Somewhere next to the water wheel, three craftsmen were swinging their own swings, and Yu Wenwen stood by and watched them 'play', there were many devices next to this water wheel, and there were only Zhang Yu in the whole yard except for the four of them.

Yu Wenwen came out of the armory supervisor by the Santai River, and came to his own workshop by the river, there are many 'black technologies' in it, so there are many guards and guards, except for him who brought Zhang Yu in, the other entourages are waiting in the reception room outside the high wall.

The courtyard where they are now located is a special workshop, and the technique here is simple, but it cannot be passed on, because it is the original history of the 15th century that only appeared in the fifteenth century.

Silk drawing, as the name suggests, is to pull something into 'silk', Yuwenwen with the experience of his predecessors, in this era will be the silk drawing process 'one step in place', directly evolved to hydraulic wire drawing, and this yard is the silk drawing workshop.

To make iron wire, you must first have a wire drawing plate, which is made of high-quality iron materials, and a series of holes with decreasing diameter are made on it, and the power of wire drawing is to use water power, the waterwheel drives the crank, and the crank is tied to the rope, and the end of the rope is a pair of pliers clamped with a clamp.

The blacksmith sits on a swing of the right height, so that he can clamp the wire drawn from the drawing plate with pliers, and when the crank stretches the wire, he can retreat with it, and of course, low-strength metals such as gold, silver, and brass do not have to be drawn by this troublesome method.

At this moment, the craftsman sits on the swing, the swing moves with the crank, and the crank is driven by the waterwheel, and if the rope is loose and the swing moves forward, he moves the pliers forward, and when the rope is tight, he clamps the wire with the pliers.

In this way, a piece of iron wire with a uniform diameter was pulled out, and then sent to the Ordnance Supervision for the craftsmen to weave the ring lock armor, from the tap to the ring lock armor, but the wire drawing process was carried out in Yu Wenwen's workshop.

Hydraulic drawing, this technology has now been drummed out by Yuwenwen nearly a thousand years in advance, in fact, the principle is nothing special, skilled craftsmen will see it at a glance, but based on the concerns of technology diffusion, Yuwenwen decided to try to control it in his hands as much as possible.

With the wire, the next thing is easy, wrap the wire around the round stick, and then cut it from the middle, and you can get many iron rings.

Knock the iron ring flat, knock it flat at the interface, knock two holes with a punch, put in a small piece of iron wire and rivet it again, and it becomes an iron ring that is not easy to be stretched open. Then repeat the process over and over again.

There are many ways to spell the iron ring, an iron ring through two iron rings is called one through two, and then one wears three until one wears six, the common one wears four, of course, there are other kinds of spelling, these basic units are put together to become a chain cloth, and finally woven into clothes to become a ring lock armor.

Because it is a new type of armor, the craftsmen are still perfecting the production process of bad lock armor, taking the splicing chain cloth as an example, at the beginning, it took two people to be busy for fifteen days to spell out the chain cloth seven feet long and four and a half feet wide, but now it has been shortened to ten days, and it will take less time to be skilled.

Watching the craftsman pull the wire, Yu Wenwen felt a little emotional, and he recalled the experience of the year.

The key to the production of ring lock armor/chain mail is the iron ring, and the source of the iron ring is the iron wire, so how to make the iron wire has become the core problem, and the production process around the iron wire has become the root of a war of words in later generations.

Ring chain armor/chain mail, appeared very early in Europe, and was widely equipped during the Crusades, typical Crusader soldiers, both infantry and cavalry wore a chain mail, with a robe painted with a cross and a long sword, which is a well-known image of the crusader in film and television and animation works.

The era of the Crusaders' several expeditions to the Holy Land of Jerusalem was about the two Song Dynasty in the Central Plains, when the Song army was still equipped with the armor that has been inherited since ancient times, that is, pieces of armor leaves are worn with leather ropes, which looks like mahjong mat-like armor, of course, there is no gap between the armor leaves.

Then some people ask the question: why can European armies be equipped with chain mail in batches, but the Central Plains army has not seen this kind of armor widely equipped?

The key to chain mail is to make iron rings, and iron rings are made of iron wire, chain mail seems to be missing in the army, I think it is impossible to make iron wire, you must know that Europe has been there at the beginning of the Common Era.

Can't even make a wire, Zhongyuan Technology really can't do it!

In any online forum, as long as this remark is made, it can immediately stir up a thousand waves, and the two sides of the debate will immediately start a war of words, and the gods of all sides will keep quoting scriptures, and various parameters will sweep all directions like a storm.

Yu Wenwen remembers that he was like an ant, forced to watch two elephants fight on the spot, hiding less than a centimeter away and shivering, he is not an expert in the relevant field, and he doesn't know which side is right and which side is wrong, but after countless times of 'onlookers', he finally figured out something.

