I'm really not the carpenter emperor

Such a person, I am afraid that the fighting power is not much stronger...

The rest of them, Ningxia Xiao Ruxun, are veterans with rich experience, Yulin You Shiwei, Hou Shilu and other generals are also brave and good at fighting.

Zhu Xieyuan doesn't look at resumes, he only pays attention to the battles and cuts everyone has endured.

For example, the leader of the generals, Yulin General Soldier Jiang Rang Jiang Dashuai, Zhu Xieyuan did not find out that he had participated in any major battles.

The biggest one was just resisting the bandits from the Mongols who invaded the Han tribe, and he was cut two hundred ranks. For the rest of the time, he just received the blessings of his ancestors and had a prosperous official career all the way.

Among the assembled forces, there are many real elites, and there are also many good generals who dare to fight and can fight, but at the same time, there are more trash who can only eat.

What he has to do before leaving the customs is to screen out those who are capable and those who are not, so as not to let those who are nothing drag down the whole army, that's enough.

Of course, he still needs to pick out a typical general who is prestigious but nothing, to rectify the Fa on the spot, so as to rectify the morale of the army and improve his prestige in the armed forces.

Zhu Xieyuan understood that if he wanted to truly command the three armies, his own military orders would be effective in wartime, and the support of the emperor alone was obviously not enough...

On the second day after arriving at Daying in the suburbs of Beijing, Zhu Xieyuan began to inspect the ordnance and equipment of each battalion, and held a drill in Daying in the name of testing artillery.

When the soldiers heard that Zhu Xieyuan was a scholar, they were all curious.

It is true that Zhu Xieyuan was a literati, but the literati in the late Ming Dynasty were different from those in the Song Dynasty. Except for the civil officials who only fought in the capital, many all-rounders in civil and military affairs were from literati.

Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng were born as literati. Sun Chuanting formed the Tianxiong Army in Yulin to rule the family of generals including Jiang Rang.

Lu Xiangsheng was transferred from the Hanlin Academy to Nanzhili under the imperial edict of Zhu Youxiao. He quickly reorganized the local rebels and guards and established a new army called Tianxiong Army.

Of course, the Tianxiong Army has no record yet, and its members are also low-strength officers from the local guards and rebels from the last rebellion. No one is optimistic about them.

But the thing is often that a truly capable person, no matter how the surrounding situation changes, he will always be able to shine his own light in history.

Sun Chuanting is the best example. Zhu Youxiao did not give him the opportunity to develop slowly like in history.

When he first arrived in Yulin, he had nothing but Zhu Youxiao's appointment. In less than two years, he trained a strong Qin army.

As soon as the Qin army arrived in Suzhou, they quickly quelled the local mutiny, and only then did they begin to be taken seriously.

The same is true for Zhu Xieyuan. Although he was born as a civil servant, he has been in Sichuan for a long time. He has been dealing with generals like Hou Liangzhu all year round. His face naturally exudes a tough temperament that only comes out of the military camp all the year round.

Even if some people were dubbed as supervisors, they would still be crowned with monkeys, and their tongues would be chewed behind their backs. Zhu Xieyuan just put on armor and patrolled the camp, giving people the feeling of a Confucian general.

He gave people a different feeling from Jiang Rang's generals, and he couldn't pretend this kind of temperament.

While walking, Zhu Xieyuan was also looking around.

He memorized the spirit of each camp general, their weapons and equipment, every order of the general, and how the soldiers responded.

These details are all factors in judging the combat effectiveness of an army.

This judgment affects whether Zhu Xieyuan's strategic deployment for each general is appropriate, and then micromanages the overall situation of the battle.

Sometimes, a mistake in strategic deployment may affect the whole.

For example, in the battle of Saerhu, the commander of the North Route Army, Malindo, persisted for half a day, and Zaisai from Fuyu, who was marching, led the cavalry to arrive, and it was possible to defeat the Jurchen cavalry on the North Route.

Or maybe neither Marin nor Zaisai could defeat the Jurchen cavalry, but the two sides cooperated for a longer time, giving Li Rubai and Liu Ting's troops enough time to respond.

Then, the ending of the Battle of Salhu will be rewritten.

Or maybe Yang Gao switched the positions of Ma Lin, Li Rubai, and Liu Ting, and the other two were stronger than Ma Lin, so the situation would be different.

It is precisely because of the importance of this war that Zhu Xieyuan will not let go of every detail and understand the seven generals and 36 generals and their subordinate troops when the account was promoted.

There is not much time, and every detail cannot be let go.

Those who were summoned this time were either the elite frontier soldiers who lived in the bitterly cold frontier all year round, or the Beijing army who participated in the Southwest War last year.

Zhu Xieyuan looked around. Generally speaking, the soldiers of each battalion were full of enthusiasm and vitality. To his surprise, he did not find any fear of war in the barracks.

In any case, in his opinion, the imperial court's annual military spending of several million taels has indeed seen returns.

