Chapter 77 The Era of Cotton Armor

A few days later, Song Baolai's open-hearth furnace successfully produced the first batch of steel. Li Ping, who was overjoyed, immediately thought about what to do with the steel.

The attack in the valley a few days ago gave him his first intuitive understanding of bows and arrows. The important striking effect of bows and arrows and the soldiers' fear of bows and arrows made him first think about defense issues.

If everyone has excellent armor, casualties will be reduced a lot and the fighting courage of the troops will be greatly enhanced.

What kind of armor can I make?

Those shiny plate armors in Europe immediately entered Li Ping's mind, and he couldn't help but dislike the cloth armor, leather armor and cotton armor that his troops equipped with seemingly weak defense.

Once he had an idea, he naturally had to do it, but he unexpectedly hit a snag at Song Baolai's place.

Song Baolai didn't understand military history, nor had he studied European armor, but he knew the history of metallurgy, and he understood the issues of merit and effectiveness. He simply scorned the fact that European armor was historically stronger than Chinese armor. He believed that everyone wore heavy armor.

The armor is simply a waste.

From Song Baolai, Li Ping learned for the first time that the metallurgical technology in ancient Europe lagged far behind China, especially the technical level of steelmaking. It can be said that the steel technology in modern society is different from the speculation in ancient China.

Steel technology is inherited from the same origin and has nothing to do with the European iron smelting context.

According to Song Bao, in 1845, the American entrepreneur Kelly invited four metallurgical experts from China to Kentucky City to teach Chinese steelmaking technology. In 1852, this technology spread to the United Kingdom, allowing the steel king Bessemer to directly use the converter in the converter in 1856.

The decarburization of pig iron into steel promoted the mass production of steel in Europe.

In the mid-19th century, the Frenchman Martin and the German Siemens jointly invented the open-hearth steelmaking method, which is the prototype of the open-hearth furnace now used by Song Baolai. It is also based on early Chinese equipment and principles. It can be said that the refining method introduced from China

Pig iron and the technology for making steel from pig iron are key to the development of the European steel industry.

Because he specializes in steelmaking and is Chinese, Song Baolai has almost no knowledge of this period of history.

There was a gap in materials, so Song Baolai didn't believe that Europe was ahead of China in armor technology. As for the plate armor and breastplates that Li Ping was talking about, Song Baolai didn't even think much of it.

He believed that these armors could not be made very thick. They were not tanks and had no engines. They would be too thick for a person to walk without being crushed to death. Based on his understanding of metals, thin metal armors would

Firearms are an unnecessary burden.

His conjecture was that the Europeans developed these things not because their metallurgical technology was good, but because their metallurgical technology was so poor that the offensive weapons were not as hard or durable. This is what Li Ping said happened.

Plate armor and stuff like that.

Moreover, Song Baolai seems to vaguely remember reading information that said that carburizing technology was not even popularized in the West until the Middle Ages, and wrought iron with a softer texture and lower hardness has been widely used.

What's the meaning?

To put it bluntly, the tip of the attack weapon is soft and does not require too strong protection.

And in terms of maintenance and comfort, China's small-piece armor obviously has more advantages.

Although he was shocked, Li Ping obviously couldn't just listen to one side of the story. He had to conduct physical tests. He thought of most of the iron armor, cotton armor and cloth armor that had been thrown away in the warehouse.

Because most of the teams are still in the training stage of new recruits, most of these armors have never been put to use. The main reason is that they have not attracted Li Ping's attention.

In the battle to protect Mrs. Zuo, the leather and cotton armor they equipped had limited effect, which made Li Ping have a natural distrust of the equipment distributed, so he was very inactive in using it.

Although there is still a main type of armor, cloth-faced armor, which is a kind of armor with an outer layer of cloth or cotton and an inner layer of iron sheets. This kind of armor is mainly equipped for generals and elite cavalry. However, Li Ping

It can be simulated by putting cloth and armor together.

But before the test started, Li Ping received another surprise after careful inspection of the test equipment.

