The ancient infantry marched mainly on two legs, which was very difficult, and the biggest problem for the ancient soldiers was not marching and fighting, not camping in the field, but bulky equipment.

It may be difficult for modern people to imagine the difficulty of the ancient soldiers marching and fighting, and the heavy equipment, in this example, the bird hand.

According to the common practice of the officers and soldiers in this era, they need to wear cotton armor, a set of cotton armor of 35 kilograms, plus 2 kilograms of helmets, 6 kilograms of bird guns and 5 taels, 10 kilograms of ammunition, other auxiliary equipment, seven days of military rations, so that each bird is equipped with 70 kilograms.

The soldiers carried more than 70 catties of equipment on their backs every day, ate simple coarse grains, marched for dozens of miles, and were tired for many years, tired of being in good health, sick and sick of poor health, and often dying of injuries and illnesses on the way.

Because the long march is so difficult, even hard-hearted generals will find ways to lighten the load on their soldiers.

When fighting long-distance battles, people are often recruited to help carry cotton armor, grain and other things, and often a soldier needs several people and servants to help carry equipment and transport grain.

This is also the reason why the scale of ancient Chinese warfare is often tens of thousands, and the long-distance battles in the Mobei grasslands are carried out by 10,000 combat troops, often requiring tens of thousands of servants, and the people and money are lost.

Every time there is a war, the four sides are not at peace and affect the livelihood of the people (the people are recruited), and the supply of grain and grass on the front line is even more difficult (the people need to eat food and need to be taken care of).

Yang Lin fiddled with a cotton armor, including a cloth face armor, a python robe, a leg skirt, arms and hands, etc., which weighed thirty or forty pounds, and felt heavy and uncomfortable to wear on his body.

What people can't stand is the smell of cotton nails, which has been placed in the warehouse for a long time and has moldy in some places, giving off an uncomfortable smell.

It is even more unbearable for everyone to look at the greedy gaze, this cotton armor is the ancient body armor, which can prevent knives and crossbows from long distances, everyone is very greedy, and now everyone wants to look at these more than 100 sets of cotton armor, which is really uncomfortable.

Let people take it to the ditch to clean and dry, away from everyone's sight, while on the other hand, Yang Lin fell into deep thought, how to reduce the load of soldiers and how to optimize the formation of troops.

Early the next morning, everyone gathered to verify the protective performance of cotton nails.

Ten scarecrows were tied in front of them, and they were dressed in cotton armor, and then 10 birdmen, archers, and crossbowmen were selected to shoot separately to test the effect of cotton armor.

The arm strength is different, the use of the bow and crossbow is different, the arrow speed is different, and of course the power is different.

Ancient China used compound bows for a long time, which were divided into bows and arrows of different strength according to the different amounts of beef tendon and glue, and the classification criteria were:

Sixth-class bow, one force to three forces, eight taels of tendons, five taels of glue;

Fifth-class bow, four to six forces, fourteen taels of tendons, seven taels of glue;

Fourth-class bow, seven to nine forces, eighteen taels of tendons, nine taels of glue;

Third-class bow, ten to twelve forces, ten taels of tendons, ten taels of glue;

second-class bow, thirteen to fifteen forces, two catties of tendons, twelve taels of glue;

First-class bow, 16 to 18 forces, with two or six taels of tendons, and fourteen taels of glue

One of them is about 5.5 kg (9.4 kg, 1 kg is about 596.8g).

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the minimum standard for infantry archers in the martial arts examination was the five-force bow, and the minimum standard for the archers was the three-force bow.

The selection criteria for the Qing Dynasty forward battalion was a six-force bow, and those who could open a seven-force bow were also good archers in the Manchu elite forward battalion, which was known for its mounted archery.

In 1854, the muddy Emperor Xianfeng criticized the exaggerated governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Luo Huandian, who opened the twelve power bows, four out of ten, which is very whitewashed, and those who can open eight or nine force bows and archery are already very few, how can the bow of twelve forces still be able to pull calmly, who believes it? ”

In general, a strong adult man can pull 30 pounds (about 2 and a half force bowstrings), but some people test 30 pounds of arrows, and the speed of an arrow is only 43.8 m/s.

The power of the bird gun is comparable to that of a good shooter in the army who can shoot a seven-force bow, and the speed of the gun reaches 150m/s, and the lead can fly up to 200 meters away.

