The construction of the three hydraulic iron-smelting workshops in Gujiao, Wuzhou and Xinzhou, coupled with the transformation of the three iron-smelting workshops of Jiaochengjian, Luzhou and Zezhou, made Jinyang Ordnance Supervisor have sufficient raw materials to manufacture weapons, armor and other ordnance. After the hydraulic forging hammer, hydraulic equipment such as wire drawing machines, cutting machines, drilling machines and grinding machines were manufactured, which also greatly improved the manufacturing efficiency of the ordnance superintendent.

However, the generals always have a distrustful attitude towards standard equipment, and always like to be different, and build blades and armor according to their own wishes.

In particular, the generals of the forbidden army, led by Yuan Ren and An Xianqi, would go to the workshop of the royal manor when they had nothing to do in winter, and under the guidance of the craftsmen, they would make some fresh things by themselves.

When Li Qi returned to the Longshoushan Hot Spring Manor in Xinzhou after handling some major government and military affairs in Jinyang, he saw that the five water hammer machines in his blacksmith workshop were occupied by a few second-class goods from the forbidden army. Under the guidance of several craftsmen of the Li family, these people were very busy.

Yuan Xingqin and An Jinquan were standing on the edge of a pair of water hammers, watching Yuan Ren, the general of the Forbidden Army's cavalry, forging a pair of cavalry plate armor, while Fu Yanqing was carrying an iron hammer in his hand and carefully beating a pair of steel helmets on the anvil on the side. After careful forging, the cast steel helmet looks very beautiful in appearance, mainly much stronger than the original iron helmet and copper helmet.

The main thing is that this new steel helmet can be stuck with a protective mask, which can largely avoid being injured by a bow and arrow on the battlefield.

These things are matching, and the earliest plate armor was drummed out by these people.

This type of plate armor is not the monolithic plate armor that appeared in the late Middle Ages in Europe, but is riveted to the outside of the chain mail as a reinforcing part on the chain mail B. There are mainly large chest guards, back guards, combined shoulder pads, arm guards and leg guards, with the emergence of cast steel plates and hydraulic forging hammers, this forging steel to make arc steel armor technology with the development of metallurgy and metal processing technology has the possibility of mass manufacturing.

The appearance of steel plate armor protection parts is a leap forward in armor technology in the era of cold weapons, which greatly improves the defense ability of armor.

At least it is very difficult for a bow and arrow to penetrate steel plate armor.

It turned out that Li Qi just ordered the blacksmith workshop to try out a few sets for testing, but he didn't expect that in less than a month, it would be developed quite well by these generals.

When Yuan Xingqin saw Li Qi coming in, he threw away a pair of semi-finished chest guards in his hand, and immediately trotted in front of Li Qi, holding his hand regardless of etiquette: "Your Majesty, you came just in time, the old minister needs a thousand pairs of this steel armor!" He pointed to a pair of plates on the stand and shouted.

"Don't be so eager, this thing hasn't been drafted yet!" Li Qi shook off his hand, smiled and comforted him: "When it is made in batches, you will be indispensable in the first batch." ”

An Jinquan also walked to Shi Kang's side, patted his chest guard with his hand and said, "With this thing, I will no longer be afraid of charging with arrows in the future!" ”

Li Qi held a small hammer in his hand, knocked on the shoulder of the plate armor and said to the supervisor Zheng Rong: "What is the matter with bending down here, warping?" Just for the sake of good looks?! In addition, the shoulder pads are erected on top of the shoulders to form a whole, which can just protect the neck after being buckled, which is equivalent to saving the retainer on the neck. ”

The production of this abbreviated version of plate armor was mainly due to the fact that in the course of the battle with the Khitan, there were too many wounded arrows in the army, which made Li Qi think that it was necessary to strengthen the defense capability of the cavalry, at least not to worry too much about the enemy's arrows. The armor has only increased the weight by more than ten kilograms, but the defense ability has been improved by leaps and bounds.

Of course, this is still a certain gap from that standard heavy cavalry.

In order to maintain flexibility, this type of plate armor mainly focuses on protecting the head and neck, chest and back, and limbs, and is not completely covered. Even so, the defensive power of this plate armor is not comparable to that of the previous chain mail.

With cast steel plates and a hydraulic hammer, this thing is not very difficult to make.

However, with the increase in the weight of the armor, the physical requirements for the soldiers have also increased correspondingly, and the cavalry is better and does not need to run away with heavy armor, while the hoplites need to be selected.

In fact, the Jin army was able to win more with less, and defeated the Khitan several times, which was to crush the enemy by virtue of its equipment superiority.

In this era, due to the limitation of the level of productivity, there are very few troops that can be equipped with armor, let alone equipped with this kind of steel plate armor with strong protection.

In addition, the material, without casting steel plate, it is impossible to forge such a large area of guard plate.

With good things, it is natural to help the officers and soldiers of the Santun Guard Battalion of the Jinyang Army to equip them first, so Yuan Ren, Fu Yanqing and An Xianqi don't need to speak, knowing that the Son of Heaven will never treat them badly.

Hazhong Province and Jinju are already the most densely populated areas in Hedong, and after acquiring these places, the recruitment and mobilization of immigrants in the northern region will be much smoother. In Li Qi's view, the struggle for world domination is a long-term matter, first lay a solid foundation and control the economic development in the region, and all problems will eventually fall into place.

Now Hedong is basically stable, the original strategy adopted by Zhuangzong Li Cunqiao is to march from Hebei to Nantu, but Li Qi's strategy is the opposite, first seek to stabilize the northwest, after stabilizing Guanzhong, Nantu Hanzhong, Shudi, and the original Qin State unified the world of the route is similar.

After the First World War, the Dingyan Army was much more honest, and after accidentally getting the river, the materials transported by Jinyang to Guanzhong were mostly transported from the river to Fenglingdu, and then transported to Huazhou and Chang'an. After hundreds of years of development in the Han and Tang dynasties, Guanzhong has relatively complete agricultural irrigation facilities, and only needs to repair the river canals and dams that were damaged by the war, and a lot of fertile land can be obtained.

It was Guanzhong that went through the war of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, and became the most severely damaged place, and many places were full of devastation and barrenness. In the history of another life, due to the involvement with the Western Xia War, the grand occasion of the Han and Tang dynasties was never restored and reproduced.

"Fengxiang Festival made Li Jiyan want to come to Jinyang to meet His Majesty, and now he has arrived in Chang'an." Zhang Shu came to Xinzhou to report this matter to Li Qi.

"Meet, inform Honglu Temple, after coming, accompany him to the workshops everywhere to go around, let him see more." Li Qi said. Li Maozhen, the king of Qi, has changed from a big warlord to a small warlord in the five dynasties, and his ambitions have long been exhausted, and after Zhuang Zong entered Luoyang, he simply took refuge in the Later Tang Dynasty and became one of the few warlords in the late Tang Dynasty who died well. Li Jiyan was appointed as a transit envoy in the expedition to Shu when Li Jiqi conquered Shu, and he was considered Li Qi's subordinate, but he was also conscientious and donated all the belongings that Fengxiang had accumulated over the years.

After the Xingjiaomen Change, Li Qi sneaked back to Jinyang, and Li Jiyan blocked Zhang Yun in Chencang Valley and prevented his subordinates from entering Guanzhong, which can be regarded as a great help to himself. Now Li Qi wants to conquer Hanzhong, and after he got the news, he actually came to Jinyang in person, probably to show his determination in person.

For such a person who understands current affairs, Li Qi naturally can't treat others badly.