Chapter 119: Weapons

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As for weapons, after a crowd of centurions and probationary centurions argued around Zhou Shixiang for half the day, it was finally settled that the Zhenlu Camp and Xiongwei Camp would all be equipped with long spears, the Hujie Camp would all be equipped with long sabers, and the Xianzhen Camp, which was to be used as field engineers in the manner of later ages, would all be equipped with firelocks, with all powder and shot also placed under the unified use of the Xianzhen Camp.

The Bordered Blue Banner Han troops had brought a total of 270 firelocks this time; apart from a dozen or so damaged in battle, the rest were all intact.

Out of regard for the importance of firelocks, and having already resolved to transform the Taiping Camp from a cold-weapon army into a hot-weapon army, Zhou Shixiang therefore had the Xianzhen Camp serve as the Taiping Camp's experimental field for firearms troops.

As long as the Xianzhen Camp's firelock soldiers could become proficient in using firelocks and master their tactics, in the future they could serve as the seed instructor unit for equipping the whole army with firelocks.

As for how to fire a gun, Qin Zhisheng, Shao Jiugong, and the others all knew; they only needed to teach a few officers of the Xianzhen Camp, and the soldiers below would naturally learn to use them as well.

Zhou Shixiang, for his part, also distilled some things from his previous life's military experience with firearms that could be applied to firelocks, and in terms of tactics he put forward the concept of volley fire by ranks, which was several times stronger than the Ming army's or Qing army's practice of firing firelocks all at once in a swarm, and its power and effect were also greater.

Zhou Shixiang was secretly quite pleased with himself for being able to apply the three-rank volley fire he had learned from foreign films in his previous life to seventeenth-century China, not knowing that as far back as two hundred years earlier, the Yongle Emperor of the great Ming dynasty had already brought three-rank volley fire to its utmost perfection in the army's Divine Machine Camp.

It was only that after more than two hundred years had passed, each generation proving worse than the last, the great Ming dynasty, having enjoyed peace for too long, had actually forgotten this finest method of firelock warfare.

Just as those grand ministers at court forgot the vast fleet of the eunuch Sanbao, thereby leaving the Ming army a hundred-odd years later to stare helplessly at the small boats of the Japanese pirates along the southeastern coast, so too did the neglect of firelocks and the forgetting of the combat methods forged by forebears in blood naturally cause the firelocks that had once ranged across the northern deserts to become mere fire-stoking sticks.

Truly lamentable, truly pitiable!

Of course, these things Zhou Shixiang was mulling over could not be mastered by the Xianzhen Camp in a short while; one cannot eat hot tofu in a hurry.

Although he very much wanted the firelock soldiers to become a trump card of the Taiping Army, before there had been sufficient training and combat tempering, his impatience would do no good.

The decisive weapons that could actually settle battles at present were still the great saber and the long spear.

Once the weapon allocation was settled, each camp quickly exchanged the weapons in its own hands.

The Taiping Camp of today was no longer as shabby as when it had first been formed in Luoding; though it still could not compare with the Qing army with its vast resources, it had captured a large quantity of weapons through several battles, enough at least to guarantee that every soldier had a weapon, rather than as before, when those with weapons charged to the front and those without followed behind.

The equipment of the men in each squad was by and large equal.

The soldiers who had first joined the Taiping Camp, apart from those who were truly too worthless, had mostly become squad leaders and sergeants; even those worthless ones had been through several battles, and though they had won no merit, they had seen blood and knew how this war was fought, so while they were no good at command, leading the new recruits in their squads was more than enough for them.

Veterans leading new recruits had been the one and only pattern from ancient times to the present; there was nothing new to innovate there. Train more on ordinary days, command properly in battle, tie your head to your belt and fight to the death — that was all.

The more than four hundred new recruits who had newly joined in Gaoyao were distributed among the camps, and the captured Gaoyao Green Standard troops were likewise distributed.

