The ruins were cleared quickly, and all the ruins in Hefei's place had been cleared. Xue Yong came to Wu Shigong for instructions: How should He Fei's people arrange?

He Fei and the others actually didn't train for a few days in the military training of the Terracotta Division, and now, the building of Wu Shigong's gambling house has also been built by the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry, and there will be some time when it is completed. The shopkeeper Zheng is also very dedicated, watching it at the construction site every day. So for a while, those gambling house guards didn't have any errands at all.

Wu Shigong thought about it for a while, and he had to train them well. He asked Xue Yong: Is there any place where these people can be trained? Xue Yong replied to Wu Shigong and said: There is a place in Xue's mansion. Outside the capital, there is a Zhuangzi who specializes in training the guards of the Xue Mansion. But what is it to train these people?

Wu Shigong showed the military training he had drawn up to Xue Yong. After Xue Yong watched it, he didn't have anything to say about physical training, but he raised objections to queue training. Xue Yong said: The content of the training of soldiers in the Ming Dynasty was basically immediately dismounted, and there were few training soldiers in the queue.

However, Wu Shigong remembered that in modern times, except for the big military parade, although he couldn't see the use of queue training in other places, whether it was when the army was training recruits or in the military training for university admission, queue training was always the most important subject to training. Since it is so important, it must have a significant role. Wu Shigong couldn't understand the reason, so he stubbornly told Xue Yong that queue training must be the focus and reach half of the daily training time.

At other times, in addition to physical training at a fixed time, go and train Xue Yong to get off immediately. Regarding his uncle's arrangement, Xue Yong could only show obedience. In addition, Xue Yong said that he would find two experienced veteran military leaders from the Beijing camp to be responsible for this military training.

However, Xue Yong told Wu Shigong that he had already inquired in the gambling house guards. Not a single one of those people could ride horses. This surprised Wu Shigong. And the Mongols don't know how to ride horses? Wu Shigong didn't know that these Mongol descendants were fake Mongols, just like himself. After so many years of sinicization, even the Mongolian bloodline on his body has been diluted to the point where even Han Li can't refine it with the method of refining the true spirit bloodline (see "The Legend of Mortal Immortal Cultivation" for details).

In addition, in the Ming Dynasty, not to mention owning horses, even raising horses was a big expense. If you want to raise a good horse, you must feed it concentrate every day in addition to grass. Even eggs are beaten in the concentrate. How can this make people from poor families like Hefei have access to horses? Anyway, Wu Shigong asked Xue Yong to ask for an equestrian instructor for these people. Be sure they know how to ride a horse.

Xue Yong asked Wu Shigong again, what kind of protective weapons should be equipped with these people? Xue Yong told Wu Shigong that in fact, there were weapons in the Xue Mansion, but they could not be rationed to He Fei's people, because the number of guards in each Hou Mansion was quota. The honorable family, if there are too many guards carrying weapons, the emperor will not be at ease.

However, Wu Shigong recruited He Fei and these people this time in the name of maintaining Wu Shigong's industry - gambling house guards. This argument is also barely in the past. But these guards must not be armed. It's just a stick.

So that's the case, Wu Shigong asked Xue Yong and said, "Then can these gambling house guards be equipped with daggers?" ”

Xue Yong replied: "With some daggers for self-defense, this is fine." ”

Wu Shigong was about to take advantage of the loophole, so he thought of creating a dagger with a long back handle and a hollow dagger at the tail of the back handle. In that case, if you stick this dagger into a stick, isn't it a spear?

But such a special dagger needs to be specially crafted. So, Wu Shigong asked Xue Yong: Do you know any blacksmiths with better skills?

Xue Yong really knows. The blacksmith he knew was a blacksmith in the Beijing camp, and his craftsmanship was one of the best in the Beijing camp. And this blacksmith's tone is also relatively tight. Wu Shigong decided that it was him.

In the next few days, Wu Shigong made up a free space and followed Xue Yong to the blacksmith's workshop in the Beijing camp. The blacksmith looked to be about forty years old, and his skin was tanned.

