Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1358 - 1351: The Formation of the New Army

Chapter 1358: Chapter 1351: The Formation of the New Army

The policy of integration had been in place for almost three months, and its effect was remarkable. Up to now, over one hundred thousand Kyushu civilians had chosen to join Abisien and blend into the life of the Demon Clan.

For these people, Linglan maintained the utmost respect, providing them not only with land and housing but also respecting their cultural customs and preserving their language habits.

In fact, this was also the intention of Luo’er and others. After all, it would only take one generation for the Kyushu people to be assimilated, and preserving their Kyushu language would facilitate its fusion with the Demon Clan language, creating more vitality for it.

Out of one hundred thousand people, Linglan had recruited over six thousand to serve as reserve infantrymen. Once this group was fully trained, they would become the absolute main force of the Demon Clan army.

At the same time, the new flintlock Muskets were being actively produced. These flintlock guns were over one and a half meters long, with barrels that even exceeded one meter in length. When equipped with a bayonet, the length could even surpass one meter eighty.

The reason for such design was mainly due to considerations of the battlefield environment. After all, a length of one meter eighty was almost equivalent to a long spear, offering them a fighting chance against the Dongsheng cavalry’s charges.

Do not underestimate the role of the bayonet on the battlefield, even on Earth, some of the main victories in battles were often won by bayonet charges.

Previously, in a clash with the Dongsheng army, the Demon Clan forces, once they lined up and fired their muskets, could immediately charge with bayonets, causing the enemy to panic and disintegrate. This demonstrated the significant impact bayonets could have on the enemy.

Originally, the leaders of the Demon Clan were opposed to equipping muskets with bayonets, as although it seemed a simple addition, it was actually quite sophisticated, and ordinary metals could not be used to craft proper bayonets.

The bayonets equipped by the Demon Clan forces were mainly triangular bayonets, designed for stabbing, and if made of the right materials, these bayonets could easily penetrate the current armor of the Dongsheng army.

However, the leaders opposed this because they could not smelt quality steel for the bayonets and had to disassemble alloys from the Helrandum for forging. To them, this was considered a significant waste.

These metals, if used entirely for manufacturing muskets, could potentially increase production by several thousand.

However, such thoughts were almost unanimously opposed by everyone from the Western Continent, from Gao Feng’s human scientists to the Advance Team. They all agreed on installing bayonets on muskets.

In their view, if bullets and gunpowder were the skeleton of the bayonet, then the bayonet was the soul of the musket. During the Ming Dynasty, such firearms were initially called "ignition lances," but later they were referred to as "firearms," largely due to the addition of bayonets, endowing them with the stabbing effect similar to spears.

As the saying goes, "In a narrow path, the brave one wins." The difference between modern armies and feudal armies lies not only in the quality of equipment but more importantly, in the fighting spirit and organization. The Never Setting Empire’s Lobster Soldiers, unbeaten across the world, owed their success not just to advanced equipment but most importantly to their strict discipline and courage to charge forward.

And the previous wars had proved that as long as the line infantry of the Demon Clan had the courage to take the offensive, even the heavily armed Dongsheng army would take to their heels in fear.

Besides muskets, the Demon Clan army was also actively producing field cannons, though following the principle of quality over quantity, there were far fewer cannons produced than muskets.

Ideally, according to standard deployment, the artillery of the Demon Clan should be as numerous as the infantry, with three thousand muskets corresponding to one thousand cannons, or at the very least, around five hundred.

The cannons here were not the large-caliber artillery that one might imagine, but mortars with calibers ranging from thirty to forty, primarily firing solid shot or buckshot.

In fact, in some ways, this was akin to a large-caliber musket, primarily filling the gap in firepower coverage beyond two hundred meters.

"Overall," the tactics of the line infantry placed heavy emphasis on the combined forces of infantry, artillery, and cavalry. When the enemy commenced their attack, it was essential to bombard them continuously with large numbers of cannons to maximize casualties in their ranks.