It is true that the Central Plains did not equip the army on a large scale with chain mail/ring chain armor as in Europe during the same period, but this does not mean that there is no ring chain armor/chain mail, and the earliest place where ring chain armor appeared in historical materials was the Three Kingdoms period.

Cao Zhi, who wrote "Luo Shen Fu", wrote in his "The First Emperor Bestows His Ministers with Armor": "The first emperor gave his ministers armor, one collar for black light and one bright light, one collar for ring lock armor, and one collar for horse armor. ”

This is the earliest written record of Mingguang armor and ring lock armor, of course, this refers to the written record that can be found by later generations, so it can be seen that at least the ring lock armor has appeared in the Three Kingdoms.

In the Tang Dynasty, ring lock armor was one of the thirteen types of armor, so it is biased to say that the Central Plains could not make ring lock armor, or that there was no equipment.

Of course, the topic is not over yet, and there are still people who question that there is ring lock armor but "there is no large-scale equipment", is there no way to make suitable wire, so there is no way to mass production?

Can you make iron wire, the Han Dynasty's gold jade clothes, silver jade clothes, and copper jade clothes have given the answer, of course, some people say that gold, silver, and copper are very soft, and the difficulty of making them is not comparable with iron wire.

This controversy is related to the efficiency of the production process, that is, the so-called Central Plains wire drawing process in the end, anyway, each has its own opinion, one side believes that there is no large-scale equipment to indicate that the wire drawing process is poor, resulting in the inability to 'go up', and the other side believes that the ring lock armor protection is not as good as the armor, so there is no need for large-scale equipment.

Through the verbal battles between the two sides of the debate, Yu Wenwen learned some knowledge: the ability of ring chain armor/chain mail to defend against bows and arrows is worse than that of Za armor, of course, there are other things that are made by Seiko.

Therefore, the ring lock armor/chain mail is not an invincible armor, but because of its advantages, Yu Wenwen still decided to make it, first, the ring lock armor can be used as the inner armor, and the reason is that the wire drawing process of making the ring lock armor can also be used as another way.

With the 'iron wire', it is much more convenient to make nails, and even the efficiency of making iron needles has also come up, and in the Xisai Mountain Warfare, the hook rope that Zhou Jun used to entangle Chen Jun's vehicles and boats and water wheels was made in this way.

"Lord Lang, is this ring lock armor going to be equipped for the Tiger Forest Army?" Zhang Yu asked, it was the first time he had seen wire drawing, so he thought it was amazing, and when he saw that the ordnance supervisor was groping for the production process of ring lock armor, he had questions.

"No, ration the vanguard of melee combat as inner armor." Yuwen Wen replied, the armor is still mainly armor, even if it can only be made into a mahjong-sized armor leaf, as long as it is carefully made, then the defense is good, as for the bright and blind plate armor, let's talk about it when the metallurgical level is reached.

Metallurgy is a problem, output is another problem, river sand iron selection is digging river sand is by manpower, the daily output of iron sand can be screened out is not high, the iron has to be made to make arrowheads, and the rest is considered for other use.

"Lord Lang, if this ring lock armor is embroidered, what should I do?" Zhang Yu asked again, he had been a soldier in the navy, and he knew that the water vapor in Jiangnan was heavy and it often rained, and the armor leaves of the Liangdang armor and the barrel sleeve armor were easy to rust, but this armor leaf could be wiped off the rust frequently, and he couldn't figure out what to do with the ring lock armor.

"Just wash it with sand." Yu Wenwen replied straightforwardly, regardless of whether Zhang Yu figured it out or not, he turned around and walked out the door, "Let's go, go and see another thing." ”……

In the courtyard next door, Yu Wenwen was watching Lin Youdi instruct the craftsman to replace the water wheel, to be precise, to replace the core component of the water wheel - the bearing, of course, this is just a common iron shaft and iron bearing.

However, it is not simple to replace it, it is a high-tech product - roller bearing, that is, roller bearing, or the scientific name "cylindrical roller bearing", which is less resistant than the original bearing, and the water wheel rotates more easily.

That is, to make the rotation efficiency higher, the wear rate to slow down and make the water wheel more durable, the water wheel and the wheel are used for sliding bearings, to reduce friction in the way of reducing the contact surface, although it can be used, but it is not as good as roller bearings.

The most powerful thing is naturally ball bearings, but today's technology can't do it, whether it is machining accuracy or the production of steel balls, it is not Yuwenwen's black workshop to do, so he retreats to make roller bearings.

It took more than a year to get it out, and it was barely usable, and now it's just for trial operation.

