"Report, there is the latest pond news." The gatekeeper handed the latest pond news to Zhu Ping'an.
Zhu Ping'an opened the Tangbao and roughly browsed it. This Tangbao recorded many incidents of Japanese invasion. He found the news of the Japanese pirates in Shangyu at two-thirds of the second page of the Tangbao. Yesterday, this group of Japanese pirates robbed She County, Huizhou from Jixi County, Huizhou, and looted two villages. After a night of rapid march, they suddenly entered Jingde County in Ningguo Prefecture. The Tangbao also specifically recorded that Cai Yaozuo, the prefect of Jingde County, prepared for battle and gathered more than 1,100 soldiers and horses from all directions. He bought a coffin from the coffin shop and said to his subordinates, "This official has received great favors from the court for generations and has been supported by the elders of Jingde for generations. I have no way to repay them. Now the Japanese pirates have invaded the border and killed my fathers and people. Cai must swear to destroy the Japanese pirates. If I succeed, this coffin will be filled with the heads of the Japanese pirates. This official will use the heads of the Japanese pirates to sacrifice to the spirits of my fathers and fellow villagers in heaven; if I fail and die on the battlefield, please put me in the coffin and carry me back." After that, he asked people to carry the coffin all the way and swear to go out of the city to destroy the Japanese pirates.
The Tangbao only recorded that Cai Dianshi swore to lead his troops out of the city. At that time, Cai Dianshi had not yet fought against the Japanese pirates.
Tang Bao is optimistic about Cai Dianshi's suppression of the Japanese pirates. Tang Bao analyzed that the reason why the suppression of the Japanese pirates in those counties before failed was because there were not enough troops, and each county had three to five hundred people. Now there are less than one hundred and twenty people left in this group of Japanese pirates, and Cai Dianshi has gathered more than one thousand one hundred soldiers, which is ten times the number of Japanese pirates. In addition, Cai Dianshi is skilled in archery and horse riding, and he comes from a family of military generals. Cai Dianshi carries a coffin into the battle, and he is determined to die and to suppress the Japanese pirates. As the saying goes, the army of mourning will win, and Cai Dianshi will surely succeed in this battle.
I hope Tsai Dian-shih can achieve success soon...
Zhu Ping'an closed the Shangtang newspaper and read a sentence silently, but in his heart he was worried for Cai Dianshi.
Nothing else!
This group of Japanese pirates is too strong.
If it weren't for the elite troops, the ordinary civilians and the garrison soldiers would be no match for this group of Japanese pirates.
Military advantage... ... General military advantage is not enough to wipe out this group of Japanese pirates. Shaoxing Prefecture gathered more than 2,000 troops to suppress the Japanese pirates but failed to achieve any success and suffered heavy casualties. Although the Japanese pirates now have only more than 110 troops, there were only 150 Japanese pirates to begin with, so the casualties were not many. Moreover, after the test of time, the remaining Japanese pirates are the elite among the elite, and each of them is a veteran of hundreds of battles. Cai Dianshi's 1,100 troops are not enough to establish sufficient advantage over the Japanese pirates.
Therefore, Zhu Ping'an was somewhat worried about Cai Dianshi.
"Bang, bang, bang..."
On the Taohuaji parade ground, the Zhejiang Army had already begun live-fire drills, with smoke and the pungent smell of gunpowder filling the air.
One of Zhu Ping'an's training directions for the Zhejiang Army was to develop firearms.
If the crossbow was a major revolution in ancient warfare, then firearms were a subversive revolution in warfare.
It is a historical inevitability that hot weapons will replace cold weapons, and Zhu Ping'an decided to take this step forward.
