Good stuff

  Under the high-hanging sun, two armies that were unaware of each other's existence were approaching each other. Suddenly, scouts from both sides discovered each other's presence. After a round of entanglement, killing, breaking through and blocking, the leaders of the two troops finally learned about the current situation from the mouths of their surviving scouts who had barely escaped with their lives.

  The two leaders made the same decision to occupy the high ground on one side of the road, based on the map in their hands. Both sides divided a team and rushed towards the high ground, with one side having a higher speed and the other being closer. Soon after, the two sides almost simultaneously reached the top and clashed head-on at the summit, and the battle unfolded immediately.

  The slaughter on the high ground caused countless casualties, while the two main forces advancing slowly with their troops finally formed a battle line in a relatively flat concave area near the high ground. After a brief rest and initial recovery of strength, the two armies officially clashed. The artillery fired solid shot and canister shot at the enemy. Soldiers enduring the enemy's artillery fire indifferently watched as comrades beside them were knocked down by flying lead bullets, stubbornly continuing to advance until they broke through the coverage of the artillery fire.

  One hundred paces, eighty paces, when the opponent's face was clearly imprinted in one's line of sight, a sudden burst of white smoke once again covered it. Of course, this side did not show weakness either, and similarly unleashed a barrage of gunfire. In the hail of bullets, countless people fell to the ground with pitiful cries. As the firepower on both sides suddenly weakened, hand-to-hand combat began.

  On the main battlefield, corpses were scattered all over, and on the high ground, victory and defeat were finally decided. The winning side didn't have time to pursue their opponents, but immediately pulled up light artillery. With the support of the artillery, the steady soldiers charged down like fierce tigers, instantly becoming the last straw that crushed the opponent.

  As one wing was broken through, the defeated side finally retreated, but most of the casualties in this era occurred during the retreat. The enemy, who had killed with enthusiasm, did not expect that the defeated side would struggle desperately and continuously launched repeated charges. However, the infantry's impact force was limited, and it was those few light armored cavalrymen who caused considerable blood loss to the enemy.

  The sun sets in the west, and the battle finally comes to an end. Soldiers who have been clearing the battlefield rush to the commander's tent, which has been hastily set up. People come and go, reporting on the outcome of the battle, reporting losses, receiving new orders for the next step, and most importantly, summarizing the war after it is over.

  ??

  Okay, the above scenarios are all fantasies in Zheng Kezang's mind. In fact, the actual military exercise between the Tongzi Camp and the Kunlun Flag that he had arranged did not take place. There were many reasons for this, but no matter how you summarize it, there are only two main points.

  One is that the strength of both sides in the scheduled exercise was not equal: although the Kwantung Army had more troops, it absolutely could not face the fully armed First Division head-on without artillery, machine guns or even bow and arrow support. Once the war started, it was very likely to be defeated by the opponent in a short period of time; on the other hand, if the First Division were to give up its artillery and machine guns and engage in close combat with the Kwantung Army, then this exercise, which Zheng Qizhang had placed great hopes on, would likely become a performance of cold weapons.

  Of course, this is not the most crucial point. In real battles, the phenomenon of cold weapons fighting against hot weapons does exist. If we simulate with such settings, we can still see a thrilling and bloody battle. Even if it's just cold weapons against cold weapons, we can understand the effectiveness of military discipline in enhancing combat capabilities and the true meaning of gun arrays and empty-hearted gun arrays.

  However, the key to the problem is that in the Ming dynasty and before, Chinese armies relied heavily on brute force and experience, without a complete system of pre-battle analysis and post-battle summary. Even if the ancestors left behind some military classics, they became mere decorations. Therefore, even if Zheng Kezang assigned several staff officers, they could not integrate the operational outline required by Zheng Kezang, let alone consider possible unexpected factors.

  So Zheng Kezang could only let them go back to the drawing board, and personally directed them on how to set up the scene, assess casualties, draft and revise the director's chapter - because Zheng Kezang was just a network writer in his previous life, many of the knowledge he had was from online harmonious versions, so at most he was only half a connoisseur who didn't even count as a fan, therefore many problems still needed to be repeatedly discussed before they could be tried out. And since Zheng Kezang himself was after all a crown prince and couldn't possibly put all his time into the affairs of the Boy Scouts, the originally scheduled September exercise had also become indefinitely postponed.

  ??

  "Liu Qing has arrived!" Just as Zheng Kezang was having a headache from the Boy Scouts' joint exercise, Zhu Jin, who had just received a batch of military supplies sent by Dongning, looked very good. "Come and take a look at this batch of weapons, there are some great things inside!"

  One of the good things in Zhu Jin's mouth is Zheng Kezang's use of hydraulic hammering to produce Tang Dynasty armor - at the same time, the production of lock armor was limited to 100 sets per month, and even Zheng Kezang's own children's army couldn't be fully equipped, let alone being sent to Siming - this protective gear is slightly stronger than lock armor, but too heavy for Zheng Kezang's liking, however, in Zhu Jin and Ming Zheng high-ranking officers' eyes, it is a treasure worthy of passing down through the ages.

  "Within fifty paces, the strong bows of two stones can't even penetrate a single piece of armor. At thirty paces, they can barely pierce it, but to shoot an entire arrowhead through, you need to be within twenty paces." Zhu Jin's eyes sparkled with excitement, which was no surprise - such excellent armor had been created by Zheng Kezang using a secret method he found in a pile of old papers. As the father, he couldn't help but feel proud. "Twenty paces, Liu Qing! At this distance, would any archer dare to shoot at an armored soldier head-on?" Of course not - at this range, the enemy would charge up within a few breaths, and if there was still an archer who dared to shoot, he must be either seeking death or extremely skilled and bold. "And these are two-stone strong bows we're talking about! If the bow's strength is any weaker, it's even more hopeless."

