Chapter 664: No Turning Back

After watching the last two rows of bayonet soldiers open fire, everyone on the field showed expressions of excitement — too ferocious, the firepower was too ferocious. Under normal circumstances, the enemy before them, facing such a strike, would basically collapse.

Facing panicked and bewildered enemies, the bayonet soldiers could also take the chance to spear a few more, speeding up their collapse.

Of course, for this kind of tactic, the soldiers need to possess excellent firearms, otherwise a careless barrel burst would bring misfortune to more than just one or two.

This tactic also severely tests psychological quality; after all, the trigger clicks right beside the ear, flames leap up nearby, and the acrid smell of gunpowder smoke is right under the nose. Apart from the first-rate troops, the newly recruited second-rate soldiers probably could not handle it.

Therefore, training to fire in two rows at a time is, for now, only for the first-rate bayonet soldiers.

"Boom, boom, boom."

Hoofbeats thundered like rolling thunder; the cavalry and infantry of each army were drilling, and the cavalry battalion of the central army was also training. The drill ground had now expanded to several times its original size, allowing all types of troops to drill.

Fiery red manes flying, the difference between the cavalry battalion and the mounted infantry of each army was the horse manes, and the round shields on each rider's left arm, all dyed a uniform red.

Wang Dou raised his telescope. Dust rolled on that side of the field. At this moment, rows of riders holding horse lances were charging in formation, their might awe-inspiring, and rows of riders holding sabers were diligently training in formation.

After the expansion, the central army cavalry battalion was expanded into two battalions: the Cavalry Left Battalion and the Cavalry Right Battalion. The Left Battalion was a first-rate battalion, and the Right Battalion a second-rate battalion.

Their sources of troops, aside from some drawn from each battalion, were mostly new recruits from Shen Shiqi's Loyalty Battalion, seeds trained daily by the Training Division, Great Ming swordsmen who had entered Xuanfu Garrison, and a small number of newly attached Mongol men from the camp and so on.

Originally, Li Guangheng wanted to draw mounted infantry from each battalion. But the officers of each battalion all squawked loudly; after the expansion, the first-rate troops under each battalion were already in short supply. And they still had to be drawn to the cavalry battalion?

After debate and negotiation, in the end, troops were transferred from Shen Shiqi's Loyalty Battalion, because the men in his battalion were basically all former retainers of various old generals, and their riding skills were outstanding.

Shen Shiqi of course also squawked loudly. However, old troops selected from various circuits of Xuanfu Garrison continuously flowed into the Loyalty Battalion, making his clamor a bit quieter. Still, thinking that a large portion of these men would later be selected into the various battalions of the Border Pacification Army, he could not help but sigh: "I am fated to be a wet nurse."

Of the two cavalry battalions, the Left Battalion was lance cavalry, the Right Battalion saber cavalry, all on uniformly fine warhorses. As for the first-rate battalions of the other armies, although every man also had to be equipped with a horse, after the Border Pacification Army's expansion, the originally surplus horses had become tight. Having a horse was good enough; warhorses were out of the question.

Wang Dou gave the mounted infantry of each army's first-rate battalions a resounding title: "Feathered Riders."

But these regular cavalrymen, facing those "Feathered Riders," were still full of a sense of superiority.

Watching those lance cavalry charge forward with overwhelming momentum, Li Guangheng said proudly: "Grand General, it is not your subordinate boasting, but looking across the entire Great Ming, a cavalry army that can compare with my Left Battalion can no longer be found. Even if the Tatar slaves dismounted and formed ranks to fight, the soldiers of my Left Battalion could still break them open!"

As Li Guangheng spoke, the other generals all looked at those riders with envy and jealousy.

Hearing this, Gao Shiyin curled his lip: "What era is this, still using cavalry to break formations? In our Border Pacification Army, the cannons are the most lethal, bombarding from afar is also safe. Even blasting with firelocks is good — blast open a breach, then the cavalry charges in after, isn't that better?"

"Exactly."

Zhao Xuan was also drooling as he looked at the warhorses of those riders. His artillery battalion, although every man was equipped with a horse, apart from the officers, all they rode were mules and draft horses. He said: "How precious are Commandant Li's cavalrymen? Losing even one is no good thing. Better to follow behind."

