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Chapter 1011 Fire

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    When the morning light brings thousands of ripples to the black water ocean, the voyage of the shipping fleet enters the early morning of the third day.

    The neatly dressed commander and soldiers walked up to the poop of the ship with goose steps, then solemnly picked up the suona hanging on their chests and played the wake-up song "Mulan joins the army".

    The use of suona for military orders is not a poor imitation of the People's Liberation Army bugle by Mr. Zhao, but a method of delivering orders that has always been used by the Qi family's army.  Qi Jiguang's "Ji Xiao Xin Shu Wu Bei Zhi" says, "Anyone who plays the flute is playing the suona."  ¡¯

    The high-pitched and brisk suona sound soon spread to every corner of the Wuwei boat.

    Hearing the wake-up horn, Chu Liuxiang reflexively opened his eyes and turned over from the hammock.

    The recruits in the artillery crew got up early and prepared wet cotton towels for him to wipe his face.

    Chu Liuxiang took the cotton towel and wiped his face vigorously, dispelling the remaining sleepiness.  The recruit handed him his blue turban, black waist-length armor, double-breasted blue linen jacket, and linen shorts of the same color, and helped him dress them up one by one.

    This is also the uniform attire of the security team members. The only difference is that there are two eye-catching red stripes embroidered on the front collar of his cotton armor.

    Because he has now been promoted to the gun crew chief of the flagship's bow battery and promoted to a second-class police officer.

    The other gunners who have been in the army for more than one year have a red stripe embroidered on their collars.  The collar of the new recruit who had just joined the security team was empty.

    According to the "Security Personnel Rank Regulations" promulgated by Jiangnan Security Group, those who join the security team are reserve police officers in the first year. After one year and passing the assessment, they can be promoted to third-level police officers.  Only after three years and passing the examination can one be promoted to the second level police officer.

    The security brigade has only been established for a year, and even the earliest security guards to join are not qualified to be promoted to second-level police officers.  Chu Liuxiang was able to embroider two bars. Naturally, it was because of the accurate shot on the maiden voyage that he was promoted to one level.

    Don¡¯t underestimate this level, the security team is very hierarchical.  Normally, when subordinates meet their superiors, they should take the initiative to salute and give way and use honorifics.  Moreover, the income at each level has increased significantly.  The reserve police officer can receive 2 taels of silver in monthly allowance plus overseas allowance.  The salary of a third-level police officer is raised to 5 taels a month.  And a second-level police officer like Chu Liuxiang can even get 8 taels!

    A skilled worker in Suzhou City earns only one to two to five cents per month.  Coast Guard members receive extremely high salaries.  Even without the overseas subsidy, Chu Liuxiang could get 4 taels of silver a month, which was still a super high salary.

    Of course, this high salary is not easy to get. It is the result of them enduring Tong Zigong's perverted torture and persisting under Wang Rulong's strict military regulations day after day.  In the end, only half of his brothers who joined the training brigade at the same time were able to board the ship, and the rest were sent ashore to stand guard.

    Chu Liuxiang knew that the brothers on the ship were all envious of his superiority. While he proudly straightened out his police rank strip, he recalled the past with great emotion.  ¡®How can I, a farmer from Yimeng Mountain who doesn¡¯t have enough to eat, be so accurate in shooting?  ¡¯

    In the midst of the stinking, suddenly there was another shrill sound of gongs on the ship!

    Chu Liuxiang was stunned for a moment, and immediately his blood started to surge upwards. He hurriedly shouted to his subordinates who were sorting out the housework: "Hurry up and get up to the gun emplacement!"

    That¡¯s a warning signal for encountering an enemy!

    Although most of the time it is a practice, no one dares to neglect it at all.  Otherwise, in addition to being scolded by the captain, you will also have to wash the deck and clean the toilets of the entire ship. In serious cases, you may even get a demerit.

    Recording a demerit is terrible. If you record a demerit once, your promotion will be ruined. If you record a demerit twice, you will be demoted. If you record a demerit three times, you will be kicked off the ship!

    ??~~

    Chu Liuxiang led the gunners out of the cabin and climbed onto the bow deck.  The gunners untied the fixing ropes and lifted the rainproof felt, revealing four gun carriages.

    The loader and powder man lifted up the wooden floor next to the gun carriage to reveal the built-in shell bay.  Then he lifted the gunpowder barrel out of the cabin, untied the rainproof cloth, and then the gunpowder man took a quantitative wooden spoon to load the propellant, filled the hand-filled pig iron solid bullet, and inserted the fuse.

    After the gunpowder officer covered the gunpowder barrel and raised his thumb, the assistant gunner lit the torch. The four main gunners, including Chu Liuxiang, held the match rope and waited for the firing order.

    From the time they heard the gong to the time they were ready to launch, it only took three minutes.  All the movements flowed smoothly and seamlessly together, all due to the physical memory left by their practice day after day.

    The order to fire didn't come out for a long time, and Chu Liuxiang only bothered to look around to see what the situation was now.

    He has the best view from the bow of the ship, and he can see everything at a glance.

    I saw the navigator standing outside the wheelhouse door on the stern of the ship, blowing his whistle rhythmically, and instructing the sailors to pull the cable of the wild fox sail at the stern to help the 30-meter-long ship steer.  Turn the rudder at three o'clock.?.  "

    "Yeah." The gunners who were about to light the matchlock stopped.

    The Coast Guard still followed the Ming army¡¯s traditional water warfare thinking and concentrated its main firepower on the wide bow.

    Chu Liuxiang and his gunners operated a total of four artillery pieces.  The four guns are similar in style, with a slender barrel and a slightly thicker tail.  The two middle doors are larger, with a length of 1.7 meters and a weight of 1,000 kilograms.  The gun body has three gun hoops, the muzzle has a sight, the gun lugs are located in front of the third gun hoop, and the fire door is equipped with a medicine pool and a fire door cover.

    A large iron ring is cast at the end of the gun tail, and a thick cable is passed through the large iron ring to fix the gun carriage on the deck to offset the recoil when firing.  It can also facilitate soldiers to quickly pull the cannon out of the shelling position and drag it back, whether loading ammunition or cleaning the barrel, without delaying the battle.

    The mainstream naval guns in Europe at this time were roughly like this.  Although other people's cannons are all made of bronze, these knockoffs made in Foshan are all made of iron.  However, the barrel of the gun is made of wrought iron, and an iron hoop is added to the outside, which greatly reduces the risk of explosion.  It can be said that apart from being bulky, there is no big problem.

    Of course the bulkiness is the biggest drawback.  The two long bronze snake cannons on the side, although they look more delicate, are actually only a little smaller in caliber, their range and power are not much inferior, and they almost never explode.

    There is no way, the bronze cannons of this era are simply better than the iron cannons.

    Chu Liuxiang always maintained a range-finding posture. When the distance between the two sides reached 1.2 kilometers, he sternly said: "Get ready to shoot!"

    The gunners lit the matches.

    "Launch!" Chu Liuxiang ordered without hesitation.

    The match rope lit the fuse, and with a roar, four cannonballs roared out!  (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com
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