Xu Kuangheng lived up to Li Yuan's expectations. Not only did he summon all the craftsmen from the Wei Sheng Army and the original Langzhou Army, but because he didn't know what Li Yuan was going to do, he also posted notices in the city. Folk craftsmen who are skilled in smelting and smelting methods can find work at Bingcaosi in the east of the city.
One afternoon passed, Li Yuan looked up and saw more than a hundred people standing in front of him, and he was ecstatic. An order was immediately issued to re-establish the Wuping Ordnance Supervision from today, and all the craftsmen who were recruited today would be included, and each of them would be rewarded with five guans. Most of these people made their own living, and they were all grateful to see Marshal Li being so generous when they first met him.
(Note: During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, apart from the Central Plains Dynasty, only the Southern Tang Dynasty followed the Tang Dynasty system, with the central government and individual state governments setting up arms supervisors. Similar to Chu and Shu, most of the armaments were manufactured by the envoys and governors of various regions. )
Then, Li Yuan led everyone to the largest arsenal in the east of Langzhou City.
This place was originally built when Ma Xihe was in charge of Langzhou. It was specially responsible for manufacturing the ordnance and equipment used by Langzhou soldiers. It was large in scale and fully equipped with fires. It's a pity that after Liu Yan came to power, he put his brother-in-law Wu Xinglong in charge of this place. However, this man was stingy and greedy for money. He beat and scolded people from time to time and withheld money from everyone. He even unjustly killed several craftsmen for no reason, causing personal separation and the workshop. Momentary stagnation.
Wu Xinglong felt guilty, but instead criticized Liu Yan, saying that it was difficult to manage the discord among the craftsmen, but Liu Yan actually felt that the stock of armor and weapons was enough anyway, so he finally ordered to disband the arsenal.
Returning to the present, Li Yuan waved his hand to stop the whispers of the people in front of him, and spoke first: "The ancients said that soldiers are the most important thing for a country, the place of life and death, and the way of survival! I am guarding this place in the name of your majesty. From now on, we will guard this place." There are still many wars, but how can a good warrior not have strong soldiers and strong armor? From now on, the weapons supervisor will be resettled here! I have always valued you craftsmen the most. Since you all have skills, as long as you work hard for me, I will definitely not treat you badly in the future! From now on, under my rule, Wu Ping, the armies will still have to rely on you for their supplies!"
Seeing Marshal Li humbly bowing his hands in greeting after finishing his words, all the craftsmen were surprised and felt deeply honored, and hurriedly responded in unison to comply with the order.
Then Li Yuan smiled at everyone and said, "If you think you are skilled, please step forward!"
There was a stir in the crowd, and then a short and sturdy man walked out first. Li Yuan looked at his appearance, and his face was mottled. Although he was very energetic, his temples were slightly gray, and the most eye-catching thing was this man's face. The two big hands were dark and plump, and the palms and backs were covered with thick calluses.
The man hurriedly walked up to Li Yuan, lowered his head and cupped his hands and said, "Commander, my name is Hu Gui. He was originally from the Langzhou Bingcao Division, and he has worked in this workshop for more than ten years."
Seeing that everyone was looking at Hu Gui intently, Li Yuan asked doubtfully, "Do you all recognize him?"
The person with good intentions boldly responded: "Commander, this is Chief Hu! The old man from the arsenal is so powerful!"
Hu Gui turned around calmly and pointed in the crowd, and then more than ten people stood up.
Then he bowed to Li Yuan and said, "Commander, these people have all worked in the arsenal."
Li Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and nodded happily: "Okay! In that case, Hu Gui, I will appoint you as the weapons supervisor, and I will leave the weapons supervisor to you for the time being! Don't let me down!" "
The joy on Hu Gui's face could not be concealed, and he quickly raised his hands and said: "Thank you, Marshal, for your love!"
After a while, the craftsmen began to be busy under Hu Gui's orderly command. After all, this place had been abandoned for a year or two and no one cared about it for a long time. Some of the equipment was old and abandoned. Under Li Yuan's instructions, Lin Sichang also led his soldiers to help the craftsmen renovate the equipment and test the equipment. The school fire was very busy for a while.
Li Yuan found an opportunity and handed the stack of drawings he had prepared directly to Hu Gui.
