After more than half a year of development since entering Henan, the strength of the Little Tigers has grown from the level of a hundred people in the past to 300 combat soldiers and 700 auxiliary soldiers, with a total strength of about 1,000. And it has benefited from the Yiling Celebration.
At the banquet, Luo Rucai rewarded the hundreds of firearms, and Li Laiheng also coerced and intimidated Fang Yiren to coach the officers and soldiers, so that the three hundred elite soldiers of the Little Tigers formed a firecrackers team.
Let’s not talk about the issue of artillery. Anyway, all the cannons of the Chuang Army were given to Luo Rucai in Yiling. As for the fire cannons, the Ming Army’s fire cannons are mainly divided into two systems: the Northern Army’s three-eyed cannon and the Southern Army’s bird cannon.
In terms of the technical level of the three-eyed blunderbuss and the bird blunderbuss, the bird blunderbuss belonging to the matchlock gun is naturally more advanced than the three-eyed blunderbuss belonging to the fire door gun. But from a tactical point of view, the Ming army in the northern and central armies used three-eyed blunderbuss, while the southern army used the bird blunderbuss.
Guns are more based on considerations of different combat environments and military tactics.
For example, for the Northern Army, it is cold and windy in the north, and the gunpowder requires the gunman to fire it frequently with his hands. In the cold weather, the hands and feet will freeze, which is very inconvenient. Moreover, the wind is strong in the north, and the gunpowder and fuse of the birdgun are easily blown by the wind.
Blow away, affecting the operation of the fire gunman. What's more, the enemies in the north are mainly cavalry. The cavalry attacks quickly and fiercely, and there is insufficient time for the bird gun to be loaded. In comparison, the range and hit rate of the three-eyed gun are far inferior.
Bird blunderbuss, but in the northern combat environment, it can be used as a close-range killing weapon. After quickly releasing the lead within thirty steps, the three-eyed blunderbuss can be used as a sap.
In the south, the enemy mostly fights on foot. The environment is soft and there are many paddy fields and valleys, which naturally facilitates the use of cannons. Moreover, the combat environment in the south is not as open as the north, and is more complex, with a shorter range and a low hit rate.
Eye cannons are naturally inconvenient to use. On the contrary, bird cannons have the advantages of long range and high accuracy, which can be fully utilized in complex combat terrains.
Therefore, in history, although Qi Jiguang, who was born in the Southern Army, emphasized the advantages of bird cannons over three-eyed cannons in every possible way, and even promoted bird cannons among the border troops, he almost reached the point of blackening the region.
The eye blunderbuss is more convenient than the bird blunderbuss. When shooting in the training ground, the bird blunderbuss hits ten times as fast as a gun and five times as fast as a bow and arrow, but I am still dissatisfied."
But in fact, Qi Jiguang, who deeply hated the fire gun, had to retain half of the fast guns suitable for close combat in the cavalry. In Qi Jiguang's "Records of Military Training", he only replaced all the fire blunderbuss in the infantry with three-eyed blunderbuss.
The cavalry still retains firearms such as fast guns and three-eyed blunderbuss.
The batch of firearms that Luo Rucai gave to Li Laiheng were mostly seized from Chu soldiers, and naturally they were mainly bird guns. This was an unexpected surprise for Li Laiheng. At this stage, the Little Tigers still mainly operate in mountainous areas, and their opponents are also mostly
They are the soldiers of the Tujia village who mainly fight on foot, so the use of bird muskets is naturally greater than that of three-eyed muskets.
And according to Li Laiheng's own superficial understanding of the history of firearms development, he always has a simple understanding, that is, he thinks that the bird gun is a matchlock gun after all, so it should be more advanced than the three-eye gun, which is a fire gate gun, right?
After the Little Tigers consolidated their sphere of influence at the southern foot of Funiu Mountain, Li Laiheng ordered Fang Yiren to train the soldiers to learn how to use bird guns. It has to be said that the training of bird guns is indeed better than that of three-eyed guns and other fire portal guns.
Weapons are much more complicated, which can be regarded as a bit of hardship that must be endured in order to be "advanced".
In fact, relatively speaking, in the combat system of the Ming Dynasty's official army, the proportion of firecrackers was far less than that of artillery. However, most of the officers and soldiers could not afford heavy artillery like the one used by Fang Yiren when he attacked Yiling, and even more
Most of them use light artillery that is easy to maneuver in the field, such as small artillery such as the Zimu Cannon, Baizi Cannon, and Tiger Crouching Cannon.
But for Li Laiheng, even the light cannon, the required gunpowder and other materials consumption are not what the Little Tiger Team, which only controls a few cottages, can afford at this time. So he can't afford it.
We cannot learn from the light artillery system used by both the Ming and Qing armies (not to mention that the light artillery system is very restrained by shield vehicles. According to Li Laiheng's memory, the main opponents of the Chuang Army in the future, Sun Chuanting and the Qing Army, both like to use large vehicles)
, we can only put in the effort to train the musketry team.
Among the army, at this stage, only the Little Tiger Squadron, which is developing particularly smoothly at the southern foot of Funiu Mountain, has enough time and material foundation to slowly train the Bird Gun Squadron. So far, Li Laiheng has already combined the three hundred elite troops under his command.
The fighting soldiers were organized into six teams, including a sword team, a gun team, a spear team, a gun team, an archery team and a horse team, plus six to seven hundred militiamen who could cooperate in combat.
It can be regarded as the overlord of one party.
Gao Yigong and Bai Wang went to Xiaohu Village before, but they only took a quick look and were unable to see the strength of the Little Tigers. Now they watched Li Laiheng dispatching troops and saw the troops of the Little Tigers dispatched one by one.
The troops were in good order and the soldiers and horses were strong, which indeed surprised both of them.
