Chapter 54 It's not your temper that you can't get the armor
Chen Shuren changed the topic, his original intention was just to avoid reciting poems.
But I didn't expect that Zuo Zixiong, a rough man, and Pizarro, a barbarian, would actually discuss the art of killing at the Mid-Autumn Festival wine table.
Chen Shuren could clearly feel Chen Yuanyuan in his arms and Dong Xiaowan leaning on his other shoulder. After listening to a few words, he shrank a little.
Chen Shuren forcefully tightened his arms around Chen Yuanyuan's waist to calm down Chen Yuanyuan. Shen Shuren also whispered in his ear just right:
"If you want to stay with me in Huangzhou, you have to slowly get used to this kind of talk. I'm not here to plunder people's wealth, I'm here to lick the blood of the knife to save the country and the people."
The girl who was originally trembling felt very at ease after hearing his domineering and firm words, and she felt a little more admired. So this is the real life of a frontline magistrate.
On the other side, Zuo Zixiong explained eloquently: "Sir, I heard that you hired Pizarro to teach you how to train the country warriors in the formation battle with guns and spears.
But this afternoon, he and I just briefly observed the local soldiers' musketry drill, and found that many of his suggestions were empty talk and misplaced the work——
My Ming bird gunners always fire a volley when the enemy is within fifty paces, divided into two teams, with the front row taking aim and the rear row charging. Or within seventy paces, we divide into three teams. After firing the volley, the enemy will not retreat. Need to be prepared for physical combat.
But this Pizarro instructor insists that in France, the turtle dove gun is the main weapon, and the musketry team can fire a volley together, load the ammunition at the same time, and fire from a distance of 200 yards, which is equivalent to the 140 steps of our Ming Dynasty. Fire as many rounds as you can until the enemy approaches and they fall into melee combat with spears.
The general thought that this method was extremely ridiculous. Bird muskets and turtle dove muskets were far less accurate than crossbows and had no accuracy beyond a hundred steps. It was a complete waste of ammunition and gave the enemy a chance to get closer."
The steps of the Ming Dynasty were one step each for the left and right feet, which is equivalent to about four square feet. Two hundred yards to the west is about 182 meters, almost 140 steps.
Shen Shuren listened very carefully, and his first reaction was to support Zuo Zixiong's point of view.
Because when I was studying in my previous life, I had the impression that the accuracy of the musket era was so bad. If you could shoot accurately at a few dozen meters, it would be good, but if it was more than a hundred meters, wouldn't it be nonsense?
Even if the kinetic energy of the projectile is enough to kill, it will either fly into the sky or roll and embed in the ground, which is completely useless. The error in the left and right directions is better, and you can still count on the enemy's dense formation to hit the enemy soldiers beside you.
The musket tactics mentioned by Zuo Zixiong are now very orthodox and are called the "Fan Di method". This tactic was used from the middle of the Ming Dynasty until the reign of Qi Jiguang.
In the early Ming Dynasty, there was also a "stacking method" tactic invented by Mu Ying, that is, after loading all the muskets, they fired them in batches to ensure the continuity of firepower at extremely close range. Unlike Japan The "three-step attack" that appeared during Oda Nobunaga's time is similar.
However, the stacking method is not mainstream. Firearms in the early Ming Dynasty were basically ready for close combat after one round, and repeated reloading was basically not considered. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the reloading speed of muskets became faster, and the demand for reloading on the battlefield became stronger, so it became more common. Use the "batch delivery method".
After Chen Shuren followed them to review the past and learn new things, he curiously asked Pizarro on the other side:
"Mr. Pizarro, why do you suggest that our cannon team should train to fire from a distance of 140 steps? Don't you know that the cannons at this distance have no accuracy at all?"
Pizarro stood up, made a half-bow, and said in a strange Chinese accent: "Dear Sir Tongzhi, decades ago, or even last century, our traditional Spanish phalanx was also
Only within a hundred yards or closer should you consider firing.
