Through comparative experiments, the conclusion was determined: "As long as the production of shotshells can be optimized to produce projectiles that are airtight enough and round enough, a good hit rate can be achieved even from a distance of more than a hundred steps."
Chen Shuren made a prompt decision and arranged for craftsmen to start trial production of sub-caliber lead bullets that were round enough.
On the other hand, he also conducted further tests on the armor-piercing effect of shotguns and conducted further military intelligence espionage work.
The results of the subsequent armor-breaking experiments were not too surprising, everything was quite satisfactory:
After switching to shotgun shells, the killing effect is very good against unarmored targets, even lightly armored targets that are only laminated with hard cotton but not lined with iron sheets, or Japanese pirates' bamboo armor. Well, at least he was seriously injured.
Given the sanitary conditions at the time, there was a high probability of infection even if one did not die.
As for cotton armor lined with iron sheets, shotgun shells cannot penetrate the armor.
In order to conduct a quantitative and accurate analysis, Shen Shuren even had people conduct multiple comparative experiments on the weight of shotgun shells from small to large. Finally, he found that the weight of the shotgun shells must be close to two yuan to have a good armor-piercing rate.
This means that if you use a traditional bird gun or Lumi gun, even if you use shotgun shells of this size, you can only pack two or three shells at most. Compared with single-head bullets, the firepower density has not increased much, and it is basically meaningless.
Therefore, there is no need to consider whether shotgun shells can break iron armor for the time being.
In the above-mentioned related experiments, Shen Shuren had people take various types of scrapped armor pieces, tie them to the bodies of freshly slaughtered pigs, and then fire on the armored pigs. The data is basically reliable.
After the test, the contaminated meat near the lead bullets was slightly cut out, and the remaining pigs could be distributed to the soldiers. Even if there were trace amounts of lead that could not be cleaned up, the soldiers did not care.
This trace amount of lead toxicity will not show up until people get old at least. With the survival rate at the end of the Ming Dynasty, even if the soldiers ate Guanyin soil, they would not live to be old at all.
…
After researching and deploying weapons and tactics, the next key step is to understand your enemy.
There is no best weapon in the world, only the weapon that is most suitable for the battle at hand.
For the time being, Shenshuren cannot use shotgun shells to take into account both firepower density and armor penetration, so they can only hope that the enemy does not have too much heavy armor.
Fortunately, when he orders his subordinates to do things, he always runs multiple lines in parallel, which is quite orderly in modern project management, and there is no such thing as a first-class bottleneck.
As early as the Mid-Autumn Festival Night Banquet, Shen Shuren asked Shen Fu and others to investigate the suspicious recruits recruited during the previous team training.
The specific method of interrogation is nothing more than isolation and examination, repeated fatigue interrogation to find flaws, and then intimidation using prisoner's dilemma words.
Although Shen Shuren had never studied criminal investigation in his previous life, he had enough common sense and had watched many detective and gangster films. He was more than capable of dealing with ancient illiterates.
In two days, Shen Fu really caught seven or eight of the suspects out of the dozens of suspicious persons. After severe interrogation, it was confirmed that they were indeed sent by Liu Xiyao.
These detailed works often have a common feature: they appear to be physically strong, and even have good martial arts skills, but they lie that hunters can't shoot arrows, and that dock workers can't swim.
As for the remaining 20 or so suspicious persons who were screened, although there was also the problem of "inconsistency between skills and identity", re-examination confirmed that they were just idle bastards who were just making a living.
During the review process, it was inevitable that these people would be tortured, but it was not an injustice. Although they were not doing it carefully, they casually reported a false identity and wanted to join the army to get paid. This in itself is a major or minor fault. .
Due to the severity of military law, a beating is completely appropriate. After the beating, you will definitely not be released, so you should stay in the camp to do some hard labor infrastructure work and have enough food to eat.
In the future, we will slowly observe whether they have become more honest, whether they have learned skills properly, and if they have repented, they will be incorporated into official combat personnel.
