Chapter 280 The Sword Points at Japan (86) Zhang Wanbangs Dominance
Zhang Wanbang was shooting at the shooting range when he received the news from Quanli on Luyuan Ridge outside the city requesting to enter the city.
Target shooting is one of his recent hobbies. In addition to the military changes that many generals are gradually deeply aware of-that is, the trend of comprehensive firearms in the military, there is also an important reason because the Jinghua Ordnance Industry Group
A small number of experimental weapons were provided during the war to test their actual combat performance.
Zhang Wanbang is one of the top representative generals in the Gao family's musket formation. The weapon he is most interested in is the new generation of standard infantry muskets: code-named Wanli Type 3 flintlock rifle, referred to as Wanli Type 3.
It has been more than 20 years since the Wanli Type 3 debuted compared to the Wanli Type 2. It took such a long time for a new generation of standard muskets to be launched. What are the improvements of the new muskets? It is with such enthusiasm that Zhang Wanbang came to the
I have been doing high-intensity target shooting recently and experienced it personally.
As a general whose greatest military exploits came from the musket array, Zhang Wanbang's understanding of muskets was absolutely outstanding in this era, and accordingly he was also very aware of the problems with muskets, the main weapon.
It was not Zhang Wanbang's turn to comment on the problems that existed before the Wanli II Type came out, but someone once summed it up perfectly. Qi Jiguang clearly pointed out in "Military Training Records":
"Firearms are my specialty, but firearms have their drawbacks. For example, if there is a battalion of three thousand soldiers, each battalion is full of firearms, but only has three thousand rods. At the moment, four camps must be deployed, and each side can only have six hundred rods. The situation is
The camp was definitely not that large, and we did not dare to use all 600 rods at once. We thought about how to continue. We were only divided into five groups, each with less than 100 rods.
When facing battle, life and death are only in front of you. Everyone has a yellowish face and a dry mouth. His heart is flustered and his hands are trembling. Some people put the lead in first or forgot to put the lead in. Their mouths are crooked and different in size. The lead does not fit in the mouth and is also pointed and slanted.
There are different sizes. Some are temporarily unable to fit into the mouth, some are only in the mouth, some are large and small, and flow out when released. Some are unable to get the medicine in by twisting it, and twist it with a finger to spit, and some are extinguishing the fire line.
None of these can be released, and there are already twenty rods.
There were more than 40 rods that were released without accuracy, and they were wet and non-burning. Those who succeeded were only more than 20 rods. There were hits in the legs and horses' legs. They were not fatal places, and they could not be beaten to death. Among them, he was fatal.
Only a dozen people died there.
The enemy is charging at us with thousands of people. How can we kill more than ten people and make them run away? But before I and you guys go out and see the enemy, we have already lost."
What are the main problems Qi Jiguang pointed out here? First of all, the fully armed troops can only form a square formation when encountering the enemy, otherwise they have to worry about being outflanked by the enemy, but in this way the number of muskets that can be allocated to each side is too high.
He was so young that he didn't dare to fire all the troops at once, otherwise the firepower would be interrupted and once he was broken in - he was guiding the training of troops in the Beijing camp at the time, imagining that the enemy was the Mongolian cavalry - the whole army would be completely annihilated.
This issue is almost the "firepower density" issue that Gao Pinggong emphasizes most in the firearms reform. Firepower density refers to the number of ammunition fired with a certain number of weapons within a certain period of time. The ammunition fired
The greater the number, the greater the firepower density, and vice versa.
However, here we need to look at other reasons why Qi Jiguang believed that the firepower density of the Ming Army's weaponized troops was seriously insufficient at that time, that is, the loading problem.
Qi Jiguang said that soldiers are usually very nervous before the battle. At this time, the projectiles (that is, the lead he mentioned) and the muzzle of the gun are different in size and crooked, so the soldiers often cannot load the gunpowder, or cannot load it in place, and
The loaded projectiles were not tied tightly, and once the muzzle drooped, they could still flow out along the barrel, or the fuse was not installed properly after loading, causing the fire to be extinguished, etc.
Although these situations may sound like accidents, they are actually very common in actual combat, which seriously affects the combat. On this basis, coupled with the poor shooting skills of the musketeers, or the fact that although they hit the enemy but did not hit the vital point, etc., the situation at that time
The actual combat effectiveness of purely firearms-based troops is very worrying.
The emergence of the Wanli Type II brought a qualitative leap in solving the above problems. It used a flintlock firing method, which directly eliminated a series of problems in installing the lead (i.e. the matchlock of the matchlock), while the paper shell fixed charge
The adoption greatly reduces the difficulty of charging, greatly improves the success rate and pass rate of charging, and increases the loading speed.
It can be said that even if the level of the Jinghua Wanli II is pushed back a hundred years, it will not be outdated at all. However, this is not the reason why Gao Pragmatic has delayed for twenty years and has not "guided" a new generation of rifles.
The reason why it has been delayed for so long is actually not that there is a problem with Gao Pragmatic's guiding ideology for the next generation of rifles, but that there is a problem with "standardization", an issue he has always emphasized. Or in other words
In other words, some things just need a certain amount of time to settle.