In the training facilities in the camp, there are straw mannequins and wooden men wearing Mongolian and Jurchen armors, as well as fake targets for the gunners to practice shooting. Bows, crossbows, cannons, knives and guns placed upside down can be seen everywhere.

He had just arrived yesterday and hadn't had time to order the drill.

During today's inspection, I found that many generals are spontaneously maintaining the progress of their training. Even Jiang Rang, the general soldier of Yulin, who he didn't have a good impression of before, is personally supervising the army's drills.

In the big camp, there were endless shouts of killing, and the army's fighting enthusiasm was so high that Zhu Xieyuan had never seen it in Sichuan.

Before coming here, Zhu Xieyuan never thought it would be like this.

To be honest, he was quite pessimistic when he received the imperial decree in Sichuan. It was not that he was pessimistic, but he felt that the combat effectiveness and enthusiasm of the army would not be very high.

If such an army is pulled out, it will only be defeated again.

But after coming here, he gradually discovered that this battle can really be fought!

It seems that the emperor's personal rectification in Jiubian and Jifu has been quite effective so far. At least the soldiers of the frontier army and the Beijing army have changed their appearance.

Just as he was thinking, he heard a loud bang in the distance.

The sound came from the artillery test field. Zhu Xieyuan walked in and found that the soldiers here were practicing firing a new type of artillery.

The official in charge of the artillery testing ground saw it, and hurriedly came to introduce:

"Superintendent, these are the new suppressive cannons sent by the Ordnance Department."

"Last year, the imperial court captured many Hongmaofan warships in Penghu, and the Zhenlu Cannon was made by imitating the artillery dismantled from their warships."

"Although the Hongmao Fan looks ugly, their artillery is indeed powerful! The range of an ordinary artillery is more than ten miles. Now only the Hongyi Cannon in our army can catch up!"

Zhu Xieyuan was startled, walked to the side of the Zhenlu cannon, caressed the warm body of the cannon, and said in disbelief: "Any cannon, the range is more than ten miles?"

"What other treasures are there on Hong Maofan's boat?"

The official in charge smiled and said: "The supervisor has been in the southwest for a long time, and he doesn't know much about these things. The Fujian Navy officers and soldiers suffered a lot of casualties in the battle of Penghu, but the fight was not in vain. There are many treasures of those red-haired fans! "

"The soldiers all said, with these, we will go out to fight in the field, and we will no longer be afraid of building slaves!"

Chapter 3 Ten

The Zhenlu Cannon with a range of up to five miles can indeed suppress the Golden Cavalry in field battles.

Thinking of something, Zhu Xieyuan walked into the cannon test field and asked:

"The range of the Zhenlu Cannon is comparable to that of the Hongyi Cannon. How powerful is it?"

"Can the Zhenlu Cannon move with the army?"

"This time, we are going out to fight on the grassland. Most of the enemy troops are cavalry. If the gun is heavy and inconvenient to carry, it will drag down the whole army."

The civil servants understood that Zhu Xieyuan would have such worries. After all, the latter was the supervisor and was in charge of the battle. Naturally, he had to take all the circumstances into consideration.

"Please allow the official to report carefully to the supervisor."

Zhu Xieyuan smiled, and walked in front, followed by the civilian officer of the artillery test ground, and said:

"There are quite a few types of artillery in our army this time. In addition to the Zhenlu artillery made by the Ordnance Department that imitates the barbarian cannon and can shoot five miles, and the old red barbarian cannon, there are also some abandoned artillery that were used by the Ordnance Department. Improve and reassemble the army."

"The next official will first talk to the supervisor about suppressing captive guns."

"The Zhenlu Cannon has a range of up to five miles, and can shoot both shot and solid projectiles, but it is not as powerful as the Hongyi Cannon, so it cannot be used for siege."

"Master Bi from the Military Weapons Department said that in field battles, the Zhenlu Cannon is more lethal to the Mongolian cavalry than the previous twelve-pound Francois cannon, and it can also make up for the disadvantage of the Red Barbarian Cannon being heavy and difficult to carry."

"It seems that the imperial court didn't throw those vain money to the Armaments Department for nothing!" The more Zhu Xieyuan listened, the more confident he was in this battle, and asked:

"How did Master Bi improve?"

The civil servant followed Zhu Xieyuan to the northern viewing platform of the artillery test field, and sat with him on the side, pointing to the vast field that was roaring, and said:

"The Hongyi Cannon was designed for defending and attacking the city from the beginning of its manufacture, while the Zhenlu Cannon was designed as a vehicle-mounted cannon."

At this time, a general led two soldiers and pushed a suppressing cannon that had not been fired.

The civil servant got up and walked down the steps, pointed to the base and said:

"Master, please take a look—!"

"There are two wheels under the Zhenlu cannon, a carriage is placed on it, the gun body is embedded in it, six iron hoops are added, and there are two iron anchors on each side of the carriage."

"Like a ship's anchor, when using artillery in the field, the soldiers put the iron anchor on the ground and compact it with soil to reduce the recoil. After using the artillery, the soldiers pull up the iron anchor and drag it with mules and horses to move with the army."

