When they heard Luo Zhixue saying that twenty taels was not expensive, Xu Zhixian, Zhu Xingfa and Wang Xiazi all looked at Luo Zhixue. They couldn't understand why Luo Zhixue said that.
The average purchase price of matchlock guns used by infantry today by the military is about five taels of silver. This is the price of a complete set, including muskets, spears, gun belts, ammunition belts, etc.
Even at this price, it’s actually not cheap!
Money is relatively valuable these days, and except for food, other things are not expensive overall.
As a comparison of prices, the monthly salary of an ordinary worker in the Hantian Arsenal today is about one or two or five yuan, and the food expenses have to be deducted from it. As for the technical workers and managers, they are not representative, so let's not mention them.
The subsidy for soldiers of the Chu army is 800 cash for first-class soldiers, 500 cash for second-class soldiers, and 300 cash for third-class soldiers.
Of course, the soldiers of the Chu army not only received subsidies, but they also had free food and clothing. In total, that was three or four taels of silver.
The recruits from the Ming Army received between 20 and 30 taels for the ordinary battalion sentries; the salary of the new standard army was higher, with 3 taels or even 4 taels of silver, but again, the soldiers of the Qian Ming Army could not get it. Many will be deducted.
Well, the income of Ming army soldiers also does not include soldiers, cavalry, low-level officers and other groups, only ordinary soldiers.
In other words, the purchase price of an infantry musket equipped in the Chu army was higher than the cost of raising a soldier for a month.
The blunderbuss made by the Ming army were cheaper, costing only three taels each, while the more expensive ones only cost four taels.
In addition, a short cannon of two hundred kilograms only costs a few dozen taels of silver, and a mortar cannon of eighteen kilograms costs a hundred taels of silver. The Ming army had a large number of offensive cannons weighing several dozen kilograms, and the squatting tiger cannon was even cheaper, costing as little as a few taels of silver. , you can buy it for no more than ten or twenty taels of silver.
The two-and-a-half kilogram field cannon in the Chu army only cost more than a hundred taels of silver for the iron ones, and the bronze ones were more expensive, costing more than two hundred taels of silver.
The purchase price of a five-pound bronze field cannon is much more expensive, with the entire cannon costing more than 400 taels of silver.
The nine-pound bronze field cannon is currently the most expensive weapon in the Chu army. The purchase price is more than 700 taels of silver.
The arsenal has added a considerable profit to this purchase price, otherwise it would be even cheaper.
However, the arsenal also needs to operate, expand and conduct technology research and development. Appropriate profits are definitely needed, otherwise there will be no way to develop.
In this era when the main field artillery only costs a few hundred taels of silver, a musket costs twenty taels of silver, which is very expensive.
Zhu Xingfa and others believed that if the cavalry was equipped with a small amount of equipment, it would be acceptable. After all, cavalry is an expensive branch. Arming a cavalry with a horse and armor alone costs hundreds of taels of silver, and raising war horses is also very expensive.
The most important thing is that cavalry cannot be mastered quickly. It cannot be like the infantry, where you can just find a young man who can train for two or three months and then go out to fight.
Cavalry, even the half-baked cavalry in the division's cavalry regiment, is very valuable.
Twenty taels of silver Suifu muskets are acceptable for equipping cavalry, but for equipping infantry...it always feels like a waste.
Faced with the doubts of his ministers, Luo Zhixue said: "The twenty taels of silver you are talking about are probably the purchase price of cavalry pistols, which is a few thousand guns at most."
"In this way, if the cost of the production line is spread evenly, the price will definitely be expensive. After all, the arsenal under the Ministry of Industry will not do loss-making business!"
At this time, Zhu Xingfa also said: "Your Majesty, the pistols we plan to purchase are initially two thousand. If they are used well, we may add another two thousand later. The price of Ding Gangyi from Hantian Factory is very high. It must be twenty It only takes two taels of silver to do it.”
Luo Zhixue said: "This is reasonable, but if the production of this flintlock gun is increased, not to 2,000, but to 20,000 or even 200,000, the cost can be greatly diluted, and then the price It’s definitely coming down.”
Luo Zhixue didn't ask anyone from the Ministry of Industry to find out how much the reduction would be, but he estimated that it would be possible to cut the purchase price in half after the production volume increased and the costs were shared equally.
"Let's not mention how much less the price of this Suifu musket can be. Once equipped with a flintlock musket, we can fully use musketeers in combat and completely abandon spearmen!"
"The complete set of equipment for a heavily-armored spearman costs at least thirty-five taels of silver. A lightly-armored spearman also costs about fifteen taels of silver. At the same time, the training is more troublesome and the requirements for personnel are higher."
"If you can disarm the spearmen, even if the new musketeers are more expensive, it's still a good deal!"
What Luo Zhixue said had not been told to Xu Zhixian and the others before, so they all showed doubts after hearing Luo Zhixue's words.
Xu Zhixian said: "Your Majesty, even if a new musket is installed, the spearman still needs to be retained, right?"
"Spearmen, especially heavily armored spearmen, have always been the core combat force of our army. If we directly disarm them, our close combat capabilities will not be guaranteed!"
What Xu Zhixian said is also true. The spearmen in the Chu army are currently the core combat force.
In a typical field battle, the spearman has two major responsibilities. One is to cover the musketeer so that the musketeer can fire safely.