What? Cultivate a new generation of advanced craftsmen with new thinking patterns. These craftsmen must not only be able to understand the techniques of their predecessors, but also be proficient in the use of new weights and measures.
What are new weights and measures? They are meters, decimeters, centimeters, and millimeters that Gao Pragmatic has always wanted to develop, because he feels that it is difficult to achieve high-precision standardization using the current standards of the Ming Dynasty.
It is obviously very difficult to build a new set of weights and measures, especially when it is not convenient for him to reform this problem from the national level. Therefore, he needs the Jinghua Craftsman School to train batches of new students so that these students can be used in the subsequent
During the work, this new type of weights and measures was widely promoted until it formed an actual standard in the military industry system.
What does it mean for a first-class enterprise to sell standards? This is it.
If you want to make the best weapons, learn from me! Come on, take this set of standards and follow them. Once you have mastered them, we can continue the discussion.
So, what is the progress of Wanli 3-style now compared to Wanli 2-style? The biggest advantage is to continue to strengthen "standardization".
The latest unified standard Wanli III has been adopted, which has higher standards for the processing accuracy of each component. Moreover, this time it not only strictly stipulates the standards for the firearm itself, but also sets requirements for the production of projectiles.
The Wanli III style no longer allows the use of various "homemade lead", that is, homemade projectiles, but requires the full use of standard projectiles produced by Jinghua itself or authorized to ensure that they will not appear too large or too small, or even crooked and rubbish.
Projectiles cause various launch malfunctions.
The same goes for gunpowder. On the premise of continuing to use paper shells for fixed charges, the Wanli III Type is required to only use gunpowder produced by Jinghua or authorized by Jinghua.
These gunpowders are packed in paper shells, but one of the leading technologies is "paper shells". Hey, wasn't the Wanli II type previously packed in paper shells? How come this paper shell still has advanced technology?
The answer is, because this time the paper shell of the Wanli III type used nitrocellulose paper instead of the ordinary paper before.
What is the difference? To put it simply, the previous ordinary paper shells needed to be cleaned after firing a shot. Otherwise, the slowly burning paper residue remaining in the gun chamber would directly ignite the next bullet, and may even cause damage to the user.
of casualties.
However, nitrified paper is different. It - well, it also needs to clear the chamber, but it does not have to be cleaned every time. Instead, it can be done after several rounds in a row and then cleaned again.
Although it may seem that this progress is not big, in terms of actual combat, this progress is actually very big. Because on the current East Asian field battlefield, after several rounds of volleys from the Ming army's gun formations, there is a possibility that the opponent has not collapsed.
**In fact, it is already very low - if it has not collapsed yet, then you should clear the chamber once and then shoot again!
Of course, when playing with paper-shell fixed charges, the front-end technology is gunpowder granulation technology. However, this problem has been almost solved in the Wanli II era, but there has been some slight progress this time. The progress is this granulation.
The average size has once again been adjusted, and the manufacturing process has also improved, making the difference in particle size smaller - that is, each small particle of gunpowder has become more "about the same size".
Not every advancement in science and technology can show cross-era performance. Many advances are accumulated, and the same is true for the progress of Wanli Three Types compared to Wanli Two Types.
Based on the battlefield performance of the Wanli Type II over the years, the general reaction of the military in various towns is that the range is far enough and the accuracy is not much, but the lethality is slightly insufficient.
Therefore, when it comes to Wanli Type 3, it prefers large caliber and low muzzle velocity compared to Wanli Type 2, which means that its long-distance shooting accuracy will be reduced, but its power will be increased a lot (including gunpowder efficiency)
The reason for the improvement), and the decrease in accuracy is still within the acceptable range - besides, the military does not play sniping, and the accuracy is definitely sufficient for volleyball.
During this period, Zhang Wanbang not only practiced target shooting repeatedly by himself, but also conducted target shooting training with the entire army, and obtained quite good data. He believed that if these data were submitted, they would be taken seriously, and he might even be rewarded with a batch of new muskets for his merits.
—This is one of the reasons why he is so enthusiastic.
After receiving Quan Li's request to enter the city, Zhang Wanbang was not in a hurry. He came out of the shooting range, took the face towel from the servant and wiped his sweat. He turned around and ordered his close associates: "The training at the shooting range remains unchanged. Each department takes turns.
For target shooting training, the firearm should be tested at eighty steps with a human-shaped wooden sign five feet high and two feet wide, and seven out of ten shots would be the best."
After a pause, he added: "As for rewards and punishments, if you hit one out of three bullets, you will get a flat reward; if you hit two bullets, you will get a reward of one silver point; if you hit three bullets, you will get a five-point bonus."
If he misses once, he will be beaten with three sticks; if he misses twice, he will be beaten with six sticks; if he misses three times, he will be beaten with nine sticks; if he misses five times, he will be beaten with forty sticks and dismissed. If he does not want to be beaten, he will be fined five silvers per time.
Centimeter, twice a cent, three times a cent and a half."