And if both sides are infantry, they can maintain this distance and shoot at each other for a long time, until one side cannot hold on anymore and collapses. If the other side is cavalry, they will approach quickly at any cost and be forced to charge into our melee spearmen.
However, since the war between Lutherans and Catholics broke out in our Holy Roman Empire about ten years ago, the scale of the warring parties has become larger and larger, and it is no longer a war between traditional knights and the king's mercenaries.
The armor of these soldiers was getting worse and worse, and many German musketeers even wore no armor at all. As a result, both warring parties found that the muskets no longer required the use of large lead bullets of more than one ounce like the original use of plate armor knights.
You can use a bunch of small lead bullets or even shotgun shells. After firing, a piece of shotshell fragments will be caught, which can seriously injure a musketeer militia and lose their combat effectiveness. In this way, using a heavy turtledove gun, you can completely shoot at a distance of 200 yards.
Maintain a decent hit rate."
What Pizarro said was reasonable and well-founded. Shen Shuren analyzed it and found it quite reasonable.
The key was Pizarro's words, which reminded him of a video of a historical science popularizer named "Franklin 0793" that he had seen on the station in his previous life.
"There is a rumor that has been circulating on the Chinese Internet for a long time, that is, as long as it is an ancient musket, the hit rate is pitifully low, which is why the queuing shooting tactic of winning by quantity was born."
The key reason why this logic can deceive many people at first glance is that it ignores one factor - no one stipulates that a musket can only hold one bullet.
What if the musket uses the "Buck & Ball" mode, that is, a single bullet is pressed on the top to ensure excitation efficiency and air tightness, followed by a bunch of small shotshells?
The hit rate of any single bullet is indeed pitifully low, but as long as it is hit by a bullet spray, the opponent will be severely disabled even if it is not dead. Actual combat is not an FPS game with a bright health bar.
In fact, relevant experts later took out muskets from before the 18th century and conducted actual tests with the tactics of loading shotguns. They found that at a distance of 100 yards, aiming at a square target with a side length of 25 cm, the hit rate could be as high as 80%.
!
Of course, this 80% does not mean that "80% of the projectiles hit the target", but that "in 80% of the number of shots, at least one shot fragment is guaranteed to hit the target", and on average
Generally, two pieces of shrapnel can hit the target. As for the ballasted single-point bullet on top, the hit rate is still horribly low, only a few 20%.
Those experts later conducted a musket test at a distance of 200 yards, and they were still able to guarantee that one-third of the firing rate would result in "at least one shot shell being caught."
Chen Shuren had seen these popular science literacy videos in his previous life, but after coming to the Ming Dynasty, he didn't think about it at first, nor did he think deeply about why this "long-range early fire" tactic didn't become popular in the Ming Dynasty.
At this moment, being reminded by Pizarro and confirmed by each other, he suddenly realized that this kind of ammunition distribution tactic had only just sprouted in the West during the Thirty Years' War.
Because before the Thirty Years' War began in 1618, European warfare mainly relied on knights and mercenaries.
Full-body plate armor appeared in Europe after about 1450. From 1450 to 15XX, it was the most glorious moment for European full-body plate armor knights. However, this moment was relatively short-lived, and it was slowly eliminated by muskets after a few decades.
Early muskets had to rely on high-power single-point bullets because the small shotguns had insufficient kinetic energy and insufficient strength, and had no killing effect on plate armor.
When the two warring parties turned into a peasant religious war and the German musketeers were all without armor, shotguns began to have a role.
Therefore, Shen Shuren's thinking gradually became clear:
Whether you can use shotgun instead to increase the number of hit determinations is not decided by the user, but by your enemy.
The Ming army was slow to switch to shotguns on a large scale because the equipment of the Qing army in this era was far from what it used to be. The Qing army began to wear a large number of cotton armor with mesh patterns embedded with iron sheets.