The second is to act as the core combat force in hand-to-hand combat when launching a charge. As for the musketeers, even if they are equipped with spears, they are still inferior to the spearmen in hand-to-hand combat.
On the one hand, the spearmen wear armor, especially the spearmen in the front row who all wear heavy armor. Although the musketeers also wear armor, they are all in the lightest half-body light armor.
In addition, the musket is relatively short, only a little over two meters with the spear spur, while the spearman's spear is four and a half meters long.
In an array of hand-to-hand combat, every inch is longer and every inch stronger.
Therefore, when arraying for hand-to-hand combat, the heavy spearmen are the core combat force, and the musketeers and heavy armored sword and shield men have to stand aside.
Now Luo Zhixue said that after replacing the new musket, he could directly disarm the spearman, which they couldn't understand.
Luo Zhixue, however, directly took the pen and paper and simply drew a few horizontal lines: "Once we install the new muskets, with the characteristics of the flintlock muskets, we can completely make the formation of the musketeers closer. Even side by side!”
"If we could adopt a three-file formation, or even a two-file formation!"
"Under such circumstances, compared with the previous soldiers who were spaced far apart and the six-row formation of arquebusiers, the firepower density of our new formation will be improved several times or even ten times!"
"Just imagine, what kind of effect will a new musketeer unit with a firepower density several times higher than the current musketeer unit have on the battlefield?"
After Luo Luozhixue used charcoal to draw a simple line infantry formation on paper, the two cavalry generals Wang Xiazi and Zhu Xingfa had not yet reacted, but Xu Zhixian, a general with an infantry background, was instantly bright-eyed. .
He looked at the formation on the drawing and murmured: "Currently, one of our infantry battalions has more than 240 musketeers, deployed in six columns, and has only forty musketeers in a single round of fire."
"If we use new muskets, with the same types of troops and formations, we can use a three-column formation, and we can gather 80 high-altitude musketeers in a single round. If we use a two-column formation, then there will be one hundred and twenty musketeers!"
"Just by switching to new types of muskets, our firepower density can be doubled or tripled, keeping other things unchanged."
"If we remove the spearmen, then remove the swordsmen, shieldmen and archers, with the same number of troops, our single round of firepower can focus on two hundred or even three hundred musketeers!"
"Compared with existing tactics, the firepower is increased by more than five or seven times!"
At this time, Luo Zhixue shook his head slightly, and then simply drew a pattern on the drawing, and then said: "After using the flintlock gun, we don't have to worry about the matchlock misfire, so we can completely use the salvo combat method, three rows Or two rows of musketeers can fire all at once, firing out six hundred rounds of ammunition!"
"Imagine all the musketeers, within a distance of about ten feet from the enemy, firing all at once. How shocking would that scene be?"
"I would like to ask, how many armies in the world can continue to fight after being subjected to such a violent volley of firepower within ten feet?"
Hearing this, Xu Zhixian stood up immediately: "At least the puppet Ming army does not have such elites..."
"If hit by this kind of firepower, all the enemy's front row troops will probably die. Even if not all of them will be killed or wounded, there will be seven or eight layers of casualties. After receiving such a violent blow in a short period of time, not many armies can continue to maintain their strength. The courage to fight.”
"Even if they still maintain their courage, the formation will completely collapse!"
When Xu Zhixian was talking, he stood up and walked around twice, and then returned to the table with a few simple formation diagrams drawn by Luo Zhixue: "If there are 10,000 musketeers like this, we can fight against 50,000 new soldiers from the Puppet Ming Dynasty." It’s no big deal to be a standard-bearer.”
Luo Zhixue looked at Zhu Xingfa again at this time: "If there are cavalry equipped with muskets and pistols to help, we can go to the Central Plains and even go to the north to fight a dozen robbers. There will be no problem in the future." of."
When Zhu Xingfa heard about the Japanese captors, he immediately stood up and said, "Your Majesty, your Majesty, to be honest, the muskets and pistol cavalry I designed are to deal with those captured by the East. If the troops are sent to Liaodong in the future, I sincerely ask your Majesty to let me serve as the cavalry." Vanguard General!"
Luo Zhixue looked at Zhu Xingfa and nodded slightly: "I agree. I will send troops to Liaodong in the future. Zhu Aiqing, you will lead the cavalry to lead the battle!"
Luo Zhixue knew that Zhu Xingfa was from the Liaodong cavalry, and that his family members had all died at the hands of the Eastern captors.
This man has a blood feud with Dongluo!
As Luo Zhixue said this, he turned his attention back to the pistol on the table!
After picking it up again and taking a closer look at the firing mechanism of the pistol, he immediately said to the secretary outside: "Let Hu Aiqing from the Ordnance Department come over. By the way, call Yuan Aiqing from the Ministry of Industry. Well, from Hantian Factory Ding Aiqing probably hasn’t gone back either, so call him over too!”
"Today, we will discuss the flintlock rifle in detail, especially the sniper rifle, to see if it can be produced and how long it will take to produce it."
Xu Zhixian immediately said: "The flintlock rifle is related to the future strategic development of our army. Your Majesty, I am here to express my position. If the Ministry of Industry can come up with this fusillade rifle, as long as it is not too outrageous and can be controlled at around fifteen taels, Our army will order 50,000 units for the first batch!"
