afterglow

Chapter 70 Little things that change the shape of war

A few days passed in a blink of an eye, and it was mid-July.

"It's really hard to drink, I can't bear it."

During the examination in the hospital before, the old doctor said that Zhou Changfeng was a little yin deficient, so he prescribed a prescription for him to drink medicine on time to recuperate for a while, and the latter followed suit.

It's just that the decoction mixed with medicinal materials such as dendrobium, asparagus, mulberry and so on is really not tasty, and Zhou Changfeng still couldn't get used to it after a few days.

With a bitter face, he took another big gulp of the cold drink, which dilutes the strange taste of Chinese medicine in his mouth.

At this time, footsteps came from outside the door, and then someone reported: "Battle Commander, I have a letter from you."

After walking over to open the door, Zhou Changfeng found that he had received two letters at once?

Today's envelopes are different from the more common horizontal ones in later generations, but vertical ones, with three vertical red boxes on the left, middle and right, respectively writing the recipient, receiving address, and sending address.

These two letters have already been opened, and a bright red square seal has been stamped on the front, indicating that the verification is correct-the wartime inspection of letters will not be suspended until after the division of the third mixed brigade.

As he walked, he took a look. The ordinary yellow-brown envelope was sent from Wuhan Mansion, and the other one looked much more delicate, it was made of white kraft paper, and it was sent from the local Yingtian Mansion.

Zhou Changfeng opened the envelope and found that it was from his sister, to the effect that she learned about the battle situation through the radio and newspapers, and heard that his unit was going to the front line, so she sent a letter, and asked him to reply as soon as possible after the class was over.

In Zhou Changfeng's impression, his married sister is a fairly self-reliant woman. When she was young, her father was killed in battle and her mother had to work. It can be said that Zhou Changfeng was brought up by his sister since he was a child, and when he was applying for Nanjing martial arts, It was her help that persuaded the mother.

As for the other letter, he unfolded the letterhead after opening it, and looked at the signature first, the words "Xia Xiaoshi" were particularly conspicuous.

Looking at the beginning again, "Mr. Zhou Changfeng benefits..."

While reading the letter, Zhou Changfeng said with emotion: "This small script is too pretty."

It has to be said that a good handwriting that is pleasing to the eye can really greatly increase the impression.

To put it simply, the gist of the letter was to ask him if he still wanted the pistol, and she would return it in two days if he wanted it, and other than that, he chatted a few other words.

What's the matter, I've given it all, and I'll keep it.

To be honest, Zhou Changfeng hadn't made any plans for Xia Xiaoshi yet, he thought it would be better to communicate for a while before making any plans, so he wrote a reply letter casually.

After writing the replies to the two letters, he opened the drawer casually, tore two stamps out of a bunch of stamps, pasted them up, and sent them to the left-behind unit at the post office of the Third Brigade.

Now the war is not over yet, and the unit I belong to is also on the way back, and there will be replenishment and rest afterwards, and the next month will be almost a holiday.

Having nothing to do these few days, Zhou Changfeng already felt a little bored, so he wondered if he should find something for himself to do.

The first is to summarize the experience and lessons of this battle, as well as the problems of omissions that exist on one's own side.

But there is no rush to do this, wait for the troops to come back and settle down.

Until then, let's do something that comes easily.

He took a piece of snow-white rice paper from the stack in the cabinet, then picked up a pencil and ruler, and began to draw while thinking.

In the history of war, there will always be some small inventions that have played a big role and even affected the state of war.

For example, the large-scale application of bayonets completely eliminated the pikemen, making the musketeers a unique existence, and also perfected the tactics of queuing up and shooting.

At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, due to the critical situation and the rush of time, Shizu of the later Ming Dynasty had no leisure to organize the production of flintlock guns with a low yield rate and more labor-intensive work. His infantry actually relied on long guns, bows and arrows, and heavy matchlock guns. Conquer the world.

However, in the middle and late stages, the flintlock guns that were gradually mass-produced replaced the matchlock guns of some elite troops. Since there was no need to worry about igniting the gunpowder on their companions, the line of flintlock infantry could be denser and the firepower stronger in theory.

