Chapter 249: An episode caused by the gun test
After adjustments are made at the squad and platoon level, corresponding changes will be made at the battalion and company levels. For example, the company level will increase the firepower platoon organization and be composed of pure musketeers, while the battalion level will serve as the highest level of combat operations at present. The unit will most likely add an artillery company as heavy fire support, and will also be equipped with direct support teams such as engineering companies and health companies. After this disguised expansion, the existing establishment has not changed significantly, but the size of the troops that can be directly commanded by the crossing officers can be increased by at least one-third, which can effectively alleviate the current shortage of officers.
Of course, there is another reason for doing this that is not humane to outsiders, and that is that the military and police departments have previously awarded the rank of officers up to lieutenant. Only those Tao Donglai and Yan Chujie who are good at management and command are the officers. Military rank. If the expansion continues according to the current staffing plan, a second battalion will have to be established. However, before any success is achieved, the officers will be raised from the company and platoon level to the battalion level, and the general rank will be raised from the captain level to the school level. It seems that the military and police department I'm also a little bit embarrassed about it.
Although the original arrangement was indeed a bit ill-considered, it is also a process that the army must go through to grow. After all, even the military and police department, most of them have not been officers before time travel. If they do not command from the grassroots level, When the officers started to start, it was really not reassuring to directly let these people serve as commanders at the battalion and company level.
After the simple military parade, Tao Donglai and Yan Chujie, as the first and second leaders of the Military and Police Department, delivered speeches respectively. The main purpose was to remind these militia soldiers where their lives today came from and what they have to defend with their lives. Who is the target? Both of these two men had engaged in political work during their time in the army, and their speeches were very emotional and inflammatory.
These militia soldiers are basically from poor backgrounds. Most of them came to Victory Port for the sake of food. However, their current living standards are indeed far better than before. The leaders of Haihan promised to "have a house to live in". , have food to eat, have clothes to wear, and have books to read”, now they have all been realized. And after they have completed several years of military service, they will automatically obtain the corresponding labor grade, get jobs assigned by the executive committee, and even apply to contract a piece of land to grow their own food. These benefits were something they had never imagined in the past. After several months of military training, the soldiers gradually understood that the Haihan Executive Committee, which gave them these generous benefits, was the most important thing the militia wanted to defend. object. Without the existence of the Executive Committee, they would immediately return to a state of poverty where they had only one meal and no next meal.
Of course, there are still many people who join the army with the idea of "serving food and working for money". After all, the treatment of the militiamen is second to none among all walks of life in Victory Port, and the local area has been calm in recent months. There are neither bandits nor pirates. As a militiaman, you can get a high salary and your life does not seem to be in danger.
However, the Military and Police Department has no intention of letting this force, which has invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, remain idle. In fact, the Military and Police Staff Office has already begun formulating a small-scale military action plan for next year. The target is tentatively set at the Pearl River Estuary. Wanshan Islands chose a place to establish a maritime stronghold. The function of this maritime stronghold is similar to that of Fushuizhou Island. It can serve as a shipping transfer station. At the same time, it can provide certain military support to the Guangdong Office and monitor the waters of the Pearl River Estuary.
According to the information sent back by the General Office of the People's Republic of China, there are still a small group of pirates near the Wanshan Islands, and military conflicts may occur. The Staff Office is also weighing whether it is necessary to strike first and clear out other maritime forces that may interfere. But regardless of whether force will be used, the Military and Police Department regards this as a great opportunity for the militia forces to conduct live-fire exercises. Moreover, since this island station is mainly for military purposes, the Military and Police Department also regards it as an opportunity to form a navy. Of course, this depends on whether the Ministry of Shipping’s No. 1 test boat can be launched and complete basic trial tasks before the end of the year, because the Military and Police Ministry has already assigned the ship to the Navy in advance and is preparing to use it as an armed force. Patrol boats are used.
After the military parade, everyone hurried to the artillery range to watch the first batch of naturalized civilian artillerymen perform live ammunition shooting, which was also their graduation ceremony. As time travelers from four hundred years in the future, most of the people in the military and police department are devout believers in Big Bombism, and highly admire the power of artillery in modern warfare. Especially in this era when there is no need to worry about air strikes, artillery is the king of war, whether on land or at sea. It is precisely based on this consideration that the Ministry of Military and Police attaches more importance to the artillery force than the navy. Even if the existing militia only has one battalion, it will not hesitate to draw a large number of personnel from it for artillery training. After many After elimination and selection, more than thirty naturalized civilian artillerymen were left.
The Military and Police Department will certainly not be satisfied with this scale of artillery, but the completion of this batch of artillery at least means that the future artillery force has taken the first step to success. The appearance of the most powerful army in the South China Sea seems to be just It's a matter of time.
Different from the previous musketeers, which had uneven physical qualities, almost all of this small artillery unit were strong men with thick shoulders and round waists, and they were all relatively muscular. This is also determined by the actual combat tasks of the artillery. The heavy gun body can basically only be adjusted by manpower on the battlefield. The constant loading and clearing during the battle can also be regarded as heavy physical work, and the physical strength is not good enough. A person would immediately fall down from exhaustion after firing twelve rounds in a hurry. Those trainees with insufficient physical fitness were gradually eliminated due to physical reasons during the training process. Only a handful of trainees who showed that their minds were better than ordinary people during the training process were absorbed into various companies of the militia as the future grassroots Officers to train.
