Chapter 160 The combat effectiveness of the Haihan Militia
Since most of the official military armed forces of the Ming Dynasty were concentrated in cities and their ability to protect vast non-urban areas was very limited, it was common for large gentry households to organize their own paramilitary forces such as militia groups and security groups. Especially in the southeastern coastal areas that are often harassed by pirates, almost all villages have militia groups. In some densely populated areas, there are several large militia groups that jointly defend the villages. The number of militiamen even exceeds a thousand. Li Nai has lived in Guangdong all year round and has participated in many militia groups, but this is the first time he has seen people training militia groups like the Haihan people.
In general militia training, large households invite several martial arts masters or veterans who have retired from the army to teach the militia some basic fighting skills. Yes, it's just fighting, not fighting. This is because very few instructors have a clear concept of combat or war, let alone any command skills - it is unlikely that such militia instructors can be hired. Senior military officer. The direct consequence of this level of training is that militia commanders can often only effectively command squad-level battles. As for larger-scale military force mobilization and combat command skills, there is a serious lack of relevant training, and they can often only rely on ad hoc It's up to you to try your luck.
The content of vigilante training is basically based on physical training and fighting skills that break the body. In view of the fact that most people in this era only eat two meals a day and their caloric intake is very limited, physical training is mostly just a show. Combat skills emphasize more on individual combat prowess, rather than military collaborative combat skills. As for the formation training, there is really very little training. At most, the militiamen learn to gather and stand in formation. As for maintaining and changing the formation during the march, there is no need to think about it.
Of course, more importantly, the sponsors of the militia are all local wealthy gentry. How much military expenditure the sponsor is willing to spend is directly linked to the combat effectiveness of the militia - regardless of when fighting is really needed, even if it is For daily drills, rewards must be given to these amateur soldiers, otherwise no one will take part in the training seriously.
This bad habit was learned from the Ming army. The regular army of the Ming Dynasty practiced every four or five days. Because of the lax system, the guards often practiced every ten days or even half a month. In some places with poor conditions, they only practiced every month. Not surprising. The training frequency of the militia is definitely lower than that of the regular border army. The better ones are similar to those of the guards, and the worse ones are even worse than the guards. Joint training will only be organized once every few months. No matter from the perspective of training methods, conditions or frequency, it is difficult to believe that the armed forces trained in this way have any combat effectiveness.
The ancestral home of the "Fu Ruifeng" Li family is in Panyu, Guangzhou Prefecture. As one of the local gentry, the Li family also maintains a militia group of about 80 people all year round. Every time Li Nai returns to his hometown with his family to worship his ancestors, this militia soldier will be dispatched to maintain local order. Now looking at the Haihan people's militia, Li Nai silently compared the two teams.
When it comes to the level of formation drills, the Haihan Militia has undoubtedly left the Lijiazhuang Militia far behind the Eight Streets. In Li Nai's memory, the Lijiazhuang Militia has not even conducted such professional formation training. However, the Haihan Militia followed orders and prohibitions, and there was absolutely no whispering or looking around in the team, showing extremely strong discipline. This is also an aspect that the Lijiazhuang Militia is far behind.
However, Li Nai still does not think that the actual combat power of the Haihan Militia is higher than that of his own militia. This is because the Li family has invested a lot of capital for this militia. Not only did they hire several outstanding martial arts masters from Foshan as instructors, they also He paid a lot of money to hire a general from the Guangzhou garrison to teach him the techniques of marching and formation - in later generations, he would be regarded as a proper military consultant.
In addition, the Li family also spent a lot of money to equip all members of this militia with leather armor, single swords, spears and shields. There were even five archers in the team who were rare in the militia. As for the muskets that were commonly installed in the Ming army, the Li family also spent money to buy ten of them and gave them to this militia. In terms of combat power, Li Nai believed that it would be difficult to find a few militia groups in Guangzhou Prefecture that could compare with the Lijiazhuang militia group. The Haihan people's militia are certainly well-trained, but no matter how skillfully they perform, can these bare-handed militia beat a heavily armed opponent?
The queue drill here is over, and Li Nai's mind has not yet returned to the scene. However, He Qiang behind him coughed and said: "Mr. Tao, although the military discipline of your militia is excellent, why don't you carry weapons during the drill? Is it because you lack sophisticated weapons?"
Tao Donglai smiled and said: "That's not true. It was just a simple formation exercise. Since you two want to see the ordnance, that's fine."
He turned to Gu Wei and said loudly: "Instructor Gu, our guest wants to see the ordnance training."
Gu Wei was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said: "Okay, no problem. Then please follow me to the shooting range."
