The so-called concern is chaos, with Wang Shizhen's cleverness, the associations at this time are too rich, in fact, Lin Yiqing came to Shanhaiguan, not to embarrass the mountain people.

At this time, Lin Yiqing was in Ye Zhichao's big tent, drinking happily with Ye Zhichao and talking freely.

"Lord Lin, I already knew that you were coming, and I was thinking about how to greet you, but you secretly went ashore in advance, and I don't know where you have been going these days, shouldn't you see all the bottom of my Ye someone, right?" After Ye Zhichao drank a large glass of wine, he said to Lin Yiqing with a pun on his face.

"Lord Ye is serious, hehe, brother, I just walked around casually, took a look, and learned about the local customs, as well as the equipment and appearance of your army." Lin Yiqing raised his glass and shook it at Ye Zhichao, and drank it all, "Lord Ye's department is really elite, it can be seen that Lord Ye is quite good at training and fighting, my brother admires it very much, it's just the equipment of your army...... Hehe, I'm a rectum, I can't talk around the corner, please forgive me Lord Ye. ”

"Lord Lin doesn't have to be polite, you say that, you don't treat me as an outsider, hehe, it's exactly what I want." Ye Zhichao laughed loudly, "I have always respected Lord Lin, Lord Lin is in Japan, and he defeated Rakshasa Maozi and lost, I, Ye someone, have just suppressed long-haired bandits and handmaidens, where can I compare with Lord Lin." Don't hide it from Lord Lin, the army I trained, the court also has a reputation, but it's just a fiction, I know it myself, you say that my army's equipment is poor, that's actually not bad at all, you're welcome, the mountain people here, I'm afraid the equipment is better than mine, hehe. But it can't be helped. Who called us the Brave Battalion? It's not like Babu and Youth Hostel. It was supported by the imperial court. If you give me even half of the money of the eight youth brigades, my subordinates will be different, but of course it can't be compared with the Satsuma elite soldiers in Lord Lin's hands back then, I heard that your soldiers, a foreign gun, are really envious to death, haha. Ha ha! ”

Hearing Ye Zhichao unabashedly say that his troops' equipment was poor, Lin Yiqing couldn't help but have a new impression of this "general of the defeated army" and "general of straw bag" that had been written into the textbooks in his original historical time and space.

In fact, before he crossed over, he already knew that many of the charges added to Ye Zhichao could not be established (see "The Sinking Jiawu" for details, by Chen Yue).

And the current situation of Shanhaiguan's defense that he knows also gives him a deep understanding of the military situation of this old empire.

The equipment of the Qianguo Army was far worse than he had imagined.

Take the Shanhaiguan Zhenguan Luying that Lin Yiqing saw as an example. Its establishment is as follows: 1 guerrilla in the middle battalion (the guerrilla office is in the west of the market in the south gate), 1 garrison (the garrison office is in the east of Zhonglou South Road), 1 thousand general, 4 generals, 5 foreign commissioners, 3 additional foreign commissioners, and 117 horsemen. 394 guards and 125 horses; He is in charge of 2 squares in the southwest and northwest of the city, 2 passes in the west and north of the city and 4 places in Baojia, and has jurisdiction over 5 chimney piers in the west and south of the city; The armament was: 844 arrows, 724 knives, 27 rattan cards, 244 bird guns, horse guns, foreign guns, 43 sub-mother cannons, Weiyuan cannons, iron shouting cannons, mountain splitting cannons, lifting cannons, and Western camp cannons.

The right battalion has 1 capital division (the capital division office is at the east gate of the city), 1 garrison (the garrison office is in the capital department), 1 thousand generals, 4 generals, 5 foreign commissions, 3 additional foreign commissions, 115 horsemen, 368 guards, and 122 horses; He is in charge of 2 squares in the southeast and northeast of the city, 2 passes and 4 baojia in the east and south of the city, and 3 chimney piers in the east of the city; The equipment is 749 arrows, 27 rattan cards, 478 waist knives, brand knives, machetes, 235 bird guns, horse guns, and foreign guns, 32 sub-mother guns, Weiyuan guns, iron shouting guns, mountain splitting guns, and carrying guns, and there are no foreign cannons.

This is part of the establishment and equipment data of the Ming Army Yong Battalion stationed in Shanhaiguan. The army that protected the port market town was also divided into two parts: the middle battalion and the right battalion. The middle battalion had 117 cavalry and 394 infantry, for a total of 511 soldiers. These soldiers had 244 shotguns, 43 artillery pieces, and a total of 287 firearms. The right battalion had 115 cavalry and 368 infantry, a total of 483 soldiers, who were armed with 235 muskets of various kinds, 32 artillery pieces.