Zhu Pingan had a clear understanding of himself. His understanding and experience of cold weapon warfare did not have much advantage compared to this cold weapon era. Compared with the famous generals of this era, such as Qi Jiguang and Yu Daqiu, he was actually far inferior to them. However, when it comes to hot weapon warfare, Qi Jiguang and Yu Daqiu, it is no exaggeration to say that no one in this era can compare to him. This is the advantage of hundreds of years of experience. Therefore, whether it is to adapt to the development of the times or to play to one's strengths and avoid weaknesses, Zhu Pingan will definitely push the Zhejiang Army towards the path of firearms.
Although the firearms of this era were still crude and immature, they still had huge advantages over cold weapons. It was just that people of this era did not have enough understanding and application of firearms.
First, the time cost. It takes about two years to train a qualified cavalryman. It is relatively easy to train a qualified melee veteran, but it also takes a year and a half. It is easier to train a qualified long-range archer than a melee veteran, but it also takes three to five months. The time cost of training a qualified musketeer is relatively low, and it only takes one or two months.
Secondly, the cost of soldiers. In the cold weapon era, compared with the hot weapon era, the requirements for soldiers’ quality were higher, such as strong body and so on. After all, in the cold weapon era, strength was the basis of combat power. If you were weak and had little strength, you would be a burden if you could not swing a sword or a spear, or draw a longbow. However, in the hot weapon era, as long as you could hold a gun, that was enough.
In addition, the endurance cost. In cold weapon warfare, wielding swords and spears would make one out of breath after a few rounds. Archery with a bow has a relatively longer endurance, but in ancient times, a qualified archer could shoot eight arrows in a row, and an elite archer could shoot twelve arrows in a row. Generally speaking, an archer could shoot fifty arrows in a battle that lasted for several hours. But a fire gun saves a lot of effort. It takes almost no effort to load gunpowder and pull the trigger. As long as there is enough gunpowder and the gun does not explode, it can theoretically last indefinitely.
Therefore, the focus of Zhu Ping'an's training for the Zhejiang Army was firearms.
However, it is a pity that the muskets and cannons of this era are really too crude. The muskets are still matchlock guns, which are too backward. Although Zhu Ping'an is a liberal arts student majoring in ancient Chinese literature and cannot make guns and cannons like science students, he has seen pigs run even if he has not eaten pork. After all, he is from the modern era and has hundreds of years of historical experience. He still has some ideas about improving the firearms of this era, at least he can provide some ideas.
For example, using flint to replace the matchlock, adding rifling to the barrel to increase shooting distance and accuracy, etc.
There is a famous saying that goes, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, but that one percent inspiration is the most important, even more important than the ninety-nine percent perspiration."
Although I didn't know how to install the flint, let alone how to carve the rifling on the barrel, I could provide this epoch-making idea. With the help of skilled craftsmen and hundreds of experiments, I could always make it successfully.
Of course, there are also ideas that can be realized without skilled craftsmen.
For example, a revolutionary technique to increase the loading speed of a matchlock gun is the oil paper gunpowder bag. Wrap the gunpowder and bullet together in oil paper, and tear the end of the paper with your mouth when loading the gun. This allows for simple and fast loading of the matchlock gun, preventing soldiers from loading too much or too little gunpowder due to nervousness or impatience on the fierce battlefield, which can cause shooting failures and accidents. This technique may seem simple and insignificant, but according to historical development, it was not invented until around the 17th century.
However, it has already been invented by Zhu Ping'an. Zhu Ping'an also remembered this technique after discovering that the Zhejiang Army was slow in loading gunpowder two days ago, and often loaded too much or too little, leading to accidents.
The Zhejiang Army now uses oil paper gunpowder bags to train their muskets, which has more than doubled their speed.
Zhu Ping'an classified this technique as top secret of the Zhejiang Army and strictly prohibited it from being leaked to the enemy.
Of course, Zhu Ping'an did not keep this invention to himself. He recorded it in a secret memorial and reported it to Emperor Jiajing. However, the Ming army did not pay enough attention to firearms, so his suggestion might not attract enough attention. However, I believe that this situation will change as the Zhejiang Army is established and makes achievements.