Well, to say a thousand words, a hundred hearings are better than a sight, Governor, and all colleagues, or please Lord Zhu to take us to the scene, to see how the Zhejian army drills firearms, to see how these firearms to give Lord Zhu ‘practice and use, enough to sway the battlefield, invincible,’ the confidence of the world, this is in my heart is curious tightly.”
Lord Huang smiled slightly, and suggested to Zhang Jing and the crowd, proposing to go to the Zhejian army drill site to have a look.
Zhang Jing nodded expressionlessly, watching the Zhejian army drill was an important part of the inspection, so naturally, the crowd would not have an issue with it.
So, at Lord Huang’s suggestion, the crowd was led by Zhu Pingan to the firearms drill site.
The further they walked, the greater the smell of burning gunpowder and the greater the smoke.
Soon enough, they arrived at the place.
First into the eyes of the crowd is a sea of black iron colour, Zhejian army generals all fully draped cotton armour, red tassel pointed helmets, covered with copper nails of the armour body, in the sunlight glittering, the end of the mighty and extraordinary.
An official saw this spectacular scene, couldn’t help but be surprised and said, “No, everyone is wearing armour, this is a big sum of money ah, that is, the Beijing camp can’t do it ah, Zhejian army is so rich ……”
At this moment he couldn’t help but doubt what Zhu Ping An said just now, Zhu Ping An He could not help but doubt Zhu Pingan’s words just now, Zhu Pingan is not selling the secret method of knife wound medicine to earn a large amount of silver ah? Otherwise how the rate of armour of the Zhejian army can be so high.
“Liang adults, you take a closer look, see those shiny copper nails on the armour, enough to see the Zhejian generals wearing cotton armour, not iron armour, just cotton armour painted to look like iron armour but six.”
The officer next to him shook his head, pointing to the cotton armour on one of the Zhejiang generals, and reminded softly.
“Oh, oh, it’s really true.” The official took a closer look at the armour shawl on the general and suddenly came to an understanding.
It turned out that the Zhejiang army were all wearing cheap cotton armour, how low the cost of cotton armour was, a set of iron armour could be exchanged for at least four or five sets of cotton Si.
Generals for a pair of iron armour can grab the head, as for the cotton armour, on the generals is not very attractive, this is the gap between the two.
Then, instantly the heart is balanced.
Oh, if I say ah, you less drill some firearms, save out of the silver to buy iron armour is not beautiful.
“Xian nephew, you are very short of silver, how the soldiers all wear cotton armour?” Duke Wei couldn’t help but ask.
The crowd also looked curiously at Zhu Pingan.
“Back to uncle, our army is short of silver, but even if we are short of silver, we will not save silver on weaponry. The promotion of cotton armour is not because of lack of silver, but because of the excellent protective performance of cotton armour, the cotton armour produced by our army’s equipment battalion is not much inferior to iron armour in defending against cold weapons, and in defending against firearms such as cannons, the protective performance is far superior to that of iron armour. Moreover, the weight of cotton armour is lighter than iron armour, and its flexibility is higher than that of iron armour, which is more helpful for soldiers to fight on the battlefield.” Zhu Pingan explained to Duke Wei and the crowd with a serious face.
“Cotton armour has such excellent protective properties?” Duke Wei had a skeptical look on his face.
The rest of the officials were even more sceptical.
Practice is the only standard to test the truth, Zhu Pingan had ten pairs of brand new cotton armour and two pairs of iron armour brought in.
Zhang Jing and others went up to check out the cotton armour and found that the cotton armour of the Zhejian army was very different from that of the other barracks, the Zhejian army’s cotton Si was much more refined or more professional, the cotton armour of the other barracks was either a simple cloth-faced armour or a cotton-padded jacket-like that was connected together and was bloated and inconvenient, whereas the Zhejian army’s cotton armour was different and much more professional, it was divided into seven parts: the body armour, the cape, the armour sleeves, the front gear, the left gear, the armour skirt, the heart protector, etc. The body armour was made of a single part, and each part was made of a single piece of cloth.
