The scientific name of the slatted armor is the Roman ring armor, and as the name suggests, the entire armor is composed of ring iron pieces of different widths. Because the production process of this kind of slatted armor is not as cumbersome as chain mail and armor, and the defense is not bad, it was equipped with a large number of ordinary infantry during the Roman Empire.

Of course, this second-rate defense is still inferior to well-made armor and chain mail, so the middle-aged soldiers in the Roman legions, that is, the real elite, wear chain mail and chain mail.

With the increasing number of imperial troops, the labor-intensive chain mail could not be equipped, so it had no choice but to equip this kind of fast-producing slatted armor.

In fact, there were also slatted armors in East Asia, and in Japan, because the production process was not good, it was impossible to manufacture exquisite chain mail and slab armor, so slatted armor also appeared in the Muromachi period. The same is true in China, where there was also a period of slatted armor during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. However, because China's population and industrial base were much stronger than those of the Roman Empire, it only used slatted armor in non-critical parts, and it still used armor with better defense capabilities in key parts such as the chest.

The use of slatted armor is Ma Cheng's helpless move, before Ma Cheng thought that Nanjing, which was backed by the tiger and the dragon, would definitely not have problems with weapons and equipment, after all, there was an weapons bureau in Nanjing, from the Hongwu period to the Chongzhen period never stopped production, and the accumulation of more than 200 years is a lot of wealth. But when Ma Cheng rushed to the arsenal in the imperial city to check, he found that the accumulation of more than two hundred years had become a pile of rags.

When he saw that there were piles of embroidered armor stacked in the warehouse, and there were only steel knives with only the hilt left, Ma Cheng was really angry.

Ma Cheng immediately asked for an order to arrest the eunuch in charge of the warehouse, and was ready to interrogate him about what happened in the arsenal. But what was waiting for Ma Cheng was the emperor's fluttering words, I know! There will be no follow-up.

Ma Cheng saw that the emperor was angry and went to Lu Jiude, hoping that Lao Lu would come forward to explain why. Lu Jiude is in charge of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and the arsenal in the palace is under his control.

But Lu Jiude's words made Ma Cheng lose his temper after seeing Ma Cheng, and your father also benefited here!

Lu Jiude is right, the imperial court has to invest a lot of money for the Nanjing Ordnance Bureau every year, and such a large sum of money naturally has to be reaped by the bigwigs from all walks of life, from the cabinet elders who manage the military department in the central government, to the secretary and squire of the military department, as well as the directors of various departments of the military department, to the ambassador of the Nanjing Ordnance Bureau, to the eunuch of Nanjing Town, and Ma Shiying, a big man who manages the local army, officials at all levels are full of food in this big vat.

The silver allocated by the central government has been divided up layer by layer, and naturally there is not much in the hands of the Ordnance Bureau and the arsenal, so what maintenance is there if there is no money? What armor do you make without money? Therefore, the Ordnance Bureau can only use limited funds to make more than 100 pairs of qualified armor every year, and the rest are shoddy goods.

Even these more than 100 pairs of qualified armor can't reach the soldiers, because the stewards and eunuchs of the arsenal still have to take a bite, so most of the soldiers' equipment of the front-line superintendents are made by themselves. In this way, a kind of strange circle was formed, the imperial court invested a lot of silver in armaments every year, but the more money was invested, the less the front-line soldiers received, and the combat effectiveness of the soldiers could not be guaranteed. Seeing that the soldiers had no combat effectiveness, the imperial court could only increase taxes and increase military input again. In the end, except for a few people in real power, the whole country was satisfied, from ordinary peasants to grassroots soldiers, and the country should naturally die.

Of course, Lu Jiude will not talk to Ma Cheng in such detail, but Ma Cheng has now seen the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, and after listening to Lu Jiude, he will know what it means, this situation is a dead end, don't say that the current emperor Zhu Yousong is just a big fat man who eats and waits for death, that is, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di are reborn, and they will be sad in the face of this mess.

After Ma Cheng heard what Lu Jiude said, he decided not to investigate this matter, not because Ma Cheng was kind, but it was not easy for his son Ma Shiying to support his family. But Ma Cheng is now only a Qiu Ba, with only more than 20,000 unarmed soldiers under his command, and this kind of strength is not qualified to confront the vested interests of the whole world.

There was no way for Ma Cheng to make armor independently, most of the weapons manufacturing in the Ming Dynasty was a handicraft industry, and it took three craftsmen a month to make a qualified pair of armor, and it only took half a month for a craftsman to make a slatted armor. In order to save time, Ma Cheng had to be forced to use slatted armor, which was not very defensive and flexible.

In fact, a pair of slatted armor is much lighter than a pair of slatted armor, a pair of half-body slatted armor costs more than 30 catties, but a pair of half-body slatted armor only costs 20 catties. However, because the slatted armor is made of slatted iron plates, there is no force point between the waist and abdomen, and the weight of the entire armor is concentrated on the shoulders, so it is okay to fight defensive battles in situ, and the flexibility is far less than that of the armor in large-scale mobile combat.

Fortunately, Ma Cheng has now invented steelmaking technology, the use of steel increases the defense of the slatted armor and also reduces the weight, and a pair of full-body slatted armor weighs only thirty pounds.

