Guo Shao received a report from the Hedong Branch of the Military Affairs Department that reinforcements from Shifen, Xianxin and other places of the Northern Han Kingdom had arrived at the north bank of Fenzhou in Jinyang City, and the Liao army was returning north. At this time, wars were frequent in Liaozhou, and the Hedong Branch had been secretly stationed in Xingzhou in the east. Although it was farther away from the border of the Northern Han Dynasty, it was also safer.
After reading the report, he turned to Jingniang and said: You should order the Hedong branch in the name of the Military Department to send a copy of any news about the domestic military situation in the Northern Han Dynasty directly to Fu Zhaoxu's camp.
Jingniang took the broken jade and bowed with her fists clasped.
Guo Shao read another memorial from Zan Jurun, the military equipment supervisor, and then touched his abdomen and said: It's time to move around.
In the past two days, Guo Shaocai suddenly found that he could not feel the muscles on his stomach, but had grown some softer flesh, which made him feel a little depressed. He was only 24 years old, but he felt that he might gain weight if he continued like this. If he sat in the office all day, lived a comfortable life and ate well, it was inevitable to gain fat. In fact, the more muscles a person had, the easier it was to gain fat. This is why many athletes gain weight easily after retirement. Warriors in this era do not care about gaining flesh, but Guo Shao himself does not like to gain weight. He has gained weight in the past few months and always feels that no matter what he does, he is not as relaxed and flexible as before.
He decided to go out of the palace and take a look at the workshop city by the Bianshui River.
The itinerary was decided on at the last minute, with guards from the imperial soldiers and horsemen, and the gate out of the imperial city was chosen at random, and then the horses rushed out of the city without stopping. This kind of random route and random time chosen at the last minute would be difficult for assassins to seize the opportunity. Moreover, with the level of spies in this era, even if there were spies, it would be unlikely for Guo Shao to get the news of the emperor's trip under the surveillance of the Imperial City Department's Internal Affairs Bureau.
This time there was no imperial guard at all. Guo Shao actually didn't like the pomp and circumstance. He was sometimes impatient and thought that slow and pretentious behavior was a waste of time. He put on a set of plate armor, with fine chain mail at the joint. This set of armor was very heavy, more than 60 kilograms; but Guo Shao still jumped on the horse directly, showing great agility.
A team of armored cavalry left the city from Xihua Gate, and then rode south along Imperial Street.
After leaving Dongjing City, and running south for half an hour, the workshop area is a group of buildings beside the Bianshui River. The workshop has now expanded into a small city, but unlike ordinary cities, this city has no civilians living in it, and even fences and patrols are set up within the radius to prevent civilians from approaching.
Even the workshop for making firearms was built here. There were separate workshop areas, garrison areas, artisan residential areas, a training ground for testing weapons, and farmland for growing vegetables. Every day, the military officials would summon personnel from the Bian River to bring water into the city. This place was like an industrial area without machines. Because Guo Shao controlled the country's resources and power, it was not difficult to build such a city.
Guo Shao heard the sound of cannons before he entered the city. He heard that some people from the left wing of the Tiger Guards were training with firearms in the parade ground, so he immediately led his guards and officials to the parade ground in the workshop city. When they arrived at the open ground of the parade ground, they heard the crackling sound of guns and the smoke of gunpowder rising in all directions. Hundreds of people were training in formation there.
At that time, the only slight improvement made to the Dragon Roar Cannon was that the barrel was lengthened after it was found that it would not explode. Hundreds of them had been cast. In addition, a gun ear was made. This gun ear was not used for aiming, but to mark the height. By raising it at a specific position in the middle, the inclination of the muzzle could be adjusted, and thus the range.
The structure of this cannon is very simple. The cannon body is a thick-walled cast iron barrel with a small hole drilled at the bottom for the fuse. Then there is a wooden base and a wooden stake to fix the cannon body. There is basically no technical content in casting, that is, some sand holes that are too large and rough must be eliminated and recast; because the barrel is thick and short, the caliber is large, and the airtightness is not good, so the cast iron tube wall will not explode even if it is not smooth and fine.
What limits the efficiency of casting Dragon Roar Cannons is not the casting process, but the fact that they are too heavy and require a large amount of raw materials. The speed of transporting the iron materials cannot keep up, which limits the scale.
There was also a square formation of about a hundred people nearby, standing in three rows. Next to them was a flag embroidered with a tiger and the words "Shenhuo Du" on it.