According to these figures, the proportion of firearms owned by the cadres is more than 50 percent. According to Lin Yiqing's understanding from some books, the cadre army "has had 1,000 soldiers in each unit since the 57th year of Quanlong, with three bows and arrows, and seven shotguns." Three thousand soldiers were selected for the Youth Brigade, half of each with shotguns, swords and spears. As a result, there were 3,000 new soldiers, 50 percent of whom were shotguns, 30 percent of bows and arrows, and 2 percent of swords and spears for every 1,000 people. That is to say, as a regular army of cadres, the armament of the muskets of the Eighth Division and the Youth Brigade has also reached 50 percent. The ratio of firearms and equipment of the eight soldiers and the youth brigade soldiers is about the same, and this proportion should be customized by the Qianguo army.

Although Ye Zhichao's unit is equipped with a large number of firearms, most of them are old, and there are few new-style foreign guns and cannons, although Li Shaoquan has worked hard to add new equipment to this unit, but with the results that Lin Yiqing has seen now, it is still far from enough.

Compared to the Satsuma army under his command, the cadre army is too far behind.

Ye Zhichao was ordered to guard the important Shanhaiguan, and it cannot be said that he did his best, but the so-called Qiao woman is difficult to cook without rice, and such inferior equipment can also be said to be able to make the troops look like they are now.

"Lord Lin, you may have also watched, my army, there are not many cannons, and many of them are old cannons, it is okay to put them on the city and the fort twice, but you can't use them in the field, there are many cavalry in my team, and this is also for this." Ye Zhichao's words show that his understanding of modern warfare is not confused, "Like you did in Japan, you made a large artillery battalion into battle, a bombardment, and the trouble was solved, I was called an envy in my heart, and I also wanted to build an artillery battalion to come out, like you, and practice, but unfortunately I haven't been able to get it up, alas!" ”

Hearing Ye Zhichao say that his huge army did not have an artillery camp, Lin Yiqing couldn't help but sigh secretly in his heart.

According to his understanding of the history of this empire, before and after the Bo people entered the customs, they actually attached great importance to the use and manufacture of artillery. The Bo people once imitated the first red-coated cannon on their own, began to train "cannon armor", and continued to develop artillery. "The teacher must carry it". On the eve of customs entry. The Boren army has nearly 100 red-coated cannons. By the time of Emperor Ningxu. The use and manufacture of artillery reached its peak, for example, in the thirteenth to twenty-sixth years of Ningxu alone, nearly 600 European-style artillery pieces were built under the supervision of Western missionaries. In the battles of Ulan Butong, Yaksa, and Chaomodo, artillery played a key role. In the thirtieth year of Ning Xu, he established a firearms battalion in the eight Beijing battalions, including 8,000 artillery armor. Unfortunately, after the end of the large-scale foreign conquest during the Ningxu period, the imperial court valued the bow and arrow and despised firearms, and the development of guns and artillery came to a standstill. Or even backwards.

Before and after the Anti-Smoking War, the standard firearms in the cadre army were mainly artillery, guns, and shotguns. Those above five or six hundred catties to eight or nine thousand catties are heavy artillery, which are mainly deployed in coastal defense fortresses and forts; Those under 400 catties are light artillery. But most of the styles are old one or two hundred years ago, and they are in disrepair and of poor quality. During the war, although provinces such as Guangdong and Zhejiang also purchased and improved some new artillery, most of them were short-lived and did not play a big role. After the anti-smoking war, there was still no improvement in the equipment of the cadre army. For example, when the Shengping army went to Yuezhou in northern Hunan Province, they seized hundreds of cannons under 1,000 catties buried by Wushangui 180 years ago, and they also became invincible "artifacts". has been fighting Jinling, and the cadres and troops cannot resist.

Later, Zeng Bohan organized and trained the Hunan army. It is modeled after the law of restraining the army, and I do not want the brave battalion to replace the brigade in a few years, and it will become the dominant military system for the next 30 or 40 years of the cadre army. In the process of development, the battalion system of the Hunan army has also undergone several changes, at the beginning of the establishment of 360 people for a battalion, and then the Hunan army battalion system was changed to a battalion of 500 people. The first battalion of the land division includes 4 sentry posts (two teams of guns, two teams of bird guns and 4 teams of knives and spears for each outpost) and 6 teams of personal soldiers, of which the first and third teams of the 6 teams of pro-soldiers are equipped with mountain splitting guns (the remaining 4 teams are one team of bird guns and 3 teams of knives and spears), and each team of mountain splitting artillery has 12 people and 2 guns. The battalion has an establishment of 505 people, plus 180 long-term husbands. A total of 4 mountain splitting cannons, 24 guns, 99 shotguns, and knives and spears were equipped. The military system of the Hunan army has the greatest influence on the battalion system of the land division, not only the battalion system of the naval division and the horse team was born from this, but also the establishment of the Huai army, the training army, the defense army, and the patrol team in the future are all based on this.