Because of his preconceived notions and because Li Ping's main focus was on attacking weapons, Li Ping did not carefully examine the various types of armor he owned one by one, let alone be familiar with and understand them.

When he really took a closer look, Li Ping found that he took too many things for granted.

Let’s not talk about leather armor. Animal leather can be thick or thin and has been treated with oil soaking. It is nothing special. It is good at protecting against slight knife scratches, but it is not good at facing sharp blades and heavy cuts. The defense effect against punctures is only

Worse.

The cloth armor started to surprise him a little.

Li Ping had never seen cloth armor before, and he had a deep misunderstanding of cloth armor. He thought it was just a piece of stuff that had no money to pay for it. When he was guarding Mrs. Zuo, it was even a bit strange to see the general's infantry wearing cloth armor. Zuo Menggeng said

The fact that he had 30 pieces of short cloth armor made him even more disapproving.

But when I really looked into it, I discovered a huge gap in understanding.

His batch of cloth armor is made of about 40 layers of linen. It looks a bit like a cotton vest. It is said that the cost is higher than cotton armor (cotton was cultivated in large quantities in the Ming Dynasty, and cotton was cheaper than linen). Yes.

The defensive effect of swords and arrows actually far exceeds that of leather armor, and is no worse than cotton armor.

It's no wonder that the horse handler looked down on Li Ping at the beginning, and his clothes were not as good as those of his infantry.

If there is an accident with cloth armor, it will be even more unexpected with cotton armor.

Because Li Ping had carefully looked at the first batch of cotton armor they equipped. After all, he was curious and had never seen it before.

Those cotton-padded armors were simply armor, rather than simply compacted cotton-padded jackets. Their defensive power was surprisingly low. At that time, Li Ping was still wondering how these armors could unify the army after the Qing Dynasty. It turned out that his batch of armors actually

It's a super fake product, real cotton armor is nothing like that.

The cotton armor that Mrs. Zuo Menggen gave him was the real cotton armor. Although it was not particularly good, it could be used seriously.

As long as you touch these real cotton armors carefully, you will know that they can really be used as armors, and their defensive power should be pretty good. They are like the cotton soles of old-fashioned cloth shoes, which are thick, soft and hard at the same time.

After asking around among the officers and soldiers, it turns out that many veterans know how to make this kind of cotton armor, because there is no secret at all and the process is very simple.

To put it simply, it is to compact the cotton and sew it in two layers of homespun cloth like a cotton-padded jacket, then use coarse money to sew it tightly, and then sew it more densely, then soak it with water, lay it flat and press it tightly so that it will not

Then expand and finally dry. This is the most basic cotton nail.

If you want to be more defensive and be more particular, you can add more layers; if the conditions are better, you can sandwich various things such as leather, paper, or even iron sheets between two layers or between multiple layers, and then

Plus copper nails for fixation. Of course, the more processes, the higher the cost.

As for Li Ping's batch of fake and shoddy products, they just simplified the process. Not only was there only one layer, but the compacting and drying work was not done well. This was just for the sake of competition.

And something to deal with.

Moreover, cotton armor of this quality was very common in the Ming army, and everyone had long been accustomed to it. Most of them were worn as clothing to keep out the cold. And because it was fluffy, the effect of keeping out the cold was quite good, probably similar to the principle of down jackets.

Of course, this also makes it unpopular in the hot and humid south.

"The northern army had more cotton armor, while the southern army had more cloth armor" was a major feature of the Ming army at that time.

Although the batch of cotton armor sent by Mrs. Zuo Menggeng only had one layer, the basic processes were in place, so it looked like something serious.

Among these cotton armors, one is very special, because the other cotton armors are all khaki, red or blue, and only this one is black. Moreover, this armor was originally hung in a room.

Separate armor stand.

Li Ping didn't see this black cotton armor because he didn't check the warehouses one by one. When Song Baolai received it, he was already dazzled and mixed it with other armors. Finally, it was assigned to Hu Zhongshan's logistics.

