I formed the strongest swordsman group

As expected, Nagakura Shinpachi, Serizawa Kame and others immediately glared at him.

The vicious eyes, the gloomy atmosphere... all expressed their dissatisfaction.

Souji, who was meticulous and good at "controlling the situation", laughed immediately after noticing the difference in the atmosphere. He changed his position calmly and moved to the middle of Hijikata Toshizo and Nagakura Shinpachi, separating the two sides.

"Although swords are no longer as powerful as guns and cannons, I believe there are still things in this world that only swordsmen like us can do!"

As she said this, she showed her iconic bright smile.

It must be said that Souji's smile does have a special magic.

Whenever she smiled, even the most furious people would always calm down because of the infection.

The saying "Don't hit a smiling person" has been proven to be true for her.

After her mediation, the originally not very harmonious atmosphere improved a lot.

Then, Souji squinted his eyes and cast a complaining look at Hijikata Toshizo beside him.

To a certain extent, what Hijikata Toshizo just said was really hurtful.

As warriors who are obsessed with swordsmanship, Nagakura Shinpachi, Serizawa Kamo and others all regard "live by sword, die by sword" as their motto, and dedicate their entire lives to the sword.

Hijikata Toshizo's words just now were like telling them: your swordsmanship, your life motto of "regarding the sword as life", are completely meaningless!

Although they were dissatisfied, they couldn't say a word.

The reason was simple - they had no way to refute it...

Since joining the Shinsengumi, the horizons of the generals have been broadened a lot, but there are still many limitations in their military thinking.

Their impression of iron cannons still remains in the Warring States period, that is, "a fairly useful long-range weapon."

All the generals, including the two great think tanks (Hijikata Toshizo and Yamanami Keisuke), viewed firearms in this way-

The iron gunners can only play an auxiliary role on the battlefield! If you want to defeat the enemy, you have to rely on the heroic fighting of the infantry and cavalry!

The most fundamental reason for this perception is that they have never seen the power of the "modern army".

Looking back at history, we can find that the Western powers relied on naval battles to suppress the shogunate and the feudal domains, and never used the army.

In the "Black Ship Incident", the United States only sent 4 warships to make the shogunate surrender without a fight.

In the Shimonoseki War in which the US-French coalition forces beat Choshu a while ago, the fleet directly arrived at the Shimonoseki Strait, and the naval guns fired, directly destroying Choshu's coastal defense forces, leaving Choshu without any resistance.

In this way, the Japanese people naturally only know that the navy, ships, and cannons of the Western powers are very powerful.

They lack a correct understanding of the army of the Western powers.

Because of this, the extreme idea of ​​"holding this Tiangang sword, smiling at the Marines, and foreigners are shit" is still widely circulated to this day.

There are still many people who believe that if it is a land battle, the brave and invincible warriors will definitely beat these barbarians to a pulp!

So, when Qing Deng ordered the generals to come and watch the musketeers' drills early this morning, many people held a nonchalant attitude.

It's just a cannon! What's so good about it?

As long as you understand their views on firearms, it is not difficult to understand their contempt, and it is not difficult to understand their inexplicable horror after seeing the true power of the "Western cannon" with their own eyes!

Come nonchalantly, watch nonchalantly... and then be dumbfounded! Speechless for a long time!

Except for Satsuma, which has completed some modernization, the shogunate and the various feudal domains are still widely using backward firearms.

Muzzle-loading smoothbore flintlocks, matchlocks that were not outdated even in the Warring States Period... all "museum-level" weapons.

These old antiques are nothing compared to the rifle that everyone has just seen!

At a distance of about 10 meters, 300 rounds of bullets, and a 10% hit rate - this seemingly lame hit rate is far better than every firearm known to everyone!

As we all know, the "tolerance" of ancient armies was very poor.

An army that can withstand a 10% casualty rate on the battlefield is already an elite division.

For ordinary armies, a casualty rate of 5% is the limit.

If it were a lack of training and organization, perhaps only a few comrades would fall, and then they would just scatter like birds and beasts.

The rifle that Qing Deng brought back... that is, the M1861 rifle has an accuracy of 10%.

Although 9 out of every 10 bullets will miss, if you think about it from another angle, this means that 1 bullet will hit the enemy!

After the musketeers are trained, this number can be raised.

In this way, firearms are no longer useless for deterrence, but can suppress the enemy and even defeat the enemy!

There is a saying that "if the accuracy is not enough, make up for it with quantity".

If 100 rifles are not enough, then what about 200? 500? 1000?

As long as you gather enough numbers, and then deliberately let the enemy get close, when the distance between the two sides is shortened, directly launch a few rounds of volleys, which will surely collapse the opponent's army!

If you are lucky enough and the enemy is weak enough, maybe a round of volleys can directly break the opponent! Win the battle!

In addition, what shocked the generals was the power of the bullets.

I saw that most of the bullet holes on the target were transparent, and the scene on the other side could be seen from one end.

In other words, those bullets penetrated the wooden target that was nearly two fingers thick!

Such a strong power... even wearing chain mail would be useless!

