Before the team set off, Zhao Bingxian came over with his family carrying several large boxes.

"Jiye Xian nephew, this is a little gift from Shibo, open it and take a look."

Liu Jun feels good about this soldier, he has an important official position, but he is kind, and it can be seen that he has always appreciated the nine-headed bird horse team. I just don't know what gift he has just given the silver, and now he is going to give it.

Liu Jun walked over and opened the box, but what caught his eye was a bird gun, or a large bird gun.

"Your horse team is called Nine-headed Bird, and this firearm is also called Nine-headed Bird, I feel that this thing is naturally compatible with you, and it just so happens that the old man's team is equipped with some, but unfortunately those reckless men are not very good to use. I know that you have a lot of firearms and equipment, and you are very good at using them, so I will simply return them to the Lord and pull out a few handfuls for you. ”

The nine-headed bird in the box is quietly placed inside, the long body of the spear is completely an enlarged version of the bird gun, just looking at the thick and large appearance, you can feel that the power must be much greater than the bird gun.

In fact, Liu Jun is no stranger to Zhao Bingbei's very proud nine-headed bird.

This thing is obviously a gun, more than a zhang long, and weighs more than 30 catties. It is a kind of firearm unique to China, which began to be manufactured in the Ming Dynasty and was later equipped on a large scale in the Qing Dynasty. Even in some later anti-Japanese dramas, you can often see the Tubalu people fighting devils with this thing.

But to put it bluntly, it is an enlarged version of the bird gun, weighing more than 30 catties, and the body of the gun is more than a zhang, and its structure is exactly the same as that of the general soldier bird gun, but the charge, range and lethality are far greater than the soldier bird gun. This type of gun was very popular in the Qing Dynasty, and it was fired by two people, one of whom acted as a gun carriage in front of him, holding the gun on his shoulder, and the other aiming and firing.

In the Qing army, this kind of gun was equipped as an infantry support firepower. When the Qing army dealt with the Taiping army, which was weak in firearms, the effect was very significant, and it is said that if the number of such guns was sufficient, the salvo was extremely magnificent. Later, during the Sino-French War, the Qing army also used it extensively when dealing with the fire army.

There is a record of the French army, ten thousand guns fired in unison, the sky shook and the earth shook, and then the bullets rained down, and the French army was terrified. But in the end, it was found that no one was injured, and then they were gone.

During the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing army manufactured a large number of equipment in the army, but after the First Sino-Japanese War, the gun was finally eliminated because it was too cumbersome and too poorly accurate.

However, in the twelfth year of the Ming Dynasty in 1639, the nine-headed bird was regarded as a very powerful heavyweight firearm. An ordinary bird gun can shoot a range of 100 paces, but a gun can reach a killing distance of 200 paces.

The power of lifting the gun is much greater than that of the bird, but it is much lighter than the cannon, and it does not need to be cared for a horse, and a person can carry it, so it is regarded as a cost-effective firearm, especially against the thieves in the Central Plains, and the effect is better.

Zhao Cheng also regarded the gun as a secret weapon, and generously took out twelve of them and gave them to Liu Jun in one go. The ones he took out were all new guys, with triangular brackets and swivel devices, nicknamed the Nine-Headed Bird, which could be manipulated by one person.

At first, Liu Jun was a little disdainful when he saw this gun, but then he thought that it was only 1639, and even the three-eyed gun was still used as an advanced firearm. Especially for a mainland township group like them, if the twelve nine-headed birds were launched together, the momentum was estimated to scare the thieves.

In particular, its range of nearly 200 paces is far more than double that of the Bird's Gun, even if its accuracy can only be maintained at 200 paces. Farther than bows and arrows, they are not as valuable and bulky as cannons.

"I'm so grateful to Lord Bingken for such a precious thing."

"Pink is given to beautiful women, swords are given to heroes, and sharp weapons can only play their role if they are warriors." Zhao Chengwen said with a smile. "Recently, the thieves have made trouble again, and many thieves who were originally recruited have also responded, and the land of Yuchu has been full of smoke for a while, the place is not quiet, and the country is restless. As a soldier in eastern Hubei, the old man is deeply worried, and in the future, he will need young and promising volunteers like you to contribute more to the country. ”

"As long as the adults have a call, I will wait until I go to the soup and the fire."

"Okay, good, it's good to have your words, and when you need to come out in the future, I will not be polite."

Liu Jun responded very happily, and opening his mouth to promise is a necessary ability for every official, no matter whether he can do it or not, he should talk about it first. After receiving Zhao Cheng's twelve nine-headed birds, Liu Jun of course agreed happily.

After bringing back twelve nine-headed birds, Liu Jun immediately found Li Chunjiang and discussed adding a gun-carrying unit to the artillery team.

It turned out that there was an artillery team under each of the left and right flags, and there were three tigers squatting and running. Now Liu Jun plans to simply build a separate artillery flag, with an artillery team, a gun-carrying team and a rocket team under his jurisdiction. The artillery team has six guns, one cannon and two people, just one team of twelve people. And the twelve guns, because there are brackets, can be operated by one person, twelve guns and twelve guns, and they happen to form a team. The rest is to form a rocket team and equip rockets, and you can also consider buying bazookas and rocket boxes such as a swarm of bees and a hundred tigers.

