Chapter 161 The Troubles in Nancha (14) Hawks sodu777.net
When Shuerhaqi's troops with black flags appeared near the Ming army camp, the entire Ming army pointed at this poor army. They also laughed at Shuerhaqi himself, the only one wearing full armor. Commenting with a smile.
Shuerhaqi knew what they were laughing at. He felt a little aggrieved, but he could not admit that in front of the current Ming army, his subordinates were indeed only being laughed at.
Not only did all members of this 20,000-strong Ming army wear armor, but half of them were servants, all wearing "cold iron armor" made of "fine steel". This armor is a kind of armor, manufactured by Wang's Arsenal Made in Shenyang Branch, the main materials used are leather and iron sheets, of which the iron sheet is specially provided by Jinghua Iron and Steel Works. It is known as "fine steel" to the outside world, but it is actually a kind of gray cast iron.
Generally speaking, it is difficult to miniaturize gray cast iron in this era, but Jinghua can now do it. Therefore, small pieces of gray cast iron have become one of the special products for the Ming army and are often used as armor and other items.
The main reason why gray cast iron is chosen as the main material of the armor is that it is relatively low-cost, can be produced in large quantities, and has good wear resistance and plasticity.
As for the hardness, it is of course not as good as real steel. However, Jinghua’s real steel production is also limited and cannot be used to equip ordinary soldiers, including servants. Of course, the more important thing is that the Ming army does not have the financial strength.
But even armor with gray cast iron embedded on the outside is completely sufficient in this era. After all, firearms are a major trend, and the main function of armor is actually to protect against bows and arrows. For muskets such as Wanli Type 1 and Wanli Type 2, in fact, no matter what kind of armor they are, they are of little significance. They can still penetrate within their killing range.
As for artillery, not to mention, even though Jinghua has still not been able to produce real explosive shells for so many years, the lethality of solid shells... is like the description of the golden cudgel in Journey to the West. It hurts when it is rubbed and touched. Just death, how can we talk about defense?
Another characteristic of these armors made of gray cast iron is their color. Gray cast iron, as the name suggests, is darker gray, so that from a distance these armors look like the legendary "cold iron armor".
When a large group of soldiers wearing this kind of armor gather together, they will give people a strong sense of oppression, like a black wave, making people uncontrollably feel an unmatched fear.
In addition to the 10,000 servants wearing "cold iron treasure armor", the remaining Ming army was no ordinary beggar soldiers. They also wore complete cotton armor.
We can’t just take the name as it sounds here, especially don’t think that cotton armor “just sounds like garbage”. In fact, as an exotic economic crop, cotton was introduced to China in the Song Dynasty, but was limited by textile technology and was not popular among the people at first. At the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Huang Daopo improved the spinning wheel, and the cotton textile industry began to rise, and cotton armor was born in response to the situation.
After Jinghua developed a copycat but enhanced version of the Jenny Spinning Machine, the level and even quality of cotton armor actually improved a lot.
Before being "improved", cotton armor already had the characteristics of being light and warm, cost-effective, thick, and resistant. It had good defense against early gunpowder projectiles and was widely used in the Yuan and Ming dynasties.
At this time, most of the cotton armor was made of seven pounds of cotton. It was sewn with cloth like a jacket, and the arms were pressed firmly with feet to ensure that it was not fat and swollen. As for the characteristics of this kind of armor, it was "seeing the rain."
If it’s not heavy, it won’t rot with mildew, and it won’t cause serious damage with a blunderbuss.”
After Jinghua improved the equipment, it is no longer necessary to "kick it firmly" to make cotton armor. Instead, it is pressed by a machine. The quality is better and more stable. The only "shortcoming" is that in the past, seven pounds of cotton was used to make cotton armor. Now,
Then it was increased to eight and a half kilograms, and of course the price went up a bit.
The cotton armor is "sewn with cloth". In the past, the cloth was relatively ordinary, but now it has improved, and it is sewn with canvas specially supplied by Jinghua Shipyard - to a certain extent, the remaining 10,000 Ming
The army has already put on "denim armor" in advance, but the color is not dyed blue due to cost issues, and it is still a primary color close to white.
Black and white, this is how this Ming army feels.
Shuerhaqi's troops were said to be five hundred, but in fact there were nearly six hundred, counted as two Niulu, which was his personal army headquarters. Nurhaci started to build an army in the twelfth year of Wanli. According to his tribe's tradition, the black flag was used as the headquarters.
flag.
After defeating Nikan Wailan, Nurhaci reorganized a little. Although he certainly hadn't created the Eight Banners yet, he also created the "Niu Lu" according to the fierce restraint of the Jurchens in the early days, with three hundred people per Niu Lu, directly
Belongs to him and Shuerhaqi.