…
Today is already August 18th.
Early in the morning, Shen Shuren had no time to care about those gangsters, so he only brought all Liu Xiyao's details to the interrogation in person. Those who have not yet had their turn will continue to be detained in isolation to prevent collusion in confessions.
Next to Shen Shuren, stood Shen Fu and a row of powerful servants, all armed with weapons. The security work was very complete.
The first person to be brought up was a tall young man with many signs of being beaten.
"What's your name? How long have you been a thief? Any position?" Shen Shuren didn't bother to read the file, so he asked again, just to get some rhythm and give him more authority.
"Liu San, I have been a thief for two years and served as the sentry commander." Xizuo answered humbly, seemingly completely convinced.
Chen Shuren: "Tell me, how well-armed is this Liu thief? Are the weapons and armor used by the soldiers complete?"
The original weapons and equipment level of Liu Xiyao's department was roughly comparable to that of the officers and soldiers, so the intelligence would not be blinded. However, at the end of last year, Huanggang County was captured and the former prefect Yan was killed, and all the weapons and inventory of Huangzhou Prefecture were seized by Liu Xiyao. .
Although Chen Shuren had some of the accounts obtained by Zhao Yunfan, he did not dare to believe them all. Who knew how serious the deficit in the accounts of military equipment in various places was in the late Ming Dynasty, and how much was lost in battles.
For these data, it is better to ask the prisoners directly for first-hand information to be more accurate.
Liu San replied solemnly: "I only know that my department has a set of cotton armor with iron bars, and the other commanders only have cotton and leather armor without iron bars. Ordinary soldiers can just grab whatever they want." What to wear.
Swords, guns, bows and crossbows are sufficient, but most of the arrows are bald and hairless. As for the muskets, there seem to be some in the army, but we sentries have never touched them. We don't know about the rest of the troops."
Chen Shuren turned his head slightly and lowered his voice: "Did you remember it?"
Shen Fu nodded slightly and said, "I'll remember it."
Chen Shuren nodded and continued to torture Liu San:
"Okay, I will ask others later. If it is different from what you said, some of you will inevitably get a whipping. There is also a question, why are you sent to investigate this time?"
Liu San did not dare to resist, so he said as if he was pouring beans out of a bamboo tube: "Liu Shuai... Oh no, I mean Liu Thief sent us here. He said he heard that Qishui was recruiting local braves and wanted to see if he could sneak in new recruits. Gain trust and serve as an internal response when attacking the city in the future and open the city gate."
Chen Shuren raised his eyebrows and said solemnly: "Liu Xiyao is coming to attack the city? When?"
Liu San had a bitter look on his face: "I really don't know these things, I'm just a sentry commander."
Chen Shuren's heart trembled: "That's all, let's answer the last question - who else is on top of your visit this time, or who will you listen to?"
Liu San subconsciously trembled and quickly denied: "I don't know what the adults mean. We all work on our own and don't listen to anyone."
Chen Shuren waved his hand angrily, and Shen Fu understood this, and immediately went over and whipped him until his skin and flesh were torn apart.
After Chen Shuren finished the beating, he took a silk scarf to cover his nose and said:
"If you want to seize the door, only seven or eight people can do it? Besides, you still don't know how you were exposed, right? I'm not afraid to tell you now. You have no chance to collude with me anyway.
I just caught you guys because you lied about being a dock worker but you can't swim, and you lied about being an Orion but you don't have good shooting skills. However, I believe that among the craftsmen, there must be a lot of versatile people. Nowadays, It has only been two days, and those people must not have been exposed yet.
You are afraid of offending others and want to protect your original comrades. I will not stop you. However, as long as any of the other isolated agents cannot withstand the torture, I have helped my officer capture those versatile agents who have not yet been exposed.
Then, I will definitely kill all the others who keep their mouths shut, leaving only the obedient ones. If you don’t want to die, you can take a bet on whether all of your original lords are tough!"
