In Zhu Ping'an's mind, the Manchu iron cavalry outside the gate has always been the most dangerous enemy. There is actually no good way to deal with this kind of fierce cavalry, either to train an equally elite cavalry division, or to use the development of science and technology, that is, to deal with it, muskets and artillery are also the natural nemesis of this type of troops.

If you think about the record of the British and French alliance against the elite cavalry of the Eight Banners under the command of 30,000 monks and Grinqin, you can see how lethal the musket was to the cavalry of the cold weapon era.

However, Zhu Ping'an ignored one thing. In the middle of the 16th century, the French watchmaker Mahan perfected and innovated the flintlock pistol, which was already available but was only the plaything and collector's item of the princes and nobles, based on the research of the German Kivers and the Spaniards. He clamped a flint to the jaws of the hammer. There is also an anvil on the side of the fire hole, and 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 sparks emerge and ignite the gunpowder. The firing mode of this structure, which replaces the open flame firing mode of the previous arquebus, greatly enhances the safety and improves the firing speed. As a result, the flintlock pistol began to enter service in the army, but it was only in the early 18th century that it really became a standard weapon.

As the innovator and promoter of the flintlock pistol, the French Army only equipped the flintlock pistol with grenadiers at the end of the 17th century, and it was not until 1717 that the flintlock pistol was explicitly designated as the standard weapon of the army, and was distributed to various infantry regiments of the Navy and Army.

Therefore, Zhu Ping'an has to face a problem, for today's Ming Dynasty, including the Francophile man, the flintlock pistol is an unattainable weapon.

However, there is still a little hope in addition to being discouraged. In the eighth year of Chongzhen, Bi Maokang invented a flintlock pistol in the original sense, but due to the immaturity of technology, the shooting accuracy and range have large deviations, and the cost is high, so it was not popularized at that time. Now that I think about it, as long as I can find this work by Bi Maokang and improve it, I may not be able to get good results.

But as far as the current conditions are concerned, now that López's arquebus has been introduced, it is imperative to start training immediately, after all, it is not far from the time when the Manchu Tartars will enter the army again.

Zhu Ping'an picked up a musket, wiped the oil stains on the gun with a cotton cloth, weighed the weight, and walked to the back of a camp tent next to it, facing the mountains and forests.

Zhu Ping installed the primer and fired the gunpowder, and then fed the projectile contained in his mouth into the barrel of the gun, and tamped the gunpowder projectile with a strip. It is undeniable that the operation of this arquebus is extremely complicated. Rao is Zhu Ping'an has also been in contact with the firecrackers in the craftsman's workshop, and the speed of operation is still not fast at this time.

With Zhu Ping'an's order, a pro-soldier ran over, lit the musket of the musket, looking at the burning rope, Yue Jinfeng and Qiu Ze glanced at each other, and couldn't help but be a little worried, now in the Ming army, except for the border towns, there are very few people who use muskets, and the musket in the Ming army has a very high probability of exploding, not to mention that this is still a commodity obtained by overseas barbarians, Yue Jinfeng and others are always a little unbelievable.

Zhu Ping'an is calm and abnormal, whether it is the experience of grinding in the army in later generations, or following Yao Shaoqin's fighting, he has more or less come into contact with things like muskets, so he does not have a natural sense of rejection of muskets like Yue Jinfeng and others. Besides, the products of the French were brand-name goods at that time. To put it mildly, it's much better than the ones in the Daming Arms Workshop.

Zhu Ping'an flat-ended the musket, aimed at a big tree that could be surrounded by two people about sixty steps away, said that the metal hook pressed into the fire door of the musket, pulled the trigger, and the falling fire rope ignited the primer, and the primer instantly ignited the gunpowder in the barrel, a dazzling white light flashed with a thunderous sound, and a bullet hole appeared on the opposite tree, and several pieces of bark debris scattered in all directions.

Zhu Ping'an estimated the time, from the charge to the launch, the time during the period was about a little more than two minutes, which was still based on the fact that he was not unfamiliar with arquebuses. And now in the Thousand Households, the soldiers control the arquebuses made by the craftsmen, and it usually takes about three minutes to fire them at a time, and if you use this speed to deal with the Tartar cavalry, plus the consideration of the range, it is already the limit to be able to launch a salvo in a battle against the cavalry.

Two approaches are needed to solve this problem. First, improve the proficiency of the soldiers in handling the musket and shorten the firing time, of course, this method is a palliative rather than a cure. When Qi Jiajun controlled muskets and other firearms, he also clearly listed ten operating procedures, and it took at least a minute or so for skilled soldiers to complete them step by step; Second, it is to adapt measures to local conditions and improve the performance of arquebuses, it can also be said that according to the existing muskets, it is best to transform them into flintlock guns, and it can also overcome the problems of short range and low accuracy, but Zhu Ping'an also understands that it is much more difficult than the first method to do this.

Therefore, the only way to find a way is to use the existing equipment first.