Hu Gui hurriedly wiped the sweat from his forehead, took it with his hands and looked through it several times, and finally asked suspiciously: "Commander, what is this?"
"This is the future armor and weapon style of our Wu Ping Army. I just drafted a few pictures. Hu Jiancheng may wish to take a closer look first. If you have any questions, I will discuss them with you later."
Hu Gui nodded repeatedly, and then continued to study the details on the picture carefully, sometimes his eyes widened, sometimes his mouth opened wide, it was so funny.
Li Yuan smiled faintly and waited quietly. He had already made a plan in his heart. If you want to compete for supremacy in the world today, you must have a strong army at your disposal. When expanding the army, you must pay attention to the quality of the army's equipment. Therefore, recruiting excellent craftsmen and establishing an arms supervisor is a top priority.
Li Yuan has been preparing carefully these days, thinking for a long time about what kind of armor and weapons the Wuping Army will use in the future.
The so-called military weapons are, first of all, armor, and secondly, crossbows. In ancient times, weapons and blades were not prohibited. Whether it was a martial artist or a scholar, it was reasonable to carry a long sword and a scimitar, but no one was allowed to hide armor privately. This is the law of the Tang Dynasty: "It is a small thing to carry a sword, but it is a great treason to hide one's armor."
Armor is rare, so Li Yuan's first consideration was armor.
Since the Tang Dynasty, as rulers have attached great importance to the manufacturing of military equipment, the steel filling method and composite steel forging technology were directly inherited from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the production speed has also made a qualitative leap, but it is limited by steel output. Therefore, Li Yuan was very lucky to be born in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and also in the Southern Tang Dynasty. Compared with the north, there were many fewer wars in the southern region. The steel smelting centers in the Southern Tang Dynasty, Chu Kingdom, and Shu Kingdom have gradually become large-scale, and the raw materials are natural. No shortage.
Today, most armies in the Southern Tang Dynasty still use the Thirteen Armors of the Tang Dynasty, represented by Mingguang Armor. Although the defensive power is considered to be superior among other countries, it has an obvious shortcoming. It can prevent sword fights, but it cannot protect against strong bows. Hard crossbow. As for Li Yuan's enemies in the future, such as Zhou and Liao, what the strong northerners were best at, apart from fighting on the fly, was powerful crossbows.
So when Li Yuan was choosing the style of armor, he thought of the most popular equipment in the Song Dynasty - walking armor. The infantry armor can be said to be the heaviest armor in history. It is also made of iron armor leaves connected with leather strips or nails. However, the number of armor leaves is as many as 1825. The protection range covers the whole body, and the weight is almost six About seventy pounds!
Such heavy armor also required extremely high physical fitness, which naturally created a powerful heavy armored infantry regiment in the Song Dynasty. Since the Song Dynasty lost Youyun first and then Hetao, all the high-quality horse-producing areas were given to the enemy. When the Song army fought in the field, they could only rely on heavy armored infantry to form military formations, and then use the armor-breaking weapon-the divine arm bow to deal with the enemy's cavalry assault. This was the Song Dynasty's national policy of "controlling cavalry with foot."
This kind of military formation was considered the nemesis of cavalry in the early Song Dynasty. For example, it was difficult for the Liao army's cavalry to break this kind of military formation. However, because the burden of infantry armor is too heavy, its nature determines that it can only be used for defense, and its role is destined to withstand enemy attacks.
Therefore, the fatal consequence of extremely poor mobility is that as long as the enemy cavalry retreats, it will be difficult for the Song army to pursue the enemy, let alone annihilate them. Therefore, the result of many battles in the late Song Dynasty was that the enemy was defeated but not destroyed, and finally came back, losing power and losing ground.
Therefore, in addition to defensive power, the selection of armor must also consider its mobility. So Li Yuan carefully recalled in his mind the past few days from the books he had read, and finally found the answer in the strange book "Mengxi Bi Tan" written by Shen Kuo of the Song Dynasty. He used the cold forged armor used by the Dangxiang people, that is, the Xixia people.
Cold-forged armor has been studied in detail in "Mengxi Bi Tan". This kind of armor is blue-black in color, very thin and light, only one-third of the thickness of traditional armor, but it is so hard that even a good crossbow cannot penetrate the armor. This is due to the unique wisdom of Dangxiang people.
