"Kill!" The shouts of killing on the school field shook the sky.

However, this is not the school field in Pudong, Shanghai, but the new military school field of the Qing Army in Wuchang.

On the high point of the platform, the flag is unfurled, and Ao Bai, who is dressed in a python robe, sits on the Taishi chair in the middle, Zhang Changgeng, who sits in the middle on weekdays, can only stand on the side today, and he can't even stand next to Aobai, he has to be relatively back, because Aobai is surrounded by a group of princes such as Yue Le and Jieshu, as well as the county kings, Baylor, and Beizi of the Qing Dynasty. With so many masters present, a slave like Zhang Changgeng could only stand aside.

As for Zhou Peigong, who is arrogant on weekdays? Not to mention, he doesn't even have the qualifications to be a minion, so he can only stand under the point general.

However, this did not affect Zhou Peigong's mood, he stood under the point platform, and looked at the new soldiers of the Green Battalion who were training desperately with satisfaction, these new soldiers of the Green Battalion who were training in mixed formations of pikemen, sword soldiers and musketeers had all gone through three months of recruit training and officially became the soldiers of the Green Battalion.

The sword soldiers are holding round rattan cards, wearing new-style paper armor, and the vital parts are protected by rattan goggles.

The reason why Zhou Peigong chose rattan and paper armor was to save money. Although Zhang Changgeng and Ao Bai both provided Zhou Peigong with a lot of convenience, let him go to the rich to raise donations, Zhang Changgeng also played to the imperial court, asking for Huguang to pay the imperial court taxes to build an elite new army, but Zhou Peigong still saved a little, so he chose cheap paper armor. After the transformation of the great scientist Xue Fengzuo, the protection has been greatly enhanced.

Individual equipment is only a part of the equipment of the new army of the Green Battalion, and Zhou Peigong wants to invest more silver in casting artillery.

The second thing Xue Fengzuo did for Zhou Peigong was to improve the musket artillery and use granules [gun] powder, which greatly increased the power of the guns of the Qing army.

"Kill!" Rows of pikemen lined up, spears in their hands like poisonous snakes spitting letters, piercing the target.

The musketeers in the back followed, under the cover of swordsmen and pikemen, and raised their muskets to fire on their targets. For a while, the gunfire on the school field was incessant, as if muskets could be fired continuously.

Like the sword soldiers, the pikemen and musketeers of the new army of the Green Battalion are all wearing paper armor, which can save a lot of expenses. Paper armor is not durable, and when training in peacetime, the Qing soldiers are not wearing armor. Today, because Ao Bai came to Wuchang to inspect the training of the new army in the green battalion, Zhou Peigong made the new army wear paper armor.

"Line up! Move forward! The Qing army officer standing on the school ground shouted.

The Qing army lined up in formation, although when advancing, the formation was a little chaotic, but it was still very neat. Even the elite Qi family army during the Ming Dynasty had to stop and reline when they marched for a while when they were advancing in groups. And Zhou Peigong's new army of the Green Battalion can do this, Ao Bai sees it in his eyes, and already feels that this is the strongest army in the world!

"Kill!" After re-plating, the sword men in front of them marched in full formation, holding shields.

The pikemen followed, and a forest of spears was laid out behind the swordsmen. The musketeers at the back kept cutting through the gap between the swordsmen and pikemen, raising their guns and firing in rows.

"Not bad! Zhou Peigong and Zhao Liangdong are indeed well trained! These two minions, you can raise the flag for them! Ao Bai looked at these elite new troops, touched his beard with satisfaction, and praised endlessly.

Jie Shu pointed to a group of ragged Qing army recruits in the distance of the school field, and asked puzzledly: "Xiangye, according to Xiao Wang's opinion, this week Pei Gong is nothing remarkable, you see those recruits, they are reluctant to even send down their uniforms, and they practice this useless standing and walking every day!" What's the use of this! ”

Ao Bai snorted coldly, and his face, which was still smiling just now, suddenly became stiff: "It's useless? Who told you it was useless? This kind of standing queue is the basic skill of arranging troops! Remember how we were defeated when we fought with thieves, right? It's that they have a neat team, and we are individual warriors! Look at the elite soldiers in front of you, haven't they been able to cooperate as tacitly as they are today after they have been trained in the queue? ”

"But why is Zhou Peigong reluctant to give them even a uniform? And let them wear the clothes of the people? This is too embarrassing for us to lose face, right? Jie Shu said unconvinced.

Ao Bai sneered and said, "This happens to be Zhou Peigong's cleverness!" Those who don't wear uniforms are recruits! They have to go through a queue training, and if they are qualified, they can stay! If you are not qualified, get out of here and go home! Think about it, is it too much silver in the imperial court to spend it or is Zhou Peigong's silver too much? ”

And the almost idiot Zhangtai Belle said thoughtlessly: "What's the use of training a soldier well? In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, strategy is the most important! As Ben Baylor saw it, our army was defeated by stratagem. ”

Isn't this a slap in the face? scolded Aobai for improper command, and only then did Jiangnan be defeated.

Ao Bai didn't have a seizure, and he didn't pay attention to the two hundred and five, but just continued to watch the performance of the new army in the green camp.

"Iron Man Army! The Iron Man Army is coming! The civil and military officials of the Huguang Qing court in the audience shouted excitedly.

Ao Bai tilted his head slightly, only to see a large silver light appear at the entrance of the school field, which was the bright light reflected by the elite iron armor in the sunlight. Hundreds of shields, hundreds of pairs of elite iron armor, under the sunlight, the reflected light shines on the point platform, which is very dazzling, but it makes those princes and county kings of the Qing Dynasty feel excited.

