Chapter 217: Flintlock

Over the next half month or so, both inside and outside Luolong County, things were in full swing.

Liu Dengke led the refugees to plant potatoes and sweet potatoes, while Wang Dachui of the Manufacturing Department, under the guidance of Meng Yifan, learned the craft of firing cement, and then the Labor Camp went to build the outer perimeter wall to protect the planted land.

Luolong County originally had a city wall; now, by building another circle of walls, it formed two rings, an inner and an outer one.

The original Luolong County was called the inner city, while the newly enclosed area was called the outer city.

Liu Sheng led his men out of the city to smuggle grain to maintain the current grain supply for Luolong County.

Meng Dayong led the soldiers to continue training; following several bloody battles, these soldiers had grown up and become brave and skilled in combat.

Meng Yifan named this troop the Salvation Army, signifying the salvation of the common people living in dire straits.

Now, in the Great Martial Heavenly Dynasty World, Meng Yifan had been forced to occupy Luolong County and was already at irreconcilable odds with the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty; to survive, he had to learn the methods of the founding ancestor from back then.

First point: rally the hearts of the people; those who follow the Dao have much help, those who lose the Dao have little help.

The rule of the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty had rotted to the core; corrupt officials ran rampant, and in a year of famine, they still thought of lining their own pockets and driving up prices; the refugees being starved to death was not just a natural disaster, but also a man-made one.

Since Meng Yifan wanted to rebel, he had to go against the grain, create the Salvation Army, and save the common people.

This world possessed Dynasty Luck; luck was the hearts of the people. As long as he won the support of more common people, Meng Yifan could make his words law, hold Heaven's constitution in his mouth, and decide life and death with a single word.

Furthermore, this luck was his protective talisman; the officials of the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty could never use the Dynasty Luck they controlled to wipe out Meng Yifan.

The Salvation Army still had a thousand-man establishment; Meng Yifan referred to the military system on Earth and reorganized these one thousand people, using squad, platoon, company, battalion, and regiment as the new organizational structure.

Under normal circumstances, a battalion had five hundred people, and a regiment had three battalions, generally totaling one thousand five hundred people, but Meng Yifan divided the Salvation Army into one regiment, with Meng Dayong as the regimental commander.

He also selected one hundred people with the highest loyalty to train separately, considering them Meng Yifan's Imperial Guard Company.

They were under Meng Yifan's direct command; these Imperial Guard Company members all used AK47 Assault Rifles, M67 Grenades, and Gustav Rocket Launchers.

Although the Imperial Guard Company was small in number, its firepower was extremely fierce; if they really fought, the one hundred of them could wipe out the other nine hundred.

Not only that, Meng Yifan provided the Imperial Guard Company with cultivation techniques and a large amount of Pill, raising everyone to First Grade Martial Artist in a short time; some soldiers with high loyalty and good aptitude were even raised to Second Grade Martial Artist.

Because of his bravery in battle and his highest loyalty to Meng Yifan, Zhang Shagen was promoted to company commander of the Imperial Guard Company; he had now been raised by Meng Yifan to a Second-grade High-tier Martial Artist, just a step away from being a Third Grade Martial Artist.

With the promotion in rank, Meng Yifan assigned Zhang Shagen a three-bedroom apartment with a small courtyard.

Zhang Shagen's whole family moved in; having food to eat, clothes to wear, a big house to live in, and his own strength rapidly improving—from a destitute refugee to an officer with strength and status, the earth-shaking changes that happened to Zhang Shagen made him smile even in his dreams.

Deep down, Zhang Shagen was very grateful to Meng Yifan; his loyalty had risen to 99 points; he was willing to do anything for Meng Yifan, and as long as Meng Yifan gave the order, he would dare to charge forward even if facing a mountain of blades or a sea of fire.

After receiving the AK47 Assault Rifles, Zhang Shagen and his team members were all wild with joy.

This kind of weapon had immense power, long range, high shooting accuracy, and could fire continuously; compared to the Bird Gun that required lighting a matchlock to fire once, the rate of fire was far too fast—the two were simply worlds apart.