Looking at everyone's expressions, Li Guangheng laughed heartily: "I understand, you are all jealous."

His mood was incomparably joyful. When he first joined the Shunxiang Army, he could never have imagined that he would one day possess so many fierce and valiant riders.

……

The next day, what Wang Dou and the others inspected was the artillery training ground.

This artillery training ground was on the southeastern side of the parade ground. The terrain in this area was complex, with flat plains, mountains, and hills. A few li further southeast from the ground was the newly established garrison town cannon foundry, not far from the Jia Family Camp military factory. Besides the foundry in Yongning City, this was the Border Pacification Army's second cannon foundry.

In the Liaodong campaign, the Tatar slaves' use of heavy cannons of ten jin and above collectively shook the generals of the Border Pacification Army. Therefore, after returning to the Eastern Circuit, the proposal to cast heavy cannons was placed on Wang Dou's desk.

For the Border Pacification Army, a major reason their combat strength was outstanding was the cannons. Often they would bombard the enemy into rout from afar, smashing the most cannonballs onto the enemy's head in the shortest time. Within range, everything was under control.

However, in the Liaodong campaign, they had suffered greatly from the heavy cannon fire of the Han Eight Banners. Although those Han Banners had all been annihilated, who knew if such an enemy would appear again? Even as a precaution, these heavy cannons had to be cast.

Otherwise, if such a strong enemy appeared again, would they just stand in formation and take a beating? That did not fit the Border Pacification Army's style of bullying opponents with overwhelming firepower.

The garrison town cannon foundry mainly cast red-barbarian heavy cannons, and also mortars.

The Yongning City cannon foundry cast red-barbarian medium and small cannons firing balls of three or five jin, and also began casting Frankish cannons, hundred-shot guns, and the like.

"Thump, thump."

Amidst the muffled cannon fire, the twenty mortars firing ten-jin shells before them spewed out great plumes of thick smoke, and then one after another poison smoke shell flew out of the muzzle, heading toward the target.

Everyone watched as, of the twenty shells, some exploded in mid-air on their own, and some continued flying, but very few actually hit the target, far inferior to the red-barbarian cannons currently in the army.

Slow firing and low accuracy — this was the current state of mortars.

After all, curved-trajectory shells involved complex mathematical calculations, and the fuse was a particular problem.

Seeing everyone's expressions, especially Wang Dou's, Zhao Xuan hurriedly said: "Grand General, through the military factory's development, the fuse has already been improved. In fact, the firing speed and accuracy of our army's mortars are much higher than those of other troops. Given time, they can be even higher."

He was always full of enthusiasm for new weapons and held great expectations for mortars. Afraid that Wang Dou might be dissatisfied and cut the research and casting of mortars, he hurriedly explained.

Wang Dou nodded and said: "Like the self-igniting firelock, although mortars have various drawbacks, it is obvious that in the future they will certainly become a great weapon for the artillery battalion."

Zhao Xuan set his mind at ease and said happily: "The Grand General is wise. These mortars are indeed not bad. This subordinate believes we should equip more of them."

After the expansion, his artillery battalion had also grown considerably and had established specialized guard soldiers. However, it was not divided into left and right battalions; it remained one large battalion, and moreover, the battalion possessed more and more cannons.

Because of the iron mold method, cannons could be cast in all four seasons. From the fourth month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, the foundries had cast quite a few more cannons. Especially with the opening of the garrison town cannon foundry, Wang Dou now possessed one hundred and forty red-barbarian cannons, including five heavy cannons firing shells of ten jin and above. He also had thirty mortars.

However, for the time being, only one hundred red-barbarian cannons and twenty mortars were equipped in the battalion; the rest were kept in storage, and the five heavy cannons were also not equipped.

Collecting some Frankish cannons from Xuanfu Garrison, plus the original Frankish cannons in the battalion, there were also fifty grand-general Frankish cannons and one hundred medium and small Frankish cannons equipped in the battalion.

Furthermore, besides self-manufacture, they also tried every means to obtain Frankish cannons from various places.

