I turned my head to look, and all I felt was my eyelids jumping. No, even the temples are beating suddenly!

A dozen of them flashed in front of us just now, and they didn't see it clearly because of the extremely short time. It turned out that two of them were carrying muskets behind their backs, and at this moment they had taken off the flat end in their hands, and were aiming and shooting, and the loud noise just now was made by them.

It should be said that their musket is not an advanced product, the body is thick and large, and it is quite bulky, and in order to fill the fire and pellets in an unstable state, the muzzle part is designed to be flare-shaped. It is undeniable that such a construction greatly increases the power at close range, but the range and accuracy are seriously weakened! I also have two similar varieties, but only as a collector's item, because this is a style that was quite popular more than a hundred years ago.

When the heavy pungent smoke cleared, the two sturdy stag collapsed, each with a bowl-sized wound on their shoulders near their necks, gurgling and gurgling blood. The two knights leaned forward on horseback, picked up two or three hundred pounds of dead deer from the ground with only one hand, turned around and put them on the horse's hind hips, and then shouted to each other and followed the deer away, without the slightest slowdown in the whole process.

The vibrations of my temples were so strong that I felt like my heart was beating so hard that I could barely bear the load. Although I was not very bold in the first place, after all, I was considered to have been in battle for a long time, and it stands to reason that I shouldn't be so rare or strange, but what happened in front of me was really shocking!

I have been in Japan for many years, and even the army I have built up has now reached a considerable scale, but to this day I have not established a "riding iron" unit, not because I have any prejudice or contempt for this form, but because I have tested that Japan does not have such conditions.

It is universally recognized that the Japanese are short in stature (otherwise they would not be called "Wato") and thin, and the situation of Keiji Maeda and Takatora Fujido is a very special case after all! Sitting on a horse and bearing the huge recoil of the musket is undoubtedly a "task" beyond the strength of their race.

As for Date Masamune's "riding iron", I think it is completely the speculation and chiseling of later generations, and its effect in reality is just a joke! First of all, in order to adapt to the instability of immediate combat, equipment, horses, and personnel are specially selected, and even muskets are specially made, even if the Date family has the rich gold mines in South Oshu, they can't stand this kind of consumption, and in the end they only equip one or two hundred people, this number is about the same as a guard, and the independent combat unit is too thin. Secondly, the modified musket is not only expensive but also greatly reduced, the best firing range is more than 10 meters, and the effective firing range is just over 20 meters, which is not enough to ensure accurate shooting in high-speed movement. It is not difficult to imagine that once such a force is facing the enemy cavalry, as long as the opponent remains calm in the face of casualties of up to thirty or so men in the first round of deafening roar, then it is completely possible to start a massacre without suspense in the rush of the cavalry to change weapons. So according to my opinion, the only role of the Date family's "riding iron" in this era is to deter the hearts of those "dirt buns" who don't open their eyes.

But the scene in front of me is real, as if someone in Beijing in 2006 suddenly showed off the weapons of "Star Wars"! This is the effect of using such a crude musket, so what if I equip my standard musket?

Originally, I just wanted to recruit a light cavalry as a supplementary force to the army, but now the formula has become: light cavalry + cavalry iron = ? Perhaps the most elite Guards Dragoons in Europe! It's not that I'm boasting, but my current firearms are in Europe, and they can catch up with the advanced level of a second-rate power...... It should be said that it is the level of the palace! Cossacks who were so armed...... If such a unit were to be presented to the daimyo of all Japan...... Just thinking about it is exciting enough! But for now, this is just wishful thinking on my part, and it depends on what happens in the end.

"Looks like these people are familiar with you, are they from your tribe?" After loading the "gift" in the car and starting again, I pretended to ask unintentionally.

"It's not!" Huo Sijin shook his head without hesitation. “…… They belonged to the Berlinsky family, headed by the Joseph brothers! Berlinsky is a large family of more than 700 people, and it is the dominant tribe of the South Kolin. The two Joseph brothers, in particular, were very remarkable young men. ”

"Oh......" I was slightly stunned, for this was the first time I had heard him mention the social makeup of the Cossacks. How many people are in your family, and aren't they in the same tribe? ”

"There are more than 1,000 of us in the Belinkoievich family, and the largest clan here, the Gilicetts, is ours and 11 other families...... Oh! He suddenly looked back at me, as clever as he understood the subtext of my question. However, he correctly understood my original intention, so he did not have any excessive suspicions, but nodded with deep feeling and said: "Your worries are not unreasonable, after all, the Cossack forces here are not very unified now, and many decisions are actually the product of mutual compromise, which is not necessarily very wise!" ”

"That's right......" I nodded wordlessly, glad that we could understand each other, but at the same time vaguely worried about the difficulty of the matter.

