Chapter 11 The Royal Commissioner of La Zhuangding
A debate is going on.
"Your Majesty, Earl, I still feel something is wrong..." said the former family knight, now Captain Holman, who led his company for training.
“Don’t persuade me, Holman, after all, this matter has been going on for a while, how could it be abandoned halfway.”
“But I still have to say, there is really no point in teaching soldiers to read. Necessary, they just need to understand the orders.”
"No, I want to build a different army. The first difference is that soldiers are knowledgeable and thoughtful."
"Okay, let's not discuss whether they have received education or not. Qualifications, but have you ever considered that after they have learned the knowledge, will they still be willing to be soldiers? Will they still be willing to be driven by you? "
"I will make the military a glorious profession? , Of course, this does not refer to the kind of soldiers in the aristocratic circle, but the military profession that truly belongs to the general public. If even then, they still want to break away from my leadership, it only means that I do not have the qualifications."
"What? This is too ridiculous. Ah, please forgive me, Earl, I'm rude. But, you are their lord, what qualifications do you have? Ruling them is both a right and an obligation, just like the sun It rises in the east and sets in the west. "
"Okay, Holman, I have made my decision and it has been going on for so long. Do you want me to take back my order? Slap yourself. "
Seeing that Holman was going to continue arguing, Paul raised a hand and said, "That's it. I will go back to the town immediately to meet with the envoy from the royal capital. I will probably stay for a few days. I hope that after I come back, the Second Battalion will In addition to being physically qualified, the soldiers can also read and write their own names.”
After personally playing the role of “Enlightenment Teacher”, Paul no longer dared to set his expectations too high. He turned around and walked out of the camp.
Holman turned to Claude next to him, "Are the Earl and you really teaching soldiers literacy yourself?" He still felt incredible.
Claude spread his hands and smiled bitterly: "When I heard his plan, I almost suspected that I was dreaming. Our little earl will do something beyond common sense!"
……
Paul came to the blacksmiths' camp, "How is the progress of the muskets?"
The blacksmith Herman was fiddling with something with a few colleagues. When he saw Paul coming in, he immediately stood up and saluted, and said: "Your Majesty, Earl, We are thinking about improving the trigger of the flintlock gun, because we are not magicians, so it is a bit laborious."
He said honestly: "The gun I have now with the trigger is estimated to have a misfire rate. "It will be very high."
Paul nodded. On Earth, when the flintlock was first invented, due to reasons such as poor steel and shrapnel manufacturing technology, flint could not produce sparks, or the sparks produced were not enough to ignite. It is understandable that the misfire rate is extremely high due to the burning of gunpowder.
“It seems that the development of technology cannot be achieved overnight.”
He picked up the already built matchlock gun next to him and looked at it carefully. The structure was very simple, with no front sight or rear sight, only the barrel, butt, medicine tank and trigger. But it was indeed a real musket. Although generally similar to a flintlock gun, the firing structure of a matchlock gun is much simpler.
The gun action is composed of a snake-shaped rod and a trigger. A match rope is clamped on the snake rod. When firing, the trigger is pulled and the snake rod is pushed through the lever to make the burning match rope contact the gunpowder at the end of the barrel. Pool, the flame is transmitted into the gun chamber through the fire door behind the barrel. This type of gun is much easier to make.
The gun barrel is made by blacksmiths using the rolling method. The iron sheet made of wrought iron is wrapped around a mandrel and slowly forged, and is corrected bit by bit with the help of the grooves on the anvil. Roll it up into the shape of an iron pipe. Until you can't make a good drill, this is the only way.
"Let's stop improving the flintlock gun first and concentrate all our efforts on creating a matchlock gun. How long will it take you to make such a matchlock gun from scratch?" After thinking about it, he needed it immediately. After obtaining a batch of usable muskets, instead of slowly researching and improving flintlock muskets, it would be better to immediately mass-produce simple and mature matchlocks so that soldiers can become familiar with the use of gunpowder weapons as soon as possible.
"A blacksmith and an apprentice, if everything goes well, it will take about two weeks."
"Two weeks? It's a bit long...Okay, it's okay, but the quality of the barrel must be good, and the finished product must not have the same explosion phenomenon as in the previous experiment."
"Please count this. Don't worry, sir. We have done a lot of experiments and have basically figured out the relationship between the amount of gunpowder and the power of the explosion. We must be more careful about the quality of the barrel."
"Very good, I want this gun urgently. If you want to use it, you must increase production. Later, you will be assigned a group of apprentices and carpenters who specialize in making gun stocks. You must carefully teach them the skills of making muskets. No matter who it is, I will reward you if you teach a qualified person. His wages for two months.”
The blacksmiths opened their eyes wide after hearing this, it was still very tempting.
Just listen to the earl continue to say: "In addition, after you have more people, I suggest you allocate your work. Each person is only responsible for making one component. The one who makes the barrel only makes the barrel, and the one who makes the gun Just make the gun mechanism, and those responsible for assembling it will just assemble it. For complex things, allocate more manpower, and for simple things, allocate less manpower. However, the parts of the gun must be universal, and you need to designate a dedicated person to be responsible for the dimensions of the parts. Measurement and acceptance are required so that it can be assembled and maintained for future deployment by the army. ”
Anyway, the structure of the matchlock gun is relatively simple and does not require too much precision. Let the craftsmen try this new way of working.
Everyone nodded, and then they flattered the count for his foresight.
"Everyone, I will send someone to count your finished product rate and defective product rate. This will affect your wages. If the defective product rate is too high, you may receive some 'small penalties'. "The earl said with a straight face.
Everyone was sweating profusely. Since they were in the military camp, they had already witnessed the "small punishment" suffered by the new recruits.