Xue Yong introduced Wu Shigong: "Uncle, this is Master Yang. ”

The blacksmith immediately kowtowed and saluted, "Little Yang Goudan, please meet your lord." ”

Yang dog eggs? The name has a strong local flavor. Wu Shigong didn't care what kind of egg it was, and asked Yang Goudan: "Do you make any knives?" ”

Na Yang Goudan was very confident, patted his chest and said: "From the Qinglong Glaive Knife to the nail clippers, as long as it is a knife, then there is absolutely no problem." ”

Wu Shigong admires Yang Goudan's self-confidence very much. He told Yang Goudan the requirements and characteristics of the dagger he wanted to build. Unexpectedly, after listening to Wu Shigong's ideas, Yang Goudan also put forward several suggestions for improvement on the basis of Wu Shigong. He is indeed a connoisseur.

Xue Yong on the side joked: "Master Yang's craftsmanship is indeed nothing to say. ”

Wu Shigong was more interested. As a person with a strong violent factor, Wu Shigong then asked Yang Goudan: "Then will you make a musket?" ”

Yang Goudan thought for a while and said to Wu Shigong: "The adult is asking about the fire gun." There is a small one here, so take it to the adults first. Yang Goudan took out a firearm from the back of the workshop and handed it to Wu Shigong.

Wu Shigong took the firearm and was startled by its appearance.

The gun is taller than Wu Shigong's one meter and eight meters, and the barrel is very thin, which is about the same thickness as the barrel of the ** that Wu Shigong played in his previous life. What power can this gun have? Wu Shigong asked, "This fire gun can also hit birds, right?" ”

Unexpectedly, Yang Goudan replied proudly: "My lord is wise." This fire gun is called a bird gun. Yang Goudan did feel very proud. Because in the Ming Dynasty, there were no seamless steel pipes and no lathes, and it really depended on real effort to make such a thin iron pipe by hand.

Wu Shigong didn't care about Yang Goudan's pride, and he put forward his request for Huo Gong to Yang Goudan. Wu Shigong drew the appearance of the smoothbore shotgun he had played with in his previous life on the paper, and said to Nayang Goudan: "Do you make this kind of firecracker?" ”

Yang Goudan looked at the pattern on the paper, and asked Wu Shigong a little strangely: "Adult, do you want to make such a simple fire gun small?" "For Yang Goudan, if you can make a thin iron pipe, what is the problem with making a thick iron pipe?

Wu Shigong thought to himself: It's good if you have confidence. So, Wu Shigong and Na Yang Goudan reached a deal. Make a hundred and fifty daggers, and a hundred and fifty sabers. Although the saber can't be carried by the gambling house guards for the time being, it's always right to have it.

In addition, Wu Shigong ordered five long fire guns and ten hand guns. and a whole number, three thousand five hundred taels of silver. However, Wu Shigong confessed to Yang Goudan, and the firecracker and handcuff were made for him to take a look, and if there was anything wrong, after modifying the shape, let Yang Goudan make it.

After leaving the blacksmith workshop, Wu Shigong thought to himself: The firearms of the Ming Dynasty do not seem to be as backward as imagined.

Wu Shigong was right, in the late Ming Dynasty, the small and medium-sized firearms in the Ming Dynasty army were indeed not lagging behind those in Europe, but they were lagging behind in artillery, but they were not lagging behind. But in modern times, China's firearms have lagged so far behind?

There are two main reasons for this:

The first reason is that the later Manchu government did not attach importance to firearms.

First of all, the eunuchs and officials who supervised the manufacture of firearms in the Ming Dynasty were very oppressive of the craftsmen who made firearms, and they were treated as slaves. In addition, because these eunuchs and officials wantonly embezzled the materials for the manufacture of firearms, the quality of firearms manufactured in the Ming Dynasty was very low, resulting in some phenomena such as exploding chambers often occurred when using firearms;

The second is that the eunuchs and officials who managed the arsenal in the Ming Dynasty did not issue the weapons and firearms they managed to the generals who used them. Rather, these generals are to buy them through bribery in disguise. And we already know that the military salary of the Ming Dynasty has included the purchase cost of weapons, so in order to save some money for themselves, these generals are not willing to "buy" these expensive firearms;

Zuihou is: The army of the Ming Dynasty was poorly trained. When they saw the Manchu troops, they would often panic and fire from outside the range of their firearms. It was also an inferior firearm that was not powerful enough, so that the firearm basically posed no threat to the Manchu troops.