The live-fire target shooting of the 6-pounder and 12-pounder guns went smoothly, and the performance of the gunners was basically qualified. After all, they had received several months of intensive training. Each of these gunners had fired more than 100 live rounds. Fa, just training them consumes several tons of black powder, so the investment is not small.
According to the plan of the Military and Police Department, this group of artillerymen will be equipped with eight 6-pound guns, or a combination of 12-pound guns and 6-pound guns. Together with engineers, communications and baggage troops, they will form an army artillery company. However, given the current acute shortage of gunners, these people may be directly assigned to serve in the port's coastal defense batteries, and after the launch of the No. 1 test ship, some of them will be transferred to the ship to serve as naval gunners. As for when the next batch of artillerymen will graduate and enlist in the army, Gu Wei estimates that it will be at the end of the year at the earliest.
After completing the scheduled target practice, the military industry department stepped in and pulled out two 24-pound long-barreled artillery for test firing. This kind of gun is not designed for the current army, but is a large-caliber coastal defense gun that will be equipped on coastal defense artillery fortifications in the future. It weighs more than three 12-pound guns combined, and the gun body alone weighs more than one ton. , the body-to-tube ratio reached twenty times. For this purpose, the military industry department also designed a special mechanical gun mount, and used the newly developed recoil device on the gun mount to ensure the convenience of operation of this large-caliber artillery. According to calculations by the military industry department, when fired at a 5° firing angle, this artillery can easily hit a target at a distance of 1,500 meters and maintain a high degree of accuracy. When fired at a 10° firing angle, the artillery shell It can even hit targets 2,000 meters away - at this shooting distance, contemporary artillery has no accuracy at all.
The farthest target of the artillery range is less than one thousand meters. If it is further away, you can only shoot towards the mountains or towards the sea. In view of this situation, the target position was finally set at a distance of 750 meters, which was far beyond the shooting distance of contemporary naval guns. It can be said that at this distance, it is almost impossible for shore defense artillery to encounter damage from Artillery strikes at sea.
The results of the test gun surprised everyone. Although it was the first time for the naturalized civilian artillery to operate this large-caliber artillery, the target was effectively hit on the fifth shot. The ninth and Ten rounds even hit consecutively. Considering that in the future, at least twenty of this kind of artillery will be deployed on the shore defenses of Yulinjiao, this hit rate is almost invincible - only one or two salvos at this distance are enough to sink or sink Paralyzed a sea target.
Tao Donglai made the decision on the spot after watching the test firing and agreed to the application to use this long-barreled 24-pound gun as the main firepower configuration of coastal defense fortifications. It is not impossible to build larger-caliber artillery now, but the military industry department believes that it is meaningless to further enlarge the existing artillery models. After all, the several types of artillery currently equipped are difficult to rival in the same era. The goal of technology tree upgrade is We should turn to improving the barrel material and processing technology and accelerating the development of breech-loaded guns. Several existing cast iron artillery can be sold to "backward areas" after appropriately reducing their performance, just like they are now selling to Fujian and North Vietnam. as done.
While the members of the Military and Police Department happily visited the artillery test firing on the east bank of Victory Port, the merchants in the conference room in Base No. 1 were so frightened that their faces turned pale and they were trembling. The sound of artillery that came from time to time made their hearts tremble. .
Although there is a bay between the two places, the straight-line distance is actually only three or four miles, and there is no slope blocking the two places. The roar of artillery fire came from far away, making it impossible for the merchants to concentrate. Come up to the auction in front of you.
Ning Qi was also very angry at this moment. The military and police department had not come early or late, but they chose to test the artillery during the auction. Is it because they are stupid or do they want to scare these Ming merchants? Although Ning Qi gave a special explanation for this, explaining that this was a local militia group conducting daily military training across the bay, the merchants were obviously not very satisfied with this explanation - do you think we have never seen the world? Is it necessary for a militia group to fire off cannons for such a long time? This has been going on for more than half an hour, and at least sixty or seventy artillery fires have been fired. Is it true that your militia has fired more fiercely than the official army's artillery fire?
Some people were secretly guessing whether it was the Ming Dynasty official army or the South China Sea pirates who came to attack, but no matter which one it was, it seemed impossible that there would be such intensive artillery fire.
Ning Qi saw that these people were not focused on the auction, so he simply said: "Otherwise, let's take a rest for a while, and the auction will continue after half an hour. You can go out and walk around, I told you to If you don’t believe it, see it and believe it.”
As if they had been pardoned, everyone rushed out of the conference room. If you run fast, you have already made a plan in your mind. If there is a fight outside, you have to get to the port and board the ship. If you are lucky, you might be able to get out. Only Li Nai sat motionless in his seat and continued drinking tea calmly. Ning Qi smiled when he saw this and said, "Mr. Li can still keep his composure."
