Chapter 50: Testing the Firearm

"How is the literacy progress of the three battalions?" Liu Heng asked, looking at Zhao Yutu.

Ming Dynasty military officers were rarely literate; most were illiterate roughnecks who even had their memorial memorials ghostwritten. Liu Heng had no desire for his own troops to follow the Ming model, where civil officials were revered and military officers despised, with military commanders only expected to charge into battle while everything else was left to the literati.

Future warfare relied on troop quality, overall discipline, coordination among arms, and logistical economics. The demands were becoming increasingly high, making it rare for a single military commander to charge forward and take an enemy general's head from among tens of thousands of troops.

Liu Heng did not want the leaders he appointed to be illiterate hotheads who only knew how to blindly charge into battle. He dared not make heavy use of such men; war was not a simple fistfight where brute strength was all that mattered.

Had conditions permitted and the need not been so immediate, Liu Heng would have liked to establish a General Staff Department. Two heads are better than one, and a dedicated team could be used for tactical simulations and plugging gaps. No matter how brilliant a commander was, it was impossible to consider every single aspect of a battle.

Sitting in his seat, Zhao Yutu shifted slightly and said, "Not many people are willing to learn characters; most of them don't take literacy seriously at all. In my opinion, it might be better to let those who actually want to learn come to me for lessons, and just leave the reluctant ones alone."

"No," Liu Heng said sternly. "Tell them that many deputy positions in the three battalions have yet to be finalized. Those who learn the most characters will be given priority for promotions. Those who refuse to learn will not be promoted, and even some currently holding positions may face demotion if they refuse to learn."

"Won't the punishment be too harsh?" Zhao Yutu asked with concern.

Liu Heng replied, "Do as I say. They are given a chance to learn yet they still pick and choose—if they refuse to learn, they can all go do kitchen duty in logistics."

At this, Li Shuheng smiled and said, "Logistics doesn't need that many cooks."

Liu Heng chuckled. "Haha, if we don't need that many cooks, have them go fishing, chop firewood, and feed the livestock. Let them handle all the chores that logistics needs done."

Chen Xunping smiled and said, "No matter how heavy these chores are, they're still not as grueling as training. I'm afraid once the men in the three battalions realize there's such a 'good deal' to be had, they'll all refuse to learn characters."

Liu Heng snorted and said, "There's no such luck. Training will not be reduced by a single bit, and they must still stand guard and patrol at night. Only the remaining time will be allowed for logistics work."

From Liu Heng's words, Zhao Yutu felt the immense importance he attached to literacy.

At daybreak the next day, Yang Yuan called Chen Daqing, took several team members newly selected by Li Shuheng, and left the main camp.

Training in the camp was a daily affair. Due to the scorching heat, training was concentrated in the early morning and evening. At noon, apart from those on guard and patrol duty, everyone else in the camp was allowed to rest.

However, this rest was not for doing whatever one pleased; Zhao Yutu specifically taught them characters during this time.

Originally, very few people were willing to learn. But following Liu Heng's issued command—whereby illiterate individuals could only remain ordinary soldiers, and even squad leaders would be demoted to privates if they couldn't read—the ambitious bandit-turned-soldiers began to study seriously.

Zhao Yutu did not teach the bandits to read the way children were taught in school; instead, he directly picked out several characters from a single sentence and made all the attending bandits memorize them.

He taught them how to pronounce and write them, teaching no more than ten characters a day, relying on rote memorization to forcefully engrave them into their minds.

Liu Heng also joined in the literacy classes. However, he was different from the others. He already knew how to read, but he only knew simplified characters. He could guess the meanings and pronunciations of most traditional characters, even though he couldn't write them, which made him learn much faster than everyone else.

Realizing this, Zhao Yutu often sighed that an enlightened person was far smarter than ordinary people.

To help Liu Heng learn characters faster, Zhao Yutu simply took the time to tutor him separately, which accelerated Liu Heng's reading progress even further.

A few days later, when Yang Yuan returned with his men, Liu Heng was already able to write over a thousand traditional characters.

