The situation in Shaanxi is collapsing, and news has come from the southwest.
Just like in history, He Renlong and Zhang Quanchang led the troops all the way through Fengxiang Mansion and into Gongchang Mansion, chasing the enemy in Zhangjiachuan, and smashed the bandits and strangled thousands of people. The victory news was sent to each battalion, and the Ming army's originally sluggish morale was somewhat lifted. Some.
Only not long after, another military report was passed to each battalion. This time, only officers at the general level were informed of the inside story, and ordinary military schools were kept in the dark.
After He Renlong defeated the rogue bandits, he marched again but was ambushed. Dusi Tian Yinglong was killed in battle. More than 500 soldiers were killed or injured. He retreated all the way to Anrong Pass, more than 40 miles east of Zhangjiachuan, before he stabilized his footing.
Then while guarding Anrong Pass, I saw from the top of the pass wall that the mountains and plains in the distance were full of people and flags.
Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and other troops left Zhangjiachuan with hundreds of thousands of people and came all the way east.
He Renlong and Zhang Quanchang had only nearly 6,000 remaining soldiers after losing their troops and generals.
The two sides fought fiercely at Anrong Pass for three days, and the Ming army lost another 300 people.
He Renlong ordered the soldiers to burn the checkpoint and retreat overnight while taking advantage of the chaos. At the same time, he rushed back to Guanzhong with the news that the rogue bandits were advancing eastward.
Chen Wang's expression was slightly gloomy, and he looked at the bustling school field beside him.
The food is sufficient and the station is stable, which allows Chen Wang to have enough time to train the soldiers under his command, and also allows the soldiers to have enough physical fitness to undertake heavy training. This kind of opportunity is really rare.
When rogue bandits plunder a place and break the city, they can plunder grain and grass supplies on the spot without having to carry provisions with them.
But officers and soldiers cannot do this. Every supply of food, grass, and military pay must be allocated by the central government or supported by officials from surrounding cities.
But sometimes, local local officials even refused to supply grain and grass because it was less than three days old.
In fact, many times, when the Ming army marched to suppress the bandits, the bandits were well fed, but the Ming army was hungry and exhausted.
The dispatched grain and grass were rarely sufficient, and sometimes the sergeants were required to cut firewood for cooking. The soldiers who entered the suppression force were almost always hungry and full, and even went without any supplies for several days.
The law is harsh, the soldiers are impoverished, and the number of people who are disengaged from all walks of life is increasing day by day.
In the eighth year of Chongzhen's reign, the prestige of the Ming court was still there. Except for the arrogant and domineering soldiers and horses in Liao Town, the soldiers and horses from all walks of life did not dare to mess around, and they all obeyed orders honestly.
Although there were things like killing good people and taking advantage of merit, burning, killing and looting, they didn't dare to do it openly, and they didn't dare to do it randomly in the county, government roads and other cities.
The real decline of the Ming army actually began thirteen years after Chongzhen. At that time, the Ming court's prestige was completely lost and it was in arrears with pay for a long time.
From then on, the troops and horses attacking from all directions gradually lost control. After that, the thieves passed like combs and the soldiers passed like grates.
It was also from that time that the rogue bandits began to transition to the rebel army, while the officers and soldiers transitioned to the thieves.
"Raise the gun!"
On the school field, Hu Zhili Yan Lingdao, who was wearing a red arrow suit, shouted loudly.
Beside him, twelve soldiers in narrow-sleeved green clothes lined up in a row immediately raised their blunderbuss upon hearing the order.
The twelve gun soldiers did not stand closely together shoulder to shoulder. There was about one person between each two of them.
The gun is a matchlock gun, which relies on a match that can continue to burn slowly to ignite the gunpowder and then launch the projectiles in the gun chamber.
Because of the characteristics of matchlocks, they cannot stand shoulder to shoulder like soldiers holding flintlocks, forming a tight formation like fusiliers. There must be at least a distance of about one person between the same rows.
In times of panic, the match rope and tinder on the matchlock can easily ignite the gunpowder carried by the musketeer accidentally, and the triggering probability and damage rate are much higher than those of exploding the barrel.
Coupled with the poor rate of fire of the matchlock gun, the matchlock gun cannot form the firepower density of the flintlock gun in the same formation width.
"put!"
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"
Twelve muskets were fired almost at the same time, and with the sound of the muskets exploding, clouds of gunpowder smoke suddenly rose from the matchlock guns.
"The front team retreats, the squadron steps forward!"