Zhu Xieyuan applauded and said:

"Just use this cannon to fire it out, and let the governor verify with his own eyes whether what you said is false!"

There are many types of cannons in the Ming Dynasty, but only the heavy-duty Hongyi cannons installed in Liaoyang City and the city of the capital can reach a maximum range of more than five miles.

During the Penghu naval battle, the Fujian Navy only had the light red cannons mounted on small Fuchuan to fight against the Dutch fleet.

But even so, the huge recoil of the Hongyi Cannon is not something ordinary ships can bear. The main force of the Fujian Navy's warships is still the small Cangshan ship.

There were not many small blessing boats, and the light red barbarian guns on the small blessing boats were far from the cannons on the Dutch battleships, which had a range of more than five miles.

The craftsmen learned from the anchors and used their talents to imitate and refit the most suitable land cannon for the Ming army - Zhenlu Cannon from the captured Dutch warships!

The Zhenlu Cannon almost completely replicates the rolling advantage of the Dutch ship-borne cannon on the range of the Fujian Navy.

As a field special gun, its power is stronger than that of the heavy Francophone, and its maneuverability is not comparable to that of the heavy artillery in the past.

The advent of the Zhenlu Cannon almost solved the embarrassing situation that the Ming army had no artillery to use in field battles.

The only shortcoming at present is that from the beginning of the design, the Zhenlu Cannon was completely designed for the army's field battles, not for the ship-borne guns on warships.

But Zhu Xieyuan will not doubt the capabilities of the Armaments Department.

He didn't understand until now why the imperial court invested a lot of money in the Military Armament Department every year, and how sharp the foresight of the Tianqi Emperor was!

When the supervisor spoke, the artillery testing ground quickly stopped the daily testing and maintenance of the artillery, and the nearest manager Qian rushed over.

He is a veteran of the Tongzhou Sanwei of the Beijing Army. He participated in the Southwest Campaign with Zhu Youxiao last year, but at that time he still used the Hudun Cannon with a short range and not very powerful.

Now that the shotgun is changing, he is also full of energy, full of the belief that he will win.

"Humble position Xu Yuan, see the supervisor!"

From this President Qian, Zhu Xieyuan saw the combat effectiveness of the three guards of Tongzhou, as well as the excitement and expectation in their hearts for this battle.

"Xu Yuan, test-fire a round of suppressing captive artillery for the supervisor!" The civil servant at the artillery test ground ordered.

Xu Yuan glanced at the civil servant, turned around and gave the order.

As soon as he gave an order, the pacesetters standing on the sidelines in the distance immediately waved their command flags.

The flag fluttered, and the attention in the field was abnormal. Hundreds of soldiers started to move in an instant, some went straight to the cannon, and some rushed to the rear, picked up the box containing the ammunition and left.

In a short while, a dozen or so young people in their early twenties, wearing red cloth face armor and holding short knives around their waists, trotted and stood in front of the cannon.

They are gunners who have been trained for a long time.

There are seven or eight soldiers standing behind each gunner, some are responsible for cooling down the gun barrel, some are guarding the ammunition, and some are holding the iron anchor tightly in their hands, ready to press or pull it out at any time.

Zhu Xieyuan looked at it from a distance, and a sense of solemnity was spontaneously felt in his heart.

Xu Yuan walked in front of the crowd, took a few steps, and suddenly ran to one side, pulled out the shiny goose-winged knife that is standard for generals, pointed it into the air, and shouted:

"Anchor—"

The soldier holding the anchor in his hand quickly knelt down on one knee, inserted the anchor into the soil, and then covered it tightly with sand.

"put--!!!"

The voice fell to the ground, and a salvo shot from near to far.

First there was a deafening loud noise, followed by a strong smell of gunpowder, which invaded the ears and nose, making Zhu Xieyuan's eyes a little sore.

The civil servant also covered his ears early, looking at this scene expectantly.

In the distance, those wooden men clad in Mongolian and Eight Banners armor exploded in response, dust filled the sky, debris like snow, and broken wood like rain, pouring down in the white mist.

Zhu Xieyuan only felt that there was a brief earthquake at the moment of the launch just now, and the whole artillery testing ground was trembling with it!

This is not over yet, the soldiers are quickly carrying out maintenance.

Some were cooling the hot barrel, while others took out another shell and pushed it into the mother gun. Soon, the next round of shooting arrived.

After the deafening sound, the venue was filled with smoke and dust, and sawdust danced wildly!

Zhu Xieyuan was paying attention to the changes in those soldiers. He found that none of the soldiers made a mistake due to the huge shaking sound when launching.

Their steps were methodical, everyone was very brave, and they were doing their own things, which led to the two consecutive rounds of volleys in front of them.

At this moment, General Manager Xu Yuan retracted the goose-wing knife into its sheath, trotted over, knelt on one knee and said:

"Reporting to the supervisor, the two rounds of shooting are over!"