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Volume 1: The Arms Dealer¡¯s Feast Chapter 286: The New Army¡¯s First Battle

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    Although some people are skeptical about Zhang Leping's idea of ??selling large amounts of arms to save the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Leping put forward another example: "Everyone can be more open-minded. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement was not suppressed by foreign guns and cannons."  Go down."

    What the people aboard the Lushan don¡¯t know yet is that their arms have been handed over to Hong Chengchou, a famous officer in Erchen Chuan, for use.

    Hong Chengchou, who is now the governor of Shaanxi and participates in politics, became famous after he solved the siege of Hancheng and killed hundreds of bandits. He was also relied on by Yang He, the governor of the military affairs of the three sides, and delivered all the Australian fast guns and steel cannons allocated by the imperial court to Hong Chengchou's department.  Use - Now the subordinates of Hong Chengchou's department are all selected by Mr. Yang He and Yang from the main barracks of each department. Because Australian firearms themselves are valuable, Yang He and Hong Chengchou also promised that they would not default on their full pay after joining the new army.  ¡ª¡ªThere is nothing we can do about it. The Australian rifle is worth a lot of money. If the soldiers take the Australian rifle away because of lack of pay, it will be a big trouble. In contrast, the new army in the main barracks is paid more than two taels per month.  It's nothing, the value of an Australian fast gun is enough to provide them with two years of military pay - not to mention the Australian steel cannon, which can only be operated and maintained by Lord Yang He and Hong Chengchou's personal servants.

    There is no way to drink the blood of soldiers. Jiubian is so big that Yang He has also issued a strict order. Anyone who dares to take action against the New Army's salary will only have the word "death".

    It¡¯s not that there were no firearms in the Ming Dynasty. On the contrary, there were hundreds of kinds of firearms, but one thing is that quality is always a heavy topic.  Especially the ones made by craftsmen for the troops - the money the craftsmen spend on making firearms has been deducted at every level, and it would be a joke to still want to get high-quality firearms.  Youdao means you get what you pay for, and it shows very well in this regard.

    On the contrary, the firearms sold by the private sector are quite sophisticated, and even Westerners buy the firearms made by the private sector in the Ming Dynasty - according to the laws of the market economy, if the quality is not good, who will buy yours?

    Australian guns are more expensive than Nalumi guns and are ten times more expensive. However, the imitations made by Jingying are incomparable to genuine Australian guns. The issue of barrel life alone is worth letting people buy Australian guns with confidence.  .  In this era, the barrels of guns made of pig iron have almost reached the end of their life after being fired for twenty or thirty rounds. However, the Australian fast guns can be fired for hundreds of rounds. Of course, they need to cool down after every ten or so rounds, which is just a decrease in range.  There is absolutely no worry about the gun exploding - in fact, the rifling is smoothed out.

    The quality of the Australian fast gun is almost impeccable, and it can be used as long as it is not pouring rain. In this era, the two sides will not fight in such weather, because rain is not only the enemy of gunpowder, it can also corrode swords and guns.  Armor and other combat weapons.

    Hong Chengchou didn't have much time. Only a few days after his troops were equipped with fast guns and steel cannons, he had the opportunity to face the peasant army.

    Baimatan, eastern Shaanxi

    The peasant army in the distance did not put up any decent camp, but was a mess with various large blades, spears and other weapons. Among them, some of the well-equipped ones with worn-out mandarin duck jackets were the small leaders of the peasant army -  - Unable to survive due to long-term arrears of pay, many Jiubian soldiers also joined the Peasant Army and soon became its key members.

    As for those on horseback in the back, they are already the top people in the peasant army, and are called the old camp by various ministries. This is also the real foundation of the peasant army. Those in the front without horses are just hungry people gathered temporarily. Their biggest dream is to eat a meal.  A full meal.  Then the leader of the peasant army quickly fulfilled their wish - fed them with looted grain and grass, and pushed them onto the battlefield.

    This time, the peasant army did not stick to the mud. Yang Liu responded to the invitation of fellow bandits Wang Zuogui and Miao Meizhi to join forces to attack Hancheng.  The peasant armies come together at different times. Now the four peasant armies add up to 80,000 people, known as one hundred thousand. Of course, most of them are hungry people. The four peasant armies just started and the old camp only has a few hundred cavalry.  This time, there were only four to five thousand officers and soldiers who went out to fight against them.

    Peasant army leaders Yang Liu, Bu Zhanni, Wang Zuogui, Miao Mei and others waved their steel knives on their horses and shouted: "Brothers, kill all the officers and soldiers and open Hancheng, so that everyone can be happy."

    The eyes of the peasant army, including the hungry people, gradually turned red, and everyone shouted loudly: "Kill the officers and soldiers, open Hancheng, everyone will be happy."

