"Crack! Crack, bang! ”

As soon as it was dawn in the morning, the sound of firecrackers in Tongcheng County woke Chen Shangwu up one after another.

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year in the third year of Longwu, the army has a day off, Chen Shangwu is busy until late at night every day, and last night he had a dinner with the soldiers and drank a few more glasses, I wanted to cover the quilt and sleep again, but the sound of firecrackers continued one after another, and it became denser and denser, making him so noisy that he couldn't sleep, so he simply turned over and got up.

Chen Shangwu turned out to be a low-level official in the imperial court's military department (a low-level official of the eighth and ninth grades), because he knew artillery, he was recommended to Wang Kefan by Wen'an, a waiter in the military department, and had just been appointed as the commander of the artillery unit of the Chu army.

Artillery is the god of war, even if it can only fire solid shells in the 17th century, it can also determine the outcome of the war, Wang Kefan has always attached great importance to artillery, as soon as conditions permitted, he began to establish his own artillery unit.

However, the artillery of this era is still too primitive and cumbersome, and a dozen or so small-caliber artillery pieces with little power need hundreds of people to be busy waiting for them.

Chen Shangwu, the new officer, took up his post three times, and devoted his mind to this newly formed artillery unit, tried his best to improve its combat effectiveness, went out to exercise with the soldiers every day, paid very close attention to training, and ran to the newly established logistics department again and again, asking for as many livestock and vehicles as possible.

There is no way, an artillery piece weighs hundreds of catties or even thousands of catties, and it has to be equipped with heavy shells, and the pressure on the logistics baggage is very great, and it is definitely not possible to rely on the auxiliary soldiers to carry it on their shoulders and carry it, Chen Shangwu would rather suffer a few more blank eyes in the logistics department than drop the chain on the battlefield in the future.

His family was a maritime merchant in Guangdong, and since he was a child, he has often been exposed to Western novelty seafood. When he was nine years old, he was severely beaten by his father for breaking down an expensive chiming clock, but the more this happened, the more he aroused the interest of the young Chen Shangwu, who studied the knowledge of Western natural science diligently for more than ten years, so that he became an artillery expert as an adult, and served as a technical officer in the Guangdong naval division.

After Emperor Longwu arrived in Guangzhou, Chen Shangwu was recommended to enter the military department, but he was just a small official who did not enter the stream, and everyone seemed to be promoted during that time. Today, I am still sitting on the opposite side, and tomorrow I will become the Langzhong of the five products, high and high...... Chen Shangwu has no background, and second, he can't drill camps, and he is always a spectator. It wasn't until he was chosen by Wang Kefan that his fate took a sudden turn.

He was appointed acting camp officer of the firearms battalion. and also served as artillery commander. is already a military attache from the third grade, and there is still a civilian county order of Qishui County. Qishui County belongs to Huangzhou Prefecture, under the control of the Qing army, this Qishui County Order is of course a false position, but with this position, Chen Shangwu can be regarded as a seven-rank civil official. It is much stronger than the original Jiupin Sesame Petty Official.

Chen Shangwu not only has a military position, but also a fictitious civil official, which solves all worries and opens two upward channels at the same time. In the future, as long as you work hard, you will have a bright future, and he is very grateful and admires it very much, Wang Kefan is really a responsible boss who is too thoughtful for his subordinates.

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, and it stands to reason that he should go to Wang Kefan to pay New Year's greetings, but he has already rushed to Changsha and is not in Tongcheng, so Chen Shangwu has let go of this thought.

Let's go to the logistics department, there shouldn't be many people there in the old years, maybe you can ask for two good things, such as two more telescopes or something.

Called a personal soldier and asked him to prepare some greeting gifts, and then wash up and have breakfast, after about a quarter of an hour, Chen Shangwu packed up his spirits, carried two boxes of snacks and fruits in his hand, and a small jar of wine, and went out to the logistics department.

After the Gongyi Battalion was expanded into the Chu Army, Wang Kefan carried out a drastic reform of the logistics system and set up a high-level logistics department, which was directly under the leadership of Wang Kefan himself and completely served the military, with his confidant Cheng Wen serving as the promotion officer.

Raising the logistics department to this position is not in line with the practice of the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers, and the whole army is a little uncomfortable for a while, and the rules of this logistics department are particularly large, and every time they receive supplies, they have to go through strict procedures, which makes people feel very troublesome.

Chen Shangwu went to the logistics department and asked for some mules and binoculars.

Mules are more powerful and better than horses, so the gun cart is just right.

Telescopes are even more good things, and for artillery officers fighting at long distances, no matter how you describe its importance, there are no telescopes in the artillery battalion yet, and Chen Shangwu just heard last night that the logistics department has a batch of newly arrived telescopes, and he wants to rush to grab a few more.

From the perspective of the needs of the artillery, Chen Shangwu hoped to equip each artillery commander with a telescope, and for this purpose, he would rather pay out of his own pocket and ask Cheng Wen to go to the best restaurant in Tongcheng County. Of course, this can only be thought about, the Chu army is very strict with the atmosphere and military discipline, and it has reached the limit to send two boxes of dim sum in the name of New Year's greetings, and if it is too much, it will go to the military court team to drink tea.

