Chapter 36: A New Kind of Armor

Five days went by in a flash.

On this day, a group of hundreds of people left the city. The leader is naturally the crown prince. In addition, most of the Ming nobles came. The generals were particularly interested in weapons. So most of the nobles in Jing came, Xu Da, Fu Youde. Mu Ying and the others followed the prince out of the city.

Xu Da is an easy person, and he didn't think it was a big deal to let him go out of the city with the prince. The big deal is to accompany the juniors out of the city.

But Fu Youde is different.

Fu Youde is in charge of the southwest military affairs, although he has not yet left the city, but all kinds of things have been disturbed. Fu Youde was very busy. This is especially true during the two days of the expedition. In his opinion, since the grain and grass allocated by the imperial court, everything and ordnance have gone to foreign countries, and they have even been loaded onto ships. One batch has already been shipped to the southwest in advance.

Even if there are any new weapons now, they will not be used in the battle of the Southern Expedition. What did he come to do?

It's just a waste of time.

Therefore, Fu Youde put on armor and helped his golden helmet. said to his son Fu Zhong: "A few days ago, you had contact with He Xi, what do you think of He Xi?" ”

Fu Zhong remembered that He Xi explained that he had nothing to do with the princess, and said, "He Xi is an honest gentleman. ”

Fu Youde sneered and said, "Who asked you this?" Gentleman, can this thing be eaten or drunk? I ask you, did he have any ideas about ordnance? ”

Fu Zhong remembered that He Xi was not familiar with the Ming ordnance at all. I don't believe that He Xi has any creative ideas in ordnance. Pouting. said: "Seven tricks have six tricks, but none of them." ”

Fu Youde said: "It seems that Your Majesty is paving the way for this Secretary He. No matter how you pave the road, you can't pave it like this. However, this is not something that our courtiers can say. When you arrive, remember to keep your mouth shut, no matter what you see. Talk less. ”

Fu Zhong smiled: "Daddy, don't underestimate the child, although the child is straightforward, he is not stupid." I still understand the scene of ushering in the scene, no matter how bad it is, I can't see through it, and I won't offend people. ”

Fu Youde said: "Don't say a word, no one will treat you as a dumb person." Then he left He Xi's affairs behind, rode on the horse, staggered, and chewed a word repeatedly in his mouth. If nothing else, it was Qujing.

He has been thinking about the strategy of attacking Yunnan. He calculates and calculates, no matter where he attacks. Qujing is a hurdle. Qu Jing took a moment, and the situation opened up. Qu Jing can't go down, I'm afraid that the soldiers will be under the fortified city. The war went on for a long time.

What? It's just a trivial matter, and it doesn't take much effort for General Nanda to fight at all, but he goes back and forth to socialize and go through the motions.

Fu Youde changed his body shape immediately, and Qujing and even the southwest terrain were in Fu Youde's heart.

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He Xi waited on the side of the road early.

Seeing a large group of people and horses arriving from a distance, He Xi rode up to meet him. After a pleasantry. The prince asked, "Are you all ready?" ”

He Xi said: "It's all ready." ”

The crown prince turned his head and said, "Elders take a look at Brother He's methods. ”

Xu Da smiled and said, "Okay." Let's take a look. ”

He Xi led the way in front. In a moment, he led the people to the side of the blast furnace and inspected the steel ingots that had just been baked.

Fu Youde is also an expert, after so many years of birth and death, he is very good at weapons and steel. Just by knocking it with two steel ingots, you know that it is not ordinary. It's no ordinary piece of iron. Fu Youde looked back at Fu Zhong.

Father and son know each other quite well. Fu Zhong looked at the steel ingot in his hand. For a while, I was a little skeptical about life. He remembered that He Xi asked everything that day, and didn't know anything. Clearly, a newcomer to the industry, he doesn't understand anything. Now it seems that I have been tricked.

Fu Zhong was a little embarrassed, and said secretly in his heart: "Sure enough, it came out of the palace, and there is no good stubble." ”

However, the steel ingots in front of him are still within Fu Zhong's capacity. But the next situation was beyond Fu Zhong's imagination.

I saw a waterwheel that had just been erected by the river. More than a dozen craftsmen were busy for a while. A huge piece of iron was slowly hoisted, and a blacksmith next to it was holding a piece of red-hot iron. Put it under a hammer. Then lightly put it, hundreds of catties of iron smashed heavily on the iron platform below.

There was a loud bang. Countless sparks splashed. There is a lot of brilliance.

After three or five consecutive bombardments. The iron became an iron plate, and it was a very thin iron plate. So the craftsman took it out of the forging table with tongs and placed it by the stove. With a hammer clanged, it was knocked a dozen times in a row. Modify the edges and curvature of the iron armor, and drive holes in it. It is convenient to wait for a while for the preparation.

Operate it down.

A piece of iron armor was formed.

Another piece of iron was sent to the water hammer.

Repeat the process just now.

Seeing this, He Xi sighed a little in his heart.

