Eight hundred and fiftieth chapters flintlock gun debut
The task assigned by Li Xuan to the Ministry of Industry is that the annual output must reach at least 100,000 units!
Considering the size of the army, navy, and guards of the Tang Dynasty, and considering the number of troops required after unifying China, it is very necessary to maintain more than 500,000 flintlock muskets, and such a huge amount cannot be maintained at present.
Even if the output of the arsenal is fully produced, it will take more than ten years!
It was almost unimaginable for a huge empire to be able to gather so many muskets ten years later.
And even if the production is expanded to 100,000 per year, it will still require continuous production for five years, which is actually not enough.
Under extreme conditions, Li Xuan estimated that the output would have to reach more than 200,000 units a year, which would barely meet the status of the Tang Empire!
Of course, the above-mentioned output refers to the maximum output during wartime. In peacetime, the consumption of guns is not large, mainly due to normal replacement. Naturally, the output will not be that high.
However, the output during peacetime is generally okay, but there must be a foundation that can significantly increase the output of ordnance in a short period of time during wartime.
Therefore, the expansion of major arsenals under the Ministry of Industry has never stopped. Their output is more and more every month. When the annual output reaches 100,000 pieces, it is only a matter of time, and this time will not
It's too long, maybe it can be achieved within a year or two.
But this is all for the future. For now, let alone an annual output of 100,000 pieces, even large-scale replacement of flintlock guns is unrealistic.
According to the most optimistic estimates, the Army will not be able to start equipping flintlock guns on a large scale until next year, and all the production at the end of this year will be taken by the Guards.
However, the absence of flintlock muskets does not mean that the army will not fight!
As the weather gets colder and colder, according to the news, it has started to snow in North Zhili, and it will not be long before Shandong and Henan are also expected to enter severe cold weather. The Third Army seized the last moment and launched violent attacks.
The offensive was based on Huai'an, and the troops were divided into two groups, fighting all the way to Fengyang Mansion and all the way to Xuzhou.
When it started to snow in Xuzhou, the red dragon and sword flag of the Third Army was already flying on the top of the city of Xuzhou!
Even Fengyang Mansion fell into the hands of the Third Army. After the Longxing Land of the Zhu Ming Dynasty fell into the hands of the Tang Army, it was said that a great disturbance was caused in the north. However, Emperor Zhengde had already arrived at the Shandong front line to supervise the battle.
But there wasn't much of a response. They just symbolically punished a few relevant officials and then left it alone.
Because at this time, everyone knew that it would be a matter of time before Fengyang fell. If Zhengde was angry, he should have been angry when Yangzhou fell. If he didn't get angry now, it would be too late.
Emperor Zhengde, who is now in Shandong, is focused on military training and preparation for war, integrating troops from all over the country, just to prepare for a decisive battle with the Tang army heading north.
After taking Fengyang and Xuzhou, the Third Army's offensive that lasted for several months was finally over, because at this time, the northern land had already begun to snow heavily, and even some sections of the canal were frozen, making it difficult for material transportation.
Extremely inconvenient.
At the same time, the Third Army, which has been fighting for several months, also needs a certain amount of time to rest and recuperate!
The Third Army, which has been fighting for several months, has accumulated more than 8,000 casualties. For the Ming Army, this number may be nothing, but for the Tang Army, the losses are already relatively large.
The total number of troops is less than 60,000.
That is to say, in the past few months, the rear has continued to replenish the strength of the Third Army. However, even so, the total number of shortcomings in various departments of the Third Army is still about three to four thousand.
What's more important is that the ammunition has been consumed to a certain extent. If you need to continue to launch a large-scale offensive, you need to stock up on ammunition.
The Third Army stopped its actions, but that does not mean that the Tang Army stopped fighting!
The Third Army's suspension of large-scale offensives was already within the Privy Council's predetermined plan. Therefore, when the Third Army ceased large-scale operations, the Privy Council had already officially launched the Anqing Campaign.
The Battle of Anqing naturally focused on conquering Anqing City, but the battle was not just in Anqing City, but spread throughout the long middle reaches of the Yangtze River from Jiujiang to Jinling City.
The Second Army, responsible for operations in this area, launched cross-river campaigns in Wuhu and Chizhou at the same time!
In order to cover the Army's smooth crossing of the river, the Navy's Yangtze River Fleet also made great efforts, pressing all the Yangtze River Fleets that could be mobilized, directly blocking the Anqing Fort, and preventing the Ming Navy's navy from flowing down the river and damaging the Army's crossing of the river.
The Ming Navy also launched a battle, but was resisted by the Yangtze River Fleet. In this naval battle, the second-class river warships of the Tang Navy played a huge role!
More than thirty second-class civil war warships became the core force of this defensive operation. Coupled with the support of seven or eight first-class warships, they successfully blocked the Ming Navy's penetration, and the results were not small.
