"Uncle Jingnan." Chongzhen looked at Huang Degong.
Huang Degong immediately bowed his hands and said, "I'm here."
Chongzhen said: "You will lead the troops of the ten towns to garrison Xia Town."
Having said this, Chongzhen pointed at Xia Town on the map with a long wooden pole.
"Ah?" Huang Degong said in disbelief, "Ten border troops guarding a small summer town?"
The more than 20 town commanders around were also dumbfounded. If it was to guard Xuzhou or Pizhou City, it would not be surprising to use ten towns to defend the city, but to use it to defend a small Xia Town was simply speechless.
Xia Town is just a small market town. It is only about a hundred steps long and horizontal. Can it accommodate 50,000 people?
Chongzhen sighed softly. There was no way to use ten towns and fifty thousand people to guard a small Xia town, because the combat effectiveness of the Ming army was really unflattering.
That is Huang Degong's army.
Replaced by the old troops of Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo,
Even Chongzhen of Twenty Towns was worried.
As mentioned earlier, the Xuzhou Defense Line is the focus of the Huanghuai Defense Line, and the Xiazhen Defense Line is the top priority, so Xia Town must be defended. Once Xia Town cannot be defended, the Huanghuai Defense Line will collapse directly.
Then Chongzhen's strategic vision has become a mirror image.
Therefore, Chongzhen wanted to defend Xia Town's defense line at the expense of many people.
"Yes, ten towns of people, just for a small summer town!"
"After Aiqing arrives in Xia Town, the first priority is to build a Western gun platform."
"It's not one or two muskets, nor ten or twenty."
"There are more than five hundred Western guns in total. I will tell you about the styles of the Western guns later."
Speaking of this, Chongzhen pointed to the model placed next to him and said: "More than five hundred Western gun platforms are centered on Xia Town, arranged in a circle from the inside out, and the intervals between adjacent gun platforms are 150 steps.
should."
"Because this distance is just within the firing range of the Tiger Crouching Cannon or the Franco Cannon."
"Your Majesty." Huang Degong couldn't help but interrupt, "How should so many Western guns be laid out?"
"Oh yes, I forgot to give you the Xia Town defense line map." Chongzhen patted his forehead and said to Gao Qiqian, "Gao Banban, where is the Xia Town defense line map that I hand-drawn?"
"Here it is." Gao Qiqian quickly presented the map.
But it is a plan drawn on Huang Ling.
Huang Degong and the general soldiers of the ten towns under his command surrounded him one after another.
Chongzhen pointed at Huang Ling and said: "Look, Uncle Jingnan, the center of the map is Xia Town. You can build a large gun platform with a six-pointed star or an eight-pointed star with a diameter of 150 steps. The shape can be enlarged according to the model just now. The gun platform
Taiwan not only has troops stationed but also stores grain, so it would be best to have a pier at the intersection of three rivers in the center for the water divisions to berth."
"Draw a circle with a diameter of 300 steps with Xia Town as the center. This circle is the first circle."
"Construct nine Western gun towers along the circumference of the first circle. The distance between each other is about 100 steps. They can support each other with tiger crouching guns and Franco machines."
"Draw a circle with a diameter of 600 steps with Xia Town as the center. This is the second circle."
"Construct 15 more Western gun towers along the circumference of the second circle, spaced about 120 steps apart from each other. Support can still be achieved with Tiger Crouching Cannon and Fran Machine Cannon."
"Draw a circle with a diameter of 900 steps with Xia Town as the center. This is the third circle."
"Construct 21 more Western gun towers along the circumference of the third circle. They are approximately 128 steps apart from each other. They are still within the range of the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the Franco Cannon."
"And so on, draw circles outwards until you reach the twelfth circle."
"The diameter of the twelfth circle is 3,600 steps. 75 gun platforms need to be built along the circumference of the twelfth circle. The distance between each other is about 144 steps, which is still within the range of the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the Franco Cannon."
"Up to here, there are 504 small gun platforms in total, divided into twelve circles from the inside out."
"In other words, if Jiannu wants to capture Xia Town, no matter which direction he launches the attack, he must pull out the twelve-layer Western gun towers on the outside one by one, and they must all be pulled out."
"Moreover, when Jiannu attacked any gun platform, he not only had to face the firepower of the gun platform in front of him, but also had to face the artillery shells from the gun platforms on the left and right sides and from the depth of the position."
"Firepower? Artillery shells?" Huang Degong said, "Your Majesty, did you mean to use firearms?"
"Yes, use firearms." Chongzhen nodded and said, "This is my idea."
"More than five hundred small gun stations, each with one sentry (90 people)."
Speaking of this, Chongzhen sighed again. If the performance of the firearms could keep up, or the quality of the Ming army was better, it would actually be enough to have one team (30 people) per gun platform.
In this way, two-thirds of the troops can be saved.
Unfortunately, there is currently no way to reduce it to this level.
After a pause, Chongzhen continued: "For the sentry troops guarding the cannon platform, 30 are gunmen, 30 are spearmen, and the rest are gunners, equipped with three squatting tiger cannons or Franco machine guns."
Huang Degong counted on his fingers and finally said: "Your Majesty, there is no problem with the spears, but according to what you said, we need more than 15,000 blunderbuss and more than 1,500 squatting tiger cannons or Franco machine guns, which are not that many.
We can only collect up to 5,000 firecrackers of various types, 150 squatting tiger cannons, and not a single Folang machine."
By the Ming Dynasty, the equipment rate of firearms had greatly improved compared to before.
For example, Marshal Qi's Jizhen soldiers have a matchlock equipment rate of 40%.
