Chapter 840 Autumn Point Soldiers on the Battlefield (II)

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The next day, the military exercise venue moved to Miyun, where hundreds of Chinese and foreign guests accompanied Emperor Longqing to visit the performance of the Ming artillery unit, and hundreds of Huzun cannons, general cannons, and Shenwei cannons were fired together, razing an abandoned village to the ground, which once again shocked everyone.

After the tactical drill. In the afternoon of the same day, the highlight of the exercise, a large-scale exercise involving 200,000 troops, began. On the eve of the exercise, in order to enable the officers and men of all walks of life to grasp the essentials of coordinated operations of the army, the staff and departments of the military headquarters made careful arrangements in accordance with the formal operational requirements, issued detailed and definite orders, and made precise arrangements for the places that each unit should arrive at and the tactical actions that should be completed. In order to enable the Department to undertake the mission of the future General Staff, the two of them planned to expand this department, which was originally "one member of the Erlang Middle School and four foreign directors" to a huge structure of "Shilang Zhong, eight foreign officers, and fifteen directors". It's just that considering that it will be too shocking to put it forward, so at present, it is just silently increasing the number of people and granting permissions, and is not ready to announce it in advance.

In order to live up to their mission, Staff Officer Lang Chung and Chief Commander Lang Chung inspected the battlefield in the Gyeonggi area several months in advance, and devised a detailed exercise plan in accordance with Shen Ming's instructions. In the plan, the participating troops will be divided into two armies...... Ma Fang led the troops of Xuanda and Jiliao, pretending to be Mongolian troops; And generals such as Qi Jiguang and Li Chengliang led the Beijing Army and the Northwest Frontier Army to play the role of Ming troops.

Unlike the traditional thinking of the Mongol offensive and the Ming army's defense, this exercise reversed the attack and defense of the two sides, with the Ming army as the active attacking party and the Mongolian army in the role of counterattacking after being attacked. The two sides practiced a series of tactical subjects such as raid and alarm, siege and defense, breakthrough and reinforcement, expansion and counterattack. The entire exercise lasted for 10 days, and there was even a fierce scene of no distinction between victory and defeat during the day and another battle at night.

However, for the emperor and Chinese and foreign guests, this kind of exercise that is not in front of him and does not see blood is really not as enjoyable as shooting a gun, even if some people who want to take the opportunity to get a glimpse of the reality of the Ming army, they are also politely persuaded to stay in the camp and wait for the results of the exercise.

Of course, Emperor Longqing was not idle, and took advantage of this opportunity to 'cordially receive' envoys at home and abroad in the camp. This huge military parade undoubtedly achieved good results, and all the toasts and leaders who were unruly before watching the exercise became obedient...... Even those representatives of Francois and the Netherlands also knelt down and kowtowed, kowtowing and touching the ground, completely ignoring the reason that 'there is no such custom in our country' that they had made up before for not kneeling to the Ming Emperor. ruthlessly satisfied the vanity of the emperor.

And Long Qing's gentle and polite attitude is no longer the 'weak and bulliable' they thought before, but the grace and bearing of the emperor of the Celestial Empire. Some big people were moved to cry because of the emperor's courtesy, expressing their willingness to serve the Ming Emperor for the rest of their lives, and they would never have two hearts. For such a toast, Longqing did not hesitate to reward, and added officials to the knighthood to show eternal grace.

As for the envoys of those vassal states, they also began to panic that the previous gifts were too thin, and they were worried that His Majesty the Great Emperor would be unhappy. But he replied generously from Longqing: "Thousands of miles to send goose feathers, the gift is light and affectionate." I'm rich all over the world, and I still lack this thing from you? Let Zhang Juzheng, who accompanied the reception, feel tight for a while, because the emperor was generous, and at least tens of thousands of taels of silver were rewarded.

However, he also knew that after the absurd rule of the Zhengde and Jiajing dynasties, the Ming Dynasty's control over the Tusi Fanbang had fallen to the freezing point...... The two guards of Wusizang and Duogan in Tibet existed in name only, and the Xiningwei and the four guards of Saiwai in Qinghai were simply replaced by the Mongols of Haixi, and they were basically separated from the rule of the imperial court. Not to mention these, just say that in the two capitals and 13 provinces, there is now the Wei Yinbao rebellion in Guangxi, the rebellion in Guangdong, and the rebellion of Guo Ming; Shaanxi Wei Taiqing Rebellion, He Shu Rebellion; the rebellion in Wanyang Mountain, Jiangxi; There have been more than ten rebellions in five provinces, including the rebellion of Feng Jizu in Yunnan, which is still the result of the efforts of various localities in recent years.

