Chapter 151 Muskets and Spears

Finally, the people of Veneta and the United Provinces also experienced what it means to have someone above them make things easier.

When they arrived at the legion's arsenal, Winters didn't need to waste any words. The arsenal quickly agreed to replace the weapons and equipment of the Jessica Brigade.

The hook gun was replaced with a brand new matchlock gun and steel crossbow, and the sword, shield and super long lance were replaced with ordinary spears and halberds - Lieutenant Colonel Jessica believed that the militiamen were not qualified to be sword and shield wielders due to their training level.

According to the Lieutenant Colonel's request, the number of militiamen using shooting weapons was increased to half of the total number.

There are now three musketeers and two crossbowmen in each centurion.

With a stroke of his pen, the Chief of Ordnance approved twenty dozen half-armourers, so Winters had an additional group of armored halberdiers under his command.

Previously, the arsenal only issued one kilogram of lead to each musketeer, which could be melted into more than thirty lead bullets, not counting the fire consumption.

Although there was not much shooting training in the standing army, the three second lieutenants did not dare to use the pitiful reserves of more than thirty rounds of lead bullets per person and a total of six barrels of gunpowder.

The only shooting training Winters' musketeers had ever had so far was to take turns firing random shots into the open.

The idea was to familiarize these militiamen, who until recently were farmers, with the sound and light of gunfire so that they would not be frightened when actual shots were fired.

But this time, the legion arsenal sent 600 kilograms of lead and 60 barrels of gunpowder to the Jashka Brigade in one go, with the intention of asking you to come back for more if they use them all.

The boys cheered as they received new equipment. Dussac, in particular, strives to be a halberdier and a musketeer.

But Winters felt vaguely worried.

Pierre was originally assigned as a sword and shield soldier, but now the Jessica Brigade no longer retains sword and shield soldiers. Little Mr. Mitchell did not want to be a spearman, so he came to Winters and begged Winters to let him play with muskets.

"What's the matter? Sir." Pierre approached the centurion excitedly, but found that the other man's brows were furrowed and his expression was serious: "There are new guns, new armor, and enough lead tubes for gunpowder. Why do I feel that you are unhappy?"

"Do farmers feed oats to pigs to make them happy?" Winters asked coldly: "Besides, why are you happy? Don't you still owe ten lashes?"

…

According to the captain's order, the punishment was carried out before dark.

The new weapons had just been moved from the armory back to the camp, and the whipping immediately followed.

In the Plato army, the whipping method was not ordinary riding whips or hemp ropes, but soft whips made of leather strips and nearly two meters long.

The torture instrument whip must be soaked in vinegar before use to ensure that every whipping will make the victim miserable.

There are four grape-sized lead balls tied to the tip of the whip to increase the power of the whip.

In the hands of an experienced military policeman, a whip can tear a person's flesh to pieces with one whip, beat a person to death with ten whips, and beat a person to death with thirty whips.

The militiamen of the three towns once again gathered in the small school field to watch the execution.

Second Lieutenant Montagne walked into the school grounds carrying a whip. Vashika, who had been acting as a tough guy before and comforted Pierre, "What's the point of whipping?" suddenly found that his knees were shaking involuntarily.

The punishments in the military camp were simple, manual labor, riding a wooden horse - marching with a musket tied to each leg, whipping, and hanging.

Holding the whip in his hand, Winters felt a little uncomfortable.

This instrument of torture was given to Winters on the first day he arrived at the Maplestone City camp, but he never touched it.

In fact, Winters's most severe punishment for the sons he brought out from Wolf Town was only manual labor.

"Come first from the captain of ten!" Winters gritted his teeth and began to call the names with a stern face: "Vashka Morozov!"

A pale-faced Vashika walked out of the queue.

"Tie him up!"

The two gendarmes of Montagne's Centurion, Charles and Heinrich, were ordered to take action.

They took Vashika to the cart, made him kneel in front of the wheel, and tied his hands tightly to the carriage with hemp rope.

Charles patted Wasika's shoulder sympathetically and silently. Heinrich took a towel and let Wasika bite it. The two gendarmes then turned and walked away.

Now only Vashika is left.

In front of him was only the dirt-stained car board, and behind him was the whip that would come at some point and the eyes of other people.

Great humiliation and fear consumed him.

The sound of breaking the air fell on him before the whip, followed by a sharp pain that penetrated into the bone marrow. Vashika's breathing stopped suddenly, and before he could recover, the second whip came again.

The two-meter-long whip was very strenuous to use. Winters gritted his teeth and whipped the whip one after another without sparing any strength.

He now finally understood why Colonel One-Eyed wanted him to carry out the execution himself - Jessica not only wanted to whip the Wolf Town militia, but also whipped the Wolf Town Centurion.

