Picturesque Rivers and Mountains in the Red Chamber

Chapter 262 4.58 Once the cannon goes off, there is ten thousand taels of gold
Volume Four

4.58 When the cannon fires, there are thousands of taels of gold.
A few days passed in the blink of an eye. Because the three consecutive days were all matchlock live ammunition shooting subjects, Zhou Yang stayed in the military camp all day just in case. Until the early morning of October [-]th, he got up very early as usual. In the small bamboo-walled courtyard, they were carrying out daily martial arts exercises while wielding a six-foot-six-broken horse sword. Not far away were the Zhao sisters sparring.

"Brother Zhou, do you want to practice matchlock practice today?" After half an hour, Zhou Yang breathed a sigh of relief and finally completed all the exercises. He put away the Broken Horse Sword and took the towel handed by Zhao Yanling to wipe his forehead clean. As he was sweating, he heard Zhao Qiying, who was setting up breakfast, ask, "I just found out today that this military training is so expensive.

Last night I looked through the account book delivered by Master Fu. The daily shooting did not take into account the wear and tear of the matchlock gun. It only said that the gunpowder and iron sand shot out actually required dozens of taels of silver. This was because all kinds of consumption were so high. It is produced in one's own workshop. If one were to apply for it from the imperial court, if a hundred households had only two matchlocks to practice shooting every day, the cost would probably be more than three times! "

"This is just a matchlock gun, not a cannon." Zhou Yang smiled and washed his hands and face in the basin brought by Zhao Yanling, "As the saying goes, 'a cannon fires, a thousand taels of gold', although it is mainly to illustrate the huge consumption of war, But if it is simply used to describe artillery, there is no big problem, because it is too expensive.

An infantry cannon weighs less than [-] kilograms. It needs to be equipped with four draft horses. Two horses alternately haul the artillery, and two horses alternately pull a light carriage for transporting consumables such as gunpowder and iron sand. Additional horses are required. For six artillerymen, the training cost of just one cannon is equivalent to three small flags equipped with cold weapons such as spears and swords, which is at least doubled in wartime. "

"So powerful?" Zhao Yanling, who had just poured out the water basin, said in surprise, "Didn't this throw money into the water? Brother-in-law, the officers and soldiers in this battalion have only trained for a little over a month now, should we let them practice more first?" Let’s talk about military formation and physical fitness, firearms practice, etc. in case something goes wrong.”

"Sweat more in peacetime and bleed less in war!" Zhou Yang knocked her angrily, "Remember, if a court is unwilling to spend money to develop armaments and train elite soldiers, it is giving the opportunity for the next war. Prepare coins and silver—you, just serve me well and stop thinking about what you have and what you don’t have!”

"Brother-in-law!" Zhao Yanling immediately blushed with embarrassment and raised her hand to give someone a small punch, obviously thinking of her "serving" life these days.

"Brother Zhou, you are really anxious." Zhao Qiying rolled her eyes at someone and took over the conversation, "My little sister heard about the training in other armies. One drill every three days is considered an elite soldier, and one drill every five days is considered routine. Firearms Even if it has not been heard for many years, although it is indeed inappropriate, it is indeed a little bit like this in less than a month to practice firearms and shoot with all the staff for three consecutive days."

"It's not three days, it's seven days." Zhou Yang was already sitting at the dinner table. Can't he train with live ammunition for a month?During the half-month military training period and the last three days of shooting to get to know each other, "Let's eat first, and later we will go to the training ground to have a look - I let them practice shooting, in fact, it is to identify problems as early as possible, including formation, proficiency, etc. , you have to discover it slowly.”

This is just like a modern large-scale live-fire military exercise. On the one hand, it is to familiarize the army with the battlefield environment, but more importantly, it is to test the troops and discover problems, because no one dares to say anything until such an occasion. What is the combat effectiveness of the troops? It is better to have problems on the exercise or training ground than on the battlefield.

Today's Daye Guards Qianhu Station has a total strength of more than [-], but in Zhou Yang's heart, there are actually three parts that he really cares about, artillery, matchlocks and cavalry. The last one doesn't matter for the time being, and the first two are hot. The weapons force is still very young in this era, and there is no way to gain experience from predecessors for many things, so you can only do it yourself.

"Brother Zhou, is this what you said -" Zhao Yanling recalled it for a moment and then said softly, "Practice to learn, learn to practice? That is, through this training."

"Create a complete set of firearms unit drills. As long as there is this kind of training again in the future, I will no longer have to watch the whole process from beginning to end like now." Zhou Yang said with a smile while eating steamed buns and porridge, "It's like For the two Spear Hundreds, apart from occasionally checking on their training progress and combat effectiveness, I left them entirely to Guang Sheng (Zhao Tong) and Xian Wen (Meng Kun) at other times.

Cold weapons have been circulating in China for thousands of years, and the army already has a ready-made model. As long as the training is paid close attention to and the food and salary are provided, it is not difficult to create an elite army; firearms are a brand new thing. Step by step and test again and again, it is In order to ensure nothing goes wrong, when I have another opportunity to advance, these people will be the future backbone, and they may be small banners, general banners, or even hundreds of households. "

"Line infantry?" Zhao Yanling suddenly realized, "But didn't my brother-in-law say that we need to coordinate with the formation? These days I have seen them practicing the 'stepping' and 'running' you mentioned, just lining up in a long line If we move forward, can we really train elite soldiers? When they get to the battlefield, will they also have to fight in formation to defeat the enemy?"

