When we left Wenyuan Pavilion, night had already fallen.
The shouting and screaming outside the city also stopped, and the entire capital fell into a brief silence.
After eating the dinner sent by Empress Zhou in the Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen lay on the warm couch and rested for a while.
After a moment, he ordered, "Wang Chengen, ask Pang Zijin of the Yongwei Battalion to bring 200 Yongwei Battalion soldiers to see me. Oh, and tell the Military Equipment Supervisor to find 100 sets of dark armor and cotton armor. I can use them."
Wang Chengen didn't understand why, but he did everything he was told.
By the time the Yongwei Battalion Lieutenant General Pang Zijin arrived, the Armory had already delivered the armor.
"Your Majesty, I, Pang Zijin, pay my respects to you!" Pang Zijin knelt on one knee.
"Please stand up."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Pang Zijin stood up and looked at the armors scattered on the ground in front of him, wondering: What does Your Majesty need so much armor for?
The Yongwei Battalion had no shortage of armor; not only that, they even had surplus.
This is the privilege of the emperor’s personal army!
Looking at the armor on the ground, Pang Zijin couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, the Brave Guard Battalion has no shortage of armor. I wonder what your Majesty is looking for so many armors for?"
Chongzhen ignored this and said, "Last night, you and the Jinyiwei wiped out the bandits and spies for your meritorious service. Each of you will be rewarded with ten taels of silver."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Pang Zijin immediately knelt down excitedly to express his gratitude to the emperor.
He and his brothers are really jealous when they see others making money!
You get money for defending the city, you get money for being injured, and you get even more money for dying in battle!
It’s a lie to say you’re not afraid of death.
But when they saw the officers from the Ministry of War wearing flying fish uniforms and holding a tray with a few silver ingots placed under a red cloth on the tray, they hammered the silver home.
What a strong sense of honor!
"Go and stack the hidden armor and cotton armor together and put them on the wooden stake in the distance. Then stack two sets of hidden armor together and put them on another wooden stake." Chongzhen began to make arrangements.
Pang Zijin did not dare to delay and personally picked up four sets of armor on the ground. Together with several soldiers from the Yongwei Camp, he put them on the wooden dummies.
"Bring the bow!" As Chongzhen spoke, an imperial aura emanated from his body.
Chongzhen was an emperor who was both civil and military, with brilliant literary talent, elegant calligraphy, and the ability to draw a three-stone bow. Of course, the bow here is a power bow, which is different from the bow commonly used by the Ming army.
There are two types of bows commonly used by the Ming army. One is the large bow (Kaiyuan bow) commonly used by border troops. Its purpose is to break armor and kill people. It has a heavier bow arm and a thicker bow arm. The other is the small bow, which has a relatively small and thin bow arm.
The most commonly used combination of the Ming army was a soft bow with long arrows (a bow with strong bow power is commonly known as a hard bow, and a bow with weak bow power is commonly known as a soft bow). Different arrows were used according to the enemy's armor.
"Armor-piercing arrows!" Chongzhen continued to order.
Wang Chengen hurried back to the Qianqing Palace, took out the Kaiyuan bow that Chongzhen often used, and brought out the quiver full of arrows.
Chongzhen drew his bow and aimed, then shot out an armor-piercing arrow, which directly hit the wooden dummy on the left. He then drew out another armor-piercing arrow and shot it at the wooden dummy on the right.
"Go and have a look. How many layers of armor has been penetrated?"
Wang Chengen was in front, and Pang Zijin and a few of his subordinates followed behind. They all came to the wooden dummy to check the results of the battle.
"Your Majesty, the cotton armor on the left dummy has been pierced, but the hidden armor inside is fine! Both layers of hidden armor on the right dummy are fine." A moment later, Wang Chengen came back to report.
"Pang Zijin, what do you think?" Chongzhen asked.
"Your Majesty, it's not that the bows are ineffective, it's that the armor is heavy. I have fought in the Northwest Frontier Army. The tactics of our cavalry are the same as those of the Mongolian cavalry and even the Liaodong Jianzhou Jurchen cavalry. We use long bows and huge arrows, and shoot at people from close range. We don't shoot at armor, but at the face!"
"We privately call this archery method face-to-face arrows! Because no matter how much armor there is, it will not be covered on the face. But I heard that some people in the Jiannu area use cotton armor to cover their faces, leaving only their eyes exposed. I don't know if it's true or not."
Chongzhen nodded and admired Pang Zijin's experience.
However, he did not want to say anything more, but continued to order: "Change the bird gun."
A moment later, two young eunuchs took out two bird guns from the palace. These were masterpieces of the Military Equipment Bureau, treasures for the emperor's personal use, and were countless times better than those crudely made gadgets from the Ministry of Works.
After loading the gunpowder, loading the bullets and lighting the fuse, Pang Zijin pulled the trigger.
Two bangs.
The bird gun hit the wooden dummies on the left and right successively.
"Go and take a look. How many layers of armor has been penetrated?"
Wang Chengen and several other background characters quickly ran to the wooden dummy and examined it carefully.
"Your Majesty, the cotton armor and hidden armor on the left were penetrated, but the wooden dummy was not seriously damaged."
"One layer of the double-layer dark armor on the right was shot through, but the other layer was not penetrated."
"I understand. Come back and try the pistol now!"
Then, the young eunuch took out two pistols and pulled the trigger again at the wooden dummy.
With two loud bangs, bullets from the pistols rained out like an overwhelming force.
After Wang Chengen checked, he shouted, "Your Majesty, the hand gun only shot through the cotton armor, the hidden armor cannot be damaged."
"Try the musket, use the hundred-bullet rapid-fire bullets!"
This time, it was not the little eunuchs who were dispatched, because they were not qualified to touch this thing. The only ones who could use muskets in the palace were the emperor's personal soldiers: the Yongwei Battalion!
Several soldiers from the Yongwei Battalion came in carrying a musket. After seeing this thing, the Yongwei Battalion Lieutenant General Pang Zijin showed an imperceptible smile.
In his eyes, the musket would definitely blow the wooden dummy into pieces.
At the very least, it can penetrate the armor and cause a notch-like wound on the wooden dummy.
“Come, put the muskets at the main entrance of the hall, aim at the Qianqing Gate, and put the two wooden dummies in front of the Qianqing Gate!” Chongzhen calculated that the muskets were now less than thirty meters away from the dummies, a distance that was inconsistent with actual combat.
The palace gate of the Qianqing Palace and the Qianqing Gate are about ninety meters apart, and opening fire at this distance is more suitable for actual combat.
After being ready, the soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion lowered the muzzles of their guns as much as possible to prevent stray bullets from injuring people.
With a loud bang, the entire Qianqing Palace shook in the thick smoke.
When the smoke cleared, the Qianqing Gate changed its appearance.
The originally magnificent and solemn palace gate was riddled with holes from lead bullets, and even the surrounding wall bricks were covered with lead bullets.
Wang Chengen twisted his buttocks, which had not yet healed, and ran over. After a moment, his voice trembled a little, "Your Majesty, the dark armor and cotton armor on the left were shot through. Although the two layers of dark armor on the right were also shot through, the marks left on the wooden stake are very shallow."
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