The militia organization of the Da Chu Empire has a complete system. After all, it is a serious military armed organization and is directly under the management of the military.
The command of the militia belongs to the local garrison headquarters. Each prefecture, county and town within the jurisdiction will establish a complete militia system. Some large-scale government-run enterprises with many workers will also set up separate militia organizations.
Militiamen are organized into militia teams, battalions, regiments and even divisions according to regions and sizes.
This is still a domestic situation. If it is outside overseas territories, militia teams are generally set up according to settlements. For a separate immigrant settlement like Songxi Village, a militia team will be set up, and the proportion of militiamen will be very large. The weapons and equipment attached are also better, and even some large-scale militia units will have heavy weapons such as light artillery.
The commanders and key soldiers in the militia are usually retired soldiers. Therefore, the commanders of many local militia organizations are usually retired lieutenants or even generals.
Some retired non-commissioned officers or soldiers serve as captains of some grassroots militia teams.
The situation in Songxi Village is a relatively typical overseas militia organization structure. Militia members account for a large proportion of the local young adults. It can even be said that every local young adult is a member of the militia.
At the same time, the militiamen in Songxi Village also have a relatively unique North American characteristic, that is, almost everyone is equipped with a horse.
This is because the Chu Empire in North America had a small number of people but a lot of land, so horses were widely used for farming. Since horses were used for farming, the number of farm horses among the immigrant groups was relatively large.
Although they are all service horses and not really war horses, they can be used for maneuvering on horseback, or even for carrying supplies or something else. There is no problem.
This also resulted in the militiamen in North America having a considerable proportion of mounted infantry.
The militiamen gathered in the square basically came with horses like Zhao Gantong. Some even brought not one but two horses.
The retired non-commissioned officer who was giving a mobilization speech above was now the patrol officer stationed in Songxi Village. Behind him, Wu Jintang, the captain of the Songxi Village Soldiers, were three horses.
One of the horses only had a saddle on its back and carried nothing else, but the other two carried a large amount of supplies.
In addition to Wu Jintang's personal combat logistics supplies, two large ammunition boxes were carried on the horseback, which were filled with flash caps and paper-packed bullets. These were logistics supplies for the militia.
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Just these two boxes of flash caps and paper-packed ammunition were enough for their small team to fight continuously for a long time.
After all, the rate of fire of muzzle-loading muskets these days is very low. In an ordinary battle, the per capita consumption of bullets is only about ten rounds. In a fierce and long-lasting battle, at most, only twenty or thirty rounds of bullets are consumed.
In the previous series of battles carried out by the Chu Army in India, which lasted for less than half a year, the average number of bullets consumed by tens of thousands of combat troops was only twenty rounds...
Of course, this bullet consumption is the per capita consumption of the troops participating in the battle. The actual situation is that the soldiers fighting on the front line will continue to fire, and the bullet consumption may reach dozens or even hundreds of rounds, but the soldiers in the rear have not fired a shot.
Average data!
You can't use average numbers to measure the actual firing data of soldiers on the front line.
In the Battle of Mumbai, India, a platoon of soldiers from the Chu Army fired an average of 130 rounds of ammunition during that day's battle.
This is the most bullets fired in a single battle among countless battles in the many years since the founding of the Chu Empire. This is almost the limit data.
After the battle, one by one of the dozens of soldiers could not lift their right hands the next day. It took them a while to recover... because they were continuously impacted by the recoil of the guns during the continuous battle. , resulting in shoulder injury.
The recoil of front-loading muskets these days is very large. Don't think that the recoil of muskets is small and the kinetic energy of the bullet is small. In fact, it is not much different from the modern rifles of later generations.
The muzzle kinetic energy of the Type 21 musket is more than 3,800 joules. The later-famous AK47 only has more than 1,900 joules. Other automatic rifles generally only have more than 1,000 joules.
By the way, the kinetic energy of the arrow in the British sky is only 123 joules. Other types of bows and arrows of the same period are even worse than this data.
The reason why the Chu army's muskets have such a large export kinetic energy is to ensure that they can penetrate the enemy's armor within an effective range of 100 meters.
The army these days is still generally equipped with armor. The export model plate armor of the Great Chu Empire is very popular. At the same time, the Chu army itself is still equipped with a large number of light plate armor.
If this musket is not powerful enough to penetrate plate armor, it will naturally not work.
All rifles in the Chu Army can penetrate two millimeters of low carbon steel within a range of 100 meters. This is also the export plate armor with the best performance data. The Chu Army must ensure that the muskets they are equipped with can penetrate Within a hundred meters, penetrate all the plate armor at your own exit!
