[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army":3,"chapter-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-648":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","A Little Soldier of the Late Ming Border Army",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1205937,1561,"Chapter 648: Four-Edged Sword-Bayonet","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-648",648,"\u003Cp>The Jiajiaying Arsenal fell under the Logistics Division. Along both banks of the river, a hundred hydraulic drilling machines had been set up. To improve water-flow stability, a dam had been built across the riverbed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Wang Dou arrived, he saw long work sheds stretching along the riverbank. Inside the sheds, rows of drilling machines were arrayed; as the river water flowed through, the drill bits spun without stopping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On these drilling machines, every load-bearing part had been replaced with bronze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rotating bearing shafts had likewise been replaced with bronze, which greatly improved both load capacity and service life compared to the old wooden structures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not far behind each drilling machine stood large crates, on top of which lay finished drilled gun barrels. Wang Dou casually walked up to one crate, picked up a barrel, and saw that the bore was smooth and even. He could not help nodding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qi Tianliang explained that after years of use, and with the dam built, the speed-regulation problem of the drilling machines had largely been solved. Coupled with an increase in highly experienced craftsmen, the hundred hydraulic drilling machines could now drill at least seven hundred barrels a month, a considerable improvement over the previous five hundred.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, the wear rate of the drilling tools and the rejection rate of the barrels had both dropped significantly, and fewer hands were needed to tend them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou was quite satisfied. Using machines was indeed more efficient and stable than using human labor. The only drawback was that the river water was heavily affected by seasonal changes, making the dry season rather troublesome.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides making arquebuses, the Jiajiaying Arsenal also produced armor and weapons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Making armor was no simple matter. The infantry armor of the Song dynasty had over eighteen hundred individual plates, and required multiple processes including perforation and fine polishing; crafting a single suit of armor took nearly a month. Western plate armor also took a month to produce one suit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Great Ming armor had been simplified considerably, shaping a finished suit was still no easy task.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Passing through some workshops, Wang Dou saw many military women inside. The iron-studded armor of the Great Ming and the Jingbian Army required patience for sewing and inlaying. In this respect, grown men could not match the advantages of women comrades. Some of these military women had been working in the armor factory since the Shunxiang Fort days, and many had become supervisors at various levels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their income was quite good; some even earned more than the men in their families. When a woman earned more than a man, it inevitably led to some domestic disputes. The man higher and the woman lower was the key to harmony; the woman higher and the man lower mostly ended in tragedy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, making them give up their generous income was impossible. When the village and tithing chiefs mediated, they could only urge the men in their households to work harder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clanging sound of hammering iron rang out. They arrived at a rather large workshop shed, where the heat was oppressive and sparks flew everywhere. This was the main place Wang Dou had set up for forging sword-bayonets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside the shed, a great many military craftsmen were gathered, bustling back and forth at their tasks. They were divided into multiple teams, each with an experienced supervisor and senior craftsman. These men were responsible for forging certain critical parts and for quality inspection after the weapons were made. Every one of them was extremely meticulous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, the Jingbian Army's regulations were strict. If a weapon was substandard, one of the people held accountable afterward would be them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These supervisors wore fox-fur hats and had trim on the shoulders and collars of their outer garments in colors different from those of ordinary military craftsmen, displaying rank distinctions everywhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Walking through the workshop shed, the military craftsmen worked without pause, each utterly concentrated, so much so that they did not even notice Wang Dou and his party on their inspection tour. At the rear warehouse, crates of sword-bayonets were being carried over and stacked up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before weapons could enter the storehouse, they had to pass one more inspection checkpoint. One of the quality standards for these sword-bayonets was the socket diameter, which had to conform to a set standard so that in use, they could be firmly fitted onto the gun barrel, neither too loose nor too tight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The inspection results showed that, apart from a very small number, they basically met the standard. This was also the fruit of Wang Dou's early implementation of weapon standardization and his use of the early Ming weights and measures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The weights and measures of the early Ming were extremely standardized. As early as the first year of the Hongwu reign, the Ming founder had ordered the casting of iron standard measures for calibration and issued the models throughout the realm. The weights and measures used by every merchant firm and shop had to be taken to the government office for official stamping; the measures used by common folk in villages and towns also had to match those issued by the authorities before they were permitted for use.