In fact, if the weather is not cold, pour water on the cotton armor lined with iron sheets, and the bulletproof effect is simply invincible. This is similar to the principle of watering the quilt outside the table of the Eight Immortals during the Anti-Japanese War to resist the devil's machine gun.

Of course, the machine guns of the devils during the Anti-Japanese War were much more powerful than the muskets of this era. Therefore, if the cotton armor is watered, although it will become heavy, it will definitely be able to block the lead bullet of the musket of this era, which is not very powerful.

However, Marin will not promote the tactic of charging after watering the cotton armor, which is certainly effective, but if it is really promoted, the biggest victim may be the Beihai Kingdom. Because, the North Sea country has the most muskets!

Therefore, Marin will not promote any cotton armor watering technology, but let the death squad directly charge in dry cotton armor. In this way, even if you are hit by a bullet, you will still be injured. However, the probability of being fatal is greatly reduced, and there is a high chance of being saved.

Besides, those who charge in cotton armor are all barbarians who act as death squads, so why care if they are injured or not?

As for the real elite of Beihai Kingdom, Marin gave a plan of "double-layer rhinoceros leather armor inserted into steel plates". The double-layer rhinoceros leather armor is already strong in defense, and with a steel plate inserted in the middle, it is simply indestructible. Even if it is Marin himself, if he goes to the battlefield, he will just change the ordinary high-carbon steel plate inserted into a high-manganese steel plate.

As for the ordinary soldiers of the Beihai Kingdom, they directly wear shark skin armor and insert high-carbon steel plates into them. Now, the North Sea countries are promoting shark fishing. While cutting the shark's fin, the shark itself does not let go, peeling off the shark's skin to make leather armor and scabbards. Shark skin scabbards are very popular. And the unpalatable shark meat was directly processed into feed by Marin's order. In this way, waste is also avoided. You know, later fishing boats caught sharks by cutting off the fins and discarding the sharks themselves.

In this era, fishing at sea was just beginning, and the catch was very small. Often, a country's distant-water catch is not as good as that of several large trawlers in later generations. No way, there are hardly any fishing boats that dare to go deep into the ocean these days. The medium-sized fishing boats of several tens of tons that Marin withdrew from the Beihai State Shipyard were considered giants among fishing boats in this era. Only fishing boats of a few dozen tons dare to leave the offshore waters to fish in the deep sea. Ordinary fishermen's small boats only dare to fish close to the coastline, and they have to wait for the fishing flood, and the harvest is very small. It's not that they don't know the benefits of fishing in big boats, it's that these poor fishermen don't have the money to buy big boats.

It was only a traverser like Ma Lin, who had money after opening the hanging, so he engaged in the business of taking out loans to buy large fishing boats, so that ordinary people had the possibility of buying large fishing boats.

The big fishing boats used the winch trawls that Marin had withdrawn, and not only did they catch a lot of fish, but they were also able to catch big fish such as sharks. If it were a small boat for ordinary fishermen, even if the sharks were caught in the net, they would not be able to drag them up, but the sharks might overturn the boat.

Dozens of tons of fishing boats, coupled with a winch, have the confidence to compete with the powerful sharks. Moreover, catching sharks is simple – just kill them at sea and attract them with their blood.

Sharks are bloodthirsty and rush over excitedly whenever they smell blood. As long as you have a sturdy trawl ready, it's easy to catch the shark. It should be pointed out that ordinary fishing nets cannot catch sharks, and they are easy to be broken by sharks with great strength and escape. Only specially made thickened fishing nets can catch sharks.

And because there are no professional shark fishing boats and fishing nets, sharks are now everywhere in the ocean. Except for the more ferocious killer whales, sharks have no natural predators at all, so they are extremely numerous. Even though the professional shark fishing teams sent by the North Sea have caught thousands of sharks, they are not worth mentioning at all for the huge ocean. Even, in the North Sea fishing grounds, a large fishing ground, the loss of thousands of sharks is not a big deal. After all, there are many common fish in the North Sea fishing grounds, and there are naturally many sharks that eat small fish.

Moreover, shark skin armor has a special advantage - waterproof! After all, it is fish skin, which is waterproof and resistant to seawater corrosion. Wearing shark skin armor on rainy days can be used as a raincoat.

Therefore, now the sailors of the North Sea Kingdom, when fighting on the deck, have also begun to promote the wearing of shark skin armor. After all, this thing is not only protected from rain and water, but also has strong protection.

……

In fact, shark skin armor was the most popular in ancient China. In ancient China, there were very few sharks that could be caught, so shark skin was very precious, and it was also called "Jiao (dragon) skin". It's a little rough, but it's strong enough and non-slip. Therefore, the scabbard and scabbard made of shark skin were very high-end things in ancient China.