This must ensure power, so the recoil will naturally be insignificant. In addition, Chu State has not developed any technology to reduce recoil in firearms these days, let alone ergonomics, which makes the recoil of firearms even more difficult to withstand.
Take the 21-year-old percussion rifle as an example. If hundreds of bullets are fired continuously, the soldier's shoulder will become bruised and black due to the recoil, and there will be severe pain.
And the arm on the shoulder side may not be able to lift up due to the recoil!
Based on this, it can be said that more than 100 rounds of bullets are basically the limit of the soldiers' continuous shooting. If there are any more, they will not be able to shoot... and they will have to be scrapped after the shoulder is shot.
It's not like those automatic rifles of later generations. One shot will only produce thirty rounds of ammunition. A few shots will go through hundreds of rounds and all will be used up. After a few more shots, it's time to get off work.
Because all the bullets are gone!
To a certain extent, this is also an advantage of a front-mounted flash cap: very little bullet consumption!
If you switch to a breech-loading rifle that has an extremely fast rate of fire, is easy to load and shoot, and has a longer effective range, this average bullet consumption will have to be increased at least several times.
Zhao Gantong himself also brought a lot of bullets, including a hundred rounds of flash caps and paper-packed bullets. In addition to the bullet box in the armed belt around his waist, there were also two boxes of reserve bullets in the armed backpack heading north.
These bullets are the same as the 21-year-old percussion rifle in his hand, but they are weapons and equipment for the militia and are provided directly by the military. Zhao Gantong does not need to pay for them.
Not only did he not need to bring his own rifle bullets, but he also did not need to bring his own bullets for his revolver and smoothbore pistol. The militia team had a supply of nine-millimeter pistol paper-wrapped bullets and flash caps, which were also free of charge. of.
However, these free bullets cannot be used casually. The militia allocates guns and ammunition to individuals. They only let you keep them and use them when necessary. If they are used during non-collective fighting, they must explain the situation. They are not letting you use them casually. of.
Of course, it’s okay not to explain the situation. You can buy bullets from your own pocket to make up for it.
This is also limited to some overseas territories.
If you are in the country or an overseas territory with good security, the guns and bullets in the militia are separated and stored centrally, so you cannot use them whenever you want.
However, in some overseas territories facing indigenous attacks, in order to provide the people with sufficient self-protection capabilities, guns and ammunition were directly distributed to the militiamen and allowed to be kept by the militiamen themselves.
In fact, even if they are not issued, these militiamen will buy guns and ammunition for their own safety and keep them at home, and take them with them when they travel far away.
To a certain extent, the guns and ammunition distributed to the militia can be regarded as a kind of militia welfare... allowing the militiamen to save some money and not have to purchase their own guns and ammunition.
After a large group of young militiamen in Songxi Village were assembled, Wu Jintang, the captain of the militia team, ordered the fifth and sixth teams of the militia team to stay in the village.
He himself went out with four teams of men.
There are a total of seventy-six militiamen in Songxi Village. Although the number is a bit small, they are still divided into three parts according to the needs of line tactics, organized into the first platoon, the second platoon, and the third platoon. During combat missions, you can use these three platoons as the basis to carry out standard three-row formation tactics.
At the same time, the third row can also be split and added to the first and second rows to implement two-row tactics to increase the density of firepower.
Well, with the percussion rifle equipment equipped with flash caps, the Chu army generally prefers to use two-row tactics to crush the enemy with more intensive firepower.
Under the platoon in the militia organization, there are often squads of about ten people. The specific number of people depends on the number of troops in the militia unit.
Of course, some militia units with smaller numbers may often have three squads directly under their control.
But regardless of whether you are more than a hundred people or dozens of people older, you have to be organized into three platoons or simply three squads to implement the 'one-three system'.
That is, a basic army requires three platoons or squads of equal size.
This is to ensure that line tactics can be implemented.
The militia team in Songxi Village is organized into three platoons. Because of the small number of people, there are only two teams in each platoon, ranging from about ten people.
Zhao Gantong was assigned to the third squad, belonging to the second platoon's combat order. He followed the other militiamen in the same squad, led the horse and followed Wu Jintang in the lead and started heading out of the village.
Most of the four teams in the Songxi Village Army, a total of about fifty people, led the horses, and there were a few militiamen with good riding skills in front of them to act as sentinels.
There were a few people behind him pulling a 65mm light field gun.
The militia is also an army and can be equipped with artillery. Songxi Village is not too far from the indigenous control area and is easily attacked by indigenous people. Therefore, the superiors obtained an old-style 65mm light rifle for Songxi Village. Field artillery.
