Chapter 36 New Armor
The five days passed by in a blink of an eye.
On this day, a group of hundreds of people left the city. The leader is naturally the prince. In addition, most of the Ming Dynasty nobles came. Military generals are particularly interested in weapons. Therefore, most of the distinguished officials in Beijing came, including Xu Da and Fu Youde. Mu Ying and others followed the prince out of the city.
Xu Da was an easy-going man, so he didn't think it was anything special to ask him to go out of the city with the prince. The worst possible outcome is to accompany the junior on an outing in the city.
But Fu Youde is different.
Fu Youde is in charge of the Southwest Military Affairs. Although he has not left the city yet, various things are disturbing him. Fu Youde is very busy. This was especially true during the two days of the expedition. In his opinion, since the grain, grass, ordnance allocated by the imperial court had all arrived, they had even been loaded on ships. One batch has already been shipped to the southwest.
Even if there are any new weapons now, they will not be needed in the Southern Expedition. What is he here for?
It's just a waste of time.
Therefore, Fu Youde was dressed in armor and held up his golden helmet. To his son Fu Zhong, he said, "You had contact with He Xi a few days ago. What do you think of He Xi?"
Fu Zhong thought of He Xi's explanation 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? Let me ask you, does he have any innovations in ordnance?"
Fu Zhong remembered that He Xi was not familiar with the Ming Dynasty's ordnance at all. I don't believe He Xi has any original ideas in ordnance. Pouting. Said: "Seven orifices are open to six, but none is clear."
Fu Youde said: "It seems that His Majesty is paving the way for Secretary He. No matter how you pave the way, you can't pave it like this. However, this is not what our ministers can say. When you arrive, remember to keep your mouth shut, no matter what you see. talk less."
Fu Zhong said with a smile: "Dad, don't underestimate the child. Although the child is straightforward, he is not stupid. He still understands the scene of greeting and greeting. No matter how badly He Xi does it, I will see through it and won't tell you. It will offend people.”
Fu Youde said: "Just say a few words, and no one will treat you as a mute." Then he forgot about He Xi and sat on the horse, swaying, chewing a word repeatedly. It was none other than Qu Jing.
He has been thinking about strategies to attack Yunnan. He calculated and calculated, no matter where to attack. Qujing is a hurdle. Qu Jing calmed down and the situation opened up. If Qujing is not defeated, I am afraid that the army will be defeated and the city will be fortified. The war continued for a long time.
What day? It's just a trivial matter, it doesn't bother him at all, the dignified General Zhengnan, but it's just a formality for socializing.
Fu Youde changed his body shape on the horse, and Qujing and even the southwest terrain were in Fu Youde's heart.
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He Xi was waiting on the roadside early in the morning.
Seeing a large group of people coming from a distance, He Xi rode up to meet them. After some greetings and greetings. The prince asked: "Are you all ready?"
He Xi said: "Everything is ready."
The prince turned his head and said, "Elders, let's take a look at what Brother He can do."
Xu Da smiled and said, "Okay. Let's take a look."
He Xi leads the way. Within a moment, the person was led to the blast furnace and inspected the steel ingots that had just come out of the furnace.
Fu Youde is also an expert. He has been through life and death for so many years. He is very good at weapons and steel. Just knock it with two steel ingots and you will know that it is unusual. No ordinary iron tool. Fu Youde looked back at Fu Zhong.
Father and son understand each other quite well. Fu Zhong looked at the steel ingot in his hand. I doubted life for a while. He recalled that He Xi asked everything and knew nothing. You are clearly a newbie in the industry and don’t understand anything. Now it seems that he has been fooled.
Fu Zhong was a little ashamed and angry, and thought to himself: "As expected, he came from the palace, and there is no good person."
However, the steel ingots in front of him were still within Fu Zhong's ability to bear. But what happened next was beyond Fu Zhong's imagination.
I saw the water wheel that had just been erected in the creek. A dozen craftsmen were busy for a while. A huge iron block was slowly hoisted up, and a blacksmith next to it held a red-hot iron block. Put it under the hammer. Then he put it down gently, and the iron block of several hundred kilograms hit the iron platform below heavily.
There was a loud "collapse" sound. Countless sparks flew. There is a lot of radiant color.
After three or five consecutive bombardments. The iron block turned into an iron plate, and it was a very thin iron plate. So the craftsman took the tongs out of the forging table and placed them next to the stove. He jingled with the hammer and knocked it a dozen times in a row. Modify the edges and curvature of the armor, and drill holes in it. It is convenient to prepare after a while.
After some operations.
A piece of armor is formed.
Another piece of iron was sent under the water hammer.
Repeat the process just now.
When He Xi saw this, he sighed inwardly.
In fact, in He Xi's imagination, the steel ingot should be directly processed into shape. After all, He Xi has watched many steel processing videos. Kneading iron is like kneading dough. No heating required at all. I don’t know if the power of the water hammer is limited or for other reasons. Anyway, these craftsmen used this process after discussing it.
