Chapter 1437 Yongli Rifle
When Oboi was reorganizing his troops and preparing to conquer the south.
Han Yu was not idle either, he was also actively preparing.
In addition to distributing land and exempting taxes in the three occupied provinces and promoting compulsory education, he also recruited sons of good families and expanded the military.
He expanded his grenadier corps to twenty regiments, and the total number of troops swelled to 200,000.
The generals of these newly formed legions are all backbones promoted from outstanding soldiers in the First Legion, so their basic loyalty and combat effectiveness are guaranteed.
With such a large army, Han Yu initially had the capital to dominate the world.
In addition to expanding the army, Han Yu also contacted the Frankish merchants through the port and directly bought all the warships and artillery from them. He also ordered a large number of warships and artillery. As long as they could be transported over, Han Yu would purchase them.
After hearing the price offered by Han Yu, the Frankish merchants immediately returned home happily and tried to bring back more ships.
They believed that as long as they could make this deal, they would be able to earn enough money to last them several lifetimes, and they would never have to worry about money again.
Looking at the Frankie merchant who left happily, Han Yu showed a sneer.
Building ships at this time was more troublesome. If new wooden boards were used, the newly built ship would be tightly fitted, but after a period of time, the moisture in the wooden boards would evaporate, leaving gaps. Some wooden boards would even be deformed, and the ship would be at risk of sinking.
Therefore, the wooden boards used to make ships need to be dried in the shade for several years before they can be used to build ships.
During this period, the number of ships owned was fixed, and you could not build as many as you wanted.
For every extra ship Han Yu has, others will have one less ship, and it will take several years to make up for it.
This reduces the difficulty for Han Yu to dominate the world.
Anyway, he raided the homes of officials in three provinces, and the silver in his hands was enough for him to achieve his goal.
In addition to purchasing, Han Yu directly occupied all the shipyards in Guangdong and Guangxi, and ordered these shipyards to fully produce large ships, recruit sailors, and train naval forces in preparation for future goals.
In fact, Han Yu was not very interested in these wooden sailboats. His real goal was to make some iron steam sailboats.
With this thing, the speed of the ship can be greatly increased, and it can also be equipped with more and larger caliber cannons.
It’s just that the power system has not been conquered yet and remains only on paper.
In addition to preparing for war, Han Yu did not forget his purpose in this world, which was to practice magic.
While practicing magic, he constructed a steam engine through constant practice.
Then, he used this steam engine as the master machine and gave it to the craftsmen to disassemble and study, and then replicate the master machine.
The machinery at that time was not very complicated and it was easy to replicate.
After figuring it out, the craftsmen spent a month replicating hundreds of them.
Then, under Han Yu's guidance, these machines worked hard to produce a new rifle that Han Yu had "invented".
The rifle "invented" by Han Yu was modeled after the Chassepot rifle. This rifle is a bolt-action rifle with four rifling grooves, breech loading, and fixed bullets.
The bullets used are paper shell fixed bullets.
The reason why Han Yu doesn't use metal cartridges is not because he doesn't know the benefits of metal cartridges, nor is it because the technology is not up to the task.
It was entirely because the Ming Dynasty lacked copper.
This problem was not solved until later generations, and only steel shell bullets could be used.
However, the paper shell fixed ammunition is not as bad as imagined.
The rifle has an effective range of an astonishing 800 meters and is also highly accurate.
After the process modification, the paper shell burns more thoroughly in the magazine.
Except for the inability to fire continuously, the other effects are good.
In addition to its excellent performance, the most prominent feature of this gun is that it is equipped with a 72 cm long bayonet.
This bayonet is longer than many daggers.
After being added to the gun, the length of the rifle reaches two meters and can be used as a spear.
In this era when matchlocks and muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons are king, this gun can be said to be a dimensionality reduction strike that can sweep all old weapons into the dustbin of history.
Because this gun was "invented" and manufactured during the Yongli period, Han Yu named it the Yongli rifle.
With the distribution of Yongli rifles, the combat effectiveness of Han Yu's grenadier regiment increased exponentially.
After being equipped with rifles, Han Yu began to train the soldiers to attack using skirmish lines and three-three squads.
In the matchlock era, in order to ensure the power and accuracy of the muskets, musketeers often had to advance to a distance of 20 to 30 meters from the enemy before beginning their attack.
Moreover, dense formations also make them easy targets for enemy artillery fire, which in turn enhances the lethality of enemy artillery.
After the soldiers equipped with rifled rifles changed into skirmish lines, their lethality increased due to the increased accuracy, and the loose formation also reduced the lethality of the enemy's artillery and muskets, which could be said to be a crushing defeat for the armies of that era.
"With an army like this, we can conquer the world without any worries."
Han Yu thought as he looked at the army training seriously on the training ground.
At this time, a messenger ran in.
"Your Highness, Aobai has led a large army to Chenzhou."
"Have we reached the border?"
Han Yu raised his eyebrows.
"Very good. My army has just been training for a while. Training alone is still not enough. We still need actual combat training."
"How many people did Aobai bring?"
Han Yu asked.
"Aobai brought his own eight banners of Manchu, Mongolian and Han, totaling 100,000 people."
"Only 100,000 people, too arrogant."
Han Yu snorted coldly.
"I won't bully him. I will just take three legions with me. Let's see whether his Eight Banners Corps is stronger or my Grenadiers Corps is stronger."
"The army is setting off!"
Han Yu gave the order.
The 1st, 3rd, and 7th Grenadier Corps walked outside the parade ground, pulling various horse-drawn carriages towards Chenzhou.
A few days later.
Oboi led 100,000 Manchu, Mongolian and Han banners and rushed forward.
The team stretched for several miles.
Abahai looked at the team in distinctive armor and nodded with satisfaction. With such an army, what kind of enemy could not be defeated?
"General, Guangdong Province is ahead." said a deputy general.
“We’re finally here.”
Aobai licked his lips and said, "Notify them that the town ahead is controlled by the bandits. After we capture it, we will not stop fighting for three days!"
After the order was passed down, the morale of the entire army was boosted.
They walked for dozens of days, traveling thousands of miles from the capital, all the way to Guangdong Province. Why?
Isn’t the purpose just to grab some money and go back to enjoy yourself?
Now, the time has finally come, and everyone can't help but tidy up their armor, ready to show their skills.
At this moment, a scout came to Aobai.
"General, we found the enemy's camp ahead!"
