In the slightly cold autumn wind, on October 25, Liu Yan returned to Wangjiazhuang's 100 households, accompanied by Tian Huixu, Xun Jingyun, Miao Shao, and hundreds of guards and guards.

Every time Liu Yan came back, he had to go to Dapan Fort first to meet the military families who were still living in Dapan Fort, and this time was no exception.

Tian Huixu and Xun Jingyun waited in Wangjiazhuang, Liu Yan only brought Miao Shao and a team of guards to Dapanbao, and Chen Jiangshi, the head of the soap workshop, Qian Soap, the head of the wine shop, and the chief flag officer of Dapanbao greeted them at the door.

Liu Yan looked at everyone with a smile, he was very happy in his heart, this is his starting point, and it is also his home in this troubled world, back here, Liu Yan always feels a very relaxed feeling, which cannot be felt elsewhere.

Liu Yan entered Dapanbao surrounded by everyone, inspected the wine shop and other places, and then looked at the soap workshop.

At this time, the wine workshop and soap workshop developed very much, and the Dapanbao side was the general workshop, and the division of labor workshops was built in Wangjiazhuang, Xiahezhai and other places, and the income was greatly increased.

After finishing his business, Liu Yan looked at Chen Jiang, who wanted to speak and stopped, and said with a smile: "Brother and sister, don't worry, that kid Chen Xun still led troops in Liaodong, and didn't go to Henan with me to fight." ”

Chen Jiangshi was even more worried when he heard this, and said: "My lord, that place in Liaodong is very dangerous, and there are many Tartars outside the Guan, I know how capable my family is, he is alone in Liaodong, can he do it?" ”

Liu Yan said: "Don't worry, Chen Xun is no longer the little flag officer in Dapandun, now he is the commander of the former battalion of the new army, and he is the Ming Dynasty."

There are more than 12,000 elite soldiers of the New Army under his command, stationed in the impregnable defensive line, and there will be no trouble. ”

Chen Jiang's face was much better, and then he said: "It's because the subordinates are too worried, so it's a private matter......

"Brother and sister, don't say that, we are all old people who came out of Dapandun, speaking of which, just like our family, we will see the outside world when we say this."

Chen Jiang's eyes suddenly turned red when he heard this, since the army set out, Chen Jiang's family is also the same as Wang Yunhe, he is frightened every day, but now Chen Xun has still not returned, and the depression in his heart can be imagined. With Liu Yan's comfort, Chen Jiangshi only felt warm in his heart, and couldn't help crying.

Then Liu Yan comforted Chen Jiang's again, and went to Wangjiazhuang Baihu City with Miao Shao.

At this time, Tian Huixu and Xun Jingyun were already waiting at the firearms supervision office, and the director Tan Xiaoda, the manager of the gunpowder workshop Zhao Yan, and the manager of the firearms workshop Cui Mingyuan were also waiting at the door.

Liu Yan and Miao Shao rushed here, and everyone saluted, and then accompanied Liu Yan to inspect everywhere.

"The battalions of the new army must replenish their troops, the arsenal of Qingzhou Mansion City must supply the necessary military equipment, and the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Office must make up the shortage in time and transport it to Qingzhou Prefecture as soon as possible."

Tan Xiaoda said: "Rest assured, the output of the Firearms Supervision Department is very large, and the minister and deputy department have given the specific quantity to their subordinates, and it can be shipped before the end of the month." ”

"Good."

Then Liu Yan said: "There is another thing, that is, the Firearms Supervision Department wants to create a new equipment, which this town calls bayonets. After this matter is deployed, the town will go to the Thousand Households in front of Fushan in Aoshanwei

, inspect the Armor Supervision Office. ”

"Bayonets?"

Everyone wondered, what kind of knife is this bayonet, and it still needs to be deployed and built by the general town himself?