Although the production time of a pair of slats has been shortened to half a month after Ma Cheng's improvement, a lot of time is still wasted on the production of slats. A deck of slats requires twenty-four ring-shaped slats of different shapes, eighteen on the upper body and six on the lower body, which are produced in the steelmaking workshop and then hand-made by blacksmiths to reduce air bubbles in the slats, a process that takes a lot of time.

Now that the steam engine has been put into use, it is completely possible to develop an air hammer, and use the air hammer instead of the repeated beating of the blacksmith, not to mention the quality, it can also save a lot of time, and now Ma Cheng needs time. I love Search.com

Song Yingxing knew the importance of the steam engine to Ma Cheng, but he didn't understand what earth-shaking changes this steaming iron guy could have on industrial production.

Ma Cheng happily said to Song Yingxing: "Teacher, now that the steam engine has succeeded, the next step is to ask the teacher to replace all the manual parts in the workshop with steam power!" ”

Song Yingxing smiled contemptuously when he heard Ma Cheng say this: "Hmph, Ma boy, you underestimate the old man too much, can this little thing stump the old man?" ”

Ma Cheng didn't say anything when he heard Song Yingxing bragging here, and took out a few more drawings from his arms, these are all improved machinery made by Ma Cheng and Chen Zilong, including the most important air hammer, Song Yingxing took the drawings and looked dumbfounded, he hadn't seen anything in them at all. But fortunately, Song Yingxing followed Ma Cheng to understand modern mathematics, and all kinds of symbols on it could be understood.

Song Yingxing was not a master of science and technology in the Ming Dynasty, and he familiarized himself with Ma Cheng's drawings within a few days, and then took Xu Zhenye to start improving the various machinery of the Ordnance Bureau. At the end of August, the slats were produced, and at the end of September, the production scale was formed, and 500 pairs of slats could be produced every month.

The better weapons of the Ming Dynasty were all tempered, and now there is good steel, and instead of artificial air hammers, they are added. Craftsmen only need to make a mold, use molten steel to produce a rough embryo, after the air hammer forging, and then the blade is out of the factory. It only takes half an hour for a 100-steel knife to be produced, and because the entire blade is made of stainless steel, the toughness is much stronger than that of a 100-steel knife. Of course, it is not that there are no shortcomings, although the sharpness of this industrially produced steel knife is enough, but the blade lacks the kind of repeatedly folded moire, and the appearance is greatly reduced.

With Song Yingxing's accession, Ma Cheng was completely liberated, and at the same time, Song Yingxing according to the assembly line process proposed by Ma Cheng was localized and improved in the Ming Dynasty, which greatly increased the production speed of the Ordnance Bureau.

Ma Cheng, who had no worries, began to let go of his hands and feet to devote himself to recruit training, and with a strict reward and punishment mechanism, recruit training was also on the right track.

Autumn and winter came and went to December, and in the Ming Dynasty, due to the influence of the Xiaoice River weather, snow began to fall here in Nanzhili in October, and the temperature in December had reached more than ten degrees below zero.

According to the standards of the Ming Dynasty, you shouldn't be able to after the snow falls, but Ma Cheng doesn't care about this, Lao Tzu uses money to support you Qiu Ba every day, and if you want to snow, you don't train? There are no doors!

Today is the prescribed time for the exercise, and before dawn, Ma Cheng sat neatly dressed in the big tent of the Chinese army, looking at the sun showing the first rays of dawn, Ma Cheng said in a low voice: "The exercise begins!" ”

With Ma Cheng's general order, the eight-sided cowhide drum outside the Chinese army's big tent was shaking the earth, and the first drill in December was the beginning!

As soon as the big drum sounded, the entire silent camp immediately boiled, and the grass-roots officers such as the general flag and the small flag began to urge their soldiers to wear armor for training, and the senior generals such as the general and deputy generals also hurriedly got out of their tents and ran to the Chinese army camp while getting dressed.

The first to arrive was Zhang Guozhu, although this guy was in his forties, he was full of energy, and he could still walk like a fly wearing a good armor of more than forty pounds.

After Zhang Guozhu entered the big tent, he knelt down on one knee and shouted: "Zhang Guozhu, the chief soldier of the former battalion, meets the Lord of the Military Gate!" ”

Ma Cheng nodded, and asked Zhang Guozhu to get up and stand beside him, this guy is Ma Cheng's deputy general, and he is the second person in the army after Ma Cheng.

The second one arrived was Ma Xi, after half a year of training, Ma Xi changed his appearance as a weak scholar and truly became a general in the army. Ma Xi also knelt down on one knee when he entered the big tent and shouted: "Ma Xi, the chief soldier of the rear battalion, greets the military gate!" Ma Xi stood up and stood aside.

Next, Ma Cheng's generals arrived one after another, in addition to the four major generals, Ma Cheng also had more than 30 deputy generals and generals, according to Ma Cheng's military system, there was actually no need for so many senior generals, but these guys were all gold-plated guys stuffed in by Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng's party, and Ma Cheng had no choice but to accept them all. These guys are all very high-level, but they are in charge of the affairs of thousands of households, Ma Cheng's idea is to do what he likes, and if he doesn't like to do it, he can get out!