Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 170 Xu Song's Response

Everyone was surprised to hear that Lu Jin actually accepted Xu Da's suggestion. They didn't expect that the Marshal valued this new guy so much.

Now that the decision has been made, the next step is intensive training and changing of clothes.

The news of selecting the Xianzhen Camp soon spread throughout the entire army. The requirements for selection were that the soldiers must be skilled in martial arts, tall and strong, and proficient in at least one of archery, spear, sword and shield, and bone sword. Proficiency in two would be even better.

Ye Sheng's cavalry regiment also took the opportunity to recruit a group of archers from the entire army to strengthen the long-range shooting capability of the cavalry regiment.

Lu Jin attached great importance to this trap camp. In his opinion, these were the elite troops wearing heavy armor who would be the first to capture the city. However, there were not many opportunities to use long weapons when climbing the city walls, so Lu Jin promised them that the selected soldiers could choose their own secondary weapons, and the main weapon would be the armor-piercing rifle.

Fortunately, the number of people is small, and the conditions are still available for the current Shengwu Army to build a battalion of infantry lances.

It took three days to select the elite troops for the Xianzhen Camp. Lu Jin also secretly transferred Zhu Yuanzhang to this camp. He didn't want Zhu Yuanzhang to come into contact with artillery and muskets for the time being.

After forming the Xianzhen Camp, they used Yang Huan's teaching camp as a basis, selected students who had learned arithmetic and geometry and were of appropriate age to serve as artillery commanders, and then added new recruits to form the first artillery battalion of the Shengwu Army.

Qin Li, who had revolted from Chao County and joined the Shengwu Army, had the eldest son Qin Jinglin, who was of the right age, 14 years old this year. He was from a scholarly family and had a cultural foundation. He learned mathematics very quickly during this period and was promoted to company commander of the artillery battalion. He will be in charge of artillery pieces in the future. He had a high starting point for joining the army.

Lan Yu, who is only 12 years old this year, can only start as a gunner for the time being. This kid came late and learns slowly. He can't calculate the trajectory and range by himself yet. He can only command the artillery under the orders of the company and platoon leaders. His starting point is a little low.

Zhu Liangzu's son Zhu Xian is still too young, only 12 years old, and has not yet been assigned to the artillery battalion. He remains in the teaching camp to continue his studies.

Although Lu Jin started training this group of children last year, there were still too few talented artillery officers, so he established an artillery command principle.

The gunners of each gun only need to master the technique of operating the gun proficiently. They do not need to know how to measure distance. They only need to know how to adjust the elevation angle and fire various shells. The command unit is placed at the platoon level.

Each platoon leader needs to command four guns at the same time, including unified ranging, unified firing elevation, unified powder bags and shell weight. The platoon leader gives the order, and then the four gunners execute it. This can somewhat reduce the need for officers.

However, this is only a temporary measure and cannot continue like this. The artillery battalion must organize its own study classes, organize all officers and soldiers to study, and then conduct internal assessments. As long as they pass the assessment, they can be promoted to gunners, platoon leaders, and officers.

The Shengwu Army is now in great need of artillery officers. Not only the army is in need, but the navy will also be equipped with a large number of artillery pieces in a short time. There is no worry about having no place to put them, only that there will not be enough people.

In order to ensure that the navy could smoothly receive artillery in the future, Lu Jin ordered Liao Yongjian and Hua Gao of the navy to select a group of young soldiers with a good cultural foundation, who could write and calculate, and were proficient in ship handling and naval warfare, to come to Luzhou to study artillery. In this way, after the artillery was manufactured, it could be directly transferred back for use, thus avoiding being out of touch with the plan of crossing the river.

This group of students from the navy were temporarily assigned to train together in the artillery battalion, with Yang Huan as the battalion commander.

Zhu Shou was appointed as the brigade commander of the newly formed combined brigade, and he no longer directly led the combat battalion. Xu Yong was appointed as the battalion commander of the Xianzhen Camp.