First, it is poured into shape with molten steel. Then heat until all over is red. It is then forged with a water hammer.
Although there are a few more steps, it takes less than a quarter of an hour. The dozen or so pieces of armor needed for the iron armor have already been forged into shape.
Even so, the difficulty of processing is reduced, but only if the steel has good ductility. If you use pig iron, it will break into pieces after a few hits. Even heating won't work.
These dozen pieces of iron armor include breastplates, arm armors, leg armors, and more. Immediately, several craftsmen came forward and used a finger-wide strip of cowhide to weave together more than a dozen pieces of armor.
that's all.
A brand new armor was forged in front of everyone's eyes.
He Xi said: "Prince, Duke of Wei, Marquis of Yingchuan, and Marquis of Xiping, this process still needs polishing. Now it is just rough and can be seen. Please don't be offended."
Xu Da, Duke of Wei, said: "Secretary He is too humble. There is nothing crude here. It is simply a work of art."
Xu Da has followed Zhu Yuanzhang all the way to the present, and he has supervised the making of weapons. Of course he knows how many hours of work it takes to make a pair of armor. Not to mention anything else, more than a hundred pieces of armor. It cannot be built in a day. Not to mention other processes.
Now it only takes a while to create it. Xu Da estimated that as long as there was enough steel, it would be enough to build about twenty pairs in one day. And this is just a waterwheel. Most of the entire craftsmanship is mature craftsmanship.
Very easy to copy.
According to Xu Da's judgment, it can be easily promoted. After all, there are too many rivers in the Jiangnan water town. Enough to arrange a waterwheel.
If all the tens of thousands of people in the Arms Bureau were changed to the current model. I don’t know how much can be produced per day. This alone is enough to be called a work of art.
Fu Youde said: "What the Duke said is absolutely true, but armor is a weapon. The most important thing is practicality. Secretary He, can you give it a try?"
He Xi said: "It's okay. It's just that I wasn't prepared."
Fu Youde laughed and said, "Why do we need to prepare for this?" Then he raised his voice and said, "Come here, put up the armor."
After a while, a simple wooden shelf was brought over. Hold up the armor. Then Fu Youde held the bow in person, and only heard two "bengbeng" sounds, and the shot had already hit the armor. It just didn't penetrate the armor at all and had been bounced away.
The generals stepped forward and saw that there was only a white spot on the armor.
Fu Youde said: "Put it closer."
Fu Youde shot again. But even with only twenty steps, Fu Youde did not penetrate the armor.
Fu Youde has outstanding martial arts skills. He first joined the Red Scarf Army, then Ming Yuzhen, and then Chen Youliang, relying on his martial arts. It's not like Fu Youde has never seen him twenty steps away. But they are all fine workmanship and fine polishing. It can be said that each one is the result of years of work, and not many of them survive in the world. It can be said that those are treasured armors passed down from generation to generation by the Wuxun family.
As for this iron armor, Fu Youde saw it with his own eyes. It was almost made in a short time. Because it is so easy to make, this armor is all distributed to soldiers. Also because it was so easy to build, Fu Youde subconsciously felt that the quality was not very good.
But the current situation makes everyone doubt their life.
I doubt that his lifelong practice of archery and horse training is of any use? If all the soldiers use this kind of armor. Who else can he shoot to death with his riding and shooting skills?
"Good armor." Mu Ying was greatly excited and said, "Your Highness, Secretary He has done a great job in creating such armor. I would like to take credit for Secretary He."
The prince also stepped forward to take a closer look at the armor and said, "Okay, after I return to the capital alone, I will definitely ask Secretary He for credit."
Mu Ying's eyes lit up and she said, "But now that you've started to try, let's try to the end."
The prince immediately understood what Mu Ying meant.
Mu Ying was delighted to see Hunter Xin and wanted to test the limits of the armor. It was just Jia Zhou He Xi's merits, but now in front of such a dignified person, he didn't know about Jia Zhou's destructive experiment, but he still thought it was to mess with He Xi.
So Mu Ying first decided on He Xi's contribution. Next, Mu Ying's method is needed.
The prince smiled softly and said, "Brother He, what do you think?"
He Xi said: "The Marquis of Xiping can do whatever he wants?"
"Okay." Mu Ying waved her hand. Several firecrackers were taken out by the people below.
Among the generals of the Ming Dynasty, Mu Ying was good at using firearms after all. Although it hasn't happened yet. But during the conquest of Yunnan, Mu Ying used three-level fire guns. Destroyed the Yunnan Elephant Formation. Defeat the main force of King Liang. Just rely on firecrackers.
Because of this, Muying saw the armor. The first thing to think about is whether the firearm can break it.
But based on his experience, no type of armor can protect against firearms. That's why I got vaccinated.
"Boom." A soldier had opened fire.
With a "thud", the entire armor shook, but when I stepped forward to check, I found that there was only a slight dent in the armor, and the force was not enough to kill the people inside the armor.
