Chapter 37: Chain Mail

Mu Ying moved to the target three times in a row, and placed the armor at a distance of thirty steps in front of him before it penetrated in one fell swoop.

Seeing this result, not only Mu Ying's eyes lit up. Even Xu Da, the Duke of Wei, was slightly moved.

Without him, thirty steps is too close. Thirty steps on the battlefield, just a few breaths. It can be said that at this distance, even if the firecracker can kill the opponent, he will not be able to stop the enemy who rushes over.

It was said before that the crossbowmen were only three arrows, and if they were to take thirty steps, they would only have time to fire once.

There has been a great change in the situation on the battlefield.

He Xi was also slightly surprised by this situation.

In his mind, no armor could hold back a musket. Otherwise, the kind of canned helmet armor of Western knights would not be very popular in the world. But it turned out that it was firearms that knocked out the armor, and not the other way around.

He pondered it carefully, and there was probably some speculation in his mind.

First, firearms in the early Ming Dynasty were far from mature. In He Xi's opinion, the fire gun used by Mu Ying was nothing more than a large iron pipe with a wooden handle inlaid at the end. And the wooden handle is also overhead. It can only be held with both hands, and the recoil is supported by both hands, not against the shoulders at all.

It looks uncomfortable.

And that's just the design, but in all other aspects, the strength of the barrel. the efficacy of gunpowder and so on. Far from reaching maturity. Or even just the beginning.

Therefore, the power of the fire gate gun at this time is not too great.

Second, what He Xi created was not iron armor, but steel armor. The difference between one word and the world of difference.

Before that, even the armor pieces made of pig iron were iron armor. And in general, it is enough to use iron armor. Especially for cold weapons, steel armor is a bit redundant. Not to mention, more than a hundred pieces of armor were changed into more than a dozen.

For a close fit to the body.

Each piece of the large armor has some arc of its own. Fits well with the human body. In this way, the structural strength of the armor is stronger than that of the nails that are nailed together.

And because of that.

to have this outstanding effect.

Xu Da, the Duke of Wei, stepped forward to take a closer look and said, "With this armor, the war will change in the future. ”

He Xi smiled and said: "Guogong, the people below are powerful, and they have also made two weapons." It's just that he hasn't been on the battlefield below. I don't know if it's suitable or not, but I also ask the generals. Taste one or two. ”

The prince smiled and said, "Brother He, you still give me a sloppy look." Bring it to the elders and show it. ”

He Xi said: "Yes." ”

Then an order was given, and two things were brought.

A piece of armor that looks like a garment, but it's made of wire. It looks like tiny iron rings are woven together.

Xu Da looked at it and said, "Chain mail? ”

He Xi said: "Exactly. ”

Xu Da picked up the chain mail, weighed it, and then pulled out a dagger from his body and stabbed it violently, although the chain mail had no support, it was immediately deformed. But a sharp dagger is not an inch on the chain mail.

Xu Da said: "Yes, it is a treasure armor. It's just a little different from the chain mail I've seen before. ”

He Xi said: "Guogong Mingjian, this armor is different from the chain mail of the Western Regions, the chain mail of the Western Regions is beaten. This one really made up. ”

"Made up?" Xu Da was a little unconvinced.

He Xi said: "Prince, Guogong, all the marquis, do you want to see, how is this armor made?" ”

The prince said: "Brother He, don't sell Guanzi." ”

He Xi waved his hand, and immediately two craftsmen brought a wooden shelf, which was not tall. It was only a foot wide, and there was an iron piece on it, as if the middle piece had a small eye. A craftsman secures the steel ingot and begins to rotate the handle. But in a moment, a wire, no, a wire was pressed out. After a while, a wire came out.

Concocted as it is, in a moment. A handful of wires will be done.

The craftsman immediately began to weave. In a few moments, the wires were woven into a foot-square piece of armor.

Xu Da took a look, and compared with the previous armor, it was exactly the same.

"This ------" Xu Da said secretly in his heart: "Fortunately, He Xi was not born in troubled times, otherwise one person could be worth 100,000 troops." ”

Chain mail is not a rare type of armor, it was introduced from the Western Regions. During the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolian nobles liked anything. The best thing about this armor is that it is light and can be worn under clothing. Moreover, it is very useful to prevent sword cuts and bow crossbows.

In martial arts novels, all kinds of soft armor are based on this.

But this armor is also difficult to build, and the reason why it is called chain mail is actually because this armor is like a chain, with a flat iron ring set one by one, and finally forms a whole. Each hoop needs to be built individually, and the smaller the hoop, the lighter it is. In this way, a suit of armor with a small iron ring on it, there are thousands. It has to be tightly fitted one by one, and ordinary blacksmiths can't beat it out at all.

It's not so much an armor as a work of art.

Now, it's different.

