Chapter 249 An episode caused by the gun test

After adjustments are made at the squad and platoon level, corresponding changes will be made at the battalion and company levels. For example, the company level will increase the firepower platoon organization and be composed of pure musketeers, while the battalion level will serve as the highest level of combat operations at present.

The unit is likely to add an artillery company as heavy fire support, and will also be equipped with direct support teams such as engineering companies and health companies. After this disguised expansion, the existing establishment has not changed significantly, but across the mass

The size of the troops that officers can directly command can be increased by at least one-third, which can effectively alleviate the current shortage of officers.

Of course, there is another reason for doing this that is not humane to outsiders, and that is that the military and police departments have previously awarded the rank of officers up to lieutenant. Only Tao Donglai and Yan Chujie are superior to the needs of management and command.

If the expansion continues according to the current establishment plan, a second battalion will have to be established. However, before any success is achieved, the officers will be raised from the company and platoon level to the battalion level, and the general's rank will be raised from the lieutenant level to the school level. It seems that

The Military and Police Department is also a bit embarrassed.

Although the original arrangement was indeed a bit ill-considered, it is also a process that the army must go through to grow. After all, even the military and police department, most of them have not served as officers before time travel. If they do not command from the grassroots level,

It is really not reassuring to directly let these people serve as commanders at the battalion and company level when they are just starting out as officers.

After the simple military parade, Tao Donglai and Yan Chujie, as the first and second leaders of the Military and Police Department, delivered speeches respectively. The main purpose was to remind these militia soldiers where their lives today came from and what they have to defend with their lives.

Who is the target? Both of them had done political work during their time in the army, and their speeches were also very emotional and inflammatory.

These militia soldiers are basically from poor backgrounds, and most of them came to Victory Port for the sake of food. However, their current living standards are indeed far better than before. The leaders of Haihan promised to "have a house to live in."

"Having food to eat, clothing to wear, and books to read" have all been realized now. And after they have completed several years of military service, they will automatically obtain the corresponding labor grade, get jobs assigned by the Executive Committee, and even

They can also apply to contract a piece of land to grow their own food. These benefits were something they had never thought of in the past. After several months of military training, the soldiers gradually understood the truth.

The committee is the main object that the militia must defend. Without the existence of the executive committee, they will immediately return to the state of poverty where they have no meal at all.

Of course, there are still many of them who join the army with the idea of ​​"serving food and working for money". After all, the treatment of the militia is second to none among all walks of life in Victory Port, and the local area has been calm in recent months.

There are neither bandits nor pirates. As a militiaman, you can get a high salary and your life does not seem to be in danger.

However, the Military and Police Department has no intention of letting this force, which has invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, remain idle. In fact, the Military and Police Staff Office has already begun formulating a small-scale military action plan for next year. The target is tentatively set at the Pearl River Estuary.

Wanshan Islands chooses a place to establish a maritime stronghold. The function of this maritime stronghold is similar to that of Fushuizhou Island. It can serve as a shipping transfer station. At the same time, it can provide certain military support to the Guangdong Office nearby and control the waters of the Pearl River Estuary.

Implement monitoring.

According to the information sent back by the General Office of the People's Republic of China, there are still a small group of pirates near the Wanshan Islands, and military conflicts may occur. The Staff Office is also weighing whether it is necessary to strike first and clear other maritime areas that may interfere with the situation in advance.

However, regardless of whether force will be used, the Military and Police Department regards this as a great opportunity for the militia forces to conduct live-fire exercises, and since this island station is mainly for military purposes, the Military and Police Department also regards it as a

An opportunity to form a navy - of course, this depends on whether the Ministry of Shipping's No. 1 test ship can be launched and complete basic trial tasks before the end of the year, because the Military and Police Department has already assigned the ship to the navy in advance and is preparing to transfer it

Used as an armed patrol boat.

After the military parade, everyone hurried to the artillery range to watch the live ammunition shooting of the first batch of naturalized civilian artillerymen. This was also their graduation ceremony. As a time traveler from four hundred years later, the military and police department was the most unique among the group.

Most of them are devout believers in big bombism and highly admire the power of artillery in modern warfare. Especially in this era when there is no need to worry about air strikes, artillery is the king of war, whether on land or at sea.

The same is true. It is precisely based on this consideration that the Military and Police Department attaches more importance to the artillery force than the navy. Even if the existing militia only has one battalion, it will not hesitate to draw a large number of personnel from it for artillery training, and then

After many eliminations and selections, more than thirty naturalized civilian artillerymen were finally left.