Li Nai shook his head and said: "It's not that I can hold my breath under the sinking, but after living in Victory Port for many days, I have become accustomed to it. The artillerymen of this militia will practice every three days. They were a little frightened at first, but much more." After this, I felt extremely at ease.”
Ning Qi said in shock: "Huh? Why do you think so?"
"Imagine that the local militia is so powerful, how could any unscrupulous pirate dare to come here to cause trouble? This business is investing and building here, and seeking development, it needs this sense of stability." Li Nai responded slowly: " With such powerful protection, I can just rest assured and make a fortune. Wouldn’t it be great? ”
Ning Qi sighed: "Mr. Li is very enlightened! It would be great if other merchants could have thoughts like yours."
Li Nai smiled and said: "Mr. Ning, please rest assured that the merchants who dare to cross the sea to trade here are not timid people. After knowing the truth of the matter, they will naturally turn around. In my opinion, it will take less than half an hour. Just one more stick of incense and these people will come back.”
The actual situation was better than Li Nai expected. Within half a stick of incense, a merchant came back angrily: "If you want to test the cannon, why not go to the inland uninhabited land, but try it in this port to scare people?" It’s abominable to have fun!”
Later, another person said back: "Okay, okay, it's just a test of the artillery. From now on, with such heavy artillery guarding, this place will definitely be safe."
It turned out that after these people went out, they saw that the local people were calm and the outside was in order. There was no sign of any foreign enemy attack. They knew that Ning Qi's previous explanation was true. This was indeed a militia test of artillery and not an artillery battle. There are also some who are more cautious and even go to the entrance of the base to call the followers waiting outside to ask. These followers had already been in chaos due to the roar of artillery fire, and now they all calmed down and told their masters not to panic - the local people said that if there was an attack from a foreign enemy, there would naturally be sirens that resounded throughout the port.
These merchants had already stayed in Victory Port for one night, and of course they had heard the loudspeaker that reminded people to go to work in the morning. The sound of that thing could indeed be heard clearly by the entire port, and the sound was even louder than the roar of artillery fire. With this reasonable explanation, the merchants really felt relieved and returned to the conference room one after another.
And just as Li Nai thought, after discovering the truth, these merchants had more confidence in the safety of Victory Port - although the source of this confidence was that they had not seen the actual artillery and artillery at all. That’s all. But for them, it was the first time in their lives to see a commercial port like Victory Port protected by a coastal defense fort. The strangest thing is that the ownership of this fort is not owned by the Ming Dynasty official, but by the navy. Local militia organized by Han people.
After experiencing this episode, the relaxed merchants began a new round of competition, and batches of goods went to their owners in the bidding. In the afternoon of the same day, Li Nai bought the only Haihan Silver Mirror with a size of two feet in the auction at a price of 2,700 yuan in circulation coupons. It also set a record for the most expensive item in the auction.
The precious commodity that also attracted the attention of many merchants, the limited-edition special commemorative set of Ding Maonian glass stationery, was not put up for auction in the end. Instead, it was sold separately to the visitors at a "low" price of 500 yuan a set. Various merchants came to Victory Port to thank everyone for coming all the way here to support them.
This set of stationery is not only packaged in a beautiful brocade box, but also comes with a certification signed "Haihan Ministry of Commerce", and each set has a unique collection number to prove its value. Li Nai believes that this set of things can be speculated to at least a thousand taels in the current Guangzhou market. If it can be shipped to the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, considering the numerous wealthy businessman consumer groups there, it is not unusual for this thing to sell for a sky-high price.
After the two-day auction, these merchants from Guangzhou sold a total of more than 20,000 yuan of goods in Victory Port, and the total amount of Haihan industrial products and a small amount of agricultural products purchased exceeded 80,000 yuan. Haihan The trade surplus achieved by one side is astonishing. The merchants did not feel bad about the money spent. They knew very well that after the goods they purchased were shipped back to Guangzhou, the profits they would make would also be tens of thousands.
In order to thank the merchants for their "contribution" to local development, the executive committee also lost no time in holding a celebration banquet for all the merchants. Just like what they had seen at the Guangdong Office, the banquets of the Haihan people were as luxurious as ever. More than 90% of the utensils on the table were glassware, and the lighting used indoors was neither fire nor candles, but very bright. The lamps made the merchants very curious.
The executive committee regards every contact with the outside world as an opportunity to promote Haihan culture, which of course also includes values and lifestyles. After two days in Victory Port, even those who had doubts about the Haihan people had to admit that these Haihan people with short hair, short clothes, and northern accents were indeed truly "civilized people." This kind of civilization Not only in the way they treat others, but also in the various details of their life and work. Although the Haihan people chose such a remote place to settle down, their quality of life can be said to be higher than that of most Ming gentry - even the toilet paper they use to wipe their butts is better than what they use at home.
The only thing they can't quite understand is why these wealthy and capable Haihan people don't want to find ways to build a better living environment for themselves, but they all crowd into a small fortress and live a life similar to that of a military camp. collective life.
(End of chapter)