Ma Cheng looked at the remaining pairs of armor, pointed to the Shanwen armor and asked, "Lord Zhang, is this Shanwen armor okay for me?" "Ma Cheng really likes this beautifully crafted armor, although he can't wear it now, it doesn't mean that he can't wear it in the future. Ma Cheng has been training with the soldiers for the past ten days, and he will definitely be able to wear it when his physical fitness comes up in the future.

This pair of mountain armor Zhang Guozhu was originally going to give it to Ma Cheng, and when he heard Ma Cheng say this, Zhang Guozhu smiled and said: "The second young master likes it, so you can take it naturally!" ”

Ma Cheng nodded with satisfaction, and then pointed to the full-body fish scale armor and said, "Lord Zhang, there are one hundred and eleven subordinates under him, how many such armors are there?" Give me one hundred and eleven sets! ”

Zhang Guozhu heard Ma Cheng say this, so he couldn't help but kick him to death, what did this second ancestor think? Fooling people's paper armor?

Fish scale armor is actually a kind of Chinese armor, which appeared very early, and countries have begun to equip a large number of countries during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The armor of the armor is a large rectangular piece of iron, with four to six holes in the iron sheet, and then the iron piece is firmly fastened to the raw cowhide with hemp rope.

In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, because the production process was not good, the armor was just ordinary armor, and the protection against long-range weapons such as bows and arrows was limited. At the same time, the Han Dynasty invented the folding nail piece braiding technology, each nail piece is pressed down and left is pressed to the right, so that the stress point is borne by the original one nail piece to the surrounding five or six nail pieces, so the protection ability is greatly strengthened. Because this cascading armor resembles fish scales, it is also called a fish scale armor.

This kind of fish scale armor has outstanding protection and beautiful style, so it was basically the armor worn by high-ranking generals in the Han Dynasty. But the army is a team fight, and a few people may be equipped with this kind of ornate armor, but hundreds of thousands of soldiers across the country can not be equipped with this kind of armor. Therefore, the armor reached its peak in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, but in the Sui and Tang dynasties, with the emergence of Mingguang armor and Shanwen armor with relatively simple production processes, the armor with cumbersome craftsmanship slowly declined.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were millions of troops across the country, and the economy of the Ming Dynasty was far less strong than that of the Tang and Song dynasties, so Shanwen armor could not be equipped, coupled with the large use of firearms in the Ming Dynasty, armor like Mingguang armor and Shanwen armor could not defend against the blow of lead bullets, so the cotton armor with simple craftsmanship and a certain defensive power against firearms began to prevail.

Zhang Guozhu took out these sets of armor are all high-quality products, all of them are for the generals in the army, Ma Cheng now wants a hundred sets as soon as he opens his mouth, Zhang Guozhu don't say no, even if he can take it out, he can't give it to Ma Cheng.

If other generals dared to talk to Zhang Guozhu like this, they would definitely be scolded, but Ma Cheng's identity was special, Zhang Guozhu had no choice but to say patiently: "Second young master, these armors are for generals in the army, ordinary soldiers can't afford to equip this kind of armor, if the second young master wants to equip armor for his subordinates, please take a look at this!" ”

After speaking, Zhang Guozhu pointed to the large pile of armor piled up in the corner of the warehouse, Ma Cheng stepped forward and picked it up and looked at it, this kind of armor is only equipped with armor pieces on the chest, and it is not the layering technology of fish scale armor, but it is made of more than 20 palm-sized iron pieces connected.

Ma Cheng looked at the iron pieces, it was not the good wrought iron he saw just now, it seemed to be made of pig iron molding, and there were sand hole bubbles on it.

This kind of armor is okay to defend against swords and guns, but it can't defend against bows and muskets at all, Ma Cheng turned around and asked, "Lord Zhang, is this the armor worn by ordinary soldiers?" ”

In fact, in the late Ming Dynasty, the armament was slack, except for the border army because it had to be better equipped to fight with the Mongolian Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the guards in all parts of the Central Plains had this kind of armor. Because Zhang Guozhu is the town mark of the governor, he has the priority to equip in order to get these decent armors from the Nanjing Military Bureau.

Zhang Guozhu sighed and said: "Second Young Master, these armors can only be issued after the chief lord bribed the steward eunuch of the War Bureau, and we don't have many of this kind of armor, only five hundred pairs, which is just enough for the town standard equipment." ”

Ma Cheng heard Zhang Guozhu say this and understood his difficulties, the whole country has rotted to the root from top to bottom, and this is not a problem that can be solved by one person.

Ma Cheng did not force Zhang Guozhu to give him armor, in Ma Cheng's plan, his army should be equipped with full firearms, and he would have to defend against the enemy outside the range of bows and arrows, so there was no need to equip this kind of bulky armor. However, the kind of cotton armor without armor is still needed, this kind of cotton armor has a certain defensive power against firearms bows and arrows, and because it is made of cotton, it also has a certain ability to keep warm.

"Master Zhang, is there a hundred sets of this kind of cotton armor?"

Zhang Guozhu nodded when he heard Ma Cheng say this: "There are a lot of this kind of cotton armor, which can meet the needs of the second young master!" ”

"Okay, but these hundred sets of cotton armor must be red, and one color looks good to wear!" There are many colors of cotton armor in the Ming Dynasty, most of them are mainly red, blue, and cyan, and Ma Cheng wants to be red, of course, not for good looks, but the musket uses black * gunpowder, which is full of gunpowder when fired, and if you don't wear a bright color military uniform, it is easy to distinguish between friend and foe on the battlefield.

