After Su Yonglin captured Zhongdu, he began to build roads across the country.
In order to control and mediate population flow and spread the cost of road construction and maintenance, he also set up road cards to collect fees.
Luka not only has the function of charging fees, but also has the function of recording population movement files. It can be regarded as a comprehensive grassroots workstation. The staff are all officials and are affiliated with the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The local area needs to dispatch some armed forces to station in Luka and be responsible for the security of Luka.
As a result, all regular and safe roads are monitored by road cards and security personnel, and no one can pass without an officially signed road guide.
If the escapees choose to take the regular route, it is absolutely impossible not to be discovered by the road card staff and thus intercepted.
Of course, they should know this, so Su Yonglin judged that they might choose the difficult mountain road in the deep mountains and old forests when they were desperate, and stay in bed day and night to avoid being discovered by the court.
Of course this doesn't mean it's impossible, but it's also full of risks. .
Human activities these days are not as intense as in the industrial era, and the natural environment has not yet been irreversibly damaged on a large scale by industrialization, so there are still a considerable number of wild animals outside human settlements.
This is why Su Yonglin set up road card tolls.
Because regular roads with roadblocks are officially guaranteed to be safe, and if there is a problem, the official will be held accountable. Therefore, regular business travelers are willing to take regular roads even if they pay some tolls, in order to be safe and reliable.
Leaving official roads and entering deep mountains and old forests or mountain trails that are rarely used by people, who knows if there are large carnivores in those places?
There are a lot of carnivorous beasts such as jackals, tigers and leopards in the wild these days. The escape group chose to go deep into the mountains and forests to escape to the Southern Song Dynasty. It was essentially a journey of escape. For the carnivores, it was like having food delivered to their door.
Compared with carnivores, the scarier thing is getting lost. These days, the mountain roads have not undergone any formal development, and there are not many kind people willing to make road signs to guide them. Directional tools such as compasses have not been popularized among the people. .
Therefore, once you get lost in the deep mountains and forests or on the mountain roads, it is basically equal to death.
And to be honest, it would be difficult for Su Yonglin to mobilize additional forces to hunt down these desperadoes on a large scale. It is no longer easy to extend the power of the court to the corners of the Ming Kingdom with Luka's setup.
It can only be said that if they could withstand the carnivorous beasts in the deep mountains and old forests, the blows of disease, hunger and getting lost, and then successfully escape to the Southern Song Dynasty, their lives would not have been cut off, and it would be okay to let them live a few more years.
The responses of the compromising faction and the escape faction are all logical and not difficult.
As for the hard-liners who choose to use force to resist, of course they will resolutely attack them.
The local government and the Renaissance branch used the grassroots peasant associations and the villagers' self-defense forces as the main forces to launch the revolution, organizing armed forces to resolutely attack the armed forces of the landlords and gentry who were stubbornly resisting.
Since resisting, it is tantamount to cutting oneself off from the court and the people. There is nothing to say. They will be wiped out, eradicated, and no one will be left.
The landowners and gentry thought that they had a strong armed force, that their group was large and flourishing all over the place, and that they had farms as small-scale military fortresses, which could keep the government busy and unable to eliminate them.
But they were wrong.
Instead, they fell into the vast ocean, being constantly attacked and defeated.
In July and August, armed landlords and gentry were wiped out by armed peasants almost every day.
For some larger-scale armed forces of landowners and gentry, it is relatively more troublesome.
Because they owned some manors with strong defenses, which were really comparable to small military fortresses, and used a lot of money to win over people's hearts internally. However, the local peasant association was weak and was not strong enough to wipe them out quickly, so it became a protracted war.
There are many such examples in the Guanzhong area.
The Qilu Corps commanded by Su Haisheng devoted part of its troops to help the farmers eliminate these powerful diehards.
After hearing about this incident, Su Yonglin felt that this might be a good opportunity to train troops.
It has been almost half a year since his firearms force was formed. The number of musketeers has expanded to 3,000, the number of heavy artillery exceeds 50, and the number of light field artillery exceeds 200.
The scale of the entire firearms force has taken shape, and the training to cooperate with traditional arms is also good. What is lacking is actual combat experience.
So Su Yonglin gave an order to send the newly formed Shenji Battalion to Guanzhong to conduct actual combat and accumulate practical experience.
When firearms were first developed, it was difficult to take the lead on their own, so the Shenji Battalion set up by Su Yonglin included a thousand musketeers, a thousand spearmen, a thousand crossbowmen and a thousand sword and shield men. In addition to these four thousand people, there were also five Ten light field guns and crews of 500 men and 500 cavalry.
Therefore, a field magic machine battalion has an establishment of 5,000 people, but there are only 1,500 real firearms troops, and the remaining 3,500 people are still cold weapon melee troops.
Su Yonglin believes that this configuration is more reasonable.
Firearms are mainly responsible for opening up the situation, but it is the melee troops that really decide the victory and expand the results. It is just that the existence of firearms greatly helps the melee troops, and can also greatly reduce the losses of the melee troops and indirectly improve the results.