The so-called "cotton armor has a miraculous effect on firearm defense" in history books does not mean that cotton armor can prevent single-point bullets, but rather means that cotton armor can prevent small shrapnel that depends on quantity.
(Note: The kinetic energy of a single-head bullet cannot even be prevented by full-body plate armor. Even if it is a steel plate of more than three millimeters, if it is hit without penetrating, it will make a big hole, and the people inside will be hit by a hammer. There were also internal injuries. Therefore, the so-called cotton armor of the Qing army can protect against fire guns, but does not include protection against single-headed bullets)
However, just because shotgun shells are useless against the elites of the Qing army does not mean that they are useless against thieves!
The main culprits such as Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong may have been able to equip their iron-embedded cotton armor by capturing the Ming army.
What about second- and third-tier thieves like Gezuo Wuying?
As the leader of the fifth battalion of Gezuo, Ma Shouying was considered a second-tier bandit, and perhaps his direct henchmen also had iron-embedded cotton armor.
But Liu Xiyao and Lin Chengcheng were only considered to be below average in the fifth battalion of Gezuo. To put it bluntly, they were third-line thieves. Apart from officers, most of their troops would not have iron-embedded cotton armor!
Moreover, they are still fighting in the mountainous areas all year round. They have been repeatedly surrounded and defeated before. After repeated attacks, they probably have no way to supply sophisticated equipment.
Even if he had iron armor when he was in glory, he might have used it lightly when he fled into the mountains, throwing away his armor and discarding it.
Thinking of this, Chen Shuren's inner desire to equip the musketeers with some shotguns became stronger than ever.
He also felt a little regretful - when Marshal Qi Jiguang and Qi were annihilating the Japanese pirates, they should have switched to shotguns on a large scale! The Japanese wild warriors who came to China to plunder basically had no armor, or only bamboo armor! That kind of weak defense , is simply the best place for shotguns to show off their power.
For enemies without armor, the armor-breaking efficiency of firepower must be reduced in exchange for higher firepower density.
When Chen Shuren thought of this, he immediately turned to Zhao Yunfan and asked sincerely:
"Zhixian County Zhao, I suddenly thought of a question. You have been in Huangzhou for many years and have dealt with various departments of the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo, right? Liu Xiyao, the Lin Training Department, what proportion of them can roughly equip cotton armor? Can you Know?"
Zhao Yunfan was stunned. He had been admiring the moon and the beauties just now. He never expected that Lord Tongzhi would actually be really concerned about state affairs during the Mid-Autumn Festival and the beautiful scenery.
He could only say with shame: "Please forgive me, I am really not familiar with these military affairs details, so I can't know..."
As a civil servant, he could only care about how many enemies there were. As for how many enemies could wear iron-embedded cotton armor, he never expected to care about them.
Chen Shuren shook his head helplessly: "That's all, let's not talk about this anymore, let's just enjoy the moon tonight, Zuo Zixiong, Pizarro, you two go to the school grounds with me tomorrow, and we will actually review and deduce it.
By the way, Shen Fu, when we were recruiting troops a few days ago, we recruited those who claimed to be dock laborers but did not know how to swim, and claimed to be hunters but did not know how to shoot arrows. Have you finished screening them? If you find out about the meticulous work of Liu Xiyao's men, please A good torture, just in time to pry out Liu Xiyao's ordnance preparation information."
Zuo Zixiong and other three people all agreed to take orders one after another. Shen Shuren was chatting and laughing happily, and his command was very neat, which was even better than that of Xie An, Yu Yunwen and other Confucian generals.
Chen Yuanyuan and Dong Xiaowan watched from the side, with a mist of mist and love in their eyes.
"He is really versatile in both civil and military affairs. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, in front of the flowers and under the moon, he ordered these killings with such bravery and handsomeness that he didn't feel like it was a disgrace at all..."