A few days later, the Intelligence Department began to spread news inside and outside the Beijing Division, and Liu Yan's side also began to get busy, preparing to expand the artillery battalion.

In the battle of Kaifeng, Li Zicheng mobilized more than 400 artillery pieces of various types from everywhere, which shocked Liu Yan, and the heavy firepower of the enemy army far exceeded his own for the first time.

However, there will be no more such good luck, and Liu Yan will not pin his hopes of winning the battle on luck, so it is imperative to expand the artillery battalion.

Qian Yu was very happy when he heard the news, and it only took two days to come up with an expansion plan.

In this plan, the artillery battalion is divided into the Tiger Zun Artillery Headquarters, the Rocket Artillery Vehicle Headquarters, the Franc Machine Artillery Headquarters, and the newly added Heavy Artillery Commanders (equipped with red-coated cannons).

The total number of guns in each team has been increased from two to four, and the number of guns in the Tiger Cannon, the Rocket Artillery Car, and the Franc Machine Gun has doubled from seventy-two to one hundred and forty-four.

The total number of heavy artillery pieces is smaller, because according to Qian Qiao's plan, as long as the artillery battalion is equipped with red-coat cannons of more than 3,000 catties, it can suppress almost all opponents very well, because the red-coat cannons of this caliber size have a firing range of about three miles, and the shells are basically six or seven catties, plus those elite gunners in the artillery battalion, it is enough to suppress all the current opponents.

However, the casting of the Red Cannons is very difficult, and the success rate is very low, much more difficult to build than the Franc cannon and the Tiger Cannon, so the number of equipment will inevitably be less.

The rest of the general are under the jurisdiction of three posts, and the heavy artillery is only under the jurisdiction

Two sentinels, equipped with 96 3,000-pound red-coated cannons. And these ninety-six heavy guns must be equipped with installation gun trucks, and the specific structure Qian Qiao also knows, and directly draws the graphics.

After Liu Yan got this expansion plan, he also thought about it for a long time, according to this plan, the firepower of the artillery battalion will be doubled, which will certainly help the combat strength of the new army a lot, but the cost of maintenance will also increase dramatically.

After the expansion, the strength of the artillery battalion will increase to more than 3,000 men, and the monthly expenditure will also be at least tripled.

However, these are all problems of silver, which are still easy to solve, and with the current income situation of Qinglai Town, they can still cope with it.

Liu Yan's main consideration was the issue of artillery.

First of all, the Franc cannon, in the 15th to 16th centuries in history, many European countries on the basis of learning Chinese gunpowder and gunpowder weapons, created a new gunpowder weapon - the Franc cannon.

Compared with the prototype of its hometown in China, that is, the famous fire gun in the Hongwu and Yongle periods in the early Ming Dynasty, the Buddha machine has undergone fundamental changes in structure, mainly with several advantages: First, it adopts the structure of the mother gun and the child gun. The mother gun is a cannon barrel, the barrel of the large Franc machine is five to six feet long, its advantage is that the projectile shoots out a large muzzle velocity, the firing range is long, and it has a greater lethality. When using, first load one sub-gun into the loading chamber of the mother gun, and after firing, the empty sub-gun is withdrawn and replaced with another sub-gun. Because the sub-guns can be swapped out, the time it takes to reload ammunition on the spot is reduced, and the firing speed is increased.

The second is the enlargement of the loading chamber and the Franc machine

The loading chamber generally occupies a quarter of the total length of the mother gun, and the width is equivalent to two to three times the caliber, and the open is large, which is convenient for the placement of the child gun.

The third is the thickness of the pipe wall, which can withstand greater pressure and strength, which ensures the safety of the ammunition when it is fired.

The rest of the advantages, such as equipped with sights, equipped with crosshairs, illuminating doors and other devices, can aim and shoot at long-distance targets; Gun lugs are added to the rear of the Franc machine, so that the gun body can be placed on the mount, and the gun lugs can be rotated so that the gun's firing angle can be pitched and adjusted, the firing range can be controlled and the hit rate can be improved, etc.