Xu Yong joined the army when Lu Jin conquered Luzhou. He was in the same batch as Yang Huan. He joined earlier and had military merits. He participated in the Battle of Chao County and the battle with Kang Maocai. He served as the commander of the main attacking battalion. This time he was promoted half a level.

The four battalion commanders of the Musket Battalion were Qin Li’s younger brother Qin Rong, the newcomer Guo Xing, Zheng Yulin, and Li Wang.

Li Wang was originally Hua Gao's subordinate, and Hua Gao was too close to Zhao Pusheng. After Zhao Pusheng's death, Hua Gao surrendered to Lu Jin, but Lu Jin was still not very confident in him, so he transferred Hua Gao to the Second Regiment of the Navy, and also brought over Li Wang, the most capable young general under his command, who had been placed in the First Regiment before.

Since he has brought the person over, Lu Jin will naturally make use of him. Otherwise, if he brings the person back and then hides him away, he will inevitably become alienated from his old master and miss his old master. Lu Jin is well aware of this.

Letting him be the battalion commander of the musket battalion can be considered a promotion.

This first batch of seed troops will have no worries about their future and promotion opportunities if they can make some military achievements in the future and be released.

There were two baggage and auxiliary battalions, whose commanders were Xu Da and Zheng Yuchun.

In the past, the auxiliary battalions basically did not take on active combat tasks, but Xu Da suggested merging the grenadiers and the chariot battalions. Naturally, the chariot battalions are different now. The chariot battalions must also play an important role in the large formation and can no longer be a lazy role. Naturally, a reliable general must be selected, so Lu Jin chose Xu Da.

As for Zheng Yuchun, he is Zheng Yulin's younger brother and only one year younger than his brother. He is 19 years old this year and is qualified to be the battalion officer of the chariot camp. However, since this group of new generals have no military merits, they can only start as a trial captain.

As for the two cavalry battalions, they are temporarily short of staff, and the establishment of the first cavalry regiment has just been completed. It is not appropriate to transfer more from Ye Sheng, otherwise Ye Sheng will have opinions. The previous Zheng Yong was transferred from him. If he continues to transfer more, when will his cavalry regiment be fully staffed?

Therefore, let Ye Sheng continue to train the cavalry, and at most they can form a temporary group during combat.

Anyway, the 1st Cavalry Regiment mainly follows Lu Jin.

In this way, a new combined brigade of the Imperial Guard was formed, with Zhu Shou as the brigade commander, Yang Huan in charge of the artillery battalion, Xu Yong in charge of the trap camp, Qin Rong, Li Wang, Guo Xing, and Zheng Yulin, each leading a musket battalion, and Xu Da and Zheng Yuchun in charge of the chariot camp.

After arranging the generals of each department, they were trained separately. Those who did not have firearms first underwent basic physical fitness and formation training. As for the weapons, Lu Jin had to go to the iron factory in person to urge them.

There are quite a lot of new weapons to be built this time. In addition to various artillery pieces, there are also shrapnel shells, hand grenades, infantry muskets, chariot and boat soldiers' short muskets, and dragoon-type muskets. He is required to supervise the finalization of their production, so there is still a lot to do.

Of course, he did not forget the three divisions on the outer front, especially the upcoming battle on the northern front. The equipment of the Guards Division can be prepared later, but the equipment for the northern front must be assembled first.

It is now February. The 12th year of Zhizheng was a leap year, and there was a leap March. Historically, Zhu Yuanzhang joined the army in the leap March, and then he encountered Chelibuhua who was sent by the Yuan court to attack Haozhou.

Therefore, if history does not change much, the Yuan army will most likely come in the leap month of March. In this way, Lu Jin will have about two months at most, and at least a batch of armor will be added to the northern line in these two months. The reason why the Red Turban Army could not defeat the Yuan army at the beginning was that they suffered from the low armor rate. Weapons are relatively easy to solve, but the armor rate is really hard to improve in a short time.