This is actually a by-product of the water hammer process.

When designing the water hammer, the craftsmen had a problem. That is, the heavier the water hammer, the better the forging effect. But the heavier the water hammer, the stronger the rope and fixture that you want to lift the water hammer down.

So it was decided to replace it all with iron.

Some of the mechanisms, changed from wood to iron, are not too much of a problem. But what about the ropes?

So, He Xi came up with an idea to use iron cables.

There is no need to say anything about it next. In the processing of gold and silver jewelry. Wire drawing machines have been used for a long time, drawing gold and silver into silk processing. But before that, it was not used in iron processing, for the simple reason that iron is hard and not malleable. Wrought iron has good ductility, but it is too soft to withstand it.

Nowadays, steel is used, although it is more troublesome to process than gold and silver. But on the whole, it can already be said that it is impossible.

So the craftsmen built a wire drawer overnight and pulled the wire out of it. Then dozens of steel wires are braided together, fixed and become steel cables for water hammer. In this way, the water hammer has more pressure, and the nail piece is beaten in three strokes and two blows.

And He Xi felt that this alone was a bit wasteful. So there was a craftsman who proposed. Make chain mail out of wire.

In fact, there is no need for craftsmen to do specific things. Just raise some wire and let the craftsmen's wives weave it. As long as it is at the end of the day, one or two can be processed.

What is the difference between the defense power of this chain mail and the chain mail of the Western Regions? He Xi didn't know. But he saw the good thing, and that was that it was too easy to produce.

Simply use a wire drawer to draw the steel into wire. Then let the women and children weave. Male ploughing and female weaving is the traditional production mode of the Ming Dynasty. That woman can't knit. The use of the wire drawer does not require any skills, at most it requires a lot of effort.

As long as there is an adequate supply of steel, so to speak. He Xi himself didn't know how many Fu wire armors he could produce in three months. Although the defense is not as good as the steel armor of the serious eight. But it's better than not wearing armor.

Really to say, simplified to such an extent of armor. It is more convenient than the southwest rattan carapace. The rattan armor in the southwest is well needed, the rattan is selected, dried, woven, soaked in oil, and so on. And this chain mail only needs to be braided.

As a general, Xu Da's eyes when he looked at He Xi now had completely changed.

Before that, Xu Da only regarded He Xi as a junior. All the kindness to He Xi is for Zhu Yuanzhang and the prince's face, Xu Da is generous, so naturally he will not embarrass the juniors. But that's no longer the case.

He simply regarded He Xi as Liu Bowen and Li Shanchang.

Yes. In many things, He Xi's plan is not as good as Liu Bowen and Li Shanchang. However, in terms of armament alone, the two of them are definitely not as good as He Xi's. If you can do the best in one aspect, you deserve respect.

Even Xu Da seems that if He Xi had been born more than 20 years earlier, Li Shanchang's status today may not be able to overpower.

And Fu Youde's eyes showed a fierce light and glanced at his son. Then he carefully tasted the chain mail in his hand. It seems that the weaving lines on it are unparalleled in the world, and they are worth pondering carefully by the general of Zhengnan.

Fu Zhong, who just knew his father, only felt a faint pain in his buttocks.

Because he recalled the experience of being beaten before.

Fu Zhong's character is actually a replica of Fu Youde's character, Fu Youde is a good fighter, but I don't know how to be a father. He regarded his son as his own soldier, a military lawyer, and never soft-hearted, Fu Zhong was never beaten since he was a child.

And today, he knows it very well. His previous judgment misled Fu Youde. Let Fu Youde pick a thorn as soon as he comes up. Although it didn't look right in the back, it immediately retracted. But everyone is smart, who can't see it. Just don't say it.

At this moment, Fu Youde didn't dare to say a word, he wanted to make people forget himself. Today, this face is lost here.

The culprit, Fu Zhong, how can he not be beaten after he goes back?

Knowing that Fu Zhong also felt that he was full of wrongs, when he saw He Xi that day, He Xi obviously didn't know anything. It's only been half a month, and this situation has come to an end.

"Yes." Fu Zhong hung his head and gritted his teeth and thought: "This He Xi is insidious and cunning, it is obviously intentional to Princess Anqing, so I will set it up, one set in front of me, one set behind it, you wait for me." ”

Not to mention, Fu Zhong hated He Xi to death.

Just talking about the prince.

Before the prince came, he was already mentally prepared.

He has a lot of trust in his father. Since the father said that He Xi is a talent in this regard. That must be. It's just that the prince never thought that He Xi could do this. That's all the armor from before. Although it is a little strange, it is still within the scope of cognition, and this new type of chain mail is different.

It must be known that not everyone in the Ming Dynasty's more than 3 million troops has armor. But as soon as this kind of chain mail comes out, it is not difficult for everyone in the world to have armor.