On this day, a group of hundreds of people came out of the city. The leader was naturally the prince. In addition, most of the Ming Dynasty nobles came. The generals were particularly interested in weapons. So most of the nobles in Beijing came, Xu Da and Fu Youde
.Muying and others followed the prince out of the city.
Xu Da was an easy-going person, so he didn't think it was anything big if he was asked to go out of the city with the prince. The worst he could do was to accompany his juniors for an outing in the city.
But Fu Youde is different.
Fu Youde, who is in charge of the Southwest Military Affairs, has not left the city yet, but various things are disturbing him. Fu Youde is very busy, especially during the two days of the expedition. In his opinion, since the food, grass, ordnance allocated by the court are all
It has arrived and has even been loaded onto a ship. 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 to do?
It's just a waste of time.
Therefore, Fu Youde was dressed in armor, held his golden helmet, and said to his son Fu Zhong: "You have been in 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 no relationship 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. He also didn't believe that He Xi had any original ideas in ordnance. He curled his lips and 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 either. He still understands the scene of greeting us. 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, no one will treat you as a mute." Then he forgot about He Xi's affairs, rode on the horse, staggered, and chewed a word over and over again. It was none other than Qu Jing.
.
He has been thinking about the strategy to attack Yunnan. He has been thinking about it, no matter where to attack, Qujing is a hurdle. Once Qujing is calm, the situation will be opened up. If Qujing is not defeated, I am afraid that the army will be overwhelmed and the city will be fortified. The war will be protracted.
What night is it? It's just a trivial matter, and it doesn't bother him at all as a dignified general conquering the south. 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.
------
He Xi was waiting on the roadside early in the morning.
Seeing a large group of people arriving from a distance, He Xi rode up to meet them. After some 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 led the way. Within a moment, he led people to the blast furnace and inspected the steel ingots that had just been released.
Fu Youde is also an expert. He has been through life and death for so many years, and he is very good at weapons and steel. Just knocking it with two steel ingots, you can tell that it is not ordinary. It is definitely not an ordinary iron tool. Fu Youde turned around to look at Fu Zhong.
The father and son knew each other quite well. Fu Zhong looked at the steel ingot in his hand. He doubted his life for a moment. He recalled that He Xi asked everything that day and knew nothing. He was clearly a newbie in the industry and knew nothing. Now it seems that,
It seems that I have been fooled.
Fu Zhong was a little ashamed and angry, and thought to himself: "Sure enough, he came from the palace, and there is no good person."
However, the steel ingot in front of him was still within Fu Zhong's ability to bear. But what happened next was beyond Fu Zhong's imagination.
I saw the waterwheel that had just been erected in the creek. A dozen craftsmen were busy for a while. A huge iron block was slowly hoisted up. A blacksmith next to him held a red-hot iron block and placed 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 into the air. It was full of brilliant colors.
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 used tongs, took it out from the forging table, and placed it next to the stove. He used the hammer to jingle and hammer.
I did it more than a dozen times. I modified the edges and curvature of the armor, and also nailed holes in it to make it easier to weave later.
After some operations.
A piece of iron 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 is needed at all. I don't know if the power of water hammer is limited or for other reasons.
, anyway, these craftsmen adopted this process after discussion.
First, it is molded with molten steel. Then it is heated until it is completely red. Then it is forged with a water hammer.
Although there were a few more processes, the dozen or so pieces of armor needed for the armor had been forged in less than a quarter of an hour.
Even so, the difficulty of processing is reduced, but only if the steel has good ductility. If pig iron is used, it will break after a few times. Even heating will not work.
There were more than a dozen pieces of iron armor, including breastplates, arm armors, leg armors, etc. 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.
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, the 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 this day. He has supervised the making of weapons himself. He naturally knows how many hours of work it takes to make a suit of armor. Not to mention other things, more than a hundred pieces of armor cannot be made in one day. Not to mention other things.
process.
Now it only takes a while to build it. Xu Da estimated that as long as there is enough steel, it can be enough to build about twenty pairs in one day. And this is just a waterwheel. In the entire process, most of them are
Mature technology.
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 waterwheels.
There are tens of thousands of people in the Ordnance Bureau. If they were all changed to the current model, I don't know how many could be produced per day. This alone is enough to be called a masterpiece of ingenuity.
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 frame was brought over and the armor was propped up. Then Fu Youde held the bow in person, and only heard two "bang bang" sounds, and the shot had already hit the armor. But it didn't hit the armor at all, and it had been shot.
opened.
When the generals stepped forward and took a look, there was only a white spot on the armor.
Fu Youde said: "Put it closer."
Fu Youde shot the arrow again. But even after only twenty steps, Fu Youde did not shoot through the armor.
Fu Youde has outstanding martial arts. He first joined the Red Scarf Army, then Ming Yuzhen, and then Chen Youliang. He relied on his martial arts. Twenty steps away, Fu Youde has seen it. But they are all fine craftsmen, carefully polished
, it can be said that each one is the result of years of hard work, and there are not many mansions left in the world. It can be said that they are all treasures passed down from generation to generation by the Wuxun family.
As for this armor, Fu Youde saw it with his own eyes, it was made in almost a short time. Because it was so easy to make, this armor was all distributed to soldiers. Also because it was so easy to make, 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 can he shoot to death with his riding and archery skills?
"Good armor." Mu Ying was very 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 shone brightly and she said: "However, since you have started to try, let's try to the end."
The prince immediately understood what Mu Ying meant.
Mu Ying was overjoyed to see the armor and wanted to test the limits of the armor. It was just the merits of the armor He Xi, but now in front of such a dignitary, he didn't know about the destructive experiment on the armor, so he still thought it was to mess with He Xi.
So Mu Ying first determined He Xi's contribution. Next, Mu Ying's methods were 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, and the people below took out a few firecrackers.
Among the generals of the Ming Dynasty, Mu Ying was good at using firearms after all. Although it has not happened yet, during the conquest of Yunnan, Mu Ying used three layers of fire cannons to defeat the Yunnan Elephant Formation and defeat the main force of the King of Liang. He relied on fire cannons.
Because of this, when Mu Ying saw the armor, she first thought about whether firearms could break through it.
But based on his experience, no armor can protect against firearms, so he got vaccinated.
There was a sound of "Boom." A soldier had opened fire.
With a "thud" sound, 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.