Even, because Jiaolong is also a dragon, the shark known as "Jiaolong skin" is often made of scabbards and hilts, which belong to high-end products that can only be used by emperors. Its status is much more upscale than any LV in later generations. For example, the sword of the great chief of Qianlong is a scabbard made of shark skin.

Why are sharkskin scabbards high-grade scabbards? In addition to the false "dragon" statement, the shark skin is rough and non-slip, which is easy to hold. Moreover, it is relatively waterproof and corrosion-resistant, and it is not easy to corrode the blade.

You know, ancient swords didn't have stainless steel, so maintenance is important. If you use other leather, you should wipe the blade frequently to avoid rusting in water. Moreover, other leathers are not as waterproof and corrosion-resistant as shark skin, and once the moisture penetrates and stains the blade, the sword will also rust, causing huge losses.

Therefore, using shark skin as a scabbard is not only tall, but also practical.

In dynasties like the Qing Dynasty, the hierarchy was particularly strict, and often only emperors and Manchu and Mongolian nobles could use shark skin as scabbards. If ordinary people dare to use it indiscriminately, their lives are in danger.

As for the Ming Dynasty, although the hierarchy was strict, it was much more lenient than the Qing Dynasty. The only problem is that the Ming Dynasty was particularly forbidden to the sea, resulting in no big fishing boats at sea, only a few small fishing boats secretly went to sea.

Small fishing boats don't dare to provoke powerful sharks, so there are very few sharks that can be caught. Even if the imperial court does not prohibit the people from owning sharkskin scabbards, you must have shark skin......

Of course, the Ming Dynasty was divided into two phases - one was before the "Longqing Switch" and after the "Longqing Switch". Before the "Longqing Switch", the Ming Dynasty forbade the sea, so there were few shark skins, so it was expensive. After the "Longqing switch", there were fishing boats going to sea, and Europeans and Japanese merchants exchanged worthless shark skins with the Ming Dynasty, and then the price of shark skins plummeted. In the Wanli period, a shark skin even fell to one or two hundred wen, which was not even as good as cowhide.

But the "Longqing Switch" was in 1567, and it was only 1515 at this time, and the Ming Dynasty was still closed to foreign countries and banned the sea. Even, the Japanese trade routes have not yet been opened up by the sea merchant Wang Zhi, and there is basically no cheap Japanese shark skin flowing in. So, at this time, shark skin is still a very rare thing.

For example, at the same time that Marin asked Kong Tai to send a warning to the Ming Dynasty, he sent 500 shark skins for trial marketing. As a result, the Ming Dynasty, which rarely saw shark skins because of the forbidden sea, directly smashed the high price and opened it to 1 tael of silver and a shark skin!

Perhaps, in Europe, where prices are high, one or two pieces of silver and a shark skin are not very high. However, in the Ming Dynasty, where prices were very low, this was a very high price. You must know that one tael of silver was in the Ming Dynasty, but you could buy two stones of rice. In the North Sea Kingdom, one tael of silver is 37.3 grams of silver, and can only be used to mint 49 standard silver finney coins. Counting the value of copper, it is worth more than fifty pinnes, and you can only buy more than fifty pounds of rye or ten pounds of wheat......

In the Ming Dynasty, sharks were mainly popular with military officers and brocade guards. As for the soldiers...... In fact, I also want to use shark skin as a scabbard, but my economic strength does not allow it...... And the officers usually collude with civilian officials to drink the blood of soldiers and eat empty salaries, so they naturally have the money to buy shark skin to make scabbards. And Jinyiwei, because those officers have a lot of ways to make money, they naturally have the money to buy shark skin to make scabbards......

The Ming army is one million, how many officers are there? So, this market is huge! And taking advantage of the current shortage of shark skin in the Ming Dynasty, Beihai can still take the opportunity to make a wave......

The 500 shark skins that Kong Tai used for trial marketing were snatched up as soon as they were sent to the Quanzhou wharf, and many wealthy businessmen with ties to the military also placed orders one after another, asking Beihai to send thousands more shark skins. After all, the demand on the side of the Ming Dynasty was too great. Whether it is the embroidered spring knife used by the Jinyi guards and generals, or the ordinary Yanling knife, it needs a well-made scabbard made of shark skin and used to wrap the handle (shark skin wraps the handle to prevent the hand from slipping and causing it to fall off, and it is also sweatproof......

After Kong Tai saw that shark skins were selling well in Daming, he sent a clipper to deliver the news to China - shark skins were selling hot in Daming and needed a large number of ......