Daqin Engineering Corps

The point is that it is light in weight and is very suitable for sailors and cavalry. It can even float on the water...that is, soldiers who can't swim don't have to worry about being drowned when they wear it.

Thinking of this, Shen Bing no longer hesitated, and immediately called out to the guard outside the door:

"come!"

Ren entered the door in response.

Shen Bing ordered:

"Hurry up and collect fifty red vines...no, a hundred catties!"

"Get in my carriage!"

"The sooner the better!"

Chapter 163 Design

Then Shen Bing discovered that one hundred catties was far from enough.

The reason is that what he can't afford to consume the most is time. Others such as raw materials and manpower are actually insignificant: raw materials do not cost money, and the entire army can be used for manpower. It is the soaking of red vines that takes time.

So I simply sent another convoy to transport several batches of red vines back for production.

The production method is simple, you only need to soak in a few large buckets and change the water from time to time.

During this period, Shen Bing went to find Yang Duanhe.

Shen Bing cupped his hands and said:

"General!"

"Our army has no armor to use. I asked people to pick some old rattan armor. Isn't this illegal?"

Yang Duanhe couldn't help being stunned when he heard the words, and then laughed loudly:

"Not against the law."

"This is because your self-control is naturally not illegal."

"It's just this old vine...can it also make armor?"

"Can it make armor for combat?"

By the way, Shen Bing sold out again:

"Oh, the general doesn't know something."

"Something is better than nothing!"

"We can't just go to fight the enemy in brown clothes, can we?"

"Using old vines to make some armor is good for showing off!"

At this time, you should pretend to be pitiful, otherwise Yang Duanhe would yell when he understood what was going on:

"There are such good things?"

"The navy will equip later, let the infantry and cavalry try first!"

Where will Shen Bing go to complain then?

At this time, Yang Duanhe could only give a wry smile when he heard Shen Bing's words, and then he forgot about it as a trivial matter.

With Yang Duan and these words, Shen Bing is relieved.

He first asked someone to weave a shield out of old vines...

This old vine is ready-made on the mountain. It has been dried and fibrous after being dried. The disadvantage is that it is not soaked in water, so the toughness is not enough. It will break with a "snap" just by bending it hard.

And if it is repeatedly soaked in water and then dried in the sun, the treated rattan will be very resilient and cannot be broken.

Shen Bing wanted to test whether it could block arrows first, so he tried it with old vines first.

The result was beyond Shen Bing's expectations... Even with Qin Jun's strong crossbow, it was difficult to penetrate this kind of rattan shield.

Only then did Wei Wei, who was shooting, understand what Shen Bing had collected so many red vines for.

He sighed:

"Doesn't the captain want to use this rattan shield?"

"That's a good idea."

"The rattan shield can block arrows and is light in weight. It is indeed suitable for the navy."

This is mainly because most of the naval forces of this era used small warships, that is, small boats that could only carry 25 people.

Warships are small and require speed, so it is necessary to reduce weight as much as possible.

How did Wei Wei know that Shen Bing not only used it to make shields, but also used it to make armor.

Shen Bing thought about it, and decided to design it himself... This is what he majored in, and he was eager for skills at this moment.

The shield must be large, like the Roman square shield.

This is because the rattan is light in weight, and under the same weight requirement, the larger the shield area, the better its protection.

In addition, the shield has to be double-layered, with several layers of water-proof palm leaf palm silk spread in the middle, and the edges around it are concaved inward... The shield becomes a small boat that can be used by one person.

The helmet should be made into the shape of a bamboo hat, just like the hat that was popular in the Song and Ming dynasties.

The characteristic of the hat is that the brim of the hat is relatively long, which can deal with the threat to the neck posed by arrows shot at an angle from the air...

In ancient armor, the protection of the face and neck was always weak.

Because it is very inconvenient to strengthen the protection and fight with a layer of armor here, and a little big movement may even cause yourself to be injured.

However, the enemy will not be fatal if a rain of arrows comes and shoots to other places. The vital parts such as the head, chest, abdomen and even the arms are armored.

Only the face and neck...they are both vital and cannot be armored.

In this case, the "flying saucer helmet" with wide edge, also known as "li helmet", was born.

If arrows strike from the direction of the enemy camp, soldiers wearing this "helmet" only need to lower their heads slightly and lean forward to protect their faces and necks well.

Since water battles are mostly bow and crossbow battles, Shen Bing of course will not let go of the wide-brimmed "hat helmet" used to block angled arrows.

Of course, it should also have some additional functions.

For example, it is also double-layered with palm leaves in the middle, which not only increases protection, but also serves as a hat for sheltering from wind and rain. It can also be used to scoop water leaking into the boat when necessary.

We must know that Chu State is located in the south, which is a rainy and humid area. Of course, these considerations are necessary.

