The successful casting of 50 cannons was of great significance to the Artillery Academy of the Tang dynasty. With this batch of real cannons, the students could use more live ammunition training.
Of course, since the cannons had a lifespan, and the shells and gunpowder also had costs, the training of wooden cannons would not stop. It still took up most of the training time, and they could only use real cannons for a small part of the time.
Ang Lee decided to use a four-day cycle. In the first three days, they would use wooden cannons for training, and on the fourth day, they would use real cannons to practice live ammunition. However, due to the limited number of cannons, the artillery students were also divided into four groups. Each group had more than 250 people, and it was just enough to operate 50 cannons.
In this way, the 50 cannons were used every day, and the utilization rate was still very high. In order to save costs, each cannon was only allowed to shoot 10 shells a day. That was to say, a group of five people could shoot 10 shells every four days.
There were 30 days in a month, and four days was a cycle, so there could be seven cycles. The last two days would be the time for the assessment.
On the last two days of each month, Ang Lee would personally guide all the artillery students in the assessment. The rules of the assessment were that five people would be in a group, and five people would be responsible for aiming and shooting five shells in the end. If they hit the earthen wall, they would get one point, and if they didn't, one point would be deducted. The students who didn't hit the earthen wall would be punished by joining in the construction of the earthen wall. As for the students who successfully aimed and hit the earthen wall, they wouldn't need to do such hard work in the following month. Moreover, they would have a chance to become the artillery commander.
Since Ang Lee was familiar with the results of these students' training, he could easily build a suitable number of earthen walls to meet the needs of the assessment.
The results of the first month's training were not very good. Most of the students couldn't hit the earthen wall accurately. Only less than 50 people hit the target, and these people were either very hardworking perseverance or very good archers.
The cannons were all the same, and the teachers taught them the same things. Why were some people always unable to hit the target, while others could hit the target accurately during normal training? There was an element of talent involved in this. Soldiers who were skilled in archery were also very talented in operating cannons.
For those soldiers who were not very talented, hard training was the only feasible way. After two months of hard training, more than half of the artillery students had a record of hitting the earthen wall. During the assessment, more than 300 people could hit the target accurately, which made Ang Lee very pleased.
Shooting a solid shell with live ammunition was only the first step of artillery training. It was a type of direct shooting. The distance of the shot was about 300 to 500 steps. After hitting the target, the shell still had a lot of energy left and would shatter the target.
As the artillery students had mastered direct shooting with live ammunition very well, Ang Lee felt that it was time to start the next stage of curved solid shell and exploding shell shooting. This shooting method was necessary for large-scale field operations and could better eliminate the enemy's strength.
Before starting the training, he first had to explain a complete set of theories of curved shooting to the students, such as the shooting parameters of curved shooting, how to adjust the shooting parameters, how to arrange observation posts, and how to carry out effective large-scale fire coverage.
In fact, in ancient times, there was a preliminary theory of curved shooting. In large-scale field battles, hundreds of catapults would throw a huge amount of boulders at the enemy's dense formation at the same time, thus causing great damage to the enemy. The lethality was quite amazing.
In theory, cannons fired in a curve, which was the same principle as catapults. However, cannons were much more powerful than catapults. They were more accurate and had a longer range. The projectiles fired were divided into solid projectiles and blossoming projectiles.
The effect of solid shells was similar to that of catapults throwing boulders at the enemy. However, the firing distance of artillery was longer and more accurate, so it could cause greater damage to the enemy. Moreover, curved shooting meant that the shell fell from a high place and had a certain amount of potential energy. Even at the end of the shooting range, it could still kill the enemy very well.
After exploding shells fell into the enemy's group, they would cause more damage to the enemy. This was also an important type of shell to suppress the enemy in large-scale field operations in the future.
However, due to the fact that the production cost of explosive bullets was much higher than that of solid bullets, during normal training, regardless of whether it was direct aim shooting or curve shooting, solid bullets were mostly used. Only when Li An gave special permission would they be allowed to use explosive bullets for training.
After more than a month of curved shooting training, all the students had mastered this skill and could gradually adjust the shooting angle according to the guidance of the observation post. Finally, they could hit the target smoothly.