Zhang Guozhu heard that Ma Cheng still had this kind of request, so he had no choice but to smile bitterly and nod in agreement.

The problem of armor is solved, and the next step is the musket.

Ma Cheng looked at the armor in this warehouse, and there were no muskets: "Lord Zhang, the 100 people of the last general must be equipped with firearms, can you let the last general see what firearms Lord Zhang has in his hands?" ”

Zhang Guozhu didn't expect Ma Cheng to equip all the 100 soldiers with firearms, even the elite of the army could not be 100% equipped with firearms. But Zhang Guozhu can't help it, he only hopes that Ma Cheng, a vampire, will get out of here now.

Zhang Guozhu led Ma Cheng to another warehouse, where firearms were placed. Although Zhang Guozhu doesn't have much armor here, he has a lot of firearms, and he has put a large warehouse full.

Ma Cheng thought that the Ming army was equipped with only two kinds of firearms, muskets and artillery, but when he entered the warehouse, he found that he was wrong, there were many types of firearms in the Ming army, and Ma Cheng found more than a dozen kinds at a glance.

Later, Mr. Lu Xun famously said: "Foreign countries use gunpowder to make bullets to resist the enemy, but China uses it to make firecrackers to worship God; Foreign countries use compass needles for navigation, but China uses it to see feng shui. "Because of the lofty position of Mr. Lu Xun in the literary world in later generations, many people believe that China lags far behind the West in the use of firearms.

The author himself has always respected Mr. Lu Xun, but he really can't agree with this sentence. The use of gunpowder for military purposes in China began during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and reached a peak in the Song Dynasty. However, at that time, the ratio of gunpowder was not scientific, and there were many types of firearms, so firearms were only auxiliary means in battle.

In the Yuan Dynasty, after absorbing Western firearms technology, coupled with the ingenuity of Chinese craftsmen, the numerous firearms of the Song Dynasty were simplified, and the army began to gradually equip the army with metal body weapons.

In the Northern Expedition of Zhu Yuanzhang in the Ming Dynasty, the number of firearms and equipment in the army reached half, and during the Zhu Di period, a full-firearms Shenji battalion was also formed in the Imperial Forest Army. According to records, the Ming army's Shenji battalion had 5,000 soldiers and was equipped with 3,600 firearms, which basically reached one shot per person. At the same time, the Shenji battalion was also equipped with field artillery, equipped with 160 artillery pieces of General Zhankou, and also equipped the artillery with 400 handles, that is, self-defense short guns. This kind of firepower density cannot be reached by the British army during the Opium Wars, not to mention Europe at that time. Of course, this only refers to the proportion of firearms and equipment, and if you compare the power of firearms, the Ming army is definitely inferior to the British army.

The firearms of the Ming Dynasty have always been ahead of Europe in the early stage, and were gradually surpassed by Europe in the middle and later periods, but the number of firearms and equipment is still several times that of Europe.

In the late Ming Dynasty, there were already intellectuals who realized that firearms lagged behind Europe, so some people had begun to learn from Western firearms and gradually improve the Ming military firearms. The most famous of these is Zhao Shizhen.

Zhao Shizhen improved and invented more than a dozen kinds of firearms in his lifetime, among which the Thunderbolt, Qingdian Gun, and Lumi Gun have surpassed similar weapons in Europe and become the standard equipment of the Ming army.

Now Ma Cheng is holding a thunderbolt in his hand, this musket consists of five barrels, and there is a grip on the back, which can fire the musket continuously during combat. Ma Cheng was very curious when he saw this strange firearm in his hand, isn't this the kind of hand-cranked Gatling in the movie?

Ma Cheng looked up and down, left and right, this kind of weapon, although it can reach a firepower density of one to five, but this kind of multi-barreled musket is very cumbersome in the charge, no wonder this kind of multi-barreled weapon was not popularized in later generations. Only when metal fixed ammunition appears, the spring of multi-barreled weapons will come.

Put down the thunderbolt Ma Cheng and pick up the electric gun, this kind of musket is a small-caliber Franc machine, in fact, Zhao Shizhen also referred to the Franc machine to invent the electric gun. This musket has a magazine at the rear of the barrel that is used to place the sub-guns and then fire them with the arquebus, each of which is equipped with six sub-guns to create a continuous fire.

However, the shortcomings of this musket are also obvious, that is, the airtightness is not enough, resulting in a very short range, and the power of gunpowder in the Ming Dynasty is insufficient, so the effective range of the gun is only 30 steps, that is, more than 40 meters.

Ma Cheng looked at this electric gun and felt flashy, this kind of fire gun is not as refreshing as the large Buddha machine.

The next musket is the famous Lumi gun, which refers to Turkey in the Ming Dynasty, and this musket is also improved by Zhao Shizhen according to the Turkish musket. This kind of musket has basically possessed the characteristics of the flintlock pistol of later generations, with an aiming mechanism and an ignition device, and it is completely a flintlock pistol in addition to firing the fire rope.

Ma Cheng checked this Lu Mi gun with his hand, the weight was about seven or eight catties, and the length was about seven feet, Ma Cheng asked: "Lord Zhang, how far is the range of this fire gun?" ”

The ambassador from the warehouse on the side hurriedly stepped forward and explained: "My lord, this kind of Lumi gun is four dollars per charge, three dollars for buckshot, and the range is three hundred paces!" ”

Ma Cheng was taken aback when he heard the ambassador say this, in the Ming Dynasty, one step required two legs to be counted as one step, so the distance of one step was about one meter two, and three hundred steps was not nearly four hundred meters? The rifled rifles of later generations also had this range, and the smoothbore arquebuses of the Ming Dynasty could reach this range?