The order came again, and the twelve cannon soldiers walked quickly towards the rear with the cannons in their hands, and then another group of cannon soldiers standing behind walked to the front row holding the cannons that had already been lit. .
"Raise the gun!"
"put!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang!!"
Chen Wang's eyes did not stay on the firing soldier at the front, but on the rear.
The cannon soldiers who had just finished firing the cannons in the first row had now retreated to the third row and were busy reloading the cannons in their hands.
The cannon soldier who retreated to the last row held the cannon in his left hand. He skillfully took out a paper tube from the bag on his belt with his right hand, put a corner of it into his mouth and bit it open.
They were holding paper tubes containing gunpowder. These were not available originally. The officials who distributed military supplies provided bamboo tubes filled with powder. The gunpowder was shipped directly in large barrels.
Paper tube fixed gunpowder is to pack a fixed amount of gunpowder and projectiles into a long paper tube.
The amount of gunpowder loaded can greatly affect the power of the bullet. If the gunpowder is small, the lethality of the bird gun will be reduced a lot. If the gunpowder is loaded with too much gunpowder, it will have the threat of exploding the chamber, and it will not be able to fire many rounds at all.
On the battlefield, even veterans will inevitably be frightened, not to mention new recruits, because fear and panic are common things.
It is not difficult to make paper tube fixed gunpowder, and the quantitative information is clearly written in "Jixiao New Book".
Pizhou is nearby, and the paper shells are not valuable. Chen Wang only spent a small amount of money to order a lot of paper shells from Pizhou City.
The fixed-loading gunpowder in the paper tube not only ensures the power of each shot of the bullet, but also eliminates many steps, greatly reducing the loading time of the gun.
The steps for shooting a bird gun are cumbersome. Every time it is fired, it is necessary to repeatedly pour the powder, charge the powder, press the fire, load the bullet, and install the match rope. The fuse hole and the fuse pot also need to be cleaned to prevent the residue from clogging.
If paper tubes are not used to hold gunpowder, a skilled shooter can generally only fire one round within a minute, which is already a very fast speed.
An average shooter may be able to fire two rounds in three minutes. If he is in a hurry on the battlefield, it may be difficult to fire one round in two minutes. As for whether the charge is too much or too little, only God knows.
Chen Wang stood on the side of the school field and observed the training. During this period, he also recorded the time it took for the gunman to reload.
After using the fixed gunpowder in the paper tube, a more skilled shooter can fire two rounds per minute. Although it is still far lower than the shooting speed of a crossbow, this speed is already extremely fast for a blunderbuss.
Looking at the rising smoke, Chen Wang frowned slightly.
There is not much gunpowder deployed into the camp, and the quality is also worrying. There are even some problems with the ratio. The gunpowder has been used in training for a long time.
The gunpowder currently used in the camp was all prepared by Chen Wang according to the ratios in the "New Book of Jixiao". The materials were basically purchased from trading houses, plus more than 20 taels of paper shells were purchased.
Chen Wang doesn't have much money left in his pocket. Most of the money he earned for his head-level skills was put in Liaodong. Now he only has fifty taels left to spend, which is already a bit stretched.
Chen Wang turned his head and looked at the other side of the school field.
On the other side of the school field, Tang Shiping and Hu Zhiyi were leading the new troops to form formations, fighting and cooperating with each other, and rehearsing changes in formations.
After more than half a month of training, these new recruits have shed some of their rusticity and gained a capable and decisive aura, becoming more and more like an army.
There is an assessment method in the "New Book of Jixiao", which subdivides the skills of generals and soldiers into nine levels. Each level can enjoy different benefits. The higher the level, the better the treatment they can enjoy.
But now Chen Wang is only divided into four grades: upper, middle, lower and unqualified.
The nine-level system is not used because there are currently insufficient manpower, making statistics complicated and difficult, and the effect is not proportional to the effort.
The most important thing in military training is to adapt measures to local conditions rather than copying them mechanically.
There is an assessment every three days to determine the level, and the food for each level is different.
The top class is the best, and the bottom class is the worst. Those who fail not only need to practice more, but also have their monthly salary deducted and are beaten with military whips.
The rating of each person in the team is also linked to the treatment of the captain and deputy. If more than one person is unqualified, he will be the captain and deputy.
The most significant impact after the implementation of the evaluation system is that no one among the recruits dares to be lazy and slippery anymore, and no one wants to be judged as unqualified. After all, the military whip hurts people to the core.
Some more ordnance was transferred back and forth, more than 100 waist knives were sent, more than 30 sets of cloth face armor were sent, and more than 40 pieces of arm shields were sent, which could barely satisfy the team officer's manpower. One piece.
