Zhang Zhao was an ordinary soldier in Shangyu City a few years ago. He followed the team leader Zhou Agen to collect money from Shangyu City Gate. He basked in the sun in his spare time and bragged with his brothers. Although his life was hard, he was free.

After Shangyu was captured by Yuan Qi, Zhang Zhao, who escaped by chance, got involved in the rebel army and then followed Yuan Qi to participate in various battles. After the Hangzhou War, he escaped with Wang Dong and instead joined Zhu Yicheng's subordinates to this day.

In recent years, Zhang Zhao has gradually been promoted from a big-headed soldier to a garrison position, which is considered a middle-level officer in the army. In addition, Zhang Zhao is young, brave in combat, smarter in nature, and an old man in the army. Therefore, when Chongming formed a new army, he was selected by the Ministry of War and transferred to the new army to serve.

Zhang Zhao still heard about the formation of the Chongming New Army. No matter what, although his official position is not high, he is an old man in the army. He and several generals led the army were all swinging spoons in the same pot back then, so there was no problem in asking for some information.

It is said that this army was an elite army built by Emperor Zhu Yicheng, and it is even known as the Imperial Guard in the army. It is indeed a good thing for Zhang Zhao to be transferred from an ordinary garrison force to serve. As long as you do it well here and you will be in the eyes of the emperor in the future, you may be in front of you.

Half a year ago, when Zhang Zhao came to Chongming Island and officially became a member of this new army, Zhang Zhao realized how different it was from other armies.

Compared with the current Ming army, this army has a completely different formation model and equipment. First of all, the scale of this army is very large. Although Zhu Yicheng decided to implement the general system and admiral system in the army after the reform of the military system. According to the plan of the Ministry of War, the generals in a town will be in charge of 20,000 to 25,000 people in the future, but in fact, most of the Ming army now have only about 20,000 people in a town, and some of them are less than 20,000.

In addition, the number of followers to the military and civilians can barely exceed 20,000, of which the real combat soldiers generally only account for seven or eight. The number of reorganized personnel of this new army is 25,000. What’s more important is that all these 25,000 are war soldiers. If the logistics and followers to the military and civilians are added, the number of people may be around 30,000.

Of course, the entire Chongming New Army has not yet been in place, and the army is now only about 18,000, but this has exceeded many armies in various towns.

In addition, the organization of the new army is also more stringent than the previous armies. According to the reform of the military system of the Ministry of War, the entire army has implemented a method of equal importance of real and virtual ranks. According to the explanation of the Ministry of War, it is the military rank system. In order to distinguish the ranks, the generals transferred were re-appointed. For example, Zhang Zhao, who was a garrison and a military rank was awarded the trusted ranks. He was marked with two silver stars on his military uniform, which looked clear at a glance.

In addition, the entire army was formed with the structure of the Qi family army and slightly changed on its basis. The military structure of the Qi family army was composed of troops, teams, posts (flags), departments, bureaus, battalions, and divisions. There were slight changes in the early and late periods. For example, the Qi family army did not have the Qi family army in the early stages, but was gradually established later. Therefore, the Chongming New Army retained the most basic four structures of troops, teams, posts, and battalions on it, and then set up the three levels of regiments, divisions, and army on it. The military chief officers of each level were uniformly called "chiefs", which were the same as the actual positions, but only within the new army.

This method is also a pilot project used by Zhu Yicheng to build a new army. From the perspective of these seventh ranks, it is almost equivalent to the modern army structure. Among them, the army is the most basic organization, as the name suggests, generally composed of five people, and the team is equivalent to later squads. The whistle is a company, and the battalion is equivalent to later sects. Zhang Zhao is the garrison and is also appointed as the captain of the first regiment. His troops are about 4,000, the third regiment is the first division, the second regiment is the first army, and another artillery regiment is added, and the entire army is 25,000.

The proportion of firearms in the entire army is astonishingly high. Except for each regiment in the new army, each battalion has temporarily retained cold weapons, the rest are all composed of firearms. Ordinary warriors all possess muskets, and these muskets have gradually replaced the newly developed tunnel guns with rifled ones. This gun is also called rifle or rifle in later generations.

This kind of musket has high accuracy, long range and great power. It is much more powerful than the muskets equipped by the Ming army now, but this kind of gun also has its disadvantages, mainly because of its rifle structure, and the loading of bullets is more troublesome, and tools are required to assist in loading, so its firing rate is lower than that of the current muskets.

However, after a series of adjustments and modifications to loading and bullets, fixed loading and basic loading steps were implemented, and the firing rate has been greatly improved. Soldiers who have been strictly trained have the same loading and firing speed as the current musket.

According to rumors, the Royal Institute of Science of the Ming Dynasty is already trying to develop and install rifles. If this rifle can be made, the loading speed of the musket that troubles the new army will be completely solved. However, Zhang Zhao cannot know when this weapon can be developed.

In addition to muskets, the army was also equipped with handheld fire thunders similar to ten thousand enemies. However, this kind of thing is not very effective in practical use. At the beginning, it was made of thin cast iron, but in nine out of ten times, it was either not blown or had no effect. Later, it was changed to a shell made of special ceramics, which could explode, but because the materials are not easy to transport and the power is not very good, it rarely used in the army, leaving only a moment as a reserve.

In addition to muskets, the biggest change is artillery. After the Ming Dynasty's smelting technology was improved, the New Army's artillery completely replaced the original artillery.

The new Franco cannon has become the basic equipment of each company. Each company has four to five Franco cannons as artillery support. In the first level of the regiment, in addition to the Franco cannon, there are twelve field cannons. According to the explanation of the person who sent the cannons, this kind of cannon is called a six-jin cannon. Because this kind of cannon has a fixed cannon car, it is easy to move, and the artillery fire is not small, so most new soldiers call this kind of cannon "Little Six". The twelve little six cannons line up, and the shells fired are enough to cover a large area and are the main firepower of the regiment level.

Among the artillery regiments directly under the New Army, in addition to Xiao Liuzi, there are twelve kilograms of cannons, which are powerful enough to attack the city. If they are loaded with flower bullets, the cannon will be even more earth-shaking. This cannon is actually the same as the famous Napoleon 12-pound cannon in later generations, and it is basically the same in terms of design and structure.

The twelve-jin cannons are called the Twelve Master in the New Army. From this, these three different types of cannons with caliber, Little Six, and Twelve Master. The entire artillery structure of the New Army, thus completely replacing the current situation of the wide variety of cannons in the Ming army and the chaotic caliber of the caliber.
Chapter completed!