The name of this military and political meeting was created by Ouyang Xuan, and the participants were also determined by him. In addition to Yu Zhu, Huang Dagen, Cao Ergou, and Lu De, there are also the leaders of each team: Chen Hu from the industrial team, Liu Zhong from the mining team, Wang Youfu from the trade team, Lu Wen'an from the engineering team; Shi Zhongshu, the second company commander, and Yu San, the third company commander. In addition, there are Dong Hu from the guard team, blacksmith Li Saner from the industrial team, and Zhu Tiaozi from the trade team. Although these people are not in charge, they are the main backbone of their teams. At the meeting, Ouyang Xuan presented his ideas from military, economic and political aspects.
Military is the most important issue at present. During the process of purchasing salt in Qiongzhou, he was passively beaten by Mongolian Rangers, which made Ouyang Xuan once again feel the lack of combat power of the Perak Army. To this end, he proposed to expand the Perak Army to five companies, called the Perak Army Field Battalion, under his concurrent command. Cao Ergou serves as deputy commander, and his concurrent commander of the first company is Chen Hu of the industrial team. The newly established fourth and fifth company commanders are respectively held by Liu Zhong of the mining team and Wang Youfu of the commercial team. A Perak Army garrison battalion was also established, with Yu Zhu as the commander and Huang Dagen as the deputy commander. The garrison battalion was responsible for the joint defense of various villages in the mountain. During the off-season, all men between the ages of 14 and 50 were given military training in batches, and 500 people were selected from them. Form 5 companies to coordinate with the field battalion during combat operations.
In order to enhance combat effectiveness, Ouyang Xuan proposed to equip the field battalion with the latest artillery and optimize the formation of arms. Although the training of the Perak Army is on track, and knives, shields, spears and grenades are in place, these weapons are adequate for defense but insufficient for offense. Whether it is fighting against the Wanjiaping bandits now or fighting the Mongolian army in the future, artillery and muskets are the protagonists of the battlefield. It’s just that the technical threshold for muskets is very high, especially since the barrel cannot be cast and can only be made by rolling and stamping methods. The cast barrel is very easy to explode due to bubbles or uneven thickness. The rolling method requires a large number of skilled workers, and the stamping method requires a stamping machine. This is a condition that Liuliba currently does not have at all. Although the front-mounted iron cannon currently used in Liuliba is powerful, it is also heavy and has a slow rate of fire. It is difficult to transport on mountain roads and is only suitable for fixed defense. Therefore, it is the top priority of the Perak Army to create artillery suitable for field battles.
Ouyang Xuan's idea was to use the Tiger Crouching Cannon and Folang Machine Cannon, and improve them to equip the Thunderbolt Army. The Tiger Crouching Cannon was an artillery piece used by Qi Jiguang's army in the Ming Dynasty. It was made of wrought iron and was an early artillery piece with direct fire. Although it was not as powerful as other cannons and had a short range (about 500 meters), it was light and suitable for use. Suitable for use in areas such as mountains, forests and paddy fields. This tiger crouching cannon is less than one meter long from head to tail. The cannon head is supported by two iron claws and has an iron trip. The total weight is only about 36 kilograms. The Fran cannon is a breech-loaded smoothbore cannon introduced to the Ming Dynasty from Portugal. It consists of a mother gun and a child gun. The barrel of the mother gun is slender and has a small diameter, and the rear part of the gun is thicker with elongated holes for loading the daughter guns. The sub-guns are similar to small fire guns. Each main gun is equipped with 5 to 9 sub-guns, which can be loaded with ammunition in advance. During battle, the main gun is loaded in turn and fired, so the rate of fire is very fast. Since the Tiger Crouching Cannon is slightly less powerful due to its light weight, Ouyang Xuan plans to increase it to 50 kilograms, while the Fran cannon only needs to be cast at 100 kilograms. This weight is suitable for marching and is very powerful. The longest range can It reaches about five miles.
Regarding the artillery equipment of the field camp, Ouyang Xuan's idea was that each company would be equipped with one Folang machine and four Tiger squat guns. In this regard, Cao Ergou and Huang Dagen proposed from a practical perspective to double the artillery establishment. This number can maximize firepower while ensuring mobility. As for the composition of the arms, each company has nine combat squads in addition to the company headquarters squad, with spearmen, shield soldiers, and artillery squads each accounting for one-third. Among them, there is one squad of Fo Langji and two squads of Crouching Tiger Artillery. As for the artillery production capacity issue that Ouyang Xuan was worried about, Yu Zhu patted his chest and assured that as long as the new artillery was successfully developed, he would go all out to produce it day and night. In addition, Dong Hu also proposed that there are many wild vines in the mountains, which can be collected and processed to make vine armor, which can be used to equip the Perak Army and the militiamen of various villages in the mountains. This proposal has been praised by everyone.
In terms of economy, Ouyang Xuan's idea is to give priority to the production of military supplies while also appropriately producing civilian supplies. Among the currently mined mines, sulfur and nitrate are important strategic materials for the production of gunpowder. The quantities are small and production must be increased, while coal and steel production are surplus. But there is no market for coal other than the production of coking coal for steelmaking. The steel produced in Liuliba's earthen blast furnace is of high quality, and the farm tools produced are far superior to the crude iron farm tools originally found in the mountains. Therefore, the excess steel is now forged into farm tools, which can not only make up for the lack of military expenditure, but also Improve agricultural labor efficiency and increase food income.
Regarding grain production, Ouyang Xuan also specifically mentioned the creation of tread plows. This kind of farming tool that does not require cattle can greatly improve the efficiency of plowing the land, so it is especially suitable for farming in mountainous areas. It is also a powerful tool for clearing up wasteland, and the most indispensable thing in the mountains is wasteland. Ouyang Xuan had seen a plow in the farmland near Qiongzhou City, but he had never seen this agricultural tool in the mountains. At that moment, he drew a drawing and gave it to Li San'er of the industrial team for trial production and improvement. As the masters of Liuli and Xiangshui villages respectively, Lu Dezhi and Yu San knew the situation of the mountain people well. They suggested that mountain people would naturally welcome farm tools such as plows, but poor people could not afford to buy such things made of fine iron. They suggested that they could buy them on credit, or pay part of the grain and mountain products first, and wait for the harvest after clearing the wasteland. Return the money in installments with grain or mountain goods. When Ouyang Xuan heard this, he secretly sighed that the two of them were worthy of being village owners, and they could actually come up with this mortgage purchase model.
At the meeting, Lu Dezhi also pointed out that no one in the villages had any objection to selling the salt purchased from Qiongzhou at 300 yuan per catty. However, the people of Yanfeng and other three villages were still squeezed by the Xiongben gang, and the price of purchased salt was still too high. It’s amazing. Can the people of Sanzhai be given the same treatment to buy salt at the same price? This remark aroused opposition from everyone, especially Dong Hu and others, who believed that if the salt transported back through bandit raids and sleeping in the open was sold to Yanfeng Sanzhai at a fair price, the money saved by the villagers of Sanzhai would be I was really unwilling to be robbed by the Xiong Ben gang again. Ouyang Xuan originally agreed to Lu Dezhi's proposal, but seeing the excitement among the people, he compromised and offered limited sales based on the population of the three Yanfeng villages, with a price of 600 Wen. This settled the controversy among everyone. In fact, this price is also a huge profit. You must know that the price of private salt purchased by the trading team in Qiongzhou is only fifty cents per catty, and the price plus freight does not exceed one hundred cents.
