At the beginning of February, Nanchang has entered spring, and the weather has begun to warm up. For the people of Jiangxi, after the governor of Cai, who was sitting high in the provincial capital, issued a decree to divide the land and tuntian, exempt the tax on the newly cultivated and recultivated land this year, and return the land to him after five years of cultivation, a large number of people came out of the hidden mountains, forests and lakes and began to work for a piece of land belonging to their own in five years.www.biquge.info

Because the Yunxiao Mountain Anti-Qing Righteous Army was driven back to its old nest, the Jiuxian Mountain Anti-Qing Righteous Army was confined to Guangxin Mansion, which was heavily armed, and the Zhejiang Ming Army was still passively resisting the attack of the Qing Army, Cai Shiying's decree was easily transmitted to the whole province.

However, compared with the wave of resumption of cultivation in Jiangxi, the city of Nanchang Prefecture, where the north wind has not yet receded, is a scene of slaughter, especially the Jingluo Standard Camp outside the city.

"Kill!"

On the colonel's field of the large battalion of the Jinglu Battalion, two Qing troops wearing gray-blue cloth armor were fighting hard and not giving in to each other.

Looking closely, the one on the east side, a series of long and short weapons such as wolf stalks, spears, long cards, and rattan cards were distributed in the queue of each team of twelve people and a small team of 12 people, and the Mandarin duck array was like the Zhejiang Ming army hundreds of miles away, arranged on the battlefield, and resisted the Qing army on the opposite side; The opponent of the Mandarin Duck Formation, the infantry phalanx on the west side, the spear was one foot five feet long, which was equivalent to the one used by the Ming army's spear array killer team, the two armies had already engaged, and the musketeers retreated to the formation, leaving only the spearmen on the outside, making the whole battle formation look like a frightened hedgehog.

On the platform, Hong Chengchou and his staff and a group of officers from the Jingbiao battalion were watching the martial arts exercise under the stage, because he was old, Hong Chengchou's eyes were not too good, and he couldn't see clearly if he was too far away, so he focused his eyes on the nearest small battlefield.

On the east side, the killer team of the Mandarin Duck Formation, which is closest to the Dianbing Table, has a big three-talented formation almost as recorded in the "New Book of Ji Xiao", with the long player in the center, the wolf player guarding the left and right wings, and the four pikemen on both sides of the wolf player, and finally the rattan player protecting the flank of the team. Their opponents were only three rows of dense spears, stabbing forward, but their spear-holding posture was held from the end of the spear, as if to give full play to the length advantage of these five-meter-long big guys, and they were not afraid of the opponent's sword and shield soldiers in close quarters.

"Tiger!"

The second drum behind the mandarin duck formation sounded, and the Qing army on the east side roared like a tiger like the Ming army, and their spirits couldn't help but be lifted. However, the opponent's spears are not only dense, but also surprisingly long, and only the wolf in the mandarin duck array can compete with it, and it is extremely difficult for other weapons to successfully get close to them.

Hong Chengchou looked at it, the two wolf wipers were still trying their best to use the wolf whisks to interfere with the stinging of the spearmen on the opposite side, and the extended branches greatly increased the range of defense and harassment, and the effect was not impossible, but just in the face of the more than a dozen spears facing the oncoming with the strength of the two of them, they were exhausted, and their physical strength was extremely fast, and soon their movements were no longer as smooth and free as before.

Soon a spear on the left side stabbed out, and the wolf hand on that side hurriedly waved the wolf hand to protect the short soldiers on that side, but at this moment, another spear stabbed out obliquely, smashing into the wolf hand's chest.

The wolf whisk was too long, and the branches were luxuriant, and the wolf whisk was already a little tired, so he couldn't close the momentum, and saw that the spear was pierced in his body. Luckily, the long player on the right stepped forward and fought hard to block the spear, only to be stabbed by another spear as well.

The mandarin duck formation, which is a staggered array of long and short soldiers, pays attention to coordination, is most afraid of the incompleteness of the formation. Once this happens, it will most likely mean the collapse of the formation.

