Chapter 42

After Liu Jun punished the three team leaders by making an example of them, the effect was indeed very good. The three team leaders were each given twenty military lashes, which left their skin torn and their buttocks bruised, and they had to lie in bed for a full half month to recover.

During the half month they spent recovering, the more than a hundred men of the Nine-Headed Bird Cavalry did not dare to make any more trouble. They all obediently followed Liu Jun's training.

However, from the beginning, when the three-step training was a mess with all sorts of awkward postures and confusion between left and right, to the present day, they could finally follow Liu Jun's commands and the drum beats to complete neat formation drills. With Liu Jun's commands, they could stand at attention, march in step, walk in formation, and run forward, all with a proper appearance. During this period, they had also initially mastered the flag and drum signals, understood the meaning of various calls, and knew how to follow the flag commands.

This was much better than Liu Jun had expected. He originally planned to complete this training in a month, but they had already mastered the basics in just half a month.

After a formation drill ended, Liu Jun generously rewarded the three best-performing combat teams and the three best-performing individuals. The three best teams received rewards of two taels, one tael, and five mace of silver, respectively. The three best individuals also received the same rewards.

The shiny silver was distributed in public, and the teams and individuals whose names were called came forward to receive their rewards.

There were rewards, and there were also punishments. The three worst-performing teams and individuals were also punished. The punishments for the three worst teams were that each member was fined five mace of silver and had to clean the camp toilets for a month. The three worst individuals were each fined five mace of silver and had to clean the stables for a month.

Next, Liu Jun continued to have them train in steps and formations in the morning, but in the afternoon, he began a different training program.

Every morning, they started with a long run. There had been long runs before, but from now on, they were changed to weighted long runs. All the soldiers had to wear their ten-pound cotton armor, carry their weapons, and also carry a two-pound coconut shell filled with water, five pounds of dry rations, and a backpack with a tent, making the total weight forty pounds.

This weight was actually lower than the standard load for the Ming border troops, which was fifty pounds.

Carrying this full set of equipment for a long run was the first task every morning. At the beginning, Liu Jun set the task of running one mile with the load, requiring the formation to remain intact to be considered qualified. Then the formation would disband, and they would start individual runs of two miles. In the future, he planned to increase this, ultimately aiming to run ten miles without the formation breaking.

In the "Record of Military Training," hand strength, foot strength, and body strength were listed as the most basic training requirements. In the age of cold weapons, strength was an important basic condition. Without strength, how could one wield a large sword or draw a bow? Without strength, how could one carry weapons, food, and armor while advancing and pursuing the enemy? In this era, logistics support was often inadequate, and the enemy preferred to cut off supply lines, which meant that the army had to carry enough provisions and supplies. If there were not enough horses and vehicles, or if the roads were poor, the soldiers often had to bear the burden.

After the morning long run, the morning was for step and formation training, and the afternoon was for weapon practice.

Weapon practice was divided according to their positions in the team. The musketeers practiced with muskets and large swords, the archers practiced with bows and large swords, the hook gunners practiced with hook guns and rockets, the team leaders practiced with swords, spears, and arrows, and the artillerymen practiced with sticks and swords.

However, at the beginning, Liu Jun did not let them practice with real weapons but made a batch of wooden weapons for them to use. The archers received bows for strength training, repeatedly drawing the hard bows to build arm strength. The musketeers practiced various stances with their muskets, and Liu Jun even hung a brick from the muzzles of their guns with a rope.

In short, as Liu Jun had said to Li Chunjiang, they had to first become truly familiar with their weapons before starting real combat training.

In the evening, there was another training subject, which was horse riding. However, there were no real horses for them to practice on. Instead, several wooden horses were placed on the parade ground, and the local militia used these wooden horses to practice mounting and dismounting, as well as riding postures. Only after passing the wooden horse training would they be eligible to train on real warhorses.

After all, there were only 120 warhorses, and each person had only one. These precious horses could not be wasted; good steel must be used on the blade.

Among all the weapons, the musket was the hardest to master.

Compared to the bow, the musket was the easiest to start with. It did not require much skill, and an ordinary person could learn to fire it after just a couple of lessons. However, while the musket was easy to start with, it was the hardest to master.

