The bandit-turned soldiers of the Beiyang Army

  Of course, the spoils of war found by the scouts were also brought back in this way.

  Yang Shuo Ming's gaze returned to the "spoils of war" in front of him.

  At this moment, in front of him were two old-fashioned Gatling guns.

  Yang Shuo Ming looked at the two old machine guns with worn-out "Guangxu" year marks on them and couldn't help but let out a bitter smile.

  "Liu Damazi actually has this kind of submachine gun, it's really unexpected." Zhao Erhu said in surprise, clearly knowing what it was.

  "It should be someone else who sent it." Lei said with his head down, "Liu Dama Zi doesn't seem to have lied, he has been bought over."

  Yang Shuo Ming once again looked down on Zhang Jingyao in his heart, thinking that he was actually using this old-fashioned machine gun to buy off the bandits.

  This old-fashioned machine gun is barely sufficient for defending a fixed position; carrying it on an offensive would be exhausting.

  What surprised Yang Shuo Ming at this time was that such an outdated machine gun would actually appear in the equipment sequence of the Beiyang Army.

  Wasn't the Beiyang Army that helped Yuan Shikai rise to power using this old, broken toy instead of a Maxim heavy machine gun?

  Isn't this a bit too miserable?

  Yang Shuo Ming carefully thought back about the history of this era, cross-referenced some historical materials, and soon figured out what was going on.

  He remembered that before the Xinhai Revolution, the Qing nobles led by Prince Zaitao ordered the Mark IV machine guns and some heavy artillery from the new army in various provinces to be sent to Beijing and handed over to the Imperial Guard. As a result, most of the Mark IV machine guns were confiscated, and during the Wuchang Uprising, when the rebels occupied the arsenal, they could not find any Mark IV machine guns to use in battle, so they had to bring out the old Gatling guns stored in the warehouse to fight with, which unexpectedly achieved great success. Later, when the Beiyang Army attacked Wuhan, the revolutionary army used these ancient artifacts and fought against the Beiyang Army with great fanfare.

  And now, the same old Gatling gun appears here, which is easy to understand.

  Yang Shuo Ming carefully observed the Gatling gun in front of him, and his eyes kept flashing with relevant analysis data and information. As a traverser, he felt the ups and downs of historical development on this old Gatling.

  As one of the important milestones in the history of firearms, the Gatling gun reached its peak when manual machine guns were developed. However, the emergence of automatic weapons represented by the Maxim gun put the Gatling gun in a predicament. After the invention of automatic weapons using pipe recoil, gas transmission, free gun mechanism and semi-free gun mechanism, the advantages of the Gatling rotary gun no longer existed, while its disadvantages became more prominent. Compared with single-barreled machine guns, the Gatling gun was bulky and inconvenient for mobility; its high rate of fire had little significance on the battlefield at that time, whereas lightweight automatic machine guns were more suitable for the battlefield conditions at that time. Moreover, the newly introduced fixed metal cartridge ammunition was expensive, and the high rate of fire would undoubtedly put great pressure on the financial officers in charge. Therefore, in 1911, after serving in the US military for 45 years, the Gatling gun officially retired from service and bid farewell to the battlefield.

  Although the Gatling gun has left the historical stage, the unique design concept of this machine gun has not been buried in the long river of history. With the passage of time and changes in the battlefield environment over 30 years later, due to advances in technology and significant changes, the dust-covered Gatling gun's unique design was recalled by people again. After improvements, the Gatling gun returned to the battlefield and made a big splash in many fields.

  "This is actually a machine gun, I thought it was a cannon." Huang Yunzhi said in surprise when he saw the Gatling gun for the first time, "It actually has so many barrels."

  "Madam, you don't know that when it's really firing, not all the barrels are firing at the same time. It's rotating and only the top barrel is firing." Lei explained to Huang Yunzhi, "Actually, this kind of gun is very powerful if used well. I remember back in Tianjin, Old Sun and I were using one of these machine guns, and we managed to hold off a whole street. We shot those foreigners until they were crying out in fear, unable to move an inch. Later on, if it wasn't for the British devils using..." He seemed to have remembered something, sighed, shook his head, and stopped talking.

  Lei's words made Yang Shuo Ming take a big surprise in his heart, Yang Shuo Ming noticed that the corners of his eyes seemed to be slightly moist, he understood what was going on, didn't say anything, and the expression on his face remained calm, just like usual.

  Huang Yunzhi didn't notice Lei's hint, and curiously walked to a Gatling gun, pushing it with her hand, trying its weight.

  "It's so heavy." She looked at Yang Shuo Ming and playfully stuck out her tongue, saying.

  Yang Shuo Ming watched her movements, and for some reason, the image of her holding two modern handheld Gatling guns and firing sensually appeared in his mind, leaving him slightly stunned by such a scene.