Once the enemy moved within the range of the muskets, the line infantry would begin to fire in sequence, replacing the artillery in covering that distance with firepower.

It could be said that, once the enemy entered the cannon’s range, they would be relentlessly bombarded with firepower until they drew near to the line infantry. The organizational discipline of feudal armies was generally lacking, so few feudal armies could withstand such a comprehensive artillery assault intact.

However, if the enemy managed to close in to hand-to-hand combat distance, they would encounter the charge of the line infantry. After enduring continuous strikes followed by a charge from the opposing line infantry, most of the feudal armies would collapse, which had been a reason for the previous victories of the Demon Clan.

Nevertheless, this ideal plan remained largely theoretical, with the actual situation being the Demon Clan’s insufficient manpower to coordinate infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Simply assembling the necessary muskets for the line infantry would keep them occupied for quite some time.

This was also why the Demon Clan’s artillery could not be outfitted to an extreme extent; even including previously modified cannons, the Demon Clan’s military could barely gather about three hundred cannons.

The same was true for the cavalry; assembling enough horses was incredibly challenging, forcing them to rely on the smuggling activities of Kyushu merchants. Thus, the cavalry was incorporated into a squad of elite mounted infantry, equipped with rifled muskets to roam the battlefield and snipe at enemy cavalry and high-value targets.

The Demon Clan’s military dares to counterattack because their confidence came from the newly developed fragmentation grenades, launched by mortars. The shells utilized timed fuses, adjusting the delay based on distance to explode within two seconds of landing.

They refrained from using contact fuses because the Demon Clan’s current productive capacity could hardly support it. Dwarves scientists, after all, were human and not gods, incapable of conjuring technology and equipment from thin air, so they had to settle for second best.

By this time, Ziye Ning city was bustling with activity. Large and small furnaces were busy smelting metal, crafting muskets for the military. Ziye Ning’s economy had now shifted into a wartime economic system, primarily producing weapons and equipment for the war.

Outside the city, in the training ground, over three thousand Kyushu militia were undergoing formation and bayonet training under the guidance of Dwarves instructors. This training was critical for them before they were equipped with muskets. Beyond training, they also had to assist with cultivating the land around Ziye Ning to provide a viable logistics source for the upcoming war.

Cheng Ziang and Hu Daoke, having nothing else to do, strolled along the city walls. Demon Clan soldiers were standing guard on the walls but completely ignored these two guests from the Western Continent.

"It’s hard enough to produce new muskets, why would they start making smoothbore guns? The accuracy is like shooting in the dark," Hu Daoke asked perplexedly.

"As long as it can fight, whether it’s a smoothbore gun or even a spear, they need to make it. Don’t forget they have to go to war in less than half a year. If the military’s equipment isn’t ready by then, how are they supposed to fight?" Cheng Ziang spread his hands and retorted.

"What I mean is, why don’t they just produce rifled guns? That should be feasible for them and would offer better accuracy," Hu Daoke explained.

"Whatever you do, you need to consider cost," Cheng Ziang rolled his eyes, "I don’t know how much more labor a rifled gun requires than a smoothbore gun. Anyway, both a smoothbore gun and a flintlock gun can kill; why wouldn’t I produce more smoothbore guns and rely on dense firepower?"

"That makes sense, but I still feel..." Hu Daoke scratched his head.

"Right now, driving out the Dongsheng military is the top priority. There’s no need to advance the weaponry too much, just being better than the enemy is sufficient. Look at what level the Dongsheng military is, all cold weapons—compared to them, even the Demon Clan armed with smoothbore guns would be far more formidable," Cheng Ziang stated.

"Hey, speaking of crossbows, why don’t they equip more of those? They should be more cost-effective than bows," Hu Daoke wondered.

"I don’t think they are cost-effective," Cheng Ziang said, "Don’t forget that a lead bullet just needs to be pressed in a mold to form. Think about the structure of a crossbow bolt; it’s not much better than an arrow. Not only the cost of the weapons but also the cost of consuming ammunition needs to be considered."

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