In fact, it is easy to understand that judging from the speed of the eastward migration of Ivan IV of Russia in history, these people have been in Hokkaido, Japan for less than ten years, especially since they still migrated in batches, and they may not know each other before settling down. Perhaps a unified migration "torrent" will naturally produce a natural leader after a long ordeal, but this is clearly not the case here, and the brief period of stability has not yet led to the growth of a new generation of leaders. This necessitates that I have to deal with a large number of opponents at the same time, because there is limited space for survival, and these tribes are restrained by each other according to the proportion of their strength.

"So what's your 'point' here?" In order to avoid wasting unnecessary energy and time, I decided to get straight to the point. "I hope you don't get me wrong, I just want to talk directly to those who have the power to decide about our problems! Whether it is successful or not, I think we should be open and honest, so that both sides can get the 'things' that each other needs most as soon as possible, which is our common goal. Please forgive me for being blunt, we know that the basis of cooperation is what is conducive to the progress of things! ”

"You're right, but I think so too!" Huo Si King was also very impressed by my words, and then went on to elaborate on their situation here.

There are currently more than 50,000 Cossacks in Hokkaido, divided into 13 clans of various sizes, each of which is made up of several families. In fact, the so-called "clans" are groups of families that formed when they began to migrate to Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic coast. In the 20 years of migration, war, and production and labor, the marriage of various families within the tribe became inevitable, so the connection within the tribe was quite close.

Of the 13 tribes, three are the most powerful: the Gilitz tribe to which the Hoskin family belongs; the South Kolin clan to which the Berlinsky family belongs, to whom I have just met; The combined population of the Don tribes, which have vast territories in the north, is more than half of more than 50,000 people, and the rest of the smaller tribes, such as North Kolin, are mostly attached to these three tribes. Therefore, when it comes to resolving those major matters related to fate, the final decision is in the hands of the United Presbyterian Church headed by these three families. Hoskin wanted to introduce me first to his grandfather, Isaac•Belinkoievich, one of the elders of the Federation, and then his grandfather proposed a council of elders.

“…… Maybe a little impersonal, but I don't want you to move this thing forward in a private, separate contact, because this will undoubtedly lead to a split in the entire Cossack! One more thing: if the Elders make a decision to the contrary, then we of the Glitz clan will not accept your 'kindness' alone, please understand this! Finally he said this, and turned to stare at me with blazing eyes.

"Hiss......" I took a deep breath and met his gaze firmly. This person is not only smart and round, but also has his own principles, and it is safe to cooperate with such a person. "I grant your request!" I held out my hand to him.

"Thank you for your understanding!" He also stretched out his hand and shook it vigorously with me.

"That's right! I just saw the iron cannons they use when hunting, and I wonder how much of this kind of weapon you have in your hands? I continued to ask questions about the details of how to work together, while moving my numb right hand below.

"There are some, not a lot!" He said with some regret: "We Cossacks have a tradition of using iron cannons, and in the Moscow court my ancestors fought side by side with Latvian musketeers!" It's just that our muskets were badly damaged after long migrations, and although we were supplied by the tsarist army in the wars with the Kazan Khanate and the Siberian Khanate, they were still far from keeping up with the speed of consumption, and the number of iron cannons in the regular Russian army was also very scarce. We have a lot of blacksmiths, but we can't do it without parts! ”

"What if...... I'm just saying that if you get a supplement, how many people can you get up to speed quickly? ”

"As many people as you need with a little training, until the number of cannons exceeds our population!" Huo Sijin's answer was full of confidence, and even a little proud. "What we lack now is equipment, and we can't practice with our mouths without real guns and live ammunition! In fact, as long as you are willing to spend the money, even teenagers can reach that level just now. We Cossacks are born warriors, not to mention scimitars and equestrianism, and iron cannons can be trained much faster than you Japanese! ”

"Have you seen the Japanese daimyo iron artillery team?" I was a little surprised by that.

"Yes!" He nodded, his eyes full of smiles. "I've seen Anton's iron artillery team fighting, and although it was far away at the time, I could roughly see it! It's ...... that such a good weapon can be made like this Ay! The regret was palpable.

"The quality of the iron cannon in the Tohoku region and the quality of the iron cannon Ashigaru cannot be compared with the developed areas of! We can talk more about that......"