Chapter 193: Mutual Aid Societies and Artillery Doctrine

Lin Daofu said, "My lord, the solution that Subordinate Zhang and I have discussed is to establish mutual aid societies throughout the prefecture."

He had come prepared, producing a document: "In ordinary times, military households will organize together. During the busy spring plowing season, they can exchange labor and assist one another — whether manpower, farm tools, or seeds, all can be mutually shared. This will greatly alleviate the current labor shortage."

He explained in detail: "I have first resolved to form plowing teams, with every five Company Commanders making one team. Each team will draw several dozen laborers, organized from the able-bodied and spirited young men among the military households, with a team leader appointed. During the summer harvest, they will help with plowing within the team, balancing the labor, with no wages required."

He continued: "Next is the establishment of mutual aid societies, divided by Battalion Commander jurisdictions. All who have labor capacity may join. During the busy spring plowing season, overall planning will balance the manpower. The mutual aid societies will give preferential treatment to military dependents and assist the elderly and solitary. In ordinary times, members help one another, with workdays offset. Those who do less will settle wages according to the workday count, with accounts cleared at month's end."

"Wages for harvesting grain are divided into three grades: threshing is the highest, followed by reaping and carrying sheaves, and the lowest is holding stalks and dibbling beans. The wage rates can be discussed within the society. Assisting the elderly and solitary requires only meals, no wages. For the clerks in each fortified village and prefecture who teach the children, the mutual aid society can also help plow their fields — only meals required, no wages."

Lin Daofu spoke in an unending torrent. The military officers present listened in a daze, but Wang Dou nodded repeatedly.

He reflected. In the early Great Ming, various village associations had flourished — all grassroots mutual aid organizations among the common people, coordinating labor and plow oxen issues between neighbors. Such folk associations had deep roots across the Chinese land. In the Northern Song, there had been all manner of archery societies, horse-buying societies, and loyalist patrol societies, with fairly strict organization and training — it was said they carried bows while hoeing and wore swords while gathering firewood. Later ages in China also had various mutual aid groups.

If well coordinated, such mutual aid societies could indeed solve the production problems caused by labor shortages. And with members helping one another in ordinary times, those who did less would settle wages by workday count. Presumably the military households would also approve — though they spent a certain amount on wages, their sons at home would not need to return for farm work during the busy season. Seizing this opportunity, they could go out to fight, earn shares of spoils, and gain even more wealth, grain, and rice.

Wang Dou said, "This method is feasible."

He felt some emotion. His subordinates had finally developed their own intellectual initiative. He no longer needed to guide them in every matter — they now had their own governance philosophy. Henceforth, he need only take the long view and give them appropriate suggestions from time to time. Without having to attend to every detail personally, he was much more at ease.

Wang Dou said, "Beyond the mutual aid societies, the scale of the plowing teams can be expanded. Many refugees are now entering Baoan Prefecture daily. We can recruit them as plowing team members, have them work during the busy spring plowing season, and give them their fill of food. As for wages, handle it as you see fit."

Lin Daofu agreed with delight. The governance framework he had painstakingly devised had won the Garrison Commander's approval — it would be false to say he was not pleased. Zhang Gui was also overjoyed; this mutual aid society proposal had been his idea. If the matter was handled well, the Garrison Commander, with his penetrating insight, would surely express appreciation for his administrative ability.

……

After the council, the reorganization of the three Battalion Commanders, the cavalry unit, and the supply unit was imperative. Wang Dou first went to Shunxiang Fort to see the results of Zhao Xuan's months of modifying gun carriages and training artillerymen.

Zhao Xuan's temporary refit and training were still being conducted at Shunxiang Fort. The fort currently had fourteen bronze and iron breech-loading cannons, twenty small bronze cannons, and fifteen crouching-tiger cannons, with one hundred and twelve primary and secondary gunners, plus one unit officer.

Now all these cannons and all these men were under Zhao Xuan's management. Wang Dou did not know how Zhao Xuan's training results had turned out; he wanted to see for himself before he could be at ease.

The artillery training ground at Shunxiang Fort was set up on a stretch of open wilderness one li south of the parade ground. A barracks had also been built there for the artillerymen to live in. To allow the artillerymen to train fully, the barracks contained a powder magazine stocked with ample gunpowder and ammunition. At this time, gunpowder was relatively expensive, and in the Great Ming, very few commanders lavished it on constant training as Wang Dou did. To improve the artillerymen's mathematical knowledge, the barracks also had a clerk proficient in arithmetic to teach them regular lessons.

Zhao Xuan was extremely eager to perform before Wang Dou. As soon as they reached the barracks, he mustered the artillerymen and shouted, "The Garrison Commander is here to inspect! Brothers, put some spirit into it! Unshroud the cannons!"

People of this era held cannons in great reverence; removing the cannon covers was called "unshrouding the cannons." The several dozen cannons — breech-loading cannons, small cannons, and crouching-tiger cannons — were separately arrayed under three broad rain shelters, each type assigned a section leader. Upon hearing Zhao Xuan's order, the assembled artillerymen immediately set to work. Led by the gun captains, they pushed out their respective large and small cannons.

Wang Dou observed carefully. The gun carriages of these cannons had all been refitted. Some cannons that originally had four-wheeled high-legged carriages had been entirely converted to more mobile two-wheeled carriages, no different from Western-style two-wheeled carriages, and the elevation adjustment was also quite flexible.

Even the several-dozen-jin crouching-tiger cannons had been fitted with two-wheeled carriages. Zhao Xuan also displayed to Wang Dou the prepackaged canister rounds for the crouching-tiger cannons. Wang Dou did not know what was inside, but those rounds, once prepared, were all wrapped in cloth and placed in individual ammunition boxes.

