Xie Xun, the platoon commander of the second company and third platoon of the first battalion of the Ming marines, also tightened his grip on the musket in his hand, and he used a Hongxing seven-year flintlock pistol. By 17th-century standards, the flintlock pistol in his hand was a rather delicate weapon – although Emperor Zhu wanted a standardized, mass-produced musket, there was no steam engine, no industrial chamber bed, no equipment to squeeze steel, not even steel in the true sense of the word...... The so-called standardization is also just a so-so concept.

Therefore, it can be said that no two branches are almost the same, and if you look closely, you can always see the differences with the naked eye.

However, this does not mean that one or two thousand fine guns cannot be picked out of the tens of thousands of flintlock pistols delivered every year!

The level of craftsmanship involved in the creation of these guns varies (even if it is an assembly line, it is manual work), and the products produced are of course good and bad. The Ming Army's Quartermaster Department had a special gun inspector, who would select 2,000 fine products from tens of thousands of flintlock pistols and distribute them to elite soldiers such as marines, black spear mule soldiers, and snipers.

In addition, these elite gunners, who have undergone strict training and selected at various levels, will also have a special "silk bullet", which is to wrap lead bullet in silk to reduce the clearance between the lead bullet and the barrel, reduce air leakage, and achieve the purpose of increasing the effective range.

Unlike the myths of firing and bayonet hand-to-hand combat on the Internet in later generations, all the armies that use muskets in the world now will try their best to make the muskets in the hands of their own soldiers farther and more accurate. Even if most soldiers are unable to do both because of their training and equipment, they will have to do everything they can to ensure that a small number of soldiers can kill with muskets at long distances.

This is the origin of snipers, hunters or skirmishers!

The training time and equipment cost of a sniper is much lower than that of training and equipping a Manchurian Baturu...... So trying to defeat a flintlock army with the Baturu guns is basically a dream, and even if there is such a thing, it must be extremely rare.

And Xie Xun is a platoon commander of a sniper and bayonet hand-to-hand combat marine, although he is only a platoon commander, but he has the salary and corresponding official rank (general flag rank) that can only be obtained by ordinary army company commanders, and he also has the title of "overcoming difficulties" - which means a "guarantee" and a family property.

The so-called guarantee means that as long as he does not violate military law and is dismissed from the army, he can get a maximum of three levels of demotion and idle or the lowest rank of captain.

A piece of family property is a field grant equal to the rank of captain - because the land is limited, so the Ming army's standards for granting land are becoming stricter and stricter, and only officers and soldiers with the title of "overcoming difficulties" can be granted land. And only when he retired from the army, he could get a full grant of land. Prior to retirement, land is granted according to a downgrade or a minimum share.

However, while the granting of land is getting tighter and tighter, the military salary and bonuses are more generous than in the past.

The treatment of Emperor Zhu as a soldier is still very satisfying!

There was a soft bang, and the bottom of the sampan that Xie Xun was riding on had already hit the tidal flats of Sakura Island.

Before the sampan could stand, Xie Xun had already jumped off the boat first, standing in the icy sea water that almost drowned his buttocks, he took a deep breath and shouted: "All, skirmishers, bayonet!" ”

The bullets have long been loaded, all loaded with silk bullets, so tight that marines can use them to hit targets at a distance of 100 paces! The bayonet must be reloaded after disembarking, otherwise it is easy to accidentally injure one's partner on a bumpy sampan. The stragglers, on the other hand, were formed in case of an ambush in the woods near the beachhead with artillery capable of firing shotguns.

In addition, all marines do not need to fire a salvo, and their free fire can also cause great damage to the enemy.

Seeing that all his men had jumped from the boat into the water, and that they had formed a loose formation of skirmishers, and that each soldier's musket was loaded with bayonets, Xie Xun put a wooden whistle in his mouth and blew it vigorously.

The shrill whistle is the command, the command to advance!