During the inspection, the soldier in charge of the armor thought that Li Ping knew about the cotton armor, so he did not report it.

Just by looking at it, Li Ping knew that this cotton armor was of high quality. Looking more closely, it turned out to be really remarkable.

This piece of cotton armor is multi-layered, and the way the cotton is compressed should also be different, because each layer of it is particularly solid and hard; this set of armor is sandwiched with very hard iron sheets in important parts.

The copper nails on the outside are dense and thick, and you can tell just by the feel of the hand that the defensive power of this cotton armor is amazing.

However, during the test, Li Ping had no intention of cherishing the few types of armor, and he was not worried about damage at all. What he wanted was data, the most realistic data.

Let’s not talk about the fish scale armor with a short hood. It is a real iron armor, with armor plates pressed against each other. It is basically immune to knife cuts. Even ordinary bows and arrows will be directly deflected when shot at it. The defensive effect is amazing, but it is also a bit heavy.

In ancient books, there are often stories of certain generals who were shot with dozens of arrows and even turned into hedgehogs but still alive and kicking. The key lies in the fact that they were wearing a full set of armor and were not fatally injured. Even the arrows stuck in the armor were basically just arrows.

It penetrated a little bit, either scratched the skin a little, or it was blocked by the clothes or even leather armor underneath without any harm.

If Li Ping had had this fish scale armor, he probably wouldn't have been so seriously injured.

Although chain mail (called chain mail in ancient China) is a complete set and has a very good defensive effect, it is super soft after all and has almost no defense against blunt blows. It must be worn in conjunction with other armors.

Chainmail?

Yes, that’s right, there were chain armors in ancient China, and the equipment was quite large.

Chain armor was first seen in the "Form of Armor Given to Ministers by the First Emperor" which Cao Zhi sent to Wei Wen Emperor Cao Pi after the death of Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period. It states: "The first emperor gave the ministers armor, one collar each for black light and bright light, one collar for ring lock armor, and one collar for horse armor."

Kai Yi leads, this generation has achieved peace, and the war has been peaceful. I beg to pay Kai Cao to take care of himself."

In the Tang Dynasty, chain armor was listed as one of the 13 types of armor. However, it was not widely equipped at this time.

Tibet may be the first area in ancient China to equip chain armor on a large scale, so much so that when people in the Ming Dynasty talked about chain armor, they still called it "steel wire chain armor made by the ancient Western Qiang" (Volume 105 of "Wu Bei Zhi")

Military Resources IV").

Chain armors were widely deployed in the Central Plains area mainly during the Yuan Dynasty. Although the Ming Dynasty restored the Zhengshuo of China in terms of clothing system, it mostly followed the Yuan Dynasty in terms of military equipment. In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, six thousand pairs of "lock helmets" were produced at one time.

", indicating that ring-lock armor has been fully equipped with a large number of armies.

However, although fish scale armor and chain armor are good, their shortcomings are indeed very obvious as Song Baolai said, and it is not a problem of complicated processes and high cost, nor is it a problem of really heavy weight.

Their defense against firearms is indeed very poor, and the medium-range fire of the cannon soldiers is enough to achieve penetration. What's worse is that the cavity effect and lead poisoning of lead bullets that break through the armor and enter the human body are very fatal.

The cotton armor's performance in the test also stood out. Its defensive power far exceeded Li Ping's imagination, showing a high comprehensive defense level. Of course, the batch of fake and shoddy products cannot be counted.

Cotton armor can effectively shorten the killing distance of bird guns. The black cotton armor can shorten the effective killing distance of bird guns by more than two-thirds, which is amazing.

But there is also a problem, that is, the sharper the arrows and spears, the worse the defensive properties of the cotton armor. In other words, the defensive effect of cotton armor against sharp weapons is not good, but it is within the acceptable range.

Li Ping, who had some understanding of the principles of later soft body armor, quickly figured out the joints, because they were too similar. They basically used toughness to absorb kinetic energy, rather than relying on hardness to deflect kinetic energy like iron armor.

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To be continued...