Chapter 1691: Coordination of artillery and infantry, the Yongji Formation appears
“Zihou, how much does this cotton armor cost? How long does it take to make a set of such cotton armor?”
Zhang Jing is testing After finishing the cotton armor, he called Zhu Pingan over and asked Zhu Pingan in detail.
Zhu Pingan knew that Zhang Jing was impressed by the excellent defensive performance of the cotton armor. This is a good thing. If we can take this opportunity to promote the Manchu cotton armor to the Ming Dynasty official army, it will have a great impact on the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty official army. There will be a significant bonus.
Although the armor coverage rate is not the decisive factor in the combat effectiveness of the army, it is undeniable that the higher the armor coverage rate, the better the army's chance of winning.
Historically, the armor coverage rate of the Ming Army was actually not high due to various reasons. Although many people in modern times have concluded through various arguments that the armor coverage rate of the Ming Army was about 90%, this is not accurate. Take the famous Battle of Songjin in history as an example. After the war, the Qing army under Huang Taiji counted the corpses of the Ming army and found that less than one-third of the deceased were wearing armor.
With the financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, it is not a problem for the army to popularize cotton armor. The armor armor rate of the Ming army is close to 100%, at least the lower limit will not be too low.
This is a good opportunity for the butterfly effect. Zhu Pingan will not let it go. He strongly recommended to Zhang Jing: "Go back to the governor, making a pair of cotton armor requires eight pounds of cotton, twenty pounds of iron and Eight pounds of copper, with a total weight of about thirty-six pounds, and the cost is about a quarter of the iron armor. Our Zhejiang army makes cotton armor, which is divided into helmets, body armor, capes, sleeves, front rails, left rails, and armor skirts. , protect There are eight parts of the heart mirror and ten processes. Each process can be started at the same time to produce cotton armor in batches. The more people there are, the greater the output will be. From cotton to cotton armor, a few days will be enough if the weather is good, and it will take a long time. It is much lower than armor, and is suitable for short-term large-scale installation. "Oh, it saves time, effort and money. Not bad, not bad." After hearing this, Zhang Jing couldn't help but nodded.
The cost of a set of Zhejiang army cotton armor is only a quarter of that of iron armor, and the process is only ten steps, which can be completed in a few days; as for iron armor, not to mention the price, the process is also It requires repeated efforts, is very complicated, time-consuming and labor-intensive, and cannot be mass-produced; in comparison, cotton armor has great advantages.
"Although the cotton armor is good, what should I do when it rains? It rains a lot in the south of the Yangtze River. Once it rains, the cotton armor will be soaked, let alone serious. What should the wet soldiers do if they get sick? Moreover, it is easy to get moldy when wet." The official spoke up.
"Bring water."
Zhu Pingan smiled slightly and asked someone to fetch several large buckets of water.
"Use a ladle to pour water on the cotton armor, and pour a few more ladles on each pair of cotton armor." Zhu Ping'an ordered the soldiers.
The soldiers followed the orders without compromising at all. They poured water on their cotton armor. Each pair of cotton armor was splashed with six or seven ladles of water, which was even more pouring than the pouring rain.
In full view of everyone, as soon as the water was splashed on the cotton armor, it flowed down like it was splashed on linoleum.
"Masters, please take a look." Zhu Pingan asked Zhang Jing and others to come forward to inspect the cotton armor.
“It’s actually waterproof?” Everyone looked at the cotton armor and found that it was barely wet. They opened their mouths in disbelief.
“This is the cotton armor developed by our Zhejiang Army. It is invulnerable to swords, can protect against bows and arrows, is impermeable to rain, is not rotten by mold, and cannot be damaged by blunderbuss. If the battle is fierce, the cotton armor will be protected by sharp weapons. , if the firearm is damaged, you only need to replace the broken part. If the hood is broken, replace the hood, and if the armor sleeve is broken, replace the armor sleeve."
Zhu Pingan continued to recommend to Zhang Jing and others.
"Yes, cotton armor is very promising. How many skilled craftsmen do you have in the Zhejiang Army to make cotton armor?" Zhang Jing asked.
"Most of the soldiers in our Zhejiang Army Equipment Battalion are proficient in making cotton armor. In addition, the craft of cotton armor is simple. A blacksmith can master the craftsmanship of cotton armor after several days of training." Zhu Pingan replied.
After hearing this, Zhang Jing nodded, "I will organize a group of blacksmiths to come to your camp later to learn how to make cotton armor. You are not allowed to hide your secrets."
"Don't worry, Governor, I The army will never hide anything privately, and will definitely give it to everyone." Zhu Ping'an promised.
