The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 104 Light Vehicle
After Wu Jialiang left, Yue Wenxuan handed the bird gun to Madam Gong Er and said, "You should have seen the power of this thing after this battle."

Madam Gong Er said solemnly: "Very impressive! No matter how skilled the enemy is, one shot can bring him down."

Yue Wenxuan nodded: "This is just the first one. The immortal craftsmen will make more and more bird guns in the future. After the apprentices have mastered the art, the number will double... And in the future, as these things become more and more common, the fighting style on the battlefield will change."

Madam Gong Er thought carefully about the scene of hundreds of bird guns firing at the front, and she couldn't help but be shocked: If there are too many of these things, will the swords and spears still be useful?

Yue Wenxuan: "You've learned a lot of strategic tactics from me. In your opinion, what can be used to break the bird gun formation?"

Madam Gong Er pondered for a while. "While this weapon is powerful, it has a problem with slow reloading. If we use high-speed cavalry to charge head-on, we might be able to force our way in. But once we get close, the bird gun will be useless."

Yue Wenxuan nodded. "That's right! So, if you were to lead the musketeers against the cavalry, what would you do?"

Madam Gong Er: "Organize a team of civilians to carry a large amount of wood and follow the musketeers. Whenever a battle breaks out, the civilians will build more barricades, placing them in two or three layers to prevent the cavalry from getting close. The musketeers will hide behind the barricades and beat the cavalry to tears."

Yue Wenxuan laughed and said, "The tactic of using chevaux de frise and archers has been around for a long time, so why can't it stop the cavalry?"

Madam Gong Er thought carefully and immediately understood: "Barricades are inconvenient to move and can only be used for defense. And the cavalry are not stupid. When they see the barricades and archers here, they won't charge. They will look for another opportunity. When the archers are attacking and there are no barricades to protect them, they will charge again."

Yue Wenxuan: "Right! That's why the Song army has always been able to defend and not attack when facing the Jin army. Your tactics are the same, they can only be used in defense, but they are difficult to be effective in offense. You can't just run forward while carrying chevaux de frise, right?"

Madam Gong Er looked embarrassed.

Yue Wenxuan smiled and said, "But it's okay. During the second phase of our strategy, we only need to defend, not attack."

Yue Wenxuan’s second-stage strategic goal is to defend the Jiaodong Peninsula, just defend it!

Madam Gong Er breathed a sigh of relief, but she was young and energetic, and she was not content to just hold on. She was still desperately thinking about what to do during the attack.

This thought took me a whole day to think about.

Until the rebel army returned to Dongmiaozi Village, she was still thinking: In order to protect the musketeers during the attack, they could only use a large number of spearmen to surround the musketeers. The spearmen's chevaux de frise was actually very effective. Except for the heavily armored cavalry like the Iron Pagoda, ordinary cavalry did not dare to charge directly into the spear formation.

For example, the Jin army's crooked cavalry and light cavalry would not directly charge into the spear formation when encountering it, but would pass by the spear formation and use horse archery to disrupt the spear formation.

However, there was an obvious problem with the spear formation protecting the musketeers. If the spear formation was too thin, it wouldn't stop the cavalry, while if it was too thick, it would block the attacks of the musketeers themselves. The musketeers had to move to the edge of the spear formation in order to properly fire outside. After firing, they had to retreat back into the protection of the spear formation.

In this interplay of advance and retreat, clever individuals like Wu Jialiang could proactively coordinate with the melee troops, but ordinary musketeers struggled. Most illiterate soldiers couldn't even distinguish left from right, and training in simple formations was a struggle. Asking them to switch between musketeers and spear formations would likely lead to their own disorganization, ultimately causing their formation to collapse into chaos.

Madam Gong Er felt a headache!
At this moment, Qian Zhuoqun came out from the entrance of Dongmiaozi Village and said with a smile: "My transport team is about to set off, and the second lady has returned victorious, hahahaha."

Madam Gong Er cheered up: "Second Uncle! This fight was easy for us." She raised the bird gun in her hand and said with a smile: "With this thing, one shot knocked down the second in command on the opposite side."

Qian Zhuoqun laughed and said, "When I saw General Qi Tian test-firing the bird gun the other day, I knew it was incredibly powerful. In the two days since you were away, the immortal craftsmen have fired four more bird guns. Hehehe... If there are more of these things, we won't be afraid of anyone."

"Four more?" Madam Gong Er was overjoyed, but then her joy instantly changed into a worried look: "The more of these things there are, the more difficult it is to change the formation. I'm racking my brains over this."

Qian Zhuoqun was not very good at fighting, so he did not interrupt the topic. He turned to look at Qi Jiguang and said, "General Qi, I finally built the first light carriage you asked me to find a carpenter to build."

Qi Jiguang was no longer being controlled by Yue Wenxuan. It was the figurine that was acting on its own. Although the figurine's adaptability was low, it could understand things within the set range. "You have the light vehicle? Push it out so I can see it."

Qian Zhuoqun quickly asked someone to push the cart out...

This vehicle looked like a two-axle carriage, which could be pulled by horses or pushed by people. During normal marches, it was pulled by horses in front, and on the battlefield, it was pushed from behind by people.

There is a shield in front of the light car to block enemy arrows, and soldiers can be deployed at the back.

There are also many small holes designed on the baffle...

It doesn't take a brain to figure out that these small holes are for the musketeers to extend the barrel of the gun and fire.

Qi Jiguang glanced at the chariots and didn't look at them again. He was very familiar with this type of chariot. Just seeing it successfully built was enough for him. He waved his hand and said, "Excellent. It's exactly what I wanted. Continue to build it according to this model. Each battalion of soldiers will need 216 chariots."

Qian Zhuoqun secretly groaned: "So many? We don't have many carpenters in our army right now. It's already a struggle to build this one. Wouldn't it scare the carpenters to tears if we want 216?" This is bad. I have to find a way to get more carpenters.

He is a little confused!

But Madam Gong Er next to her was overjoyed. She had been thinking hard all day about how to protect the fire musket soldiers, but she didn't expect that General Qi Tian had already made arrangements. Wasn't this light chariot designed to protect the bird musket soldiers from attacking?

When the battle was about to begin, a small group of bird-gun soldiers would hide behind the large board of the light cart and shoot outwards through the shooting holes on the board, while the auxiliary soldiers would push the cart from the back. If the enemy did not deploy the Iron Pagoda, but only used Crooked Horse or light cavalry, they would not be able to stop the light cart from advancing.

Madam Gong Er immediately pictured a scene in her mind: 216 hundred light vehicles, protecting nearly a thousand musketeers, firing fiercely at the Jin thieves, but all the arrows shot by the Jin thieves were blocked by the wooden boards.

"Great! This car is great."

Madam Gong Er jumped forward, groping around on the cart with one hand and waving to Qian Zhuoqun with the other: "Second Uncle! Second Uncle! This cart is amazing! Make as many as you can! 216 won't be enough! Make 500! Make 1000! We can push these carts and make the Jin thieves cry."

(End of this chapter)