The rattan armor is similar to the wood chip armor invented by Ma Lin, both of which are plant armors and are very lightweight. But the difference between the two is still very big, Marin's wood chips are pierced with armor, and the protection is not good. If you don't put a layer of iron on the outside of the wood chips, it is not very practical. At most, reducing the degree of injury to soldiers does not protect against the damage of weapons, especially metal weapons.

Strictly speaking, this kind of thing is used to fight Native Americans. Because, the weapons of the Native Americans are too bad, they are all stone tools, and even the bowstrings are some plant vines, which are soft and weak. Therefore, wood chips can still be mixed in the Americas, but in Europe, it is absolutely useless not to cover the iron sheet.

However, even if you are covered with iron skin, you can only resist some ordinary sword damage at most. Powerful bows and crossbows are unstoppable. As for the musket, there is no solution to that, and the plate armor is useless.

But the defensive power of the vine armor, Marin still knows. This kind of rattan armor, which has been experimented with on TV shows in later generations, can resist the fire of ordinary bows and crossbows (except for heavy crossbows), not to mention swords.

Moreover, it is also cheap to make, that is, some old vines cut from the mountains, as well as tung oil and lacquer, are not worth much. At least, it wasn't worth much in the Ming Dynasty.

It doesn't cost anything to cut the old vine on the mountain, and as for tung oil and lacquer, the price is not expensive. Tung oil is only 30 wen a catty in Daming, and raw lacquer is more expensive, but it is only 65 wen a catty. To make a set of rattan armor (including rattan helmet and rattan card), the cost does not exceed 2 taels of silver, including the cost of craftsmen. If it is left in Europe, the labor cost alone is more than 2 taels of silver.

It's just that the general rattan armor has a major disadvantage - fear of fire. The paragraph "Burning Rattan Armor Soldiers" in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is too famous, so even the Ming Dynasty doesn't like to promote rattan armor very much. Because, with the popularity of the script of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", even the peddlers and pawns of the Ming Dynasty knew the weakness of the rattan armor, and naturally no one was willing to make any rattan armor.

However, Li Cripple, a former guard soldier and rattan weaving master, combined with the shortcomings of the rattan armor soaked in tung oil is afraid of fire, and came up with a way to use raw lacquer to apply a thick layer on the surface of the rattan armor and rattan brand to solve the problem of fear of fire. Because, lacquer is not afraid of water, but also not afraid of fire. As long as the lacquer coating is thick enough, the rattan armor is not afraid of fire.

Seeing that the cost of rattan armor is not high, it is lightweight, and the protection power is high, as soon as Ma Lin was happy, he asked Li Cripple to take a group of rattan weaving masters to help him make a large number of rattan shields and rattan armor, and use them back to Europe for good luck. Also, it was shipped to the Americas for use.

The jungles of North America were too dense to send cavalry into, only infantry. But because of the ubiquitous threat of cold arrows from the Indians, the soldiers needed armor with high protection. The plate armor is invincible, but you can't run at all when you wear it. Even if you can run, you can't go far, and the speed is super slow. And rattan armor, which is light and highly protected, has become the best choice for jungle warfare. What's more, rattan is also the best shield to fight the natives. Even the local shield soldiers, Marin plans to switch to rattan cards to save the soldier's physical strength.

……

Just when Ma Lin asked Kong Tai to send a smuggling speedboat to Meizhou Island to purchase more tung oil and lacquer, good news came from Feng Xu, a hundred households of Quanzhou Jinyi Wei - Liu Jin agreed to the request of Ma Lin's fleet to go north and land at Dagukou, but only allowed Ma Lin to carry weapons when landing with his entourage. This is because Liu Jin is afraid that Ma Lin, a barbarian, will take the opportunity to attack Tianjin Wei. Therefore, Marin was asked not to go ashore with weapons. As for the Furang cannons and muskets that were sacrificed, they were handed over to the soldiers of Tianjin Wei and transported to the capital.

This news was reported to Quanzhou by Liu Jin through the post station system, using the official post station system. Because Di Bao pays attention to timeliness, it is often delivered quickly. Although it can't reach the level of 800 miles of urgency, because it is a post relay, the transmission speed is much faster than that of ordinary people. Because, through the post station system, the message can be changed at any time, and there is no need to wait for the horses to rest on their own before hitting the road.

But when the news reached Ma Lin, it was already late May, and it was only two or three months before Liu Jin's downfall. Fortunately, Marin's ships are fast, and it is not a problem to travel nearly 100 kilometers a day. The distance from Tamsui Fort to Tianjin Wei is only more than 1,600 kilometers, and there is no need to take a detour on the sea. Therefore, Marlin is not worried about delays.