After all, throughout the Great Ming, although red-barbarian cannons were few, Frankish cannons were not. From the third year of Jiajing until now, after the Great Ming successfully copied the first batch of Frankish guns, the various types of Frankish cannons cast probably numbered no less than ten thousand. Sometimes a single frontier garrison fort would have as many as several hundred.

Therefore, Zhao Xuan's artillery battalion was extremely large and ferociously powerful in firepower.

Originally, the plan was for each army and each battalion to be equipped with a portion of cannons. However, Zhao Xuan overrode all objections and insisted on the concentrated use of cannons. He believed that equipping each army and each battalion with cannons would greatly dilute the power of the cannon fire. Although there were certain advantages, the drawbacks outweighed the benefits, and the gains did not justify the losses.

The other generals, of course, hoped to have cannons equipped in their own armies. They engaged in a month-long debate with Zhao Xuan. In the end, Wang Dou recalled that historically, Napoleon, Wellington, and Archduke Charles had all attempted to assign some cannons directly to regiments, and even to units below the regiment.

However, because this method allowed too much freedom and was very unfavorable for concentrating artillery firepower, they ultimately reverted to the original state.

The advantage of a transmigrator was being able to draw lessons and avoid detours. The red-barbarian cannons and Frankish guns currently used in the army, after all, still had limited power; without concentrated use, it was difficult to manifest the might of the cannons. In the end, Wang Dou approved Zhao Xuan's proposal.

The compromise was that, depending on the situation, if a certain army or battalion went on campaign, or based on battlefield conditions, the artillery battalion would dispatch a portion or a full brigade of cannons in support, with a dedicated guard unit attached. In this way, cannons were concentrated while also flexibly accommodating the circumstances of each army, and this was widely accepted by the generals.

"Not bad. If the mortar fuse problem can be solved, they can be equipped in large numbers in the army. At present, our Border Pacification Army has over a hundred red-barbarian cannons, which is still too few. We must cast many more — two hundred, three hundred, five hundred. Ultimately, the artillery battalion must possess cannons reaching a thousand!"

Wang Dou's words stirred great heroic passion in all the generals.

Watching the training scene of clashing metal and shouting men and neighing horses, Wen Fangliang said with high spirits: "To govern the army with righteousness, to array in imposing formation, ten thousand men as one, with explosively strong firepower — under heaven, there is no army that can be the opponent of our Border Pacification Army!"

"Even if the enemy commander is a world-renowned famous general, and our commanding general is a mediocre one, yet with the strength of our soldiers, arrayed in imposing battle formation, we would already stand on invincible ground."

"Famous generals?"

Gao Shiyin shouted: "What I beat are precisely famous generals!"

He shouted, “Back when we were campaigning against the roving bandits, that Liu Fangliang was a famous general of the Chuang camp. He besieged us with tens of thousands of troops, but I routed him instead!”

“If the soldiers aren’t strong, what damn use is a strong general?”

The crowd roared with laughter.

Wang Dou also smiled and nodded. To be honest, although the outside world paid close attention to the Jingbian Army and often critiqued the strengths and weaknesses of its various generals, Wang Dou knew that among his own subordinates, there were no earth-shattering talents — each was merely of average caliber.

But standardization, institutionalization, coupled with ferocious firepower, were enough to crush any opponent and sweep aside all historical famous generals.

“This is my true capital, my true strength!”

Watching the fervent training, Wang Dou’s mind wandered. He already possessed sufficient capital — but where should he go from here?

People are all like this: one’s state of mind changes with shifts in ability and circumstance. No one is born a hero or a champion. Cao Mengde’s original wish was merely to be a minor official, spending his life roaming mountains and waters with friends.

Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang’s original wish was merely to eat a full meal and keep his brothers and family from starving to death.

He himself had initially struggled bitterly just to survive. Reaching this step was something he could never have imagined back then.

“Sometimes, there is always a regret in my heart, missing my parents, my wife and daughter from the later age, missing that honest and simple big native dog…”

“Sometimes, I also envy the Wang Dou in my memories — that carefree, pressure-free, trouble-free and burden-free self…”

“Sometimes, I also miss the life at Jingbian Dun and Jingbian Fort…”

Yet Wang Dou knew that he could no longer turn back. (To be continued. Mobile users please read at m.qidian.com.)