In fact, the Hunan Army, like the Youth Brigade, did not establish an independent artillery unit, and only attached two units under the battalion. In addition, the equipment is still dominated by the old-style mountain-splitting guns, and there are very few new-style foreign guns. The first reason is that it is not easy to purchase; Second, they have little contact with foreigners, and they do not fully understand the power of the new foreign artillery.

Because of this, the equipment of the Hunan army has not been improved for a long time, which has had a certain impact on its combat methods and effectiveness. For example, in the siege battles of Anqing and Tianjing, the Hunan army was besieged by "Zeng Iron Bucket" for a long time, and finally used the method of digging tunnels and blasting to work. After the pacification of the Shengping Army and the Silk Army, a large number of Hunan troops were dismantled, and the Hunan Army on the left was far to the northwest.

Lin Yiqing knows that the meaning of modern artillery is not just to look at the use of new cannons. What is more important about the so-called modern artillery is the introduction of Western-style drills and combat methods and the adoption of corresponding establishments, so as to improve them in all aspects. From this point of view, there has not yet been artillery in the modern sense among the Hunan army. The modern artillery of the Qianguo Dynasty was born in the Huai Army, and in addition to the influence of the British and French troops in Shanghai, the unique "victorious army" -- the foreign gun corps -- also played a catalytic role in it.

The predecessor of the Changsheng Army was the foreign gun team established by the American Wall in Shanghai. The foreign guns defeated the Shengping army in Tianma Mountain, and Xue Huan, the governor of Jiangsu, officially awarded the title of "Victorious Army". After that, the Changsheng Army, together with the British and French armies and the cadre army, defeated the Shengping army many times by virtue of superior firepower and became the main force of the cadre army's counterinsurgency troops.

At its peak, the Changsheng Army numbered as many as 6,500 men, organized into 5 infantry regiments and 1 sniper regiment, armed with smoothbore Mauser rifles and Lee ? Enfield-style rifles. The artillery of the Changsheng Army was very strong, and it was also the first modern artillery unit composed mainly of Chinese, organized into 4 siege heavy artillery squadrons and 2 field artillery squadrons. It is equipped with 3 24-pounder howitzers, 18 12-pounder mountain guns, 4 32-pounder howitzers, 2 8-inch cannons, 12 mortars, and several rockets. In addition, the victorious army also had a large river fleet, with more than 300 light warships (later reduced to more than 50), each equipped with 1 6-pounder or 9-pounder gun; There were 32 river steamers, each with 1 32-pounder gun and 1 12-pounder gun.

After Wall was killed in Cixi, the victorious army was successively led by Bai Qiwen and Olen, and was succeeded by British Major Gordon. During the Gordon period, the establishment of the Changsheng army was slightly adjusted due to the request of Li Shaoquan, the governor of Jiangsu at that time. The number dropped to about 3,500. But the artillery has not changed much. Only the squadron was renamed the company. Staffing of artillery companies. Depending on the type of artillery equipped, it generally ranges from 144 to 174 people, usually including 1 company commander and deputy commander, 2 captains, 1 military cao (all of the above are Westerners), 1 standard-bearer military Cao, 6 military Cao, 12 commanders, and 120 to 150 gunners (all of the above are Chinese). The shape of the guns has not changed significantly, but the number has increased slightly.

The Changsheng Army assisted the Huai Army in the battles of southern Jiangsu and made great contributions. Because the actions of the British and French armies were limited to the vicinity of Shanghai, when the Huai army broke out of Shanghai, it was all coordinated by the victorious army. Because the Huai army was first replaced with foreign guns at that time, the artillery team was small and uneven. Every time they attack a fortified position, they often rely on a lot of victorious armies. The heavy artillery of the victorious army, such as the 32-pounder gun, played a very important role in the storming of Taicang, Kunshan and later Suchang and other places, and some of the main steamers in the victorious army, such as the "Hyson" and "FireFly", were siege weapons carrying 32-pounder and 12-pounder howitzers. Because of this, Gordon became more and more difficult to control in the future, and although Li Shaoquan sent his deputy general Li Hengsong to run the Changsheng military management belt, he also felt more and more tricky. Wait for the "Suzhou Killing" incident to occur. The two are almost on the same page. Although a few months later, after Hurd's mediation, the victorious army entered the war again. But the rift between Li and Ge is difficult to bridge. Later, Li Shaoquan finally asked the imperial court for approval, and spent 100,000 taels of silver to dismiss the Chang Shengjun. However, it left its essence - 600 artillery teams and 300 foreign gun teams, which were incorporated into the Huai army sequence.