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Great Ming's management of weights and measures was comprehensive, with extremely small margins of error. On the large scale, from zhang, chi, to cun; on the small scale, from fen, li, hao, si, and even down to hu — on both the construction ruler and the tailoring ruler, there were fine graduated calculations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although, with the flourishing of commerce, merchants colluded with bureaucratic landlords to arbitrarily enlarge weights and measures, causing some confusion, as long as one reverted to the weights and measures standard of the Ming founder's time, there was not the slightest problem in using them to manufacture weapons, and still less problem with parts standardization.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As early as the Shunxiang Fort days, Wang Dou had been making weapons according to the early Ming weights and measures, which was one reason his army's weapons were so excellent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nor did Wang Dou think that making an arquebus or a sword-bayonet required precision down to the si or even the hu. The current standard was already sufficient.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those responsible for inspecting the sword-bayonets would each take an arquebus, fit the sword-bayonets on one by one, and feel for proper fit. There were also several other procedures before they could enter the storehouse. They dared not be careless; if anything went wrong, at the least they would lose their livelihood, at worst they would be thrown into prison — they had no choice but to be careful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And for crafting excellent weapons, each person received rewards. With these counterbalancing incentives, it was understandable that the Jingbian Army's weapons were renowned far and wide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou picked up a sword-bayonet and examined it. It felt somewhat heavy in his hand. Apart from the socket and the rounded bulge at the front, the rest of this sword-bayonet was a little different from the bayonets in his memory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was not the flat kind of bayonet, but rather entirely rounded. The blade looked like a long, pointed iron rod. About the front two-thirds of the blade had a blood groove, resembling a Mosin-Nagant four-edged spike bayonet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the result of collective discussion, a choice made out of necessity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The metalworking technology was not advanced enough, yet structural strength was required, so it was inevitably designed into this shape. In 1688, the Marshal of France, Vauban, designed the socket bayonet, fixed by a catch on the barrel and a slot on the bayonet, with a cruciform cross-section — exactly this shape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the earliest days, European and American countries all used three-edged or four-edged spike bayonets, but as steelmaking technology improved, this type of single-function military spike was quickly phased out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, in close combat, a spike bayonet could only thrust, not cut. A flat bayonet, after a missed thrust, could still cut as one pulled the rifle back, allowing a quicker entry into a second attack. Moreover, a flat bayonet had multiple survival functions. The elimination of the spike bayonet was inevitable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, three-edged or four-edged spike bayonets also had advantages: the blade body was stronger than that of a flat bayonet, and it was easier to forge. Tests had shown that the Jingbian Army's sword-bayonet could pierce armor and was not easily broken. As long as it was not pitted against weapons like wolf-tooth clubs or large staves, it was still quite combat-effective.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although this sword-bayonet had a single function and might be phased out in the future, that was a matter for much later. For the present, it was suitable. As for the so-called survival functions, those could be left to the scalp-taking knife that every Jingbian Army soldier carried.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fifteenth year of Chongzhen. Fourth month. The Eastern Route.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a clatter of hooves, a dozen or so fast horses galloped along the smooth road toward the Xiangying Hill residential area.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The riders were all dressed in brocade robes, wearing three-peaked hats, and carried waist sabers. In their fine clothes and spirited steeds, every one of them was attired like a Jingbian Army officer. The people they passed along the way all cast envious glances at them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Very quickly, the group arrived at the foot of a hill. A river wound around it, and along the hillside and the riverbank stood courtyard residences one after another. The residences were connected by paths of blue flagstone and cobblestone, and the scenery was beautiful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was one of the residential quarters for Jingbian Army officers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Too many officers lived inside Yongning City, so the Shogunate Logistics Division had built a residential area at Xiangying Hill. This place was not far south of Yongning City, nor far east of Liubin Fort. Moreover, nestled between hills and water, with a mountain peak at its back, it was indeed a wonderful location.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Walking here, one saw only well-dressed men and women, and children. According to Jingbian Army benefits, officers at the Squad Commander level and above could receive free housing — though only a standard-grade courtyard house. If they wanted something better, they could buy it themselves, but at a considerable price discount.