Learning the bow was difficult, but with a certain amount of time, one could develop skills. Even in the countryside, there were many hunters who were already skilled with bows, even if their bows were just ordinary hunting bows. Given a better bow, they could quickly adapt and display their archery skills.

The musket, however, was different. It was easy to fire, but hitting the target was difficult. The musket was a relatively accurate firearm in the late Ming period. An excellent musketeer could hit a target at eighty paces, and even if the target was covered in two layers of wet blankets, a hit would result in serious injury or death.

However, mastering such an advanced firearm was very difficult. Most soldiers had a natural aversion to firearms. They feared the loud noise, the smoke, and the risk of the firearm exploding. Moreover, loading a musket involved over a dozen steps, which was quite complicated. In battle, many musketeers, when nervous, would make mistakes, either skipping a step or repeating an action.

Some would load multiple lead balls, some would forget to remove the ramrod, or use too much or too little gunpowder, leading to various problems.

This was largely due to the corruption of the court, which led to shoddy workmanship. A musket barrel that should have been able to fire hundreds of rounds would often only last a few dozen, or even just twenty or thirty, before becoming useless. Some barrels were too thin, and if loaded with the standard amount of gunpowder, they could easily explode.

Additionally, the lead balls and gunpowder were often substandard, making the musket unreliable. This was why the northern border troops preferred the older matchlock guns and three-barreled guns over the more advanced muskets.

Now, Liu Jun wanted his musketeers to overcome these fears. First, they had to become familiar with the musket, breaking down each step of loading and firing, and practicing them repeatedly until they were memorized. Then, they would practice with real muskets and live ammunition, so that they would no longer fear the musket.

Although the musket had various problems, such as complex loading and low accuracy, and was often unusable in rainy or windy weather, the tide of history was moving towards firearms replacing cold weapons.

An excellent archer and swordsman might need three to five years of training to master the long sword and bow, and even the simplest pikeman would need at least one to two years of training.

However, a musketeer, as long as the equipment was not faulty, did not need to be naturally strong or tall. Even women, as long as the musket and gunpowder were in good condition and they received proper training, could become proficient in about half a year. They might not become sharpshooters, but as long as they formed a line and fired in succession, they could achieve a more powerful effect than archers.

During this period, Liu Jun had been quietly training in the use of muskets.

After more than half a month of practice, with his original skills as a marksman, he had now initially mastered the ability to shoot firearms. After all, in modern times, he had served in the military for seven years and had fired countless rounds. Although he was now using primitive matchlock muskets, the principles were similar.

Liu Jun took a musket and walked up to the twenty-four musketeers, "Watch carefully, a well-trained musket is more powerful than a bow."

He brought a standard musket equipment set, which included a musket, a ramrod, two powder flasks (one for priming powder and one for loading powder), five matches, thirty powder tubes, and three hundred lead balls.

"Watch the sequence of my actions."

Liu Jun first poured an appropriate amount of granulated loading powder into the musket barrel, neither too much nor too little. Too much could cause an explosion, and too little would not propel the lead ball far enough. Therefore, the powder was pre-measured and loaded into the powder tubes. The thirty powder tubes in the musketeer's equipment were pre-measured, with each tube containing exactly enough powder for one shot.

This way, Liu Jun could simply take a tube and pour it into the barrel without worrying about the amount.

After pouring the powder, he used the ramrod to press the powder evenly into the barrel, then loaded a lead ball and used the ramrod to push it to the bottom of the barrel, ensuring a tight seal.

Next, he opened the flash pan cover, sprinkled the priming powder into the pan, and then closed the cover. He then lit the match and attached it to the lock, with the other end of the match wrapped around the musket.

After completing this series of actions, Liu Jun said, "Watch carefully, now open the flash pan cover, pull the trigger, and the lead ball will be fired."

A single match could be used for multiple shots without going out, but the explosion of the priming powder could cause the match to fall out of the lock, requiring it to be reloaded each time.

A skilled musketeer could complete the loading and firing process in about half a minute, while an ordinary musketeer would need at least a minute, and many musketeers in the Ming army would need two to three minutes to fire a single shot.

Moreover, using a musket on horseback was very difficult due to the strong recoil, and most musketeers would dismount to fire.

However, the musket had a much longer range than the three-barreled gun or the matchlock.

