My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 274 "Line Up to Be Executed"

Three days later, the military supervisor.

Although Li Rusong was sore all over, he gritted his teeth and got up from the school building when it was time for class and rushed into the classroom.

Suddenly, a bugle call sounded from the direction of Zhengwu Hall, and Li Rusong and the other martial arts students rushed towards Zhengwu Hall.

Zhengwu Hall is the largest classroom in the entire Martial Arts Academy, capable of accommodating all students of the academy to attend classes together.

Li Rusong arrived at Zhengwu Hall with doubts and found that in addition to the students of the Martial Arts Academy, more than twenty instructors from the academy were also sitting in the classroom.

Li Rusong quickly straightened his appearance, stood at the door, and called out, "Report!"

Seeing how well-behaved Li Rusong was, Chen Liang's lips curled up slightly.

As expected, real combat is the best classroom, and even troublemaker Li Rusong has learned to abide by the discipline of the martial arts training center.

After the martial arts demonstration, subtle changes occurred within the Martial Arts Academy.

Order was established within the military prison.

The instructors' authority was established, and everyone had witnessed the strength of these battle-hardened elites in the battle three days ago.

In addition, Su Ze divided the three subjects into classes.

A class consists of twenty students, and those who perform well during the martial arts exercises are selected and appointed as class leaders and deputy class leaders.

For example, Li Rusong was the squad leader of the second cavalry squad, while Zhu Shikun was the squad leader of the first cavalry squad.

In addition, the dormitories of the Martial Arts Academy were five people per room, and Su Ze also asked the class leaders of each class to appoint dormitory heads.

It's unclear whether Su Ze did it on purpose, but most of the students in Cavalry Class 1 were children of meritorious officials, while those in Cavalry Class 2 were children of hereditary officials.

From the moment the classes were assigned, there was a subtle tension between the two sides, and similar undercurrents of rivalry also emerged in other departments.

Within an hour of the bugle call sounding, all the students of the Martial Arts Academy gathered in the Zhengwu Hall. At this moment, Su Ze walked into the Zhengwu Hall with a musket in his hand.

Su Ze glanced at the Zhengwu Hall with satisfaction; the rectification efforts of the past few days had indeed yielded results.

Matchlock guns were already common in the Ming army, and even in Liaodong, many troops were equipped with them.

Su Ze raised the musket in his hand and asked:
"Take a look at this musket. What's the difference between it and a regular musket?"

As soon as Su Ze finished speaking, several craftsmen from the Ministry of Works stepped forward and distributed one of these new muskets to each row.

A dozen or so muskets were passed around the classroom.

Li Rusong examined the new-style arquebus and it did indeed seem different from the arquebuses commonly used by the Ming army.

First of all, there was no matchlock.

The arquebus is actually a type of matchlock gun.

Before firing, gunpowder needs to be loaded into the barrel, and then the projectile is inserted.

A "match cord" was attached to the gun; this was a hemp rope soaked in a special agent that would burn slowly once lit.

When firing was required, the soldier would take the match cord, insert it into the combustion chamber, ignite the gunpowder inside, and fire the bullet from the barrel.

The Ming army had already deployed arquebuses on a large scale during the war against Japanese pirates, but some generals still did not think highly of them.

Li Chengliang was among them.

Li Rusong had heard his father, Li Chengliang, comment on the arquebus. Li Chengliang believed that although the arquebus was useful, it was not suitable for use in Liaodong.

Especially when dealing with the Jurchens, who would hide in the snow and forests, the Ming army's lit fire ropes became the best targets, and lone soldiers often encountered Jurchen arrows.

Secondly, Liaodong is bitterly cold, and many places are covered with snow all year round, so the fuse can easily go out and the gunpowder can easily get damp.

The last problem was that the quality of the Ming army's arquebuses was really worrying, and barrel explosions were common, resulting in many arquebusiers going blind.

Some musketeers didn't even dare to aim and fire, because the killing effect was actually not as good as that of a bow and arrow.

Influenced by his father, Li Rusong did not actually think highly of arquebuses.

However, Li Rusong still recognized the role of artillery.

But why doesn't this new-style musket have a match cord?

Not only did it lack a matchlock, this new type of musket also had a strange trigger.

The gun body did not have a combustion hole for inserting the match cord, but instead had a strange device.

After everyone had finished reading, Su Ze said:
"This is the latest arquebus manufactured by the Ministry of Works. Everyone, please follow me to the training ground."

The group followed Su Ze to the training ground, where they saw several targets already set up.

Immediately afterwards, instructor Chen Liang took the musket from Su Ze and went to the front of the shooting range.

Chen Liang was wearing a strange vest with many small bags on it.