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for Tithing Chiefs and Platoon Commanders, if they wanted a courtyard residence, they also had to purchase it themselves. But the residences here, each with a rear garden and rockery, would cost at least twice as much if placed on the outside market. This was also one of the Jingbian Army's benefits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, officers could also use merit points to make purchases. In the Jingbian Army, merit points had many uses and could also be converted into money.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Money, however, could not buy merit points. Therefore, no Jingbian Army soldier was willing to convert his merit points into money. For them, even a Tithing Chief or Squad Commander could purchase a courtyard residence without much difficulty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Following the cobblestone path and crossing a stone bridge, the group rode to the opposite bank. This residential area had no surrounding wall built. Now that the Eastern Route was increasingly peaceful, many wealthy households and commoners were building garden residences outside the city, and none of them built walls or the like.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Aha, bringing glory to the ancestors!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luo Liangzuo's portly frame, dressed in brocade robes and wearing a three-peaked hat, cut quite an imposing figure. From atop his horse, he had already bellowed this who knew how many times along the way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Truly bringing glory to the ancestors! A full five hundred mu of prime farmland! In all the generations of my old Luo family, I, Luo Liangzuo, am the most accomplished. Hmph, when I was little, my old man thought I ate too much. Good thing that when I was ten, Immortal Huang in the city read my fortune. He pinched his fingers, calculated, and said I would have a day of meteoric success — and sure enough, he was right...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing his howling, the people along the road all broke into knowing smiles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the start of the year, the Jingbian Army had begun redeeming merit points. According to the merit calculation, one hundred merit points could be exchanged for one hundred mu of prime farmland beyond the frontier, or five hundred mu of pasture or mountain land. This was carried out batch by batch, and they could also take many days of leave to go beyond the frontier and see it with their own eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At present, many low-ranking officers in the Jingbian Army commonly owned several hundred mu of prime farmland; owning a thousand mu of land was nothing out of the ordinary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Land — this had been the dream of the Chinese people for thousands of years, the deepest passion in their hearts. Wang Dou was not worried about people developing a mentality of being content with modest wealth. If they wished to retire, after three full years of military service they could immediately apply for discharge, and their positions would immediately be filled by newcomers. There would be no shortage of talent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, Wang Dou believed that this ebb and flow would keep the water from stagnating, allowing the army to maintain its vitality and life force over the long term.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If someone lost the will to advance yet still clung to their post without doing their job, that would instead be a bad thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lean Lai Dexiang, riding on his horse, was likewise trembling with excitement: \"Good heavens, I've got four hundred and fifty merit points. Two hundred and fifty exchanged for prime farmland, and two hundred exchanged for four hundred mu of pasture. I'm definitely going to raise lots of cattle, lots of sheep, and chickens, ducks, and geese...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Dingguo wailed loudly: \"Two hundred merit points — that's two hundred mu of prime farmland! Even that rich landlord our village used to rent from didn't have half as much land as I do. What a pity my parents can't see this day when I bring glory to the ancestors.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Han Kaihui, for his part, was calculating to himself. His family in Zhending was considered well-off, but for generations they had only possessed a hundred mu of prime farmland. Now the land he owned was several times what his family had, and he had become a Squad Commander, and had even been granted the honorary rank of Captain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Father, Mother, and my three older sisters — though they have doted on me since I was little, they have always treated me as a child who would never grow up. Now I have finally proven myself. I wonder if, when they receive my letter, they will come to the Eastern Route.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Han Kaizheng was impatient to see the moment when Father, Mother, and his three older sisters would be astonished and overjoyed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Lie and Mou Dachang looked at Zhao Rongcheng and clamored, \"Old Squad Commander is now a Squad Commander, and his merit tally has reached seven hundred — the highest among us all. He must treat us!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The men on horseback all shouted in agreement. Zhao Rongcheng laughed heartily and declared boldly, \"No problem — tonight, my treat at 'Honored Guest Inn'!\" (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, welcome to Qidian to cast recommendation votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)\u003C\u002Fp>",2564,"2026-06-03T14:06:10.567Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","72b35d30a38658cc3f6da67164c985a05aae76858ab52884ec300b013b41841e","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-649","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-647",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]