Chapter 34: Interference Training

After the formation review, Zhu Cilang was ready to get serious, beginning to test their marksmanship and firing speed.

Three thousand six hundred musketeers, arranged in three ranks, conducted five rounds of volley fire against a "cavalry formation" a hundred paces away. Those cavalry formations were fake horses and men made of straw, meant to simulate the scene of the Eight Banners cavalry charging.

Of course, straw was after all straw, and it was stationary, so it didn't serve much purpose—but the main point was to practice volley fire.

Whether muskets or cannons, the most effective way to deal with a cavalry charge was volley fire—indiscriminate, blanket strikes.

The training ground erupted with gunfire, especially during the first volley, when the concentrated sound was like a clap of thunder, an extremely awe-inspiring scene. In his mind, Zhu Cilang was imagining—what would happen to the Eight Banners cavalry when they met these rounds of strikes?

Afterwards, Zhu Cilang inspected individual firing speed. Huang Degong selected a hundred soldiers who could fire quickly; each one, using a flintlock musket, could get off four or more shots in a minute, and a few could even manage six shots a minute, while ordinary musketeers could only manage two or three.

At this moment, Xu Sheng, who had disappeared for half the day, was leading several dozen refugees in cloth garments into the Yongwei Camp, then obediently standing by Zhu Cilang's side.

These refugees behind him were entering a military camp for the first time, curiously looking around in every direction. Although Huang Degong was curious about who these people were, he didn't dare ask too much and simply pretended not to see them.

Zhu Cilang had the several dozen refugees Xu Sheng brought disperse and stand behind the hundred fast shooters, about a meter away. Huang Degong and the others didn't understand what this maneuver meant, but it wasn't convenient to ask in detail.

Seeing both sides in position, Zhu Cilang finally said to Huang Degong: "Begin!"

Huang Degong immediately gave the order, and the hundred fast shooters instantly raised their muskets before them, staring unblinkingly at the targets.

Huang Degong revealed a satisfied expression, then called out loudly: "Ready—fire."

Every musketeer could be seen pulling from their pouch a small bamboo tube holding a measured charge of gunpowder and lead balls, then deftly pouring the powder and shot into the barrel and tamping it down. This was the loading method of the Qi family army's musketeers back in the day—the simplest and fastest loading procedure of that era.

Just as the musketeers were beginning to load, an unexpected situation occurred—the refugees behind them suddenly burst into loud wailing, as if their parents had just died, crying with a ghastly, heaven-shaking howl.

Amid the sudden cries from behind, the musketeers who were loading felt their skin crawl and were clearly greatly affected; quite a few had unsteady hands and spilled their gunpowder.

Even those who could pour the powder accurately into the barrel slowed down considerably, and in the subsequent loading and tamping procedures, accidents kept happening here and there.

Seeing this scene, Huang Degong couldn't help breaking into a sweat of anxiety. He then glanced at the wall clock—half a minute had already passed, yet less than half the musketeers had completed their first shot.

"What the hell are you howling about?" Huang Degong took an iron whip and lashed it against the empty ground before one of the refugees, producing a sharp crack in the air that made everyone flinch.

One refugee, plucking up his courage, said in a small voice: "Reporting to the military lord, this is this humble one's job."

"What goddamn job is that?" Huang Degong glared furiously. A perfectly good drill had been ruined, making him lose face before the Crown Prince.

The refugee pulled a small square piece of white paper from his person and handed it to Huang Degong, saying: "This is this humble one's name card. Please take a look."

Huang Degong took it and looked—written on it in dense little lines were the words: Professional mourner for hire, accepting all kinds of funeral weeping, professional mourning for twenty years, authentic sound, immersive experience, fair prices, cheating neither child nor elder.

"You're a goddamn professional mourner!" Huang Degong cursed in exasperation, then looked at Zhu Cilang, not knowing what to say.

Sun Yingyuan, seeing Huang Degong's expression, couldn't help laughing: "Assistant Regional Commander Huang, His Highness is worried that the screams of the battlefield will affect the musketeers' operations, so he specially hired some professional mourners to accompany the soldiers in their drills."

Huang Degong thought it over, found it actually made a hell of a lot of sense, and so turned to the mourners and said: "Keep crying—wail even more miserably!"