Chen Liang took out a paper packet from the bag, stuffed it into the barrel of the gun, and then quickly took out another paper packet of bullets. He then used the rod on the new-style musket to press it down, and thus raised the new-style musket.

Chen Liang pulled the strange device, then aimed at the target and pulled the trigger.

With a bang, the musket fired!
Immediately afterwards, several martial arts students came to the crowd with a target in hand, and a bullet hit the bullseye.

Can it be launched without a fuse?

Su Ze looked at the new arquebus; this project was actually launched at the same time as the new artillery project.

This new type of musket was actually what is known as a "flintlock gun".

Unlike matchlock guns, flintlock guns are propelled by striking flint on a hammer to generate a spark, which ignites gunpowder.

Although the flintlock musket was only a slight improvement over the matchlock musket, it required a considerable amount of technology.

The main issue is the spring for the hammer. The workshop in the Ministry of Works only managed to produce a spring with satisfactory strength last month. And this was only handcrafted by the workshop's artisans. Mass production will require overcoming many more technical challenges.

Then Su Ze further optimized the flintlock musket.

This vest is something that appeared in the later stages of the development of flintlock muskets in the original timeline.

Using pre-packaged gunpowder reduces the possibility of barrel explosion and allows for rapid reloading on the battlefield.

The paper-wrapped bullets also increased the airtightness, enhancing the power of the flintlock musket.

These vests, which contain gunpowder packets and paper-wrapped bullets respectively, only appeared in the 18th century of the original timeline, but have now been listed as standard equipment for flintlock muskets by Suze.

This new flintlock musket, along with the matching vest, made "line-up executions" possible, so Su Ze asked Qi Jiguang to conduct a practical test in Shanxi.

Although the Anda tribe had already paid tribute, the rule over the grasslands was inherently loose, and sporadic battles would still occur on the Shanxi front.

In addition, with the rise of grassland trade and the emergence of bandits, small-scale conflicts in Shanxi were constant, making it the perfect testing ground for new weapons.

In his reply, Qi Jiguang praised the flintlock musket and the "line-up shooting" tactic. However, he also pointed out that this tactic placed high demands on the discipline and training of the soldiers and was overly reliant on terrain. Qi Jiguang further noted that this tactic would be disadvantageous when facing artillery defense, as overly dense formations would become easy targets for artillery.

Upon receiving the reply, Su Ze deeply agreed. Qi Jiguang truly deserved to be called a famous general; he had seen through the problem of "lined executions" in one fell swoop.

"Line-up shooting" should actually be called "line infantry" tactics, which are actually paired with weapons.

Muzzle-loading flintlock muskets have a slow loading speed and low accuracy. Therefore, to maximize the effectiveness of flintlock muskets, soldiers should be arranged in a line to fire together to improve readiness and take turns firing to increase the firing rate.

The reason why the image of "being shot in a line" is so deeply ingrained in people's minds is also related to the artistic embellishment of the wars of that era in the original timeline.

Many films and television shows from the 17th to 19th centuries liked to use this "line infantry" tactic to depict warfare in the early firearms era.

This tactic was widely used from the 17th to the 19th centuries because many battlefields in Europe were flat, and line infantry tactics were easy to deploy on flat terrain, making it the most suitable tactic.

It's not hard to see the drawbacks of this tactic: overly concentrated formations make the infantry easy targets for artillery. Eventually, with the improvement of artillery power and the emergence of more convenient firearms, line infantry tactics were replaced by skirmish tactics.

Just like in the original timeline, line infantry tactics dominated for two centuries.

With current technology, developing a flintlock musket is already the limit for the Ming Dynasty.

More advanced firearms require breakthroughs in fields such as metallurgy, machining, and chemical engineering. Even if skilled craftsmen could create them, the biggest problem would be the cost of large-scale deployment.

Throughout history, there has never been a shortage of powerful weapons.

But to change an era, what is needed is a technological breakthrough.

The replacement of bronze with ironware was not due to the ingenuity of one or two craftsmen, but rather to breakthroughs in iron smelting technology.

Therefore, after discussion, Su Ze and Qi Jiguang concluded that line infantry tactics were the most suitable tactics for flintlock muskets.

After the tactics were determined, the next step was to conduct the drills.

This also surprised Su Ze. Qi Jiguang keenly discovered that the most important part of line infantry tactics was footwork.

When Su Ze and Qi Jiguang got to this point in their discussion, he was completely shocked.

Is this the God of War?

Even in the original timeline, no one who had not studied line infantry tactics in depth would know this secret.

Footwork is the core of line infantry tactics!

This is still determined by the formation of line infantry.

Because they needed to take turns firing, the entire line infantry, although also in a square formation, only had one frontal attack surface.