Shuerhaqi usually has the command of seven Niulu, two of which are his personal soldiers, which is the one he brought today.
In fact, these two Niulu were basically equipped with cotton armor before, and the rate of wearing armor has reached 70%. However, Nurhachi refused to "show strength" in front of the Ming army. He wanted to "show weakness"
, so Shulhaqi took away their cotton armor before coming here, and only he wore one pair.
Such a shabby appearance really made the Ming army laugh at him, but Shuerhaqi knew that his elder brother's goal had been achieved, and although he was a little unhappy, he was also a little relieved.
After the two Niulu were placed in the corner of the military camp, Shuerhaqi was invited into the big tent. According to Nurhaci's instructions, he respectfully met the Ming army commanders Cao Yu, Ma Chengxun, and Qi Jin.
, Zhang Wanbang, Pu Yuanyi, Cao Jian and others also explained the reason for Jianzhou's dispatch of troops based on their "collusion" beforehand.
These nonsense are meaningless. Cao Yun is fully aware of Nurhachi's intentions after reading Gao Pragmatic's letter. However, since Gao Situ does not intend to touch them now, Cao Yun will not be embarrassed.
"I know very well what your two brothers mean, so you don't have to explain this." Cao Yu said calmly: "You are willing to come and serve in my army, which shows your respect. I still appreciate it very much. Come here.
, reward Shuerhaqi with a set of cold iron armor."
Shuerhaqi was surprised and delighted, and hurriedly stepped forward, thanked him profusely, and said a lot of flattery. These "cold iron armors" were not only valuable, but the key was that they were priceless. Everyone knew that the Jurchens made artificial
It cannot come out, so once someone wears it, it will lead to an investigation by the Ming army. As a result, it becomes a good product that cannot be bought with money.
But it was different when Cao Yan gave him a pair. It was reasonable and legal, and it would be even more honorable to wear it back - even my elder brother didn't!
Just such a pair of treasure armor made Shuerhaqi feel that this trip was worth it and that he had spent a long time fighting in front of his elder brother.
Cao Yu was very satisfied with Shuerhaqi's performance, showed a smile, looked at him kindly and said: "Since you know your loyalty and obedience, you have worked very hard here, and this battle has a huge force, and I probably won't need it."
You, then you can just follow me and watch, it can be regarded as my care for you."
When Shuerhaqi heard this, he was even more overjoyed and thanked him again and again.
Originally, Nurhaci's intentions in sending him here this time were of course impure. The first was to let his most trusted brother see what the Ming army's attitude was towards them, and the second was to show loyalty and buy peace by sending troops.
.
Nurhaci did not expect that Cao Yan would take care of Shuerhaqi like this. He accepted the cotton armors of Shuerhaqi's two personal guards Niulu because he did not want to lose too much material. At this time, he was away from "Thirteen Armors"
It had not been long since he "raised troops". Nurhachi was very short of military supplies and was very cautious in using them.
As for whether the lack of cotton armor will lead to defeat, which will also lead to heavy losses, Nurhachi also cares about this: the Mongols are mainly good at shooting. They usually do not rush into formation in front of the Ming army, and arrows
The injuries are generally not fatal.
Nurhaci believes that the Jianzhou warriors are very strong, and now that winter has entered, the chance of death from fever (actually infection) is very low. Besides, once injured, they can be easily withdrawn, so even if they see some blood,
But not many people may die.
This little calculation was very shrewd, but who knew it didn't work. Cao Yu's style of sending troops this time was very different from Li Chengliang's. He didn't use his servants as cannon fodder, but protected them. It was really weird.
But Shuerhaqi didn't know that this was actually not Cao Yun's idea, but Gao Yimin's suggestion.
The reason why Gao Yimin made such a suggestion was that he had been interviewed by Gao Jingjing before he came to Liaodong, and had been given advice by Gao Jingjing face-to-face.
One of the "advantages" is "treat Nurhachi and Shuerhaqi separately".
According to Gao Pragmatically, no matter how much brothers Nurhachi and Shuerhaqi act as brothers now, they are still two people. As long as the Ming Dynasty is always better to Shuerhaqi, at the critical moment, Shuerhaqi will
There will definitely be a dissatisfaction with Nurhachi.
You know, although Nurhachi and Shuerhaqi have different priorities, Shuerhaqi is not much weaker than Nurhaci. This situation where the gap between strength and weakness is extremely small can easily lead to some seemingly inconspicuous things.
Changes due to changes in Ming Dynasty, let alone the completely different strength of support from Ming Dynasty? This is not an "inconspicuous change". Over time, there will definitely be a rift between Shuerhaqi and Nurhachi.
