Weapons and equipment will be damaged during daily use and combat, and the number of losses is not small.
For example, the most common cold weapon equipment, the knife, even if the elite cavalrymen like Sun Chengli are equipped with good knives with steel-coated blades, the blades will still curl or even break after being chopped many times.
Not to mention the iron knives that most ordinary soldiers are equipped with. They will bend and break after just two casual cuts.
This is true for knives, and so is other weapons and equipment.
Therefore, after a battle, there will often be a large number of damaged weapons that need to be repaired.
This is why ancient armies often brought blacksmiths with them, so that they could repair swords and weapons anytime and anywhere.
There were originally two blacksmiths in Sun Chengli's group. They were taken with them when they broke through the siege in Henan Prefecture. Unfortunately, when they broke through Chen Zhibang's interception in Ruzhou, the two blacksmiths were all separated. I don’t know if they were killed or wounded by officers and soldiers or if they escaped during the breakout.
Anyway, no one was seen.
This has led to the problems Luo Zhixue is facing now.
Nowadays, there are many weapons and equipment in the army that need to be repaired, but there is no blacksmith who is suitable for them.
Luo Zhixue also inquired from prisoners of war, and the results he obtained made Luo Zhixue helpless. Even Sun Lili was speechless when he found out.
Because there was a blacksmith among Fan Dilong and his group, they just happened to snatch a blacksmith and bring it back with them on their way here. However, when they invaded Sanshui Village, the blacksmith was shot by the cavalry under Sun Lili. One arrow...
Then there is no more!
Sun Chengli sighed and said: "Damn it, since he is a blacksmith, why didn't he say it earlier? If he really wants to say that he is a blacksmith, his brothers are not ignorant, how could they shoot him!"
Luo Zhixue said: "It is useless now, but the top priority is to find another blacksmith, otherwise our army's damaged ordnance cannot be repaired."
After thinking for a while, Luo Zhixue added: "We still need to find some more iron materials."
Sun Chengli said: "Although iron materials are difficult to find, you can always find some with a little more effort. If it doesn't work, you can use broken weapons to repair them, but this blacksmith is not easy to find."
Luo Zhixue also knew why Sun Chengli said that.
What is the most precious thing in troubled times?
Food and weapons!
Not to mention food, let’s talk about weapons.
In troubled times, heroes are dancing wildly. In order to recruit soldiers and fight, they all need weapons.
Even if there are no high-end products such as artillery, guns, armor, bows and arrows, there must be ordinary weapons such as swords and spears.
And where did the weapons come from?
In addition to being captured, they are also built by themselves. At the same time, in order to ensure the normal use of the weapons and equipment, craftsmen are also required to repair these weapons.
Few of the thief army leaders and generals in the official army who were able to get along were real fools. They knew very well the importance of weapons and even more clearly the importance of craftsmen.
Therefore, in troubled times, skilled craftsmen, especially blacksmiths, are very popular.
How popular is it?
Basically, when a gangster leader sees a blacksmith, he will pack him up and take him away.
No matter whether the other party is willing or not.
Sun Chengcheng and his two original blacksmiths also forcibly packed up and took away the two blacksmiths after they conquered a small town.
Unfortunately, these two blacksmiths disappeared during the breakout battle.
At the same time, the original blacksmith in Funiu Mountain also died in the rebellion. As a result, Luo Zhixue now has no way to find a blacksmith to repair weapons, let alone Luo Zhixue still hopes to rely on the blacksmith to get some artillery and muskets.
These days are not the era of pure cold weapons. You can still use swords, bows and arrows for small fights, but when it comes to the real battlefield, you will die miserably without artillery.
The Ming army's frontier troops in Jiliao had long used Hongyi cannons, and there were countless other types of short-barreled cannons.
In the early years, after the Qi's army of the Ming Army was transferred to the Jiliao area, the reason why they could continue to defeat the barbarians and guard the border was not relying on Yuanyang Town, Sancai Formation and the like, but relying on a large number of light artillery.
Qi Jiajun directly loaded a large number of light artillery onto the carriage and played with the artillery carriage array.
This type of artillery array has the advantages of high mobility, strong firepower, and the ability to form defensive formations. It is very useful for dealing with barbarians who are still in the cold weapon era.
Similarly, the Dongdu in the Liaodong direction, after suffering too much from the Ming army's firearms in the past many years, were also focused on developing firearms, especially heavy artillery.
Dongdu also imitated the Europeans and installed two-wheel and four-wheel gun mounts for field maneuvers on heavy artillery. They directly used long-barreled heavy cannons (Hongyi cannons) as field artillery. In the end, they successfully used dozens of heavy cannons. Directly pulled to the Songjin front line.
By the time of the Battle of Songjin, although the performance of the firearms and equipment of both the Ming and Qing Dynasties was a little worse than that of their European counterparts at the same time, the quantity was no less substantial.
Both sides fought with guns and cannons.
Dongli relied on heavy artillery to forcibly break through the two cities of Tashan and Xingshan, laying the foundation for victory in the Battle of Songjin.
On the other hand, the Ming army was equipped with a large number of various small-caliber, short-barreled light artillery, which played almost no role in this decisive battle of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The small number of Hongyi cannons were only used to passively defend the city and did not help. can produce decisive results.