Li Fuguo, that Battalion Commander, was given a probationary centurion's post, and several of his men were appointed squad leaders. Once the whole camp was reorganized, both the new recruits and the captives felt settled at heart.

Though the public beheadings on the high platform today had truly been frightening, as long as one did not desert, presumably that blade would not fall on one's own head.

For the officers, the remaining matter was simply how to train these new recruits and captives well, and then lead them to fight the Qing army to the bitter end. As for anything else, thinking too much was pointless; having food to eat and meat to eat was enough, was it not?

As for the future, it would be enough to let the Battalion Commander worry about that.

Since Luoding, through captures and through trade with Tang Sanshui of Deqing, the Taiping Camp now had a total of 320 suits of padded armor, the greater part of which had been "contributed" by the Bordered Blue Banner Han troops.

In battle, the difference between having armor and not having armor was enormous. Though this padded armor was not as sturdy as iron armor, against unarmored troops it held every advantage; often one armored soldier could withstand the attacks of three or five unarmored soldiers.

On the day the Taiping Camp fought the Deqing Green Standard, the ferocity of those Deqing personal guards clad in padded armor had left a deep impression on Zhou Shixiang and all the officers, so no sooner had the argument over weapon allocation ended than the officers unanimously turned to quarreling over the distribution of the padded armor.

One word from you, one sentence from me, every one of them quarreling beyond all reconciliation, every one of them wanting to take more padded armor back, yet every one of them refusing to yield — when would this quarreling ever end?

In the end, it was Zhou Shixiang who made the decision: there were only 320 suits of padded armor, and divided among the camps that came to just over sixty suits each — how many men could that outfit, and what good would it do?

Better to use them as a unified whole and give them all to the First Zhenlu Camp. Correspondingly, the Zhenlu Camp must serve as the vanguard in all future battles, this condition being exchanged for the consent of the centurions of the other camps.

Once Zhou Shixiang made the decision, the centurions and probationary centurions naturally had nothing more to say.

The Zhenlu Camp having suddenly gained so much padded armor, Ge Zheng also thumped his chest and guaranteed that in future battles their Zhenlu Camp would be the first to go up. And so it was that, willing or not, the matter of the padded armor was settled.

Ge Zheng, overjoyed beyond measure, did not even attend the military conference that followed, but went straight off with his two probationary centurions to collect the padded armor and take it back to camp for distribution.

All the men in the whole camp who could shoot a bow added together numbered only thirty.

These thirty men were organized into a single squad in the Personal Guard Camp, called the Bow Squad; the squad leader held a squad leader's rank, but two sergeants were assigned as deputy squad leaders.

Zhou Shixiang made it very clear to Jiang He that the archers must train hard on ordinary days, and must absolutely not be neglected just because they were few; when new archers and bows were added in the future, the establishment must likewise be expanded.

If they could one day have an independent archery camp, it would absolutely play a decisive role in the Taiping Army's future battles.

What Zhou Shixiang instructed, Jiang He naturally committed to heart one item at a time, and afterward he called in the Bow Squad's squad leader and gave him another round of exhortations.

The men in the whole camp who could ride horses numbered several dozen, but most could only ride and could not fight on horseback.

The warhorses captured before and after added together came to over thirty, so Zhou Shixiang formed a cavalry unit in the Guard Camp, mainly responsible for scouting and transmitting military intelligence, and not used in battle.

The sixty-odd death warriors under Chen Mo were brought to the county yamen after the reorganization of the various camps was complete.

After reorganizing the five great camps, Zhou Shixiang no longer had much interest in these so-called death warriors, so he let half of them leave camp and return to their homes, while the remainder were organized into one squad, with Chen Mo serving as squad leader, still at squad leader rank and not promoted.

On ordinary days they moved together with the Guard Camp, but they bore another duty, which was to serve as assassins. (A fine event where pies fall from the sky — cool phones await you!

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