For everyone's strange gaze, Yang Chengyan was full of calmness.

How much money has Shaofu made over the years?

In fact, judging from the accounts alone, there are not much.

The reason is very simple: whether it is a 'flash of war' grain storage on behalf of the people, or a grain and rice government with a slightly longer profit period, most of the income obtained by the Shaofu is grain.

-- Storing grain on behalf of the people, taking one-tenth of the stored grain as a storage fee, and dividing it equally between the treasury of the prime minister and the domestic treasury of the young government;

As for the government-run grain and rice, although it can indeed bring 'money' income to Shaofu because of the price difference, but under the instruction of Liu Ying, the son of heaven, and the strict implementation of Yangchengyan, most of this part of the profits have been exchanged for grain and stored in granaries all over Guanzhong.

In Liu Ying's words, this is called 'prevention before it happens'.

As for the present, the salt, iron, and food salaries, which account for the main part of Shaofu's income, are similar.

——The wrought iron part, instead of allowing Shaofu to sell finished products in exchange for income, has to deposit all the finished products into the internal treasury at the same time, desperately throwing money into it!

As for salt, although it is a million profits, there are two big money-eaters of 'wrought iron' and even 'wrought steel', and a considerable part of the income from drying salt in Shaofu is also eaten.

So in fact, in the past few years, Shaofu has not saved much money at all.

Although compared with more than ten years ago, the situation of the poor running rats in the treasury is much better, but it is definitely not to talk about having nowhere to spend a lot of money.

Correspondingly, Shaofu has saved a considerable part of coarse salt, as well as iron and steel over the years.

As for the use of iron to make armor, it seems that it is indeed a bit extravagant.

But this is not within the scope of Yang Chengyan's consideration.

- The Son of Heaven ordered the production of new armor, what should Yangcheng Yanneng do?

Thinking like this, Yang Chengyan couldn't help but sigh slightly, and lowered his head with a smile, pointing to the plate armor next to the scale armor.

Almost at the same time as he looked at the plate armor, a faint worry suddenly surged on Yang Chengyan's originally confident face······

"This plate armor is forged from evil gold, weighing seventy catties, half an inch thick!"

"Shaofu once asked the Southern Army to try it, and if you get such plate armor, you can reject the ten-stone strong crossbow and the big yellow crossbow, and there is only a slight loss!"

"Only His Majesty has decreed: plate armor, when there is alloy steel, now only with evil gold, it is too heavy and not strong, so it has not been prolific and prepared for military ······"

Dropping this sentence a little lonely, Yang Chengyan stepped aside, let everyone step forward by themselves, and looked at the plate armor that consumed countless brain cells of Yang Chengyan.

Perhaps in the eyes of later generations, plate armor is not a product containing high technology;

But in fact, the plate armor produced by Shaofu is likely to be the first plate armor produced in human history.

Speaking of plate armor, we have to mention the development of the item 'armor' in human history.

For a long period of time, the development of Chinese civilization in the aspect of 'armor' is still stuck in the leather armor.

That is, the rectangular leather pieces are pieced together on the cloth surface to protect the chest, back, shoulders, hips, and thighs, and sew them together to form an 'advanced leather armor'.

The reason why it is said to be 'advanced leather armor' is because during the same period of Western civilization, there was no advanced armor technology that could ensure the mobility of the equipment holder to a certain extent;

At the same time, the 'armor' process of Western civilization was still in the period of complete nitrate leather armor, that is, the 'primitive man' period when a complete piece of cooked cowhide was directly cut and sewn into the shape of armor.

After the early armor of Chinese civilization and the leather armor of Western civilization, the development of armor in human history has gone in different directions.

For example, the fish scale armor displayed by Yang Chengyan is the main development direction of Chinese civilization;

Western civilization, on the other hand, has embarked on the direction of the hellish difficulty level of 'chain mail'.

The advantages and disadvantages of the two are also very obvious.

The composition logic of the fish scale armor is similar to that of the armor, but it is not tiled with pieces of skin like the armor, but stacked with iron sheets, which is much higher than the armor in terms of defense and mobility!

Chain mail, on the other hand, is made up of circular iron rings, which are connected in series to form a net, which can ensure maximum mobility of the wearer, while increasing the defensive performance to a height that other 'soft' armor cannot reach.