  "What's wrong?" Huang Yunzhi noticed that Yang Shuoming had an unconscious strange smile at the corner of his mouth when he looked at her, and she couldn't help but blush and ask.

  "Oh... nothing, nothing." Yang Shuo Ming muttered to himself, secretly making up his mind to come up with a new-style Gatling gun that one person could carry at the right time.

  After spending a restless New Year's Eve, Yang Shouming got up early the next morning and came to the battlefield outside the earth fort for inspection as soon as it was dawn.

  Just as Huang Yunzhi estimated, looking at the hundreds of bandit corpses outside the earth fort and in front of the moat, Yang Shouming also came to the same conclusion: Liu Dama was absorbed into the Beiyang Army by Li Chun and Zhang Jingyao.

  Because so many corpses were killed and they all wore Beiyang Army uniforms!

  Under Yang Shuo-ming's orders, the security guards began to search among the corpses for Liu Da-ma-zi's body and useful items that had not been thoroughly searched last night.

  About half an hour later, the sound of people shouting and horses neighing suddenly came from afar.

  "Captain Xu has arrived." A security team member reported to Yang Shuoming.

  Soon, Xu Yuanjin on horseback appeared in front of Yang Shuo Ming. Yang Shuo Ming noticed that his military uniform had stains, and the originally spirited military cap seemed to have a hole in it. The team members under him also looked like they had been through a battle, which shocked him.

  What was especially unexpected for him was that many civilians carrying sickles and hoes came with the security team.

  Xu Yuanjin saw Yang Shuo Ming standing among the bandit corpses, let out a long breath, and noticed that his body swayed on the horseback as if he was about to fall off. Just as he was about to remind him, Xu Yuanjin steadied himself and jumped off the horse.

  Seeing Xu Yuanjin's movements still being very agile and not like someone who is injured, Yang Shao Ming put his mind at ease.

  "How did you get here?" Yang Shuo Ming asked as he walked up to greet him.

  "I've gone to all that trouble for nothing again." Xu Yuanjin looked around at the corpses scattered all over the ground, a self-mocking smile on his face. "Looks like you guys had quite a lively time here last night."

  "It's okay." Yang Shuo Ming smiled and said, "Have you gone to the mining area to help Wu Tou Er?"

  "Of course." Xu Yuanjin glared at him with a bad temper, "We fought so fiercely on our side, and it's not far from your side, didn't you hear?"

  "It's possible that I was also busy fighting at the time and didn't notice," Yang Shuoming said, "How about Wu Tou'er's side? Is everything okay?"

  The mining area guarded by Wu Jie was more heavily defended than the tunnel fort due to its strategic location. In addition to the six mortars, there were also eight old-fashioned small bronze cannons (donated by a collector squire to the security team) with much stronger firepower than this side. Moreover, the number of militia guarding there was also more than that of the tunnel fort.

  "They've all been wrapped up like dumplings, and just the captives alone are a huge pile." Xu Yuanjin pulled at his collar, took off his military cap, and looked around, "It doesn't look like it was here, but damn it, they killed so many, it's just like a slaughterhouse."

  "How did you gather all these ordinary people?" Yang Shuo Ming asked with some curiosity as he looked around at the crowd.

  "They came to protect the salt mine on their own initiative." Xu Yuanjin looked at Yang Shouming with a smile that was not quite a smile, and replied, "That method of yours that lets ordinary people also invest is really formidable!"

  After hearing Xu Yuanjin's words, Yang Shuoming burst out laughing and looked at the crowd gathering around him with faces full of concern. He couldn't help but feel a warmth in his heart.

  "As long as you can let the common people live a good life, they will follow you with one heart and one mind." Xu Yuanjin sighed, "Unfortunately, not everyone understands this truth."

  "Some people understand this principle but it's useless because they can't do it and don't want to do it," said Yang Shuoming.

  As they were talking, a security guard rushed over and reported to Yang Shuo Ming: "Liu Dama Zi's body has been found."

  "You should say that Liu's corpse has been found." Yang Shuo Ming said jokingly, beckoning to Xu Yuan Jin to go with him to see Liu Wen Xuan's body.

  "Good grief! He's actually capable of being a brigade commander. Old Yuan's luck is running out." Xu Yuanshu sneered and said.

  "In fact, you, Captain Xu, would be suitable to be a division commander. It's a pity that the Qing imperial court is blind and has let a talent like you drift away into civilian life." Yang Shouming said with emotion as he looked at Xu Yuanjin.

  After hearing Yang Shuo Ming's words, Xu Yuan Jin's body seemed to shake slightly. He stared tightly at Yang Shuo Ming's eyes, as if he wanted to know what he meant by saying this sentence. He stared for a while, but didn't find anything new in Yang Shuo Ming's eyes.

  "It's already the Republic era," Xu Yuanjin said with a self-deprecating tone, "but to me, it feels like it's not even as good as the Qing dynasty."