Each infantry unit (450 men) is equipped with 6 Tiger Crouching Cannons or 6 Fran Machine Cannons.
The cavalry is even more exaggerated. One battalion (2,200 men) dares to be equipped with 60 squatting tiger cannons.
The firearms equipment rate in border towns such as Guan Ningjun was originally quite high, but as the imperial government's financial expenses became increasingly tight, the rate of firearms that were easily damaged began to decline because there was no time to replenish them.
For example, Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo, Gao Jie and other border guards lost all their heavy firearms such as the Crouching Tiger Cannon and the Franco Machine. There were also very few matchlock guns left and they were basically reduced to decorations.
It would be good if Huang De can gather 5,000 matchlock guns and 150 tiger squat cannons.
However, Chongzhen had already prepared for this. Otherwise, what kind of Huanghuai defense line could he build?
Chongzhen said: "You don't have to worry about this. I have already ordered the cabinet to supervise the construction of tiger squat guns, Franco machine guns, blunderbuss and gunpowder as the first military state priority. At the same time, all the guards and troops in Jiangnan, Fujian, Jiangxi and Guangdong and Guangxi will be ordered.
The division's various types of muskets, squatting tiger cannons and Franco machine guns have been shipped to Xuzhou. The quantity should be sufficient, but it may take a little longer."
After a pause, he then said: "But fortunately, Jiannu will not go south to Xuzhou so quickly, so after Aiqing led the ten-town frontier army to Xia Town, he just built 504 small gun platforms and the large gun platform in Xia Town first.
stand up."
Huang Degong nodded and said, "Your Majesty, what exactly does this gun stand look like?"
Chongzhen then instructed Gao Qiqian and Lu Jiude to take apart the gun model and show the cross section.
"Huang Aiqing and everyone, please take a look." Chongzhen pointed to the dismantled model and said, "This is a small gun platform, in the shape of a six-pointed star, with an outer diameter of 30 steps (48 meters)."
"The inner platform of the gun platform is the horizon, just compact it."
"A trench was dug around the gun platform. The trench was 5 feet (1.6 meters) deep and 30 paces (48 meters) wide."
"The trenches generally surround the gun platform in a circular shape, but the trenches of each gun platform need to be opened up. They can be used to evacuate the garrison in the forward gun platform, and can also be used as a shooting interface for the rear gun platform."
"The perimeter of the gun platform is reinforced with a tight fence. The wooden fence is 1 feet high and 5 feet higher than the inner platform. The gunman can just place the bird gun on the fence to shoot."
"The Tiger Crouching Cannon can also shoot externally."
[The Tiger Crouching Cannon is a flat-fire cannon, but its trajectory has a larger arc]
"The wooden fence on the back half of the gun platform can be disassembled. Once the situation is unfavorable and the defense must be abandoned, the defenders of the gun platform can remove the wooden fence to serve as a shield, and at the same time, the internal platform of the gun platform can be exposed behind them.
Under the firepower of our gun platform, even if Jiannu occupied the gun platform, it would be difficult for him to gain a foothold."
"If the wood is not enough, the front half can be replaced with a parapet."
"But the second half has to have a removable wooden fence."
"There is a bunker dug inside the gun platform, where troops can be stationed, ammunition and a small amount of rations can be stored."
"The soil dug out from the trench was piled in front and compacted into a low slope protection. Its top height was the same as the height of the wooden fence of the gun platform, or slightly lower than the wooden fence."
Chongzhen's explanation came to an end for the time being.
Tian Xiong, the commander-in-chief of Huang Degong's command, asked: "Your Majesty, when building a fortress, it is better to have a height higher than the ground, and the higher the better, so that you can be condescending and conducive to killing the enemy. But why should the height of this gun platform be the same as the ground?"
Evenly matched? Wouldn’t this mean that we lose the physical advantage of being condescending?”
Chongzhen sighed and said helplessly: "Because Jiannu has the red barbarian cannon."
"The Holy One is right," Huang Degong said, "Since Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming and Shang Kexi defected to Jiannu, Jiannu has had a large number of red Yi cannons. Ningyuan, Jinzhou and other strong cities can't bear the red Yi cannons. We
The gun platform built in a hurry may not be able to hold a single shot, so it can only be protected by hiding it under the ground."
"That's the truth." Chongzhen said, "There is no way to have both worlds. In order to avoid Jiannu's red barbarian artillery, we can only sacrifice the condescending physical victory. But fortunately, there is a 30-step wide trench outside the gun platform, and Jiannu can
If you want to attack the gun platform directly, our defenders will still have the physical advantage of being at a commanding height."
A general soldier asked: "Can the trench be deeper? Can the fence be higher?"
Chongzhen nodded and said: "If there is enough time, of course the trench can be deeper or wider, or even steps can be dug in the trench to force the slaves to squeeze on the narrow steps and attack our army's fence. In this way
If it does, it will definitely increase the difficulty of Jiannu’s attack.”
"This is a good method." Huang Degong said.
Chongzhen added: "But we still need to ensure that the overall shape is formed first."
"I accept the order." Huang Degong cupped his hands and said, "I will set off now."
"Huang Aiqing, wait a minute." Chongzhen said hurriedly, "Does the army have enough food and grass?"
Huang Degong said: "The food and grass carried by the army can last for another three to five days."
"That won't work." Chongzhen said, "It's better to wait for the grain to arrive before leaving."
Well, the truth is that Huang Degong should be left behind to hold down the battle, because the army still needs to be reorganized.
PS: There are several Easter egg chapters in this chapter. The Easter egg chapters displayed on the page are not complete. You need to click the full display button in the upper right corner to see the full picture.