Rao Shi Baiwang was in Luanchuan, relying on the advantages of the local commercial center, and was already very rich in materials. At this time, seeing the strength of the Little Tigers after they were fully mobilized, he repeatedly lamented that Li Laiheng was really "well-managed" and made a fortune in Funiu Mountain.
What a fortune.
Gao Yigong also sighed: "I really didn't expect the business of the Little Tigers to be so prosperous! We developed separately, but in just a few months, the number of people under Leghorn has increased from a hundred to
Thousands of people. In comparison, what I did in Xiong'er Mountain was terrible. Not only did the team fail to develop, but it also suffered a lot at the hands of Dazhong and hurt many old brothers from northern Shaanxi in vain!"
Li Laiheng took away most of the capable soldiers of the Little Tiger Squadron, and also transferred half of the militiamen trained by the hungry people, totaling about 500 troops. He ordered Uncle Qing to stay at Xiaohu Village, while Hao Yaoqi and Zhang
Pi Fu followed him on the expedition to Xiong'er Mountain. As for Fang Yiren, originally the scholar should have left him in the village to teach everyone how to read, but Li Laiheng was worried that Fang Yiren was too narrow-minded and might cause trouble in the rear if he did not personally watch over him.
If there was any trouble, they used him as the excuse to coach the Bird Gun Team and asked him to lead the Bird Gun Team to go on an expedition with the army.
Naturally, Fang Yiren complained endlessly. He was a young man from a Tongcheng family. Although he liked military affairs and claimed to know the military. But as the governor's nephew, he went to join the war, and as a prisoner of the bandits, the treatment was much different!
Fang Yiren also wanted to pretend to be ill and find some excuse to deal with Li Laiheng. It would be better to fool him about following the expedition. After all, although his uncle Fang Kong committed suicide, there were still many people from the Fang family in Tongcheng who were officials in the government. Fang Yiren
Even if you don't want to escape from the den of thieves, you don't want to expose your identity and harm your family.
But he also knew that Li Laiheng was a man with deep thoughts, many calculations, and a very deep government. Naturally, he also knew some excuses such as pretending to be ill. Not only could he not fool Mr. Li in the past, but he would also try every possible means to increase his favorability.
Bring it down.
So Fang Yiren had no choice but to grit his teeth, pretend to be generous and calm, and praised: "The tiger commander is like a god with his troops, how can the idle bandits attack me as the tiger commander? Yiren has been riding in front of the horse, following the tiger commander, and annihilated these people.
Wait for the local bandits and bandits to keep the ground peaceful!"
Li Laiheng glanced at Fang Yiren playfully and said jokingly: "You call me Hu Shuai, so what should I call my adoptive father a tiger? Is it possible that he is so young that you will call him Lao Shuai?"
"
Fang Yiren didn't expect that his flattery would fall on the horse's leg, so he had to laugh for a while and then replied: "Since the foster father in charge of the team is a handsome tiger, then naturally the team leader is a handsome young tiger, a handsome young tiger."
"Ha, the Young Tiger and Marshal are here, why the hell don't you call me Young Wolf Master or Young Marshal!"
Li Laiheng laughed playfully. Seeing that Fang Yiren was still well-behaved and obedient, and didn't look like he was trying to cause trouble, he calmed down and asked him to take the musketry team to Xiong'er Mountain together. He thought Fang Yiren was in the battle of Yiling
At that time, Chu Fu Fubiao had also led Fang Kong, and he had mastered a relatively high level of mathematics from Western missionaries. Li Laiheng also felt that it would not be a big problem to let him advise on the affairs of the Bird Gun Team in a short period of time.
.
But thinking about this, Li Laiheng also felt that he had too few people in his pocket. Now the Little Tiger Team has 300 soldiers and 600 auxiliary soldiers. Uncle Qing can only be responsible for some simple chores, and Hao
Although Waoqi was brave and good at fighting, he was just a cavalry general and lacked the style of a general. As for Zhang Pizhu, who was still a young boy, it was not a problem for him to serve as a personal soldier, but it would be difficult for him to lead the army.
There is really a lack of characters in my pocket!
There are highly talented people in the camp who have experienced so many wars and have been placed in suitable positions by Li Zicheng. But now, those who are still wasting their time in the position of low-level soldiers must have their own shortcomings.
Like Hao Yaoqi, who has always had difficulty getting promoted, it is difficult to serve as a general for the time being.
"Brother Gao, the leader of Li Hao Village, I heard from your description that he has the courage and courage of some ancient heroes. I wonder if Brother Gao has a deep understanding of this leader of Li Hao Village to see if he has joined our army.
the meaning of?"
Li Laiheng thought to himself that Li Zicheng himself did not lack the choice of a general. Although there were some gangsters like Tian Jianxiu among the army who got to the top purely by virtue of their popularity and seniority. But others like the sacrificed Liu Zongmin
, Li Laiheng's adoptive father Li Guo, Yuan Zongdi who often teamed up with Tian Jianxiu, and Li Laiheng's gun and stick master Liu Fangliang, they are all generals who can act independently.
But the Little Tigers were completely different. Hao Yaoqi was the only one who could barely handle it. If the battle against Xiong'er Mountain's Pingfeng Village went well, Li Laiheng wanted to see if he could recruit Li Hao, the leader of the village, under his command.
Add depth and thickness to your “talent echelon”.
After Gao Yigong thought carefully for a while, he replied in a deep voice: "Zhai Leader Li has a family, a business, and soldiers, so he may not be willing to live under others. But I think that if our trip to Pingfeng Village goes smoothly, we can
If he shows overwhelming strength, Li Hao may not be swayed. Not only Li Hao, but also other copycats in Xiong'er Mountain may fall with the wind and throw themselves under the banner of our army."