Rise From the Humble

"Zi Hou, how much does this cotton armor cost? How long does it take to make a set of these cotton armor?"

After Zhang Jing finished testing the cotton armor, he called Zhu Pingan over and asked Zhu Pingan in detail.

Zhu Pingan knew that Zhang Jing was impressed by the excellent defensive performance of the cotton armor. This was a good thing. If we could take this opportunity to promote the Manchu cotton armor to the Ming Dynasty official army, the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty official army would be significantly increased. become.

Although the armor coverage rate is not a decisive factor in the army's combat effectiveness, it is undeniable that the higher the armor coverage rate, the better the army's chance of winning.

Historically, the armor coverage rate of the Ming Army was actually not high due to various reasons. Although many people in modern times have concluded through various arguments that the armor coverage rate of the Ming Army was about 90%, this is not accurate. Take the historically famous Battle of Songjin as an example. After the war, the Qing troops under Huang Taiji’s department counted the corpses of the Ming troops and found that less than one-third of the deceased were wearing armor.

With the financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, it is not a problem for the army to popularize cotton armor. The armor armor rate of the Ming army is close to 100%, at least the lower limit will not be too low.

This was a good opportunity for the butterfly effect. Zhu Pingan would not let it go. He strongly recommended to Zhang Jing: "Go back to the governor, making a pair of cotton armor requires eight pounds of cotton, twenty pounds of iron and eight pounds of copper. The total weight is About thirty-six kilograms, the cost is about a quarter of iron armor. Our Zhejiang army makes cotton armor, which is divided into eight parts: helmet, body armor, cape, sleeves, front guard, left guard, skirt and goggles Part, ten processes, each process can be started at the same time, mass production of cotton armor, the more people, the greater the output, from cotton to cotton armor, a few days is enough if the weather is good, the time is much lower than that of iron armor , suitable for short-term large-scale installation.”

"Oh, it saves time, effort and money, yes, yes." After hearing this, Zhang Jing couldn't help but nodded.

The cost of a set of Zhejiang Army cotton armor is only a quarter of that of iron armor, and the process only requires ten steps, which can be made in a few days; while iron armor is not only expensive, but the process is also very complicated and requires countless efforts. It is also time-consuming and labor-intensive and cannot be mass-produced; in comparison, cotton armor has great advantages.

"Although the cotton armor is good, what should I do when it rains? It rains a lot in the south of the Yangtze River. Once it rains, the cotton armor will be soaked, let alone serious. What should I do if the wet soldiers get sick? Moreover, it is easy to get moldy when wet." The official spoke up.

"Get some water."

Zhu Ping'an smiled slightly and asked for a few buckets of water.

"Use a ladle to pour water on the cotton armor, and pour a few more ladles on each pair of cotton armor." Zhu Ping'an ordered the soldiers.

The soldiers followed the orders without compromise at all, pouring water on their cotton armors. Each pair of cotton armors received six or seven scoops of water, which was even more pouring than the downpour of rain.

In full view of everyone, as soon as the water was splashed on the cotton armor, it flowed down like it was splashed on linoleum.

"My lords, please take a look." Zhu Pingan asked Zhang Jing and others to come forward to inspect the cotton armor.

"It's actually waterproof?" Everyone looked at the cotton armor and found that it was barely wet, and opened their mouths in disbelief.

"This is the cotton armor developed by our Zhejiang Army. It is invulnerable to swords, can protect against bows and arrows, is impermeable to rain, is not rotten by mold, and cannot be damaged by blunderbuss. If the battle is fierce and the cotton armor is damaged by sharp weapons or firearms, it only needs Just replace the broken part. If the shawl is broken, replace the shawl, and if the arm sleeve is broken, replace the arm sleeve."

Zhu Pingan continued to recommend to Zhang Jing and others.

"Yes, cotton armor is very promising. How many skilled craftsmen do you have in the Zhejiang Army to make cotton armor?" Zhang Jing asked.

"Most of the soldiers in our Zhejiang Army Equipment Battalion are proficient in making cotton armor. In addition, the craftsmanship of cotton armor is simple. A blacksmith can master the craftsmanship of cotton armor after a few days of training." Zhu Pingan replied.

After hearing this, Zhang Jing nodded, "I will organize a group of blacksmiths to come to your camp to learn how to make cotton armor later. You are not allowed to hide your secrets."

"Don't worry, Lord Governor, our army will never hide anything for anything, and will definitely give it to everyone." Zhu Ping'an promised.