Zan Jurun said: The Military Equipment Supervisor has contacted General Li Chuyun of the Palace Front Department and asked the Palace Front Department to send people to train and take over the firearms. Li Chuyun came in person and after seeing the power and usage of the firearms, he sent these people. Most of them were soldiers recruited by the Palace Front Department this year and did not know archery or horsemanship.
Anyway, it's useless to know how to shoot arrows with firearms. Guo Shao said casually. He rode forward to watch. Zan Jurun advised Guo Shao to stay fifty steps away, fearing that he would be injured by mistake. The effective range of this kind of fire gun is only forty steps, and the damage to armored people is only twenty steps.
A du has 100 men, divided into three rows. Their tactics are three-stage volleys, which were used when Guo Shao didn't have firearms and used crossbows. The structure of a du also changed according to the tactics. A du has only three teams, each with ten generals in charge of more than 30 people. The original team had more than 20 people.
Those soldiers all wore four pieces of plate armor: helmet, shoulder armor, chest armor, and arm armor. Because these parts can be mass-forged in the armor workshop, it saves manpower compared to chain mail. Except for the vital parts, the only protection for other parts is leather armor.
They also had many small bamboo tubes tied with ropes hanging on their bodies. At this time, a general on the side raised his hand and shouted: The first step is to check the cupping jars.
All the soldiers pulled out an iron can from their waist pockets, which was wrapped with wet cloth, and they opened the wooden lid with a vent hole to look at the charcoal inside. If some of the fires went out, they would raise their hands to signal, and the deputy general and the tenth general at the head of the platoon would quickly carry a ceramic container and use tongs to replace the charcoal for the soldiers.
Then the general shouted: "The second step is to load the ammunition." Everyone pulled a bamboo tube from the string of bamboo tubes hanging diagonally on their bodies, and then hurriedly pulled out the straw paper blocking the mouth of the bamboo tube, and poured all the gunpowder into the mouth of the thick and short bronze gun; the bamboo tube was not thrown away, but stuffed into the cloth bag at the waist. Then they took out a lead bullet wrapped in straw paper or rags from the cloth bag and stuffed it into the mouth of the gun.
The third step is to use a wooden stick. Soldiers pulled out a wooden stick from their waists, pushed the lead bullet wrapped in paper into it, and carefully compacted it. These steps were designed by the Military Equipment Supervisor at the instruction of Guo Shao. They made some changes according to the actual situation, but Guo Shao knew why they did that. The lead bullet wrapped in paper was larger, so the wooden stick was needed to push it in; but it could be filled tightly at the bottom of the musket, and the gunpowder and bullet would not be easily poured out.
In the fourth step of the first row, everyone took out the lead wires and stuffed them into the small holes at the back.
The general who was giving the order drew his sword and shouted: "Prepare!
The scene at this time was very strange. The first row of more than 30 people held the bronze sticks like maces horizontally at waist level. There was a wooden handle behind the mace, and everyone clamped the wooden handle with their right elbows and held the top of the wooden handle with their right hands facing up to stabilize the musket.
Then he pulled out the fire cup from his waist bag with his left hand, bit the stopper open with his teeth, and held the pot of charcoal in his left hand.
The general looked at it for a while, pointed his sword at the target in front of him, and shouted: "Shoot!"
More than thirty people lit the fuse with the charcoal in the fire pot, and then there was a crackling sound, and a line of white smoke filled the air.
The general didn't care whether he hit the target or not, and shouted directly: Change the team, the first row, go to the end, remember to put the fire pot in first, don't fire it accidentally, the second row, get ready
When the three rows had finished fighting, the general shouted, "Kill!" Everyone held bronze guns like maces and followed the generals holding swords, shouting and rushing forward. When they arrived in front of some mounds of earth, a group of people rushed forward and beat the mounds with maces in both hands.
Guo Shao looked at it, his face was uncertain, and he couldn't tell what he felt. No wonder Li Chuyun sent some new soldiers and miscellaneous soldiers over after seeing it, the muskets seemed to be not very useful.
It looks very troublesome, but it is not completely useless. At least people who don't know any martial arts can be used as long-range soldiers as long as they are trained well. They can hit at least 20 or 40 steps away. I have never seen a spear that is dozens of meters long. Another advantage is that although it looks like there are many steps, each step is simple and does not require any skills, and it does not require much physical strength.
But it is conceivable that if this kind of soldiers encounter cavalry charging close, or even if they engage in close combat with infantry, their combat effectiveness will probably be very poor. The mace is an antique weapon that has long been eliminated in wars and is not very easy to use.
Guo Shao didn't want to equip too many musketeers at the moment, so he just used a city's worth of troops for actual combat exercises.