During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the imperial examination tended to be perfected, just as scholars looked down on mud legs, and the imperial examination itself also had a class.

Xiucai looks down on Tongsheng, lifts people down on Xiucai, Jinshi looks down on lifters, and if he wins the exam, he can turn his nose to the sky. Even in the officialdom, when officials meet, it is not straightforward to talk about official business, especially when there are those officials who are not very familiar with it, they always have to talk about seniority, "what year did you take the palace examination", "what year did he take the palace examination", "what is the result of the palace examination", "how many ranks", and so on, etc., and so on.

Only with the same experience can there be a common language, which is also class. It's like three navies meeting each other, the U.S. Navy flaunting how powerful its carrier battle group is, the British Navy talking about the glory of the Victorian era, and the other if it's a Mongolian navy, can you talk about the Battle of Ulaanbaatar and the Yenisei River Scheme?

Ye Yiyun snorted coldly, turned his head and left. He is Chongzhen's thirteen-year-old jinshi, he has been the head of the ministry, and now he is only thirty-seven or eighteen years old, it is when he is in the prime of life, and he also has a certain degree of confidence in his own ability, and he is more proud between his eyebrows.

It's just that these words sounded, but it seemed that the "lifting person" was specially added to take care of Chen Ding's emotions. However, with Chen Ding's temper, he didn't care. In addition, he also knew that Ye Yiyun was nothing more arrogant, but he was not a vicious person, otherwise he would not be able to have a good relationship with him.

After a while, with Zheng Chenggong's statement, a new round of expansion work of the ordnance workshop was launched again. In addition to the open space reserved for the manufacture of gunpowder and the manufacture of guns, an area was expanded for the manufacture of artillery. In addition, Zheng Chenggong also carved a piece of land outside the city as a testing ground for firearms.

However, the gunsmith is still in Kinmen, and the bird gun craftsman also needs to resettle his family, plus the expansion work, so the production work will not be involved in these two days. After arriving at the next duty, Chen Kai returned to the town mansion with a box and met Zheng Chenggong. At this time, Chen Bao and Hong Xu were also here, obviously discussing some military affairs with Zheng Chenggong.

"The student asked someone to do something some time ago, and I specially invited the national surname to appreciate one or two."

With Zheng Chenggong's approval, Chen Kai took the box from the little guy and opened it in front of Zheng Chenggong. It's just that once the box was opened, everyone's faces changed.

"Rattan helmet?"

"Exactly."

Chen Kai nodded, and then said with a smile: "Recently, the output of rattan is significant, but the output of one waist knife is not high, and the other army does not need so many rattan cards. In other words, overcapacity. As for blacksmiths, the speed of crafting weapons has accelerated, but the iron material is particularly insufficient, and the production capacity is insufficient due to the lack of raw materials. The student thought about it for a long time and felt that he should make a slight adjustment, and this thing came to life. ”

In the past six months, Chen Kai's mouth will say some fresh words at every turn, what inspection, what is insufficient capacity, what is overcapacity, what product type is single, and it is not enough to be one. Zheng Chenggong and Hong Xu have long been accustomed to it, and when they think about it, they feel that it is concise and to the point, so they acquiesce to it, and every time they hear a fresher word, they will think carefully about what it means, which is also a little interesting.

This time, the problem raised by Chen Kai is indeed what the army needs to face. Zheng Chenggong commanded six towns, but more than 3,000 people, plus Nanao Town, which is about to expand to 1,000, is only more than 4,000 people. According to the convention of troop matching, swords and shields are indeed not used so much, and under normal circumstances, spears still occupy the majority, after all, they still have to fight against the superior cavalry of the Qing army. Now, the output of rattan is too large, and Chen Kai's move is clearly to carry out product transformation.

"Originally, it was said that there were rattan helmets in our southern army in peacetime, and there were also non-commissioned officers in the army who were equipped with this thing. It's just that the workshop is now under the control of the Tartars, and we can't get it. ”

The Qing court was able to compete with the Ming army in the customs for nearly 20 years, and then suppressed the huge rebellion of the three feudatories.

This is a great advantage, not to mention anything else, not even raw materials or anything, just the number of people controlled by the occupied zone, the two sides are not on the same level.

"This thing is really good, especially for our army's current shortage of iron, it is even more beneficial. How did Chen come up with the idea? ”

Mo said that it was the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, and even during the War of Resistance Against Japan, the army also used rattan helmets to generalize. Seeing Chen Bao smile for the first time, Chen Kai also replied: "Back to the Hou Ye, the next official checked Qi Shaobao's "Ji Xiao Xinshu", which was mentioned, and then went to the arsenal to find a replacement for Master Zheng, and asked the rattan craftsmen to make one according to the cat and the tiger. ”

"Ji Xiao Xinshu" contains: the helmet is made of fine rattan, the inner cotton hat, and the top of the helmet is made of red tassels, one is spectacular, and the other is the color of the south.