Needless to say, the armor is made according to the armor of the Qin Army.

It's just that the armor of ordinary soldiers does not have shoulders. On the one hand, it is difficult to make the armor, and on the other hand, its weight will limit combat.

Of course, there is also the problem of insufficient batch equipment resources, so only high-ranking officers are often allocated.

Shen Bing added it directly.

No reason, the bronze armor may restrict combat, but the weight of the rattan armor is not worth mentioning at all, it would be a fool not to add it.

Shen Bing even designed a mask.

The protection of the mask is very important in crossbow combat, especially in close range crossbow combat, because the face is the enemy's primary attack target at this time...

The characteristic of crossbow combat at close range is that the trajectory of the shot arrows is straighter and more accurate.

Attacking other armored parts has little effect.

Only the face can take it out of combat with just one arrow.

The reason why most of the battles in ancient China did not use face protectors is because it is often a chicken rib:

If the mask is light, it will not work at all, and it will be fatal if shot through by an arrow.

If it is too heavy, it will affect the movement of the head and reduce the agility in series.

There are also eye vision problems and mouth and nose breathing problems.

In addition, the positions of the eyes, mouth and nose of each soldier are different, so mass production cannot be done... so the production time and labor costs have increased exponentially.

Rattan armor masks do not have these problems.

It basically does not need to consider mouth and nose ventilation, because it is very ventilated by itself.

If there is something to consider, it is that the mouth and nose should not be so densely compiled.

Then two large holes are left in the eyes for observation.

If it still blocks the line of sight, you can pry off a few rattans and open the observation hole a little bigger.

Therefore, masks can also be mass-produced in standard formats, so why not use them?

In this way, the rattan armor can almost protect all vital parts.

The rattan armor produced in a short period of time may not be enough to defend against swords and guns, but it is still more than enough to resist arrows.

Only then did Shen Bing understand why rattan armor soldiers were called "invulnerable" in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

In fact, no kind of armor is invulnerable, and rattan armor is no exception.

The problem is that it can defend as many parts of the body as possible with less weight, and has almost no weaknesses, so it has a great advantage when confronting enemies with obvious flaws such as no facial armor.

Of course, these are just designs.

Specifically, we have to wait for the rattan to be soaked in the sun for one or two cycles and then make it out to see the situation.

Chapter 164 Riding and Shooting

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It took time for the rattan to enter the processing procedure, and the training of the troops did not fall behind.

With the horses gradually in place, cavalry training was put on the agenda.

After discussing with Wei Wei, Shen Bing decided to practice riding and archery for half a day and water combat for half a day.

In a way, riding and archery is similar to water combat training, both are archery in an unstable state.

But after Shen Bing trained his troops, he discovered that the three thousand elite cavalry of the navy army really had moisture, not only moisture, but also quite a lot of moisture.

That's not to say they couldn't ride a horse or shoot an arrow, but they couldn't shoot an arrow on a horse.

To be precise, they were most of them accustomed to using crossbows instead of arrows on horseback.

This is actually a problem that exists in the cavalry of all countries in China. They are artificially reducing the difficulty of riding and shooting:

In the era when there were no stirrups and saddles, it was very difficult and dangerous to keep balance on the back of the horse with only two feet, and this was just the basis of using arrows... The arrows needed to be used with both hands, and they had to be aimed at the target for a period of time.

It’s different with a crossbow. You can put the crossbow on the horse’s back to help stabilize it while opening the crossbow. After opening the crossbow, you can hold the horse’s head with one hand and shoot with the other hand...the crossbow does not need both hands.

So even with a bow, most of them have to stop their horses before they can draw their bows and take their arrows.

As a result, only a few dozen of the 3000 people in the navy were able to complete the real riding and archery, that is, shooting arrows while the horse is running.

Among them, the best one is none other than Yu.

When he was assigned a war horse, he was stunned for a long time, and asked Shen Bing over and over again with unbelievable eyes:

"Captain, this... is this really for your subordinates?"

Shen Bing answered angrily:

"Of course!"

"Everyone has it, but you have to protect it!"

He responded, and his face glowed like a different person. He touched the horse's head lovingly for a while, patted the horse's legs for a while, and then turned on the horse skillfully and trotted around twice. When he came back, he exclaimed excitedly :

"Captain, it's a good horse!"

"It's just lack of stamina, or not suitable for long-distance combat!"

This is indeed a problem. Most of the horses in the Central Plains are spoiled and bred, and it is difficult to compare with the wild horses of ethnic minorities in terms of endurance.

Then he showed his hand with the bow and arrow, straddled the horse and galloped forward while shooting an arrow that hit the bull's-eye... Everyone was dumbfounded, this is not an easy task in this era, especially the speed of the horse's gallop.