The Artillery Corps was a technical force, and a powerful one at that. For this reason, the entire Tang dynasty, from the emperor to the emperor, attached great importance to the Artillery Corps.
Ang Lee was responsible for the formation of the Artillery Corps, and he was responsible for the training and organization of the Artillery Corps. After all, Ang Lee was the one who invented the artillery, so no one knew better than Ang Lee on how to use the artillery, how to form the Artillery Corps, and how to train the Artillery Corps.
When selecting the Artillery Corps, Ang Lee specifically picked the best soldiers. Of course, the "best" didn't mean the strongest, but the ones with the most potential to become an Artillery Corps soldier. In other words, they needed to have a certain level of cultural foundation and a flexible mind so that they could learn about the Artillery Corps.
Fortunately, the Dragon Martial Army and the Imperial Royal Guards were both the emperor's troops, and many of the soldiers were of high birth. The descendants of the famous generals filled the Artillery Corps, and these descendants were exactly what Ang Lee needed the most. They all had a certain level of cultural foundation and were not weak in martial arts, so they were the most suitable to be Artillery Corps soldiers.
These descendants of the generals were also very willing to join the Artillery Corps. After all, the Artillery Corps was a technical force with great power, and they would definitely be able to make great contributions on the battlefield in the future.
Although there were only 50 cannons in the first batch, and they only needed to recruit 250 Artillery Corps soldiers, there would definitely be more cannons in the future. For this reason, Ang Lee planned to recruit 1000 Artillery Corps soldiers for the first batch and train them strictly. This was to train Artillery Corps soldiers in advance so that they could serve a larger Artillery Corps in the future.
After the recruitment of Artillery Corps soldiers was officially announced, more than half of the soldiers in the four armies at the North Gate signed up and requested to join this special unit. Many important generals even personally went to Ang Lee and begged Ang Lee to accept their descendants into the Artillery Corps.
Of course, Ang Lee wouldn't refuse these generals and accepted them all. Even if these generals' descendants had some small problems, they still had the basic strength. As long as they were trained strictly, they could definitely become qualified Artillery Corps soldiers or even commanders of the Artillery Corps.
Except for a few descendants of generals, most of the artillery students were elites who had been carefully selected by Ang Lee. Their comprehensive qualities in all aspects were quite high.
In addition, Ang Lee also comforted the soldiers of the four armies who had failed. He told them that the artillery would continue to recruit students in the future and told them to prepare for the next batch.
Ang Lee was familiar with a few of the thousand or so Artillery Corps students in this batch. There was Guo Gu, the second son of Great General Guo Ziyi, Chen Dabiao, the son of Great General Longwu Chen Xuanli, and Li Kunxiong and Li Feiyu, who grew up with Ang Lee. In addition, Zhang Erniu, Zhang Guangcheng, and Li Feiyu had all joined the Artillery Corps.
Surprisingly, there were so many talents among the 1,000 artillery students. In the entire Tang Empire, there was probably no troop that could compare with them.
In order to facilitate the training, Ang Lee had built a large number of barracks several miles away from the R&D Center and surrounded a campsite with a low wall that covered an area of more than 100 acres.
The training base was named the Artillery Academy of the Tang Dynasty. Li Longji approved it and asked the best craftsmen of the Tang Dynasty to carve a plaque with the six words on it and hang it on the gate of the training base.
More than 1,000 artillery students had to eat and live in the Artillery Academy. Without special reasons, they were not allowed to leave the academy at will.
At the moment when the Artillery Academy was established, Ang Lee asked the 1,000 students to sit in the open space inside the academy and speak to them from a high place.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I know that many of you are descendants of famous generals. Some of you were even generals before you entered the Artillery Academy. But now, all of you have the same status, that is, a soldier who learns how to operate artillery. Only by being a good soldier can you become an artillery general in the future. Moreover, you are the first batch of artillery students. You are the earliest to learn the knowledge of artillery, so you have the highest chance to become an artillery general in the future. I hope you will work harder and don't let me down."