Each part of the cotton armour is well made, not bloated at all, very lean, easy to kill, but the protective area has not shrunk at all.
It was heavy in the hand.
The people are not military white, at least a little military, a weighing know that this is composite armour, cotton armour must be lined with a layer of iron. With this layer of iron, the cotton armour’s protective performance is not that bad.
Zhu Pingan let ten pairs of cotton armour and two pairs of iron armour set on the scarecrow, like last time on the spot verification.
Firstly, he verified the cold weapons of swords and arrows.
Zhu Pingan called two groups of soldiers to shoot arrows at the twelve pairs of armour from twenty paces away, shooting three rounds of arrows in a row before asking Zhang Jing and the others to come up together to verify.
The two pairs of iron armour were naturally unharmed, the feathered arrows could not penetrate the armour, however, the iron armour had a limited protective area, and the two scarecrows had feathered arrows sticking out of their throats and crotches; the ten pairs of cotton armour, although there were three pairs of cotton armour that had a couple of holes made out by the arrows, the arrows only broke through the first layer of cotton and then were blocked by the iron sheets of the inner lining, and the other pairs of cotton armour hadn’t even broken through the first layer of cotton, and because of the cotton armour’s large protective area, there was only one scarecrow who had been hit by an arrow in the face.
“Uh, the arrow can’t penetrate, this cotton armour is much stronger than the cotton armour of the other battalions, it’s really not much inferior to iron armour.”
“Neck protection, gear protection, in addition to the face door, the whole body is protected, there are no exposed gaps, more comprehensive than the iron armour protection ……”
The crowd looked at the cotton armour with excellent defence, they couldn’t help but be a little surprised, the cotton armour of the Zhejiang army was too much stronger than the cotton armour of other barracks.
“Zhang Bao, go forward and try it out, see if this cotton armour can withstand a single slash from you.” Lord Huang gestured to Zhang Bao.
The people who shot the arrows just now were from the Zhejun army, he had some doubts if they were watered down, and if they deliberately left a few points of strength when shooting the arrows, not using their full strength, the force was not high, and the arrows naturally couldn’t penetrate the cotton armour.
“Following orders.” Zhang Bao cupped his fists and stepped forward.
Swish!
Randomly selected a pair of cotton armour, went up and slashed, “Clank” a heavy sound rang out, cotton armour just appeared a trace.
“Zhang Bao you haven’t had enough to eat have you?” Wei Liangyi glared at Zhang Bao and said, “Watch me!”
After saying that, Wei Liangyi drew his sword, held it with both hands, changed to a pair of cotton armour, and swung it down with force.
With the same “clank” sound, the cotton armour also left a mark, just a little deeper than Zhang Bao’s. Wei Liangyi was a little embarrassed.
Wei Liangyi was a bit embarrassed.
These two slashes from Zhang Bao and Wei Liangyi further proved to the crowd the excellent protection ability of the cotton armour.
“Switch to bird cannons!”
Zhu Pingan asked Zhang Jing and the others to temporarily retreat to the sides, ordering the two groups of soldiers to shoot the twelve pairs of armour with bird cannons from twenty paces away.
The two soldiers skillfully loaded the primers, then took out a greaseproof paper ammo pack from the ammo pot, tore it open with their mouths, poured the gunpowder and projectiles into the cannon’s chamber, pounded it solidly with a Tongzhi bar, then blew on the fire rope, lifted the cannon, aimed at the straw men in front of them who were clad in cotton armour and iron armour, and opened fire together with a command from their captain.
A shot rang out and confirmed smoke filled the air.
The people went up to check the armour, and then were surprised to find that the two pairs of iron armour were completely wiped out, with several transparent holes punched out, while the cotton armour was all defended, with most of the projectiles piercing through the first layer of the cotton armour, and getting stuck in the iron sheets or the second layer of the cotton armour.
Zhang Jing can not help but eyes bright, this cotton armour can also be promoted, the cost is lower than the iron armour, the protection is higher than the iron armour ……
