A quarter of an hour later, after exchanging opinions and ideas, Shenji Camp Counselor Chen Guang stood up and said:
"Although heavy artillery can't be used, light and small artillery will have little impact."
"To conquer the Jiannu, our army can abandon the Hongyi cannon and the large Franco machine cannon, and use the small Franco machine cannon as the main offensive force."
"This will not only avoid slow marching speed, but also reduce the possibility of being attacked and ambushed."
"Compared with the fortresses of the Ming Dynasty, those pass fortresses built by the slaves are no different from broken bricks and tiles."
"When the time comes, I will bring more shells and gunpowder, and just fire a few more cannons."
Then Cao Wenzhao continued:
"In my opinion, our army should focus on firearms in this battle and abandon bows, arrows and spears."
"Every member of the Eight Banners who founded the slaves has a armor, and they are all new ones made within the past three to five years."
"Moreover, there are many slave soldiers wearing two or three layers of heavy armor. The lethality of ordinary bows and arrows is really limited. It may not be possible to break them without heavy bows."
"Almost all of them have horses, and their mobility is superior to ours."
"The spearmen are too bulky and are only suitable for positional defensive warfare. They are really passive. The Jianzhou area is really not suitable for the use of spears, so I think they should be abandoned."
Although Cao Wenzhao is a general of the Xiaoqi Camp, he is still quite familiar with the power of the Shenji Camp's firearms.
Zhu Youxiao also told the generals and soldiers more than once that future wars will definitely be based on firearms, and swords, arrows and spears will not be of much use.
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty has always focused on the development of firearms. During the Yongle period, it reached its peak with superb tactics and advanced and diverse firearms.
It's a pity that since Yongle, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty no longer paid so much attention to firearms.
Officials naturally deduct what they can. As a result, not only has there been no progress over the past 100 years, but there has been a lot of regression.
Firearms of poor quality and with greatly reduced power were given to sergeants for use. They would either blow up and kill themselves, or they would jam or be insufficiently powerful, resulting in their lives being lost.
As a result, firearms ceased to be popular in the military, and cold weapons began to dominate.
Zhu Youxiao has aggressively recruited and trained firearms craftsmen in the past two years, hiring Westerners at high prices to serve as instructors, and then spent a lot of money to buy a lot of manufacturing technology.
It took two years to finally get firearms development back on track.
After seeing firearms that were of good quality, reliable, and powerful, everyone from the Yulin Army to the generals and soldiers were very surprised.
During the northern expedition to the grasslands last year, when Lin Dan Khan attacked Miyun, how the Liuguang Shenji arrows massacred the Tartar cavalry will probably never be forgotten by the soldiers who participated in this battle in their lifetime.
Later, in the exercise, they still vividly remembered the scene of artillery arraying and firing volleys of bombing, and the soldiers holding muskets and firing volleys.
At this point, the generals and soldiers of the Yulin Army have completely changed their views on firearms, and they trust and rely more on firearms.
Zhu Youxiao also did not pay attention to the affairs of the army and arsenal during this period.
Since Cao Wenzhao mentioned firearms, in order to have a preliminary understanding, he directly asked Chen Guang and Zhang Zhiji at the meeting.
According to Chen Guang's report, the Shenji Battalion has basically been equipped with standard equipment.
The newly built arsenal, craftsmen and their families now employ nearly 100,000 people.
It can completely meet the needs of Shenji Camp.
But the scale is still expanding.
What Zhu Youxiao wanted was not just to be satisfied with the 30,000 people in the Shenji Camp.
As craftsmen become more proficient in the manufacture of firearms and the technology becomes more advanced and mature, arsenals will definitely be expanded in other areas in the future and the entire army will be equipped.
Now, two years of hard work and investment have finally paid off.
Among them, the artillery is mainly large and small Folang machine guns, with a total of about 300 pieces.
As for the heavy-duty Hongyi cannon, the manufacturing process requires high and complicated processes, and the initial technology is not mature enough.
At present, only fifty of them are installed, and they are also supplied to the warships of Denglai Navy.
Fortunately, the technology is now proficient, and the manufacturing success rate can be stabilized at around 70%. The production speed will be much faster in the future.
The Streaming Divine Machine Arrow, Tiger Crouching Cannon, New Tiger Crouching Cannon, and Divine Fire Flying Crow are mainly used for group strikes or special areas.
In total, there are more than 1,300 doors.
Especially the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the Liuguang Shenji Arrow, these two firearms are the most deadly weapons for the Mongols and Jiannu.
Zhu Youxiao also paid special attention to it, otherwise he would not have gone to the arsenal to find Bi Maokang to develop a new Tiger Crouching Cannon.
The muskets are mainly matchlocks. Through production in the past two years and previous inventory inspections, the Shenji Battalion has been equipped with 15,000 guns.
Of course, production has been stopped now. The matchlock gun is only for transitional use after all. Zhu Youxiao will not waste money and manpower in vain.
In fact, if we compare the current Ming Dynasty with Europe, the degree of advancement of firearms, the penetration rate of the army, and the coordinated use of tactics, the Ming Dynasty lags far behind.
The Shenwu flintlock musket has been around for more than a year. The Ming army will definitely use flintlock muskets as its main weapon.
Under Bi Maokang's professional guidance during this period, five thousand craftsmen have basically mastered the craftsmanship of fire gun manufacturing.
There are also a series of R&D and manufacturing tools such as lathes, which have also been perfected and mass production started three months ago.
At present, 1,500 qualified firecrackers have been produced and have begun to be initially installed in the army.
This blunderbuss, which is superior to the matchlock gun in terms of range, power, loading and firing speed, can be said to be deeply loved by the soldiers.
Five hundred of the modified Shenwu fire guns used by the cavalry have been produced.
Although there are some shortages, there is still no problem with the training of the musketeers.
Nowadays, the firearms industry of the Ming Dynasty has been initially formed and will only need to be expanded slowly in the future.
After receiving this information, Zhu Youxiao became more confident in destroying the wild boar skin and Horqin.
Cao Wenzhao was indeed on point in this point, and it coincided with Zhu Youxiao's idea.
For those who are still using swords and arrows, a formed army equipped with excellent firearms is simply a dimension-reducing strike.
"Then how to advance troops? You must know that the Jianzhou area is not as open as Guan Nei, and there are official roads available."
"There are some small mountain roads there, which are not suitable for large armies to march."
"Otherwise, it will be like a long snake. Once it is hit seven inches by the wild boar skin, our army will be cut into pieces. If the front and rear cannot respond to each other, we will be defeated."
"And they have an advantage. After all, they grew up here and are definitely more familiar with the surrounding geographical environment than we are."
"So we have to think of a comprehensive way to avoid being attacked or ambushed."
"The lessons of the failure in the Battle of Saarhu must not be forgotten."