As for the comparison between the two, it is: the mobility of the fish scale armor is significantly inferior to that of the chain mail, and the defense of the two is close to the same;

But in terms of production cost, the fish scale armor exploded chain mail.

Therefore, in the long history, the Chinese fish scale armor can often become the majority of the soldiers of the Chinese army in certain periods, especially in the prosperous era, at least the standing armament of the elite troops.

However, the Western chain soft armor can only become the exclusive property of the nobles, and it is impossible for the big-headed soldiers to touch it.

- Even in the vast majority of cases, on the battlefields of the Cold Weapon Age in Europe, there is often a nobleman wearing chain mail, who is surrounded by hundreds of enemy soldiers, but in the end he is unscathed and kills to the limit.

It can be said that the wallet-armor-scale armor-chain mail can almost be regarded as the development process of the 'armor' process in the era of human cold weapons.

And from front to back, the defense of these four types of armor, as well as the freedom of movement of the equipment owner, are getting higher and higher, and the cost is getting higher and higher.

But whether it is the early Western leather armor that cannot allow the wearer to move freely and cannot have too high defensive power, or the Huaxia armor that is slightly better in mobility;

Whether it is a fish scale armor with further mobility and defense, or even chain mail with full mobility and near-perfect defense, there is an inevitable problem.

- It can resist the slashing and stabbing of sharp weapons, but without exception, it cannot resist the blunt attack of heavy weapons!

In particular, the chain mail, which can be called the 'pinnacle of armor craftsmanship in the era of cold weapons', has ultra-light weight, ultra-high defense, and gives the equipment a degree of freedom that is close to that of no armor, but in terms of resistance to blunt hits, it is outrageously stretched.

It is no exaggeration to say that the performance of chain mail in terms of resistance to blunt blows is even inferior to the wallet of the primitive period!

This is due to the fact that chain mail is different from the more 'backward' wallets, armor, and scale armor: chain mail is the only undoubted soft armor among these four types of armor.

As for the other three categories, although the front can be regarded as hard armor, in terms of resistance to blunt weapon blows, the performance is still worrying.

Wallets and armor cannot be protected against blunt blows of too much force due to the materials used to make them;

Although the scale armor is made of iron or even steel, the unique 'fish scale' production method also greatly reduces the integrity of the armor.

To put it bluntly: the integrity of the armor is directly proportional to the ability to resist blunt blows, and is inversely proportional to the mobility of the wearer.

For example, chain mail, which has almost no integrity, can provide the wearer with almost no freedom of movement like wearing armor; But correspondingly, it is almost impossible to withstand any degree of blunt force blows.

Another example is fish scale armor, although metal is used as the material of production, but also because of the overall reason, the ability to withstand blunt force blows is worrying.

Compared with the lack of integrity of chain mail and scale armor, which leads to low resistance to blunt weapon blows, it is the plate armor that is being placed in front of the courtiers and officials of the Han family at this moment.

- A complete iron plate, which ensures unparalleled frontal defense and excellent ability to withstand blunt blows, but correspondingly, it also causes the equipment to almost lose its freedom.

In the original history, this kind of plate armor was invented by Westerners who suffered from the "unbearable blunt attack" of chain mail.

It's just that most of the plate armor in Western history is composed of a layer of iron sheet;

The equipment method is often to wear a layer of chain mail inside to ensure other aspects of performance, and finally put such a layer of iron sheet on top of the chain mail, in order to minimize the weight at the same time, to a certain extent lower than blunt force strikes.

As for Yangcheng Yan, this plate armor that was completely forged from iron, with a thickness of more than one centimeter and a weight of nearly eighteen kilograms, was called a cuirass in Western history.

As the name suggests, the breastplate is the armor that only protects the front chest, or the guard, like the armor in front of you.

Historically, cuirass only existed for a very short period of time, and the hoplite cavalry of the Western religious armed forces were eliminated by the rolling wheels of history.

As for the reason, there are no more than two points.

First: the ultra-high weight of the cuirass makes it necessary to have extremely strong physical fitness for both the cavalry equipped with the cuirass and the war horses equipped with the cavalry.

In the words common in Chinese history, that is: those who have a cuirass cannot have it unless they are fierce generals; A person with armor cannot bear it if he is not a famous horse.

