The lack of cavalry is indeed a huge flaw. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info Without highly mobile cavalry, infantry always has to worry about enemy cavalry attacking their flanks when fighting. And even if the victory is won, as long as the enemy cavalry exists, the infantry on their side will not be able to disband the formation to pursue the enemy, and no one will be able to run too fast while maintaining the formation. In fact, the most important loss of the losing side is caused by being pursued by the opponent in the process of fleeing after defeat, and if the opponent cannot be effectively pursued, the losses that can be brought to the opponent by just relying on a frontal blow are always quite limited. Therefore, if the current factory protection team fights with Jianxuan, it will be able to achieve a crushing victory at most, and it will be difficult to bring them real, unbearable losses.

"Cavalry is a real problem." Zheng Sen said, "But sooner or later, this matter will have to be resolved." ”

During the conversation between the two, the members of the factory protection team completed another attack drill of changing the column into a horizontal team.

"If there weren't too much interference, their column offensive tactics would have been pretty good. But then they might be against the Dutch or the Spaniards. They had muskets and cannons in their hands. I don't know if they can still perform tactics like this when facing musket and artillery fire. "Either we put cannons on the playground and replace some of the bows and arrows with arquebuses, which use special flour bullets, so that only the sound will not hurt people." The artillery uses live ammunition, controls the direction of fire, and lets the shells fly past them. Rehearse like this from time to time, and then you will be sure to fight the Spanish and Dutch. ”

"Major General, isn't this too gunpowder-consuming?" Liu Yuanzhi asked.

"Consuming some gunpowder is better than really going to the battlefield, never seeing such a posture, and suffering a big loss." "But gunpowder is a big problem. There are so many places where gunpowder is used these days. ”

The so-called too many places to use gunpowder are not false, since whale oil began to make money, Zheng Zhilong ordered a large-scale expansion of the scope of whaling, not only those specially made whaling ships were used for whaling, even those warships that had nothing to do for the time being were also sent out to hunt whales, and whaling guns were also used in large quantities on these warships, one of the results was that the consumption of gunpowder increased greatly.

Gunpowder is not difficult to prepare, and charcoal and sulfur, the three main raw materials, are not a problem. Charcoal has wood, whether it is Taiwan or Fujian, charcoal burning wood has never been a problem. As for sulfur, Taiwan's sulfur resources are quite abundant. But the last one saltpeter is quite troublesome. Whether it is Taiwan or Fujian, there are not many good natural saltpeter mines. Zheng Sen vaguely remembers that China's saltpeter mines were mainly in Xinjiang and Sichuan. These places seem to be a little too far away, so there is no need to talk about it first, and the Sichuan side is not very peaceful now. Therefore, at present, the gunpowder of the Zheng family can only rely on imports to a large extent, and it can only be obtained by collecting nitrate. Therefore, in Taiwan, the manure pits and all livestock sheds in various settlements, whether they are chickens, pigs, or cattle raisers, are registered, and every year each settlement is ordered to hand over a certain amount of crude salt. However, many settlements in Taiwan are newly built, and the amount of dung pits and other places that produce nitrate is still quite limited. As for imports, in this era, saltpeter is a very important strategic resource, a small amount of imports is enough, a large number of imports, whether you can buy so much is not to say, the price is almost straight up.

Coupled with the necessary reserves, so now, the Zheng family is really a little short of gunpowder.

"There are only so many troops who use gunpowder, and gunpowder is actually nervous. In the future, if there is really an army of 100,000, let alone fighting, just training will make these gunpowders terrible. Zheng Sen couldn't help frowning, "Maybe I can only find a way to buy more from Sichuan." Although saltpeter is a thing strictly controlled by the government, with the virtue of the Ming government now, it should not be too troublesome to buy this thing. And it seems that Sichuan is not in chaos at the moment. ”

However, this is not a problem that can be solved in a short time, and even if it can be bought from Sichuan, it may not be a long-term solution.

"In short, this kind of training must be had, of course, the use of gunpowder is less, and there can be a sound." In the end, Zheng Sen had no choice but to say so.

After the queue training, Liu Yuanzhi called the boys of the factory protection team together, because the overall performance was good in the drill just now, so the little guys of the factory protection team got a fish at dinner, but two of the guys who ran in the wrong position were not so lucky, they not only lost a fish, but also were punished for running ten laps around the playground. Also punished were their squad leaders, who were also required to accompany them for ten laps. The squad leader has a higher salary, but this salary is definitely not higher for nothing.

