The artillery team's diligent training actually does not refer to live ammunition training, but simulation training...
Because everyone in Sanshui Village had extremely limited gunpowder, which had been secretly purchased by caravans from outside a few times before. Just a small amount was not enough for combat, and naturally it was impossible to use it directly in large quantities in training.
Therefore, the daily training in the artillery team can only be conventional simulation training. If you want to conduct frequent live ammunition training, you have to wait until there is more gunpowder in the future.
Don't ask why gunpowder can still be purchased outside the mountains. Don't talk about gunpowder. If you are brave enough and have enough money, you can buy artillery if you find the right channels. There are several artillery pieces placed on the wall of the Song family manor. Woolen cloth.
Some of them came from the rebels who looted the city, but most of them came from the government.
The officials in charge of artillery production in the government and the generals in charge of artillery in the army also have to support their families. Selling some artillery powder and the like is a normal operation.
The premise is that you have to be willing to give money!
The successful trial production of the two-hundred-pound light cannon also made Luo Zhixue pay more attention to the weapons workshop. After handling official duties, he would go to the weapons workshop.
Today's weapons workshops not only cast artillery, but also cast other weapons.
Such as muskets.
Muskets are not a problem for Blacksmith Song. After all, the Ming Dynasty has been using blunderbuss for equipment for decades. Blacksmith Song used to take his two sons and several apprentices to make blunderbuss for officers and soldiers.
The musket Luo Zhixue asked Blacksmith Song to build was based on the Ming army's standard bird gun, with some improvements, mainly a wooden stock that was more suitable for shoulder shooting and the addition of a bayonet.
To be precise, it's not a bayonet, but an iron spear. Because of the limited craftsmanship, the flaky bayonet cannot bear the force and is easily bent and broken when stabbed.
For this reason, I simply got something similar to the tip of a spear and put it on.
Anyway, after the musket is equipped with a bayonet, it is mainly used as a short spear. Due to the limitations of the craftsmanship, it is not considered that the bayonet can be used as a portable dagger after being removed.
The manufacture of muskets was nominally the responsibility of Blacksmith Song, but Blacksmith Song mainly focused on artillery casting, so his eldest son Song Dalang was responsible for more work.
Although Song Dalang is only in his early twenties, he has been making weapons with his father, Blacksmith Song, since he was a child. He has already gained certain knowledge in making various weapons and even muskets and artillery. Naturally, it is not difficult for him to make muskets.
The musket he built according to Luo Zhixue's request was tried by Luo Zhixue. I don't say how good it was, but it was still usable.
But for the time being, there are only two muskets.
This thing also takes time to make. It will take a skilled craftsman at least a month to build a musket. Even if there are other craftsmen and apprentices to help Song Dalang, it won't be there soon.
The current production of muskets is too low and the quantity is too small to be installed at all. Therefore, they are unreliable in a short period of time. The main weapon for people in Sanshui Village to fight must still rely on cold weapons.
Long-range firepower still has to rely on bows and arrows. After all, the cavalry No. 670 in Sanshui Village has two sets of bows and arrows, both infantry and cavalry. Among the many recruits recruited at the same time, because they are all from mountain people, many of them have hunting skills. With experience, some of the recruits who were hunters can also shoot arrows.
Therefore, overall, the bow and arrow capabilities of the anti-thief gang in Sanshui Village are quite good.
On the other hand, the ordinary infantrymen are worse. They don't even have enough ordinary cold weapons now.
They originally had some cold weapons in stock and repaired them, but with the continuous recruitment of soldiers, the original weapons were not enough, so they could only continue to build them, otherwise the new recruits would not have knives or spears to use. .
At the same time, Luo Zhixue also tried his best to produce as many armors as possible.
It's not the kind of sophisticated armor that is time-consuming and labor-intensive. That thing is too troublesome and expensive, and is not suitable for them for the time being.
The so-called armor that Luo Zhixue asked the weapons workshop to make was actually just adding iron pieces to the original cotton armor, and for the sake of cost control, there would not be too many iron pieces.
The protective power of the cotton armor produced in this way is only average, but it is better than nothing. It can still be used to attach to some small bosses.
Luo Zhixue was concentrating on camp affairs, farming, grain collection, weapon building, recruiting and training new soldiers and many other matters here in Sanshui Village.
I also received news from Sun Chengli.
Sun Chengli sent people back to Sanshui Village and brought back the news of the expedition. The people who came back detailed that after Sun Chengli and others set out for the expedition, they first expected to attract officers and soldiers to go west, but met a group of thieves on the way, and then deliberately lured the officers and soldiers to the west. After guiding the bandits to where they were, they sat and watched the officers and soldiers fight fiercely with the bandits.
Later, after Sun Chengli and the others were discovered and pursued by officers and soldiers, Sun Chengli continued to take them in circles to the west.
Sun Chengli's soldier said: "The general asked me to tell you, sir, that the general will continue to lead the officers and soldiers to the west, and when they are close to the Lu family, they will completely get rid of the officers and soldiers and return. If nothing happens, the general will be here in half a month." The General will return!"
After hearing this, Luo Zhixue nodded and said to Sun Chengli's soldiers: "It's been a hard journey all the way. Go down and rest!"
After waiting for the others to go down, Luo Zhixue thought that Sun Chengli must have decided to get rid of the officers and soldiers and return because he felt that the autumn harvest grain collection in his hometown had been completed.
