I want to be emperor

Chapter 22

Things like weapons and equipment will wear out during daily use and combat, and the number of wear and tear is not small.

For example, knives, the most common cold weapon equipment, even Sun Jianli and his elite cavalry are equipped with good knives with steel-clad blades, but after many chops, the blades will still curl or even bend and break.

As for the iron knives that most ordinary soldiers are equipped with, it is not to mention that they will be bent and broken if they are cut twice.

This is true of knives, and the same is true of other weapons and equipment.

Therefore, after a battle, there will often be a large number of damaged weapons that need to be repaired.

This is also the reason why ancient armies often brought blacksmiths, in order to be able to repair swords and weapons anytime and anywhere.

There were originally two blacksmiths in Sun Chengli's group, and those who broke through the siege in Henan Province took them with them, but unfortunately, when they broke through Chen Zhibang's interception in Ruzhou, the two blacksmiths were all separated. I don't know whether they were killed by officers and soldiers or escaped during the breakout process.

Anyway, no one was there.

This has led to the problems that Luo Zhixue is now facing.

Nowadays, many weapons and equipment in the army need to be repaired, but there is not a single blacksmith in the army.

Luo Zhixue also inquired from prisoners of war, and the results he got made Luo Zhixue helpless, and even Sun Chengli was speechless when he found out.

Because Fan Dilong and his group also had a blacksmith, and they just snatched a blacksmith and brought them back on the way, but when they invaded Sanshui Village, the blacksmith was shot by the cavalry under Sun Jianli's command. one arrow...

And then no more!

Sun Chengli sighed and said, "Damn it, since he is a blacksmith, why didn't he say it earlier, if he really wants to say that he is a blacksmith, the brothers under him are not ignorant, how could they shoot him!"

Luo Zhixue said: "It's useless now, but the most urgent thing is to find another blacksmith, otherwise our army's damaged ordnance will not be able to be repaired."

After thinking for a while, Luo Zhixue said again: "I still have to find some iron materials."

Sun Chengli said: "Although iron materials are hard to find, you can find some with more effort. If it doesn't work, you can use broken weapons to repair them, but this blacksmith is not easy to find."

Luo Zhixue also knew why Sun Chengli said that.

What is the most precious thing in troubled times?

Food and weapons!
Needless to say food, let's talk about this weapon.

In the chaotic world, the heroes danced wildly, and each of them needed a weapon in order to recruit soldiers and fight.

Even if you don't have high-end items such as artillery, guns, armor, bows and arrows, you must have ordinary weapons such as swords and spears.

And where did the weapons come from?
In addition to being seized, it is also built by yourself. At the same time, in order to ensure the normal use of weapons and equipment, craftsmen are required to repair these weapons.

Few of the leader of the bandit army and the generals in the official army who can be confused are really fools. They are very aware of the importance of weapons, and even more aware of the importance of craftsmen.

Therefore, in troubled times, skilled craftsmen, especially blacksmiths, are very popular.

How popular is it?
Basically, when a thief leader sees a blacksmith, he will pack up the blacksmith and take him away.

Regardless of whether the other party is willing or not.

Sun Lili and their original two blacksmiths also forcibly packed away the two blacksmiths in the town after breaking through a small town.

Unfortunately, the two blacksmiths disappeared during the breakout battle.

At the same time, a former blacksmith in Funiu Mountain also died in the rebellion, so now Luo Zhixue didn't even have a blacksmith to repair his weapons, let alone Luo Zhixue still relied on the blacksmith to get some artillery and guns.

This year is not the era of pure cold weapons. You can use swords, bows and arrows for small fights, but when you wait for the real battlefield, you will die miserably without artillery.

The frontier troops of the Ming army in Jiliao had long used Hongyi cannons, and there were countless other types of short-barreled small cannons.

In the early years, after the Qi family army of the Ming army was transferred to the Jiliao area, the reason why they could continue to attack the barbarians and guard the frontier was not due to Yuanyang town, Sancai formation, etc., but a large number of light artillery.

The Qi family army directly put a large number of light artillery onto the carriage and played with the artillery cart formation.

This kind of artillery formation has the advantages of high mobility, strong firepower, and the ability to form a defensive formation. It is very useful for dealing with barbarians who are still in the era of cold weapons.

Similarly, the Dongyao in the east of Liaodong, after suffering from the firearms of the Ming army in the past many years, they are also focused on developing firearms, especially heavy artillery.

Dongyao also learned from the Europeans, installing two-wheeled and four-wheeled gun mounts for field maneuvers on the heavy artillery, directly using the long-barreled heavy cannon (Hongyi cannon) as field artillery, and finally succeeded in turning dozens of heavy artillery Pulled directly to the front line of Songjin.

By the time of the Battle of Songjin, although the performance of the firearms and equipment of the Ming and Qing Dynasties was a little bit worse than that of their European counterparts at the same time, the number was not much less.

The two sides fought with guns and guns.

Relying on heavy artillery, Dongyao forcibly broke through the two cities of Tashan and Xingshan, laying the foundation for victory in the Songjin Battle.

On the other hand, the various small-caliber, short-barrel light artillery equipped in a large number in the Ming army was almost useless in this decisive battle between the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and a small number of Hongyi cannons were only used to passively defend the city, and did not can produce decisive results.