As long as you can pass this parade and make Daming have one less rebellion, then this expense will be worth it. Zhang Ju thought as he thought. In fact, he is still very satisfied with the effect of this military parade, and I believe that after this time, many careerists will have to weigh their own pounds before they want to rebel.

Zhang Juzheng's guess was not wrong, this huge military parade did achieve good results, and the Ming Dynasty's military prestige and the national policy of good-neighborliness and friendship aroused tremendous repercussions in various countries. In the years that followed, a total of twenty-seven countries and forty-two Tusi came to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, and there was a marked decrease in new rebellions in the country...... How important this was during the years of the war against Mongolia!

Another unexpected advantage is that among the Spanish delegates who watched the parade, there was actually an officer of the Spanish Expeditionary Force, after watching the military exercises of the Ming Dynasty, especially the shocking shooting horses, he went back and wrote a report on what he had seen and heard, so that the Spaniards had to reassess the military strength of the Ming Dynasty, stop the fleet that was already ready to go, and it took several years of preparation before they dared to start the war again.

Of course, that's all for later.

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If you ask these Chinese and foreign guests which details of the military exercise they want to know the most, most of them must be chosen, how did the Shenji Battalion's 'shooting war horses' do it? They also tried to find out the truth, but when they left, they did not get an answer...... Actually, there is nothing to keep secret, it's just that they didn't ask the right person. The people in charge of the reception were all officials from the Ministry of Rites and Honglu Temple, how could they know the structure of the Ming Dynasty's firearms, and it was impossible to help them inquire, so they could only go back with questions full of questions and leave them for later answers.

For the answer to this question, the governors and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were also hungry, but happier than the former, they could directly entangle Shen Mo and break the sand pot to ask the end...... In fact, these days, in addition to leading troops in exercises, the generals talk about the most is this new type of firearm with extremely amazing power, range, and rate of fire. As the best military talents of this era, how could they not know that the birth of such a weapon may lead to a change in the entire mode of warfare?

Some people guess that one person in the Shenji Battalion brought three guns at that time? This prompted a merciless ridicule at the time, and everyone asked him to try to hide two spears on his body, which was simply impossible.

Some people say, is it the legendary 'Lianzi Gong'? This drew a chorus of approval. As high-ranking generals, they all know that more than ten years ago, the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry had developed a magical repeating handcuff. Its body is made of copper alloy, and the rear part of the chamber is filled with gunpowder, which is packed in small paper cylinders in advance, and the paper tubes are separated by paper, and a hole is inserted in the middle, and a powder wire is inserted, and the powder wire is connected to each other. Each cartridge is connected from the bottom of the gun, and each section of gunpowder fires a projectile. There is an iron cylinder erected in the middle of the chamber, which is filled with projectiles, and the first projectile is fired from the gunpowder in the first section of the paper cylinder, and the second section of gunpowder is automatically ignited after the launch, and the second projectile automatically falls into the chamber and is fired out by the second section of gunpowder, so as to achieve continuous firing.

Just when everyone thought the answer came out, someone scoffed at it, and the man told them that the so-called Lianzigong can be played with nothing, but it can't be used on the battlefield to kill people at all. Because he was Qi Jiguang, everyone couldn't laugh at him, so they could only ask: "How do you know that you can't kill people?" ”

Qi Jiguang replied calmly: "Because I used to be the deputy general of the Shenji Battalion. The crowd did not dare to question the authority now, but they still asked him to explain why. Qi Jiguang told them that when he was in the Shenji Battalion, he was very interested in this kind of gun, and carefully studied it, not only the operation is complicated, but also the error rate is extremely high when firing, and the most important thing is that the range is quite pitiful, so it is okay to play in ordinary times, but the only use in actual combat is to turn the gun head and use it as a hidden weapon to smash people.

"I look at that firearm, it is definitely not the style of Lianzigong, and the range is far more than it, the two are definitely not the same thing." Everyone knew that Qi Jiguang was very cautious in his speech, so he no longer thought about it, but left this question at the summary meeting after the exercise and asked Shen Ge Lao a question.

Shen Mo was entangled helplessly, so Wu Dui, the soldier in charge of the quartermaster, revealed the mystery.

Wu Dui ordered people to get two guns, one is the bird gun that the Ming army is now commonly equipped with, and the other is the new musket used by the Shenji Battalion during the military exercise. The generals carefully examined the two guns, and found that the latter was much smaller than the former, and the firing device seemed to be different.

