In the slightly cold autumn wind, on October 25th, Liu Yan, accompanied by Tian Huixu, Xun Jingyun, Miao Shao, and hundreds of personal guards who stayed overnight and escorted, returned to Wangjiazhuang Baiyun. Household.
Every time Liu Yan comes back, he must first go to Dapanbao to meet the military households who still live in Dapanbao, and this time is no exception.
Tian Huixu and Xun Jingyun were waiting in Wangjiazhuang. Liu Yan only brought Miao Shao and a group of guards to Dapanbao. Chen Jiangshi, the director of the soap workshop, Qian Zao, the director of the wine shop, and the chief flag officer of Dapanbao were at the door. meet.
Liu Yan looked at everyone with a smile, feeling very happy in his heart. This is his starting point and his home in this troubled world. When he comes back here, Liu Yan always feels a very relaxed feeling, which is something he feels elsewhere. less than.
Liu Yan entered Dapanbao surrounded by everyone, inspected the wine shop and other places, and then visited the soap workshop.
At this time, the winery and soap workshop developed greatly. Dapanbao was the main workshop, and branch workshops were built in Wangjiazhuang, Xiahezhai and other places, and the income increased significantly.
After finishing the official business, Liu Yan looked at Chen Jiang who was hesitant to speak, and said with a smile: "Brothers and sisters, don't worry, that boy Chen Xun is still leading troops in Liaodong and has not gone to fight with me in Henan."
Chen Jiang was even more worried when he heard this and said: "Sir, the place in Liaodong is very dangerous, and there are many Tatars outside the customs. I know how capable my guy is. Can he lead troops in Liaodong alone? ?”
Liu Yan said: "Don't worry, Chen Xun is no longer the small flag officer in Dapandun. Now he is the commander of the new army's front camp and the leader of the Ming Dynasty."
He is a guerrilla general, and he has more than 12,000 elite New Army soldiers stationed within the impregnable defense line. He will be fine. "
Chen Jiangshi's face improved a lot, and then he said: "My subordinates were too worried, so they got involved in personal matters..."
"Brothers and sisters, don't say that. We are all old people who came from Dapandun. When we talk about it, we are just like family members. If we say this, we will go out of our way."
Chen Jiang's eyes suddenly turned red when he heard this. Ever since the army set off for the expedition, Chen Jiang, like Wang Yunhe, has been frightened every day. But now that Chen Xun still hasn't come back, you can imagine the anguish in her heart. With Liu Yan's comfort, Chen Jiang felt warm in her heart and couldn't help but shed tears.
Then Liu Yan comforted Chen Jiang and went to Wangjiazhuang Baihusuo City with Miao Shao.
At this time, Tian Huixu and Xun Jingyun were already waiting at the Firearms Supervision Office. Supervisor Tan Xiaoda, Gunpowder Workshop Manager Zhao Yan, and Firearms Workshop Manager Cui Mingyuan were also waiting at the door.
Liu Yan and Miao Shao rushed here, everyone saluted, and then accompanied Liu Yan to inspect everywhere.
"Each battalion of the New Army must replenish its troops, the arsenal in Qingzhou Fucheng must supply the required weapons, and the Firearms Supervision Department must make up for the shortage in time and transport them to Qingzhou Fucheng as soon as possible."
Tan Xiaoda said: "Don't worry, the headquarter. The firearms manufacturing supervision department now has a large output. The minister and deputy minister have given the specific quantities to their subordinates, and the shipment can be started before the end of the month."
"very good."
Then Liu Yan said: "There is another thing, that is, the Firearms Supervision Department wants to build a new piece of equipment, which this town calls a bayonet. After the deployment of this matter is completed, this town will go to Aoshanwei's Fushan Qianqian Household
, inspecting the Bingjia Supervisory Manufacturing Office. "
"bayonet?"
Everyone started to wonder, what kind of knife is this bayonet, and does it need to be deployed and made by the headquarter in person?
"As the name suggests, the bayonet is a sharp blade specially used for thrusting. It is equipped on the bird gun. The bird gunman is equipped with a bayonet and fixes the bayonet on the gun tube. The bird gun plus the length of the bayonet can have nearly It is as tall as a person, so it can be used as a short spear, allowing the musketeer to fight near and far on the battlefield."
