Song Yingsheng continued: "Master, although we have rich human resources. However, now Master's various businesses are developing very well, and many of them are on the rise. Manpower is still very tight."
Yang Fan asked: "Look at how many militiamen can be mobilized now. Of course, it cannot affect the current major projects. Now that the autumn harvest is around the corner, it cannot affect the harvest of crops."
"Sir, the craftsmen's house is full of workers, and no one can move. The domestic slaves and tenants will have the autumn harvest soon, and they will sow winter wheat after the autumn harvest. To build the dam, a large number of water conservancy facilities also need to be built. After all, the newly developed wasteland is now full of workers. It is far away from the river. When the reservoir is built, the water for irrigation will have to be transported to the more far-reaching fields through ditches. In the next few years, water conservancy construction projects will only employ more people, not less."
Yang Fan nodded, he knew all these, Song Yingsheng told the truth. "Do you think we can form several militia and auxiliary regiments without affecting other projects?"
Song Yingsheng lowered his head and thought about it over and over, and said: "The master can only take three regiments. No more. Any more conscription will affect the harvest. In addition, the army is gone, and the master's territory cannot be without defense force. We also need to recruit three militia regiments to guard our hometown. This will require six regiments."
Although there are now one million people, there are only about 200,000 strong men. Others are old, weak, women and children. Not many can actually go into battle. Six regiments. Twenty thousand people, almost 10%. If there are too many levies, it will easily damage the muscles and bones.
"Okay, let's recruit three regiments of auxiliary troops." Yang Fan laid out.
"For this expedition, in order to facilitate the transportation of supplies, we marched up the Luan River. How many ships can we mobilize at present?"
The director of the Transportation Department is Huang Hao, who is now old. He was one of the first people to follow Yang Fan.
"Sir, there are currently only ten renovated steam engines, each with a transport capacity of about 100 tons. The other ships under the transportation office are all cantons. To transport military supplies upstream, you need to pull fibers, or the boatman uses bamboo poles to punt the boat. Speed. Very slow. I’m afraid I can’t keep up with the march of the large army.”
This is a big problem. The troops cannot wait for these slow ships.
"Can a steamboat be used as a tugboat? One steamboat can drag several canal boats upstream." Yang Fan said.
He remembered that on the Grand Canal in later generations, there was always a motorized boat in front and unpowered towed boats in the back, a long string like a train.
"Sir, I think we can give this a try. I guess there will be no problem with one steamship towing five canal boats. Then we can dispatch 60 transport ships to follow the large force."
The transportation problem has been solved, and this expedition will not be a big problem. Yang Fan's army is close to the combat methods of modern armies and relies on logistics.
"Are the Finance Department and Materials Department ready for allocating funds and military supplies?" Yang Fan asked.
The director of the finance department is Xiang Yi. She said: "Master, five hundred thousand taels of cash have been approved so far. Five hundred thousand silver coins can be allocated at any time. Three hundred thousand taels will be accrued later as a supplement to the excess."
Xiangying is in charge of the material department and cashier. She said: "Combat supplies can be distributed after the meeting. There are sufficient supplies to fight several battles of this scale."
Then, Yang Fan arranged for Song Yingsheng to be the leader, plus the leaders who did not follow the expedition, to form a temporary management committee, responsible for the daily affairs of the territory and guarding his hometown.
Finally, Yang Fan said: "Soldiers are the place of life and death, the way to survival. We must be cautious. If we win this battle, our family business will reach a higher level. You must unite closely and go all out. Don’t be lazy.”
Everyone immediately stood up and loudly agreed.
After the meeting, the meeting schedule was quickly communicated and distributed. The entire territory moved.
From the beginning of territory construction, Yang Fan attached great importance to the issue of transferring the entire system to a wartime system once a war was needed.
This time is a test of the two years of war mobilization and construction.
After the various units that needed to go out for the expedition conveyed the orders, the officers and soldiers were all gearing up. The master's family business was on the rise, and everyone had room for advancement, so everyone wanted to make military achievements.
Each unit immediately distributed weapons and supplies and set off as a team. Gather at the temporary military dock in the north of Zunhua City. At the same time, various troops began to send people to the Xincheng warehouse to collect supplies.
