Chapter 46: Fixed-Load Paper Cartridge Ammunition

In Wang Dou's combat troops there are currently only three soldier types: saber-and-shield men, long-spear men, and firelock men.

Among those veterans, their formation drills and mutual coordination in combat have already developed a certain tacit understanding. So after the morning formation training, every afternoon Wang Dou trains their individual technical skills.

In Qi Jia Jun, the evaluation of soldiers' skills was subdivided into nine grades. Wang Dou's army has only just begun training, so he roughly divides them into four grades: superior, middling, inferior, and unqualified.

Each grade has different treatment and reward-punishment measures. Superior-grade men get meat every day and may stand as equals with squad leaders; when meeting a company commander they need only bow with clasped hands, no kneeling required. Middling-grade men eat meat once every three days. Inferior-grade men eat only plain cooked rice each day. Anyone unqualified after an evaluation gets ten heavy strokes of the army rod; those unqualified five times get thirty heavy strokes and are expelled from the combat troops, demoted to logistics troops.

Henceforth evaluations occur every two months, with the four grades rising or falling without fixed rule — middling and inferior can rise, superior can also fall to middling or inferior. Those who stay in place also face corresponding punishment measures. Staying at the same grade once may be excused. Staying at the same grade twice earns five strokes. Three times earns ten strokes. Five or more times without advancing earns thirty strokes, expulsion from the combat troops, and demotion to logistics troops.

Everything depends on the soldiers' performance; if the proportion of regression or unqualified results is large, even company commanders and squad leaders will be punished.

Take the saber-and-shield men for example: when holding their shields, if they can wield them to cover their own bodies, that is inferior. If they can test their blades and charge into a spear formation, that is middling. If ordered to take shield and fight long-spear men, and they beat their opponents so the opponents cannot counter, that is superior.

Wang Dou recently also had a batch of javelins made for the saber-and-shield men to use.

In the future, saber-and-shield men will throw javelins by hand, with twenty paces as the standard, aiming to hit three hanging copper coins set up there. Hitting one coin is inferior, hitting two is middling, hitting three is superior. Hitting none is unqualified, and they will be beaten with the army rod.

This standard is far lower than the evaluation drills of Qi Jia Jun, but Wang Dou is in no hurry — he will take it slowly.

The same applies to the long-spear men. For their spear practice, a human-shaped wooden target is also set up twenty paces away, with five holes marked on it — eye, throat, heart, waist, and foot — each with a one-inch wooden ball placed inside.

When the drum beats, they fly forward, thrusting their spears, taking any hole they choose. After thrusting five times, if three times they can impale the wooden ball from the hole onto the spear tip, that is superior-middling. Twice is middling. Once is inferior. Not even once, and if their hand technique, footwork, body method, and advance-retreat method during the spear trial are not rigorous, that is unqualified — the army rod awaits.

After this graded reward-and-punishment system was introduced, every soldier felt a certain sense of crisis and also came to view everyone else in their unit as a competitor. But this kind of healthy competitive atmosphere was something Wang Dou was happy to see.

In ancient times, cold-weapon combat relied mainly on the use of waist strength. To train everyone's waist strength, Wang Dou also ordered the craftsmen to make a batch of stone locks and required these military households to train with them several dozen times every day.

……

However, while the training of saber-and-shield men and long-spear men is easy, the training of firelock men is comparatively difficult.

Their blade practice is fine; the main difficulty is the shooting training with bird guns, not because no one can hit the target, but because of the cost issue in training with firearms. In this Great Ming dynasty, even a fine-quality bird gun has a barrel service life of only a few dozen shots. Firing a few times every day, after ten-odd days one barrel is scrapped. To make another barrel takes at least a month.

Scaled up to large quantities, the silver required is also considerable.

Moreover, this shooting training cannot be achieved without a large quantity of ammunition. Lead balls can be made by the craftsmen inside the fort, but Wang Dou's current gunpowder saltpeter is basically purchased from outside. The problems of silver money and gunpowder raw materials severely constrain the development of Wang Dou's firearm troops.

But Wang Dou believes he has a way to solve this problem. As for those bird-gun men in the army, Wang Dou still lets them practice to their hearts' content.

At this moment, on the still very crude drill ground outside the fort, the firing sounds of firelocks crackled without cease.

Wang Dou was standing in front of the B Company led by Han Zhong, watching a bird-gun soldier shooting. Han Zhong, Yang Tong, Gao Shiyin, and Zhong Diaoyang were all gathered around Wang Dou watching.

That bird-gun soldier was perhaps only in his early twenties, with a roundish face, quite fair and clean, but his expression was utterly focused — he seemed completely unaware of the crowd standing behind him.

He skillfully loaded the powder and lead ball, then aimed his eye at the sight, aligned it with a target fifty paces ahead, and pulled the trigger. With a crack, it was a hit.

Then he test-fired two more shots, and both were hits.

Everyone cried out in approval.

Wang Dou does not yet dare compare himself with Qi Jia Jun; when training bird guns, he only sets up a target fifty paces away. But the training standard is the same: three shots all hitting is superior, one hit out of three shots is middling, one hit out of six shots is inferior. Out of six shots, not a single hit is unqualified.

This bird-gun soldier fired three shots in a row and hit every one — truly a sharpshooter.

Noticing Wang Dou's gaze, Han Zhong also looked rather pleased with himself; after all, this bird-gun soldier was a man in his company.

Wang Dou summoned this bird-gun soldier and asked, "What is your name? Where are you from?"

