"Iron helmets and armor first." Min Yuanqi finally ordered: "With the armor on the body, the psychology of the soldiers should be much more stable, then the weapons and swords, and finally the birds." ”

Shen Yong said quite respectfully: "It is not easy to build a bird gun, the key is that it takes a long time to drill a gun pipe, and a skilled veteran like the villain also has to drill for a month to get one, if the adult wants to assemble the bird gun on a large scale, I am afraid that at least a few months later, the apprentices brought by the villain have learned, and many people can build it together." ”

Min Yuanqi also frowned when he heard this, if Shen Yong didn't say the details of such a firearm manufacturing, he wouldn't know, it turned out that it took so long to make a simple firearm, even if Shen Yong was allocated more than ten or twenty people, it would be impossible to install firearms in a short period of time.

Min Qiande sent dozens of firearms, which were also accumulated by the Min family for many years, from fire door guns to bird guns, as well as this self-generated guns, large and small passionflowers, all kinds of them, some of which were made and issued by the Ministry of Imperial Works, and some of which were captured by the Japanese firearms, which had been hidden for so many years and were rusty and unbearable to be used again.

Firearms cannot be successful in a short period of time, and Min Yuanqi is not too disappointed, and the long-range troops are not too in demand at this stage. And Min Yuanqi also has a feeling that the Ming army pays too much attention to long-range soldiers, and there are too many long-range weapons to prepare, relying on sharp weapons, the most important thing for soldiers is loyalty and honor first, followed by courage, then the ability to kill the enemy, and finally all kinds of weapons. The Ming army was too heavy on long-range weapons, Min Yuanqi did not think that long-range weapons were not important, but that the Ming army lacked useful training, the soldiers' treatment was too low, the training was too poor, and there was no courage and qualification to engage the enemy with a white-knuckle assault.

And the immediate threat is Yang Shili on the Yancheng side, there has been no news these days, Liu Zeqing is still trying to Yangzhou now, in Huai'an is mostly an expedient measure to grab money and grain, lack of attention to local affairs, as long as the wealth of Yanchi here is not remembered by Liu Zeqing, there is not much trouble and problems.

"But you do it with your heart, now go to find Han Zongqi, what you want, houses, items, and personnel, all of which will be solved by Han Zongqi as soon as possible. If you have any ideas or needs, please feel free to contact me, even in the middle of the night. Min Yuanqi patted Shen Yong and said with a smile: "If this official can be promoted, you will inevitably have a bright future in the future." ”

Shen Yong knelt down again to thank him, Min Yuanqi helped him up again, Shen Yong hurriedly said goodbye and left, since Su Gang and wrought iron to the hundred households, Min Yuanqi has seen Shen Yong many times, but the salt pond is also extremely important, now after many days of hard work, many hired craftsmen can also pick up, as well as the Li family brothers and Chen De and others, Shen Yong's work is also extremely important, Min Yuanqi has already greeted Han Sen, money, food, personnel and venues must be in place quickly, and strive to make Shen Yong start to take apprentices in a short period of time, and create a finished product.

Iron helmet this thing seems simple, in fact, in addition to the early years of the Beijing camp and nine sides, the local troops can be rationed with iron helmets are not much, the southern Ming army mostly wears folding scarves, the north is more Fan Yangli, only Liaozhen, Jizhen, Xuanda such a military town, there are a small number of Beijing soldiers to distribute iron helmets, after the civil engineering change of the Ming army suffered heavy losses, after a hundred years there are still people on the battlefield of the year a large number of iron helmets, but that is the Ming forbidden army, the most elite Beijing soldiers and horses, the local garrison is especially not the garrison of the nine border towns does not have such a good treatment.

There are two kinds of helmets in the Ming army, one is the Ming iron helmet, the hat shape, the folk call the hat helmet, and the bowl-shaped helmet, which is derived from the shape of the Yuan period. No matter which one it is, there are four kinds of tassel guns, helmet tops, helmets, and dun items, bowl helmets and eyebrow shelters, and an iron helmet is divided into five bodies, which is not easy to build.