Although Cao Yu didn't know the key to it, he didn't care about it. After all, the five hundred Jianzhou soldiers without armor were of no use in his eyes. There wouldn't be many with them, but there wouldn't be many without them.
So the army set out again and headed towards Guangtuzi Mountain. This time it only went more than twenty miles. The front group reported that they had encountered Mongolian scouts. However, they said that these Mongolian scouts were "cowardly" and they saw them.
They didn't come close, instead they just pulled up their horses and left.
When Cao Yu heard this, he asked his generals what they thought about this.
Zhang Wanbang was the most direct, saying: "Commander, General Yimo, we don't care what they plan to do. The bare mountains on the left and right are not very suitable for cavalry deployment. The Mongols have no advantage over us. Let's just drive the army over.
, if they think they have good teeth, then come and have a bite, it will be the easiest thing to understand once."
If anyone else had said this, Cao Yu would have scolded him directly, but Zhang Wanbang was a little different. His two biggest achievements were both using bayonet formations to defeat the Mongolian cavalry, and both of them were when his own strength was far inferior to the Mongolian cavalry.
Under such circumstances, they defeated the Mongolian cavalry charge head-on and won the battle.
So although this statement sounds like big talk, it is not easy to refute it when it comes from Zhang Wanbang.
Although it is difficult to refute, Cao Yu knew that bayonet formations must be prepared before the cavalry charge. If the bayonet formations were to be prepared first, it would be the same as in Chang'an Fort.
What to do if you are ambushed? It is hard to say whether the bayonet formation can be successfully set up.
Who knew that at this moment, besides Zhang Wanbang, who was "not afraid of death", Qi Jin also had a very tough style under his command. He said simply: "The general seconded the proposal."
Well, with two thousand Qi Jiajun in hand, Qi Jin is indeed not afraid of any attack. The speed of the Qi Jiajun formation can basically be said to be the best in the Ming Dynasty, and the Yuanyang formation has various variations of large and small formations. They are not even afraid of sneak attacks.
Even if you are attacked, you can directly form a small formation to fight the enemy.
When Cao Yan saw something was wrong, he had no choice but to look at Ma Chengxun.
Ma Chengxun is the highest-ranking general here except Cao Yu himself. As the founding general, he is indeed more "steady" than Zhang Wanbang and Qi Jin, so he said: "The final general thought... as long as he sent more detective horses
, it doesn’t matter if the army marches in.”
Cao Yu was immediately stunned.
Okay, I brought a group of people to fight, and they all had the heart of a bear and the courage of a leopard?
After thinking about it, Cao Yan also discovered that Ma Chengxun's words even contained personal information: send more detectives?
In the absence of Li Chengliang and Ma Dong, the most elite part of the Liaodong cavalry is probably the Ma family army who was born in Xuanda, especially when Ma Chengxun also brought his Ma family elite soldiers, not to mention.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Dabing soldiers are actually "Tatar soldiers", 70% of whom are Mongolians. Most of them are wandering knights who failed in the battles between small Mongolian tribes. If they want to survive, they just have to
They can be exchanged for their superb equestrian skills and fearless combat. The remaining ones include Hui people and Han people, but they all have the same characteristics: excellent equestrian skills, outstanding martial arts, and bravery without fear of death.
If you send more scouting horses, wouldn't that just give credit to the Ma family army?
It’s really a bunch of militants who all ask the same question: I’ll just do it!
Fortunately, Gao Yimin, who was Cao Yun's "staff" at this time, coughed lightly and interjected: "You generals are commendable for their bravery. The Ming Dynasty has such strong generals, why should we be afraid of mere Tumen? However, in this battle, our army will
Therefore, the key to coming here is to protect Ye He and the Beiguan trade route. Therefore, no matter how we fight, we must first ensure that Ye He is not lost."
When Cao Yu heard this, he was overjoyed and said hurriedly: "Yes, yes, our first goal is to ensure that Ye He is not destroyed, and now Ye He has lost the west city, and only the east city is struggling to support it. In this way, our army still has to think of a way first
Only after we have solved the siege of Dongcheng can we make other plans."
Zhang Wanbang smiled and said: "What's so difficult about this? Marshal, as the saying goes, 'one force can defeat ten guilds'. In this situation, we can rescue Ye He by attacking the East City, and we can also rescue Ye He by attacking the West City. That's it."
Let’s see which side the commander wants to attack first.”
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PS: Before I know it, another month has passed. The temperature here has dropped sharply this week. It is known as "thirty minus twenty". Winter has entered directly, and the speed of typing has slowed down a lot because my hands are cold. I just
I'm confused, why is it so cold here but there's no heating?