"You!" Shaking his head speechlessly, Zhou Yang had already finished his breakfast in threes and fives, stood up while wiping his hands, and didn't bother to explain to her, because it reminded him of those people in modern society who yelled "stacking" all day long. The idiot who is the number one in the world in quilts and the number one in the queue, "Hurry up and finish eating, according to the time they are about to start today's—"

"Bang, bang, bang--" There was a blast like exploding beans from the direction of the training ground, which was obviously the beginning of training.

"Brother Zhou, you might as well go over first and I'll clean up." Zhao Qiying smiled and started to arrange the dishes. "This sound is so noisy to everyone. I'll wait until they finish playing."

"Sister, don't you like it?" Zhao Yanling smiled and followed Zhou Yang who had already gone out, "Sister, I think this thing is very good!"

"Then just go over there!" Zhao Qiying rolled her eyes angrily and returned to the room with the dishes and chopsticks she had packed away, ready to wash them and put them away.Zhou Yang took Zhao Yanling out, chatting and laughing all the way to the training ground. Unexpectedly, the continuous sound of gunshots suddenly stopped. The two looked at each other and quickly realized that something was wrong.

"See you, sir!" When the two men arrived, the soldiers who had formed a group quickly dispersed, and Jiao Zhen from a hundred households quickly came up to salute, "The bomb just came out, and a brother was injured."

"Are you okay?" Zhou Yang asked quickly. The level of iron smelting is limited these days. Even if the matchlock gun produced by Miyako Island is already the best in the world, it is difficult to completely avoid such problems. "If there is any just in case"

"Sir, it's okay." Jiao Zhen said quickly, "Because the matchlock we equipped has a butt, the gunman who used it was not injured when the barrel was exploded, but a flying fragment injured the brother next to him. it's here!"

But they saw a rather sturdy matchlock gunner with a pale face and a towel tightly biting in his mouth. A piece of flesh had been cut off from his left arm including clothes and flesh, revealing red and white flesh. A man who should be a doctor was preparing to attack. bandage.

"Stop!" But Zhao Yanling shouted and rushed over, kicking the man away, "How could you bandage it so directly? The wound is full of dirt. After you bandage it directly, it won't last tomorrow. It's about to fester, a mere wound, I'm afraid it will kill this brother!"

"Yan Ling, have you mastered this kind of emergency medical skills now?" Zhou Yang asked with a sudden thought.

"Before we set off a few days ago, the Cai family sent an old servant named 'Jia Hutu' to visit the escort office. He stayed at the escort office directly afterwards." Zhao Yanling washed the wound with clean water, sprinkled it with golden sore medicine, and bandaged it. While saying, "I got a medical book from him. There are many practical things in it, such as this golden sore medicine. After using it, you no longer have to worry about pus."

"Fake it?" Zhou Yang's heart moved, thinking of this very important strange person in the original work, "I wonder if this prescription is still available? Can it be produced in large quantities? And that medical book, is there anything else in it?"

"Brother-in-law, do you think it's useful?" After expertly bandaging the wound, Zhao Yanling stood up and asked, "This golden sore medicine is very easy to use, and it's not difficult to prepare. You can just find it in any drug store. Once you have enough medicinal materials, you can get as much as you need. The price is not expensive; the medical books mainly contain medical content, including the use of large amounts of poisons."

"After sorting out the prescriptions, I will find an opportunity to give them to Liu Cheng and ask him to prepare more and put them in the camp." Zhou Yang said without hesitation, "You must learn that medical book well, and sort out some commonly used trauma medicines." Methods, such as bandaging, first aid, or poison prevention in the wild, select from the camp or recruit a few more clever ones, and use them in wartime!"

"That's what the brother-in-law said!" Zhao Yanling immediately understood what he meant, "This is just like the escort agency having its own doctor. If a brother is injured, he can treat him at any time. Our own people are more reliable than outsiders. Don't worry, I Get ready as soon as possible.”

"Very good -" Zhou Yang nodded, turned to the officers and soldiers and said, "Okay, let's disperse and continue training. Arrange two people to send the injured brother back to rest. We will tell you when he is recovered; Guan Qun (Jiao Zhen), organize and continue the firearm practice!"

"Yes, sir!" Jiao Zhen immediately waved his hand, signaling the team to continue.

It was not unusual for someone to be injured during the training. The matchlock gun that had just exploded was directly recycled and scrapped, and a new gun was handed over to the original soldiers. The continuous sound of gunshots was quickly recalled on the training ground, and the training continued.

"Brother Zhou, shopkeeper Liu Cheng of the Snow Brand is here. He seems to be in a hurry. He said that he would not talk until he saw you." Just as the two were inspecting the training, Zhao Qiying hurried over and immediately greeted him as soon as they met. Said, "You'd better go back and take a look!"

"Oh?" Zhou Yang was stunned for a moment. He usually kept military affairs and business very separate. Liu Cheng always reported work to the Qianhu Yamen in the city and had never been to the military camp. "Has he ever mentioned what happened? ?”

"Before coming here, I asked the boy who followed him that there were local gangsters who came to Xue Zihao's shop to cause trouble!" Zhao Qiying immediately replied.

"Oh?" Zhou Yang's expression suddenly darkened, "This is quite interesting!"

(End of this chapter)