Just like Song Yingxing's experiment, he failed in 100 steps, pierced two layers of wet quilts in 80 steps, and pierced four layers of wet quilts in 50 steps.

This is especially true against armored targets, which can be pierced or unprotected at a distance of 80 steps (96 meters), or can be shot at a single layer of armor targets at 50 steps (60 meters), or unprotected targets, and can easily be shot at a single layer of armor targets at 30 steps (36 meters).

For heavy protection targets such as two-layer cotton armor, it can be pierced at a distance of 50 steps (60 meters), 30 steps (36 meters) away can shoot the target, and 10 steps away (12 meters) can easily shoot a double-layer armor target.

(Westerners tested that the plate armor of the European cuirassiers could not withstand a bullet fired from 40 feet, or 12 meters, from a distance of 40 feet.) ）

From this point of view, the power of an ordinary bird gun is only equivalent to that of a seven-force good shooter, but the rate of fire is less than 1/6, that is, the archer shoots six arrows on the battlefield, and the average bird gun can only fire a second shot.

Shocked by the power of the bird's gun, some archers looked quite disdainful, and some even bluntly said that the bird's gun shot too slowly, and there was nothing in the face of a small group of enemies, and if they faced a large number of outlaws rushing to kill them, they couldn't resist it at all.

Seeing that everyone was gossiping, Yang Lin couldn't cry or laugh, so he had to test the mobility of the troops.

Twenty soldiers are fully armed with their own weapons, slightly different than a dozen who do not wear cotton armor are a little weaker, and the ten who wear cotton armor are famous for their courage in the army, and now the two sides are competing, running back and forth for ten miles to see who arrives first.

Everyone was eager to try, especially the ten in armor did not believe that they would lose, the initial distance between the two sides had not been pulled down, five miles away and then slowly pulled away, ten miles away down, those in armor and strong actually fell two pillars of incense.

In addition to affecting mobility, the weather in the south is humid and muggy, and wearing cotton armor in summer not only has skin allergies, but also is stuffy and uncomfortable, and it is easy to suffer from heat stroke.

Now Yang Lin has something to say, although this cotton armor can prevent long-distance shooting of bird guns and medium and long-distance shooting of bows and crossbows, it cannot resist medium-range shots of bird guns and short-range shots of bows and crossbows, and it is not fully protected because of this, and it needs to be improved.

After a discussion, a unified understanding was basically obtained, and the soldier's cotton armor only retained the cloth armor in the front, the cloth armor in the back, the shawl, and the arms and hands, and there was a three-inch gap under each of the two arms, which was connected by cloth strips to ventilate.

It is also very convenient to put on directly like a modern life jacket.

Due to the removal of the long-legged skirt, the removal of the python robe, and the remaining three inches of space under the two arms, such a slight change, plus the weight of the helmet is only 20 pounds, which greatly increases the mobility of the troops.

The cotton armor of the soldiers was cut out and used by musketeers and crossbowmen to make simple armor, which was worn over the shoulders like the aprons of housewives, and then tied with strips of cloth.

This kind of armor can not only prevent long-range shooting from birds, medium and long-range shooting from bows and crossbows, but also resist frontal cutting with knives and guns, just like the body armor of modern soldiers, which is very applicable.

After the improvement, plus the helmet and armor weighed less than 10 catties, which greatly improved the mobility of the troops.

In this way, the combat weight of the bird gun hand is 33 jin (10 kg of armor, 6 kg and 5 taels of bird gun, 10 kg of ammunition, and 6 kg and 5 taels of auxiliary equipment), which is lower than the burden of soldiers in the past.

In ancient times, soldiers not only needed to carry weapons, but also had to wear heavy armor, which was not conducive to mobile warfare.

In ancient times, when transportation was extremely underdeveloped, in order to ensure the front-line military needs of a soldier and horse, several strong men were often needed, which affected people's livelihoods and caused social unrest.

Based on the above reasons, the Chinese gentry class of the agricultural civilization generally advocated external defense and opposed conscription.

Of course, it is impossible for Yang Lin to consider such a long distance now, seeing that the summer marching weight (10 catties of dry food for five days, 17 catties of personal belongings) has been reduced to 60 catties, and the winter marching weight (including bedding, etc.) has been reduced to 70 catties, and the combat weight is only more than 30 catties