Chapter 260 The first year of abolishing the imperial title
Mid-Autumn Festival.
The weather turned colder and Hangzhou was captured without any blood. The entire Ming Dynasty was filled with joy.
Zhu Yihai was naturally not stingy with the soldiers in the towns besieging the city. Each of the tens of thousands of troops was given ten days' salary and a set of autumn clothes. The auxiliary soldiers with the lowest military pay also received a tael of silver.
"A total of ten intact red cannons, eight bronze cannons, eighteen Fran machines, one hundred and sixty-two Weiyuan cannons, one hundred and twenty other tiger-crouching cannons, and one thousand two cannons were seized
Hundreds of doors, more than 100,000 catties of gunpowder and lead bullets..."
"In addition, a lot of cotton armor, iron armor, cloth armor, leather armor, etc. were seized, with a total of more than 10,000 sets."
When Yu Dafu reported the report, his voice was trembling with excitement. Taking Hangzhou was equivalent to picking up a treasure trove. After all, this was an important town where the Tatars passed through the southeast after they went south. Previously, Bolo led his army south and stationed here for a few months before leaving.
At that time, many ordnance supplies were not taken away. For example, more than 300 artillery pieces of various types were all left in Hangzhou. Except for about 30 pieces that were damaged, the rest were intact.
There are also more than 10,000 sets of various types of armor.
As for swords, guns, arrows, gunpowder, etc., they are even more gratifying.
Zhu Yihai's imperial camp now has a low armor rate, and now it has made a huge fortune.
Many of the cannons in Hangzhou City were forged in Guangdong and Fujian during the Tianqi and Chongzhen years, and the Ming Dynasty. They are basically imitations of the Red Yi cannons, but many are smaller. There are many thousand-jin cannons, and some hundreds of kilograms.
and lighter cannons weighing several hundred kilograms, and there are also many Fran cannons.
These cannons are complex, but they are still treasures for today's Ming army.
Especially the ten Hongyi cannons, which still have gun emblems on them. The original naval guns produced by the Dutch gun factory somehow arrived in Fujian, and then were escorted to Beijing by Fujian Governor Xiong Wencan during the Chongzhen period, and then all the way to Hangzhou.
The standard 18-pound naval gun is quite powerful. Zhu Yihai had taught him before and destroyed a 24-pound cannon.
The maximum range is more than ten miles, and the effective range is about two or three miles. It is definitely useful for attacking cities and villages, but it is a bit too bulky.
"Dismantle all the cannons and transport them to the naval ships on the Qiantang River."
Zhu Yihai recently spent several nights chatting with Bi Fanji and his mercenary captains, and gained a deeper understanding of the artillery and firearms of this era, as well as the new tactics of firearms.
He accepted Lao Bi's suggestion and planned to set up an artillery unit in the army. It would not be a separate town like Shenji Town before, but an attached artillery unit would be built under each town in the imperial camp.
The preliminary plan is to establish a new artillery association directly under each town, but the number is still being studied.
In order to maximize the advantages of artillery, Lao Bi suggested not to use too many cannons and make them expensive. Instead, he suggested that he imitate the former King of Sweden, Gustav II, saying that he was a great king of artillery and used artillery to his advantage.
Very profound.
Gustavus II was the first commander in Europe to establish a separate artillery regiment. His artillery regiment had six artillery companies, each company had three legion guns, three lighter regimental guns, and some detonators and
Siege artillery.
His artillery regiment has about 1,200 people. One gun is equipped with a coachman, each legion gun is equipped with a gunner and an assistant, and the heavy artillery is equipped with a gunner and two assistants. Every two guns are equipped with a non-commissioned officer.
Responsible for coordination.
His artillery regiment mainly uses three types of artillery, siege guns, field guns and regimental guns. There are three types of siege guns: 60, 30 and 15. Field guns are 27, 18 and 12. In addition, regimental guns
It was a lighter artillery piece with a bullet weight of three pounds, two for each infantry regiment.
Both field artillery and regimental artillery use grapeshot and shotgun shells, and are positioned to support the infantry's melee kills, while siege artillery uses large projectiles.
In the later period, Gustavus II abandoned most of the guns and retained only three types of guns. Three-pounders were equipped to the regiments, two for each regiment, for field support.