At the same time, the officers and soldiers were led to the Lushi area in order to make the officers and soldiers mistakenly think that they had fled into the Lushi area, and to completely shift the attention of the officers and soldiers from Funiu Mountain to the Lushi Mountain area.
But the specific effect remains to be seen.
After all, although our side tried its best to conceal the news, if the officers and soldiers still attached great importance to the Funiu Mountain area, they felt that even if the main force of the bandits entrenched in the Funiu Mountain area had escaped, they still believed that there were remnants of the bandits in Funiu Mountain. Troops will be sent into the mountains to clean up, so that they will eventually be exposed.
But even if it is exposed, it is a follow-up matter.
Safety should still be guaranteed in the short term.
In fact, Luo Zhixue's worries are not unreasonable.
Now Huang Guangmao is leading people back east while sending a small team of sentinels to Funiu Mountain to inquire about the situation.
The reason for him to make this decision is simple, for food!
He felt that since there were bandits entrenched in Funiu Mountain before, it meant that there should be a place suitable for bandits to survive in Funiu Mountain, especially villages that could provide soldiers and food.
He plans to send people into the mountains to get a batch of food...
He was very short of food now. Although he had obtained a batch of food by annihilating the Sky-trading Tiger Doubt Bandits, he had to eat food every day, and neither Chen Zhibang nor Tan Zhengling would give him much food.
He led his troops to garrison in Lushan County and basically relied on self-financing for daily expenses. Obtaining trophies through killing bandits was the main method. On weekdays, he would follow the example of bandits and collect food directly from the countryside.
But it is not easy to collect food outside the mountains.
In the past year, officers, soldiers and thieves have been fleeing repeatedly in this area of Ruzhou. The ordinary villages have been robbed long ago, and they can't get much food even after working hard. The remaining large quantities of food are the manors of some gentry.
The thieves in these manors can attack without any psychological burden, but Huang Guangmao cannot.
It's not that we can't attack the landowners' estates, but it's not going to end well after we attack them.
These manors that still have food are basically owned by gentry, and these gentry are often backed by officials. If Huang Guangmao dares to move, people will kill Huang Guangmao in minutes through the power of officialdom.
Just like the Song family manor before, all fools know that there are mountains of food in the Song family manor, but Huang Guangmao doesn't have the courage to grab it. Let alone him, even his immediate boss Chen Zhibang is not able to attack the Song family. .
Unless they plan to become rebels...
There is not much food available in Ruzhou outside the mountains, and the places where there is food cannot be looted. This also gives Huang Guangmao a headache.
After all, his army consumes a lot of food every day.
At this time, Funiu Mountain happened to appear.
Huang Guangmao believed that since there were bandits in Funiu Mountain before, there must be villages that could support the bandits. After all, it was impossible for those bandits to really live in the depths of the uninhabited mountains.
After simultaneously attacking a group of bandits from Ta Tianhu, he also learned through interrogation that this group of bandits were not bandits from Funiu Mountain, but came from Nanzhao County in the south. These people entered the outer areas of Funiu Mountain and swept across the area. Many villages received a large amount of food.
Huang Guangmao was not interested in who the Sky-trading Tiger was, and he didn't even care that he had beaten the wrong person. After all, they were all thieves and they would beat anyone. As long as they captured and killed someone, that would be enough.
After defeating Tianhu and his party, Huang Guangmao's biggest thought was that Tianhu and the others would be able to get this food as soon as they entered the Funiu Mountain area. If he searched carefully, wouldn't he be able to get more?
Huang Guangmao, who had this idea in his mind, didn't actually take Sun Chengcheng and the others seriously even after he found out that he had beaten the wrong person after defeating the Sky-trampling Tiger. He just pursued them step by step. When he saw After Sun Chengli and the others fled to the Lu family, they stopped pursuing them.
Instead, he wanted to go back to Funiu Mountain to get food.
If this wave goes well, we might be able to produce military rations by next summer.
On the way back east, he sent sentries to Funiu Mountain to survey the terrain and inquire about the conditions of each village. He even hid it from Wang Jida, planning to wait until Wang Jida left the mountain and then sneak back to Funiu Mountain to get food. .
But what I didn't expect was that the respected king of Lushan County, Jida, was also very smart, and he actually noticed Huang Guangmao's move to send the sentry.
After some forceful questioning from Huang Guangmao's subordinates, Wang Jida learned of Huang Guangmao's plan.
Grabbing food? Is there such a good thing?
Wang Jida immediately told Huang Guangmao that Funiu Mountain was also the territory of Lushan County. Since there were many mountain people in the mountain, he, as the honorary of Lushan County, naturally wanted to reintroduce these mountain people under his rule.
That's what the scene said, but Huang Guangmao knew that damn Wang Jida was also eyeing the food of the villages in Funiu Mountain, and directly stated that he would go to Funiu Mountain with 500 county warriors to educate the mountain people.
In response to this, Huang Guangmao had no choice but to act together with Wang Jida, thinking that it would not be too embarrassing for Wang Jida to become popular.
Otherwise, Huang Guangmao was afraid that he would be unable to bear it and just chop him down.
Under such circumstances, Luo Zhixue received the news before Sun Chengli returned to Sanshui Village: an unknown number of officers and soldiers once again appeared on the outskirts of Funiu Mountain, and they were threatening to penetrate deep into the mountain!