When shooting, that bird-gun soldier was decisive and focused, but when facing Wang Dou and the others, his expression became flustered and uneasy. He nervously clutched the hem of his clothes, and his voice was rather soft and thin as he said, "Replying to my lord, this humble one is called Zhong Xiancai, from Weizhou."

Wang Dou nodded and said, "You shoot well. This officer shall reward you. Someone, bring a reward."

……

Wang Dou rewarded that bird-gun soldier Zhong Xiancai with one mace of silver, then continued patrolling the drill ground, inspecting the soldiers' training while also mulling over a problem in his mind.

After the craftsman reward-and-punishment system he had instituted, most of the bird guns made by Li Maosen and his men were up to standard, and the muzzle calibers were basically set to a certain standard. The quality was good enough that bird-gun men could confidently brace the stock and bring their eyes close to the breech to aim carefully during training, greatly improving the bird guns' hit rate.

Even so, however, each soldier's shooting and loading speed still seemed rather slow. Even at Zhong Xiancai's rate of fire, it took nearly a minute to get off one shot; other bird-gun men shot even slower.

The firing procedure for a Ming bird gun roughly includes pouring powder, loading powder, priming the pan, loading the ball, and attaching the matchcord — several steps. A skilled shooter in ordinary times can manage about one shot per minute. Some ordinary bird-gun men, once on the battlefield, become flustered, and if they can fire one shot every two minutes, that is already considered good.

Although for now he has no way to produce flintlock firelocks, he can think of ways to improve the loading speed of bird guns.

In the Great Ming army, bird-gun men have a certain standard for ammunition loading. For example, in Qi Jia Jun, each bird-gun man carries on his back fifty-three bamboo tubes filled with gunpowder, all pre-measured. In another pouch he also carries fifty-three lead balls.

But it can be taken a step further. Wang Dou thought of the paper cartridge fixed-load ammunition of later ages.

That paper cartridge fixed-load ammunition wraps a fixed charge of powder and the projectile together inside a long paper tube. When loading, you bite open the paper tube with your teeth, first pour a little powder into the priming pan, then stuff the remaining powder along with the projectile all into the muzzle, and it is done.

This not only ensures consistent shot power for every round but also greatly reduces the steps of loading powder. This allows ordinary bird-gun soldiers to reach a rate of one shot per minute; skilled bird-gun men firing twice per minute is no problem.

Thinking of this, Wang Dou grew very excited. He summoned the head craftsman Li Maosen and asked him whether this method was feasible.

Li Maosen pondered for a long while, then cupped his hands and said, "My lord, your brilliance is lofty — this method is indeed exquisite and can greatly increase the gunners' firing speed."

Then his face showed difficulty: "Only, this way, dividing the powder and loading the cartridges will require quite a few hands. With my small number of craftsmen, I fear we lack the manpower."

Wang Dou said, "You need not worry about that. I will assign some hands to you."

At present, Jingbian Fort has one hundred resident households, with over two hundred adult males and over two hundred women. Apart from over one hundred able-bodied adult men, the remaining old and weak men, women, and children can all be used. He calculated for a moment and said, "Here is the plan: build another workshop next to your workshop. I will assign you fifteen old or weak men and twenty sturdy women. Every day you will have them divide and load the ammunition. Henceforth, their monthly grain and wages will also be distributed by the fort."

A look of delight appeared on Li Maosen's face; this way, he would not have to worry about the manpower problem.

Wang Dou emphasized, "The powder charge in every single fixed-load paper tube must be weighed to be identical. On this point, you must supervise well."

Li Maosen said, "My lord, rest assured, this humble one will certainly manage it properly."

……

Very quickly, Li Maosen produced several sample paper cartridge fixed-load rounds, placed them in a special oilcloth ammunition pouch, and took them outside the fort for that bird-gun soldier Zhong Xiancai to test-fire.

After receiving the task, Zhong Xiancai familiarized himself with this ammunition pouch worn on his body, then, as Wang Dou had instructed, entered a state of focus.

He took the bird gun in hand, opened the priming pan, then drew out one fixed-load paper cartridge, used his teeth to bite open one end of the paper cartridge shell, and poured a little powder into the priming pan. He closed the priming pan, then stuffed the powder and projectile from the paper tube together into the barrel, rammed it home with the ramrod — the matchcord had long since been attached — and the shooting preparation was complete!

Zhong Xiancai test-fired several rounds. At first he was somewhat unfamiliar, but then he fired more and more smoothly. By his estimate, this paper cartridge fixed-load ammunition indeed greatly saved loading time; he could fire about three rounds per minute. For the other bird-gun men, once practiced, they could also fire about two rounds per minute. Even on the battlefield, under the influence of various conditions, firing one round per minute would be very easy.

The men gathered around Wang Dou and the bird-gun men in each company were also very happy; everyone hoped to use this kind of paper cartridge fixed-load ammunition from now on.

The matter was thus settled. Wang Dou ordered a large room built next to the craftsmen's workshop, and he also selected a batch of old, weak, and women from inside the fort to go help Li Maosen divide and produce ammunition. These people could all receive fixed monthly grain and wages from now on; if they worked well and produced more, they would likewise receive rewards.

This new batch of military-factory workers were all very happy. Ordinarily, they were not the main laborers in their households, yet now they could also earn monthly grain and wages. This made them feel they had a place to put their abilities to use, and when they returned home, even their voices grew a little louder.

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Old White Ox: There is still one more chapter tonight, posted before midnight. Thank you all for your support.