"The bayonet, as the name suggests, is a sharp blade specially used to pierce and is equipped on a bird's gun. Equipped with a bayonet, the bayonet is attached to the barrel of the bird, and the length of the bayonet can be nearly a man high, so that it can be used as a short spear, so that the bird gunner can fight near and far on the battlefield. ”

"At that time, we only need to keep a small number of pikemen in our new army to intercept the charge of the enemy cavalry, and then most of the soldiers in the whole army will be bird gunslingers!"

The bayonet is the equipment that Liu Yan has long wanted to build, and with the bayonet, the new army in Qinglai Town can take a step forward in the direction of "firecracking" of all members, so that the firepower of the new army is more powerful, and more bird-gunners can be mobilized for salvo fire.

Originally, Liu Yan also wanted to hand over the task of developing and building the bayonet to the Armor Supervision Department, but after thinking about it carefully, the bayonet must ensure that the interface with the bird gun is tightly fitted, otherwise if it is not matched, it will kill people on the battlefield, and the soldiers can't be allowed to use a little force, and the bayonet will fall in response, right?

Therefore, it is more appropriate that the development and manufacture of this bayonet should be the responsibility of the Firearms Supervision Office.

When Tan Xiaoda and the others heard this, they were all amazed, and Tan Xiaoda was even more well-informed, and after thinking for a moment, he said: "My subordinates remember that someone seems to have created something similar in the early years, what is called the sword, which is also installed on the firecracker, so that the firecracker can kill the enemy in close combat. It's just that it didn't seem to work very well, and no one built it since. ”

Liu Yan nodded

Head, what Tan Xiaoda said is true. As early as the Ming Jingtai period, some people installed the spearhead on the firecracker, and fused the firearm with the spear, called the sword, which was also recorded in the "Ming Huidian".

The West's attempt to combine cold weapons with firecrackers is nearly a hundred years older than that of the Ming Dynasty, and it is only a simple rope tied to a spearhead on the barrel of the firecracker, which is also very impractical.

It was not until 1647, in history, that the French army created the first true bayonet. It's just that this kind of bayonet is also very limited, it must be inserted in the mouth of the fire, and when you use the bayonet, you can't shoot, it's very chicken.

The bayonet that Liu Yan asked the Firearms Supervision Department to build this time is not the kind of flat bayonet that was common in later generations, because the bayonet has very high requirements for iron material, and the quality of the material is not good, and the bayonet is very easy to break and be damaged.

Therefore, the bayonet designed by Liu Yan is a three-edged stab, because the three-edged stabbing body is prismatic, the material requirements are lower than that of flat bayonets, and the structure is also stronger. Not to mention the lethality of the triangular thorn, the triangular thorn equipped by the red army in later generations is recognized as a "taboo" weapon, once the body is pierced, it will cause a triangular wound that cannot be healed, this wound can not be bandaged at all, can only be sutured, and at this time, whether it is the Qing army or the thief, obviously do not have this superb level of medical skills, can only let the wounded soldiers bleed to death.

Then Liu Yan took out the design drawings of the bayonet, and Liu Yan was in order to install it

Under the premise of the bayonet, it can ensure the normal shooting of the bird's gun, and the earliest slit installation method in history is adopted, and the three-edged bayonet is installed with a casing.

On weekdays, the new army bird gunners put their bayonets in sword holsters, and when they needed to use them, they took them out and installed them on the guns.

Tan Xiaoda looked at the drawings carefully and said: "It is not difficult to build the bayonet designed by the head town, and the firearms workshop has some people, as long as the mold is done, it is possible to build tens of thousands of them in a month, after all, the iron supply of the iron material in the iron yard is very sufficient, and there is a considerable amount of inventory in the warehouse, which can be started at any time." ”

"It's just, is this bayonet really good?"

Liu Yan smiled and said, "Of course it's easy to use!" However, after the bayonet was created, the military department also had to carry out a series of reforms, first of all, the battalion commanders and gunners had to be turned into bird guns on a large scale, and then all the bird guns were equipped with bayonets, and special assassination training was carried out to make the bird guns proficient in using bayonets. ”

"More importantly, let the bird fighters of each battalion learn to use bayonets to kill the enemy in formation, this will be a change in the tactics of my new army!"

