After Zhu Pingan finished speaking, the scene was quiet for a while, but soon someone asked Zhu Pingan a question:
"Master Zhu, the Bravery Formation has not been tested in battle, so we don't know how good it really is. In addition, even if, as Master Zhu said, the Bravery Formation is the most powerful military formation for bringing out the power of firearms, what will happen when the long-range fire is used and the enemy is engaged in close combat? Are we going to use the muskets as firewood sticks to hit the enemy? At most, we can just make a blister out of the enemy, which is not very lethal."
After this man finished speaking, many officials nodded and started talking one after another.
"Yes, even if the Zhejiang Army is proficient in the use of firearms and can fire a bullet every five breaths, it doesn't matter. At a distance of fifty meters, it will only take about ten breaths for the enemy to rush in. As long as there are enough enemies, you can fire at most three waves of bullets and the enemy will be able to rush into the formation. The Japanese pirates are brave, but they are not afraid of death. As long as there are enough Japanese pirates, they will definitely be able to rush into your army."
"Once the Japanese invaders charge into the battle array, your Zhejiang troops standing in line with firearms in hand will be no different from selling their heads to the Japanese invaders, just like lining up to commit suicide."
"Your army relies so heavily on firearms. If we come into close combat, it will be a disaster and you will suffer great losses."
"So, as I said before, although firearms are powerful and should be taken seriously, they cannot be relied on as heavily as your army does. If the entire army is armed with firearms, it will be an unbearable disaster in close combat."
Everyone was talking at once, saying that the Zhejiang Army was wrong to rely on firearms, and that it would be a disaster if they came into close combat.
Zhang Jing reached out to stop the argument, turned his head to look at Zhu Ping'an, and asked calmly, "Zihou, what everyone said makes sense. It all depends on how firearms fight in close combat. How do you think about it?"
Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but shook their heads.
How can firearms be used to deal with close combat? This is simply impossible. How can Zhu Pingan think about it
In their view, once the battle starts, the enemy will definitely not give you time to reload gunpowder. The musket in your hand is just a fire stick without any killing power. If you encounter an enemy holding a Japanese sword, you will be seeking your own death. The only way is to place the musket soldiers under the protection of spearmen, shield and sword soldiers, etc., and use cold weapons when the battle starts.
But in this case, isn't it the same as other military camps?! Other military camps also have a mixture of firearms and cold weapons. Firearms are used in a limited manner, with the highest proportion of firearms being 40%. At least 60% of cold weapons are needed to protect the firearms and to engage in close combat with the enemy. In the final analysis, cold weapons are the protagonists on the battlefield.
So, this is unsolvable!
Admit your mistakes, Zhu Ping'an! If you turn back early, you can still get ashore! If you remain stubborn, the battlefield will be ruined!
This is the common voice of everyone.
"Your Excellency, I will solve this problem from two aspects. On the one hand, I will continue to increase the power of firearms, increase the number of artillery, increase the number of artillery sub-guns, increase the number of musket sub-guns, load the sub-gun ammunition in advance, improve the loading efficiency of artillery and muskets, and use firearms to kill the enemy to the greatest extent."
Zhu Pingan replied slowly.
The Zhejiang Army now has only twenty new portable artillery pieces. When the Zhejiang Army trains, several battalions take turns using the artillery.
It's not that Zhu Ping'an doesn't want to increase the number of artillery quickly, but the Zhejiang Army only has one specialized artillery craftsman, Zhang Hong. Liu Jin has only participated in the casting of the artillery barrel. In essence, he is still a cold weapon craftsman and can only help Zhang Hong. These twenty artillery pieces are the result of Zhang Hong, Liu Jin and their apprentices working day and night without sleep. They are also forged based on artillery such as the bowl-mouth gun.
These twenty cannons have used up all the old cannons, such as the bowl-mouth guns, and we will have to start from scratch from now on.
It is made entirely by hand, and is hammered and pounded repeatedly. After the barrel is formed, it needs to be polished and smoothed with a drill...
Liu Jin and his team spent more than ten days to cast the two small cannons. According to Liu Jin, it would take at least five more days before the two small cannons could be put to the test.
Of course, as Liu Jin and his colleagues become more skilled and the apprentices master more skills, efficiency can also be improved.
This batch of new cannons were improved by Liu Jin using the artillery caliber technology taught by Zhu Ping'an. From the appearance, the gun barrel is thinner than the bowl-mouth gun, and the gun wall is also thinner than the bowl-mouth gun. From the effect, the range, shooting accuracy and power of this batch of new artillery are more than doubled that of the bowl-mouth gun. Moreover, due to the addition of iron hoops on the gun body, the number of artillery barrel explosions has been reduced a lot, although it still cannot be eliminated.
In fact, Liu Jin and his team forged 22 cannons in the first batch. One cannon exploded during a test, and another cannon exploded during training due to frequent firing, causing the barrel to overheat.
Fortunately, the explosion of the two cannons only caused minor injuries to three soldiers and no serious consequences.
Compared with cannons and muskets, the forging of sub-guns is much easier, and any cold weapon craftsman can assist in the forging.
The Zhejiang Army currently has more than one hundred artillery muskets in stock and has forged several hundred musket muskets.
Zhu Ping'an prepared to forge at least 200 cannon muskets; as for musket muskets, at least one soldier would have two musket muskets.
The sub-gun can be loaded with gunpowder in advance, and replacing the sub-gun is much faster than loading gunpowder on the spot, and the efficiency can be increased by more than double. Compared with loading gunpowder on the spot, replacing the sub-gun can at least fire one or two more rounds before close combat.
In this way, the enemy will have to endure one or two more rounds of firepower, just like cutting wheat, harvesting one or two more rounds of enemies.
This is absolutely terrifying. In the era of cold weapons, an army would collapse if it lost 10% or 20% of its troops. Facing the firepower of the Zhejiang Army, it was inevitable that the enemy would lose 10% or 20% of its troops. It is estimated that most of the enemies would collapse before they even came into direct contact.
However, this point cannot be seen until people have truly witnessed the lethality of the line-up shooting tactic.
"This is only a temporary solution. Even with the muskets, we still can't prevent the Japanese pirates from rushing over and engaging in close combat."
"Indeed, even if you replace the sub-gun and fire one more time, the enemy will pay a higher price and still be able to rush over."
As soon as Zhu Ping'an finished speaking, someone shook his head and denied Zhu Ping'an's solution.
"What is the second aspect?"
Zhang Jing looked at Zhu Ping'an expressionlessly. The first aspect of Zhu Ping'an did not satisfy him.
"The second aspect is to install bayonets on the muskets. In close combat, we will use bayonets." Zhu Ping'an replied with a bow.
"Add a bayonet to the musket? Bayonet fighting?!"
"What is a bayonet?"
"How do you add a bayonet to a musket? Do you put it in the musket barrel? If you add a bayonet to the musket barrel, how can you fire it?"
"Adding a bayonet to a musket means converting it into a spear? Combining firearms and cold weapons into one? Lord Zhu is really imaginative and creative."
Everyone was stunned when they heard this.