Of course, the ultimate goal of training was for actual combat. After achieving certain results in individual training, Ang Lee had begun to organize large-scale fire coverage training.
This kind of large-scale fire coverage training did not require as much precision as individual training. As long as a large number of shells could hit the enemy's group, they could cause great damage to the enemy. However, this kind of training required high coordination of the group, so it was necessary to train.
Before the fire coverage training, Ang Lee personally explained the theory to the artillery students. He told them what fire coverage was, how to improve the lethality of fire coverage, and how to quickly adjust the shooting angle according to the feedback of the observation post and quickly organize the next round of shooting.
These theories were the basic knowledge of artillery in the future, but in the era of the Tang dynasty, they were new theories. They had to be explained many times to deepen the students' impression of them.
In addition, before the live firing, they had to conduct many simulation experiments with wooden cannons to cultivate the operation level of the artillery students.
Because the distance of the cannons was relatively far, in order to increase the difficulty of the experiment, the target was set thousands of steps away. It was made up of thousands of scarecrows and hundreds of scarecrows, which simulated a large-scale enemy army.
A total of 50 cannons were prepared. 25 of them were arranged in a row, so there were two rows in total. The 250 artillery students were ready to fire at any time.
"Assistant Minister Li, all the cannons have been aimed at the enemy. We can test fire."
"Each cannon has four solid shells and one exploding shell. Get ready to fire immediately."
Ang Lee gave the order to fire without hesitation.
Boom, boom, boom …
The 50 cannons began to fire at the same time. According to the information from the observation post, they adjusted the shooting angle in time and carried out the next round of shooting until all five shells were fired.
"Withdraw the cannons and immediately calculate the enemy's casualties."
Ang Lee immediately gave the order.
The students who operated the cannons immediately withdrew the 50 cannons. In addition, more than a dozen statisticians immediately ran a thousand steps away to calculate the enemy's casualties.
"Assistant Minister Li, more than 20% of the enemy's casualties are seriously injured and 50% are lightly injured. Our army has won a total victory."
Soon, the statistics came out. The enemy's casualties were higher than Ang Lee's prediction, which made Ang Lee quite satisfied.
"Good. After months of strict training, the soldiers have done well and the cannons are accurate enough. His Majesty will be very happy when he knows about it."
Ang Lee was not stingy with his praise. As long as the soldiers performed well, he would certainly praise them vigorously.
After months of hard work, they finally got a good result. More than a thousand artillery students were naturally in a good mood. What made them happier was that the Emperor had personally ordered to improve the treatment of artillery students, so that the treatment of artillery students was twice that of the Yulin Royal Guards.
At this time, the basic theory and training of artillery had been completed. The third batch of cannons in the R&D Center workshop had also been officially manufactured. In this way, the Tang Empire had 150 cannons, and all of them were reliable cast iron cannons of the same specification. The work of formally establishing the artillery corps could also be carried out.
Of course, in extreme cases, one person could also operate a cannon, but the speed would be very slow. After comprehensive consideration, Ang Lee decided to assign five soldiers to each cannon. At most, two people would load the cannons, one person would release the cannons, and the other person would push the cannons from the muzzle into the barrel with a wooden stick. One person would adjust the muzzle angle, one person would ignite the cannons, and the last person would be responsible for command and backup. In this way, a five-man team was established, and the commander would be the decarch.
According to the infantry organization of the Tang Dynasty, five people formed a team, and there was a decarch. In the artillery corps, the decarch was changed to the artillery captain. A team had 50 people and was divided into 10 teams. According to the artillery organization, there were 10 cannons, and an artillery team had 10 cannons. Of course, there were also a few more commanders, so the total number of soldiers was more than 50.
In the infantry organization of the Tang Dynasty, a team had 50 people, and the superior of the team was the brigade. A brigade had two teams of 100 people, and the superior of the brigade was the regiment. The regiment had 200 people, and the regiment had 300 people. However, Ang Lee felt that brigades were more domineering. Perhaps it was because of his fixed impression of brigades in later generations that Ang Lee could not bear to let brigades be subordinate to regiments.