The Military and Police Department will certainly not be satisfied with this scale of artillery, but the completion of this batch of artillery at least means that the future artillery force has taken the first step to success. The appearance of the most powerful army in the South China Sea seems to be just

It's a matter of time.

Different from the previous musketeers, which had uneven physical fitness, almost all of this small artillery unit are strong men with thick shoulders and round waists, and they are all relatively muscular. This is also due to the actual combat tasks of the artillery.

It is decided that the heavy gun body can basically only be adjusted by manpower on the battlefield, and the constant loading and clearing the barrel during the battle can also be regarded as heavy physical work. A person with insufficient physical strength can fire twelve rounds in a hurry.

After that, you have to lie down directly. Those students who are not physically fit enough are gradually eliminated due to physical reasons during the training process. Only a handful of students who show that their minds are better than ordinary people in the process are absorbed into the militia.

Each company headquarters is trained as future grassroots officers.

The live-fire target shooting of the 6-pound gun and the 12-pound gun went smoothly, and the performance of the gunners was basically qualified. After all, they had received several months of intensive training. Each of these gunners had fired more than 100 live ammunition.

Fa, just training them consumes several tons of black powder, so the investment is not small.

According to the plan of the Military and Police Department, this group of artillerymen will be equipped with eight 6-pound guns, or a combination of 12-pound guns and 6-pound guns, coupled with engineers, communications and baggage troops, to form an army artillery company. However,

In view of the current acute shortage of gunners, these people may be directly assigned to serve in the port coastal defense batteries, and after the launch of the No. 1 test ship, some of them will be transferred to the ship to serve as naval gunners. As for the next batch

When will the artillerymen be able to graduate and join the army? Gu Wei estimates that it will be at the end of the year at the earliest.

After completing the scheduled target practice, the military industry department stepped in and pulled out two 24-pound long-barreled artillery for test firing. This kind of gun is not designed for the current army, but will be equipped for coastal defense next.

The large-caliber coastal defense artillery on the artillery fortification weighs more than three 12-pound guns combined. The gun body alone weighs more than one ton, and the body-to-tube ratio reaches twenty times. For this purpose, the military industry department also designed a special

Mechanical gun mount, and the latest developed recoil device is used on the gun mount to ensure the convenience of operation of this large-caliber artillery. According to calculations by the military industry department, this artillery can be fired at a 5° shooting angle.

It can hit targets at a distance of 1,500 meters with high accuracy. At a firing angle of 10°, the artillery shell can even hit a target 2,000 meters away - at this shooting distance, at the same time

Modern artillery no longer has any accuracy at all.

The farthest target position of the artillery range is less than one thousand meters. If it is further away, you can only shoot up the mountain, or you can only shoot towards the sea. In view of this situation, the target position was finally set at 750

Meter distance, this is far beyond the shooting distance of contemporary naval guns. It can be said that at this distance, it is almost impossible for shore defense artillery to suffer artillery fire from the sea.

The test results surprised everyone. Although it was the first time for the naturalized civilian artillery to operate this large-caliber artillery, the target was effectively hit on the fifth shot. The ninth and

Ten shots even hit consecutively. Considering that in the future, at least twenty of this kind of artillery will be deployed on the Yulinjiao shore defenses, this hit rate is almost unbeatable - only one or two shots are needed at this distance.

One shot is enough to sink or paralyze a sea target.

Tao Donglai made the decision on the spot after watching the test firing, and agreed to the application to use this long-barreled 24-pound gun as the main firepower configuration of coastal defense fortifications. It is not impossible to build larger-caliber artillery now, but the military industry department believes that it will no longer be possible.

It is of little significance to further enlarge the existing artillery models. After all, the several artillery currently equipped are difficult to rival in the same era. The goal of the technology tree upgrade should be to improve the barrel material, processing technology and speed up the development of breech guns.

have been developed, and the existing cast iron artillery can be sold to "backward areas" after appropriately reducing their performance, just like what is done now to Fujian and North Vietnam.

While the members of the Military and Police Department happily visited the artillery test firing on the east bank of Victory Port, the merchants in the conference room in the No. 1 Base were so frightened that their faces turned pale and they were trembling. The sound of artillery that came from time to time made their hearts tremble.

.

Although there is a bay between the two places, the straight-line distance is actually only three or four miles, and there is no slope blocking the two places. The roar of artillery fire came from far away, making it impossible for the merchants to concentrate.

Come to the auction in front of you.