The grasslands are no better than those in the mainland. There are a lot of uninhabited areas. After the fighting, the herdsmen will definitely run away. There is nowhere to supply supplies in the barren mountains. So bring everything you need. Otherwise, he would be blinded if he fell down on the grassland.
At noon, a fast horse carrying the messenger from the Communications Office rushed into the gate of the earth building of the Hexi Guard Qianhu Station. There are three small red flags on the back of the messenger. This is a sign of military emergency.
This huge earth building houses the 3,600 guards who guard the Qianhu Station, their families, and the families of refugees recruited to serve them. The total population is more than 20,000.
After Yang Fan trained them rigorously, he finally positioned them as chariot soldiers. It is the Ming Dynasty version of the side carriage group.
Sidecars began to appear after the mid-Ming Dynasty, and were mainly used as mobile field defenses. For example, the sidecar used by Qi Jiguang. There are 32 sidecars on each side, with a car wall of more than 100 meters long, and a 64-door long-tube wolf machine gun. This is the conventional firepower assigned to the camp side. It is equivalent to a movable city.
The Ming people called the chariot camp a "city with enough feet" and turned the field battle with the nomadic cavalry into a "siege war." In other words, the Ming army used the maneuvering and chaining of chariots to force Mongolian cavalry attacks a mobile fortification surrounded by artillery in the field.
The early car camps used heavy-duty sidecars with heavy wooden plate armor on the sides. The weight is about 600 kilograms. At that time, the Tumote tribe was at its peak of strength, and King Shunyi had many heavy armored cavalry, so the chariot camp was also somewhat heavy-duty.
But with the death of Ada Khan and the decline of the Mongols, the heavy cavalry disappeared on the grasslands and was replaced by light cavalry and even levies from herdsmen. And the car camp has also begun to become lighter. From a sidecar of more than 600 kilograms, it was replaced by a light truck of 200 kilograms. The weight was reduced by 2/3, and the number of operators was also greatly reduced, from 3 to 5 people. Heavy fire cannons were banned, and a larger number of light Franco cannons, crossbows, and bird cannons were used instead, which increased the density of firepower against light cavalry.
Compared with the car camps in the era of Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou, these new light car camps in the middle and late Wanli period, which were composed of light vehicles, required weight reduction in pursuit of mobility. Compared with the previous old car camps, the firepower density was higher. Improved several times. In order to adapt to the new enemy who lost the ability to maintain equipped cavalry and turned to using light cavalry for armed raids.
Yang Fan has enough heavy draft horses, and Yang Fan also has a four-wheeled heavy caravan.
On a better basis, Yang Fan rebuilt a heavy tank for this force.
The chassis of the car is made of I-beams and rivets.
The wheels use second-hand bearings from Hyundai and old rubber tires.
The armor plate uses three millimeter corrugated steel plates.
Vehicle-mounted large rolls of wire mesh and portable removable angle steel brackets.
After parking, the exterior wall can be assembled with corrugated steel plates and assembleable angle steel brackets for defense.
In terms of weapons, the vehicle carries a bronze cannon. The bronze cannon is a large-scale artillery in the Ming Dynasty and has been used since the Jiajing period.
Weighs five hundred pounds. The range is about five hundred meters. The projectile fired weighs four pounds. About a hundred shotshells. Five-pound spherical solid lead bullets can also be fired.
Yang Fan's own troops used three-pound guns for long-range shooting.
Yang Fan's three-pounder gun was forged into a cylinder using open-hearth steel ingots, and then a boring machine was used to drill out the gun barrel, which could withstand extremely high chamber pressure. The range can reach 700 meters.
Weighs less than three hundred kilograms. Two infantrymen can push it away. It is currently the main field artillery of Yang Fan's infantry.
Other artillery pieces were too heavy to carry.
Melee weapon Yang Fan replaced the three-eyed gun with a nine-shot gun. One hand per person. Used for melee lakeface. Among the cold weapons, each person also has a Swiss halberd and a wild goose feather knife.
On the armor and stomach, each person has a collar and a black cloth-faced armor. Although it looks the same as Bianjun from the outside, the color is different. But the inner lining of the nails is a 3mm stamped steel plate. The defensive power far exceeds that of iron plate armor.
This army was the army of the imperial court. It's not Yang Fan's private army, it's used by Yang Fan to prepare for the imperial court. Therefore, the equipment is similar to the imperial army on the surface, but more sophisticated.
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