Therefore, Ang Lee wanted to expand the brigade organization in the artillery corps. An artillery brigade would have five artillery teams under its command, which was 50 cannons, and the total number of soldiers would be less than 300.
With the current number of cannons, three artillery brigades could be formed at most. However, at least 50 cannons would be left to train the students. Therefore, at the moment, only two artillery brigades could be formed, which was more than 500 people in the artillery corps.
The name of the artillery brigade was, of course, easier to handle. The first two artillery brigades were called the First Artillery Brigade of the Tang Dynasty and the Second Artillery Brigade of the Tang Dynasty. They were called the First Artillery Brigade and the Second Artillery Brigade of the Tang Dynasty.
Among them, the First Artillery Brigade had the 1st to 5th Artillery Teams, and the Second Artillery Brigade had the 6th to 10th Artillery Teams.
With Ang Lee's efforts, the establishment of the two artillery brigades was quickly completed. Those who were lucky enough to become official artillery officers were naturally the best 500 people among the thousands of students.
Among them, the Colonels of the First Artillery Brigade and the Second Artillery Brigade were Guo Qiang and Lifei Shouyu, respectively. Their cannons were the best and most accurate, so of course, they were qualified to be Colonels.
In the Tang Dynasty, Colonels were not a very high official position. In fact, it was a very low-level official position. However, the artillery corps was a special corps. Whether it was the number of soldiers under the command of an artillery brigade or the status in the military circle of the Tang Dynasty, an ordinary infantry brigade commander could not be compared to them. They could even be compared to the position of a general.
The Colonels of the five artillery teams under the First Artillery Brigade were all talents who were good at cannons. The Colonels of the First Artillery Brigade were Chen Dabiao, the Colonels of the Second Artillery Brigade were Li Kunxiong, the Colonels of the Third Artillery Brigade were Li Feiyu, the Colonels of the Fourth Artillery Brigade were Ma Lin, and the Colonels of the Fifth Artillery Brigade were Colonels of Zhang Guangcheng and Zhang Erniu.
Ang Lee was very pleased that the brothers he had trained in his early years could all be Colonels of the artillery corps. However, Ang Lee did not appoint people by favouritism. The reason why these people could be Colonels of Artillery Brigade was that their cannons were very accurate, and they got the position with their own strength.
Of course, at this time, there were only two Artillery Brigades in the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, most people's positions were relatively low, even much lower than their previous positions. However, artillery soldiers were paid well and had great opportunities for development. As long as they could be Colonels of the Artillery Brigade, their salary would not be less than that of a general who led 3,000 soldiers.
In other words, Guo Qiang, Guo Ziyi's son, currently had a salary that was not lower than Guo Ziyi's. It was even much higher. Who knew what Guo Ziyi would think when he found out?
With the gradual expansion of the Artillery Corps in the Tang Dynasty, the current ten Colonels of Artillery Brigade had a great chance of becoming the next Colonels of the Artillery Brigade, and thus had the same status as a general.
Of course, when the number of Artillery Brigades increased in the future, they might form a larger Artillery Corps, such as the Artillery Corps. If they had a Legion Commander, their status would be higher.
After the two Artillery Brigades were formed, they would be stationed on the east and west sides of the capital to protect the capital. Once the need arose, the two Artillery Brigades could be transferred to the border at any time to strengthen the combat power of the Border Defense Army and gain an absolute advantage over the enemy.
After the establishment of the two Artillery Brigades, the intensity of their training increased. The loud sound of cannons being fired could often be heard on the east and west sides of the capital.
At the request of Ang Lee, the Artillery Academy also began to recruit the second batch of Artillery Corps students. The number of students was limited to 500. Thus, the Artillery Academy once again had 1,000 students.
At this time, Ang Lee had made the decision to maintain the Artillery Academy at 1,000 students. For every two Artillery Brigades formed, 500 new students would be added to maintain the stability of the Artillery Academy.
According to Ang Lee's plan, the Tang Dynasty could have 10 Artillery Brigades, which would be enough to deter all the enemies. They could even be spread out and used in different strategic directions to create a huge pressure on the enemy.
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