The twenty-four-pounder cannon was used for sieges.
In addition, twelve-pound guns are retained, which can be used for sieges and field battles, and are convenient for transportation and maneuvering.
The remaining giant mortars that can fire sixty-pound stone bullets, the overweight 32-pound long cannon, etc. were discarded to emphasize their maneuverability. At the same time, the lighter leather cannons in the past were also eliminated, leaving only three
kind.
Therefore, Lao Bi suggested that Zhu Yihai would only use these three types of artillery in the future. The three-pound bronze cannon only weighed more than 300 kilograms, and the cast iron cannon only weighed more than 200 kilograms. Four soldiers or one horse could move it in the field.
Zhu Yihai's imperial camp adopts the Zhenxie standard camp system, which is basically a battalion of 500 soldiers. If a battalion can be equipped with two three-pound cannons, it will be really strong.
Among the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty before, there were chariot camps, which were firearms units, but they were mainly equipped with Tiger Crouching, Franconian, and some general cannons, which were basically cannons ranging from tens to hundreds of kilograms.
, their disadvantages are that they have a shorter range and weaker power than the three-pounder cannon.
The three-pounder cannon has a maximum range of nearly five miles and an effective range of nearly three hundred meters. Therefore, in field battles, it is far more powerful than cannons such as the Tiger Crouching Cannon.
Of course, if you are very rich and have overflowing artillery, you can indeed equip some Tiger Crouching and Small Franchise aircraft, which can be used as sentinel-level firepower or even team-level pre-battle fire support. When in battle, you can put on shotguns and spray a large area.
, of course, if you are really assigned to the sentry post, the cost will be high, let alone joining the team.
In the most ideal situation, for example, Zhu Yihai's Ten Town Imperial Camp, if Shenji Town is positioned as a pure firearms support unit, equipped with enough 24-pound cannons for siege, and even some larger mortars, etc., with
Having enough musketeers can play a very powerful role in legion battles.
In other towns, each battalion is equipped with two three-pound auxiliary guns for fire support. For the sentry below, more than 100 people are equipped with two hundred-pound cannons, or directly equipped with a few tiger squatting guns that only weigh more than thirty kilograms.
, the kind that can be carried and walked without the need for a cart or horse is even stronger.
In this way, heavy artillery is deployed in Shenji Town when attacking the city, while the largest artillery in other towns is only an attached three-pounder. A carriage can pull it and four people can move it, so maneuvering is not affected.
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This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Another advantage of such simplification is that it is more convenient and faster to manufacture cannons with only these three types of cannons, and even the cannonballs are more versatile and convenient to use.
For example, the three-pounder cannon basically uses shotgun shells, which can be used with the Tiger Crouching. Just carry one type of ammunition, which saves you a lot of trouble.
Other large and small Franchise guns, Weiyuan cannons, general cannons, bamboo cannons, etc., can all be eliminated, or only used to defend the city from the rear, without moving, and supplies, etc. are not that troublesome.
After all, the maximum lead fired by a Franco machine cannon of several hundred kilograms is only one kilogram, and the range is still within a hundred feet. If shotgun shells are used, the effective range will be even closer.
They will not be able to exert the true power of the artillery.
During the Tianqi period, many red barbarian cannons, also known as Western cannons, were imitated, and were even divided into five or six grades according to weight, No. 1 Western cannons weighing more than 1,000 kilograms, No. 2 Western cannons weighing more than 500 kilograms and less than 1,000 kilograms, and medium-sized Western cannons weighing more than 500 kilograms.
A small Western cannon weighing more than 300 kilograms, and even smaller ones.
During the Chongzhen period, more and more Hongyi cannons were imitated by Fujian and Guangdong, and their weights became heavier and heavier, ranging from three thousand to four thousand kilograms. At this time, it was possible to imitate eighteen-pound long cannons.
However, although Chongzhen once wanted to build a new artillery army and fully cast muskets and artillery, the various specifications were confusing, and the new army of Denglai rebellion went to sea to surrender, and it was later abandoned.
"The ten intact 18-pound Hongyi cannons captured in Hangzhou were given to the imperial navy in Dinghai Town to be equipped on the new Big Bird ship. The other cannons from Tiger Crouching can be kept and distributed to the imperial camp to serve as sentry cannons.