The artillery in the modern sense of the Qianguo was pioneered by the Huai Army. Because the Huai army was derived from the Hunan army, sixty percent of it was directly transferred from the Hunan army in the early stage. Of course, the initial battalion structure and equipment were the same as those of the Hunan army, but after arriving in Shanghai, Li Shaoquan personally saw that the foreigners had excellent sharp weapons, so he learned from the long skills of Yi, and within a few years, the Huai army abandoned the old cold and hot weapons and replaced them with foreign guns and cannons, becoming China's first army with fully modern equipment. After the pacification of the Shengping Army and the Silk Army, the Huai Army became the main pillar of the country's armed forces, and although there were various complicated reasons, the equipment and combat strength of the Huai Army was undoubtedly an important factor.

Before the 70s, the foreign artillery used by the cadres and the army mainly relied on foreign purchases and imports. At that time, what was imported was a front-loading gun, called an explosive cannon or a flowering cannon. According to the length of its body, it is divided into two categories: long bombers and short bombers. A long bomber is a cannon. The size of the shells is distinguished by their weight, with large shells weighing more than 100 pounds to hundreds of pounds, and small shells weighing a few pounds to more than 10 pounds. Qianguo imported 12 pounds, 24 pounds, 32 pounds and other kinds from Britain, France and other countries. Less than 12 pounds were generally used in field warfare, when field guns were about 16 to 18 times the length of the caliber, 110 to 150 times the weight of the shells, and a charge of one-quarter to one-third of the weight of the shells. When firing direct, the shells hit the ground at a distance of about 300 yards; If the angle of fire is increased, the range can reach 3000-4000 yards, but at such a distance, the probability of hitting the target is almost non-existent; Its effective range does not exceed 1400-1500 yards, and even at this distance, only one shot of 6 or 8 shells can hit the target. The 24-pounder and 32-pounder guns were heavy guns used in siege or on forts and warships. Some guns made for special purposes, with a total length of 22 to 25 times the caliber, had a large firing range and good hitting accuracy. The short bomb cannon is the mortar cannon (field chicken cannon or cupola cannon). At that time, there were 18-pound, 48-pound, and 108-pound short-bomber guns copied by the Qianguo. This type of gun has the shortest barrel, which is generally about 6 to 12 times the caliber. The diameter is larger, generally 13 inches, 15 inches or larger. When firing, it is fixed at an angle of 45 degrees, and the distance of the firing range is determined by adding or subtracting charges, such as the 18-pounder gun, which has more than 3 taels of medicine, the firing range is more than 1,000 meters, the muzzle velocity is 200-260 m/s, and the trajectory is curved. It is generally used for siege or equipment on warships, and can also be used in field battles. Due to its short barrel, the weight of the cannon is relatively light (the weight of the 18-pounder gun is no more than 50 catties), so it is agile; Due to its large firing angle and small muzzle velocity, the air resistance of the shell is not large, so the firing range is long; Due to its ballistic curve, it has a great power to help targets behind sheltered objects and covered fortifications, which is its advantage, and its disadvantage is that it has a small hit and poor accuracy.

In the early 60s, Qianguo began to imitate the newly introduced front-loading smoothbore guns, which later reached a climax in the Westernization Movement. The Suzhou Sample Artillery Bureau, which was established by Li Shaoquan, produced 24-pound pig iron field chicken cannons, with a monthly output of 6-7 pieces. In nine years, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau produced 12-, 16-, and 24-pound shells, pig iron and copper smoothbore front-loading guns. Under the supervision of the British, the Houjiangnan Manufacturing Bureau copied the British Armstrong-style 40-pound steel-bore wrought iron hoop front-loading rifled gun, that is, the steel pipe was used as the inner tube and a wrought iron hoop was added to increase the strength of the gun body. When this cannon was manufactured, a hot sleeve process was used. The caliber of the gun is 4.7 inches, the barrel length is 41 times that of the caliber, rifling, the firing range is long, the maximum firing range is 7900 yards, the penetration force of the shell and the accuracy of hitting, are greatly improved compared with the smoothbore gun, it is the earliest steel artillery manufactured in Qianguo, but the output is not high, so far, only 10 guns have been produced. (To be continued......)

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