If we look at it from the perspective of making their own armor, then Lu Jin's Shengwu Army should be considered the most powerful among the heroes at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Whether it is Liu Futong's army, Xuzhou's Zhima Li, or Hubei's Xu Song, they are temporarily unable to mass-produce armor themselves.

Not only can Lu Jin do it, it even developed a steel rolling mill to improve efficiency.

In the ironworks' half-built processing workshop, the water channel flowing outside the wall drives a huge water wheel, which in turn drives the rolling mill in the workshop to run slowly through a series of gears.

Four rollers weighing six tons were stacked up and down, providing a huge squeezing force to the rollers. Each roller was also covered with two bronze casting roller bearings. The craftsmen even used calcium-based grease on the bearings.
The so-called calcium-based grease is actually quicklime and animal fat. Quicklime is alkaline, and when put together with grease, it will produce a saponification reaction to form a soap-like lubricant that can reduce friction loss.

Lu Jin inquired about how they came up with the idea, but was told that it was a method passed down from ancient times. Xu Jichuan, the director of the Construction Department who was in charge of construction affairs, specifically told Lu Jin that this thing came from the Book of Songs. In the Book of Songs, Beifeng, Quanshui, there is a saying "Carrying fat and carrying reins, returning the chariot and saying marching forward", which shows that China already had the concept of lubrication since the pre-Qin and Spring and Autumn Period.

Lu Jin praised the craftsmen and continued to watch the operation of the rolling mill.

The entire process of armor making now is to smelt iron first, then use the steel-making method to stir-fry molten steel, and then cast it into a steel plate blank that is one centimeter thick, 15 centimeters long, 10 centimeters wide, about the size of a palm, and weighs a little over one kilogram.

After these steel plate blanks are cast, they become the raw materials for armor making. They are sent to the armor making workshop to be heated again until they are red hot. Then they are clamped with pliers and sent to the rolling mill to be repeatedly rolled until the steel plates are stretched, widened, and thinned, eventually forming thin steel plates about 30 cm wide, more than 40 cm long, and 1.2 mm thick.

The plates are then reheated and cut into small squares the size of armor plates with large scissors used to cut iron sheets. They are then handed over to blacksmiths for fine finishing, where they are punched into curved shapes and rivet holes are punched out. Finally, they are quenched to increase the hardness of the steel armor plates and handed over to apprentices to polish them clean. After another blackening treatment to prevent rust and corrosion, they can be sent to the rivet workshop to install the armor plates on the cloth.

The blackening treatment of steel sheets is also very simple. First, heat it to three or four hundred degrees, and then oil quench it, which can make the surface of the steel black and form an anti-corrosion layer.

With this rolling mill, it only takes two minutes to roll a thin steel plate like this, and the steel plates produced in one hour can make eight sets of armor.

The ironworks operates a three-shift system and uses calcium carbide lamps for lighting at night. It can produce at least 150 sets of body armor and arm armor a day. The only problem is that the helmets are a bit more troublesome and require a skilled blacksmith to hammer them carefully, otherwise they can be made faster.

In view of this situation, more blacksmiths had to be assigned to the work of making helmets.

The minimum production is 150 pairs per day, and 4500 pairs can be produced in a month, which is just enough to replace the uniforms of a regiment.

Just as Lu Jin was preparing supplies for the upcoming war, Yang Puxiong, the envoy of Xu Song who had come to Luzhou on a diplomatic mission, finally returned to Huanggang, the current capital of Xu Song, after more than a month's journey in the valleys of the Dabie Mountains. He was immediately received by Xu Shouhui and Peng Yingyu.

Now Xu Song is conducting an offensive operation. At the beginning of the year, they had just occupied Huanggang and Huangshi areas, and then immediately marched westward. The Western Army was led by Ding Puluo, and within a few months they broke through the important town of Hanyang, and met Chen Youliang who came to surrender here.

Xu Shouhui was very happy about Chen Youliang's voluntary surrender, and ordered him to continue leading his troops to attack Mianyang Prefecture. Chen Youliang lived up to everyone's expectations and quickly captured Tianmen, Xiantao and Jingzhou. He made military achievements and was promoted to marshal by Xu Shouhui.