……
At around two o'clock in the afternoon, Huxin Town ushered in a strange army.
After crossing the pontoon bridge at random, the army marched along the Central Street towards the Lord's Palace at an incredibly neat pace.
"Concentrate after entering the town, strictly maintain the formation, and do not look around or whisper to each other." Company Commander David ordered loudly, and then continued to shout the slogan "One, two, one".
Curious townspeople stood on both sides of the street. The reason why they were so bold was because they saw that the leader of this team was their lord, Paul Paul. They realized that these were the things that happened some time ago. The new recruits who were taken out of town for training by the little count.
"Hey? Isn't that so-and-so from someone's family? Oops, I haven't seen you for a while and I can't even recognize you. I used to be so wrinkled, how did I become so strong?" "Yes. , my neighbor’s youngest son is also there. He used to be Wenwen and weak, but now he is energetic and energetic, as if he is a different person.”
"This team is walking so neatly, the previous guards can't compare..."
Similar comments kept coming from the crowd, and Makarov, who was walking in the team, secretly Proudly: "It doesn't matter that I have grown stronger. I can still read now! I'll scare you to death if I tell you." However, strict military discipline kept him sullen and did not dare to reveal anything.
The team marched to the hillside on the north side of the island, and finally stopped in front of the gate of the lord's castle.
"Stand still——! Take a break!" Captain David ordered loudly: "The Lord understands your hard training and has given you an afternoon off. You can move freely in the town. Before the sun sets, Gather at the gate of the old camp in the town. Memorize all the discipline rules. If anyone is caught by the pickets, I will give him a good reward. "
"Long live the lord!" Everyone cheered and dispersed in groups. Military pay was just issued not long ago, and many people who have no habit of saving money have already been struggling. Now they finally have somewhere to spend it.
After the soldiers dispersed, Paul rode his horse into the castle gate. The old butler immediately came out after being notified, "Master, the envoy is waiting for you in the hall."
"Okay. , I’ll go see them right away.”
After arriving at the castle hall, I found that in addition to the envoys from the royal capital, Manager Ford and Battalion Commander Bryce were also inside. When the three saw the lord come in, they all stood up and saluted him.
“My lord, this is the envoy from the royal capital, Baron Hansel Abbott.”
"Baron Abbott, this is our new lord of Alda, Earl Paul Grayman."
Manager Ford introduced both parties.
The new lord is more young than expected. Hansel bowed slightly and saluted.
“Dear Earl Greyman, I came to your land this time on the order of the royal family. On the one hand, I came to convey the will of His Majesty the King. Congratulations, you are now the official lord of Alda recognized by the royal government. . On the other hand, I will be stationed in your territory on behalf of the royal family. You must have heard about the recent situation, so many royal representatives have been stationed in various places to strengthen the connection and unity between loyal ministers like you. ”
Paul looked at Hansel slightly. He was of medium height, thin build, very elegantly dressed, meticulously groomed gray hair, fair face, and a pair of eyes that gave people a very shrewd feeling. There is a hint of arrogance.
He said with great gratitude: "Thank you, His Majesty the King, for trusting me. I will definitely live up to His Majesty's trust."
Because they were all waiting for the lord to come back, no one had lunch, so the guests and hosts sat down in the restaurant and sat down. Eat and talk.
But a dispute soon broke out.
"But sir, please forgive me for being rude. I took the liberty of visiting your territory. According to my observations, the threat from pirates to you is not as serious as imagined. I think the first priority is still Organize a Qinwang team to join the counter-rebellion army under the command of the eldest princess. Although the eldest princess has granted you no need to send troops, it is still a basic obligation of a minister to protect the royal family."
"This is the messenger. What are you talking about? Our old count died fighting against pirates. Isn’t this serious? We really can’t agree with that!" Bryce on the side retorted dissatisfiedly.
"With all due respect, if the old earl had not provoked the pirates, nothing would have happened." A civilian warrior also dared to interrupt. It was already very inappropriate for him and the nobles to eat at the same table. Hansel was slightly unhappy.
“What about the safety of the town and its citizens?”
Hansel said slightly disdainfully: “If I lend ten more courages to the pirates, they will not dare to attack the town in the middle of the lake where the lord is. , that will arouse the collective anger of the surrounding nobles. As for the life and death of the untouchables in the border areas, why should you care so much?"
"This..." Bryce blushed and wanted to refute, but there were some words he did not dare to say? Speaking out, no matter in the eyes of the other party or in his own heart, he still belonged to a commoner. The huge gap in status made him quickly calm down and restrain himself.
What a living class education, a certain earl who had not yet cultivated the consciousness of the ruling class sighed inwardly.
He smoothed things over and said: "The last crusade against pirates failed and there were a lot of casualties. We recruited a group of new recruits to supplement the army. We can't do anything with the current training level. We can wait until the new recruits are trained!"
Han After hearing this, Serge was not happy. He originally wanted to trick you into becoming cannon fodder, and the training was ridiculous. After all, he just didn't want to go.
"My lord, please allow me to remind you of a vassal's first obligation to his lord. Pirates are just an itch between your boots, but Giles's rebels are a serious problem for the kingdom."
He still refused to give up, looking at the little brat lord sitting in the first place with the style of a royal noble, and his tone became serious.
Oh no, you just don’t bow to me as the protagonist, but you actually want to command me, look at my domineering spirit.
"Allow me to remind you that I am the lord here! And there is a deep hatred between me and the pirates." The young earl slapped the table and stared at him with a serious expression. Staring competition? I'm too familiar.
......
"Yes, Lord Earl."
After a long time, Hansel lowered his head slightly, as if giving in, and then lowered his head to eat the food in silence. .
The banquet continued in an awkward atmosphere...
(End of this chapter)