Of course, some generals would also deploy three columns of cover on the flanks, but this firepower was only for containment and delay. To unleash the full power of line infantry tactics, the firepower had to be directed at the enemy.

The enemy is not a stationary target; they move around on the battlefield.

Moreover, the kind of thing that happens in movies, where enemy and friendly line infantry charge each other, is actually very rare.

More often than not, one side would lie in ambush and launch an attack on the advancing enemy forces.

Therefore, the ability to "change formation" in a timely manner is the core combat capability of a line infantry army.

On a chaotic battlefield, one must obey the commander's orders, adjust formations in a timely manner, and direct firepower towards the enemy.

The key to this tactical change is "footwork".

The French army during Napoleon's era was able to dominate the European battlefields because of its advanced military discipline and the fact that French soldiers were the most skilled in footwork.

Napoleon's infantry manual specifically emphasized footwork training, and French soldiers at the time were able to march and change formations at three speeds: "slow walk," "fast walk," and "run."

Russian soldiers at the same time could only use two marching methods: "slow march" and "fast march".

What's even more disastrous is that many of Russia's frontline soldiers are illiterate and can't distinguish left from right, so they can't understand the officers' orders and are completely disorganized when changing formations.

Therefore, Napoleon placed particular emphasis on footwork training, and the French army's footwork later evolved into "stepping in step" and "goose step," which were retained as basic training items for the army until Sue's crossing.

The "Line Marching Manual" compiled by Su Ze and Qi Jiguang also set out detailed requirements for footwork training, and set out corresponding footwork training items for various commands.

After witnessing the power of the flintlock musket, Su Ze ordered the instructors to form a line formation and conduct a "line-up shooting" drill.

To ensure the effectiveness of this demonstration, Su Ze even specially requested a herd of deer from the elephant sanctuary zoo outside the city.

Amidst everyone's confusion, Chen Liang led the instructors to form a line infantry formation.

Although it was called a formation, there were actually only about twenty instructors, so it was really just a small team of three platoons.

Even Chen Liang wasn't sure. He had only been training this line infantry formation for a few days, and it was only thanks to the fact that he had been trained under Qi Jiguang that he was able to form a formation.

However, in the eyes of the students of the martial arts academy, the instructor's formation was unremarkable; wasn't it just a simple square formation?
Just then, the Imperial Guards at the elephant pens released the deer.

Guided by the Imperial Guards, the lead deer led the herd of deer toward Chen Liang's line infantry formation.

Even Li Rusong looked at the training ground with concern. There were more than thirty deer in the herd, and the lead deer at the front was quite strong.

The lead deer runs almost like a warhorse, and with the male deer's sharp antlers, even elite troops would avoid these out-of-control deer herds if they were in Liaoyang.

However, the instructors remained unmoved, while Chen Liang was calculating the speed and distance of the deer herd to estimate the best time to fire.

"Prepare!"

Following Chen Liang's command, the instructors in the first rank raised their loaded flintlock rifles and began firing a volley at the deer herd!
Li Rusong saw a male deer behind the lead deer fall to the ground after being shot, but the bullet grazed the lead deer, which instead aroused its ferocity.

Li Rusong covered his eyes. The firearm had already been fired, but reloading would take a long time. If he were hit by the raging deer, he would be seriously injured even if he didn't die.

But to Li Rusong's surprise, another burst of gunfire followed, and this time even more deer fell, while the deer behind them began to flee.

Then a third volley of shots rang out, and this time the lead deer was hit, slowing its charge.

Can a musket fire in rapid succession?
No, it's volley fire!

Li Rusong quickly discovered the secret. He had just noticed that the new type of musket had an extremely fast loading speed, and the instructors, lined up in three rows, kept switching positions to fire, which created the feeling of continuous firing.

During the fourth round of shooting, the lead deer had already been shot and fallen to the ground.

The martial arts students present cheered.

Li Rusong cheered as well, but what excited him most was the new musket and the new tactics!
What power that is!

If such tactics were used in Liaodong, would it kill the Jurchens?
The biggest problem in Liaodong, and the one that the Jurchen problem has always been difficult to solve, is that the Jurchens are too good at harassing people.

When the Jurchens were defeated, they would flee into the Changbai Mountains and the Heilongjiang River basin. Once they recovered, they would continue to plunder Han strongholds.

Over time, the Han Chinese in Liaodong could only gather in big cities, which was tantamount to ceding their land to the Jurchens.

Cities like Liaoyang needed to maintain a strong cavalry force to fight the Jurchens in the field.

If this new weapon and tactic can be popularized, then only a small number of such musketeer infantrymen will be needed to defend the stronghold!

(End of this chapter)