To put it bluntly, it is the cuirass that puts forward outrageous and strict requirements for both the equipment and the war horse.

The second is the 'undeformable' characteristic of the cuirass, which makes this kind of armor face extremely huge challenges both in mass production and in redress.

Let's take a very simple example.

I am a cavalryman;

With my burly physique, superb horsemanship, and combat effectiveness, I was fortunate enough to be equipped with a cuirass and became a heavy cavalryman;

So, in order to make this cuirass fit my body to the greatest extent possible, so that its huge weight does not cause excessive damage to my shoulders, this cuirass must be completely tailored to my size, or even to the inversion of my upper body.

Even my pectorals, my ribs, would be perfectly attached to this breastplate, like a pair of tokens.

Equipped with this cuirass, I was invincible and had great achievements, but the huge weight of the cuirass and the high-intensity combat mission made me face discharge from the army due to physical reasons after just one year.

That's when the question arises.

- I'm going to be discharged from the army, this cuirass, what to do?

For others to wear, not to mention that a person like 'me' who is burly, has superb riding skills, and has high combat literacy is not easy to find, and even if he finds it, the cuirass is likely to not fit!

In other words: it is no easier to find someone who is my body and can fit the upper body together with this breastplate than it is to find someone who looks exactly like me!

But if you don't wear it for others, you can only throw it in the storeroom and eat ashes, or melt this cuirass and make a new one.

This is really the crux of the matter.

A cuirass, weighing almost twenty kilograms, is a great fortune in itself!

Coupled with the 'custom-made' forging process, the cost is far more than these 20 kilograms of iron!

Whether such a cuirass is discarded or cast, it will inevitably cause incomparably huge losses!

And, unlike in the example above, the dilemma faced by 'me' is that the choice faced by the regime is often not 'what to do with this breastplate', but 'what to do with this batch and thousands of breastplates'.

Such a huge cost, even for the wealthy Han family, is absolutely unaffordable······

"Alas······"

"Your Majesty, why do you have to make such 'plate armor'?"

"Even if there is something wrong with the scale armor, it is far better than the armor······"

Obviously, right now, Yang Chengyan is facing such worries.

——The characteristics of plate armor that are almost 'bound to the equipment for life', as well as the high production cost, make it difficult for Yangcheng Yan to have even the slightest optimism and expectation for this new type of escort.

But as the saying goes: if you don't belong to your home, you don't know that firewood, rice, oil and salt are expensive.

Yang Chengyan was worried about the cost-effectiveness of plate armor, but the courtiers and officials who came to visit were undoubtedly deeply attracted by the appearance of this new type of armor.

"Yo!"

"Sure enough, it's half an inch thick!"

"And of evil gold, not as brittle as brass!!

"It's a pity that it's a little heavier······"

"But it doesn't matter!"

For a while, everyone's eyes on the plate armor became a little enthusiastic;

After a while, everyone who had seen the quality of the plate armor couldn't help but surround Yangcheng in the middle.

"Dare to ask Yang Gong!"

"——Today, Shaofu makes this plate armor, how much money does it cost?"

"If you want one, how much do you need to pay?"

The first to speak was obviously a little cautious, and his eyebrows were full of temptation;

But after a while, someone couldn't hold back his excitement, and he opened his throat and howled: "Baijin!" ”

"Yang Gong, for this kind of plate armor, a certain person is willing to sacrifice 100 gold and Shaofu's internal money!"

"-If there are still shortcomings, Yang Gong can say it bluntly!"

Hearing the voice of the person who spoke out, Yang Chengyan only raised the corners of his eyebrows.

But when he saw that person, who was actually the captain of the court guard and the first person in the military, Yang Chengyan's mocking words on his lips couldn't help but turn into a euphemistic reminder.

"I can't do anything about this matter······"

"If the guard wants to ask for plate armor, I am afraid that His Majesty should approve ······"

Throwing the pot aside without changing his face, Liu Ying, the son of heaven who was still smiling lightly, looked at everyone's son of heaven, and when everyone surrounded Liu Ying again, Yang Chengyan raised his eyebrows and secretly poked and slandered.

"100 gold?"

"--The evil gold needed to make this plate armor will be worth fifteen gold!!"

"His Majesty ordered that this plate of armor be made of wrought steel; To be completed, but the steel needed will be more than 100 gold!! ”

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