With this thought, the generals couldn't help but think: What would happen if their troops encountered this musket team head-on in the wild?

Guns fired, bullets rained down, blood rained down, and the army was defeated... Such a scene emerged in everyone's mind.

The swords they were proud of were like embroidery needles in front of these advanced rifles!

It's no exaggeration to say that their entire world view was impacted!

In fact, even the foul-mouthed Hijikata Toshizo was not as free and easy as he looked on the surface.

If you have a sharp eye, you can find a hint of loneliness between his eyebrows.

He subconsciously raised his left hand and "reluctantly" stroked his beloved sword, Izumi no Kami Kanesada, on his waist.

Qing Deng had not spoken since just now.

He did this on purpose.

He left enough time for everyone to slowly be shocked, sigh, think, and reflect on themselves.

"Building a firearms unit that is unparalleled in the world" has always been Qing Deng's goal.

Before that, he had worn out his lips and repeatedly introduced the power of firearms to the generals, as well as the importance of building a firearms unit.

But in the end, everyone always had a cold attitude of "a novelist perfunctorily following the update": Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.

So, Qing Deng, who was very dissatisfied with this, specially arranged today's "martial arts performance".

Facts have proved that no matter how much you say, it is not as good as letting the rifle really roar once!

Qing Deng saw the changes in everyone's expressions at that moment.

He dared to conclude that after today, even those who respected swords the most and had the most old-fashioned ideas, such as Nagakura Shinpachi and Serizawa Kamo, would not dare to talk about the "uselessness of muskets" anymore.

In Qing Deng's plan, the "modernization" and "firearmization" of the Shinsengumi were imperative.

Therefore, it would not be bad to let the generals see the true power of modern guns and cannons in advance, so that they would face the development of firearms and establish a correct military outlook.

After another silence for a while, Qing Deng spoke at the right time:

"The musketeers' reloading speed is still too slow, and there are all kinds of problems!"

"According to the two instructors, after the training level is improved and the reloading speed is increased, the fastest shooting speed will be able to reach 'shooting 3 rounds of guns in 1 minute'."

There is no doubt that Qing Deng's words were a ruthless "finishing blow".

As his voice fell, the expressions of the crowd became more complicated and heavy.

At this time, two male voices suddenly sounded from behind Qingdeng:

"Let me make it clear - the M1861 rifle is not the most advanced iron cannon at present."

The handsome man had just finished speaking when the ordinary-looking man added:

"The M1861 rifle is a transitional weapon."

"The United States across the ocean is fighting a civil war."

"In order to meet the needs of the war, this low-cost rifle was temporarily developed."

"At present, the Americans have developed a more advanced M1863 rifle, which is more accurate and The power has reached a new level. "

"As for the United Kingdom, France, Prussia and other European countries, they are also constantly developing and equipping new and more powerful firearms. "

"Now is an era of rapid technological development. "

"Both military equipment and daily necessities are rapidly iterating. "

"It will not be long before the M1861 rifle we are using now will become an outdated firewood stick. "

"The two people who sang the same tune were the two generals under Kinoshita Lin's command - "Dual-capable man" Asai Shengyasu and "Thunder Slash" Shimada Kanichi.

When the two of them appeared in front of Qing Deng again, Qing Deng suddenly realized that they were not only highly skilled swordsmen, but also returned from studying abroad!

They studied at the famous Berlin Military Academy for three years, majoring in army tactics, and only returned to China not long ago.

Berlin Military Academy - its history can be traced back to the Napoleonic era.

In order to fundamentally reform the military system and add a new backbone force to the Prussian army, a man named Scharnhorst established the Berlin Senior Officers School, the predecessor of the Berlin Military Academy, in 1810 on the basis of the military society he had established earlier.

Although from the inertia of people's thinking and the data on paper, France has the world's number one army, but in reality, compared with the French army, the Prussian army can be said to be stronger than the French army.

They returned from studying in Prussia and graduated from the famous Berlin Military Academy. They are really great talents.

These two people are the military instructors that Kinoshita Lin promised to send to teach gun tactics.

To be honest, when Qing Deng saw that the instructors sent by Kinoshita Lin were locals and people he knew, he was really relieved.

If Kinoshita Lin sent a few blond and blue-eyed foreign instructors, Qing Deng would have to smile bitterly.

The language barrier alone is an insurmountable obstacle.

I said "front gate building", but you heard it as "hip bone elbow", so what's the point of training?

Even if we send experienced translators, they may not be able to accurately translate those professional military terms.

When Asai Moriyasu and Shimada Kanichi came to report to Aoto, they made it clear that their identities were only "instructors" and not "commanders" of the Shinsengumi.

If the Shinsengumi launched military operations in the future or encountered any trouble, they would not take the initiative to participate, but only provide "limited" help.

In addition, they emphasized that they were not Aoto's subordinates, and there was no master-servant relationship between the two.

If you insist, they were "borrowers" sent by Kinoshita Rin to help Aoto.

[Note· Borrowers: Borrow your subordinates to others for use. Such people who are borrowed are called "borrowers\