Ning Qi was also very angry at this moment. The military and police department had not come early and late, but they chose to test the artillery during the auction. Is it because they are stupid or are they deliberately trying to scare these Ming merchants? Although Ning Qi was

A special explanation was given here, explaining that this was a local militia group conducting daily military training across the bay, but the merchants were obviously not very satisfied with this explanation - do you think we have never seen the world? Does the military training of a militia group need to set off cannons for so long?

This has lasted for more than half an hour, and at least sixty or seventy artillery fires have been fired. Is it ridiculous that your militia has fired more fiercely than the official army's artillery fire?

Some people were secretly guessing whether it was the Ming Dynasty official army or the South China Sea pirates who came to attack, but no matter which one it was, it seemed impossible that there would be such intensive artillery fire.

Ning Qi saw that these people were not focused on the auction, so he simply said: "Otherwise, let's take a rest first, and the auction will continue after half an hour. You can go out and walk around, I told you to

If you don’t believe it, then seeing it is believing.”

As if they had been given a pardon, everyone rushed out of the conference room. You Run Fast was already thinking in your mind. If the fighting started outside, you have to get on the ship at the port quickly. If you are lucky, you might be able to get out. Only Li Nai was sitting there.

He remained motionless in his seat and continued to drink tea calmly.

Ning Qi smiled when he saw this and said, "Mr. Li is still able to keep his composure."

Li Nai shook his head and said: "It's not because I can't hold my breath, but after living in Victory Port for many days, I have become accustomed to it. The artillerymen of this militia will practice every three days. They were a little scared at first, but much more."

After this, I felt extremely at ease.”

Ning Qi said in shock: "Huh? Why do you think so?"

"Imagine that the local militia is so powerful, how can any unscrupulous pirate dare to come here to cause trouble? The business is investing and building here, and seeking development, it needs this sense of stability." Li Nai responded slowly: "

With such powerful protection, all I have to do is make a fortune in peace of mind, wouldn't it be nice?"

Ning Qi sighed: "Mr. Li is very enlightened! It would be great if other merchants could have such thoughts as you."

Li Nai smiled and said: "Mr. Ning, please rest assured that the merchants who dare to cross the sea to trade here are not timid people. After knowing the truth of the matter, they will naturally turn around. In my opinion, it will take less than half an hour.

Just a little more time with the incense stick, and these people will come back."

The actual situation was better than Li Nai expected. Within half a stick of incense, some merchants came back angrily: "If you want to test the cannon, why not go to the inland uninhabited land, but try it in this port to scare people?"

It’s really abominable to have fun!”

Later, another person came back and said: "It's okay, it's okay, it's just a test of the artillery. From now on, with such heavy artillery guarding, this place will definitely be safe."

It turned out that after these people went out, they saw that the local people were calm and the outside was in order. There was no sign of any foreign enemy attack. They knew that Ning Qi's previous explanation was true. This was indeed a militia test of artillery and not an artillery battle.

There are also more cautious people who went to the gate of the base and called the followers waiting outside to ask. These followers had already been in trouble due to the roar of artillery fire, and now they have calmed down and told their masters not to panic - local people

As I said, if there is an attack from a foreign enemy, there will naturally be an alarm sounding throughout the port.

These merchants had already stayed in Victory Port for one night, and of course they had heard the loudspeaker that reminded people to go to work in the morning. The sound of that thing could indeed be heard clearly by the entire port, and the sound was even louder than the roar of the artillery fire.

With this reasonable explanation, the merchants really felt relieved and returned to the conference room one after another.

And just as Li Nai thought, after discovering the truth, these merchants had more confidence in the safety of Victory Port - although the source of this confidence was that they had not seen the actual artillery and artillery at all.

That's all. But for them, it was the first time in their lives to see a commercial port like Victory Port protected by a coastal defense fort. The strangest thing is that the ownership of this fort is not owned by the Ming Dynasty official, but by the Ming Dynasty official.

It is a local militia organized by the Haihan people.

After experiencing this episode, the relaxed merchants began a new round of competition, and batches of goods each went to their owner in the bidding. In the afternoon of the same day, Li Nai paid 2,700 yuan in circulation coupons.

The price paid for the only Haihan silver mirror that measured two feet in this auction, and also set a record for the most expensive single item in this auction.

The valuable commodity that also attracted the attention of many merchants, the limited-edition special commemorative set of Ding Mao Nian glass stationery, was not put up for auction in the end, but was sold separately to the visitors at a "low" price of 500 yuan a set.

We went to various merchants in Victory Port to thank everyone for coming all the way here to support us.
To be continued...