Qutai Palace has not laughed for a long time, but in the past few days, Zhao Zheng, the king of Qin, is laughing and chanting every day, and the ministers don't know what happened, but the king's happiness is always a happy event, only Changping Jun Xiong Qi secretly pays attention to this, and he who understands Zhao Zheng knows that this is by no means a happy event in the harem, and it must be what victory Qin has won over the six countries.

His judgment was completely correct, and more than half a month later, a team of boats arrived in Xianyang from Weishui. The boat is equipped with more than 20,000 sets of Chu-made giant armor, more than 20,000 huge iron spearheads, and more than 20,000 huge iron short swords.

At the beginning, the Chu army armor soldiers used a five-foot long iron sword, for individuals, the five-foot sword is of course powerful, but in the military formation, the five-foot long sword is inconvenient to use, and it is easy to hurt one's own people if you are not careful, so after the three-year war, all the sword of the armor soldier was changed to a short sword two feet five inches (Chu ruler, 56.25 cm) long, and only Yushi retained the five-foot sword.

Of course, Yu Shi can also wear a 4-foot-86 long sword (103.5 cm) like other nobles, Zhu Ao's sword can be two inches long, which is 4 feet 8 inches, and Xiong Jing's sword is a standard five-foot, 112.5 cm long.

Ideally, the armor would also be equipped with a large iron-clad wooden shield weighing less than five kilograms. But this is an ideal situation, the whole body is armored, holding a spear, hanging a shield around the neck, and hanging a short sword from the waist, and the whole body equipment of the armor soldier has added up to more than 30 kilograms, and it is difficult for ordinary people to carry such a weight to fight. It's just that the combat division and some generals stubbornly believe that the armor must be equipped with shields, because when the spear is broken, the spear pawn can be turned into a sword and shield pawn.

Spearmen who do not need to march in columns can be completed in a year at most, and eighty percent of these training is not razing spears, but queues, but sword and shield soldiers who can use swords and shields cannot be trained even in three years. As with foot archers, this requires training from an early age.

Weapons are an extension of the concept of military operations, but sometimes weapons can also determine the concept of operations in turn. Xianyang Shaofu Arsenal, seeing more than 20,000 sets of armor neatly stacked, Wei Yu was not happy, he didn't understand the tactical thinking and military system of Chu State, he just took out one of the huge spears and looked at it, and said with some emotion: "Jing Guo's iron smelting technique has improved again." ”

Zhao Zheng went into the warehouse with him to inspect the more than 20,000 sets of armor that he had obtained, he didn't know how to tactics and didn't know how to smelt, and when he saw Wei Yi sighing like this, he asked curiously: "Oh." Why did Wei Qing say that Jing Guo's iron smelting technique has improved? ”

"A few years ago, the giant spear of Jing Kingdom may have fine sweat particles on its surface, but now there is none." Wei Yi was indeed a careful person, and when the treasurer found the huge iron spearhead of the Chu army that had been captured before, he could indeed see fine sweat grains.

"Why?" Zhao Zheng's attention to iron smelting is continuous, and every time he bathes the scars on his crotch and legs, he is reminded of the power of iron smelting.

"I don't know." Wei Wei shook his head. The phenomenon he is talking about is actually converter deoxidation.

The magnetite with the lowest sulfur and phosphorus content is used to make steel, and there is naturally no problem of desulfurization and dephosphorization. The result of non-deoxidation is to refine into boiling steel, boiling steel is still steel, and I am most afraid that it is not even boiling steel, and it will be refined into boiling slag. The problem of deoxidation has always plagued the converter production of Zaofu, but fortunately, there are various twists and turns in the history of converter steelmaking (deoxidation, and high sulfur and phosphorus content cannot be made into steel), and the final solution is to add mirror iron to the smelting.

Mirror iron is actually an iron ore containing manganese, there is a saying that no manganese does not make steel, converter blowing is to use the manganese in the iron ore to deoxidize. Xiong Jing finally remembered how to write the mirror of Jing Tie, which means that the iron ore section has the brilliance of a mirror. Mirror iron is not difficult to find, but mirror iron not only contains manganese, but also sulfur and phosphorus. If the sulfur and phosphorus content is too high, the steel still cannot be smelted, so the construction of the house is an exhaustive effort, and finally the usable mirror iron is found.

What Wei Yu saw was only a slight change on the surface of the giant spear, and this change was indeed a major progress in the iron smelting technology of the Chu State. However, Zhao Zheng obviously didn't pay as much attention to this change as he did, he looked at the armor in the arsenal with his hands raised, and laughed: "After today, my Great Qin will also have a huge iron army. ”

"Congratulations to my king!" Zhao Gao hurriedly congratulated him when he saw the opportunity, not ambiguous at all, but the guards were silent and had no intention of being happy.

"I have more than 20,000 Jingren armor, why is Wei Qing displeased?" Zhao Zheng looked at Wei Yi, and there was some blame in his tone.

"Your Majesty, please look." Wei Yu drew a short sword, and there was a thin inscription on the blade near the sword grid.

The inscription is really small, and Zhao Zheng read out the words on it to the light: "The king broke the age of Linzi and the month of punishment, Shouying, and the engineer was good." Jiashi Sword, 0149544......"|

The age of the king breaking Linzi is the year before last, that is, the fourteenth year of the reign of King Qin, and the punishment is Chu Yue, which is the twelfth month of Qin. This sword was cast by a craftsman named Liang in December of the 14th year of the reign of King Qin, and the number of the sword was 0149544.

Of course, Zhao Zheng knew the meaning of the number, this was to trace the whereabouts of the weapon, and with this number, whoever the sword fell into could find its original source. Knowing this, he did not believe in evil and drew two short swords, both of which were numbered, namely 0149545 and 0149546. Looking at the armor again, not to mention the armor, even the shin armor has a number.