It is precisely because of these advantages that the Franc cannon attracted the attention of Ming officials and the imperial court. In the first year of Jiajing, Portugal sent five armed ships to the mouth of the Pearl River in Guangdong, in an attempt to occupy an island in Guangdong with the backing of force. When the Portuguese invaded Xicao Bay in Xinhui, Guangdong, they were defeated by the local defenders, and captured two ships and more than 20 guns on board, and the guns on board were called "Franc Machine" according to the name of their country.

In the second year of Jiajing, He Ru, a local official of the Ming Dynasty who had served as a patrol inspector in Baisha, Guangdong, had many contacts with the Portuguese, and was familiar with the performance of the Franc machine, led the experienced Guangdong craftsmen to Nanjing, and began the imitation of the Franc machine in the well-equipped firearms manufacturing office at that time.

In April of the third year of Jiajing, the first batch of 32 large-scale Franc machines were successfully imitated.

"Daming Huidian? The Firearms recorded in detail the situation of these Franc machines, all of which were made of brass, each weighing about 300 catties, with a mother gun 2.85 feet long, and four sub-guns, which could be filled with gunpowder separately and rotated

Launch.

Immediately afterwards, the Ming Dynasty successively imitated a larger number and more forms of various types of Franc machines to equip the northern and coastal troops, which greatly strengthened the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty in guarding the border.

In the process of imitation by craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty, in addition to retaining and absorbing the advantages and advantages of foreign Franc machines, many new innovations and improvements have been made to make them more suitable for the needs of actual combat under various conditions of the Ming army. "Ming Huidian" records that there are three kinds of imitation Buddha machines: large, medium and small.

This time the artillery battalion was expanded, and Liu Yan wanted to replace all the Franc cannons originally equipped with the artillery battalion.

The existing Franc machine guns in the artillery battalion are all large Franc machine guns that weigh about 300 catties and fire about 4 catties of shells. The cannon had a fast rate of fire and good accuracy, but it was slightly less powerful.

Liu Yan then made corrections to Qian Yan's expansion plan, and asked the Firearms Supervision Office to improve the Franc machine gun, and improve the large Franc machine gun to be able to fire five-pound shells and have a range of two miles, so as to further enhance the firepower of the artillery battalion.

The Franc machine guns of the artillery battalion should be updated and replaced, and the old Franc machine guns that have been eliminated are all ready to be deployed in Qingzhou Fucheng, Laizhou Fucheng, and Lingshanwei and other cities to increase the fire protection of various cities.

At the same time, for the red-coated cannons, Liu Yan has also gone through some scrutiny, if nothing else, because the red-coated cannons equipped in the Ming army at this time have a variety of models, various styles and sizes, and Liu Yan needs to compare.

The so-called Hongyi cannon is the history of the sixteenth century, around the sixteenth century, the rate of European countries

It was first manufactured and introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty, also known as the red-coated cannon. The so-called "red-haired" people are also the Red-haired Netherlands and Portugal.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty officials called all front-loading smoothbore cannons imported from the West as Hongyi cannons, and Ming Dynasty officials often covered these cannons with red cloth, so they were falsely called "red clothes".

According to research, only a small amount of Hongyi cannons imported by the Ming Dynasty at that time were imported from the Dutch East India Company, and later became hostile to the Dutch because of the Taiwan issue, most of which were traded with the Portuguese in Macao, and the Ming Dynasty was in huge demand at that time, and the Portuguese also sold the British ship-based cannons to the Ming Dynasty as middlemen.

The redcoat cannon is different from the Franc cannon, which is a real heavy firepower and played a huge role in the war in the late Ming Dynasty.

In the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the Ming army used the Hongyi cannon to exert great power in the Battle of Ningyuan. According to historical records, the Houjin soldiers and horses were attacked by the fierce artillery fire of the Ming army, and the corpses were piled up like a mountain, which was the first defeat since Nurhachi became an army.

In the subsequent Battle of Ningjin, the Hongyi cannon once again exerted great power, and the Ming army won a great victory.

