Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 175 Big training

The power and portability of the wooden-handled grenade caught Xu Da's attention. He wanted to promote this thing to all branches of the military. In fact, there was nothing wrong with this suggestion. The main reason was that the current gunpowder production was too small, so for the time being it could only be equipped to a small number of troops.

"Marshal, what is the difference between the muskets used in our chariot camp and those used in the musket camp?" Zheng Yuchun asked while playing with a grenade in his hand.

"There is no difference. The main thing is that your muskets are shorter, more than a foot shorter than those of the musket battalion. Their muskets have bayonets and are used as short spears. If your muskets are too long, it will be inconvenient to get on the car and carry them.

"Therefore, your muskets will not be equipped with bayonets, but will be equipped with an additional waist knife. Apart from that, the caliber of ammunition and the firing method are the same as those of the musket battalion, and you can even share ammunition at critical moments." Lu Jin explained immediately.

Zheng Yuchun and Xu Da nodded, and Xu Da asked, "Marshal, I see there seems to be another kind of firearm in the iron factory. It is mounted on a wooden pillar and can rotate left and right. It looks like a cannon, but it is transparent from front to back. What is that?"

"That." Lu Jin knew what Xu Da was talking about as soon as he heard the description and laughed immediately.

"That thing is also a cannon, called a revolving sub-cannon, with a caliber of just over an inch, 40 mm, and a weight of just over 60 kilograms. One person can carry it. Each cannon is equipped with four sub-cannons, and the rate of fire is extremely fast.

"But it is precisely because this gun is loaded from the breech that it is not airtight, so it cannot fire very far. It was specially made for the navy. It is placed on the side of the ship to fire iron date shotgun shells. During naval battles, it is used from a high position to fire a few rounds and sweep the enemy navy."

The two were amazed when they heard this. They didn't expect there were such firearms. In fact, the Yuan army also had muskets for naval battles, but they were bowl-mouthed guns, a kind of thing similar to a mortar. Their power and range were very limited, and they were not accurate. They could only be regarded as accumulations. The only advantage was probably that thing had a faster firing rate than a catapult.

Then the two followed Lu Jin back to the iron factory. Lu Jin determined the final size of the grenade and could start mass production. He also had someone make a batch of grenade training shells.

The training bullet also has an iron shell and a wooden handle, but it does not contain gunpowder. The filler is replaced with slag, but a real fuse is placed in it, and two rings are painted on the wooden handle to distinguish it. Using a real fuse is to allow soldiers to practice ignition and throwing, but it will not explode when thrown out. It can be picked up and reused by changing the fuse.

Lu Jin then taught the two of them how to use the training bullets. Xu Da and Zheng Yuchun nodded repeatedly after hearing this. These would be the focus of their future training.

Then the two of them went to look at other firearms and found that Lu Jin had made quite a few new types of firearms.

In addition to grenades, there are three types of muskets: the infantry-type flintlock with a total length of 40 meters, the chariot/navy-type flintlock with a total length of meters, and the dragoon-type flintlock with a total length of centimeters. This thing is very short, which is convenient for one-handed shooting on horseback, and can fill the shooting blind spot where cavalry archers cannot shoot to the right.

It is also very easy to reload. As long as you get rid of the enemy's pursuit, you don't have to get off the horse. You can just put the musket upright on the saddle and reload it. This is the advantage of being short.

In terms of artillery, the army-type eight-jin field gun has been finalized, and now only four models have not yet been finalized, one is the army's large-caliber field howitzer, and the other is a river defense fortress gun.

The main purpose of the fortress artillery is to block the Yangtze River. It is placed in a fixed artillery position and there are no excessive restrictions on size and weight, but the range and power must be large enough. Lu Jin plans to set up a river defense artillery position in Anqing and Wuwei respectively, one to guard the entrance of Chaohu Lake and the other to block the Yangtze River.

The navy also needs at least three types of artillery. Small-caliber swivel cannons can adapt to ships of various sizes. More can also be installed on the upper decks of the seven large ships of the Jiangnan Navy to fire at enemy sailors from a high position.

As for the navy's artillery, there is no need for cannons. Cannons are too heavy and have a small caliber. Their only advantage is their long range. However, in inland naval battles, a range that is too long is of no use at all. Therefore, we should go for large-caliber, high-powered, short-barreled howitzers. A range of 500 meters is enough. Anyway, the Yangtze River is not very wide, and a range of 500 to 600 meters is enough for fighting in inland lakes.

So Lu Jin planned to equip the navy with some large-caliber guns. The lower decks of the seven large ships could be equipped with 155-caliber 23-jin guns, which should be 30 pounds when converted into Western caliber, and the gun weighed only more than 800 kilograms.

The second deck can use 14-jin guns, which are 12-pound guns in the West. The caliber is 120 mm and the gun weighs only more than 300 kilograms, which is about the same weight as a six-pound cannon.