After Shen Shuren asked, Liu San's expression changed drastically. Shen Fu on the side also showed a shy expression.
Time was still too hasty, and I hadn't had time to think: Since I could catch such a stupid actor, then there must be those actors with good acting skills and versatile talents who have not been exposed and are still among the recruits!
I didn't expect to follow the clues right away, and I'm really ashamed.
Next time the young master leaves this kind of interrogation to himself, he will have to be more discerning and experienced.
Shen Fu was still blaming himself, but Liu San could no longer stand the scare and directly gave some names and described the appearance.
Shen Shuren gave Shen Fu a look, and he immediately went to the camp with Shen Shuren's warrant, and soon captured more than thirty people.
Of course, this time he learned his lesson and didn't bring everyone with him, so among the more than thirty newly captured agents, neither one of them knew which of them had been exposed and which had not yet been exposed.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, this is ridiculous. Since we want to seize the door, only seven or eight people can come to seize the butt? Only thirty or forty people can barely take the gamble. It feels a bit like Zhang Xianzhong's accomplices."
In history, Zhang Xianzhong was a bandit, and he often did this kind of thing. Zhang Xianzhong deceived Xiangyang to kill the vassal king, which is a classic example of this.
Chen Shuren sat firmly on the Diaoyutai, very satisfied with the latest result, "Go, give everyone a good beating first and then ask questions. Such stubborn people will not be beaten to death so easily."
Chen Shuren made a pot of tea and took a book. After reading half of the book, Shen Fu came back carrying a big man covered with bruises:
"Master, this must be a big fish. He is a commander in Liu Xiyao's army. Among the officers sent this time, if not the highest, he is not far behind."
Chen Shuren didn't like the smell of blood on the other party's body, so he told Shen Fu: "Ask me, how did Liu Xiyao set his sights on me, when did he become murderous, tell me and spare his life.
If you don't say anything, I will inform Liu Xiyao in the future that he failed to deceive the family because this guy voluntarily surrendered to the army, and Liu Xiyao will kill his whole family."
The thief's military commander was a bit stubborn, and he had no temper when being dealt with like this.
After a while, Shen Fu came back to report: "Master, let me ask you clearly. Ten days ago, a group of family members of a local wealthy family wanted to go over the mountains to Luotian County, hoping to find a way out of Huangzhou from there, but they were killed by Liu Xiyao. The scout caught him.
That group of local wealthy people were actually followers of the deceased Yuan Zhongyi. Friends, they suspected that Yuan Zhongyi's death was related to you, Master, and wanted to report the news to Yuan Jixian and Yuan Daotai after they escaped. After being captured, they said that they knew important military information and were willing to surrender. Liu Xiyao just wanted to avoid death.
Liu Xiyao learned about the current situation in Qizhou from those people, and also learned that the young master has been expanding the team training recently, so he sent a spy to sneak in and establish a foothold, and cooperate with the inside and outside. "
After hearing this, Chen Shuren did not feel happy about eradicating the internal trouble. Instead, he frowned: "This is not a good thing. If these details go well, maybe Liu Xiyao will attack in advance. We have only been training for a few days, and there is no time for new ammunition. How much to produce.
But if Liu Xiyao knew that all the tricks he had done to make money were finished, he might give up the attack; but he might also think that I am a ruthless character who wants to jump over the wall and strangle me when I am weak at all costs. In this case, he would still speed up the attack.
If there was a way to stabilize Liu Xiyao and make him feel that "everything is under control, but there are just a few twists and turns, and it takes a little more time to slowly gain the trust of the general", that would be great...
That way we can ensure that if we want Liu Xiyao to attack quickly, he will attack quickly, and if we want him to attack slowly, he will attack slowly."
Shen Fu scratched his head beside him and thought it was impossible: "Master, is this impossible?"
Chen Shuren touched his regretful beard and said, "Let me think about it."