The lieutenant colonel was telling him: "Watch carefully, these are the soldiers you lead."

The whip struck Vashika not only on his body but also on his face. Isn't it ultimately the responsibility of the militia's lack of discipline and lack of restraint?

For the first three whips, Vashika could still hold back his voice.

With the fourth whip, Vashika began to scream inhumanly.

The seventh whipping began, and the screams gradually became fainter. In the end, the only sound that could be heard in the school field was the whip tip hitting the back.

After fifteen lashes, the bloody and unconscious Vashika was carried out of the school grounds by Charles and Heinrich.

"This is military law! It doesn't matter if you are a militiaman or a soldier!" Winters gripped the whip stick tightly and roared at the school grounds: "Leaving the camp without permission will result in whipping! Stealing, cowardice, and death by hanging! Defection, and all relatives will be punished!"

There was silence in the queue.

"Next!"

Another militiaman who left the camp without permission was tied to the rack, and the frightening sound of whipping sounded again.

And Lieutenant Colonel Jessica wasn't even present. After twelve years of overseas deployment, he had too many people to meet.

While Second Lieutenant Montagne was wielding the whip vigorously, the Lieutenant Colonel was having a drink with his classmates and friends.

…

…

The second day after the caning.

The sun is shining brightly and the weather is slightly cool.

On the playground outside Shuangqiao Camp, the sound of musket volleys could be heard from time to time.

Sparks were everywhere and smoke filled the air.

Winters shouted an order: "Put up the stand!"

The musketeer who had just fired quickly pulled the wooden fork out of the ground. The fork is a wooden stick sharpened at both ends, with an iron hook at one end for holding the gun shaft.

"Gun on shoulder!"

Upon hearing the order, the musketeers hurriedly raised their guns to their shoulders.

When a militiaman retracted his gun, he accidentally pointed it sideways at the person next to him. The supervising sergeant behind him rushed over and gave him a hard blow.

"Never point your gun at anyone else! Except for the enemy!" Winters caught a glimpse of the movement over there and shouted: "Before checking, you will never know whether the lead in the barrel of the gun was fired or not!

The militiamen raised their muskets and dared not move.

"Put down the gun! Check the chamber!" Winters continued to order.

The musketeers put the butts of their rifles on the ground, pulled out the purge bars, and carefully stabbed them into the barrels.

"Sir!" A militiaman reported with a sad face: "My pipe is not inserted in place, it seems to have misfired."

Misfiring is a common situation for muskets. The powder pool outside the barrel is obviously flying with sparks, but the propellant inside the barrel is not ignited.

There are always musketeers who are too nervous to notice a misfire. They would insert new gunpowder and lead bullets above the first lead bullet.

Someone once picked up a musket on the Vicksburg battlefield with seven unfired lead bullets stuffed in the barrel.

Repeated reloading may result in continued misfire, or in severe cases, the chamber may explode directly.

Therefore, there is a mark on the musketeer's purge. If the mark is on the muzzle when the purge is inserted into the deepest part of the barrel, it proves that the lead has been shot out.

If the mark is more than a finger's width away from the muzzle, the musketeer is in trouble.

Winters walked up to the mournful militiaman and took the musket: "Why worry about the misfire? Just reload and shoot."

He poured gunpowder into the medicine pool, closed the pool cover, and reattached the matchlock to the musket - the impact of the burning medicine pool would cause the matchstick to fly away or even blow out, which was also the troublesome part of using a matchlock gun.

Then, he opened the pool cover again and pressed the firing rod. The tip of the dark red match rope ignited the medicine pool, and was instantly blown away from the rope clamp by the air wave.

This time, the propellant in the gun chamber was successfully ignited, and a small cloud of smoke was stirred up on the mound in the distance.

"Okay." Winters threw the musket back to the militiamen and shouted a new order: "Clean the chamber!"

The musketeers took out a piece of rag, rolled it on the purge bar, and began to wipe the barrel of the gun.

In actual combat, you don't need to wipe the barrel every time you fire, but now it's training, so of course you have to do the full set.

Looking at the busy militiamen, Winters sighed secretly.

In the infantry drill code revised six years ago, there were twenty-five steps in the matchlock shooting process, which were carefully broken down into forty-two movements.

The complete shooting process is far more complicated than "loading and firing".

And the longest passage that these militiamen in front of them have memorized in their lives... is probably the Lord's Prayer.

Just not letting them set him on fire was already a headache for Lieutenant Montagne.

But you can't blame them. Two months ago they were just hardworking farmers, and two days ago many of them had never even touched a musket.

They were not volunteers in the first place, they were just the unlucky ones chosen by lot.

Winters waved his hand: "Next group!"