Unfortunately, ammunition was limited; Meng Yifan only let Zhang Shagen and the others fire five live rounds each to get a feel for the guns, and for the rest of the time, he still had them use Bird Guns to practice their marksmanship.

"Lord Meng, I wonder which master craftsman manufactured the AK47 Assault Rifle?" Wang Dachui had once been a master craftsman in the Divine Machine Battalion of Dongchuan Prefecture and was very familiar with manufacturing Bird Guns and Shenwu Great General Cannons.

Yet he had never seen a firearm like the AK47 that didn't need to be lit and could fire continuously just by pulling the trigger.

Meng Yifan was in a bit of a bind; should he tell Wang Dachui that the creator of the AK47 was Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov? Even if he said it, he wouldn't know who that was.

Seeing that Meng Yifan didn't answer, Wang Dachui's heart stirred, guessing that such a skilled craftsman needed to be kept secret and couldn't be spoken of to outsiders, lest outsiders find out and snatch or assassinate such a divine craftsman; this was understandable, so Wang Dachui stopped asking.

"Lord Meng, could you give me an AK47 Assault Rifle so I can study it?" Wang Dachui asked.

Meng Yifan had brought over two hundred AK47s; the guard team used one hundred, and there were one hundred in stock; giving one to Wang Dachui was no big deal, but even if he gave it to him, with the current technological level of the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty, he couldn't replicate it.

"Master Wang, don't bother studying the AK47; that would be a waste of time. These are the manufacturing blueprints for a Flintlock; take them and study them well to see if you can manufacture the Flintlock." Meng Yifan took a stack of A4 paper out of his Space Ring and handed it to Wang Dachui.

In the real history of Earth, the Flintlock had also undergone several improvements; what Meng Yifan taught Wang Dachui was the hammer-style Flintlock manufactured by the Spanish, a Flintlock that had been tested by war.

The Prussian army in the era of Frederick the Great even set a record of firing 5 times per minute.

As long as this type of Flintlock was manufactured, it could be used to re-equip the Salvation Army; with the rate of fire of the Flintlock, it could absolutely crush the matchlock guns of the Divine Machine Battalion.

Coupled with the AK47s of the Imperial Guard Company, Meng Yifan had the confidence to beat the Divine Machine Battalion to a pulp.

"Flintlock?" Wang Dachui took the blueprints, flipped through a few pages, and stood there stunned, muttering: "Wonderful! This method is truly excellent. By using flint to replace the matchlock, soldiers don't need to carry fire sources with them, and they can fire even in bad weather."

"Compared to the Matchlock Musket, the Flintlock not only greatly increases the rate of fire, but when soldiers line up to shoot, they can stand more densely without worrying about the soldier next to them igniting their own matchlock, significantly increasing the density of firepower."

Wang Dachui was indeed a master craftsman of the Divine Machine Battalion; he immediately pointed out the advantages of the Flintlock, making Meng Yifan feel inferior.

Meng Yifan only knew from history that the Flintlock replacing the matchlock gun was an inevitable trend, but as for how to reasonably use the Flintlock on the battlefield, he really wasn't very clear.

Yet Wang Dachui could think of details like array formations and increasing firepower output per unit area just by looking at the blueprints; this was his superior quality.

"Master Wang, how is it? Can this Flintlock be manufactured?" Meng Yifan asked.

Wang Dachui carefully finished looking at the blueprints and patted his chest, guaranteeing: "Lord Meng, just watch. These blueprints are so detailed; if I still can't manufacture it, then I'd be too useless."

"I guarantee that in three days, I will manufacture a sample gun for you to inspect; if I fail to complete the task, I will voluntarily resign as Minister of Manufacturing."

"Good, I will wait to inspect the sample gun in three days," Meng Yifan laughed. The biggest difference between a Flintlock and a matchlock gun was using flint to replace the matchlock; with Wang Dachui's gun-making skills, he would certainly be able to make it. To develop the technological level of the Great Wu Heavenly Dynasty, one had to take it step by step; it couldn't be achieved overnight.

Wang Dachui left excitedly with the blueprints; he was going to organize the core strength of the Manufacturing Department to manufacture the Flintlock as soon as possible according to the blueprints.