Wang Dou watched for a long time, then said, "Fire a few rounds and let's see."

Zhao Xuan shouted, "At your command!"

With imposing authority, he issued a series of orders, and at once a series of targets were set up in the distance.

First, the breech-loading cannons opened fire. The fourteen bronze and iron breech-loading cannons were arrayed in a line — quite a spectacle. The loader for each cannon picked up a breech chamber from the ammunition box and seated it into the large rectangular slot at the rear of the mother barrel. Then the gun captain — that is, the gunner — used both eyes to align the front sight and rear sight fitted to the barrel, adjusting and aiming at the distant targets.

The firers ignited the priming powder at the touchholes. Boom, boom, boom — the thunderous reports were unceasing as the fourteen breech-loading cannons fired in succession, the cannon blasts audible for several li around.

From long-range fire to close-range canister shot, Zhao Xuan continuously directed the gunners to adjust their firing angles. It was evident that after Zhao Xuan's training, these gunners had made great progress; their accuracy had improved considerably, and they fired with greater composure.

After the large cannons, they fired the small cannons, then the crouching-tiger cannons. The crouching-tiger cannons' thunderous roar, along with their dense flames and smoke, was terrifying. Wang Dou watched Zhao Xuan use the prepackaged canister rounds for the crouching-tiger cannons. Although ramming the charge bag all the way down with an iron rod was rather difficult and required pushing it in bit by bit with force, compared to the old method of loading crouching-tiger canister rounds — where each layer of shot required a layer of earth — this was much faster. This was extremely important in actual combat.

After the live-fire demonstration, Zhao Xuan looked at Wang Dou with expectant eyes, hoping to receive Wang Dou's praise.

Wang Dou, however, was lost in thought. Zhao Xuan's improvements to the gun carriages had yielded marked results, but as for the gunners' training, although it had improved compared to before, it still fell far short of what Wang Dou envisioned. He reflected that an excellent gunner required at least six years to train, and most of his own gunners were illiterate — he had indeed been too impatient. Moreover, aiming and firing cannons at this time was inherently difficult. The cannons had no sights, no basic ranging tools, relying solely on visual estimation. To mass-produce qualified artillerymen — difficult indeed.

The cannons of this era also had problems.

Although all the Great Ming's various cannons had design drawings — specifying barrel length, wall thickness, all with strict standard dimensions — making it quite difficult to pass off inferior work or skimp on materials, unlike musket manufacturing where one could do as one pleased, the quality of the Ming's various cannons could thus be guaranteed.

However, standardization of cannons at this time was, after all, not rigorous. For the same type of cannon, the bore diameters were hard to keep consistent, and an unavoidable gap existed between the shot and the barrel. After leaving the muzzle, the shot could not fly along a theoretically straight line, bringing much trouble to the gunners' aiming. Essentially, every cannon had its own temperament, and this also affected the results of artillery training.

After pondering for a long while, Wang Dou first praised Zhao Xuan with a few words — his contributions over these months were obvious. Then he said, "Battalion Commander Zhao, do you know of cannon sights and ranging tools?"

The Great Ming's cannons had no sights, nor even basic ranging tools. At this time, gunners fired within direct-fire range relying on each man's many years of rich experience — hence, valuable gunners were hard to come by. To acquire this experience, training a single qualified gunner required a vast amount of shot. The service life of cannons at this time was only a few hundred rounds. Training a batch of qualified gunners would likely wear out many cannons and also require an immense amount of time — perhaps as long as several years. Wang Dou hoped to save some time and expense.

Zhao Xuan was momentarily stunned, not quite grasping Wang Dou's meaning. Wang Dou explained in the plain terms of the day, and only then did Zhao Xuan understand. He said, "I am ashamed to say I have never seen such things. From what you describe, my lord, they must be some kind of implements to assist gunners in firing."

He pondered deeply for a long time, then said, "For the object you describe, my lord, I do have one method: select a few cannons and, through test firing, compile a firing table and sight scale. As for ranging, I must think on it more carefully."

That Zhao Xuan could conceive of a method to solve the firing table and sight scale problem already delighted Wang Dou. Talent did exist in this age — it only depended on how you went about uncovering it. He said, "Good. I leave this matter to Battalion Commander Zhao."

He reflected for a moment, then said, "Regarding gunner training, I do have a proposal."

Seeing Zhao Xuan's eyes widen as he looked at him, Wang Dou said, "In gunner training, henceforth you need not exhaustively instruct every single gunner. For the breech-loading cannons, the small cannons, and the crouching-tiger cannons, simply select one capable man for each type to serve as instructor. Let the rest study on their own."

Zhao Xuan said in alarm, "My lord, if we do that, won't the other cannons be unable to fire accurately?"

Wang Dou said, "In actual artillery combat, for each type of cannon, let that one capable man observe the enemy situation. Then all cannons of that type will fire in salvo according to the firing angle and direction he determines. The individual gunners are not to aim and fire each on their own."

What Wang Dou described was the secret behind the later British naval artillery salvoes. When the British fleet defeated the Spanish fleet, and later the German fleet, aside from various other reasons, this artillery salvo firing was a very important factor. At the time, Spain had large numbers of excellent gunners, but each man handled one cannon. They fired very accurately, but could not produce the power of a salvo.

The British, by contrast, needed only one excellent gunner per warship. Although the hit rate was not high, the power of a salvo was far more ferocious than the firepower produced by a group of highly experienced Spanish gunners. An excellent gunner required several years to train. Over several years of war, as Spain's artillery losses mounted, Spain's defeat became inevitable.

This was the secret of early modern British artillery success. Wang Dou hoped he could replicate it in the Great Ming of the mid-seventeenth century.