Ang Lee spoke loudly and pointed to the 20 talents of the R&D Center beside him. Then, he continued, "Look carefully. These people will be your masters in the future. You have to put down your pride and learn from them humbly. You must not bully your masters with your status and position. Otherwise, I will definitely drive you out of the artillery troop."
The 20 R&D talents introduced by Ang Lee were all talents in the development of artillery. They had grown up under Ang Lee's personal training. They had high attainments in the manufacturing technology of artillery and how to apply it. They were fully qualified to be artillery instructors.
After that, Li An divided the thousand students into twenty groups. Each group had more than fifty people, which was the strength of a team. In this way, the twenty teachers could teach them separately and pass on the basic knowledge of artillery to them.
Since the first batch of cannons would take a long time to complete, the students could only learn the most basic knowledge about cannons during the initial period.
For example, how to operate the artillery, how to adjust the angle, how to use the monocular correctly, how to adjust the angle after the shell was shot off, and how to maintain the artillery.
Of course, there were also the rules and regulations of the artillery troop. They must strictly abide by them and must not do anything against the rules and regulations. Otherwise, they would be severely punished.
Before the artillery was completed, Ang Lee specially asked the carpenters to make 50 models of the artillery made of wood and bamboo so that the students could practice how to operate and move the artillery.
In order to get the artillery training on the right track, Ang Lee reduced the time he spent in the R&D Center to four hours a day. The other four hours were used to pay attention to the artillery training. Of course, every half a month, he would go to the gunpowder workshop to command several groups of people to mix the black gunpowder.
When the Artillery Academy was first established, the students were all full of enthusiasm. They felt that they were the best soldiers of the Tang dynasty and that the training was very exciting.
But as the initial excitement disappeared, many students began to feel bored. Every day, they stayed in the spacious room and listened to the masters explain the theories. Moreover, many common knowledge had been explained more than a dozen times. In the end, they still had to explain it over and over again. This made many students very angry.
Sometimes, when they went out of the academy, they could only play with the fake artillery made of bamboo poles and wooden wheels. They felt very bored, so their enthusiasm for training naturally decreased a lot.
This situation immediately aroused Ang Lee's special attention. He immediately took out the real artillery used for the experiment and prepared to give the students a good lesson.
Ang Lee took out all the artillery students and asked them to build five mud walls, each of which was four feet high and six feet wide, on the training ground outside the Artillery Academy.
These artillery students, who were born noble, had been in the Artillery Academy for some days. Not only did they not touch real artillery, but they also had to work hard and build mud walls by themselves. This made them very unhappy. But Ang Lee supervised them personally, so they could only swallow their dissatisfaction.
After a long time, the five mud walls were really built. More than a thousand students lay on the ground, tired, and motionless, looking at the blue sky.
"Assistant Minister Li, isn't it a little overkill to let these artillery students build mud walls? Look at how tired they are. "
A petty official, who was in charge of the Artillery Academy, said in a low voice.
"These guys don't train well. This is their punishment. Also, building mud walls can exercise physical strength, which is good for the training of artillery students. It's not a waste of talent. Let them all get up and get ready for training."
Ang Lee said sternly.
Some of the 1,000 artillery students immediately got up, and some were too tired to move. They struggled to get up and lined up, waiting for Ang Lee's reprimand.
"Soldiers, I know you are resentful. You think you are artillery students and shouldn't do such physical work and shouldn't train with wooden artillery all day. But have you really learned it well? Now that the real artillery is here, do you know how to use it? Can you hit it accurately? "
Li An reprimanded loudly and asked a few researchers to pull up the cannons.
"Well, the real artillery has been pulled up. Who wants to have a try?"
Ang Lee asked loudly.
"Let me, let me."
"Let me, let me."
The artillery students, who were exhausted just now, were immediately energized when they saw that there was a real artillery to play with. They all signed up eagerly.
"Don't worry, one by one, one by one."
The petty official tried to maintain order, but the more he tried, the more chaotic it became.
"Quiet, listen to me. Five people in a group. If you can't hit the mud wall, you will be beaten ten times."
Ang Lee shouted loudly.
Once they heard that they would be flogged ten times if they couldn't hit the target, the students became much calmer and more orderly. They had listened to the lessons for a long time and had played with wooden cannons before. However, if they were to play with real cannons, they were not confident that they could hit the target.
