. In this way, it was possible to forge iron materials that matched the requirements of the gun carriage, and with the materials, things were much easier, and Robben, who made the four-wheeled carriage, proposed a plan at this time, using the base frame of the four-wheeled carriage to improve the gun carriage, and then when entering the position, pull out the circlip, and pull the two wheels behind and the part of the gun carriage apart, so that it is more stable when traveling, and ammunition can be placed in the second half of the gun carriage.

This form of gun carriage and gun carriage actually became the standard style of artillery in European armies after the 17th century, but it appeared in Jiangfeng earlier.

In addition to the carriage, many new things are constantly being invented, and these things are not ahead of this era, but the ideas and technologies of the East and the West meet and collide with each other, producing the same effect as an eruption.

Jiangfeng is naturally not short of Ming craftsmen, but everything in the West was brought by a large number of Dutch people, starting from the establishment of slave trade relations between Huazhou and Luzon, a large number of Dutch people began to enter Huazhou.

In Spain, far away in Europe, the Spanish army's rule over the Netherlands became more and more harsh, and there were constantly resisting people who were brutally suppressed, some of these people fled to the Americas, and some wandered to the East, and these people were summoned by Jiang Feng in various ways to his own hands.

In fact, the most profitable slave trade in Luzon was not the natives, who had long proved that they were used as pioneers, one-time use, and were not black slaves. However, the most profitable is not black slaves, in Africa to capture black slaves, by ship to Korea and the South Seas, and then put in the slave market to sell to merchants, there are many intermediate links, there are also such and such costs.

As the most popular colonial governor of the Kingdom of Spain in the present-day world, the Governor of Luzon found an easy way to make a fortune, and that was to sell the Dutch to the Governor of Huazhou, in which Jiang Feng was called the Grand Duke of Huazhou.

In a letter to the King of Spain, the Governor of Luzon impassionedly said, "Luzon is so far away from our kingdom that it would not be the most appropriate punishment for these criminals to be exiled here as hard laborers to be exiled to these lawless rebels."

In order to share the worries of the kingdom, the governor of Luzon decided to find ships out of his own pocket, and accept these Dutch people, so that they can be punished in Luzon, this kind of selfless attitude in the Spanish royal family has been highly praised for sharing the country's worries, of course, these people must not know that the cost of these ships to transport Dutch prisoners is completely provided by Jiang Feng, and for each of these Dutch people, Jiang Feng will pay the governor of Luzon one hundred taels of silver, and the woman is fifty taels of silver.

You must know that a sturdy black slave is now sold for a maximum of ten taels of silver in the "human market" in Incheon, but in Nanyang because of the shipping route and the emergence of Portuguese competitors, he can only sell it for eight taels.

Since the Governor of Luzon and Jiang Feng started this trade, more than 200,000 taels of silver have entered his pocket, but Jiang Feng does not think that he has suffered a loss.

In the distant Netherlands, most of the people who rose up against Spanish rule were the industrialist, unscrupulous type, and these people were often shipbuilders, craftsmen of all kinds of necessities and best-sellers, and in general, people of craftsmanship. Under the status of craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty, although there are always a large number of craftsmen who are bought from the Ming Dynasty in various workshops working and designing, they are generally older, and most of them are engaged in the forging of cold weapons, and there are not many people involved in firearms and ships.

Many of the people who came from the Netherlands were veterans of the Spanish army, and they had new insights into firearms and military training, as well as many things related to military affairs.

After Jiang Feng ransomed these people, he was immediately picked up by various Chinese cram schools and other institutions opened by the white people who came before, and carried out all kinds of training in language and living habits, and then were assigned to work in various positions according to their skills.

When they came here, they didn't have any power, they had to rely on Jiang Feng loyally in order to survive well, and Jiang Feng also promised them that they would definitely take them back to Spain in the future, liberate their compatriots, and the good treatment and the agitation of revenge made them more and more motivated.

Now Jiang Feng has a Dutch regiment of about 600 people, all of whom are Dutch servants, but the person who leads them is Yang Da, and the Dutch regiment, like other troops, rotates between the civil guard and the town.

Today, there are about 6,000 Dutch people living in Huazhou and Yizhou, which can also be said to be an integral part of the Jiangfeng system.

Those craftsmen were a little uneasy because they had changed Jiang Feng's design without authorization, but Jiang Feng was full of excitement on his face, and he didn't care whose design it was, Jiang Feng smiled and said to the guards behind him:

"With this, we can go to war with bigger guns!!"