They were located in a remote location and had scarce materials, so they simply gave up the traditional method of casting armor and instead creatively adapted the ancient method of cold-hammering bronze ware thousands of years ago to cold-forged steel. Finally, they were pleasantly surprised to find that the cold-forged steel they produced was The armor is light and flexible, yet has an excellent protective effect. This kind of craftsmanship is far ahead of the Liao and Song Dynasties at the same time, which is one of the reasons why Xixia can resist for hundreds of years with only a small area.
It is said that after the publication of "Mengxi Bi Tan", someone in the Song Dynasty immediately suggested to the court to use cold forging of armor. Ironically, the weapons supervisory officials were too corrupt and disliked the lightness of the materials used in cold forging armor, and there was too much profit to be made from it. No, I rejected it directly...
As expected, Hu Gui spent a lot of time on the cold-forged armor painted on the first page, because there was no concept of cold-forged armor in this era. It was necessary to create the light weight marked on the picture while also maintaining defensive power. , no matter how skilled Hu Gui is, he is still puzzled by it.
"Commander, according to your picture, what is 'cold forged armor'? This officer has never heard of it, I'm afraid it's difficult to-"
Li Yuan smiled faintly, and then said in a low voice: "Hu Jiancheng, cold forging is not difficult. Listen to what I tell you, and you should remember it first. All armor forging methods are very thick at the beginning, so there is no need to do so. When forged with fire, it is made by cold forging, which is three-thirds thicker than the Yuan minus two. At the end, the chopstick head is left to allow it not to be forged, and it is as if..."
In a moment, Li Yuan had recited a large section of the cold forging method recorded in "Mengxi Bi Tan". Then he looked at Hu Gui. After carefully copying it, he read it again carefully. He was stunned, and then his eyes lit up with excitement. He shouted directly: "The commander is really a man of heaven! Even though I have been studying carefully for many years, I have never seen such a magical thing! Where did it come from? With this cold forging method, this armor will be completed!" Our Wu Ping Army will definitely be invincible!"
"This came from the advice of an expert..." Li Yuan couldn't explain too much, so he could only say with a wry smile.
Then Li Yuan said seriously: "Hu Jiancheng, from now on our army will make armor according to the cold forging method. I trust you, so I entrust you with this method. This is a secret and can be taught to our craftsmen, but it must not be leaked. ! Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed!"
Hu Gui quickly raised his hands and said: "I will obey the commander's orders!"
"Also, in the future, all equipment used by war horses will also use the cold forging method."
"I understand!" Hu Gui flipped to the next few drawings and asked with a look of embarrassment: "It's just that, Commander, the divine arm bow, horse-cutting sword and horse army commander you drew later are powerful. It’s amazing, but after careful calculation, I’m afraid the cost and materials are too expensive! I suggested that, for example, a long spear might be replaced by a spear..."
Li Yuan shook his head decisively. Although the gun and the gun seemed to be the same, their power was very different! Although guns can be used in horse battles, they are mostly used in infantry formations. When fighting with horses, the best solution is to win.
A good horse spear has a sharp edge like a sword and has eight sides. With a single pick, the enemy's armor can be removed quickly. The composite shaft also has amazing toughness and will not break even if the cavalry charges at high speed. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty once said: "With Yuchi holding the spear, he can defeat thousands of troops." Famous generals such as Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong were all good at using the spear.
This long spear was specially prepared for his future cavalry regiment. Li Yuan said resolutely: "Just do as I say! You can go to the government office to withdraw the required money! Hu Jiancheng, Liu From now on, I will hand over all the armor and weapons of the Wanwu Ping Army to you. The styles and quantities must be as per the drawings, and they must be made every day, and shoddy products are not allowed! I will come to inspect them in the near future. Don’t disappoint me!”
"Your Majesty, take your orders!"
Seeing that Hu Gui couldn't wait to summon more than a dozen craftsmen and began to discuss excitedly around the drawings, Li Yuan smiled with satisfaction. He knew very well in his heart, and at the same time he was looking forward to it. These are the wisdom of the ancients. The essence of ordnance, once equipped on the same army, will have terrible power...