In the first month of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Hou Jin used the captured craftsman Liu Han in Shenyang to successfully imitate the Western cannon, named "God blesses the general", and they also created the "lost wax method", turning cast iron into cast steel, and treating different parts of the artillery with complex annealing and quenching procedures, so that the casting process was ahead of the Ming Dynasty. Due to the taboo of the Manchurians, the Hongyi cannon was renamed "Red Cannon".

Huang Taiji set up a new battalion in the Eight Banners Army, Wuzhen Chaoha Battalion, and later Tong Yangxing served as the chief military officer, Cao Zhenyan served as the instructor, and began to use artillery tactics.

It can be seen that in the late Ming era, no

Regardless of whether the Ming army or the Qing army attached great importance to the red-coated artillery, Liu Yan was no exception, in this era when there were no flowering shells, the red-coated cannon was undoubtedly the best source of heavy firepower.

After Liu Yan thought about it again, he decided to increase the size of the red-clothed cannon equipped with the artillery battalion from 3,000 jin to 4,000 jin, equipped with a four-wheeled heavy gun truck to carry it, and it was carried by a pack horse.

At the same time, it is also necessary to add cannon ears and lookout mountains and other auxiliaries to the red-coated cannon to increase the accuracy of the red-coated cannon.

This kind of red-coated cannon can shoot about eight catties of shells, with a range of more than three miles, and it is full of power!

After the expansion of the artillery battalion, with the blessing of this heavy artillery, as well as the increase of various artillery, the firepower will be increased to a terrifying level, looking at the current Ming Dynasty, as well as the surrounding Ming Dynasty, in terms of firepower, no one will be the opponent of the new army.

So Liu Yan wrote down the style of the red-clothed cannon one by one on Qian Yan's expansion plan, and then adjusted many details of the plan, so he sent someone to call Qian Yan.

"You can see this plan, the town has been approved, and it can be handed over to the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of War will issue it to the Firearms Supervision Department."

"Yes."

Qian Jian grinned and said with a smile: "Zongzhen, this is good, now my artillery battalion can be regarded as making a fortune, there are more than 500 artillery pieces of all kinds, if this is a posture, even if the king of heaven and Lao Tzu comes, he can't stop it, haha!" ”

Liu Yan said with a smile: "Now the artillery battalion still needs to use the existing artillery to maintain the drill, and the Firearms Supervision Department now has to build bayonets and cast various artillery, it will take a certain amount of time, don't worry, take your time." ”

"In addition, more artillery does not necessarily win, outside Kaifeng City, Li Chuang still has four hundred

As for many artillery, the result is that because the gunner is not proficient, he can't play with the artillery alone. Therefore, the artillery battalion must continue to train strictly, and the most important thing in war is people, and weapons are ultimately foreign ways, and they should not be relied on too much. ”

Qian Jian immediately agreed: "Rest assured, the soldiers of our artillery battalion have always been strict in training and have never slackened. ”

Two days later, the expansion plan of the artillery battalion was issued by Tian Huixu, and a few days later it was sent to the firearms supervision office of the Baihu Institute in Wangjiazhuang.

When Tan Xiaoda saw the specific plan for the expansion of the artillery battalion, he showed a shocked expression on his face, and said to Cui Mingyuan, the manager of the firearms workshop beside him: "I don't think the town has been stimulated by anything, and it is necessary to expand so many artillery pieces at once!" ”

At this time, some details of the battle of Kaifeng also spread throughout Qinglai Town, especially the more than 400 artillery pieces that Li Zicheng assembled under the city.

Cui Mingyuan said with a wry smile: "It is estimated that the more than 400 artillery pieces of the thieves are stimulated, and the general town also wants to be rich." ”

"Then let's do it, now it's about to be winter, the best solar term for casting artillery is the hot summer, although it is not impossible to build in winter, but this efficiency is a lot worse, we can only spare no expense, pile up people, piles of things, pile silver, and complete the shortage of artillery battalions as soon as possible."