"At that time, our new army will only need to retain a small number of spearmen to intercept the enemy's cavalry charges, and then most of the soldiers in the entire army will be gunners!"
The bayonet is a piece of equipment that Liu Yan has long wanted to build. With the bayonet, the new army in Qinglai Town can take a step further towards the "firepower" of all members, making the new army's firepower more powerful and able to mobilize more The gunner fired a volley.
Liu Yan originally thought of handing over the research and development and manufacturing of the bayonet to the Armor Supervision and Manufacturing Department, but after thinking about it carefully, the bayonet must ensure that the interface between the bayonet and the musket fits perfectly, otherwise, if it is not matched, lives will be lost on the battlefield. , we can't let the soldiers use a little force and the bayonets will fall off, right?
Therefore, it is more appropriate for the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Department to be responsible for the development and manufacturing of this bayonet.
When Tan Xiaoda and others heard this, they were all amazed, and Tan Xiaoda was even more knowledgeable. After thinking for a moment, he said: "I remember that someone seemed to have built something similar in the early years. What is it called? The gun sword was also installed on the fire gun, so that the fire gun player could kill enemies in close combat. But that kind of thing didn't seem to be easy to use, and no one made it anymore."
Liu Yan nodded
Head, what Tan Xiaoda said is indeed true. As early as the Jingtai period of the Ming Dynasty, some people installed the spearhead on the fire blunderbuss, integrating the fire blunderbuss and the spear, and called it the blunderbuss sword. This matter was also recorded in the "Da Ming Huidian".
The Western attempt to combine cold weapons with fire guns was nearly a hundred years older than the Ming Dynasty, and it was just a spearhead tied with a rope to the barrel of the fire gun, which was also very impractical.
It was not until 1647 in history that the French army created the first real bayonet. However, this kind of bayonet is also very limited. It must be inserted into the mouth of the gun. If you use the bayonet, you cannot shoot, which is very useless.
The bayonet that Liu Yan asked the Firearms Supervision Department to make was not the flat bayonet that was common in later generations, because the bayonet had very high requirements for the iron material, and if the material quality was not good, the bayonet would be easily broken and damaged. The steelmaking technology of this era is still not up to par, even though Qinglai Town's smelting level is already second to none in the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, the bayonet designed by Liu Yan is a triangular bayonet. Because the blade of the triangular bayonet is prismatic, the material requirements are lower than that of a flat bayonet, and it is also stronger in structure. Not to mention the lethality of the three-edged thorn. The three-edged thorn equipped by the red army in later generations is recognized as a "taboo" weapon. Once it pierces the body, it will cause a triangular wound that cannot be healed. This kind of wound cannot be bandaged at all. It could be sutured, but at this time, neither the Qing army nor the bandits obviously had such superb medical skills, so they could only let the wounded soldiers bleed to death.
Then Liu Yan took out the design drawings of the bayonet. In order to install it, Liu Yan
Under the premise of installing a bayonet, it can ensure the normal shooting of the bird gun. It adopts the earlier crack installation method in history and uses a sleeve to install the triangular bayonet.
The new military gunners usually put the bayonet in the sword holster, and when they need to use it, they take it out and install it on the gun tube.
Tan Xiaoda looked at the drawings carefully and said: "It is not difficult to make the bayonet designed by the main town. The firearms workshop has allocated some manpower. As long as the mold is made, tens of thousands of them can be made in a month. , after all, the supply of iron materials from the Tiegu Mountain Iron Material Yard is now very sufficient, and there is a considerable amount of inventory in the warehouse, ready to start building at any time."
"But, is this bayonet really useful?"
Liu Yan said with a smile: "Of course it's easy to use! However, after the bayonet is made, the Ministry of War must also carry out a series of reforms. First, the long gunners of each battalion must be converted into gunners on a large scale. Then, after all the gunners are equipped with bayonets, they must Conduct special assassination training so that the gunners can skillfully use bayonets."