When the Manchu troops faced the blow of firearms, they saw that the role of firearms was almost negligible, so the role of firearms was seriously underestimated. How can they value firearms in the future?

The second reason is that the different historical environment and background of the situation have led to the difference in the degree of importance attached to firearms.

Let's start with Europe. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Europe has entered a period of frequent wars. As a result, the use of firearms, a new type of weapon, led to a revolutionary military change.

The Swiss phalanx, which was born out of cold weapons, created the famous Spanish phalanx that combined cold and hot weapons. With the improvement of the tactics of the use of firearms and the improvement of the quality of firearms, gradually, in these phalanxes, cold weapons completely disappeared and became a phalanx that used muskets all. That is, in the war film we watched that depicted this era, the soldiers lined up in a phalanx, under the rhythm of the drums, holding muskets, and rushed forward with positive steps.

Many people, including the author, thought that these soldiers were stupid when I was a child, wouldn't they bend down to hide and seek in order to avoid bullets? Actually, there is a reason for this. At the time, this tactic resulted in minimal casualties. Let's remember that in war, there are no jokes, and the standard actions taken by all servicemen are paid for with countless blood.

In order to deepen everyone's impression of this, here is another example: during World War II, the Japanese devils unloaded their bullets when fighting bayonets for the spirit of bushido. It's ridiculous that there are still many works that mock the stupidity of the Japs. Let's think about it, how could a nation that could vilely launch the "918" and shameless surprise attack on Pearl Harbor remove its bullets while fighting with a bayonet for the sake of what bushido spirit? The purpose of this is definitely to reduce their own casualties (interested friends can check this information).

With the maturity of the tactics of the phalanx of pure muskets, Napoleon creatively used artillery as a firearm, and then swept across the European continent. In this context, the research and development of firearms in Europe has received the greatest attention.

And what about in China? After the Manchu government established the Qing Dynasty, except for several rebellions at the time of the founding of the country. Domestic politics were very stable before the Opium War, which made firearms have no impetus for development.

In the use of firearms, there is also a very important issue, that is, the firearm phalanx. The "three-stage shot" that we often see in our works is only a small aspect of the use of firearms phalanxes. But far from all.

In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, there was already a genius general who adopted the prototype of the firearms formation, that is, Qi Jiguang. It was such a prototype that also allowed Qi Jiguang to achieve a brilliant record of annihilating thousands of Japanese (all of whom had heads) in the war against the Japanese, and his own casualties were less than ten people. In fact, this prototype is only a layer of paper separated from the European firearms phalanx.

Then the generals after Weishenme did not inherit and develop?

The reason for this can be seen in "The Art of War". The "Art of War" that I see now makes people feel that it is the table of contents and general outline of a book on the art of war. With Sun Tzu's character as a good teacher, why didn't he write down how to train, how to march, how to set up camp, and how to form in battle into the Art of War?

And not only "The Art of War", but also the art of war books of various future art of war masters, there is no content in this regard. The main reason for this is that the rulers of all dynasties and generations have destroyed or collected these contents of the art of war books. Keep it out of the eyes of others and prevent them from rebelling.

However, Qi Jiguang's book on the art of war was miraculously handed down, but because of the above reasons, it could not be circulated outside in the Ming Dynasty at that time. In addition, the generals of the Ming Dynasty were basically illiterate, so there was no talk of inheritance and development.

And today, in Wu Shigong's arrangement for Xue Yong, he paranoid insists on the queue training of those gambling house guards, which is precisely the basic training of the firearms phalanx. This can only show that Wu Shigong finally opened a golden finger.