In fact, in He Xi's imagination, the steel ingots should be directly processed into shape. After all, I have watched a lot of steel processing videos in He Xi. Kneading iron is like kneading dough. There is no need for heating at all. I don't know if the power of the water hammer is limited, or if it is some other reason, anyway, after these craftsmen discussed, they used this process.

First, it is poured with molten steel. Then heat until the whole body is red. It is then forged with a water hammer.

Although there were a few more processes, it was less than a quarter of an hour. The dozen pieces of armor required for the iron armor have been forged.

Even so, it is less difficult to process, but only if the steel has good ductility. If you use pig iron, you can withstand it a few times and have to crumble. Even heating is not possible.

These dozen pieces of iron armor, a total of breastplate, arm armor, leg armor, and so on. Immediately several craftsmen stepped forward and weaved together a dozen pieces of armor with a finger-wide strip of cowhide.

That's it.

A new armor was forged before everyone's eyes.

He Xi said: "Prince, Wei Guogong, Yingchuan Marquis, Xiping Marquis, this process still needs to be polished, and now it can be seen roughly, please don't be surprised." ”

Wei Guogong Xu Da said: "Secretary He is too modest, where can he see what is rough, it is simply ingenious." ”

Xu Da followed Zhu Yuanzhang all the way to the present, and he himself has supervised the creation of weapons. Naturally, it is known how many man-hours it takes to have a pair of armor. Not to mention anything else, more than a hundred pieces of armor. You can't build it in a day. Not to mention other processes.

Now, it only takes a while to build it. Xu Da estimates that as long as the steel is enough, it will be enough to build about 20 pairs in a day. And this is just a waterwheel, and most of the whole process is mature.

It's easy to copy.

With Xu Da's judgment, it is easy to generalize. After all, there are too many rivers in the water towns south of the Yangtze River. Enough to lay out the waterwheel.

Tens of thousands of people in the Ordnance Bureau, if all of them are changed to the current model. I don't know how much I can produce per day. That alone is enough to be called ingenious.

Fu Youde said: "What Guogong said is very true, but armor is a weapon. The most important thing is practical, Secretary He, can you give it a try? ”

He Xi said: "There is no need. It's just that I wasn't prepared. ”

Fu Youde laughed and said, "Why do you need to prepare? Then he raised his voice and said, "Come, put up your armor." ”

A moment later, a simple wooden shelf was brought over. Hold up the armor. Then Fu Youde personally held the bow, only to hear the "collapse" two sounds, and it had already shot on the armor. It's just that it didn't shoot into the armor at all, it has already been ejected.

The generals stepped forward to see that there was only a white spot on the armor.

Fu Youde said: "Stay closer. ”

Fu Youde shoots an arrow again. But even if it was only twenty steps, Fu Youde did not shoot through the armor.

Fu Youde is excellent in martial arts. He first started from the Red Turban Army, then from Ming Yuzhen, and then from Chen Youliang, relying on a body of martial arts. Twenty steps away, Fu Youde has not seen it. But those are all fine craftsmen, carefully polished, it can be said that each one is the work of many years, and there are not many houses in the world. It can be said that it is all the treasure armor handed down by the Wuxun family.

And this iron armor, which Fu Youde saw with his own eyes, was built almost in a while. Because it was so easy to build, it was rationed to the soldiers. is also because it is so easy to build, Fu Youde subconsciously feels that the quality is not too good.

But now the situation makes everyone doubt life.

Doubting that he has been practicing bow horses all his life, what is the use? If all the pawns use this kind of armor. Who else can he shoot with his riding and archery skills?

"Good armor." Mu Ying was greatly excited, and said: "His Royal Highness the Prince, Secretary He has made such an armor, which is a great achievement. The minister asked for credit for Secretary He. ”

The prince also stepped forward to take a closer look at the armor and said, "Okay, after Gu returns to Beijing, he will definitely ask Secretary He for credit." ”

Mu Ying's eyes lit up and said, "However, since you have started to try, let's try to the end." ”

The prince immediately understood what Mu Ying meant.

Mu Ying was happy to see the hunter and wanted to test the limit of the armor. It's just the merits of He Xi in armor, but now in front of such a dignitary, he doesn't know about the destructive experiment of armor, but he still thinks it's a field to smash He Xi.

So Mu Ying first finalized He Xi's credit. Next, it's Mu Ying's means.

The prince smiled lightly and said, "Brother He, what do you think?" ”

He Xi said: "Xiping Hou is as free as he wants? ”

"Okay." Mu Ying waved her hand. A few firecrackers were taken out by the people below.

Among the generals of the Ming Dynasty, Mu Ying is good at using firearms after all. It hasn't happened yet. But during the conquest of Yunnan, Mu Ying was triple fired. Break the Yunnan elephant array. Defeat the main force of King Liang. It is to rely on firearms.

Because of this, Mu Ying saw the armor. The first thing that comes to mind is whether the firearm can be broken.

It's just that in his experience, no kind of armor can protect against firearms. That's why I got the shot.

"Boom." A bang. One of the soldiers had already opened fire.

With a "bang", the entire armor shook, but when I stepped forward to check, I found that the armor was only a little dented, and this strength was not enough to kill and injure the people in the armor.