Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

If Song Yingxing's Tiangong Kaiwu is the encyclopedia of agriculture and handicrafts in the 17th century of the Ming Dynasty, then Mao Yuanyi's Wubei Zhi is the encyclopedia of military science in the 17th century of the Ming Dynasty.

This book is divided into five parts: evaluation of military tactics, examination of strategy, formation training, military resources and divination.

It involves in great detail matters such as setting up camps during marches, deploying battle formations, issuing orders with flags, assessing the situation and estimating the enemy's strength, attacking and defending cities, preparing gunpowder, making and using firearms, river and sea transportation, warships and military horses, farming and mining, supplying food and wages, and medical care for men and horses.

It covers almost all areas of war, including more than 600 types of offensive and defensive equipment, chariots, warships, and various weapons.

There were more than 180 kinds of firearms that Zhang Shikang was most concerned about, including those for land warfare, naval warfare, and even mines.

It was the first time that Zhang Shikang saw so many strange names of firearms, such as General Tianwei, General Shenwu, General Honglei, General Feilei, three-eyed fire gun, four-eyed magic gun, ten-eyed copper cannon, and fire beast mine.

Full of middle school feeling!

What surprised Zhang Shikang the most was that the Mao Yuanyi not only contained records, but also instructions, including instructions for use and production, and not only text descriptions but also pictures.

Speaking of maps, this Wubeizhi actually comes with a navigation map of Zheng He drawn by Mao Yuanyi himself. This navigation map is five meters long.

When Zhang Shikang unfolded this huge nautical chart, he was shocked. There were hundreds of place names around the sea area densely packed on it, and the specific routes of Zheng He's six voyages to the West were also marked.

During Zheng He's sixth voyage, the farthest he reached was a place in Africa called "Manbasa", which is later known as Mombasa in Kenya.

Although this huge map cannot be compared with the high-precision maps of later generations, Zhang Shikang took a rough look at it and found that there were no outrageous errors. There was absolutely no problem using it as a nautical chart for navigation at that time.

Zhang Shikang was ecstatic looking at the Wubeizhi on the table. He wished Mao Yuanyi would fly to him immediately so that he could chat with this awesome uncle who could both lead troops in battle and write books.

Now the Beijing camp has sufficient food and grass, and Zhang Shikang has also provided all the military equipment and uniforms at one time. The military spirit is stable and the morale is high. Of course, Zhang Shikang will not sit idle.

He had high hopes for his 5,000 musketeers and trained with them every day. When the soldiers gradually got used to the ten-kilometer run every day, Zhang Shikang ordered the craftsmen in the army to make a lot of simple sandbags, one for each leg and chest, with a total weight of 40 kilograms.

If weapons and equipment are included, each person's load is about 50 kilograms.

In addition to daily weight-bearing running, Zhang Shikang also used push-ups, sit-ups, frog jumps, and parallel bars and parallel bars to train his 5,000 subordinates.

Zhang Shikang also made specific housekeeping requirements for the entire Beijing camp. Although they were not as strict as the tofu-block requirements of later troops, they were not much different.

When soldiers arrive at the camp, they are not allowed to make loud noises or throw things around. Violators will be punished with ten military sticks and will be disqualified from selection.

In addition, Zhang Shikang also changed the army's marching requirements. In the past, when the army marched, as long as they did not fall behind, it was fine. But in Zhang Shikang's case, in the words of Sun Weifan, Zhang Shikang made walking very creative.

Based on the later Rabbit Family's marching steps and combined with the Ming Dynasty's current equipment, weapons and uniform styles, Zhang Shikang developed a set of marching and running movements.

This set of movements requires soldiers to move as uniformly as possible, showing the momentum, style and cohesion of the army.

When Zhang Shikang was young, he had some misunderstandings about the marching of the Rabbit Kingdom's army in later generations. He thought it was really tiring to be so strict just to make the march look good.

But it was not until Zhang Shikang led the troops himself that he finally understood the foresight of later military strategists.

These actions seem to have no effect, but in fact they can not only enforce military discipline, but also increase soldiers' sense of collective honor for the army and soldiers. This sense of collective honor or cohesion is the dividing line between a strong army and a weak brigade.

Before the advent of the Maxim heavy machine gun, in an era when cold weapons were dominant among infantry and cavalry, there was no exception for a strong army, whether in the East or the West, that could maintain more than 30% combat losses without collapse in the face of powerful enemies.

What supported them to win the battle in the end was never the difference in numbers, nor the physical fitness of the soldiers, or even the weapons and equipment, but their belief and sense of honor.

Zhang Shikang spent a month to perfect his transformation of the Beijing Camp as much as possible.

At first, Sun Weifan didn't understand it at all. He thought Zhang Shikang was just idle and was thinking about some useless things.

But Sun Weifan was familiar with military affairs after all. Over time, he gradually discovered Zhang Shikang's intentions and began to order the other four battalions of the Beijing Camp to follow suit.

It was also from this time that Sun Weifan no longer dared to underestimate Zhang Shikang, and felt that this boy was a hidden talent.