Saigo's big head was sticking out of the trench, looking at the loose formation of the "Eight-Nation Alliance" coming down from the sampan, he couldn't help but laugh out loud with a big mouth: "Haha, it's really a group of Ming farmers!" ”

Of course, he knew that the main force of the so-called Eight-Nation Alliance was still the Ming army, and the Ming army's army was actually a group of farmers hired for money - they didn't know what the honor of a samurai was, they just worked for money.

Now if you look at their formation, you know that they won't work hard even if they take the money, they are just a rabble!

"Sure enough, it's a rabble......"

"Vulnerable!"

"It's a pity that you can't use cavalry on the mudflats, otherwise the battle will be over in one rush!"

"Hahaha, it's time for me to wait for the samurai to make meritorious service!"

Saigo Takayu was the head of the group, and he was in charge of more than 20 villagers of the Satsuma Domain, and they were all as thoughtful as Saigo just now, but now they all relaxed and began to talk nonsense.

It looks pretty rabble......

"Baga!" A person surnamed Liver Fu shouted and scolded, "Don't make a noise!" ”

This "liver fu" is a member of the Shimazu Shigetomi liver fuku family, his status is not high, he is just a middle-level feudal lord, and now he is the head of the new army in Saska.

The so-called Saskatsu New Army, which is a European-style new army organized by the Satsuma Domain under the guidance of Spanish military advisers, uses the latest Spanish phalanx formation method - the Spanish phalanx is also constantly improving, and now the latest composition is similar to the Morris phalanx, a company (ashigaru) is 250 people, and there are ten 25-person ashigaru groups. Five of the groups were musket groups, the rest were pikes.

Saigo Takahiro was the leader of the first group of muskets.

"Groups of muskets, load ammunition, light the arquebus!" The liver shouted again.

"Loading ......"

Saigo yelled as well, and at the same time began to reload quickly. After loading the bullets, there was another shout: "The arquebus is lit at both ends!" ”

"The arquebus has been lit!"

His men responded loudly.

"Check the arquebus, check the saber ......" Saigo continued to order. The warriors of the Satsuma New Army all kept their katanas, so Saigo used them with katanas instead of bayonets in close combat. In addition, they all have hats, carcass, and straw folds.

At this time, a new order was also issued: "All musket crews go out of the trenches...... Five rows of horizontal formations! Xi! ”

"In!" Saigo responded loudly.

"You're in the first row!" "Remember, the enemy fires a salvo within 30 paces!" ”

"Hay!" Saigo replied loudly, and then shouted with all his strength, "Saskatchewan samurai, let's go...... The whole team! ”

With a shout, in front of the tidal flat where the Ming army landed, in a section of woods about 3 miles wide, a row of samurai troops holding muskets and carrying katanas suddenly rushed out.

Their morale was very high, and they moved forward at a fast pace, but the formation was well maintained, and they looked like the elite soldiers of Japan.

"Hurry up, hurry up, ......" Xie Xun saw a large number of samurai musketeers pouring out of the forest in front of him, and he also urged his subordinates to move forward, "Don't fire, rush to the beachhead first, don't stay in the water......"

Staying in the water is not convenient for reloading, and you can't shoot from your knees.

Therefore, the Ming marines who jumped from the boat into the sea did not fire now, and all moved forward with their heads covered.

Their task now is to grab the beachhead!

After rushing with his head covered for a while, Xie Xun heard the rumbling sound of artillery behind him, and it should be that the bombardment guns on the big bird ships responsible for fire support had fired.

Mutuo flowering bullets were fired one by one, drawing an arc in the air, and then falling suddenly, falling behind Saigo Takayu and others, some of them immediately exploded, fragments flew in all directions, and the smoke was filled!

But Saigo Takayu didn't look back, he was now moving forward, while looking ahead with all his attention, and saw the farmers and soldiers of the Ming Kingdom rushing towards him one after another, it was like sending him to death!

When the two sides were still fifty or sixty paces away, the peasant soldiers had already stopped and began to raise their muskets......

Is it so far to fire? How is it possible to hit?

Saigo thought about it and saw fire and smoke sporadically coming out of front of him, and then he was slammed on the chest by something I don't know!