Equipped with two sentries and shotgun close combat support."
"The rest of the various mortars, Weiyuan guns, Franco machines, etc. were all shipped to Zhoushan to enhance Zhoushan's city defense and fortress shore defense firepower."
The twenty-six three-pound cannons from Macau were first given to the flag bearers of the imperial infantry and warrior towns. As for the remaining twenty-five 24-pound cannons, they were all assigned to Shenji Town to form siege artillery.
mark.
The artillery factory to be built in Zhoushan is tentatively designated as five factories. The first factory specializes in casting 24-pound long guns, the second factory casts 12-pound cannons, the third factory casts 3-pound auxiliary guns, the fourth factory casts whistle-type tiger crouching guns, and the fifth factory casts
Fortress artillery for coastal and city defense.
Zhu Yihai gave the gunners from Macau a very high salary. Each of them was required to bring two Ming army assistants to teach them by word of mouth and hands-on training. Zhu Yihai gave these gunners nine taels of silver per month and another one tael.
Coaching fees.
That's ten taels of silver a month, twice as much as the 4 taels and five earned by a first-class soldier in the Ming army.
But as a technical branch, they enjoy the treatment of non-commissioned officers, and if the gunners of the Ming Army pass the test and become coaches, they will also receive subsidies.
A cannon cost five thousand taels of silver to buy. How could Zhu Yihai be reluctant to spend another ten taels of silver a month to hire a cannon?
The commander-in-chief of each town was originally very jealous of the hundreds of cannons captured in Hangzhou, and wanted to divide them into dozens of cannons per family, but who expected this to be the final result.
Everyone's dreams were shattered by the bombardment, so they had no choice but to turn to the captured armor, swords, and guns.
You even asked Zhu Yihai to preside over it.
Zhu Yihai was very fair. With more than 10,000 sets of armors of various types, the good ones were basically distributed to the towns of the Imperial Camp, and the remaining ones were given to the Jingying and Zhejiang Camps.
Each town in the Beijing camp was only allocated a thousand sets, of which only about half were the better cotton armors, which was enough to equip two new combat battalions, adding 20% to the armor coverage rate of each battalion.
Everyone was very happy during this Mid-Autumn Festival. Even the Beijing camp and the Zhejiang camp were each assigned two thousand sets of armor and many swords and guns, and everyone was satisfied.
At the celebration banquet on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the first assistant took the lead in petitioning for the change of the Yuan Dynasty. The previous year was called Shaotian, and this year was the first year of Shaotian. The Shaotian Datong calendar was issued to the supervisory country.
Last year was the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, and this year was the first year of Hongguang. But now the petition from the academicians is tantamount to abolishing the Hongguang reign, or even promising to be the Hongguang Dynasty after Chongzhen, let alone serve as the five-day prisoner. King Lu of the country.
Seventeen years after Chongzhen, it was the first year of Shaotian, the governor of Lu.
Previously, Zhu Yihai still respected Hongguang as Emperor Sheng'an and adopted the title of the first year of Hongguang. Now, after taking Hangzhou, the academicians suddenly made such a request.
Is it floating, or is it supposed to be like this?
Zhu Yihai held a wine glass in his hand and looked at the expectant eyes of all the civil servants and military generals.
"Yes, this year will be regarded as the first year of Shaotian's reign, and the name will be changed and updated."
With Zhu Yihai's reply, the Ming Dynasty officially no longer recognized the throne of Hongguang Emperor Zhu Yousong. Just like after Zhu Di won the throne at the Battle of Jingnan, his descendants and emperors also never recognized Jianwen's throne. .
Emperor Jingtai had better luck. Although Yingzong seized the throne and dethroned his throne, his son Xianzong still restored his uncle Jingdi's position as emperor after he succeeded. Go to the temple and take the name Dai Zong.
The Hongguang Emperor was originally reasonable and legal, but it collapsed in less than a year. In the eyes of the people at the time, both Hongguang and the Hongguang Dynasty were guilty of the Ming Dynasty, the country, and the people.
Now that the situation is so good, everyone is no longer willing to recognize Emperor Hongguang and his collapsed Hongguang Dynasty.