After a comprehensive evaluation, Chen Wang selected the flag general among the three new recruits, promoted a new captain and team deputy, and the officers in the bureau were fully staffed.
Now the officers at the flag general level of the Third Bureau of Recruitment all wear armbands, mail armor underneath, riveted cloth face armor exclusive to officers, high bowl helmets, and waist knives.
The officers at the team level also wore armbands and red tassel helmets. Although they did not have mail armor, they were still equipped with cloth face armor.
However, most of the ordinary soldiers still did not receive armor. They only had a helmet and a spear without even a red tassel, and they did not even have a sword.
Finally, more than 60 shields were removed, and Chen Wang also selected 20 people from each of the three rounds to practice sword and shield.
Sword and shield soldiers are far more useful than spear soldiers in close combat and melee.
At a glance now, there are many flags, strict military formations, and bright armor. It has the appearance and momentum of a strong army.
But of course, this is just an appearance, in fact the gap is still very large.
"If someone told me last month that they could train the refugees outside the city into an army, I wouldn't believe it even if they were killed."
Chen Gong has been following Chen Wang. Although he has watched the changes in these soldiers these days, he is still a little unbelievable.
Because of the grain and grass delivered by Pizhou, everyone had enough to eat every day during this period, and the meat that was delivered was also full of meat.
After entering the camp and the food becoming better, these recruits quickly recovered from the weight loss caused by hunger, and many of them were even much stronger than before.
As farmers, they can improve their food during good weather seasons.
Although prices were extremely low during the Wanli period, and there was hope for life as long as you were willing to work hard, that was already more than ten years ago.
Since the Apocalypse, things have become worse than before, and life has become increasingly difficult.
How can I eat three full meals a day and still see meat and fish like now?
Running training and weight-bearing training, military formation training are not as hard as working as a long-term and part-time laborer in a rich family, and there is no military salary of one or two half a month.
Although some things are really difficult to learn, hitting people with military sticks and whips is really painful, and the military pay is not as much as that of other battalion soldiers.
But all this is bearable, at least ten thousand times better than having nothing to eat.
"But brother, aren't you ready to recruit some servants?"
"I'm afraid we can't do it with just these soldiers during a war."
Chen Gong frowned slightly. Chen Wang now only had nine servants around him. These people were still the servants of the commander-in-chief who died in battle.
"None of these soldiers have seen blood. They seem to have a good momentum now, but that won't be the case if they fight the bandits."
There are only five servants in the department under Tang Shiping, as well as the eight servants under the original Chief Hundreds, plus the nine servants around Chen Wang, there are only twenty-two servants in total.
Generally speaking, the General Manager will have around thirteen or four servants, and the Vice-Presidents will have seven or eight people. When the General Manager's servants who are in their thirties or forties who dare to fight are chosen, the ratio is about ten to one.
The wind is rumbling in the west, and the movements of the bandits are unknown. Ye Bushou, who is exploring Pingliang Mansion, has gradually changed from reporting once every two days to once a day, and now it has become three reports a day. The bandit group seems to have left. Pingliang is coming east.
"That's enough."
"The bandits in Pingliang Mansion are just a bunch of rabble."
Chen Wang shook his head. Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong are now in the southwest, and Pingliang Mansion is just a partial army.
If the soldiers who have been practicing strictly according to the military training method written by Qi Jiguang for almost a month are defeated in battle with a group of rabble, then it is better to just cross the ocean and flee abroad as soon as possible.
Although there are estimated to be 1,340,000 rogues in Pingliang Mansion, there are only a few who can fight among the 1,340,000, and there are even fewer elites.
Moreover, when the two armies were fighting, how could all the hundreds of thousands of troops engage in the battle at the same time? Not many actually engaged in the battle, and the others were just pretending to be powerful.
Zuo Liangyu now has a total of 5,500 troops with them. There are more than 1,200 elite cavalry alone, and the infantry is fully armored.
Cao Wenzhao is not dead, the current situation is different from that in history, and the morale of the Ming army is acceptable.
Pizhou is difficult to defend, and it will be difficult to defeat these more than 100,000 bandits, but there is no problem in retreating intact, and most of them will definitely not be defeated like in history.
"Woo——————"
A low horn sound came from the direction of the central army.
Chen Wang stopped and turned around to follow the sound.
In the field of vision, just in the distance from the outline of the tall military tent of the Chinese army, several black smoke was already rising into the sky.