This newly formed Shenji Battalion was quickly transported into the Guanzhong area by Su Yonglin using an all-mule march, and the more stubborn landlords and gentry forces in the Guanzhong area were used to train troops.
On August 27, 5,000 troops and a large amount of equipment from the Shenji Battalion arrived in Chang'an and were assembled in Chang'an City.
The leader of the Shenji Battalion is He Feihu, a young general from Su Yonglin's own army, the Tiger Army. He was appointed as the commander of the Shenji Battalion, and together with Lin Siyuan, the instructor of the Shenji Battalion, he commanded the entire Shenji Battalion.
Generally speaking, a battalion of the Ming Army only had 500 men, but as a special forces unit, the Shenji Battalion had a much larger number, so the rank of the leading generals was much higher than that of a normal battalion commander.
So Su Haisheng personally went to Chang'an City to inspect this [sharp force using new standard firearms].
When inspecting the Shenji Battalion, the entire Shenji Battalion was arrayed in a majestic manner. Su Haisheng found that this unit was well-armored and fully armed. It looked like an elite force at first glance.
However, he found that most people still used traditional weapons, and only a few used legendary muskets and artillery. The entire team was more like a mixed force than a divine machine battalion.
"Is this a musket?"
Su Haisheng took the standard matchlock gun from a soldier, played with it a few times, and curiously asked He Feihu: "Your Majesty said that the power of the musket is much greater than the power of the crossbow?"
"To be precise, the power of musket ammunition that hits the enemy is much greater than the power of arrows that hit the enemy. The huge energy generated by the explosion of gunpowder is far beyond what a crossbow can match. Therefore, as long as you are hit by a musket projectile, you will bleed. , he is almost certain to die and cannot be saved by gods.”
He Feihu, who has become a firearms expert after receiving the supplement of professional knowledge, gave a more professional answer.
"Oh? It sounds really good."
Su Haisheng seemed to understand. He looked at the matchlock gun in his hand for a while, then returned it to the soldier, and then walked to the artillery.
This time the army went out with light field artillery, which was a Franchise-type mother-and-gun artillery. Su Yonglin gave this artillery a localized name, called the Cavalry General Artillery, while the heavy artillery was called the General Artillery.
Su Haisheng looked at the cavalry and general artillery that accompanied the army, stroked the cold body of the artillery, and then put his face against the muzzle and looked into the barrel.
"I heard that this artillery is a powerful siege weapon?"
"This type of artillery was named by His Majesty. It is a cavalry general cannon. It is good at maneuvering and reloading quickly, so it is suitable for field battles rather than attacking fortresses. The other general cannon is more than ten feet long and weighs several thousand kilograms. When fired, The sound is like thunder, and the general city wall is like paper in front of the general's cannon."
"More than a foot?"
Su Haisheng was taken aback: "My dear, how big is that guy? Then...he didn't bring it this time? Didn't I see it?"
"It is said that what needs to be attacked is only a small military stronghold, and there is no large city. How can you kill a chicken with a sledgehammer? Chariots, cavalry, generals and artillery are enough."
He Feihu smiled confidently: "As long as it doesn't rain, those small military villages are nothing more than chickens and dogs in front of the cavalry and general artillery. One shot is enough to destroy them!"
"Oh? So confident? Is this thing really better than a trebuchet?"
Su Haisheng smiled and said: "Then I would like to see it with my own eyes. If it is not so useful, this waste of iron and copper is nothing to me. I will truthfully report the specific battle situation to Your Majesty."
"You will see the power of artillery, and please be sure to report it truthfully."
He Feihu bowed his hands.
Su Haisheng still laughed.
"That's what you say, but it seems that most of the people in your Shenji Battalion still use steel swords and spears, as well as divine arm bows, and five hundred cavalry... Why aren't these all firearms? Most of them are the original soldiers. Blades, only a small number of them are new firearms, so this can’t be considered a divine machine camp, right?”
"Considering the actual combat situation, this organization was drawn up by His Majesty himself. His Majesty believes that firearms are powerful, but their shortcomings are also obvious. Therefore, they are fully coordinated with various arms to maximize the advantages of firearms. Even in extreme situations, firearms Even if it cannot be used, the Shenji Battalion can still maintain its combat effectiveness and not be defeated."
He Feihu said neither humble nor arrogantly: "In the musket phalanx designed by His Majesty himself, the muskets and artillery are in a auxiliary position, and the main attack is still the sword and shield bearers, spearmen, and cavalry. The greatest role of firearms is to defeat the enemy's defense." , Destroy the enemy's morale."
Su Haisheng knew that he was a layman and could not compare with Su Yonglin or He Feihu in this regard. He nodded, said nothing more, and began to arrange military tasks, preparing to confirm the real situation with his own eyes.
He wanted to see if this magic machine camp and these firearms were as amazing as Su Yonglin said.