He finally understood what Wei Yi meant, and the number of the armor sold to Hu Shang must have been recorded. Anyone who used these armors, as long as they saw the number, knew who was intercepting and killing the Hu caravan in Baidao, and this was exactly what the Qin State tried to hide.

"What if?" Zhao Zheng gasped and threw all the huge armor and shin armor in his hand to the ground.

"If the king asks for the horses of the Hu people, this armor will not be available." Wei Yi said. He had been mentally prepared for this, but before he saw the real thing, he still had a trace of illusion, thinking that the Chu State would not encode the armor sold outside the world.

"Not available?!" The original joy in Zhao Zheng's heart instantly vanished.

"The captain is mistaken!" Zhao Gao saw that Zhao Zheng was unhappy, and hurriedly interjected. "The armor is all in my Qin army, how can the Jing people know the number of inscriptions on it? Even if it is known, it can be said that it is the seizure of Zhao Ren's things. ”

"Dare to ask the king to retreat." Wei Yi said again, there are some things he really can't say. Waiting for Zhao Zheng to let others take twenty steps back, he said: "The minister will know that the enemy marquis may be sleeping in Qutai." ”

Zhao Zheng was shocked when he heard this, "This, this...... Really? ”

"Indeed!" Wei Yu was worried about this: "Last year, Yang Duan, the number of soldiers and horses, and the number of grains and grains, Li Mu knew everything. Knowing this, only the Zhengchao, the State Captain's Mansion, the Shaofu, and the Prime Minister's Mansion are ears. ”

"And the scribe who is sleeping." Zhao Zheng's eyes narrowed, and his eyes were full of murderous intent. The matter of the national lieutenant Huan Qi has made him lose face, but he didn't expect that there is another Hou spy around him now. "Is this Zhao Hou?" He asked, his mind beginning to wonder who it might be.

"The alliance of the four countries, the Marquis of Zhao, the Marquis of Qi, the Marquis of Wei, and the Marquis of Chu, are all possible." The four countries have already formed an alliance, although they don't know the inside story, but Wei Yu must know that this must include the alliance of the four countries' Hou spies. Most of the officials reused by the Qin State were the secretaries and non-commissioned officials of the Six Kingdoms, and there were secretaries and non-commissioned officials who were born and raised in the Qin country, but there were not many of them. In the past, the Qin State could divide the countries, but now it is different, the four countries are united more and more closely, and they cannot be divided at all.

"If our army uses this armor, the spy will know. He stole one or two to show Hu Shang, and the interception and killing were all defeated. Wei Yu continued. The minister heard that General Xin Sheng said that the cavalry of our army was surrounded, and the enemy cavalry was still dead. The king sent an envoy to the west to ask for a horse, and if he sinned against the people because of this, he could not get the horse. ”

Wei Yi is an old man who seeks the country, although the affairs of the Qin State are strict, in fact, they are only strict with the Qianshou at the bottom, and the upper level is the guest secretaries of the six countries, and these guest secretaries can easily poke things out. Therefore, a choice must be made between armor and horses: if you want to use these armor, you will definitely not be able to ask for a thousand horses; Ask for Maxima, then you can't use these armor.

Zhao Zheng fully understood what Wei Yi meant, but the Qin army against the Chu army suffered the loss of the armor. The defense effect of the stone armor is not good, and a pair of stone armor will take a year of labor. Although the alchemy of the Yan Kingdom is usable, folding and forging not only consumes manpower, but also consumes charcoal very much. Although more than 20,000 sets of armor are not much, if there are 10 people and one armor, it can equip more than 200,000 troops, and this army will definitely be able to play a role at important moments.

Zhao Zheng's face was cloudy, and suddenly he even suspected that Wei Yu in front of him was the spy of the Six Kingdoms. Only the Hou Spy of the Six Kingdoms would let himself not use these armors. Fortunately, this was only a passing thought, and soon he remembered the six-foot-eight-inch Maxima. Six feet eight inches taller than all the men of the Qin State, if the Qin army had this kind of horse......

"If you don't use this armor, what should you do?" Zhao Zheng looked at the rows of armor in the arsenal with a hint of helplessness.

"If you don't use this armor, you should sink into the river." Wei Yu said. "When he is suspicious of me, he can ask him to look at the arsenal. Although I have no armor, I have silk, and I can ...... silk."

Wei Yi didn't say that the silk silk was fine, but Zhao Zheng was even more unhappy when he said that the silk silk. "Since last year, the Rong people have abandoned my silk."

"Why?" Trade is a matter of Shaofu, and Wei Yi has never heard that the Rong people don't want silk.

"Jing people sail through Xizhou, sell silk silk cheaply, and Hu merchants do not transport silk because they are not profitable. The silk silk of the Rong people is sold to Hu merchants, and if Hu merchants do not transport it, they will inevitably abandon my silk silk. "Rong people don't want silk silk is a matter of last winter, after a year of investigation, Shaofu Qing Lang Sheng finally figured out the reason." This Jing people's plan is also! Zhao Zheng slapped his palm on the wooden frame and said hatefully.

"How can this be!" This time it was Wei Yi's turn to be surprised.

Raising horses consumes food, while meadows occupy arable land. Therefore, more than half of the war horses of the Qin state were supplied by the Wu clan of the Yan clan, and the remaining half were provided by the Rong people on the Di Dao, for which the Qin state generally paid silk silk. The Rong people didn't actually use much silk, and the silk was finally resold to Hu Shang. Now they don't want silk silk, won't the Qin State have no war horses in the future?