However, the actual situation is not ideal. Because the flintlock gun inherently has a misfire rate of as high as one-tenth, the generals are not interested in it, and feel that this expensive and unreliable thing is very tasteless.

At the same time, because the manufacturing and processing of the sleeve-type bayonet was very time-consuming and laborious, the output was always insufficient. Therefore, when the army of the later Ming Dynasty recovered Yanjing, there were only a few elite troops equipped with flintlock guns and bayonets.

The same number of flintlock infantry units want to surpass the arquebus infantry units in combat efficiency, and the bayonet is an indispensable key.For example, if there are also 1000 people, the arquebus unit has half musketeers and half pikemen, and if the flintlock unit is equipped with bayonets, it can have all musketeers.

But if it is not possible to equip all personnel with bayonets, then the cost performance of flintlock units is not comparable to that of arquebus units.

The root of everything is that Shizu of the Later Ming Dynasty died too early, and he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in the second winter after the Ming Dynasty pacified the world.

Without his deliberate promotion, the Ming army, which is no longer invincible in Asia, naturally has no impetus to update its weapons and equipment. High, only matchlock guns will be enough in the future.

Barely worthy of being called the opponent was the Tsarist Russian Cossacks who invaded Nuer Gandusi. However, after the post road was rebuilt, the simple bastion that the invaders relied on was blown into the sky by the Ming army with tens of thousands of catties of gunpowder, and was subsequently destroyed The five to one superior force was overwhelmed.

For quite a long time since then, due to the lack of a strong military threat, the weapons and equipment of the Ming army's land division have been standing still.

It is worth mentioning that the navy thinks that Galen ships are very useful, so in addition to a large number of light warships, the Minyue Navy has always maintained a small-scale heavy fleet, the purpose of which is to wipe out the powerful and arrogant forces in the Nanyang region. pirate.

This heavy fleet generally has four 74-gun Galen ships, six or seven 48-gun Galen ships, and a dozen Chinese-style Big Bird ships with 24 guns.

What is special is that, except for the bowsprit and stern mast of the Galen ships of the Fujian and Guangdong Navy, which use European-style soft triangular sails, the main masts are all Chinese-style hard sails, which is the most distinctive feature.

Generally speaking, this fleet will go to Nanyang to patrol and suppress bandits in autumn and winter, and finally go to Xuanweisi in the old port. At this time, due to ocean currents and monsoons, many merchant ships will go to sea, so there will be a large number of pirates.

Its going out to sea to suppress bandits has gradually formed a routine, just like the former Ming Dynasty frontier army would organize troops to go out to set fire to wasteland every year.

After the Xuanwei Division of the old port fell again, the range of the small-scale heavy fleet of the Minyue Navy was limited to the Nansha Islands.

The situation at that time was that the Dutch, the British, and the Portuguese all wanted to drive the Ming forces out of the Nanyang region, but due to the trade surplus, they were afraid that Ming would impose a trade ban on them, so they carefully planned a joint Action, instigated local aborigines to rebel, and sent troops to fight in disguise, disguising the fall of the Old Port Proclamation Division as an aboriginal riot.

Later, when the eunuch sent by the emperor came to investigate, the Dutch bribed him and made him return to Beijing, saying that the recovery of the old port was not worth the loss.

Since there was almost no trade deficit in the Ming Dynasty, the civil and military officials actually had little interest in the Nanyang region, and they had little motivation-the heaven and earth are vast, and foreigners want to come to buy things, so why should we risk going to sea by ourselves?Isn't it nice to sit at home and collect money?

As a result, the plan to recover the Old Port fell into disarray.

But that heavy fleet did not die because of this. It existed for a total of 170 years and maintained its combat power until it was encircled and annihilated by the British army in the first war.

——————————

[After reading the comments, everyone’s suggestions are reasonable. Shizu is more suitable than Shizu. If the latter is used, Houming will be more like an independent dynasty. get rid of. 】

[Thanks to your support, I got recommended by Xiaolou, and I need an attractive recommendation, do you have any good ideas? 】

(End of this chapter)