In addition to the iron helmet, Min Yuanqi planned to equip his subordinates with armor.

Of course, the iron armor is the plate armor first, but the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty have not been able to solve several key technical problems now, and Min Yuanqi has little interest in this aspect in later generations, and he is not as expert as Yanchi, so he has no plans and ideas to intervene in improving the technology for the time being. Under the plate armor, the best protection is of course the iron scale armor, this thing has layers of armor leaves, and the defense is quite excellent, only inferior to the plate armor, and the armor leaves can be replaced if damaged, which is quite an excellent kind of iron armor.

The only problem with the scale armor is that it is time-consuming and labor-intensive to build, Min Yuanqi now has only one blacksmith, and Min Qiande is still collecting the military blacksmiths of the rest of the thousands of households for him, but he has also been vaccinated in advance, and the guard has not made armor for many years, even if there is a blacksmith, he may not be able to build armor, and under the premise of such a tight manpower, of course, it is impossible to make expensive and precise scale armor.

The chain mail seems simple, but Min Yuanqi can't make a wire pulling machine now, it is better to make scale armor purely by manpower, and there are very few chain mail in the Ming Dynasty, only a small amount of equipment for the Beijing battalion, which is not for no reason.

Cotton armor and leather armor are quite easy to make and cheap, but what Min Yuanqi wants is a strong armor, and these two kinds of armor are barely stronger than cotton jackets, which can prevent arrows from a distance, and they can't be prevented if they are close, not to mention the swinging and stabbing of melee weapons.

In fact, even the iron armor can't prevent the powerful slashing and stabbing, but the damage of the iron armor is much smaller, the original mortal may be seriously injured, serious injuries become light injuries, light injuries are no injuries, the difference between armor and non-armor is quite large, and the usefulness of various armors is completely different.

The defense power of the armor is not as good as the plate armor and scale armor, but it is stronger than the cotton armor and leather armor, and the manufacturing is made of large pieces of iron armor leaves made of hemp rope, which is much simpler than the layers of scale armor and brushed chain mail.

The armored iron cavalry of the Northern Wei Dynasty in China, except for a few equipped with iron scale armor, most of them were equipped with armor, from the sluice to the necklace and the iron armor skirt, wrapping the whole body, the war horse at that time was much taller than the Mongolian horse, and the heavy armored cavalry who put on the horse armor and covered the whole body was heavily armoured, and the infantry could not stop it at all when thousands of armored iron cavalry gathered together to charge, even if it was the heavy infantry of the division of a hundred battles.

When the armored iron cavalry charged, the kind of earth-shaking force that only the same heavy armored cavalry could fight.

Now Min Yuanqi will definitely not be able to produce armor and iron cavalry, and being able to equip all the flag troops with armor is a result that Min Yuanqi is quite satisfied.

Min Yuanqi planned to make Shen Yong not use hemp rope, and try to use animal tendons soaked in oil, so that at least the rope tied to the armor leaf would not be cut with a slight stroke, so that the armor would be damaged and could not achieve the role of protection.

In fact, it is not common for the nail leaf to be cut off the rope on the battlefield, and it is more common to wear the nail leaf in daily training or for a long time, and the edge of the nail leaf is worn over time to damage the rope tied to the nail leaf.

This will increase the cost of manufacturing, but it will still be worth it.

The conversation between Min Yuanqi and Shen Yong was not only in the eyes of ordinary flag soldiers, but also Wang Sanyi, Li Guoding, Wang Mingyuan and others all saw it very clearly.

Only then did everyone realize that this Shen Yong was not an ordinary craftsman, but a blacksmith who could build weapons, and his status was far from being comparable to ordinary craftsmen such as tiles and clay.

The two hundred household officials are a little faintly regretful, they are the same as the flag army, they do not put an ordinary craftsman in their eyes, Min Yuanqi supported Shen Yong as soon as he came, indicating that there is indeed a problem with the salt pond digging, and the two hundred household officials presided over their affairs at the construction site, but they did not fulfill their duties, and they couldn't help but feel uneasy.