This thing is quite old. The old model produced in Chengshun in the 13th year is now a full 18 years old. It is older than many young militiamen in the militia... There are even several 14 or 15-year-olds in the militia. The little guy.
Don’t think that these little guys are young. Chu people are generally precocious these days, and a lot of them get married at the age of fourteen or fifteen. After all, the definition of adults in the Chu Empire is only sixteen years old... So ten At the age of four or five, for many Chu people, especially the people at the bottom, they are already half an adult.
Especially in places like overseas territories, let alone fourteen-year-old and half-grown boys fighting with guns, among the old and weak women and children left behind in Songxi Village, many eleven- and twelve-year-old brats are already fighting with guns. They were on alert and ready for war, and there were many girls among them.
Compared with these young militiamen, this eighteen-year-old 65mm light field gun is really an old guy.
More than ten years ago, when the gun was in its youth, it was brought to America by the Army to fight. After many years of service and countless battles.
Last year, it finally withdrew from the front-line combat order and was replaced by the advanced new 65mm field artillery supplied from the country. It was eventually included in the militia equipment and distributed to Songxi Village, where it continues to exert its residual heat.
Although it is already an eighteen-year-old guy, and its performance is outdated, its power is already considerable, and at least it can be used to deal with those incompetent natives.
Two draft horses dragged the light field gun and walked directly on the dirt road outside the village. Soon the militia team left the dirt road near the village and walked directly onto the field covered with weeds.
The 65mm light field gun continued to follow the militiamen. Although the road was uneven and the forward speed was reduced a lot, it was still possible.
This is why the Chu Empire Army loves the 65mm field gun so much!
This light artillery is light enough to go anywhere!
In this kind of plain terrain, even if there are no roads, horses can be used to pull them directly.
At most, when encountering some potholes, the artillerymen can help push them.
Zhao Gantong and his men followed the large group of people forward. It didn't take long before they saw the people in front of them stop, and he stopped immediately.
After about another minute, I heard the team leader in front get on his horse and shout at the same time: "Team 3, get on your horse and follow me!"
Although he didn't know what was happening in front of him, he still got on his horse like everyone else and moved towards the team leader in front.
After getting closer, he saw a large crowd of people to the north of the gentle hill ahead!
It was a group of a few people wearing clothes, but more of them were only indigenous people wearing simple furs, with various feathers, and dark brown skin. There were four to five hundred of these indigenous people, and most of them were armed with spears, bows and arrows. Simple and cold weapons, but there are also quite a few people holding matchlock guns.
Most of them were on foot, and half were on horseback.
Looking at it like this, Zhao Gantong frowned slightly: The weapons, equipment and horses of these indigenous people are not bad!
Zhao Gantong looked at them from a distance and couldn't tell where these indigenous people came from, but Wu Jintang, the captain of the militia team in front, knew that this was an indigenous tribe about 20 to 30 kilometers northwest of their settlement.
The Chu people called it the Shanghe Tribe. It doesn’t matter whether the local indigenous people agree with this name. Anyway, the Chu people called it that.
Moreover, Wu Jintang also knew that the matchlock guns held by these natives were sold by the Chu people themselves before...
Even a considerable number of these horses were bred from grazing horses obtained from the Chu people.
To a certain extent, it was the Chu people who single-handedly cultivated the Shanghe tribe, which was still in a state of ignorant primitive people, into a modern tribe with a large number of cold weapons and some matchlock guns.
Because the Chu people had just arrived in the Jinshan area at that time, their number was very small. At the same time, they were faced with the Spanish's continued expansion to the north. In order to stabilize their control in this area, they also wanted to avoid a direct armed conflict with the Spanish that would eventually lead to war.
The Oriental Trading Company chose to support a number of local indigenous tribes and use the local tribes to resist the Spanish expansion strategy to the north.
The effect of this strategy is obvious. With the support of the Chu people, especially the export of a large number of weapons and equipment, the combat power of the indigenous tribes in the Jinshan area soared rapidly, and they really resisted the Spanish expansion to the north.
But this also brought about some subsequent negative impacts, that is, when the Chu people themselves expanded inland, especially towards the bottom of the Golden Valley, these indigenous tribes supported by the Chu people in the past became He became the enemy of the Chu people themselves.
And there are no advanced weapons, but there is no shortage of matchlocks, spears and swords.
No, Songxi Village has now become their target.
When Wu Jintang saw this scene, he couldn't help but curse: Damn Toyo Company!