Tian Huixu and Xun Jingyun immediately received the order, and the two said that after they returned, they would immediately draw up a plan for the reform of each battalion.

Tan Xiaoda said: "In this way, the subordinates can build bayonets with peace of mind, but how much time can the head town give to the subordinates?" ”

Liu Yan made a difficulty, and to be honest, he didn't know it very well. Originally, Liu Yan hoped to complete this change in military equipment before the next battle, so that the birds and guns equipped with bayonets in each battalion could form combat effectiveness as soon as possible.

However, Liu Yan was not sure when the military department would give the order to requisition the new army and then rush to Liaodong to fight

field, so Liu Yan doesn't know how much time there is, and it should be not enough in terms of estimates.

"Everything is done sooner rather than later, the Firearms Supervision Department will allocate enough manpower as soon as possible, and now that the number of firearms such as bird guns in the arsenal is sufficient, the next step is to concentrate on manpower to build bayonets."

"By the way, there is also artillery, and the Firearms Supervision Department wants to build more and larger artillery for the artillery battalion to increase the firepower of the artillery battalion."

Tan Xiaoda thought for a moment and said: "As for bayonets, for the time being, according to the calculation that each battalion needs 8,000, six infantry battalions are 48,000, the estimate is wide, even if there are 50,000 bayonets, subordinates need ......."

"In two months, two months, my subordinates built 50,000 high-quality bayonets."

Liu Yan nodded, since there is not enough time, as long as it is as soon as possible.

"But when the town says artillery, do you mean the Hongyi cannon?"

Liu Yan said: "Hongyi cannons need to be built, but more of the town still leans towards the Franc cannon, the large Franc cannon. ”

The advantages of the Franc cannon are that it has a fast rate of fire and fast heat dissipation, which can form continuous firepower.

Of course, like the gunners under Chen Yongfu in Kaifeng City, after he was dizzy and loaded the gun, he did not put the shell from the muzzle, but put the gunpowder bag from the muzzle again, and the gun would also explode directly.

"The town is preparing to expand the artillery battalion, and the number of all kinds of artillery must be increased, and some Hongyi cannons will be increased.

"My subordinates understood."

Liu Yan stayed in Wangjiazhuang Baihu for three days, respectively in Dapanbao and Wangjiazhuang Baihu officials

The hall and Wanfu Oil Mill each stayed for one day, until the fourth day, Tan Xiaoda led people to create the first bayonet, after Liu Yan checked, the bayonet could be perfectly combined with the flintlock bird sleeve, and it did not affect the shooting at all.

Of course, with the bayonet attached, the Bird Gun will definitely be affected when reloading, and the reload speed will be reduced a bit.

However, this also makes it difficult for Liu Yan to put on a bayonet when fighting, and only when he is about to fight in close combat, he will put on a bayonet. Generally, when this kind of hand-to-hand combat is about to come, the bird guns do not need to be loaded with bird guns to shoot, and they can fight directly, and wait until they have killed the enemy army, and then take off the bird guns for reloading.

Liu Yan achieved the goal of this trip, and accompanied by Tian Huixu, Xun Jingyun, and Miao Shao, he left Wangjiazhuang with satisfaction, and continued to go to the Qianhu Office in front of Weifu Mountain in Aoshan to inspect the Armor Supervision Office.

At the beginning of November, Liu Yan ended his inspection and returned to Qingzhou City, at this time the first snow of the year fell in Qingzhou City.

"Ruixue is a good year, I hope the people can live better in the coming year!"

On the same day, Liu Yan received an official document from the Ministry of War, and at the insistence of Chen Xinjia and under the instruction of Emperor Chongzhen, the good news of the new army in Qinglai Town successfully passed the discussion between the DPRK and China, and then the reward was awarded.