    For a time, the roars of tens of thousands of people shook the surrounding areas, and the army camp on the opposite side seemed to be a little impatient.

    Seeing that their own morale was greatly boosted, the leaders of the peasant army ordered the war to begin.  The peasant army had no formation to begin with, and the start of the war was nothing more than everyone rushing forward with various weapons such as iron blades, swords, spears, and even hoes.  If you run slowly, the little leader behind you will just kick him. Those who dare to turn back and run are often chopped by the little leader and groan on the ground - if you want to kill someone with one knife or cut off the head with one knife, you need to be very high.  If you rely solely on brute force, the knife will probably break first.

      Hong Chengchou was relieved when he saw this scene. Rogue bandits are rogue bandits after all. Even if they gather millions of people, it will be useless.  Seeing the peasant army begin to charge, Hong Chengchou ordered: "Go down with the order and set up a three-fold formation. Only when the order is given can you shoot and fire. Anyone who fires in advance will be beheaded. Anyone who retreats without authorization will be beheaded. Anyone who makes noise at will will be beheaded."  "

    Several messengers rode on horseback to pass on the general's orders. The officers and soldiers changed their formations and divided the infantry queue into three sparse rows. Each team had artillery in the middle and cavalry guards on both sides.

    The history of the triple formation can be traced back to Zhu Yuanzhang¡¯s general Mu Ying¡¯s conquest of Yunnan. At that time, Mu Ying deployed the triple formation with handguns (which can be regarded as a kind of short-barreled firecrackers), and he also defeated the enemy at that time.

    However, the triple formation that Hong Chengchou deployed now is different. The infantry facing the rogue bandits head on is only equipped with Australian fast guns and artillery, and the two wings are cavalry.  If the time-travelers aboard the Lushan saw this, they would shout that Hong Chengchou was also a time-traveler, at least he was lining up to shoot the party members - this is very close to the formation of a quasi-modern war.

    In fact, it is not surprising that Hong Chengchou put up this formation. Of course he did not invent the triple formation. The reason why the new army was only equipped with Australian fast rifles was because after Hong Chengchou saw the rate of fire of Australian fast rifles, he found that there was no need to use it among the fast rifle soldiers.  Deploying cold weapon troops - in Hong Chengchou's opinion, no matter how many enemy troops come, as long as the three stacked formations of guns take turns to shoot and fire, they will not be able to overtake - at this time, the bolder you are, the faster you will die, and in  After suffering a certain amount of casualties, there was no one who would not retreat, so Hong Chengchou gave each new army a waist knife as a melee weapon.

    When the peasant army roared in chaos and rushed 150 steps away, the New Army soldiers here were ordered to "aim at the first row." There was a sound of guns being pulled over their shoulders.  There was just a discordant sound, and a "bang" sound was heard. A New Army soldier looked at the peasant army in front and nervously pulled the trigger.  However, because of the strict order just now, the New Army soldiers around him did not follow the shooting but continued to aim.

    Hong Chengchou said angrily: "Whoever shoots without permission first will be arrested and chopped."

    This one cannot run away. After all, it is fired with black powder. When fired, it will be a cloud of white smoke.  I saw this unlucky guy being dragged out of the team by two soldiers. Before he died, he shouted: "Commander, spare your life, Commander. I have a sixty-year-old mother above me and an unweaned child below me."  Marshal"

    Soon, a bloody head was placed in front of Hong Chengchou.  At this time, the vanguard of the peasant army had already rushed to a distance of fifty or sixty steps. Hong Chengchou ordered: "Pass my order. The troops will take turns to fire. The artillerymen are ready to fire. The cavalry will guard the two wings."

    The New Army soldiers who had been waiting for a long time finally waited for the opportunity to open fire, and smoke rose from the official camp.  The peasant army on the opposite side was in a state of panic. The Australian fast rifle could penetrate double-layered iron armor at this distance, and of course it could penetrate the bodies of two or three people.  The peasant army fell to pieces, and before they could react, another cloud of gunpowder smoke rose from the official camp on the opposite side, and there was loud gunfire. This time the gunfire really drowned out the screams of the peasant army.  Another peasant army was beaten and overthrown, and the fearful leaders had to kill several people in a row to stabilize the position of the peasant army.

    At this moment, the officers and soldiers in the third row opened fire.  This has aggravated the tasks of the leaders of the peasant army at all levels. The leaders at all levels know the power of firearms but also the weaknesses of firearms. They all shouted: "The three rows of the official army have finished fighting. It will take a long time to reload. Take advantage of this  Let¡¯s rush forward when we get the chance. The officers and soldiers don¡¯t have a spear formation, so once they charge forward, the officers and soldiers will have nothing to do.¡±

    Peasant armies are often a mob. As long as they retreat, they need greater agitation and reorganization before they have the courage to charge. The rush of strength in ancient books is not just a talk. After all, it is necessary to run back and forth several times with a guy under malnourished conditions.  very tired.