The 14-jin cannon can be used as secondary guns on the seven large ships, but such large ships are only a minority after all. The top main ships in the two naval divisions of the Shengwu Army are actually those large ships of about 12 meters. These are merchant ships that run long-distance shipping on the Yangtze River. The Chaohu Navy’s original ones, plus those seized from Kang Maocai, total about ships. The -pound cannon can be used as main guns on these ships.

The most common remaining ships are those of this class, which are between 12 feet and feet long, and more than ten meters long. They are the main force for ferrying, fishing, and short-distance shipping. There are probably more than a thousand of these ships, but they are too small, and the -pound cannon would be too big to fit on them, so they have to develop a smaller one.

Lu Jin prefers the 80mm caliber four-jin cannon, which is the smallest medium-caliber one. If it is converted into a howitzer, the weight of the entire gun can be controlled to about 200 jin. With seven taels of gunpowder, it can fire solid bullets to two or three hundred meters, and open grenades to four or five hundred meters. The key is that the recoil is small, so it can be placed on a small boat.

However, this is only a temporary plan. There are more than 2,000 ships in the two naval divisions, large and small. Even if each ship is equipped with a cannon, more than 2,000 cannons are needed. This is obviously unrealistic.

Therefore, only a part of them could be replaced first to serve as the main force of the two naval divisions, and the other ships would be mainly responsible for transportation, or replaced when there were enough artillery in the future.

Lu Jin had previously written to the commanders of the two naval regiments, asking them to select suitable candidates to return for training. After a period of selection by both sides, the people have finally arrived.

The Second Marine Regiment was based in Wuwei, and was primarily responsible for guarding the Ruxukou waterway that led to Chaohu Lake. It was also responsible for transporting supplies around Chaohu Lake. The commander was Hua Gao, the deputy commander was Yu Tongyuan, the youngest of the Yu brothers, and there was also Sang Shijie, a local from Wuwei who joined the army.

The leadership of the Second Marine Regiment is relatively clean. Yu Tongyuan is definitely one of their own. Although Hua Gao is not that close to Lu Jin and initially followed Zhao Pusheng, he is also considered one of the Chaohu veterans. Sang Shijie even took the initiative to join the army with his local militia and has nothing to do with external forces.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Lu Jin asked Yu Tongyuan to lead the team back to learn. First, because he was relatively young, he could work for more years now. Second, Lu Jin's vigilance against Hua Gao had been lowered. Since Zhao Pusheng's death, Hua Gao had behaved very honestly and actively in combat, and had no intention of defecting. In addition, with Sang Shijie watching, he believed that he would not do anything out of line. In contrast, the situation of the First Regiment of the Navy was very complicated. The main commander Liao Yongjian was one of the veterans of Chaohu Venture Group and the absolute core. Under the current circumstances, Liao Yongjian would never defect, but the deputy commander Bai Guangtai was hard to say.

This man was originally a subordinate of Kang Maocai. After being captured, he took the initiative to cooperate in handing over the Yangtze River Defense Division. In recognition of his meritorious performance, Lu Jin made him a battalion commander of a regiment, still in charge of some of the original sailors. But to be honest, this approach was very uncertain.

Because Lu Jin had seen too many cases of defection. The army was easier to control, but the air force and navy were really hard to deal with. The same was true for the navy in ancient times. Now there was only a river between him and the Yuan army. If Bai Guangtai wanted to escape, he only needed to take advantage of the inspection of the river defense and row the boat to the other side with his confidants. The other side was full of Yuan court people, and Lu Jin couldn't do anything to him now.
In order to change this uncontrollable situation, Lu Jin specially wrote a secret letter to Liao Yongjian, asking him to keep an eye on the Jiangmen water defense brigade of the regiment, and then take advantage of the opportunity of coming back for training to ask him to select a young and smart trusted general, select a group of capable people, and then bring back all of Bai Guangtai's trusted sailors.

After the training was completed, the trainees from the two navies were swapped, with the trainees from the Second Regiment going to the First Regiment, and the trainees from the First Regiment going to the Second Regiment. This was equivalent to transferring all of Bai Guangtai's trusted subordinates to the Second Regiment.

By the time his trusted men are gone, I don’t think he will be able to do anything weird.

So before long, all the people sent by both sides for training arrived. The one from the second regiment was Yu Tongyuan, and the one from the first regiment was a young general named Liu Chuanyi, who was also 18 years old this year. Both his parents had passed away, and he had a 16-year-old sister. He was born into a Tanka fisherman family in Chaohu Lake, and had followed Liao Yongjian before the rebellion, and also joined the uprising when there was a rebellion. He was considered an absolute confidant of Liao.