Chen Kai asked the rattan craftsman to make this kind of rattan helmet, which was probably not much different from what the Qi family had used in the army back then. The head is the concentration point of many critical points of the human body, and ensuring the safety of the head is an important issue in armor protection. Originally, Zheng Chenggong's department was hasti, and there were very few such things, and there were many unnecessary casualties when he went out on the expedition before, but now with this thing, the soldiers will be safer on the battlefield, at least the head will be less injured.

Looking at this thing, Zheng Chenggong and the others also smiled: "Chen joins the army, what is the output of this rattan helmet?" ”

"If you return to your home surname, it is faster than rattan brand, and each rattan craftsman can make about three or four per day."

If the rattan is made by hand, it will take a few days to have a good texture on one side, and it must be a skilled rattan craftsman. In the military, Chen Kai has always taken into account quality and output, and for those time-consuming and labor-intensive decorations, they have always been exempt.

In addition, rattan products processing, first of all, the rattan material needs to be rough and finely processed, and then it is necessary to soak tung oil and expose to the sun, in order to strengthen its firmness and toughness, Chen Kai after a few days of exploration, and finally carried out the division of labor as earlier for the blacksmith, so that there are more than 1,000 rattan cards that Zheng Chenggong saw when he came back.

Just like the rattan art weaving in later generations, it is the finished rattan that has been purchased and processed, which is a female stream, without much strength, and the process is not familiar, and it can be made in three days to make a rattan basket that is far larger than the rattan helmet. These rattan craftsmen under Chen Kai are all old craftsmen who have accumulated years, and there is nothing to say about their craftsmanship, let alone speed.

"In that case, it won't take long to equip the whole army?"

"That's true, it's just not as good as rattan brand, after all, the rattan helmet is not very familiar with the craft, it won't be too fast at first, and when the rattan craftsmen are skilled, the speed will naturally come up."

Chen Kai said, and Zheng Chenggong and they also nodded. For Chen Kai, even Chen Bao, who was originally dissatisfied with him, is now mostly dissatisfied, because every effort he makes is strengthening the combat ability of this army. Strengthening the army, this is a major premise related to life and death, and those small things will naturally fade down.

This treasure was dedicated, Hong Xu had already begun to ponder where to loot some rattan craftsmen to enrich the arsenal, while Chen Bao was already pondering how much there was a shortage in the army, and when his Nanao Town would be able to start loading and so on in the case of giving priority to replenishing the six towns.

"Chen joins the army, since you can have a rattan helmet, why not try a rattan armor?"

Chen Bao had a flash of inspiration, and blurted out. This question, in fact, Chen Kai had already thought about it earlier, and when Chen Bao asked about it, he pretended to think about it for a while, and then smiled at the three of them: "Xia Guan heard that there is a saying on the Tartar side that Fan Reverse Wencheng is the reincarnation of Zhuge Kongming. In this case, it is a bit disadvantageous to use rattan armor. ”

As soon as these words came out, Zheng Chenggong and the others were stunned at first, and then burst into laughter, without the dignity of a marquis or earl. It is rumored in the rivers and lakes that the high-level officials of the Manchu Qing Dynasty all used the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a military book, and the story of burning the rattan armor soldiers must have been heard. However, the emperor is a fire virtue, and the country name is even more legendary as a triple fire, and it is difficult to say whether the Qing court, which claims to be a water virtue, can burn it.

Fireproof materials, Chen Kai has pondered, such as shells ground into powder, coated on the surface can be used for air and combustibles, playing a fireproof effect, this thing is also intended to be used on rattan helmets and rattan cards. However, the area of rattan armor is too large, and too many processes and man-hours are required, but it is not conducive to popularization in the army. What's more, he also had a plan for a long time, but the time was not yet ripe.

"It is recorded in the "New Book of Ji Xiao" that a kind of armor needs to be used with an inch of silk cloth and a thick thread. Xia Guan once thought about this thing, but the use of silk was too much, and it was still unknown whether the captive's bird guns, bows and arrows had the ability to defend, and the gains outweighed the losses. ”

Silk is now one of the main commodities of maritime trade under Zheng Chenggong's command, but the army is in chaos and the supply volume has been greatly reduced, so naturally it is not possible to consider using such commodities as armor for soldiers. What's more, the cotton armor that was already popular at the end of the Ming Dynasty actually relied on cotton and iron sheets to barely play a bulletproof role, and the armor was only silk cloth, which really made Chen Kai have little confidence.

The matter of rattan helmet is so decided, and the production capacity of the rattan craftsman in the arsenal workshop will be greatly shifted to the rattan helmet, and the rattan brand will not continue to produce for the time being, but at most it is to find a rattan craftsman to build it by himself, and there is no need to rush any more production.

When Chen Kai came, the military affairs had already been discussed, and the matter of the rattan helmet was affirmed, and soon he also withdrew from the Tiger Festival Hall with Chen Bao and Hong Xu. It's just that when Chen Kai left, Zheng Chenggong seemed to think of something, but it didn't happen. It wasn't until Chen Kai had dinner that Zheng San, the housekeeper who followed Zheng Chenggong on weekdays, suddenly visited.

"Chen joins the army, the head of the family has important matters to discuss, please move."