"Very good." Zhang Jing nodded. The cotton armor was much more valuable than the pigs raised in the camp just now. With this harvest, even if the Zhejiang army went astray by relying heavily on firearms, this inspection It’s not a worthwhile trip.
Well, let’s take a look at the Zhejiang Army’s firearms drill to correct Zhu Pingan’s wrong thinking and lead the Zhejiang Army on the right path.
Just think of it as a reward for the Zhejiang Army's breeding and cotton armor.
So, Zhang Jing said to Zhu Pingan, "Zihou, you continue to practice. Let us see how your army practices firearms."
"As ordered."
Zhu Pingan accepted the order and ordered the Zhejiang army to continue training.
"Sir, please sit on the stage and watch." Zhu Pingan led Zhang Jing and others to sit on the temporary high platform.
Zhang Jing and others sat on chairs on the high platform to watch the Zhejiang army's drill.
In the sight of everyone, soldiers from a battalion of the Zhejiang Army were displayed on the school grounds. The battalion commander raised his saber and waved it vigorously. Twenty soldiers came out of the battalion, each carrying a novel style on their shoulders. A small cannon with a bowl mouth.
It is said to be a bowl-mouth blunderbuss, but it is actually very different from the bowl-mouth blunderbuss. The gun body is slightly longer and slender than the bowl-mouth blunderbuss. There are five iron hoops on the gun body. It looks a bit like a Franco machine gun. But it is much smaller and simpler than the Franco machine gun.
Visually estimated that each small artillery weighs about twenty or thirty pounds and can be carried by one person.
There are two tiger-leg-like brackets at the front end of the gun port. The brackets are not fixed and can move at a certain angle. After the soldiers came out with the small artillery, they placed the small artillery on the ground and adjusted the brackets so that the cannon pointed upwards. Sky.
After adjusting the angle, the soldier took out a large oil paper gunpowder bag from his waist, bit it open with his mouth and poured it into the muzzle. The gunpowder bag contained black powder mixed with small pebbles, and then stuffed a solid gunpowder bag into it. Stone bullets, compaction.
The soldiers reloaded quickly and were obviously well-trained.
"Fire!" a corps commander shouted, and twenty gunners lit the fuses almost at the same time.
In an instant, there was a loud "bang bang bang" sound of landslides and ground cracking.
Twenty artillery pieces fired almost at the same time, accompanied by a burst of fire and smoke, large and small stone bombs flew together, and the ground was filled with blackness. The ground about two hundred meters ahead was filled with craters from the shelling, and there were densely packed small craters around the twenty obviously large craters. Covering a radius of nearly 100 meters, the ground being bombarded looked like the surface of the moon.
Zhang Jing and others who were watching from the high platform couldn't help but shrink their eyes. The artillery of the Zhejiang Army is small, but it is very powerful. The range of the artillery is much longer than that of a bowl-mouth blunderbuss, and even longer than that of a Folang machine. The artillery did not give in too much, and the Zhejiang army's artillery fired large and small stones and bullets, covering a large area with one blast, which was extremely lethal.
If this artillery fire hits a group of Japanese pirates, a large number of them will be killed with one shot
Before Zhang Jing and others could recover from the power of the Zhejiang army’s small artillery, they saw The soldiers of the Zhejiang Army began to load ammunition skillfully again, and then gave an order to fire another shot. The interval between the two shots was only a few breaths.
Before Zhang Jing and others came to their senses, they saw the soldiers of the Zhejiang Army's battalion starting to rush forward just after the second cannon blast.
It rushed more than a hundred meters in one breath and stopped about fifty meters away from the landing point of the shell.
Then, Zhang Jing and others saw the three front rows of Zhejiang soldiers. The first row squatted, the second row bent down, and the third row stood up straight. They skillfully fired the flat-ended fire blunderbuss. The trigger fired, and a neat "bang, bang, bang" sounded.
Then, these three rows of soldiers retreated from both sides to the end of the camp and began to reload their weapons skillfully. The soldiers from the fourth, fifth, and sixth rows came forward. Just like before, one row squatted down, one row bent down, and the other stood up straight. They also fired forward with their flat-ended muskets.
In this rotation, after the fifth, sixth and seventh rows finished shooting, the first three rows of soldiers quickly loaded their gunpowder. After a few breaths, they stepped forward to fire again.
In this rotation, I shot several rounds in one breath with almost no pause.
Zhang Jing, Hu Zongxian and others on the high platform couldn't help but widen their eyes and open their mouths. They looked at this scene in shock and couldn't recover for a long time. (End of this chapter)