The confidants clasped their fists solemnly: "Yes, join the army." Zhang Wanbang was actually a guerrilla general with the rank of general, but his subordinates naturally wanted to call him a senior officer, so they called him "joined the army."
"What did you just say that Quan Li is going to do? Is he going to the city?" Zhang Wanbang walked to his seat and sat down. He grabbed the letter sent by Quan Li and started reading it. At this time, there was no such thing as Korean characters.
This stuff was naturally all in Chinese, so he seemed to have no problem with it.
Not long after reading the letter, Zhang Wanbang laughed a few times inexplicably, and a close acquaintance asked: "Why is Shen Rong laughing?"
Zhang Wanbang's snort turned into a sneer, and he shook his head and said: "This guy wants to play a trick of pretending to be crazy and hide the truth. Little does he know that Lord Marquis has already told me, and Admiral Ma also repeatedly told me that no matter what happens, during my defense of the city,
Everyone must adhere to one unshakable principle:
Only our Great Tomorrow Soldiers can be stationed in Hanyang City. The rest, whether they are the Korean Army, the Jurchen Army or other rebel armies, can only be left to me to wait outside the city!
Quan Li wants to enter Hanyang? Yes, of course, let him attack the city. I will wait here, sir, and I want to see how much he, the marshal of the capital of Korea, weighs!"
The confidant who sent the message was a little speechless and said with a smile: "Shenrong, North Korea is also a loyal vassal after all, and Quan Li is the marshal of North Korea. Is this reply... slightly inappropriate? Or, let's put it another way?"
Zhang Wanbang leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, hummed again, and said reluctantly: "You mean to give them some face, right? Hey, let me tell you, face is such a thing.
I earned it all by myself.
You see, Dong Zongrong was also a veteran of the Ming Dynasty in the past, and he had much more military exploits than a junior like me. But this time when he went to fight Xianxing, he made such a big mistake, and ended up losing a lot of money in the battle.
Thousands of people!
Let me think about it. Isn't this the biggest loss suffered by the generals in a single battle in the war commanded by the Marquis? So you see, Dong Zongrong himself was also anxious. The entire army rested for less than five days before he hurriedly resumed operations.
Troops were sent to chase Nabeshima Katsushige, but Kwon Ryul, a Korean, dared to disobey his orders - this is because he was not able to fight well and really lost face."
Zhang Wanbang is a general of Xuanda, and he actually has a good relationship with Dong Yiyuan. The two families are still related by marriage, and they even call him Dong Shishu when they meet in private. However, he has such a personality that he really dares to speak out if he has anything to say.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! A close servant, Ding, said with a smile: "I think it was just an accident. How can Quan Li be compared with Dong Zongrong, don't you think so, Shenrong?"
"That's true." Zhang Wanbang snorted and said, "I have learned about Quan Li's achievements, but he just defended a Japanese attack in a small mountain town with difficult terrain. The main reason was that he took advantage of the terrain.
, the Japanese pirates had a large army but could not use it.
In addition, the Japanese pirates could not figure out the movements of our heavenly soldiers and were afraid that they would attack us. However, our magic soldiers suddenly descended from the sky to rescue Quan Li, and then we immediately withdrew after the attack was thwarted.
After all, Quan Li took advantage of that battle, so when he waited for the Japanese pirates to retreat, he was too busy to pack up and leave? If you are really capable, then you just wait for the Japanese pirates to come again in Xingzhou Mountain City, what?
Don't you dare? With such terrain conditions, if it were me, as long as the supplies were enough, I could stay there and wait for the Japanese pirates to come and die."
All the servants laughed. This time it was not flattery, but they themselves felt that what Zhang Wanbang said was the truth. The characteristic of their Zhang family army is that it is particularly good at defending. This is true for positional warfare and the same for defending the city - no, it should be said that it is
Not even afraid.
Especially before they were transferred to North Korea, they had already received intelligence and knew that Japanese pirates were better than cannons and shorter than artillery. Cannons were easy to use in field battles and for city defense, but they were somewhat inadequate for sieges.
According to the new ideas instilled in the high-pragmatic military reform, what is most needed for siege is artillery. The more powerful the better, not only is it effective to blow down the city wall and directly break the city, but even the sound of thousands of artillery guns to scare the enemy is a powerful weapon in itself.
Continuous large-caliber heavy artillery bombardment can seriously damage the morale of the enemy. In severe cases, it can cause the enemy's morale to collapse and collapse without a fight. Even when they hear that they are going to fight with the Ming army in the future, they will be panicked. In fact, Governor Konishi is now
It kind of means that.
Zhang Wanbang waved his hand at this time and said: "Tell Quan Li that this general has been ordered to defend the city, and the military order he received is not to allow any army other than the Ming army to enter Hanyang. He wants to go to the city to meet the King of Joseon. It will be easier for him."
Going into the city alone is...
Forget it, I am a very kind-hearted person, so I gave him some accommodation and allowed him to bring no more than ten servants with him. Just tell him so. Oh, by the way, I will inform all the rest departments to cancel the rest, and stay ready for war at any time."
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