"More importantly, the gunners of each battalion must learn to use bayonets to form formations to kill the enemy. This will be a revolution in the tactics of our new army!"
Tian Huixu and Xun Jingyun immediately accepted the order. They said that after returning, they would immediately formulate plans for the reform of each battalion.
Tan Xiaoda said: "In this case, my subordinates can just build bayonets with peace of mind. But how much time can the main town give to my subordinates?"
Liu Yan was in trouble, and to be honest, he didn't know it very well. Originally, Liu Yan hoped to complete this change in military equipment before the next battle, so that the gunners equipped with bayonets in each battalion could form combat effectiveness as soon as possible.
But Liu Yan was not sure when the Ministry of War would issue an order to recruit new troops and rush to the Liaodong Campaign.
Therefore, Liu Yan didn't know how much time this would have. According to estimates, it should not be enough.
"Everything has to be done sooner rather than later. The Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Office will allocate enough manpower as soon as possible. Now that there are enough firearms such as blunderbuss in the arsenal, the next step will be to concentrate manpower on making bayonets."
"By the way, there are also artillery. The Firearms Supervision Department needs to build more and larger artillery for the artillery battalion to increase the firepower of the artillery battalion."
Tan Xiaoda thought for a while and said: "As for bayonets, for the time being, each battalion needs 8,000 bayonets. Six infantry battalions are 48,000 bayonets. The estimate is wide. Even if there are 50,000 bayonets, my subordinates will need..."
"Two months, two months, my subordinates will build 50,000 high-quality bayonets."
Liu Yan nodded. Since there was not enough time, he just wanted to do it as soon as possible.
"But the artillery that the main town mentioned refers to the Hongyi cannon?"
Liu Yan said: "Hongyi cannons need to be built, but more of this town still prefers Folan cannons and large Folang cannons."
The advantage of the Folang machine gun is that it has a fast rate of fire, fast heat dissipation, and can form continuous firepower.
Of course, like the gunner under Chen Yongfu in Kaifeng City, after loading the musket in a daze, he did not put the shell through the muzzle, but put the gunpowder package through the muzzle again, and the artillery would also explode directly.
"This town is preparing to expand the artillery camp. The number of various artillery must be increased, and some Hongyi cannons must be added. For the specific number, the artillery camp commander Qian Qian will draft a charter and submit it to the Ministry of War, who will then send it to the Firearms Supervision Department. Supervise the construction.”
"My subordinate understands."
Liu Yan stayed at Wangjiazhuang Baihu Office for three days, and visited Dapanbao and Wangjiazhuang Baihu Office respectively.
They stayed in the hall and Wanfu Oil Shop for a day each. On the fourth day, Tan Xiaoda led people to build the first bayonet. After Liu Yan checked, the bayonet could be perfectly integrated with the flint-haired bird musket without any influence. shooting.
Of course, with the bayonet attached, the musketeer will definitely be affected when reloading, and the reloading speed will decrease.
But this can't help Liu Yan. During combat, gunners don't need to put on bayonets. They only put on bayonets when they are about to fight in close combat. Generally when this kind of hand-to-hand combat is about to take place, gunners no longer need to load the gun and shoot. They just fight directly. After the enemy is defeated, they can then take out the gun and reload it.
Liu Yan achieved his goal on this trip, and accompanied by Tian Huixu, Xun Jingyun, and Miao Shao, he left Wangjiazhuang with satisfaction and continued to the Aoshan Wei Fushan Qianhu Station to inspect the Bingjia Supervision Department.
At the beginning of November, Liu Yan finished his inspection and returned to Qingzhou Fucheng. At this time, the first snowfall of the year fell in Qingzhou Fucheng. Liu Yan rode his horse through the snow into the city and breathed in the cold air, which was refreshing.
"Auspicious snow heralds a good harvest. I hope the people will have a better life in the coming year!"
On the same day, Liu Yan received the official document from the Ministry of War. At Chen Xinjia's insistence and under the instruction of Emperor Chongzhen, the victory report of the new army in Qinglai Town successfully passed the discussion between the DPRK and the Central Committee, and then the reward was awarded.