Wu Dui was rigorous by nature, and explained them in detail: "This latter gun is produced in the General Ordnance Factory directly managed by the Ministry of War, and the emperor has named it 'Longqing Rifle', and its principle is different from the bird gun you are familiar with, but it is also derived from Taixi ......."

Speaking of which, the birth of this 'Longqing-style' rifle is also thanks to the thirty-four years of Jiajing, when Shen Mo and Ruohan met the Japanese Kou, it was at that time that Shen Mo saw the short gun in Ruohan's hand. As a weapon enthusiast in his previous life, he recognized at a glance that they were two flintlock-style short guns, which were more advanced than the bird guns that the Ming army had just installed.

Speaking of birds, its style is almost no different from the rifles of later generations, but it is thicker and longer. It was introduced to Japan from Europe, and then to the Ming Dynasty, which closed itself off from the country, with the invasion of the Japanese invaders. According to the captured 'iron cannons', the Ming army imitated a batch of guns, because the size of the muzzle was like a bird's beak, so it became a bird's gun.

However, it is an indisputable fact that in the Ming Dynasty of this era, industrial science began to lag behind the West. Just when the Ming army regarded the bird gun as a treasure, a new type of musket came out in Europe and began to be equipped with troops.

Fortunately, in this era of the Ming Dynasty, there is a great importance to Europe silent, he learned that there are flintlock pistols in the world, he has been thinking about it, and later became the prefect of Suzhou, after the reopening of the city, he secretly issued an order, at all costs, but also from Europe to get all the most advanced firearms technology! Whether it's a sample, a drawing, or a craftsman, as long as you can get it, you will be rewarded!

As his status grew, so did the command. Whether it is a merchant from Europe who came to the Ming Dynasty, or a Ming man who followed the fleet to Europe, he knew about his reward. The heavy reward will have results, and the news about European firearms has been summarized to Shen Mo along with the merchant ships that arrived in Daming.

It turned out that although arquebuses were still commonly used in European armies, as early as the early 16th century, that is, 50 years ago, the German clockmaker and gunsmith Kiefus invented a new firing device...... It is said that this man was inspired by the moment he observed the flint rubbing and producing sparkling sparks, and he combined the jagged rotating steel wheel of a clock with a flint capable of producing sparks. With his experience and wisdom, in 1515 AD, he successfully developed the world's first revolver musket.

Kiefus's invention of the revolver attracted the attention of the Germans, and soon the guns began to be equipped with German cavalry and infantry, and twenty years later in a battle between Germany and France, the German cavalry was armed with a number of revolver muskets, and the French army was still armed with arquebuses. In the course of the battle, the French army armed with arquebuses barely fired a single shot, while the German cavalry, which used the revolver musket as the main weapon, became more and more brave and defeated the French soldiers.

However, this weapon was never able to be popularized outside of Germany, because it had some serious shortcomings, that is, the construction was very complicated, it was quite difficult to make, and it was easy to damage when squeezed, so it was expensive, and its application in other countries was limited to palace guards, noble bodyguards, etc., except for the Prussians, who were somewhat paranoid about weapons. So it was born for many years, and it did not shake the status of the arquebus.

However, the mechanical ignition of the revolver is very superior to the arquebus ignition of the arquebus, so the manufacturers have tried their best to find a mechanical device that can replace the revolver ignition and is relatively simple. Soon the Spaniards, the most powerful military in Europe, improved the retainer by removing the clock-bearing steel wheel and instead clamping a flint to the jaws of the hammer and an anvil by the fire hole. If it is necessary to shoot, the trigger is pulled, and under the action of the spring, the flint is hit heavily on the side of the fire door, and a spark emerges, igniting the ignition powder, and this firing mechanism is called a percussive flintlock machine, and this firearm is called a 'percussive flintlock pistol'.

The percussive flintlock pistol greatly simplifies the firing process, improves the firing rate and shooting accuracy, is easy to use, and the cost is low, and it is convenient for mass production, but the new thing replaces the old thing, there must always be a process, after decades of repeated improvements, according to the latest news, the Spanish army has begun to replace this firearm, but apparently not all of them have been reloaded, at least in the colony of the Spaniards, have not seen this firearm. Otherwise, the Spanish officer would not have been surprised to be like that.

Da Ming was able to imitate this kind of firearm before other countries, half thanks to Shen Mo, a person with a heart, and half to thank those who worked hard to smuggle the flintlock pistol that was still secret in Spain back to China.

But on that day, the Divine Machine Battalion was able to display its might, and it relied on two other magic weapons-

Partition -

This drill was played by Qi Jiguang back then, those real parties, don't say I'm making it up. In fact, no matter what I write, I always research it first, and yes, there is nothing I make up blindly. R