Since the end of last year, Hong Chengchou has watched the confrontation of the Mandarin Duck Formation several times, and even made up several of Qi Jiguang's military books, so he also has some understanding of this.

"Wang Shoubei, be attentive."

"Humble position is just a foolishness, and the old man has an overreputation."

Nodding his head like a lobster, it was none other than Wang Sheng, what Hong Chengchou said was the mandarin duck array on the array. However, this time it is not like Chen Jin, the Mandarin Duck Formation is no longer a formation for expansion training, but is only used as a sparring partner for the opposite battle formation. Because, there are still many troops in the Ming army in Zhejiang who are still using the Mandarin Duck Array.

Regarding Wang Sheng's hot face, Hong Chengchou didn't even give a cold ass, but just continued to look at the changes on the school field, as if the words just now were just talking to himself.

The Mandarin Duck Array Killer Team closest to the Dianbing Table, maybe too much time has passed, the movements of the two wolf warriors look very stiff, and the movements are not at all slow, for the sting of the spear, it is just a strong protection of itself, and the protection of the teammates next to it is almost zero. And those teammates on the same team, the blades in their hands were only seven or eight feet long, and the short ones were only three feet, and they were not even a fraction of the opposite, and they were always passively beaten, and the loss of personnel was also huge.

Soon, the first platoon of the Mandarin Duck Formation lost too many troops, which caused its battle formation to no longer be able to maintain and began to collapse. And the spears of that piece pressed over step by step, without giving the Mandarin Duck Formation time to regroup.

The victory was already obvious, Hong Chengchou nodded, and sat back in his seat.

"Reward."

"Humble thanks, old man."

"Praise the Lord and thank you, Mr. Jinglu."

Compared with Wang Sheng, who had already thrown himself to the ground and bowed down in front of Hong Chengchou like a pug, a blonde and blue-eyed European reverently drew a cross on his chest, and then arched his hand very casually and expressed his gratitude to Hong Chengchou. However, unlike him, the non-commissioned officers in the audience who had been reseparated and barely completed the whole team fell to the ground in a roar under the leadership of the officers, as if the floor of the entire school field was one level higher.

"Thank you for your reward!"

After the reward was issued, the green battalion soldiers who performed martial arts began to leave, and the military platform was empty, but Hong Chengchou's big tent was once again crowded with generals and staff.

"This large phalanx of the Buddha machine has a miraculous effect against the mandarin duck array, and Mr. Zhan has made a great contribution to my Qing Dynasty."

Mr. Zhan in Hong Chengchou's mouth was a missionary from Beijing, named James, who arrived in Nanchang in November last year and began to train this Spanish phalanx of about 200 people for Hong Chengchou. It's just that in the face of Hong Chengchou's praise, this European only expressed his gratitude as if he was dealing with an errand, but every time before thanking, he had to praise his lord first, and he saw that the generals in the big tent were furious.

This James is nominally a staff member invited by Hong Chengchou, so although the generals in the army are unhappy with him, there is nothing they can do about him. However, they are not without ways to vent this, for example, in private, some officers have expressed their dissatisfaction with this James's name, thinking that this person must be unfilial with such a name - curse his own mother to die, can this be a filial son?

Hong Chengchou didn't want to pay attention to these dirty things between the officers and the staff, and he was not interested in paying attention to them, and now what he cared about was whether the Spanish phalanx mentioned by Wang Sheng before was useful against the Mandarin Duck Formation used by the Ming Army in Zhejiang, nothing more.

For this reason, Hong Chengchou not only asked James to train a Spanish phalanx, but also asked Wang Sheng to practice a mandarin duck formation as a comparison, so as to better see the doorway.

The first confrontation was on the fifth day of the first lunar month, and the other armies had already rested, but these two troops were still training by relying on rewards to maintain morale, but for the first confrontation, the Mandarin Duck Formation was almost instantly flattened by the Spanish phalanx, and Hong Chengchou couldn't help but be surprised.