Under the cover of the navy, the main force of the Second Army successfully crossed the river, then headed all the way to Anqing and surrounded the city, while heading westward to Luzhou Prefecture.
It was the 7th Infantry Division of the Second Army that marched westward to Luzhou Prefecture, and there was also a temporary brigade of the Guards Army!
The temporary brigades of the Guards are not the various units of the Guards that were previously sent to Jiangbei to cooperate with the Third Army. The various units of the Guards that cooperated with the Third Army did not continue to fight with the Third Army after the city of Huai'an was captured.
Instead, we first tested back to Jiangnan.
The current temporary brigades of the Guards are temporary units composed of various units drawn from other units in the Guards, specifically for the purpose of coordinating operations.
The three infantry battalions inside were also the first to change their equipment, and they are also the only troops in all the Tang Dynasty king's divisions that have completely changed their flintlock muskets!
Therefore, this temporary brigade of the Guards is different from that of the 7th Infantry Division. The biggest difference is that they do not have a large number of spearmen, and the infantry are almost all musketeers.
However, it is still unknown how much the combat effectiveness of the Guards has been improved. This is because the full replacement of flintlock muskets and the preparation of new types of troops have not been carried out in actual combat before, and this is the first time.
Near Lujiang County in the south of Luzhou Prefecture, a group of more than a hundred Guards soldiers were marching in the cold wind!
The Temporary Guards Brigade is preparing to capture Lujiang County, but now, they are serving as a peripheral reconnaissance force, marching westward to investigate several roads that the subsequent army will pass through, to prevent the Ming army from ambushing in these places.
They braved the cold wind and marched forward. Although the wind was not strong, it was still biting and the sky was gloomy. It looked like it wanted to rain. It rained in the winter. This kind of thing is not funny. If this happens,
After getting wet, even if the soldiers of the Guards are in good physical condition, they will inevitably suffer from injuries.
So a Guards captain who was leading the team looked at the sky. It was already approaching evening, and it looked like it would rain tonight. If the camp was not prepared in advance, I would probably have a difficult day. Then he looked around.
He immediately said: "Go to the village in front, we will spend the night there tonight!"
After the order was issued, the more than a hundred Guards soldiers in black military uniforms continued on the road carrying flintlock rifles. It didn't take long for them to approach a small village ahead.
The village ahead was not big, probably only a few dozen families, but when they got closer, the captain who led the team raised his hand on horseback to signal the troops to stop advancing.
His intuition told him that something was not normal about the village ahead, because he did not see any villagers in the farmland outside the village!
Immediately, he took out a telescope. As the commander of the forward force, he was equipped with an extra telescope. Otherwise, even in the Guards, there are only battalion commanders, regimental commanders, regimental chiefs of staff, etc.
Only a few officers were able to obtain telescopes.
After observing the village ahead with a telescope, although he did not see any enemy troops, he found nothing, which made him even more alert.
He immediately waved his hand, and then said: "Reconnaissance Cavalry, go check out the situation, pay attention to safety!"
Immediately, the two soldiers behind him got on their horses and approached at high speed to watch the situation. Of course, they did not stupidly run directly into the village, but ran around and watched on the outside.
At this moment, a burst of gunfire suddenly rang out in the village, hitting one of the cavalry. The scout was frightened to death, and he turned around and quickly left.
There is indeed an ambush!
After the captain of the Guards made his preliminary judgment, he immediately ordered: "Formation, defensive formation!"
When he gave the order, hundreds of Ming soldiers came out of the village more than a hundred meters away. Not only did these Ming soldiers number more than 500, but half of them were holding muskets.
And it’s a tight formation!
As soon as he saw these people, the captain of the Guards immediately judged that they were the bandit-breaking army of the Ming army, and they were a whole battalion of bandit-breaking army.
Nowadays, in the vicinity of Anqing Prefecture and Luzhou Prefecture, the only Ming army with such standard organization and matchlock equipment is the bandit-breaking army under Yu Dayou.
This army, like Zhang Yue's supervisor, is already an old opponent of the Tang Army. Regarding their establishment, general situation and even the main generals, the Tang Army has collected a lot of intelligence.
The organization of the Ming Army's Bandit-breaking Army and Zhang Yue's Supervisory Standard almost completely copied the Tang Dynasty Army. Although the names were a little different, they basically followed the basic organization of the Tang Dynasty's platoons, teams, battalions, and regiments.
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The Ming army on the opposite side rushed over, trying to launch a forceful attack with their superior strength. If it were normal times and ordinary Datang Army troops came, they would probably be in danger.
But today, they faced the Guards, and they were the Guards who had finished changing their uniforms!
When the Ming army rushed over, the guards of this team quickly formed three rows of standard horizontal formations, and then started shooting!