But before leaving, Marin suddenly remembered one thing - he needed some glass......

What does he want glass for? Not for trade, not for bribes, but to make a greenhouse for Galapagos tortoises.

After all, the Galapagos tortoise is a tropical creature that loves warmth and cold. The capital is located in the north, and it is relatively cold for nearly half of the year, and the Galapagos tortoise may not be adapted.

But the problem is that the Galapagos tortoise is an "auspicious rui" offered by Marin, and there can be no problem. If you die, it will not be auspicious, but unlucky. If you dare to bring bad luck to the Ming Court, Marin's trade qualification will be canceled in minutes.

Therefore, these Galapagos tortoises must not be raised to death. At least, it can't die so quickly. Otherwise, this is not auspicious.

Marin regretted catching these Galapagos tortoises, but the reason for his landing from Tianjin Wei was to escort "Xiangrui" to the shore. Otherwise, he had no reason to take the shortcut of Tianjin Wei. If you land from Fuzhou or Ningbo, which are reception points for vassal states, and then go to Beijing, it is estimated that it will be delayed for several months. When the time comes, Liu Jin will fall, and things will be a little difficult to handle. Because, Liu Jin can do things through bribery when he is in power, and it is not impossible for Liu Jin to fall and let those civil officials do their official business and delay you for a few years.

Therefore, Marin is also difficult to ride a tiger now, and must sacrifice the Galapagos tortoise. Moreover, it is important to ensure that the tortoises are not raised to death.

And the best way to keep the tortoises from being raised to death is to build a greenhouse. But Marin remembers that the Galapagos tortoise had a habit of getting at least an hour or two in the sun every day, otherwise it would affect their health......

This is stumped Marin, how cold is it in the winter in Jingbei? The cold weather made the Galapagos tortoise, an equatorial creature, go out to bask in the sun, and it was sure to freeze to death.

So, the only way is for the Galapagos tortoise to bask in the sun through the glass of the conservatory......

But the problem is that the Ming Dynasty did not have transparent glass at all, and crystal was too expensive......

In desperation, Marin had no choice but to make another cameo as a craftsman, and decided to burn a batch of glass by himself and take it north, and by the way, help these "turtles" build a glass greenhouse......

……

So, while asking his subordinates to build a crucible furnace for burning glass, Ma Lin sent people to the Ming Dynasty to purchase quartz sand, mouth soda, and lead ore for burning glass...... Obviously, what he wanted to fire was the most basic optical glass, lead glass......

In fact, there is an important ingredient for burning glass - borax, but Marin is not sure if it existed in the Ming Dynasty. As a result, when I inquired, this thing Huaxia had already had a ......

It turns out that in the Song Dynasty, borax was used as a traditional Chinese medicine. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the official book "Taiping Shenghui Fang" mentioned borax, and also introduced its role - clearing heat and relieving phlegm, detoxifying and antiseptic......

Although the price is more expensive, 500 wen per catty, this is already several times cheaper than in Europe. In Europe, the price of borax is about 3 taels of silver per catty, which is 6 times more expensive than that of the Ming Dynasty. Fortunately, this is only an auxiliary material for burning glass, and it is not used much, otherwise the price of glass will be expensive.

In addition, Ma Lin also sent people deep into the mountains to find the legendary Keelung Badouzi Coal Mine. Unfortunately, the mountains are high and dense, and it is difficult to find them for a while. So, he simply asked people to buy coal on the mainland. Anyway, coal on land is not expensive......

When the crucible furnace with the combustion chamber was repaired, the smuggling speedboat sent to Meizhou Island also brought back enough quartz sand, mouth soda, borax and coal.

Marin then called the first mate, West, who had been an apprentice in the glass factory, to come and make the glass. Before smelting the raw material, West had the material washed and washed, and a simple copper roller made out of copper rods.

After that, the washed and dried ingredients are poured into a crucible furnace and simmered with coal. When the temperature reached 1,000 degrees Celsius enough to make steel, West asked the helping craftsmen to pour molten glass onto a platform prepared in advance. Once the solution had solidified into a gelatinous form, West picked up the copper roller and began to grind the gelatinous glass around until it was in the shape of a large flat plate.

Then, the large pieces of flat glass are put into the annealing furnace by West, and the annealing process is carried out before the flat glass is considered successful......

In one go, West processed all the raw materials into blocks of one-foot-square flat glass and packed the ship. These flat glasses are enough to build a relatively large glass greenhouse. Anyway, the glass greenhouse doesn't need to be glass on all sides, it only needs to be glass on the south side......

After preparing the glass for the greenhouse where the Galapagos tortoises were housed, Marin finally prepared everything and led the fleet north to Dagukou, where he prepared to land the tribute......