Chapter 283: Armor Piercing

South Camp.

At this moment, one hundred wooden crosses were erected on the Drill Ground.

Each wooden frame was draped with silver Plate Armor, forming a single horizontal line.

After deciding to conduct a test fire, Zhao Xu had Chang Wei prepare in this manner.

At the same time, five hundred soldiers were selected to form an array.

Each row corresponded to the number of Armor sets on the wooden frames, exactly one hundred.

He then had Wang Ying distribute the Flintlocks to the soldiers.

With everything ready, Chang Wei and the other officers stood behind Zhao Xu.

They would personally observe Yan Wang directing these five hundred soldiers in the test fire.

After all, this was the first time they had seen this new type of Weapon, and they could not grasp its methods.

"Now, watch carefully how I do it first," Zhao Xu said loudly, standing before the five hundred soldiers.

"Yes, Your Highness," the soldiers replied loudly.

Being personally instructed by Yan Wang was undoubtedly an honor.

They could feel the envious gazes of the other soldiers on the Drill Ground.

Zhao Xu nodded.

During this period, the soldiers had only been trained in marching and formations.

But they had never received training in firing the Flintlock.

Clearing his throat, he said, "Everyone sit down."

Hearing Zhao Xu's command, the soldiers sat cross-legged on the ground, each of them able to see Yan Wang in front.

Zhao Xu took a Flintlock from a soldier's hand.

He did not immediately load and fire; instead, he first explained the structure of the Flintlock to the soldiers.

After all, if soldiers did not even understand the Weapon they were using, how could they use their Weapon well?

It was precisely for this reason that in contemporary armies, soldiers had training subjects for disassembling and assembling their Weapons.

"This thing is called the Striking Iron.

The groove beneath the Striking Iron is called the Powder Pan," Zhao Xu said. "Opening the Striking Iron allows you to load Gunpowder inside; this is the priming powder, which works on the same principle as the fuse of an Artillery piece."

"This thing is called a Ramrod," Zhao Xu said, taking a metal rod clipped onto the bottom of the Flintlock. "After the Gunpowder is loaded into the muzzle, you need to use the Ramrod to repeatedly tamp it down."

"..."

Following Zhao Xu's explanation with the actual objects, the soldiers understood, and their faces were no longer filled with confusion.

Chang Wei and the officers listened just as intently.

After this introduction by Yan Wang, they basically understood how to use this Flintlock.

"Now, watch carefully as I perform a complete operation," Zhao Xu said, turning sideways to the soldiers.

First, he held the barrel of the Flintlock with his left hand, braced the butt against his right waist, and used his right hand to pull back the Cock while simultaneously opening the Striking Iron.

Next, he took out some Gunpowder, poured a little into the Powder Pan, and reset the Striking Iron.

Subsequently, he stood the Flintlock vertically upside down on the ground.

He first poured Gunpowder inside, then inserted the Lead Bullet, and took out the Ramrod to repeatedly tamp it down.

Finally, he picked up the Flintlock, with the butt level with his shoulder.

Taking a deep breath, he held the Flintlock level and pulled the Trigger.

"Bang..."

With a blast like a firecracker, white smoke from the Gunpowder emerged from the muzzle of the Flintlock.

The moment the gun fired, the soldiers sitting on the ground all flinched.

They were startled by the unexpected sound.

They were new recruits, previously just villagers farming in the countryside; having never encountered this before, they were naturally caught off guard.

Chang Wei and the others were much calmer, as they had seen Artillery before.

This bit of noise meant nothing to them.

"Impressive, this is simply a small cannon that can be held in the hand," Chang Wei sighed softly, and the others nodded repeatedly.

Thinking that this kind of thing would be equipped for thirty thousand soldiers, they felt a thrill just thinking about it.

Zhao Xu ignored the officers.

He returned the Flintlock to the first soldier and said to the soldiers, "Everyone stand up, and obey my command."

At this time, they were over two hundred meters away from the wooden frames fitted with Armor.

Once all the soldiers had risen, he said, "Shoulder arms."

Upon receiving the order, the soldiers lifted the Flintlocks and rested them on their shoulders.

"March forward, one, two, one..."

Zhao Xu called out the cadence; he usually had the officers call out the cadence like this to train marching.

The purpose was for the soldiers to march in unison during battle.

Because they had been training like this every day for some time, the soldiers were orderly.

At a position fifty meters from the wooden frames, he had the soldiers stop.

"Load!" he shouted loudly at this moment.

The soldiers immediately loaded the ammunition according to the sequence they had just learned.

However, since it was their first time, many of them were very clumsy in their actions.

If they were to encounter a regular musketeer unit on the battlefield at this moment, they would likely be riddled with holes.

After the soldiers had all finished loading, Zhao Xu said, "Fire!"

"Bang, bang, bang..."

The first row of soldiers fired in unison.

"Crouch, second row, fire!"

"..."

After five consecutive rows of soldiers had all finished firing, Zhao Xu said to the accompanying generals, "Let's go, let's see how effective this Flintlock is."

The generals were still in a state of shock at this moment.

When Yan Wang was just testing the gun by himself, they had felt it was only so-so.

But with one hundred soldiers firing in unison, they suddenly felt somewhat shaken.

Coming back to their senses, they hurried toward the wooden racks.

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Zhao Xu also walked over at a leisurely pace.

Before he even reached them, he saw the generals looking as if they had seen a ghost, their faces full of disbelief.

"It actually pierced through! Such a big hole." Chang Wei lifted up a breastplate of the Plate Armor, his hands trembling slightly.

Xu Lie had been serving by Zhao Xu's side the whole time; he glanced at the bow and Arrow in his hand and opened his mouth.

He had personally tested the Plate Armor when it first came out.

Not to mention fifty meters, even within thirty meters, his Arrow could not pierce it.

Yet the Flintlock had actually punched such a large hole in the Plate Armor at fifty meters; its power could be imagined.

To him, the only disadvantages of the Flintlock compared to the bow and arrow were the slow loading time and poor accuracy.

However, these soldiers holding the Flintlocks had only watched Yan Wang do it once before they could fire.

Being able to go to the battlefield so easily was much simpler than training archers.

Although he was unwilling to admit it, he had to acknowledge a fact.

After this thing appeared, indeed no one would be willing to waste time training archers anymore.

Archers might be exhausted in a single battle, but this thing could just have a person pulled over to load it; it was simply endless.

"Now you believe it, right? Doesn't Xiliang's Iron Pagoda claim to be invincible under heaven? Then use this to let them taste its power," Zhao Xu laughed.

The generals were still staring blankly at the holes in the Plate Armor.

After five rounds of shooting, these one hundred pieces of Plate Armor basically all had holes in them.

They vaguely understood why Yan Wang had made them practice those formations.

"I believe, I believe; this time the Xiliang people will have a bitter pill to swallow." The smile on Chang Wei's face held irrepressible excitement.

The Prince's Personal Army first had Artillery, and now they had added this Flintlock.

Artillery paired with muskets—this was simply the treasure of the Prince's Personal Army.

With this thing, he felt an unprecedented sense of confidence.

Before, the situation in Yanzhou was basically a desperate one.

But now, these new-style firearms gave Yan Wang hope of breaking out of the encirclement.