After all, the cost of the army exceeded Zhou Shixian's budget, especially after Emperor Chongzhen showed a certain unsupportive attitude, Zhou Shixian had to prepare for possible accidents in the future.

After all, according to Emperor Chongzhen's character, he didn't dare to guarantee that there would be twelve holy decrees coming down at that time, urging himself to fight a decisive battle with Duoduo as soon as possible, and by the way, he would cut off the food and salary of his army, or kill two birds with one stone, both striking the Qing army and destroying himself.

This kind of operation where the brain is smashed by the bear, the monarchs and ministers of the Ming court can really do it.

However, with the "sponsorship and donations" of the ministers of the capital and the kings of Nanjing, Zhou Shixian survived this year and survived the decisive confrontation with Duoduo, there is absolutely no problem, and I am afraid that things will have to be acted on at the opportunity.

When necessary, the "Qingjun side" is also one of the choices of Zhou Shixian, the son-in-law of the great filial piety.

But before that, he had to clean up the court and prepare enough capable ministers to prevent political turmoil from affecting the recovery and expansion of the army.

Back in front of him, after Zhou Shixian inspected Zhang Hong's Wu'an Camp, as well as the Wuyong Camp and Wuyao Camp on the north bank of Yingtianfu, he immediately went to Zhenjiang Mansion to inspect Ren Xuan's Jin Wu Camp.

The "Jinwu Battalion" is the only pure firearms battalion in the whole army, and the whole battalion uses muskets, and Zhou Shixian plans to equip all the flintlock pistols and Lu Mi guns bought by Tang Ruowang to this battalion, and give the Manchus a surprise blow when necessary.

On the Huaixi Plain, the power of heavy arquebuses and flintlock pistols was not comparable to that of Malacca's light arquebuses.

At the same time, each soldier in the Jinwu battalion was equipped with a Qi knife and a short axe, and practiced the art of slashing and slashing with an axe in case of contingency.

Although the rest of the battalions also had musketeers, they used Malacca-style light arquebuses such as bird guns and their improved versions, and the main thing was that the workshops could produce them quickly and at a low cost.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang!"

On the shooting range of the Jinwu Camp school field, a group of soldiers were training in a salvo, choking gunpowder smoke filled most of the school field, and the officers' orders soon sounded, and every musketeer was methodically carrying out the action after firing a volley of muskets.

"Take the fire rope...... The team leaders check the tinder...... Clear Fire Gate ......"

In this era, the musket shooting steps were very cumbersome, and there were more than 20 steps before and after, and even those experienced and extremely skilled veterans often needed more than a dozen operations, but they changed the drill code beyond recognition, and relied on technology and experience to speed up the completion of tactical actions.

Zhou Shixian, accompanied by Sun Hu and his entourage, watched for a while.

Orders were issued from the officers here, and then the musketeers carried them out quickly, and few people made mistakes, and of course some people had to eat a baton.

The discipline of the musketeers on the battlefield is higher, and the slightest mistake will be beheaded, because the musket in this period relies on salvo fire, once there is a problem in the team, the salvo is very likely to be greatly reduced, or even lose its effect, which is absolutely not allowed to happen.

Therefore, during ordinary training, once someone makes a mistake, it is a military stick, if you shoot and do not obey the order, you only need to shoot once, you will be punished as miscellaneous labor, and at the same time, the monthly salary will be deducted, and you will receive 80 military sticks, and if it causes serious consequences, it will be directly beheaded.

Zhou Shixian looked at the uniform movements of the soldiers, and nodded with satisfaction, Sun Hu is indeed a good hand in training musketeers, and the veterans he brought out are almost all good instructors.

Zhou Shixian is to train the musketeers to be robots on the battlefield, meticulously carry out orders, and give the enemy the most terrifying long-range firepower strikes.

At present, the assessment standard of musketeers is mainly the rate of fire, not accuracy, Zhou Shixian and Sun Hu thought together, and they both believed that musketeers should be allowed to fire as many lead bullets as possible on the battlefield to form a stronger and denser firepower.

At the same time, the weapons proving ground is also in line with this goal, constantly testing the most suitable amount of gunpowder and how to thicken and strengthen the musket to avoid exploding.

This is why Zhou Shixian wants to separate the workshop and operate it himself, so he does not hesitate to invest a lot of money for this. It was impossible for the Ming Ministry of Industry to complete such a task, and the musket they made was a burning stick that blew up the chamber.

In fact, not only musketeers, Zhou Shixian organized officers to improve the training and drill code according to the characteristics and battlefield role of different arms, of course, mainly soldiers, musketeers, and cavalry, in order to "standardize the production" of soldiers.

Zhou Shixian is doing and will do something to "standardize" the army's training and equipment, to "streamline" the training of officers and soldiers, and to establish officer academies, recruit training camps, as well as supporting military academies, weapons workshops, and a system of agricultural war reserves.

The entire system of the Ming Dynasty has been rotten to the root, and Zhou Shixian is now only attached to it, taking advantage of the situation, he wants to wait until he is strong enough, and then make a thorough reform, and the army in his hand is his biggest reliance.

In troubled times, only when there are soldiers in hand can there be power.

What you can't get on the battlefield, at the negotiating table, will only lose more.

All of this is just the dependence of a strong army.

After inspecting the "Jinwu Battalion", Zhou Shixian went to the "Wufen Battalion" in Zhenjiang Mansion to inspect, which was the only cavalry battalion in the whole army, and almost all the fine war horses of the whole army were concentrated here.

But even so, it is only one person and two horses, far from meeting the requirements of one person and three horses for elite cavalry.

Fortunately, Zhou Shixian only fought on the inside line in the short term.

On the battlefield of this era, cavalry is still the strongest combat force, unless the three arms of "gun and artillery warfare" work together, it is difficult to resist the charge of cavalry.

However, except for Zhou Shixian, who is standing on the shoulders of the times, other people in this land cannot think of this kind of warfare, that is, the European continent of the same era, has fought for so many years, and it has not yet reached this point.

After all, any method of warfare requires weapons and soldiers who are capable of this method of warfare, and it is because of weapons and high-quality soldiers that the tactics of warfare continue to improve, and the continuous progress of tactics requires stronger weapons and soldiers.

Zhou Shixian, as a descendant, obviously expanded the role of the latter countless times.

Wu Xingye is also his old subordinate, and he has always been reliable, Zhou Shixian watched the cavalry exercises, and emphasized the training of the cavalry, and then left the "Wufen Battalion" and went to Yangzhou.

Originally, in history, Gao Jie, Liu Zeqing and others were eyeing the rich Yangzhou, but now there is Xue Laoer, although they covet it, they don't dare to act rashly. However, in their respective jurisdictions, all kinds of burning, killing and looting are still continuing.

And Zhou Shixian has long wanted to use this as an excuse to teach these military leaders a lesson and establish their prestige.

One of the most important purposes of his inspection trip was to give Gao Jie, the most arrogant among them, a big surprise.