"Technical matters still have to be left to the craftsman." Min Yuanqi did not get angry at Li Guoding and Wang Sanyi, the three of them stood together, wearing hundreds of official robes, and the banner troops around them began to bow their heads and work hard, Min Yuanqi said calmly to the two hundred households: "The two of them only care about the money and food received by the remaining members of the banner army in their own hundred households, and the coordination personnel contradict each other, and there are more and more of each hundred households, and there are a lot of trivial and miscellaneous things in the shack area and the work area, which requires two people to hold the scene." How to dig the salt pond here, divert water, plug the mouth, slope, depth, lay tiles, and make stones, these are all exquisite, and I can't figure out the things of the craftsmen, anyway, do what these craftsmen say, what do you think? ”

Li Guoding and Wang Sanyi both agreed repeatedly, of course they would not argue with Min Yuanqi for such a trivial matter.

……

"Chen De, you will be the engineering officer," Min Yuanqi said to Chen De, who was honest and respectful: "Tianfu and a few of them are your deputies, and the later craftsmen will listen to your promotion, as long as the project is in charge, you will be in charge, if someone argues with you and does not listen to the instructions, you will come to report to me, except for two hundred households, I am not good, and all the rest who dare to argue with the craftsmen and refuse to accept the management are the first time to open the reform, and there is no negotiation." ”

Chen De ignored the mud everywhere on the construction site, and quickly knelt down and said: "The villain is grateful if he gets the protection of the adult, how dare he take on such a heavy responsibility." ”

"You are in charge of technology, find Min Yuanzhong Xiaoqi for miscellaneous matters, find Han Zongqi for some crimes, if you want to approve money and food, first find Han Zongqi, wait for Liang Xiaoqi to come back, and if there are any conflicts with living areas such as the shack area, find two hundred household officials, they will take care of civil affairs, if they can't solve it, you go back and find this official."

Min Yuanqi pondered for a moment, and then said: "The materials, personnel, and money and food you use must be recorded and made every day, and I will give you a few literate officials, and you yourself are literate, and you have to look at the account books every day to sign and draw, and every day things enter the paperwork process, so that it will gradually be standardized and institutionalized in the future." ”

Although Chen De didn't quite understand what Min Yuanqi meant, he still respectfully agreed.

In front of the craftsmen, the military attache of the banner army, and there were many officials, Min Yuanqi said loudly: "The current matter is related to everyone, whether it is the management of the salt pond or many affairs, if any one has any suggestions, even if you can go to the hundred official halls in the middle of the night to see the official, once the advice is useful, the official will have a heavy reward, it is useless and will not be punished, the official should only come to chat." ”

The crowd was slightly commotion, Min Yuanqi's prestige and prestige gradually increased, at least everyone did not have the slightest doubt about his words, at the moment, Min Yuanqi wanted to discover some useful talents in the rest of the hundred households, and those who could put forward reasonable suggestions could be used by Min Yuanqi now, in this relatively closed and impoverished place, most of the people were uneducated, at most they knew some words and were not blind, they did not have a complete source of information, and they could not even say how many political envoys there were in the Ming Dynasty, and they were ignorant of the situation of the six departments and the center, the central bureaucracy, the geography of each place, the people, the garrisons, the commercial situation, the overseas trade, the characteristics of goods, these things can only be understood by the top elite of this era. Min Yuanqi doesn't expect to discover the top talents among the more than 1,000 people in front of him, it is absolutely impossible, talents must have corresponding soil to harvest, just like why Huang Taiji desperately tried to win over Hong Chengchou, because it is impossible for him to excavate talents like Hong Chengchou in Liaodong, and there is no way to cultivate them. This kind of talent can only be born in a huge empire, step by step to the top, on the way to the top, see more, learn more, in order to calmly climb to the top step by step, Fan Wencheng and others who appeared in a corner of Liaodong are not as good as Hong Chengchou, this Huang Taiji knows.