During the days Yang Yuan had been away, he had made numerous inquiries and brought back news about Tiger Head Fortress. Liu Heng summoned Li Shuheng and the others to the main tent for a meeting.

"Tell us about the situation at Tiger Head Fortress."

Seated according to their respective ranks, Liu Heng looked at Yang Yuan and spoke.

Yang Yuan stood up and said, "There is a group of bandits on Tiger Head Fortress, numbering around a hundred. Their leader is called Short-legged Tiger, known to everyone as Lord Tiger. This gang of bandits sets up roadblocks at the foot of the mountain to extort passing merchant caravans, and from time to time, they raid the surrounding villages. The neighboring villages are filled with grievances and have gone to report them to the authorities several times. The government has even issued wanted posters, but it's useless. Tiger Head Fortress is surrounded by dense mountains and thick forests; once they duck inside, they vanish without a trace. The Lingqiu garrison commander has tried to suppress the bandits several times, only to return empty-handed."

"So Lord Tiger is him!" Liu Heng muttered, rubbing his chin.

Li Shuheng and the others didn't understand what he meant, assuming Liu Heng knew this person. Only Yang Yuan was clear on the matter.

Chen Xunping, sitting on the right, slapped the small desk in front of him and said, "With only a hundred or so people, I'll take the Third Battalion over and wipe them out directly."

"No rush." Liu Heng waved a hand, then turned to Yang Yuan and asked, "Did you bring the items back?"

Yang Yuan said, "They're back. The time was too short, so only five were forged. Blacksmith Zhao said the rest will have to wait a few more days."

"Where are they?" Liu Heng stood up from behind the desk, his gaze filled with eagerness.

"When I came to the main tent, I left them in Chen Daqing's custody. If the Chief wants to see them, I'll go fetch them right now." With that, Yang Yuan turned to leave.

"Let's go together and find an open space to test their quality along the way." Liu Heng strode toward the exit of the tent.

The others guessed roughly what items they were discussing and stood up one after another to follow Liu Heng outside.

Chen Daqing had been keeping watch outside the tent. The moment the people inside emerged, he immediately stepped forward.

"Bring the matchlock guns and follow me," Liu Heng instructed Chen Daqing, leading the group out of the encampment.

Outside the camp was a large open field used as the drill ground for the three battalions.

Arriving at the drill ground, Liu Heng took a Rumi matchlock from Chen Daqing's hands and inspected it carefully from top to bottom. He confirmed there were no quality issues, especially with the barrel, which at a glance was clearly the work of a skilled veteran artisan—surpassing the shoddy junk produced by the Ming Ministry of Works by countless times.

Because of this, his appreciation for Blacksmith Zhao rose by another notch.

Matchlock guns could not be forged by just any blacksmith, particularly the barrels. The slightest flaw could easily lead to accidents. The Ming Ministry of Works only knew how to cut corners, and the shoddy items they produced could only serve as fire pokers. Some barrels weren't even straight; firing them would injure oneself before harming the enemy, acting essentially like the Seven Injuries Fist—fully mastered to hurt only oneself and never the adversary.

Confirming that the matchlock in his hand was flawless, Liu Heng loaded the gunpowder, rammed it tight with the ramrod, dropped in the lead ball, pulled back the serpentine, lit the matchcord, and aimed at a large tree forty paces ahead. He squeezed the trigger, and with a loud pop, a puff of white smoke rose around the muzzle. His arms shook slightly as the lead ball flew out.

Firing completed, Liu Heng extinguished the matchcord, cleaned the priming pan, and holding the matchlock in one hand, walked toward the distant tree.

The others followed closely behind.

Upon reaching the tree, everyone saw a small hole left in the trunk, with the lead ball embedded deeply inside.

Seeing this, Zhao Yutu drew a sharp breath, his mind racing with further implications.

If even a tree trunk could be penetrated this deeply by a lead ball, armored soldiers facing such a matchlock would likely meet the exact same fate as this tree.

"What a fine gun! It's much better than the bird guns and three-eyed guns I saw at the Imperial Armory." Li Shuheng, who also came from a government military background, couldn't help praising it.