By the end of Chongzhen's reign, in terms of the use of firearms, the Dongli army had actually greatly surpassed the Ming army. Coupled with the Dongli's original superiority of cavalry and heavy armored infantry, it became even more difficult for the Ming army to fight against the Dongli army.
To be honest, it is very rare for the Ming army to be able to protect Shanhaiguan before Chongzhen hanged himself under the superior military pressure of the East.
It’s not that the Ming army was too scumbag, it’s that the Eastern Capture had artillery...
Well, this is also deceiving oneself and others. The Ming Empire, which has been playing with various artillery for more than two hundred years, and even Hongyi artillery for decades, has its artillery advantage captured by the East in less than ten years. It's just catching up... It's embarrassing to say it out loud.
Luo Zhixue knew the importance of guns and guns these days. Although they were just a group of small rebels now, who said rebels couldn't use guns?
Luo Zhixue still hopes to get a batch of guns and go back to play a game of queuing up and shooting.
Sun Chengli and his group actually used firearms when they were guarding the frontier, such as three-eyed blunderbuss. But later they were transferred to the mainland to suppress bandits, and faced a group of people who didn't even have swords or spears. There were not many bandits, so they gradually stopped using guns.
Because using a gun to shoot down thieves is a bit like hitting mosquitoes with a cannon. It’s not a waste, but you can’t hit them... People’s thieves won’t fight you face to face at all. They turn around and run away when they see you... Who would be stupid enough to wait for you to use a cannon? Pull it out, take out the muskets and form an array.
The officers and soldiers brought firearms to suppress thieves, but they couldn't catch up with them. How could they say they were suppressing thieves?
Secondly, the three-eyed blunderbuss used by Sun Chengcheng and others before seemed to be a firearm, but the reason why the frontier cavalry in the late Ming Dynasty liked to use this thing was because it could be used as a hammer after firing.
This thing is easier to use against Dongduo.
Because the Dongduo are heavily armored, traditional sharp weapons such as knives or spears are not very effective against them. Instead, direct hammering with some heavy weapons is more effective.
But as for the bandits, they don't even have much armor. It's better to use traditional weapons such as knives, spears, and bows.
Over time, Sun Chengli and the others no longer used three-eyed blunderbuss, but only used traditional knives, spears, bows and arrows.
So now there are no firearms in Sun Chengcheng's group.
However, this does not hinder Luo Zhixue's determination to become a firearms force.
The only problem now is that Luo Zhixue doesn't have guns, or even the craftsmen who can make them.
Not to mention the craftsmen who make guns and cannons, there is not even an ordinary blacksmith who can repair swords and spears...
Regarding this problem, Luo Zhixue had no other good solution. He simply sent people to the surrounding villages to inquire about where there were blacksmiths.
Not to mention, it is really hard to find high-level talents like blacksmiths. The villages around Funiu Mountain didn't even find a single blacksmith. They only found two carpenters and brought them back.
However, Luo Zhixue didn't give up, and asked Sun Chengli to send people to the edge of the mountain or even outside the mountain to look for him. If he found it, he didn't have to report back, he could just bring him back.
As for how to bring people back, Luo Zhixue didn't care.
Sun Chengli also knew the importance of high-level technical talents such as blacksmiths to their rebellion, so he immediately agreed and appointed his confidant Wang Xiazi to take the people there in person.
But don’t expect to see the blacksmith anytime soon.
And without a blacksmith, we can't remain stagnant without repairing or forging weapons.
Without a blacksmith, Luo Zhixue was ready to go into battle himself.
While he was busy with other things, he also carefully recalled all kinds of knowledge about steel and casting.
In the process of careful recall, no matter whether it is useful or not, just write down whatever comes to mind first, and then sort it out slowly when you look back.
As a modern person who has lived in the explosion of knowledge, Luo Zhixue remembers many and complicated things in his mind. He usually doesn't think it's important if he doesn't think about it, but when he thinks about it carefully, he finds that he knows quite a lot. Although most of them are Some parts are not in-depth enough, I know what is happening but not why, and there are huge gaps.
But even so, after detailed recall, Luo Zhixue was still able to find a lot of useful and useful things.
For example, focus on recalling steel knowledge.
To repair and forge weapons, in the eyes of ancient people, this may be some kind of craft work, and there are various steel-making secrets such as steel-making. Blacksmiths still adopt the method of master-disciple inheritance, and keep the secrets of blacksmithing and steel-making secret.
But in Luo Zhixue's view, this thing is simply melting at high temperature, casting, and then adding an appropriate amount of carbon to obtain different types of steel with moderate hardness and toughness.
After thinking about it for several days, and sorting out the basic principles and specific steps, Luo Zhixue directed a few more people from Ernst & Young to start building the bellows and furnace.
He wants to lead people to repair and build weapons by themselves.
After all, you can't be too pedantic in life. You can't say that if you don't have Butcher Zhang, you have to eat pigs with hair, and if you don't have the blacksmith, you have to fight with bare hands.
Luo Zhixue would just have to work hard with a lot of people, but he still didn't believe that he couldn't do it.
Anyway, it won’t be him who actually strikes the iron, but Ernst & Young and a few of them...
After all, he is a scholar, and speaking but not using his hands is the true nature of a man!
