After obtaining the absolute loyalty of these thousands of soldiers, Xiao Ting reorganized them and handed over 3,000 of them to Chang Yuchun to take over the villages and towns around Xinhui. The heads of the guards in those villages and towns were the pledge of allegiance.
The remaining 3,000 were handed over to Shi Wanshui and Di Qing. Although these Green Army soldiers weren't good, they weren't good enough to be cannon fodder. Especially those cannoneers who could control cannons were definitely treasures to Xiao Ting.
Even though Xiao Ting had received the support of the Emperor's elite troops, they had a huge weakness, which was that they did not know how to use cannons. Even firearms were unfamiliar to them.
After all, the musket only had a few movements. He just had to aim and wait for the musket to burn out before firing. However, the cannon was not so easy to learn and control.
Especially when it came to cleaning the cannon, if it was not done properly, the cannon would explode. Therefore, Xiao Ting did not dare to let them play with it unless he was a soldier who had played with cannons.
Fortunately, there were quite a number of cannoneers among the surrendered soldiers who knew how to control cannons, so this shortcoming was temporarily eliminated. Xiao Ting also made up his mind to focus on training cannoneers after he had his own foundation.
There were quite a few cannons in Xinhui City. Among them, there were nearly 20 Red Cannons and dozens of small Tiger Cannons.
Originally, so many cannons would not appear in a single county. However, Xinhui was the gateway to Guangzhou, and Li Dingguo had led tens of thousands of troops to attack Guangzhou. In order to resist Li Dingguo, Shang Kexi had people move a large number of cannons from Guangzhou to Xinhui. However, he did not expect that Li Dingguo would be defeated and benefit Xiao Ting.
After obtaining these cannons, Xiao Ting gathered Chang Yuchun and the others and brought the army outside the city to test them. Firstly, he wanted to see how powerful the firearms of this era were. Secondly, he wanted to let Chang Yuchun and the others see these things so that they would know how to prevent and use them in the future.
Chang Yuchun was born at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Although he had seen and used cannons before, he did not know much about the Red Cannons. Therefore, his eyes widened when he saw the power of the cannons.
Even Chang Yuchun was like this, let alone Xiao He, who had never seen a cannon before. When they saw the power of this thing, their mouths were so wide that they could stuff eggs into them.
At the same time, other than Zhu Youjian and Zhu Yuanzhang, the other emperors, including the First Emperor, were all shocked by the power of the Red Cannon.
" I really didn't expect that such a terrifying weapon would appear after thousands of years of development!"”
"If I had such a weapon, the Xiongnu would have been defeated by me long ago."”
Liu Che: " It's not just the Xiongnu. If this cannon appears in the Great Han Dynasty, I can directly flatten the Western Regions."”
Zhao Kuangyin said,[If the Great Song had such firearms, it would be easy for them to take down the sixteen states of Yanyun.]”
Zhao Ji: " That's right, that's right. If the Great Song had such cannons, the Jurchen would not be so arrogant."”
Yang Guang: " It's not bad to say that, but you're doing this on the premise that the other party doesn't have the same weapon. What if the other party also has firearms?”
Zhu Youjian: "@ YangGuang, just as you said, Slave Jian already has his own firearms, so we don't have an advantage in firearms.”
Zhu Yuanzhang: [@ Zhu Youjian, how did Slave Jian get his firearms?]”
Zhu Youjian was speechless.
While the emperors were discussing in the group chat, Xiao Ting had ordered the surrendered soldiers to test their muskets after firing the cannons.
According to records, the musket was only recorded during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, so Chang Yuchun had never seen such a firearm before. After testing the musket, Xiao Ting asked for everyone's opinion.
At this moment, Xiao He and the others had already recovered from the shock of the firearms. After hearing Xiao Ting's question, everyone fell silent. Then, Chang Yuchun spoke first,"This Red Cannon is powerful, but its shortcomings are also very obvious. First, its firing rate is too slow. Second, it's too heavy and inconvenient to carry. It can only be used to defend or attack cities.”
Di Qing also said: " General Chang is right. The firing speed of this cannon is too slow. If we use a scattered formation, we can reduce the number of casualties. It is the same for this musket. The musket's musket burns too slowly and its range is not far. Moreover, after firing, the black smoke will not only suffocate people but also block their vision.”
Shi Wanshui said," The main thing is that it takes a lot of time to load the musket after firing. After loading, you have to relight the musket, and it will take a few breaths for the musket to burn out. During this period of time, you can fire a few times with a bow."”
After hearing the opinions of the three generals, Xiao Ting said,""You're right. These are the flaws of muskets. Firearms also have a flaw, which is that they are afraid of rainy days.”
Seeing that everyone nodded in agreement, Xiao Ting continued,""Although muskets have many flaws, have you noticed that muskets are more energy-saving than bows? An archer will only be able to pull the bow seven or eight times before his arm becomes sore. If he continues to pull, his arm will be useless. Although crossbowmen can hold on longer than archers, their arms will eventually become tired.
On the other hand, muskets were different. Although they were slow to fire and had a short range, they could continue fighting. As long as they had enough medicine, their arms would not be tired even if they fought for a few days and nights.
Most importantly, its armor-piercing ability was very strong. Within fifty steps, even if the opponent wore three layers of armor, it could break through the defense with one shot. Moreover, once the bullet of the musket hit any part of the body, it was incurable. Because the poison in the pellet was not something that the medical system of this era could treat.
However, arrows were different. As long as they didn't hit the vital parts, they would still be alive and kicking.”
After listening to Xiao Ting's analysis, Shi Wanshui and the others fell silent. They were thinking about Xiao Ting's words, and then combined what they saw and finally agreed with Xiao Ting.
Xiao Ting smiled after seeing the three generals nod and said,"It's not a big deal that their shooting speed is slower than a crossbow's. Have you forgotten about Great Qin's Wave Arrow Formation?”
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