    Seeing that the peasant army dared to charge, Hong Chengchou laughed loudly: "Well done, I'll show you something big this time. Pass my order and the artillery fires."

    Several flags waved, and the artillery equipped by the new army opened fire together with the first row of new troops who had completed their second reloading.  Hong Chengchou's troops were equipped with ten Australian red barbarian steel cannons, fifty large tiger cannons and two thousand Australian fast guns. Although the artillery fire was not earth-shattering, it caused heavy casualties to the peasant army on the opposite side.

    The Australian fast gun is certainly very powerful. Facing the peasant army without armor protection, it can already penetrate two or three people within a hundred steps. If the artillery is scattered, it will knock down a large area. The Australian Red Yi Steel  The artillery was also scattered and hit far but not very wide. In this way, almost all the peasant troops within a few hundred meters and a wide range of dozens of meters were wiped out.  The Australian Big Tiger Steel Cannon has a shorter range, but because its barrel has a bell mouth, the projectiles it fires cover a wider area and kill more people at this time.

    After the artillery fired, the two-wheeled gun mounts jumped back one after another due to the recoil¡ª¡ªThis is the case in this era. It still takes time to clean the barrel, reload and reset.

    At this time, many peasant soldiers were already stupid. After the second row of the new army reloaded and fired a volley, the remaining peasant soldiers reacted. Some scattered and ran away, while others sat on the ground crying and yelling. At the same time, a large number of peasant soldiers were mixed in.  The cries of wounded soldiers.  Those who ran in the wrong direction and continued to rush towards the New Army were without exception knocked to the ground by the New Army's muskets.

    Then the third row loaded their ammunition and stepped forward to continue shooting.  The peasant soldiers discovered that even though they had run 200 steps or more, they were still within the range of the opponent's muskets.

    This is also one of Hong Chengchou's strategies, which is to bring the peasant army closer to kill as many rogue bandits as possible.  The Ming Dynasty adopted a head-level system. After the war, rewards and other rewards were closely related to the number of heads. This also resulted in the habit of a group of warlords in the late Ming Dynasty to kill good people and take credit for their merits - no heads, you say it?  What a credit.

    Although Hong Chengchou disdained to imitate those who killed good men and took credit for their merits, he would not be polite when faced with thieves who were already thieves. This strategic idea is to fight more annihilation battles and less rout battles.

    After the New Army's Rapid Rifle Team fired three rounds of musketry, Hong Chengchou saw that the peasant army was completely defeated and ordered the cavalry to pursue it - but there was no way. Although Hong Chengchou also wanted to have a great victory in wiping out the rogue bandits in the first battle of the New Army, but the official  The new army of the army, including artillery, only has 3,000 people.  The peasant army on the opposite side was threatening tens of thousands but was unwilling to charge life-threateningly. It was indeed difficult to kill them all at once.

    At this time, more than 800 cavalry on each wing were needed.  This is also the only unit in the New Army that is not equipped with Australian firearms, but the Ming Army still has the three-eyed blunderbuss.

    Except for a small number of cavalry in the old camp, all the rest of the peasant army were infantry. Those who brought mules and horses to the peasant army either had their mules and horses taken away or were absorbed into the old camp.

    This time the cavalry pursued a lot and captured a lot. Even Yang Liu, the leader of the rebel army, was captured alive by the army because his horse stepped in the air and broke his leg.  As for the soldiers of the Peasant Army, more than 50,000 people were arrested. It can be said that except for those who were shot and a few escaped, almost all the rest were captured.  Because some of the little leaders were originally from the army and knew that the army only killed the culprits and never asked about threats, they almost surrendered in droves under the pursuit of the cavalry.

    Only this time, these people had the wrong idea.  After Hong Chengchou learned that so many prisoners had been captured, he said: "Kill them all."

    Someone below said something: "Commander is prudent. He has been practicing the law since ancient times. It is unlucky to kill prisoners."