Another group of militiamen came forward carrying muskets. Rows of wooden vials were hung on their chests, containing gunpowder that had been weighed in advance.

Thank God, Marshal Ned proposed the concept of "standard charge" thirty years ago and invented the epoch-making ammunition bottle.

Otherwise, just by teaching the militiamen how much gunpowder to pour each time they reload, Second Lieutenant Montagne would be pissed off.

"I guess the old marshal was forced to invent the ammunition bottle back then, right?" Winters couldn't help but think.

Compared with Winters who was exhausted at the shooting range, Andre and Bud, who were responsible for training the spearmen, were much more comfortable.

The spearmen only practiced simple formation changes on the playground, then practiced column marching and turning, and finally practiced stabbing wooden stakes.

Because the five-and-a-half-meter super long gun was replaced by a two-and-a-half-meter spear, the militiamen were much more relaxed.

Super long guns are too long and require special carrying gear, making movement a bit inconvenient.

The spear is very simple, just carry it on your shoulder.

However, the weight is not much lighter than that of a super long gun, because an iron sleeve is added behind the gun head to prevent the enemy from cutting off the barrel.

The most troublesome thing for Bud and Andre was to teach the militiamen to distinguish between left and right and correct their mistakes in marching.

After two days, the spearman became more and more impressive and looked very energetic.

On the other hand, things are constantly going on at Winters, and anything can go wrong.

Some people even forgot to pull out the purge rod after reloading, and finally the purge rod and the lead were blown away.

Fortunately, no barrels have exploded so far, otherwise the militiamen would only be more afraid of the muskets in their hands.

The newly arrived militiamen held their muskets cringingly, their heads wanting to be thrown back.

Winters was so angry that he picked up the riding crop and whipped him fiercely. He yelled: "Put your chin on the butt of the gun! Aim carefully before shooting! Point the muzzle at the target! Don't close your eyes and press the firing rod!"

The process of firing projectiles from a musket is still essentially an explosion, so naturally the farther away the better.

Holding an iron pipe that might explode at some point in their hands, few militiamen dared to place their chins on the butts of their guns and take aim carefully.

In fact, most people are much more accurate when shooting with a musket than with a bow. The reason is similar to how a crossbow is more accurate than a bow.

When shooting an arrow, one has to exert force, the arms will shake, and the more you shoot, the more tired you will be. Only a few expert archers can point where to shoot.

However, compared to the accuracy error of the musket itself, there are more cases where gunmen are afraid to aim and fire randomly, resulting in missed shots.

"Not bad." Lieutenant Colonel Jessica looked at the shooting range for a while and said, "The ones coming out of the Lu Academy are better and more serious than the wild men I have overseas."

After hearing this, Winters didn't know whether the Lieutenant Colonel was scolding him or praising him.

"Sir." Winters suggested in desperation: "How about changing the gun but not the person? Let the person who dares shoot shoot, and the others are responsible for loading."

"No." Lieutenant Colonel Jessica shook his head: "If you don't shoot by yourself, you won't be serious about loading, and it will be prone to accidents. And changing guns without changing people means that the soldiers who dare to shoot will bear the greatest risk. The brave soldiers have been killed or blown up, but what about the remaining soldiers who dare not shoot? We still have to make all soldiers dare to shoot."

Winters was speechless for a moment.

The one-eyed colonel said lukewarmly: "Keep training, don't be impatient. You are good at training, better than the two of you at the same time."

After saying that, he turned around and walked towards the other two lieutenants.

Although Lieutenant Colonel Jessica lost one eye, it did not hinder his vicious gaze.

On the surface, Bud and Andre appear to have produced far more than Winters.

The uniform formation of the spearmen looked majestic, but the situation on the Musketeers' side was still constant.

But in fact, there are all showpieces there, and training a spearman is much more difficult than training a musketeer.

A qualified spearman requires not only physical strength and skills, but most importantly, tenacity and strong nerves.

When the enemy charges, the spearman must dare not to run away before he can talk about fighting.

Training a sword-and-shielder is more difficult than training a spearman.

After all, long weapons also have a distance advantage, and sword and shield players actually need to fight hand-to-hand.

Those who can serve as sword and shield bearers are elites who dare to fight. This is why Lieutenant Colonel Jessica simply asked the militiamen to use spears.

Standing at a distance and shooting at the enemy with a musket or crossbow is far simpler and easier than using cold weapons to kill people at close range - both physically and psychologically.

Training continues in full swing.

"Practice hard!" Winters scolded with some sadness: "The less sweat you shed by being lazy today will be the more blood you will shed in the future!"

He was silently asking himself: Do farmers feed oats to pigs to make them happy?

The car formation is gone, but there is still the classic combination of muskets and spears, and Mr. John Jessica is not at a loss.

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