Chapter 400 Firearms Unit

"Ready, fire"

Rows of artillery fired shells at the target, and as the smoke cleared, a deep pit was hit in the target area.

"Good, very good"

On the outskirts of Adrian, an army was trying out the new artillery made in the artillery factory. This artillery is different from the previous one. The current artillery is smaller than the previous one, and it fires iron bullets.

The empire's demand for artillery is getting higher and higher. The navy needs it, the castle needs it, and the army needs it. And it also needs better quality, which makes the empire invest more and more in artillery.

Mircea also learned the lessons of the rebellion of the Guards from history, and selected people from remote areas such as Armenians and Ruthenians to form the Guards Corps. The small force formed before only retained a 3,500-man regiment to stay with the emperor, named the Basarab Corps. The other troops have been reorganized into the national army.

Peter's private army was also integrated into the country through foreign wars, but it was only most of it. There was also an army of 25,000 people that Peter tried to transform into a new firearms army.

When the Grand Phalanx reform was first carried out, most long-range weapons were bows and crossbows, but now they have been replaced with matchlocks. The power has been greatly improved, but it is still a little difficult to operate, and a large amount of gunpowder, matchlocks and lead blocks must be prepared. And the weather must be good, otherwise the matchlocks cannot be lit.

In this army, every two people have a matchlock, and there are nearly 150 cannons. In addition, the operators of cannons have been separated into independent branches of the military, and the various branches of the military cooperate with each other, and there are also a group of officers responsible for conveying orders and arranging battle formations.

Although Rome has begun to use firearms on a large scale, due to the stability and limitations of firearms now, coupled with the serious shortage of production, many armies now have only a few large-scale firearms units in addition to artillery.

For this unit, Peter spent a lot of money. To put it bluntly, the arming and training of this unit was almost piled up with silver, and the cost was several times the cost of ordinary troops. There were complaints in the army about this, but with the forced implementation of the prince and the support of the emperor, this unit still exists.

"Your Highness, the cost of this army is just too high. The daily firearms training costs hundreds of silver dollars. If you add the military pay, equipment loss and other expenses, it is really terrifying in a year. Others think it is better to train more combat armies."

"Yes, but this is the secret of our victory over the Ottomans. We can't stop the production of muskets and artillery. We must continue to produce them no matter how much money it costs."

In addition to muskets, the army is also equipped with hand-held fire mines, but this kind of thing is not very effective in practice. At first, the shell was made of thin iron, but eight or nine times out of ten, it either didn't explode or exploded without effect. Later, it was changed to a ceramic shell, which could explode this time, but because the material is not easy to transport and the power is not very good, it is rarely used in the army, and only kept for a while as a reserve.

At the same time, land mines and canned flames are equipped. Peter learned about a kind of thunder bomb from Eastern books. This weapon can be buried in the narrow road section. When the enemy approaches, it is detonated with a slow-burning fuse to kill the enemy. Therefore, it is also introduced in large quantities.

In addition to the extremely high firearms, the training of the entire army is different from other troops. Let's not talk about other things first. Just talking about daily training, the imperial army generally exercises once every three days, that is, about ten times a month. Some elite troops will increase it once, reaching eleven to twelve times. This training intensity is already very strong now. Even the Eight Banners, which were called elite by the Qing Dynasty in later generations, only trained six times a month, and it was not fully guaranteed.

In Peter's army, the mode of one exercise per day was implemented, with one day off every ten days. The intensity of training can be said to be unprecedented.

Of course, for such a strong training, the logistics and treatment of the new army are incomparable to those of ordinary regular troops. Not only are the logistics food and meat supplies complete, but even the military pay is more than 30% higher than that of ordinary troops. In addition, those who have outstanding performance in training will be rewarded. These rewards are not only honors, but also real benefits, such as gold coins and even promotions. It is precisely because of these reasons that although the training is hard, no soldier who joins the army is willing to leave.

Such elite troops cannot be trained only, but also need to be tempered on the battlefield. They can be sent to fight any war in the future, and see what the results of the training in the past few years are.

What people are most concerned about now is the war between Poland and Teutonic. The two countries are fighting and stopping. Now there is no sign of the war, but Poland has a richer foundation than Teutonic. The Knights can only fight a blitzkrieg. Once they fall into a war of attrition, they will lose their original strength. Now the war must be ended, so the two countries have started secret negotiations since last year.

Poland's conditions are very harsh. The Knights need to return Samogitia and allow merchants from the kingdom to enter Gdansk for free trade. They also need to pay 850,000 pounds to the two countries, which is 15 years of income for the UK.

Teutonic will not agree to such conditions, and the negotiations between the two sides broke down.

Since you can't beat them, then call for help. Rome doesn't work, then Moscow can. Lithuania occupies a lot of land in Russia, and Teutonic can give half of Lithuania's land to the other side. Such temptation will definitely make the other side take the bait.

The reason why the Teutonic Knights were able to kill so many people was that their combat power was several levels higher than that of their neighbors. They were either small earls or small lords, or indigenous people. Although there were several uprisings, they were all suppressed.

Now their fighting power is gradually decreasing due to the erosion of wealth, and local commercial trade has made every knight rich. With money, they don't have to go to the front line to fight and kill, they can just hire people to go.

Although Poland is a mess of centralization, the local development is quite fast. Abundant national strength plus wise monarchs are the basis for fighting against Teutonic, and there are two of them.

Vytautas has entered Samogitia to join the local uprising army, and the local rule has been restored. This cuts off the land connection between Teutonic and Livonia, and the soldiers of Livonia can only rely on sea transportation. This is bad news for Teutonic.

The envoys sent to Moscow in batches, but still no results. The head of the group had no choice but to continue sending people and ask for the support of the Pope. The knights two years ago were either not on the battlefield or went home. It can be said that they are already alone, with only the support of the King of Bohemia left, but what's the use?