    Hong Chengchou said: "It would be more ominous not to kill them. They were local farmers who rebelled because they could no longer live. There are more than 50,000 of them left. Our new army has lost more than 50,000 heads. There are 50,000 more mouths to eat in the local area. If we want to  If they work, they still have to have half a catty of food a day. How much is half a catty of grain for fifty thousand people? Twenty-five thousand catties, thousands of dan of grain a day, millions of dan of grain a year. Do you or I provide this food?  Out? If they don¡¯t have enough to eat, why don¡¯t they continue to rebel, or they should be killed cleanly.¡±

    No one has come up with millions of shi of grain a year, which is millions of taels of silver. The imperial government¡¯s annual tax revenue from the Ministry of Household Affairs is only a few million taels of silver and tens of millions of shi of colored rice. If not  With such a small number of people, the imperial court would not be able to send any extra money or anything like that.  So Hong Chengchou ordered tens of thousands of heads to roll to the ground. Many rogue generals who took off their armor and changed clothes to hide among the peasant army prisoners also died amidst the sounds of begging for mercy and cursing Hong Chengchou.

    Seeing this bloody scene, Hong Chengchou was not moved at all. He knew that there was someone who could provide the food to feed these 50,000 prisoners, but there were millions of peasant troops in Shaanxi. According to Hong Chengchou's analysis, there was no such thing as a million.  Yes, but dozens of groups of rebels may be holding tens of thousands of people, or thousands of people, adding up to hundreds of thousands. However, as time goes by, these rogue bandits will really not be able to gather enough to show the army of one million people.  After all, Shaanxi is a disaster-hit province this time, and farmers at the bottom are the weakest in disaster resistance.

    It is natural to report to the victory. This new army of the new army of Baima Beach beheaded more than 70,000, which was also rare in the history of the Ming Dynasty.  Hong Chengchou also wrote down his experience in using Australian fast guns and steel cannons in the memorial, vividly displaying this battle in words in front of the emperor and the cabinet.

    Of course, Hong Chengchou was not stupid enough to say that he had massacred prisoners. Instead, he described the peasant army as extremely strong. He launched a sea of ????human charges again and again in front of the New Army's rapid gun triple formation, until he charged seventeen times with heavy casualties and powerful force.  After they were exhausted, they were all killed by the cavalry who rushed out from both wings. However, in the end, the bandit leader cunningly kept Yang Liu's old camp to fight with the officers and soldiers. The other old bandit camps took the opportunity to run away. Yang Liu was not captured alive after falling off his horse, but  He was screaming for a fight before he died after being shot several times and bleeding profusely.

    "Hong Chengchou is a Jinshi who was born in the 14th grade of the 2nd grade. His writing level is much higher than that of his fellow jinshis in the 3rd grade.  When Emperor Chongzhen saw it, he was really pleased with Long Yan and decided to reward him.After Hong Chengchou and the number of new armies were gathered, he was still thinking about how to squeeze out more money to buy more Australian fast guns and build more new armies. It would be best to have such an army for all the nine sides, with thousands of people.  There are not many new troops, but the power is obviously surprisingly powerful, but those imitated by the Beijing camp are far from enough.  Even the Shenji Battalion values ??Australian products very highly and can't put them down. Those domestic imitations are often no longer used after a few shots - it's no joke if they are shot again and explode.

    When I think of those rubbish from the Beijing camp, Chongzhen becomes angry.  Guns can be imitated, but their longevity and quality are incomparable to Australian ones.  As the most powerful country in the world, the Ming Dynasty actually wanted to purchase a large amount of arms from an Australian island country. This was not pleasant to hear.  But now that there are rogues inside and Mongols and Tatars outside, it can't control so much. Fortunately, although the national treasury is constantly empty, there is still some internal money left by the predecessor and his predecessor.

    Chongzhen had no idea about the empty treasury. When Emperor Tianqi fell seriously ill, he still sat down to believe in the king. It was only after he secretly agreed to the unequal treaties such as the exemption of mining and commercial taxes that the big bosses promoted him to the throne.  , otherwise he is not the only prince who is qualified to take over the throne (for those ministers, as long as they are the descendants of Emperor Hongwu, they are certainly qualified to be emperor, and they do not necessarily need to be the younger brother of Emperor Tianqi. That Emperor Yingzong was killed in Tumubao  Captured, didn't these people immediately change their emperor? The Mongolian Waci tribe who captured Yingzong was disappointed. What they originally thought was a rare commodity turned out to be worthless). Speaking of which, it was not easy to come up¡ª¡ª  Fortunately, his elder brother, Emperor Tianqi, had no children. Otherwise, according to the behavior of the big shots in the court, they would naturally prefer a three-year-old child to be the emperor.

    Looking at Hong Chengchou's report, a prisoner failed to catch the big guys in the court who knew a little bit about military affairs. You will know what is going on. But now the emperor and the court are in the excitement of this great victory. At this time, no one is interested in looking for it.  That's not pleasant.  Anyway, the only party involved was Hong Chengchou's new army. As long as they insisted that not a single bandit surrendered, it meant that not a single bandit surrendered.  (To be continued. Please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!)
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