For this reason, Hong Chengchou summoned Wang Sheng, and ordered him to retrain after beating the board, and after ten days, it didn't look as bad as before. And this time, he could really see that although the Mandarin Duck Array tried its best to resist, it was really too difficult to rely on two wolf warriors to fight against a dozen spears on the opposite side, and its final collapse was not deliberate by Wang Sheng.

With this achievement, Hong Chengchou couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and the gloom after the failure of the four provincial capitals was also swept away. The generals and staff members present have been fighting in the officialdom for many years, and observing words and colors is the most basic ability, and it can be seen that Hong Chengchou is in a good mood, and the atmosphere in the whole tent has also risen a lot, and it is not too much to laugh and laugh.

The people present, even the Jesuit monk named James, also knew that what Hong Chengchou was thinking about was nothing more than to exterminate the Ming army that had been a disaster in Zhejiang for three years. At present, relying on the formation and training of the Spanish phalanx is successful, as long as the scale of the formation and training is expanded, with the manpower, material and financial resources of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it is only a matter of time before the Ming army is overwhelmed.

In contrast, Hong Chengchou thought about this more carefully. The Zhejiang Ming army is very strong, which is true, but compared to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, their foundation is too thin, just like the Houjin of the year, even if they can win a big victory in every battle, but the Ming court can continue to reorganize its forces and launch counterattacks by relying on its huge national strength advantage. The Manchu Qing Dynasty could only rely on tactical victories again and again to support it, and there must not be a crushing defeat in the battle, and defeat was the situation of losing the country, even until the Battle of Songjin under his personal command.

Nowadays, the Manchu Qing Dynasty quickly occupied more land by attacking the city after entering the customs, but the main forces of the anti-Qing Dynasty were squeezed to the corners. And this Zhejiang Ming army has grown up step by step in such a crack, and at this moment it has even grown into a giant existence on the southeast battlefield, and the Manchu Qing can only rely on the huge advantage of national strength to barely hold the front. Between the two, the difference seems to be the next "Songjin War".

"This time, I, Hong Chengchou, will not be defeated again!"

Firming up the obsession in his heart, Hong Chengchou recalculated Chen Wen's strength. At the time of the suppression of the four provincial capitals, the Ming army in Zhejiang had seven war battalions, plus several thousand garrisons, which could quickly replenish the army if necessary, about 20,000 people. By the end of the day, they had recovered Yanzhou, Taizhou, and Wenzhou, doubled the area they occupied, and as far as he knew, it seemed that they had begun to cooperate with the Ming army in Fujian.

"In a few months, how many soldiers will you have, 30,000, or 40,000, that's probably that."

When he closed his eyes, he was reminded of a face he had never seen before, perhaps the greatest enemy in his life. However, the more he counted the troops, the more confident Hong Chengchou was in the decisive battle in a few months.

The occupation area of the Ming army in Zhejiang was flanked by strong enemies on the north and south lines, and it was impossible for Chen Wen to concentrate all his forces on the first line, and it was not easy to concentrate 25,000 on the Jiangxi battlefield. And in his hands, through the standard of the three towns, the Jiangxi promotion, and the Jiujiang town standard, as long as the Manchu court agreed, he could quickly reorganize the 25,000 army into the establishment needed by the Spanish phalanx. In addition, in that excerpt, he also applied for the transfer of 20,000 troops from the north to the south, of which 10,000 would be reorganized into the town before the standard and the town after the standard, and the Spanish phalanx would also be retrained.

At that time, not to mention that the Mandarin Duck Formation may not be able to withstand this Spanish phalanx, even if the two sides are evenly matched, the forces in his hands still have an absolute advantage, which is enough to destroy this Ming army.

"Now, it's just a matter of waiting for the emperor's will."

Nodding, Hong Chengchou continued to discuss military affairs with his generals and staff, but the next day, the holy decree from Beijing arrived in Nanchang in a hurry.