There is also a northern army led by Peng Yingyu's disciple Ou Puxiang, which is now attacking Anlu, and the entire Anlu Prefecture is about to be captured by Xu Song.

On the Huanggang headquarters of Xu Song, Grand Tutor Zou Pusheng personally led the army. After several months of fighting, they have now cleared the outer Yuan troops of the important town of Wuchang. Now is the critical moment to besiege Wuchang. Coincidentally, at this time, Yang Puxiong returned with the delegation.

"Pu Xiong, has Marshal Lu from Luzhou agreed?" Xu Shouhui asked immediately when he heard that the man had returned.

Yang Puxiong frowned and shook his head, then replied, "Your Majesty, Lu Jin did not agree, but he did not refuse it outright. It seems that he is willing to surrender. But the conditions given by Your Majesty, I am afraid we have to renegotiate with him."

"Hmm? What do you mean? Please tell me in detail." Xu Shouhui frowned when he heard it. He didn't expect that Lu Jin would dare to refuse. He was really ungrateful.

He became very arrogant during this period. He ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. His generals were unstoppable and captured many important cities in succession. Talents like Chen Youliang also came to surrender voluntarily. In comparison, Lu Jin seemed even more tactless.

Yang Puxiong then introduced the situation.

"Your Majesty, Military Advisor, when I was traveling along the Pi River to Lu'an, I discovered that the Luzhou soldiers were building a city in Huoshan County in the mountains. It was Huoshan County during the Zhao Song Dynasty, but it was reduced to Gubu Town during the pseudo-Yuan Dynasty. Now the Luzhou soldiers have occupied it, saying that they want to restore the county system, so they are building a fortress in the valley in the mountains.

"But there are no Yuan bandits in the mountains. Who can they defend against by building a city there? It's obvious that they are defending against us in the south of the mountain."

Upon hearing this, Xu Shouhui and Peng Yingyu both nodded, agreeing with Yang Puxiong's judgment.

Yang Puxiong continued, "After I arrived at Huoshan, I met the commander of the garrison there. There was a regiment commander with five battalions and about 5,000 soldiers. The commander was surnamed Yu and was over 40 years old. He should be the Yu family in Chaohu Navy that my master had told me about. The main force of the Yu family was stationed in Lu'an, and there was only one battalion of 1,000 soldiers stationed in Huoshan.

"After I explained my purpose to Commander Yu, they took me to Lu'an. After a few days, they took me to Luzhou. Now, the commander of the Shengwu Army, Lu Jin, is stationed in Luzhou."

Yang Puxiong briefly recounted the news he had heard in Luzhou and emphasized it again.

"Lu Jin did not directly reject your majesty's invitation, but only put forward a few conditions. First, your majesty appointed him as the governor of Bianliang Province, but he is now stationed in Luzhou, which is inevitably a figurehead. If he is allowed to attack Bianliang by himself, he will be separated by Liu Futong's troops. He said that your majesty is trying to sow discord between the Luzhou soldiers and Liu Futong, and he will definitely not accept this title.

"In addition, he also said that Liu Futong's army called themselves the Restoration of the Song Dynasty, and we also called ourselves the Song Dynasty. In the future, there will be disputes between the two. It will be difficult for him to be caught in the middle, and he did not want to get involved in the 'dispute between the two Song Dynasties'.

"Second, this man boasted that he had an army of 200,000 soldiers and cavalrymen, and that he controlled the entire Luzhou route, part of the Yangzhou route, part of the Anfeng route, and dozens of counties. He also had the Chaohu navy and the Yangtze River naval force that he had robbed from the Yuan thief Huaixi envoy. If Your Majesty wanted to recruit him, he would not be able to be dismissed with just one officer."

As soon as these words were spoken, Xu Shouhui and Peng Yingyu looked at each other and saw surprise in each other's eyes.

(End of this chapter)