Zhu Linmian will be aware of his head. The last time he bought a lot of copper ore from the Helan people, he ordered Xu Erlu to rebuild a batch of field guns, all of which were cast in bronze, and the barrels were slightly lengthened.

Due to the good ductility of bronze, the gunpowder charge can be increased, and even the double charge can be doubled without exploding. In addition, the barrel has also been lengthened, resulting in a nearly three-thirds increase in range compared with before.

Zhao Zhibi continued: "At present, there are more than 900 gunners in the two artillery battalions. There are five 12-pounder guns, 12 9-pounder cannons, and 22 six-pounder cannons. There were also 5 32-pounder mortars. ”

He said it with great vigour, like a treasure. It is no wonder that this time the artillery of the Dragon Guard Army has not only doubled in number, but also increased in caliber even more!

Thanks to the capture of a large number of military horses in previous battles and the steel wheel spokes built at the Longnan Iron Yard, the Twelve-pounder finally had a chance to be mounted on a field gun mount. Dragged by eight horses, this nearly two-thousand-pound cannon moved no slower than the nine-pounder cannon, and it became the official equipment of the Dragon Guard.

You must know that at present, in addition to the fixed batteries, the heaviest gun of the Qing army is the twelve-pounder gun, but compared to the cavalry artillery of the Dragon Guard, it is as clumsy as a turtle.

In addition, the number of nine-pounder cannons of the Dragon Guard also increased from four to twelve. This is mainly due to the fact that in the previous battle, it was found that the weight and power of the nine-pounder cannon were the most balanced, so it was decided to use it as the main artillery of the Dragon Guard.

As for the six-pounder gun, only six were added. However, due to its lightness and flexibility, it is still indispensable.

There are also five mortars, because the artillery of the Dragon Guard Army was very satisfied with the performance of the mortars after the last siege of Macao, Zhu Linmiao simply asked people to cast a 32-pound mortar cannon.

The "thirty-two pounds" sound scary, but because the mortar gun barrel is extremely short, the weight is actually much lighter than that of a six-pound field gun. This thing can shoot a thirty-pound iron ball over the city wall into the city one mile away, and it is really a siege weapon.

After finishing talking about the basic situation of the artillery camp, Zhao Zhibi asked with some curiosity: "My lord, I don't know what you want the artillery camp to prepare the thirty No. 1 Buddha Franc machines for?" ”

Zhu Linmiao sold it, "You'll know when the time comes." ”

The No. 1 Franc machine weighs about 300 catties, and a horse can run around and fire projectiles of one catty and one tael, although the power is not as strong as the Hongyi cannon, but it is much stronger than the tiger squat cannon and the like. And because it uses the loading method of pre-loaded sub-guns, the rate of fire is extremely fast, and the first six rounds can even be fired in just over a minute.

But its shortcomings are also obvious, that is, because of the air leakage of the gun, the firing range is very low, and the effective firing range is only more than 200 steps, and it usually rushes up after a round of enemy troops.

The reason why Zhu Linmiao wanted to equip these Franc machines was because the last time he ordered rubber from the Portuguese, he thought of a good solution to the air leak.

After the rubber arrived, and with a few simple tricks, he was confident that he would increase the range of the Franc to nearly a mile! At that time, this rapid-fire cannon will have a great impact on the situation of the battle.

In the end, Yu Xin gave Zhu Linmiao a general overview of the situation in the camp.

In fact, compared to the Dragon Guard, the Broken Camp is a earth-shaking change. First of all, the number of troops increased to 21,000, and most of them came out of military academies, both in terms of physical fitness and training level, which were much higher than the veterans of the broken battalion from the rebel army. Most of the recently recruited mentors have also been assigned to the Broken Battalion in order to further improve their discipline and morale.

At the same time, in order to improve the ability of the officers, Zhu Linmiao took advantage of the opportunity that the Broken Battalion had recently been responsible for guarding Quzhou and had no combat pressure, and transferred more than half of its officers to the Royal Officer Academy for "further study". The personnel of his department are temporarily taken by the graduates of the previous batch of the Military Academy.

According to Yu Xin's report, most of these officers have returned to Quzhou, and their overall military capability has been greatly improved.

In terms of equipment, the Broken Battalion has begun to phase out spears and bird guns, and instead distribute Type 2 Chasseur guns and flintlock guns. Due to production issues, the Chasseur may only be equipped with 4,000 pieces, and the flintlock gun will become the main weapon.

However, due to the fear that the soldiers would not be used to it, the camp still retains about 20% of the spearmen. But Zhu Linmiao estimated that when they got used to the flintlock and bayonets, they would definitely lose all their spears.

In addition, the cannons equipped by the Dragon Guards in the past were also handed over to the broken battalion, and some new cannons were also allocated, and now they also have eight or nine hundred gunners and more than thirty cannons, but the training level of their gunners needs to be improved.

As for military horses, armor and the like, there are a large number of captured booty, and Zhu Linmiao will naturally not be stingy. It can be said that today's broken camp is almost the same as yesterday's Dragon Guard, and it is even better equipped.

Because the reform of the military department involved too much, Yu Xin didn't have time to report on the logistics and the situation of the garrison, and the sky outside the window was dark.

Zhu Linmiao saw that there were basically no mistakes in the most important aspects, so he only asked him to take the relevant documents for the rest of the matter to himself, and after a few simple instructions, he left the military headquarters and headed towards the palace.

On the way, he briefly looked through the paperwork that Yu Xin gave him. In terms of logistics, the military department has recently conducted two tenders, and according to his requirements, Jinyi Wei supervised the whole city.

Nowadays, whether it is grain and grass, military uniforms, leather boots, tents, bedding, etc., more than three merchants have been prepared to supply, and the winning merchants also need to pay a deposit of tens of thousands of taels of silver, and the Ministry of War will send people to settle in the merchants, responsible for supervising the merchants to perform their duties.

Although the conditions are relatively harsh, this is a big business for the entire Ming army, and almost all the powerful merchants in the south of the Yangtze River have gathered in Tianxing Mansion. It's just that Zhu Linmiao was in Guangxi at that time, but he couldn't see the grand occasion.

The situation of the garrisons in Jiangxi and Fujing was much simpler, and the Long Wei army sent some officers to be in charge of the training of the garrison. There are more than 30,000 garrisons in Jiangxi and Fujian, although the number is not much, but because they are all strong and strong, and they are "professional soldiers" who do not need to farm or work, their combat effectiveness definitely exceeds that of the previous 100,000 Ming troops.

As for Liangguang and Yunnan-Guizhou, they have also begun to reform the military system, but recently the military department has been focusing on preparing for war, and the progress in these places has been a little slow.

Yu Xin basically handled the affairs of the military department well, so Zhu Linmiao prepared to go to Yongbeili early the next morning to inspect the construction of the naval division, which was also extremely important.

Seeing that he was going out, Huiqiu hurriedly stopped him and instructed: "Master, the princess can set up the Autumn Society today, you must remember that you have to go back to the house before Shen Shi." ”

Zhu Linmiao patted his head, and said in his heart that he had really forgotten, he was thinking about whether to take a leave of absence with the princess, when he saw someone coming to him, saying that a man named Serio asked to see him.

Zhu Linmiao patted his head again, he had been thinking about the Northern Expedition recently, and he almost forgot about the watchmaker.

He waved his hand and said, "Take him to the flower hall." ”