"Very good." Zhang Jing nodded. The cotton armor was much more valuable than the pigs raised in the camp just now. With this harvest, even if the Zhejiang Army went astray by relying heavily on firearms, this inspection was worthwhile. .

Well, let’s take a look at the Zhejiang Army’s firearms drill to correct Zhu Pingan’s wrong thinking and lead the Zhejiang Army on the right path.

Just think of it as a reward for the Zhejiang Army's breeding and cotton armor.

So, Zhang Jing said to Zhu Ping'an, "Zihou, you continue to practice. Let us see how your army practices firearms."

"As commanded."

Zhu Pingan accepted the order and ordered the Zhejiang army to continue training.

"Sir, please sit on the stage and watch." Zhu Pingan led Zhang Jing and others to sit on the temporary high platform.

Zhang Jing and others sat on chairs on the high platform to watch the Zhejiang army's drill.

In the sight of everyone, soldiers from a battalion of the Zhejiang Army were displayed on the school grounds. The battalion commander raised his saber and waved it vigorously. Twenty soldiers came out of the camp, each carrying a novel small bowl-mouth blunderbuss on their shoulders. artillery.

It is said to be a bowl-mouth blunderbuss, but it is actually very different from the bowl-mouth blunderbuss. The gun body is slightly longer and slender than the bowl-mouth blunderbuss. There are five iron hoops on the gun body. It looks a bit like a Franco machine gun, but it is smaller than a Franco machine gun. The artillery is much smaller and simpler.

According to visual inspection, each small artillery weighs about twenty or thirty pounds, and can be carried by one person.

There are two tiger-leg-like brackets at the front end of the gun port. The brackets are not fixed and can move at a certain angle. After the soldiers came out with the small artillery, they placed the small artillery on the ground and adjusted the brackets so that the cannon pointed upwards. Sky.

After adjusting the angle, the soldier took out a large oil-paper gunpowder bag from his waist, bit it open with his mouth and poured it into the muzzle. The gunpowder bag contained black powder mixed with small stones, and then stuffed a solid stone bullet and compacted it.

The soldiers reloaded quickly and were obviously well-trained.

"Fire!" a corps commander shouted, and twenty gunners lit the fuses almost simultaneously.

In an instant, there was a loud "bang bang bang" sound of landslides and ground cracking.

Twenty artillery pieces fired almost at the same time, accompanied by a burst of fire and smoke, large and small stone bombs flew together, and the ground was filled with blackness. The ground about two hundred meters ahead was filled with craters from the shelling, and there were densely packed small craters around the twenty obviously large craters. Covering a radius of nearly 100 meters, the ground being bombarded looked like the surface of the moon.

Zhang Jing and others who were watching from the high platform couldn't help but shrink their eyes. The Zhejiang Army's artillery was small, but it was very powerful. The range of the artillery was much longer than that of a bowl-mouth blunderbuss, and it did not give in to the Franco machine gun. Moreover, the Zhejiang army's artillery pieces flew with large and small stones and bullets, covering a large area with one blast, which was extremely lethal.

If this artillery fire hits a group of Japanese pirates, a large number of them will be killed with one shot.

Before Zhang Jing and others could recover from the power of the Zhejiang Army's small artillery, they saw the Zhejiang Army soldiers skillfully loading ammunition again, and then gave an order and fired another shot. The interval between the two shots was only a few breaths. time.

Before Zhang Jing and others could recover, they saw the soldiers of this battalion of the Zhejiang Army starting to rush forward just after the second cannon blast.

It rushed more than a hundred meters in one breath and stopped about fifty meters away from the landing point of the shell.

Then, Zhang Jing and others saw the three front rows of Zhejiang Army soldiers. The first row squatted, the second row bent down, and the third row stood up straight. They skillfully pulled the trigger of the flat-ended fire blunderbuss and fired. There was a neat burst of "Bang bang bang" sounded.

Then, these three rows of soldiers retreated from both sides to the end of the camp and began to reload their weapons skillfully. The soldiers from the fourth, fifth, and sixth rows came forward. Just like before, one row squatted down, one row bent down, and the other stood up straight. They also fired forward with their flat-ended muskets.

In this rotation, after the 56th, 7th and 5th rows finished shooting, the first three rows of soldiers quickly loaded their gunpowder, and after a few breaths, they stepped forward to fire again.

Taking turns like this, I shot several rounds in one breath with almost no pause.

Zhang Jing, Hu Zongxian and others on the high platform couldn't help but widen their eyes and open their mouths. They looked at this scene in shock and couldn't recover for a long time.