"Smack! Smack! ”

Suddenly, there was a burst of gunshots, Chen Shangwu began to think that it was who was setting off firecrackers, but soon realized that something was wrong, and turned his head to see that there were many soldiers shooting targets on the school field, and in an open space next to him, there were soldiers digging ditches and carrying out civil engineering operations.

Their banners looked very familiar, Chen Shangwu recognized them, these soldiers were also from the firearms battalion, including Wang Yi's firearms soldiers, and the miner soldiers of Twist.

"Ji Yun, are you still training on the first day of the Lunar New Year?" Chen Shangwu was very polite to Wang Yi and called him a word.

Although Wang Yi is young, he is the number one sharpshooter in the Chu army, and he also saved Wang Kefan's life in the Battle of Pizhen, which won his trust.

"yes, they're all recruits, you have to hurry up and practice." Wang Yi saluted Chen Shangwu, didn't say much to greet, and turned around to guide the soldiers in training.

Each battalion of the Chu army has firecrackers in order to facilitate cooperation with other arms, but Wang Kefan attaches great importance to firecrackers, and has organized and trained an independent firecracker of 300 people, which is supervised by Wang Yi and placed in the firearms battalion, in a sense, Chen Shangwu's subordinates.

At this moment, a thin young man suddenly came out of the ditch next to him, and he also saluted Chen Shangwu, and jumped into another ditch with a greeting, and disappeared, but Chen Shangwu could see clearly that this person was Twist, the commander of another outpost of the firearms battalion.

"These miners under the twister are really strange, what are they doing digging around all day long?" Chen Shangwu was a little curious, he was nominally the acting battalion officer of the firearms battalion, but in fact he was only in charge of artillery and was not familiar with other troops.

The current firearms battalion was a hodgepodge, including an artilleryman, a musketeer, a mine soldier, and even the three hundred Portuguese soldiers mixed with the firearms battalion.

"Looks like I should open a small stove too!" Chen Shangwu was stimulated and decided that after returning from the logistics department, he would pull the artillery out for training.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, other people's troops took the initiative to come to training, but his artillery was on vacation in a big way, and the sense of urgency and pressure was still not strong enough. Kong Youde's army has entered Hubei, and the war is about to break out, and now is not the time to sleep and be lazy.

He quickened his pace and walked in the direction of the logistics department, and promoted the official Cheng Wen's family is not in Huguang, and the food and accommodation are in the logistics department in the past few days of the New Year, Chen Shangwu plans to block him as soon as possible, lest he go out to greet others for the New Year.

However, when he came to the logistics department, he was stunned by the lively scene in front of the gate.

There is a long line of carts lined up at the door of the logistics department, it seems that they are all here to receive things, and there are groups of three or five next to them, a group of pro-soldiers, and several tall horses are tied to the horse pile, which is the general's mount at a glance.

The logistics department was even more lively, the originally spacious hall was crowded with people, Zhou Guodong, Lu Renqing, Ti Zhaorong, Gu Zongfu ......, except for Wang Sheng and a few other people were not there, there were several generals of the Gongyi battalion in the room, and Cheng Wen was surrounded in the middle.

"Cheng Tiao, since I'm here today, you should give at least five telescopes to the Tongshan Battalion, one for each sentry officer, and another for the scout captain." Zhou Guodong's tone was the hardest, although everyone was a camp officer, but he was the oldest in the Chu army, and as soon as he opened his mouth, the room was quiet, no one dared to fight with him, and they all watched Cheng Wen deal with it.

Before Cheng Wen could speak, Gu Zongfu shouted first: "Then how can it be done?" There are only twenty telescopes in total, and you want five for one person, how can others divide them? ”

"I don't care about anyone else!" Zhou Guodong smiled coldly at Gu Zongfu: "My Tongshan camp can fight, so the telescope should be more points, your Ji'an camp is too far away, where to go cool." ”

"......" Although Gu Zongfu has always loved to raise the bar, he was choked by this sentence, everyone is a military general, and his troops are inferior to others, so they are naturally a head shorter, no matter how much they quibble.

Gu Zongfu arrived in Ji'an Mansion too late, and he had never fought with the Gongyi Battalion, although he had heard of the proud achievements of this army, but he had no intuitive impression, so he still had doubts about the combat effectiveness of the Gongyi Battalion, thinking that those combat exploits were suspected of exaggeration, or there was an element of luck, but after arriving in Tongcheng, he saw the real Gongyi Battalion with his own eyes, but he was severely shocked by this army.

Whether it is the level of training or the morale of the army, the old Gongyi battalion can be called an elite division, far exceeding the ordinary Nanming army, even compared with the nine-sided elite during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, this army is not too reckless.

Although Gu Zongfu's mouth is very stinky, his vision is clever, and he knows that Ji'an Camp is not a little worse than others, so he rarely gets honest, concentrates on training, and no longer complains, and was despised by Zhou Guodong in public today, and he did not use the strong words and reasoning Dafa that he is best at. (To be continued......)