The Ming army has always had the equipment of a bird gunner, but Zhu Ping'an always felt awkward about the word "bird", so he called the bird gunner under his command a musketeer. In order to avoid weighing the weight of gunpowder in wartime, the army equipped the musketeers with bamboo tubes of the same size to distribute a certain amount of gunpowder in advance, and one of them was placed with a projectile. In battle, the amount of gunpowder in a bamboo tube is just enough for one shot.

Looking at these bamboo pipes and the wooden pipes that he found because of his ugliness, Zhu Ping'an suddenly thought of one thing - fixed gunpowder. Aren't these the first types of gunpowder to be ordered?

Wouldn't it be more convenient to replace bamboo tubes with paper tubes that are more easily and precisely handmade zuò? Isn't it also the prototype of the paper-shelled bullet that briefly appeared in later generations?

Putting the quantitative gunpowder and projectiles in a paper tube, when fighting, you only need to bite open a hole, pour some into the fire door, and put the rest into the barrel for compaction, doesn't this save some time? At the same time, it also reduces the burden on the soldiers, and they can carry more ammunition!

Zhu Ping'an's eyebrows fluttered as he spoke, but he didn't notice the same look in Liu Xiaodao's eyes beside him. He peeked at the handcuff on his waist, as well as the gunpowder gourd and projectile iron box tied to his belt, and swallowed a mouthful of saliva, "The adults are really clever, it's the villains who are fighting at sea, so that you can shoot two more rounds out of thin air!" ”

Zhu Ping'an greeted, and Yue Jinfeng immediately found a veteran, who was also an expert in controlling muskets. After a short period of effort, his soldiers made more than ten paper tubes to order gunpowder, and the amount of gunpowder in them was all weighed and tried to be accurate.

The old pawn fiddled with the musket for a while, but it was actually the same as the Ming Dynasty's bird gun principle. That's when the reloading began. After pouring medicine, charging, pressing fire, loading, and loading the fire rope, Zhu Ping'an secretly calculated that it could be completed within one minute, and with a little training, it was definitely not a problem to launch twice a minute.

Zhu Ping'an nodded with satisfaction, these days he is busy making a booklet called "Infantry Drill Code", which is actually the product of adaptation according to local conditions according to the drill codes of the later German and French armies. In the future wars, even if it is a cold-weapon battle, the army's technology, discipline, and normative index must reach a high level, so that the overall strength can be brought into full play, and at the same time, it can cover up some shortcomings in individual soldiers and equipment, so it is imperative to unify the training of non-commissioned officers and strengthen discipline, so that non-commissioned soldiers can still mechanically maintain the standardization of tactical movements in the face of bullets and bullets.

Zhu Ping'an's idea was to use the "Infantry Drill Code" to turn the 1,200 soldiers of the three hundred households under his command into a stable collective. After all, 90 percent of the non-commissioned officers in the army now do not know a single word, and the form of teaching is absolutely unworkable, so it is better to gather the officers together for cramming teaching, and then use the officers to drive the training of the non-commissioned officers. With points and areas, slowly make the whole team form a joint force.

This code of conduct also contains the code of operation of the musketeers, and now it seems that some of its contents need to be revised, and in the future, once the flintlock pistol is successfully improved and equipped to the troops, the content of the code will need to be improved again.

The top priority now is to need a few real professional soldiers to act as instructors and implement Zhu Ping'an's ideas perfectly and comprehensively.

So, Zhu Ping'an thought of Lopez again, "Leader Liu......!" Zhu Ping'an asked with a grin.

"You don't have to be polite, just call me a knife!"

Liu Xiaodao tested a few rounds of paper-shell ammunition, and in addition to being horrified, his impression of Zhu Ping'an also changed greatly, and his tone immediately became humble.

"Looks like I'm going to trouble you and Mr. López!"

"What do you say, you and I are now working together and making great achievements, Mr. López also respects you, what do you want, but it doesn't matter, as long as it is something that is within the reach of a small man."

Zhu Ping'an said his thoughts, and his original intention was nothing more than to hire some retired officers from the Franc machine or the Europa Army power to start the modernization process of strengthening the army under his command. As early as the Wanli period, there were retired officers and soldiers of the Franc machine in the coastal area to join the ranks of the maritime merchants or pirates, and when the Houjin used the army in that year, the Ming army directly hired the officers of the Franc machine to participate in the command of the firearms troops, and some of them died bravely outside the pass, and were commended and bereaved by the imperial court.

Now, Zhu Ping'an is trying to figure out the relationship between the Guò López business group and find some professional soldiers to join his army.

Zhu Ping'an patted Liu Xiaodao's shoulder with a pleasant face, "Don't worry, this is still business, and you won't suffer a loss if you break it." Those who are willing to come are settled according to the annual salary system, and if they go into battle but are injured, they will have a pension, and even if they die in battle, they will have a settlement bank. Those who do not want to go into battle can be relieved to be staff officers or instructors in our army. However, I only need professional soldiers, and I'm not interested in pirates, prisoners, adventurers, or anything like that! ”

Liu Xiaodao smiled, "This adult can rest assured, there are many retired Franc machine officers in our business group, who have made a special trip to Daming to earn silver, how can they not come with such a bargain, I am afraid that the adults will only be too many people at that time!" ”