This shooting range is located at the foot of the east mountain, very close to the playground and can be reached in a blink of an eye. After Gu Wei gave an order, someone set up a wooden target fifty meters away, while several other militiamen, led by other instructors, carried several long wooden boxes.
When Li Nai and He Qiang saw the militiamen setting up targets, they both thought they were practicing bows and arrows. They also thought that the Haihan people were really capable and actually trained a group of archers. When the wooden box was opened and the militiamen came forward to collect weapons, the two of them were shocked.
"Bird gun!" Li Nai couldn't help but exhale softly.
The militiamen received the muskets and ammunition, and did not rush to load the ammunition. Instead, they quickly lined up under the command of Gu Wei, with ten people in a row and divided into six rows. Li Nai's face has turned a little pale - these Haihan people not only have muskets, but have also trained a large number of musket soldiers!
"Check the firearms!" Gu Wei ordered loudly after the team was lined up.
The militiamen first checked the three leather boxes they wore, which contained primers, propellants and projectiles. The propellants have been packaged in paper bags to prevent soldiers from loading more or less propellants due to nervousness or negligence. Next is the primer hole and primer pot of the gun to prevent gunpowder residue from blocking the hole and causing launch failure. If someone finds that there is a problem with their equipment at this time, they will raise their hands to signal, then step back and let the people behind them add to their queue first.
"Load ammunition!" Gu Wei counted the time and issued the second order.
The militiaman shook the primer into the primer pot and closed the lid. Bite open the small paper package containing the propellant with your teeth, pour the propellant in from the muzzle of the gun, then load the projectile, remove the purge bar from the barrel and tamp the projectile and propellant tightly. "Fire! Aim!" Gu Wei continued to order.
The militiamen used fire to light the match rope fixed on the match rope clamp, and then raised their guns to aim at the target.
"Five rapid fire shots, launch!" Gu Wei waved his hand, and immediately there was a ping-ping-pong-pong sound, startling a group of birds in the forest behind the target.
After firing, the militiamen immediately retreated from the gap in the queue to the rear, and the soldiers in the second row stepped forward and raised their guns.
"Ignite...aim...fire!"
Going back and forth like this, six rows of militia musketeers each fired five bullets in a non-stop manner before stopping amidst the whistle of the ancient guard. Then everyone checked the firearms on the spot, cleaned the chambers, and waited for the next order.
"What do you think?" Tao Donglai asked the two stunned guests with a smile.
"It's amazing!" Li Nai replied in a very dry voice. He had also seen matchlock drills, but the striking power of the ten muskets of his militia was simply incomparable to the rotating shooting method of combat in front of him. If two militia groups were to face off on the battlefield, wouldn't it mean that the Haihan militia had already defeated a large number of them before they even came into contact?
Soon the militiamen retrieved the target. Looking at the bullet holes shot through the inch-thick wooden board, anyone could fully imagine how lethal this musketry unit was on the frontal battlefield.
Li Nai swallowed hard and argued: "This blunderbuss gun is indeed powerful, but its ammunition is limited. Once it is used up, won't it become a fire stick?"
Tao Donglai nodded and said: "That's right. The Ming Army's muskets do have this problem, so we have already thought of ways to overcome this flaw."
Tao Donglai stretched out his hand, and Gu Wei handed him a matchlock gun and then a two-foot-long bayonet with understanding. The end of the bayonet is a sleeve. Tao Donglai aligned the hole of the sleeve with the muzzle and inserted it. Then, with a twist, the bayonet was fixed by the tenon on the gun body. In this way, the five-foot-long fire stick immediately turned into a seven-foot-long short spear. This must be attributed to the efforts of the military industry department, which made the bayonet bayonet appear in this time and space more than half a century in advance.
Tao Donglai thrust his hand a little harder, and the bayonet immediately penetrated the inch-thick target. Li Nai and He Qiang, who witnessed the whole process, both had their mouths wide open and could not utter a single word of defense.
After being silent for a long time, Li Nai suddenly asked something that surprised even Tao Donglai: "May I ask Mr. Tao, how did you get these blunderbuss?"
Before Tao Donglai could recover, Schneider, who was standing next to him, had already smelled a hint of business opportunity in Li Nai's words and quickly took over the conversation: "Mr. Li, do you want to buy a few back?"
Li Nai did not directly answer Schneider's question and said to himself: "Looking at it below, although this blunderbuss is similar to the one equipped by the Ming army, it seems to be more sophisticated and has a spear tip that can be installed on the blunderbuss' mouth. This It shouldn’t be the Ministry of War’s standard, right?”
Schneider and Tao Donglai exchanged glances, and then told him directly: "We made these matchlock guns. If Mr. Li is interested in buying them, we can have a good discussion about the business."
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(End of chapter)