Liu Jun took a standing shooting position, aiming at a target eighty paces away, which was originally used for archery practice.

"Watch carefully!" Liu Jun shouted loudly.

Then he pulled the trigger.

There was a loud bang, and a cloud of smoke rose.

The lead ball shot out of the barrel and hit the target eighty paces away with a thud.

"It hit, it hit, it hit!"

Many sharp-eyed people saw the lead ball embedded in the target.

Liu Jun put away the musket, wiped the sweat from his brow, and thought to himself that it was fortunate he had not missed, or he would have lost face. Although he had practiced hard, even with this relatively accurate custom-made musket, his usual score was about eight out of ten hits. No matter how accurately he aimed, he would always miss one or two out of ten shots.

The crowd looked at Liu Jun with admiration, especially the twenty-four musketeers. Most of them were hunters with good archery skills, and they had been somewhat dissatisfied with being assigned as musketeers.

But after seeing Liu Jun hit the target at eighty paces with a musket, they suddenly realized how powerful the musket was. Although loading was slower, it did not require much effort. After shooting a dozen arrows, their arms would be tired, but with the musket, they could fire twenty or thirty shots without much effort.

"A well-trained musket is no worse than a bow. As long as you work hard, you can be just like me. I'll tell you, I didn't know how to use a musket a month ago, but after just half a month of practice, I can hit a target at a hundred paces. Today, I'll offer a reward: in a month, if anyone can hit five out of ten targets at eighty paces, they will receive five mace of silver. Six out of ten, six mace of silver. If you hit all ten, I'll give you two taels of silver. And every month, if you can hit five out of ten, you will receive a reward."

Hearing this, the musketeers were truly excited. Even hitting five out of ten would earn them five mace of silver, which was a significant amount. In the past, they might not have earned five mace of silver in a month at home.

However, this made the archers and hook gunners unhappy. Why should the musketeers get such good treatment?

"Don't be envious or jealous. I treat everyone equally. If the musketeers can hit five out of ten, the archers can do the same, and you will receive the same reward. Additionally, if the hook gunners can hit five out of ten while riding, they will also receive a reward."

Liu Jun's words immediately boosted the training enthusiasm of the local militia.

"Hmm, next, we can start letting them use real weapons for training." Liu Jun was very satisfied with the atmosphere.

Not far away, Li Chunjiang was observing the training field with Qian Gu, Mao Gui, and Wang Zhi, the three Li family retainers who had been recovering from their punishment.

He marveled, "You are all veterans who have fought in Liaodong. Tell me, in the Ming border towns, can a group of civilians be trained to this level in just half a month?"

Qian Gu looked at the enthusiastic atmosphere and the faintly visible killing intent, and shook his head with a bitter smile, "When we were in Liaodong, we often recruited new soldiers. But it took at least half a year of training for new recruits to reach this level. This Liu Jiyeh, despite his young age and being just a minor martial scholar, has this kind of ability. We underestimated him."

Li Chunjiang smiled, "So don't always be at odds with Jiyeh. The capable are the teachers. You are at most a group of tough soldiers, but he is a capable commander. Learn from him. I always thought he was not ordinary, and it turns out I found a gem. With Liu Jiyeh training this cavalry, in no more than three months, we can take them out to fight the bandits."

"Master, you are a precious scholar, why bother with mere bandits?"

"One of my friends once said, 'The rise and fall of the nation is the responsibility of every citizen.' Do you understand? Even if I cannot protect the country, I must protect my hometown. Otherwise, what good is all the Confucian learning I have studied? Qian Gu, Mao Gui, Wang Zhi, from today, you will return to serve as my retainers, and I will appoint others to be the team leaders of the left banner."

The three nodded dejectedly, "Yes."

"Pack your things now and come with me."

"Where are we going?"

Li Chunjiang replied, "The night scouts have found some traces of the bandits. We are going to dig them out."

"What about here?"

"Jiyeh is here, and I trust him. But since he has trained the soldiers so well, we can't just be spectators. This time, we will go and eliminate the bandits. We have received benefits from the local gentry, so we must do something in return, right?" Li Chunjiang, seeing Liu Jun's enthusiastic training, felt a bit envious that he could not help much. He was eager to capture the bandits to show Liu Jiyeh that he, Li Chunjiang, was not just a wealthy scholar.