Seeing no one stopping them, the mourning refugees hastily resumed their loud howling, quickly getting back into character. Their cries were so pitiful they were hard to bear—some of the more emotionally sensitive soldiers nearby even had faintly glistening eyes, as if moved by their 'genuine emotion.'

Taking advantage of the time Huang Degong was questioning the refugees, the musketeers immediately went through the procedures of taking powder, loading, and tamping, managing to complete two shots in succession. But before long, the ghostly wailing started up again, and most of the musketeers were once more affected.

By the time the three-minute test period was over, of the hundred musketeers participating in the firing speed drill, only thirty had achieved an average of four shots per minute.

Most of the others had completed an average of two or three shots, and a few had only managed an average of one shot per minute—a major drop from their usual training performance.

Huang Degong stood before Zhu Cilang, head lowered, not meeting his gaze. The hundred musketeers who had participated in the firing speed drill also wore ashamed expressions, though quite a few faces showed indignation and resentment.

Clearly, they believed the mourners' wailing had interfered with their shooting drill, which was why they hadn't been able to perform at their normal level.

Zhu Cilang, looking at some of the unconvinced faces, stepped forward and said: "Daily training is for the purpose of killing enemies on the battlefield in the future. On a chaotic battlefield, if the enemy charges at you with a roar, are you going to be indignant? Go negotiate with the enemy to give you a quiet environment so you can shoot them?"

After hearing Zhu Cilang's words, many of the soldiers who had just been resentful were first stunned, then laughed. What His Highness said was absolutely right—on the battlefield, no one accommodates you.

Seeing the atmosphere ease, Zhu Cilang continued: "This Prince knows you train seriously on ordinary days, but in order to kill more enemies in the future, serve the country, and carve out a path for yourselves, I hope you will continue to train diligently under all kinds of interference."

Huang Degong looked at Zhu Cilang and said earnestly: "Your Highness has put great thought into this. Rest assured, Your Highness—this subordinate understands what to do. When Your Highness comes to inspect again in the future, this subordinate will not disappoint Your Highness again."

Zhu Cilang also nodded and said: "Good. I believe you will certainly be able to do it."

Zhu Cilang knew that actual combat with muskets was like the Olympic air rifle competitions of later generations—the environment easily made people nervous and caused them to perform poorly.

Some countries, in order to improve athletes' ability to resist interference during competition, would play very loud ambient noise during training. This was where Zhu Cilang drew his inspiration from, borrowing and applying it to the Yongwei Camp musketeers' shooting drills.

In the time that followed, he and Huang Degong also thought up every possible method, using every dirty trick in the book to improve the musketeers' resistance to interference.

In the end, Huang Degong simply had the musketeers train together with the artillerymen, having the musketeers stand behind the artillery formation, with both sides training back-to-back. This not only trained the musketeers' battlefield adaptability but also trained the artillerymen's adaptability at the same time.

Even more intense, Huang Degong also had cavalry charge from two hundred paces away while the musketeers were in the middle of continuous loading operations, with the cavalry only splitting off to sweep past from both flanks at thirty paces.

Compared to training with the artillery, this kind of training between musketeers and cavalry was truly something else—it completely simulated the scene of the Jianzhou barbarians' cavalry charging.

Turning at a certain distance also trained the Yongwei Camp cavalry's horsemanship—both sides benefited greatly.

At the very beginning, when these musketeers watched over a thousand cavalrymen charging straight at them, some soldiers who had never been on a battlefield even pissed themselves from fear.

Even some veterans felt their hearts pounding wildly—the scene was too overwhelming, and they dreaded that the cavalry would actually crash into them.

A few musketeers were even so frightened they dropped their guns and ran, with tragic results—Huang Degong ordered them beheaded on the spot. Under such harsh training, the musketeers' resistance to interference grew stronger day by day.

When Zhu Cilang learned of this, he admired Huang Degong's ability to command troops from the bottom of his heart.

Worried that writing too much about military training might annoy readers, I've kept it concise. Soon the clash with the Jianzhou barbarians will begin, and the outline has already been drawn up.

Soliciting opinions: For this book, would everyone prefer more war scenes or fewer? Do you enjoy reading about leading troops into battle or court intrigue more? Or perhaps more about late-Ming technology, culture, and famous figures?

Readers can share their views in the review section, so I can have a rough plan for what comes later.