This was followed by the reloading of muskets, which, of course, were modeled guns, which, although similar in appearance to the flintlock pistols they bought, could not actually be used in battle. Their barrels are scrapped from old arquebuses, and the rest of the guns are made in a similar shape. Training with these things can avoid damage to new-style guns.

In the loading of muskets, Zheng Sen also adopted a common method in later generations, that is, dividing gunpowder into portions and wrapping them in oiled paper for easy use. In this way, the loading time can be greatly reduced, and the amount of gunpowder poured into the bullet can be avoided due to the panic in wartime, which will lead to a change in the ballistic performance of the fired bullet, resulting in a decrease in the hit rate; Or too much gunpowder was poured in, resulting in an accident that exploded. This practice was almost common in later generations, but at this time, it was not yet popular. So Zheng Sen estimated that this alone would be enough to earn him at least a 1.5 to 1 advantage in shooting speed.

The factory guards in this project look more skilled, Liu Yuanzhi gave an order, they quickly opened the lock of the model, opened the medicine pool, and at the same time took out an oiled paper bag from a small bag hanging on the waist, and bit a corner with their teeth, (in order to speed up, this is a standard action, dare not use this action, but ingenious to tear it with your hands or something, you have to hit the military stick.) It is said that after the British ruled India, the Indian uprising occurred because the British forced Indian soldiers to bite gunpowder wrapped in oiled paper coated with lard or butter with their mouths. And the faith of some Indians does not allow them to eat butter, and the faith of another part does not allow them to eat lard. Then they poured the charcoal pellets into the medicine pool, and at a whistle they closed the medicine pool, and then there was another short whistle, and everyone pulled out another oil paper bag from another small bag, which contained a bullet and a bullet. Shoot. Medicine. Then another whistle sounded, they bit open the oiled paper bag again, poured the gunpowder into the barrel, and then compacted the gunpowder with the throughbar, and then used the throughbar to load the bullet into the muzzle with the oiled paper pack, pressed it firmly with the throughbar, and then reset the throughbar to ......, and then with a long whistle, all the guards had finished loading and were ready to shoot. Liu Yuanzhi lowered his head, glanced at the pocket watch in his hand (this is a high-level thing for the tactics teacher), and then said to Zheng Sen; "It took thirty-two seconds."

"They didn't see anything on the battlefield to be able to prepare for shooting in such a short period of time." Zheng Sen shook his head and said, "In the future, this kind of training must be added with a certain amount of interference, for example, let some people throw clods of dirt at them or something." This is inexpensive and increases interference. By the way, there are drums, firecrackers and so on. ”

Liu Yuanzhi listened, and said, "What the young general said is true." It's just that if you really want them to become elites, it's best to find an opportunity for them to fight with others. ”

"Well, that's what you said." Zheng Sen said suddenly, "I have something for them to see blood, but let's let them study for a few more months before we talk about it." ”

Zheng Sen's so-called seeing blood is actually related to the sale of whale oil. Today, whale oil is one of the sources of wealth for the Zheng family. Nowadays, whale oil is selling well in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so it is inevitable that some people will be blushing. Zheng Sen just got the news that recently, in northern Jiangsu and Shandong, the Zheng family's business has been disrupted. Half a month ago, a batch of whale oil of the Zheng family was robbed by a group of "bandits" on the ground near Shandong in northern Jiangsu, (this is really, the robbery was snatched from the head of the pirate ancestor), and dozens of guys died. Now Zheng Cai is investigating the matter, but there is no major progress. Although the generation from northern Jiangsu to Shandong is no longer too peaceful, the Zheng family's caravan is not completely defenseless, and ordinary bandits really can't move the Zheng family's caravan, let alone kill dozens of people in one go. Those guys of the Zheng family have all seen the world, and some have even been on the battlefield. Judging from the story of the guy who escaped by luck, the bandits who attacked them were definitely the army of the people who attacked themJudging from the story of the guy who escaped by luck, the bandits who attacked them were definitely the army of the whole country.

Therefore, the Zheng family aimed their suspicious eyes at Liu Zeqing, the chief soldier. Liu Zeqing is not very good at fighting, but the level of plundering places has always been very high. What kind of arson robbery, what kind of robbery disguised as a bandit to rob merchants, this kind of thing, Liu Zeqing didn't do too much. Of course, this man did not end well in the end, he later surrendered to the Manchu Qing with the gold and silver looted for many years, and then, when I saw that he had so much money, I thought about it, and then I found a reason, saying that he wanted to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty, and then he killed his whole family, and the silver he robbed was all into my Qing treasury.