"Let me go first."
Guo Qiang, the second son of Guo Ziyi, took the lead and walked to the artillery with four companions.
In the simulation training these days, Guo Qiang had learned the basic steps of operating the artillery, and he was sure that he could hit the mud wall.
Setting up the artillery, adjusting the muzzle angle, observing the target's distance, loading the shell, and igniting the fire, Guo Qiang and his four companions cooperated very well. They operated completely according to the artillery rules and fired the shell.
However, after the shell flew out, it did not hit the mud wall. Instead, it landed a long distance behind the mud wall.
"It's only 300 steps away, and you actually missed. Drag them down and beat them ten times."
Ang Lee would not give Guo Ziyi any face. He directly ordered Guo Qiang and his four companions to be dragged down and beaten.
"Who else thinks that they have learned well and don't need to practice hard anymore? Come up and give it a try."
Ang Lee looked at the students and shouted loudly.
Soon, many people came up to play with the artillery, but without exception, the shells were all off target. Moreover, some of the shells were very far away, which made Ang Lee shake his head repeatedly.
After punishing more than a hundred students, the arms of the two staff members in charge of carrying out the punishment were tired.
"Assistant Minister Li, I feel that the target is too small and the distance is too far. It's normal that we can't hit it."
A student who was rubbing his buttocks said unhappily. He had clearly worked very hard to follow the content of the lesson, but he still could not hit the target. This made him feel wronged. He did not hit the target because the target was too far away and too small, and not because his technique was not good enough.
"This official knew that some of you would not be convinced. Alright, this official will also play with the cannon. If you can't hit the target, you will also be beaten ten times."
Ang Lee personally operated the cannon. He used the binoculars to observe the distance of the target and carefully measured the angle. Then, he ordered, "Load the shell and fire."
"Boom … Crash …"
The cannon accurately hit the target, shattering the mud wall. Moreover, the shell hit the center of the target with very little deviation.
"It hit, it really hit!"
More than a thousand students saw Ang Lee shoot the cannon so accurately with their own eyes. They all looked at him with admiration. At the same time, the students who were beaten were also convinced that they were inferior.
"Do you know why you can't hit the target?"
Ang Lee asked loudly.
"Assistant Minister Li, we've learned everything we need to learn. Perhaps it's because we haven't used real cannons enough! If we can use cannons more often, we can naturally practice better techniques. "
Guo Qiang said boldly.
Ang Lee shook his head and said loudly, "Do you know how much it costs to fire a cannon? How many shells can a cannon fire? How long is its lifespan? Let this official tell you, every shell fired is your daily salary. A cannon can fire a few thousand shells at most. If you were allowed to practice with real cannons, the entire imperial court would be burdened by you. "
"Assistant Minister Li, is it really effective to practice with wooden cannons? I feel that it's not very useful. "
A student said doubtfully.
Ang Lee looked at the student and asked loudly, "Tell me, how far is the mud wall from here?"
"Replying Assistant Minister Li, it's three hundred steps."
Ang Lee picked up the binoculars, carefully observed for a moment, and measured with his fingers. He shook his head and said, "It's three hundred and nine steps. If you don't believe me, you can measure it yourself."
The artillery students didn't believe it. They quickly used a special measuring tool to measure the distance. Sure enough, it was exactly 309 steps, not a single step off.
"Assistant Minister Li, it's three hundred and nine steps. I'm convinced."
Ang Lee took the opportunity to shout, "Officers and soldiers, it's not easy to be a good artillery soldier. It's very easy to learn how to use cannons. Even the stupidest person can learn it in a day. However, it's not so easy to hit the cannons accurately. You need to study carefully. You must listen carefully and think carefully about what your master teaches. Wooden cannons are necessary equipment for training. You must train well, think more, and summarize more. Only in this way can you hit the cannons accurately."
More than a thousand students nodded repeatedly, agreeing with Ang Lee's words.
Then the teaching became much smoother. The artillery students realized that every knowledge was worth learning. Naturally, they didn't dare to slack off. They worked hard to learn every knowledge and trained more seriously and diligently.
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