Liu Chuanyi and Yu Tongyuan are the same age, and both of them came from the Chaohu Navy, so they quickly became familiar with each other. Liu Chuanyi was a little reserved when he met Lu Jin, but under the influence of Yu Tongyuan, he gradually became familiar with Lu Jin.

"Marshal, we went to Yang Huan's place and watched two artillery classes. Do we also have to learn arithmetic, geometry, drawing, etc.?"

Liu Chuanyi was born into a family of boat fishermen and his parents died early. Yu Tongyuan had several sons and brothers, so his family conditions were much better than his. He had some cultural foundation, so it was not difficult for him to learn. However, Liu Chuanyi was a complete illiterate and could not recognize a single word. It was a bit difficult for him to learn arithmetic and geometry.

Lu Jin also knew that some people came from poor backgrounds, so he didn't make things difficult for them, but he still said.

“If you are only going to be in the inland navy in the future, you really don’t need to learn those things. To be honest, when fighting in the big rivers and lakes, you only need to learn how to load and fire the cannon. You don’t even need to learn how to find the range. When you get close to the enemy ship, just hit it hard.

"But what about after you defeat the enemies in the rivers and lakes? If you go to the sea in the future, you won't know how to do arithmetic and geometry, you won't know how to read the stars, and you won't know how to do astronomy and geography. The sea is so vast and boundless, and if you don't know how to do arithmetic and geometry, you won't even know where you are.

“Even if you never board a ship again and are transferred to the army, you will still have to learn ballistics and artillery from scratch, don’t you think?
"Look, the battalion commander of the artillery battalion, Yang Huan, is only 14 years old, and only 15 in age. You two are only 17 or years old. The reason why I chose young people like you to learn artillery is because young people are good at learning and can learn faster than them. If you are only and don't want to learn, then Commander Liao, who is in his thirties, will probably be even less willing to learn."

Lu Jin patted their shoulders again and said, "You are still young, and you will definitely go further than Commander Liao in the future, but opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared. How should you prepare? That is to study hard."

Liu Chuanyi immediately showed a bitter face when he heard this. It was not that he was unwilling to learn, but he had missed too much knowledge when he was a child. It was imaginable how difficult it would be to make up for it from the beginning now.

Seeing this, Lu Jin comforted him, "Chuanyi, you don't have to be discouraged. I know your foundation is a little weak, but I just said that at this stage, you in the navy only need to learn how to operate the cannon and fire the cannon, but this does not mean that you don't have to learn mathematics. I will keep the opportunity for you, but you have to prepare yourself.

"Commander Liao recommended you to come here because he wanted you to learn more skills. Whether it's for me, Commander Liao, or even for your own future, you don't want to be unable to advance because of not studying, right?"

"Yes, thank you Marshal for taking care of me." Liu Chuanyi immediately expressed his gratitude.

Lu Jin pinched his shoulder and took the initiative to approach him, saying, "You are all from Chaohu and are my most trusted brothers. I hope you can learn more skills and take on more responsibilities. I also hope you can be of great use.

"If you refuse to learn, the younger ones will surpass you in the future. I'm afraid that my brothers will scold me for not caring about friendship and being fickle. Now I'm giving you a chance. I hope you won't let me down, and don't let down my brothers."

"Yes, Marshal, I get it. I will definitely study hard. It's just that my handwriting is so bad that I'm afraid I can't learn it." Liu Chuanyi's voice became lower and lower, and his face turned red with embarrassment.

Lu Jin laughed and pointed at Yu Tongyuan next to him, "He's not afraid, so what are you afraid of? You didn't even frown when you stabbed people in the past, but now you're afraid of writing a word. Look at Tongyuan, do you think he knows a few more words than you?

"If you don't know how to write, ask. If you can't remember, write it down first. Review it every day in the future. Are you afraid that you can't learn this little thing?"

"Yes, I understand."

"Study hard, silly boy. First follow Yang Huan to familiarize yourself with artillery, and then familiarize yourself with weapons. The firearms of your navy are somewhat different from those of land warfare, and the tactics are also different. Tongyuan, you should help Chuanyi more when you are learning. Got it?"

"Got it, Marshal, don't worry." Yu Tongyuan agreed immediately, and then said, "Marshal, my father and my two brothers are all commanders. When can I become a commander too?"

Hearing this, Lu Jin slapped him on the back of the head, "You little bastard, I asked you to learn skills so that you can be put to good use. Now that you have real skills, are you afraid that you won't be able to make military achievements? Now that you have military achievements, are you afraid that you won't be promoted? Go and study now, or your father will find out, hehe."

When Yu Tongyuan thought of his biological father, his neck suddenly shrank, causing Liu Chuanyi to secretly hold back his laughter, but at the same time he felt a little envious. Then the two of them pulled each other away, went to the iron factory to escort the newly cast cannons, and returned to Luzhou together for training.

(End of this chapter)