"Zhou Peigong has trained his troops well! Iron Army, that's Zheng Rebell's elite! Zhou Peigong was able to imitate Zheng Yi's Iron Man Army and form the most elite Iron Man Army, there is indeed a way! Ao Bai's face, which had been rigid, smiled again.

Zhou Peigong's Iron Man Army was formed in imitation of Zheng Chenggong's Iron Man Army, and the soldiers selected were all strong young men, wearing plate armor designed by Nan Huairen for him, with iron masks on their faces, and even their boots were iron. The Iron Man Army is armed with a long knife and a strong bow on its back, and it marches in neat steps, looking majestic.

Although the Iron Man Army consumed a lot of money, Zhou Peigong still gritted his teeth and formed an Iron Man Army, but the number was not large, only five hundred.

The Iron Man Army enters the middle of the school field. Five hundred Iron Man soldiers stood in the center of the school field, facing the point general's platform. With Zhou Peigong's order, the five hundred iron men roared in unison: "The Qing Dynasty is mighty!" Wansheng! ”

The shouts shook the sky and resounded through the sky, making Ao Bai full of joy when he heard it.

"Someone! Give me a reward of 10,000 taels of silver for Zhou Peigong's pattern! A thousand taels of gold! Ao Bai turned to his own Goshha and said.

"Xiangye, wait, our army's artillery team hasn't played yet." Zhang Changgeng had the courage to come up and remind.

"Hmmm! Then wait a little longer! Ao Bai nodded.

The low horn sounded for a long time, the drums rumbled, and the Iron Man Army, which had just entered the field, shouted a slogan under the instruction of Zhou Peigong, and then began to carry out the drill: I saw rows of Iron Man Army lined up in a neat formation, entered the front of the new military team of the Qing Army's Green Battalion, and began to carry out coordinated exercises.

Wang Jinbao led the Green Camp Qing Army, which acted as an imaginary enemy, and launched an attack on Zhou Peigong and Zhao Liangdong's Green Camp New Army.

"Kill!" Wang Jinbao's green battalion soldiers rushed forward with a shout, and rows of bows and arrows fired in volleys, but the random arrows hit the iron soldiers, and all of them were bounced away.

The Iron Man continued to advance, approaching within a hundred paces, halting its advance and removing the bow and arrow from its back. Because Wang Jinbao's green battalion soldiers did not have such good armor protection, the iron man army had no arrows, and the head was wrapped with cotton cloth arrows, shooting random arrows at Wang Jinbao's green battalion army.

The cotton cloth was stained with white ash, and the soldiers of Wang Jinbaolu's battalion, who were hit by the arrow, had white spots on their bodies.

Behind the Iron Army, the musketeers of the Green Battalion New Army burst out of the ranks, stood behind the Iron Soldiers, raised their muskets, and accompanied by rows of deafening gunfire, flintlock muskets fired projectiles made of clay.

"If it was a real battle, Wang Jinbao's Green Battalion Army would have been defeated a long time ago! Look at such a formation, how can Wang Jinbao fight? Ao Bai smiled and nodded.

Yue Le asked a little puzzled: "Xiangye, what if the opponent has a lot of cannons?" ”

Ao Bai didn't know how to answer this question for a while, but waited for his eyes to rise, and his beard stood up one by one.

"Please be at peace with the prince and the prime minister! Our artillery team came up right away. Zhang Changgeng took a step forward and said a thousand words.

At this moment, there was a sound of horses' hooves outside the school grounds, and the artillery of the Green Battalion New Army arrived. A large number of gunners of the Green Battalion New Army drove mules and pulled artillery wagons into the school field.

Some of these cannons were cast under the supervision of Xue Fengzuo, some were purchased directly from Macao, and some were cast by craftsmen in the capital led by Nan Huairen through Zhang Changgeng and Ao Bai. Whether it is Nan Huairen or Xue Fengzuo, the casting technology is not bad, and the cast artillery is suitable for field battles, including relatively small artillery such as general cannons, 500-pound Franc machines and Western-style four-pounder bronze cannons.

However, the Qing army has not yet mastered the technology of large-wheeled artillery carriages, and all artillery carriages are directly mounted on four small wheels on the gun carriage, and the movement speed of this kind of cannon is obviously much slower.

After the Battle of Jiangnan, Yue Le, who had been to the front line, had seen the artillery carriages of the Ming army, and he knew that the artillery carriages of the Ming army were all gun carriages with big wheels, and they were very fast when they were dragged by mules and horses. So when Yue Le looked at Zhou Peigong's artillery team, he couldn't help frowning. However, because of the face of so many people, Yue Le did not speak.

After the artillery team entered, the formation was set up.

"Fire!" With the order of a commander of the Qing army's artillery team, the muzzles of one cannon after another erupted with fire, and the "boom" filled with gunpowder smoke rose up, and the entire artillery team was solemnly enchanted in the white smoke. Cannonballs whizzed and smashed into the shooting range outside the school yard, where the wooden targets on a small hill shattered.

Ao Bai was overjoyed: "Someone! Reward! ”

"Xiangye! Slow! Yue Le finally couldn't help it, stepped forward, and whispered in Aobai's ear, "Xiao Wang has seen the cannons of thieves, and compared to Zhou Peigong's cannons, there is still a big difference!" The thieves' cannons are on large wheels, so they can be dragged quickly by mules and horses. And Zhou Peigong's cannon was small wheels, and the speed of action was too slow. (To be continued.) )