After reading the holy decree, Hong Chengchou couldn't help but burst into tears. "The emperor is trustworthy, and there is no foreign minister to hinder him, and the slave will punish the rebel thief Chen Wen in front of the emperor."

The next moment, I saw Hong Chengchou standing up, and the momentum of the whole person was like soaring into the sky, as if the Hong butcher had returned.

According to the original plan, the three towns of Jingbiao, Jiangxi and Jiujiang immediately gathered in Nanchang to train the Spanish phalanx. Before next year, completely sweep away Zhejiang's ** Kou! ”

………………

In February of the eighth year of Yongli, when Hong Chengchou was making the most important preparations for the complete extermination of the Ming army in Zhejiang, Chen Wen was inspecting the workshop of the Military Industry Department.

The huge waterwheel continues to rotate with the flow of the Dongyang River, and in the workshop connected to it, relying on the continuous rotation of the crankshaft connecting rod and gear, the huge iron hammer smashes the iron on the anvil like a chicken in Domi, and follows the push and pull of the craftsman to beat the whole iron into the shape they want.

Although it is early spring, Jinhua Mansion still has a hint of coolness, but the hydraulic workshop on the bank of the Dongyang River is in full swing, and what is even hotter is Chen Wen's heart.

"What is this iron used for?"

Seeing Chen Wen's question, the craftsman led by him hurriedly bowed to the ground and replied respectfully: "If you return to the country, this piece of iron is used for the accessories of the hydraulic bellows." ”

"Well, that's good." Chen Wen watched the hammer smash down, couldn't help but nodded, and then helped the trembling craftsman up. "I said it, you don't have to bow down when you reply, it's a waste of time, remember next time."

"Yes, the villain must remember the instructions of the national government."

Out of the workshop of the hydraulic forging hammer, the humming sound still lingered in his ears, and he continued to move eastward, and soon he entered another workshop that used hydraulic forging hammers to forge iron, but this time the forging hammer was very small, but the speed of striking the iron was much faster, and the piece of iron on the anvil was not very big and smashed into a small square piece of iron, but the thickness was a few points thicker than the ordinary nail leaf.

Picking up a piece of iron that had been built but was still a little hot, Chen Wen estimated the location of the punch hole and threw it back. After the forging is completed, it can be made into a set of armor after a series of steps such as punching, polishing, and weaving, which can be sold to the Fujian Ming army. In terms of production speed, it is not at all the original artificial construction - the kind of hammer hammer can be compared.

After testing, Zheng Chenggong's ordered armor can effectively resist the medium and long-range shots of bows and arrows, even close-range shots can consume most of the kinetic energy, and even the damage caused by ordinary bird guns is just the deformation of the armor leaf.

The results of these experiments are basically consistent with the experimental results of some European weapon enthusiasts in later generations for Chinese-style armor piercing, the human body will withstand a certain degree of kinetic energy, but it is not enough to constitute an effective armor-piercing kill. This armor is almost identical to the equipment used by the Iron Man Army recorded in the history books, and may even be better. However, with these hydraulic machinery, Chen Wen was already thinking about whether to toss out the plate armor at this moment.

Chen Wen was very satisfied with this inspection, and after two months, the hydraulic machinery was not only building weapons and equipment, but also participated in the process of manufacturing machinery. This is the power of industrialization, and in the days to come, Chen Wen believes that this power will be fully carried forward in China.

With joy, Chen Wen, a mechanical obsessive patient, returned to the Xiuguo Mansion and prepared to continue his official business. Who knows, just entered the lobby, but saw Huang Zongxi waiting for him.

"Mr. Lizhou, long time no see."

After Chen Wen and Zhou Yueying got married, Huang Zongxi returned to Yuyao to continue collecting intelligence. Chen Wen is very respectful of this big matchmaker, but this time Huang Zongxi was full of anger, and when he saw that Chen Wen was back, he picked up a copy of "Zhejiang Di Bao" and asked angrily: "Chen Wen, what do you mean by this?!" (To be continued.) )