  Liu Guoxuan's face also showed joy, now more than 100,000 Qing troops are piled up in Chaozhou line and can't be compared with the tens of thousands of Zheng Jun, it can be said that they have a huge advantage of ten to one. At this time, they can get a batch of such fine armor, which is at least like sending charcoal in the snow.

  Liu Guoxuan then asked: "Wang Shang, how many sets of armor are there in this batch? How many more can Taiwan send?"

  "This batch has a total of 500 pieces." Feng Xifan, who was beside Zhu Jin, explained. "It's all the savings from Dongning for more than a year."

  The yield was so low due to many reasons. At the beginning, it was because of the problem with the hydraulic forging hammer. Although Zheng Keshuang tried his best to reduce the connecting parts, the poor design tolerance and the brittleness and lack of toughness of the cast iron parts caused the hydraulic forging hammer to run unsmoothly. Later, although these problems were gradually improved, the insufficient production of steel materials in Taiwan became a new constraint.

  "It will be three months before Dong Ning sends another fifty over."

  "Five hundred sets?" Liu Guoxuan hesitated for a moment before ignoring the existence of the fifty suits of armor behind him. "Although it's still insufficient, it can barely be used."

  "Wu Pingbo's words are not wrong." Feng Xifan half-heartedly echoed. "According to the joint report of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works, the current heir has invited a famous armor craftsman from abroad to try to manufacture iron armor, if everything goes smoothly, by this time next year, there will be better armor supplied to the whole army." At this moment, two guards brought over two fire guns, one of which was handed to Liu Guoxian's bewildered hands. "This is a locally produced fire gun, with extremely fine workmanship, it was specially made for the Tongzi Camp by the heir, now that there are many in stock, they were allocated to the front lines." Feng Xifan's words seemed like an explanation, but actually implied allocation, only Zhu Jing had just been too excited and now looked tired and hadn't noticed, while Liu Guoxian heard a few hints but didn't want to stir up trouble for the time being, so he didn't echo. "Wu Pingbo take a look at what's different."

  "Self-igniting?" Liu Guoxuan saw the main difference between this fire lance and the bird gun currently used by Zheng's army at a glance. "The weight has also increased, no wonder, it turns out that the barrel is much thicker than the bird gun, I'm afraid it's not easy to handle."

  Zhu Jin smiled and said, "Liu Qing is indeed sharp-eyed. Let's take a look at the demonstration first."

  As they spoke, one of the guards pulled out a paper tube, bit open one end, poured some gunpowder from it into the barrel, then stuffed the entire tube in, used a ramrod to pack it down, and finally placed the loaded arquebus on a wooden rest.

  "Bring five sets of the light armor that our clan is accustomed to using." The five sets of armor were stacked on top of each other, forming a target. The distance to the target was set at one hundred paces. The guard took aim and fired his crossbow with a loud thud. Liu Guoxuan saw the guard's body tremble as if he almost fell over. "We've already shot three rounds, how can you still not get used to this powerful force?" Zhu Jin said, somewhat dissatisfied, but didn't continue to demonstrate. "Bring the target over for Wu Pingbo to take a look."

  Liu Guoxuan took a closer look, and although the shooter had shaken his body, he still hit the target. The first layer had a big hole in it, the second layer also showed signs of being struck, and on the third layer, a lead bullet was embedded in a completely deformed armor plate. However, based on Liu Guoxuan's experience, under this degree of impact, the armored soldiers would have already been broken their ribs.

  "This fire lance can penetrate two layers of cotton armor within fifty paces, and even if the Qing soldiers wear three layers of cotton armor, their internal organs will still be shattered." Feng Xifan continued. "Wang named it 'Deer Lance' because one shot can kill a deer, to distinguish it from ordinary bird guns." Feng Xifan paused for a moment. "This time, five hundred Deer Lances have also been transported here."

  "How high is the ignition rate of the self-igniting fire?" Liu Guoxuan indeed lived up to his reputation as an old hand, immediately asking the most crucial question. "Also, what's with that paper tube?"

  "The firing rate of the self-igniting fire is said to be 80% on a normal day, and even in heavy rain it's claimed to have 50%. Mr. Feng Xifan replied one by one. As for the paper tube that Wu Pingbo just saw, the descendant was afraid that the Boy Scouts didn't know how much gunpowder to put in, so each portion of gunpowder and lead were packed into a separate paper tube. When firing, except for a small amount of gunpowder placed at the touch hole, the rest could be simply inserted, which saved the gunner from calculating the dosage. However, after firing, it was necessary to carefully clean the barrel, and the manufacturing process was quite complicated."

  "It doesn't matter if it's troublesome," Liu Guoxuan naturally saw the benefits of the fixed installation at a glance. "Will it get damp just by wrapping it in paper?"

  Feng Xifan took out a leather bag: "The great-grandson supplemented the shark skin and whale skin to make waterproof outer packaging, as long as it's not completely soaked in water, it can ensure that the gunpowder won't get wet."

  "Liu Guoxuan praised and immediately bowed his head to Zhu Jin. 'I also ask to transfer more deer guns from Dongning.'"

  "It's not easy, I'm afraid!" Zhu Jin sighed. "Dongning lacks iron, so even if there are fine steel weapons, they can't be made in large quantities. Therefore, Liu Qing, the war is entrusted to you, and it's essential to occupy more of Min territory and transport more personnel and supplies for Dongning."

  ??”