This artillery team served as combat fire support, providing fire support and strikes for the six combat teams of the two flags on the left and right. The original two flags on the left and right remain unchanged, and they are still the original configuration, maintaining the combat mode with the Mandarin Duck Battle Formation as the core.

"Maybe we're going to have to hire some more." Li Chunjiang has always been obsessed with making the horse team bigger.

"We really need to recruit some more people, for now, let Mei Gong borrow our firearms to teach the head for a few more days, and then put the two of us into the flag team. Go back and recruit some people, the horse team can be changed to four flags on the left and right, front and back, fortunately we have captured a lot of horses this time, and we don't need to buy additional horses. Otherwise, the price of this horse is really unbearable. ”

Liu Jun has always been worried about the cost of the Nine-headed Bird team, and now he basically relies on Li Chunjiang's personal financial support, although he has also raised some donations and received some donations, but after all, the horse team has no income and relies on blood transfusions, he is very worried, although the Li family has money, it does not mean how much money Li Chunjiang can come up with. The horse team has spent a total of tens of thousands of taels of silver, of which Li Chunjiang personally paid more than 5,000.

He had been trying to find another way to solve the problem of military funding, but he couldn't find a way. Although they are township warriors, they are similar to professional mercenaries, they are in camp all day, and they have no land to hoard, and they are not like the army on the frontier, and they can secretly make some money or something.

However, this crackdown on bandits made Liu Jun feel that he had found a new way out.

The suppression of bandits can make money, and this time the bandits were seized, and there were more than 1,000 taels of silver and property, and then there were 53 horses, dozens of sets of knives and guns, and more than 1,000 taels of silver. In addition to the rewards and pensions for this battle, they still earned more than a thousand taels of silver, as well as fifty-three horses and dozens of sets of swords and guns.

This is only the harvest of a battle, if they can have a few more such victories, they can completely maintain the expenses of the horse team by suppressing the bandits, and even have a surplus, and they no longer need to rely on Li Chunjiang's personal silver investment. That is the long-term solution.

And the bandits can not only make money, but also train soldiers, although Zhang Xianzhong and others have just rebelled again, and the power does not seem to be very good, but Liu Jun clearly knows that after experiencing the low tide of the Central Plains rebels in Chongzhen's eleven years, there will be another wave of rebellion in the Central Plains, and it will become more and more inflated, and finally no one can control it, until Li Zicheng breaks through Beijing.

Macheng is located between the four provinces of Chu, Henan, Anhui and Jiangxi, and is in the key place between the north and the south, so it will inevitably not be spared from the imminent war. To protect the family, the only way to rely on the swords in his hands and his team is to rely on them.

Early the next morning, more than 1,000 people gathered, first by Zhao Chengxun, and then Mei Zhihuan, Lu Jinxi and other officials also said a few words one after another, and finally the whole army set off. Walking in the front is the night team of Baosheng Fort, then the Huangzhou Weisu Army led by Zhu Pet, and then Mei Zhihuan Baosheng Fort is the main barracks of the Chinese army, Zhao Cheng, Mei Zhihuan and other officials are inside, and the horse team of Baosheng Fort is guarding on the side.

The rest of the teams were listed as the rear army, and Liu Jun took the initiative to propose the nine-headed bird and horse team to serve as the queen of the palace.

At first, the morale was not bad, but after walking for about two hours, the sun had risen in mid-air, and the heat was getting hotter, and the peasant guards that Zhu Pet pulled from the guard house were already demoralized, and the formation was gone, and the speed was gone, and they shouted to rest. In the end, Zhao Cheng had to order a half-hour rest.

But not long after leaving, Zhu Pet's guards shouted that they were tired, and the angry Zhao Cheng glared at Zhu Pet. Zhu Pet was glared at by his boss, and angrily rode to the front in person, picked up the whip with the family, and went up to beat it hard. Those guards are also cheap, let them hurry well, crying and crying tired, but they were whipped by Zhu Pet, but no one shouted bitterly and tired, and honestly rushed to the road.

The chaos in front of them did not affect the nine-headed bird and horse team, they were at the back of the team, all riding tall horses, wearing big felt hats on their heads, very relaxed.

The nine-headed bird and horse team lined up neatly and was high-spirited, compared with the guards in front, it was really different, as if the nine-headed bird was the regular imperial army, and the group of tattered clothes in front looked like newly recruited people.

The army marched all the way, and there was no night to explore the way, and there was no fear of ambushes by thieves. The night of the Ming Dynasty belongs to the elite warriors, even more elite than the generals of the family. In the armies of the Ming army at all levels, they have their own night teams, and the big border towns do not collect hundreds at night, and then the general soldiers, staff generals, and guerrilla generals also have their own night guards, and even the following divisions and garrisons also have night non-collections.

Now even the township regiments, no matter how big or small, also have a night of non-collection.

If you don't accept it at night, you are really the most elite in the Ming army.

All the way was calm, and they walked all the way to the mountain where the Qiting thieves were located. Although the ** gang has been wiped out for a day, it is obvious that there is nothing abnormal in the cottage, maybe the ** gang used to go out for ten days and half a month, and they will not keep in touch often, so the people in the cottage are used to it.

When he arrived at the foot of the mountain two miles away where the thieves' den was located, Zhao Cheng ordered the whole army to rest temporarily and make pre-war preparations.