That’s not right. Sometimes he still feels that this guy is not trying to hide his talent, but is just lazy and too lazy to think.

Such strict discipline, coupled with heavy training volume, surprised Zhang Shikang that almost no one complained.

People of that era were already accustomed to suffering. Zhang Shikang could provide them with enough food and adequate military pay. For these poor people, no matter how great the suffering was, it was nothing.

Therefore, every morning, more than 20,000 people would perform a weighted running event on the parade ground of the Xishan Camp. The running was so exciting and enthusiastic.

Of course, in addition to a series of drills and internal reforms, the core training of the 5,000 musketeers was not neglected.

Five thousand brand new Rumi guns had already been distributed to every soldier, and Zhang Shikang selected fifty soldiers who were proficient in using Rumi guns from the veterans to serve as instructors.

These fifty instructors were responsible for teaching the basic use and maintenance of the Rumi gun, while Zhang Shikang was responsible for the array-level training of the firearms battalion.

He knew about the three-section attack. In fact, this term was not exclusive to Europe. As early as the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, the general Mu Ying used this firearms tactic in the Ming Dynasty.

It is nothing more than dividing the musketeers into three rows. After the first row finishes shooting, they retreat to the third row to reload, and the second row continues shooting. In a short period of time, the shooting efficiency can be increased threefold.

Zhang Shikang felt that it was not enough. It would be okay if the enemy were all infantry, but if the enemy were cavalry, the efficiency would still not be high enough.

In addition, the accuracy of muskets at that time was very poor, and the cavalry charged at high speed on their horses, resulting in even worse accuracy.

In order to make up for this shortcoming, Zhang Shikang added some tactics of line infantry on the basis of the three-stage attack.

He divided the 5,000 men into ten teams, each with 500 men. Each small team was fifty to one hundred steps apart. Each team was commanded by a general and divided into sixteen rows, with thirty men in each row.

During combat, two rows form a combat unit. The first row shoots in a squatting position, while the second row shoots in an upright position. After shooting, they retreat and the two rows behind them take over.

This not only improves shooting efficiency, but also increases shooting coverage, which can maximize the intensive firepower of the musket.

However, in actual operation, it is much more complicated than the original three-stage attack, and Zhang Shikang is often furious because of his subordinates' wrong operations.

"Xu Wenyuan, why are you always a step behind? Don't you want to eat lunch?"

"Wang Jingduo, stand up straight. Why are your hands shaking?"

"If someone in the front row falls, the back row will immediately fill in. When you have nothing to do, practice reloading and make sure you complete it within fifty counts!"

Zhang Shikang was so angry that he broke out in a sweat. Line infantrymen were most particular about discipline. It turned out that when Zhang Shikang was disciplining them, his words were so sharp that some people couldn't help laughing out loud.

Ever since those people were beaten with Zhang Shikang's military stick, no one dared to laugh casually anymore, unless they couldn't help it.

The structure of the Rumi gun is relatively simpler than that of the bird gun. The number fifty mentioned by Zhang Shikang actually means fifty seconds, and he can complete the loading within fifty seconds.

In fact, some of these 5,000 people could even complete reloading in 20 to 30 seconds, but considering uniformity, Zhang Shikang set the median at 50 seconds.

Those who fail to do so will be punished or even transferred to other camps.

In addition to line shooting, Zhang Shikang also trained in close combat. The tail of the Rumi gun was equipped with a steel knife about five or six centimeters long, which could be used as an emergency measure in the shooting state.

Zhang Shikang originally disliked the steel knife because it was too short and could not exert any power at all. However, he asked the craftsmen and found out that there was no way to fix it because the steel knife was usually tucked inward at the butt of the gun and there was only so much space at the butt of the gun.

He did suggest installing a broken blade under the barrel, but the idea was ultimately rejected because the barrel of the Rumi gun was too thin to be swung for slashing.

So Zhang Shikang equipped the musketeers with one-handed swords and had Sun Weifan personally train them for an hour every day, requiring them to train their close combat skills to the level of other infantrymen.

The training continued until the beginning of May, when the Firearms Battalion's line tactics began to show results.

During this period, Sun Dasheng was exiled to the cavalry camp by Zhang Shikang because he was too clumsy in loading gunpowder. Zhang Shikang suspected that this guy did it on purpose.

Not only the Firearms Battalion, but the Infantry Battalion and the Cavalry Battalion were also training at full speed. Although it had only been a month, the spirit of the entire camp had changed.

One day in May, Sun Weifan suddenly found Zhang Shikang:

"Nephew, when do you plan to start the selection?"

He has been almost annoyed to death by those guerrillas and bandits lately.

Since Zhang Shikang said at the beginning that the deputy generals and lieutenant generals would be selected from all the soldiers, the specific selection criteria were also posted in the military camp.

But the only thing that is not written is the selection time.

Those guerrillas and captains did not dare to ask Zhang Shikang, but always came to Sun Weifan for information whenever they had the chance, hoping to learn the specific time of the selection.

But how would Sun Weifan know?

Zhang Shikang smiled slightly and winked at Sun Weifan.

"Uncle Shi, have you discovered that not choosing is better than choosing?"

……