By the end of Chongzhen, in terms of the use of firearms, Dongyao had actually greatly surpassed the Ming army. Coupled with Dongyao's original superior cavalry and heavy armored infantry, it was even more difficult for the Ming army to fight against Dongyao.

To be honest, under the superior military pressure of the Eastern Captives, it is very rare for the Ming army to be able to protect Shanhaiguan before Chongzhen hanged himself.

It's not that the Ming army is too scumbag, it's that the Eastern captives have artillery...

Well, this is also self-deception, a dignified Ming Empire who has played with various artillery for more than 200 years, even the Hongyi artillery for decades, its artillery advantage was overtaken by the East in less than ten years. It's beyond... It's embarrassing to say it.

Luo Zhixue knows the importance of guns these days. Although they are just a group of small rebels now, who said rebels can't use guns?
Luo Zhixue was still hoping to get a batch of guns, and play a wave of queuing up to shoot them later.

Sun Chengli and his group actually used firearms when guarding the frontier, such as the three-eyed blunderbuss and the like, but they were later transferred to the interior to suppress bandits. There were not many rogues, and they gradually stopped using guns.

Because using guns to fight thieves is a bit like hitting mosquitoes with cannons. It's not a waste, but you can't hit them... The thieves don't fight you face to face at all. Pull it out, take out the muskets and line them up.

Officers and soldiers brought firearms to suppress thieves, even if they couldn't catch up, what did they say about suppressing thieves!

Secondly, the three-eyed gun used by Sun Chengli and the others seemed to be a firearm, but the reason why the cavalry of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty liked to use this thing was because it could be used as a hammer after firing.

This thing is more useful to deal with the Eastern captives.

Because the East captives have multiple armors, it is not very effective to deal with them with sharp weapons such as traditional knives or spears. Instead, direct hammering with some heavy weapons is more effective.

But for the bandits, they don't even have much armor, so traditional weapons such as knives, spears, bows and arrows are more useful.

Over time, Sun Jianli and the others stopped using three-eyed guns at all, but only used traditional knives, spears, bows and arrows.

So now Sun Jianli and his group have no firearms.

However, this did not hinder Luo Zhixue's determination to acquire a firearms unit.

The only problem now is that Luo Zhixue has no guns, not even the craftsmen to make them.

Not to mention craftsmen who build guns, not even an ordinary blacksmith who can repair swords and spears...

To solve this problem, Luo Zhixue had no other good solution. He just sent people to the surrounding villages to inquire about the blacksmiths there.

Not to mention, it's really hard to find senior talents like blacksmiths. The villages around Funiu Mountain didn't find a single blacksmith, only found two carpenters and brought them back.

But Luo Zhixue didn't give up, and asked Sun Chengli to send someone to the edge of the mountain or even outside the mountain to look for it. If he found it, he didn't need to report it, but just brought him back.

As for how to bring people back, Luo Zhixue didn't care.

Sun Chengli also knew the importance of high-level technical and technical talents like blacksmiths to their rebellion cause, so he immediately agreed, and appointed his confidant Wang Xiazi to take them there in person.

But don't expect to see the blacksmith anytime soon.

And without a blacksmith, you can't stay stagnant without repairing or making weapons.

Without a blacksmith, Luo Zhixue was ready to go into battle himself.

While he was busy with other things, he carefully recalled all kinds of knowledge about steel and casting.

In the process of recalling carefully, regardless of whether it is useful or not, if you think of it, you should write it down first, and then sort it out slowly when you come back.

As a modern person who used to live in the explosion of knowledge, Luo Zhixue remembers many and complicated things in his mind. He usually doesn’t think about it, but when he thinks about it carefully, he finds that he knows quite a lot. Part of it is not deep enough, knowing what it is but not knowing why, and there are huge gaps.

But even so, after detailed memories, Luo Zhixue was still able to find a lot of useful and useful things.

For example, the knowledge of iron and steel that is mainly recalled.

To repair and build weapons, in the eyes of the ancients, maybe this is some kind of handicraft, and there are various secret methods of steelmaking, such as steelmaking. Blacksmiths still adopt master-apprentice inheritance, and keep secret the tricks of ironmaking and steelmaking.

But in Luo Zhixue's view, this thing is simply high-temperature melting, casting, and adding an appropriate amount of carbon to obtain different types of steel with moderate hardness and toughness.

After thinking about it for several days, Luo Zhixue directed a few more people from Ernst & Young to start building bellows and furnaces after sorting out the basic principles and specific steps.

He wants to lead people to repair and build weapons by himself.

After all, you can't be too pedantic, you can't say that if you don't have a butcher, you will eat hairy pigs, and if you don't have a blacksmith, you will fight empty-handed.

Luo Zhixue's big deal is to lead people to toss and toss, and he still doesn't believe that it can't be done.

Anyway, it's not him who will actually strike the iron, but Ernst and Young with a few more of them...

After all, he is a scholar, and it is the true nature of a man to use his words but not his hands!
　During the new book period, I implore everyone not to just throw the bookshelves away after reading it. I hope that everyone will come back as often as possible to read the new chapters, so that there will be follow-up data, recommendations, and new book lists.

　　Rainy day please!
　　


(End of this chapter)