"Lord Lang, what kind of bearing is just used to turn the water wheel?" Zhang Yu asked, he had seen the craftsmen work hard to make this bearing, and it was too wasteful to use it only on a water wheel or a water wheel.

"Of course not, anything that can be turned can be used later." Yu Wenwen is in a good mood, although it is only a trial run, it is finally useful, he burns money to maintain the black workshop, and he is naturally happy to see some light.

"Can it be used in a carriage?" Zhang Yu began to think of related uses, and the first thing that came to mind was the common carriage, the wheels of the carriage naturally had to turn, but he felt that this was a bit of a waste.

It's all made of fine iron, and you have to use two for a two-wheeled carriage and five for a four-wheeled carriage, because the extra one is for the steering wheel.

"It's not just horse-drawn carriages, it's windmills, there's a lot of it." Yu Wenwen said that he asked the craftsmen to make the bearings with great effort, which will naturally not be limited to the powerful 'trial type', but also the 'mass production type' for miscellaneous soldiers.

Zhang Yu mentioned the carriage, there will naturally be a four-wheeled carriage, this is Yuwenwen's 'invention' thing, as usual pushed to the Western Regions Fanshang, after the four-wheeled carriage appeared, the number began to soar in the early stage, but the growth rate slowed down to a certain extent.

Regarding this problem, Yu Wenwen made statistics, and the reason is very simple: the failure rate is high, and the poor cannot afford to use it.

A two-wheeled carriage is prone to breakdown in three places: two wheels and one axle. As long as there is a problem in any of these three places, the carriage has to be stopped and repaired, and other small problems can be slowed down, and the problems of these three fault points cannot be avoided.

So the problem arises, for four-wheeled carriages, there are seven places that are prone to failure: four wheels, two axles, and a steering wheel. The reason is the same as above, once there is a problem, it must be repaired.

The four-wheeled carriage is really powerful on the official road in good condition, the load-bearing capacity is increased, and the burden on the horses is not so great, but when it comes to the country road with a bit of bad road conditions, it is over, and only one of the seven fault points has to be repaired.

If the load-bearing capacity increases, the load of the wheels and axles also increases, and if you walk on a bumpy dirt road, it will be worse, so the failure rate of the four-wheeled carriage is much higher than that of the two-wheeled carriage.

In order to solve this problem, the four-wheeled carriage must be made of sufficient materials, especially the moving parts such as the iron used for the sliding bearing, which leads to an increase in the cost of the road, coupled with the poor condition of the rural dirt road, which limits the promotion of the four-wheeled carriage.

Therefore, after the rise of the four-wheeled carriage for a period of time, the heat began to cool down, and in the eyes of the world, those who used the four-wheeled carriage were "city play", the rich could use it, and the common people still used the two-wheeled carriage cost-effective.

For this problem, Yu Wenwen also has an understanding: this is the same as buying a car in later generations, you can afford it but you can't afford it.

Just buy a car and afford it, and the high price of oil is forbearance, but the car breaks down from time to time, and breaks down as soon as it breaks down, and it is repaired at the 4S shop, with a starting price of more than 10,000 yuan.

I wipe it, and I can buy a new car after a few breakdowns!

The boat of friendship is said to capsize, Yuwen Wen has to find a way not to capsize the ship, of course, the solution is also very simple: improve the level of metallurgy and make durable metal parts.

It's easier said than done, just like the principle of the atomic bomb is also very simple, and it's not easy to make it, so Yu Wenwen found another project to burn money, which also reminded him of another topic of war of words in later generations.

Europe has had four-wheeled carriages for a long time, but the Central Plains has never had one, and it is really backward in science and technology!

Any online forum, as long as this statement comes out again, it is a bloody storm, and ring lock armor/chain mail are old topics, and related debates have made him learn some relevant knowledge.

Of course, there are four-wheeled carriages in the Central Plains, not to mention that there are graphics in the "Qingming Riverside Map" alone, and there are countless other examples, but if it is emphasized that it must be a European shape, that is, the kind of four-wheeled carriage with front-wheel steering, it is indeed not, but this has nothing to do with the Central Plains' "really backward technology".

In modern times, the Western powers used cannons to open the country, and also introduced four-wheeled carriages, as a result, cities and villages around the country still use two-wheeled carriages, except for the later high-end real estate with four-wheeled carriages to pick up guests to improve the style, the use of four-wheeled carriages has not seen how wide it is.

Although the water transportation in the south of the Yangtze River is convenient, it is also important to have multiple logistics means, Yuwenwen naturally wants to find a way to improve the metallurgical capacity and make suitable components to solve the problem of high failure rate of the four-wheeled carriage.

"I can't do so-and-so, so technology really can't do it" He looked at the sky and muttered to himself, then shook his head and smiled, "Why don't you talk about gunpowder, it's really boring!" (To be continued.) )