Master He's real surname is Helan. Seeing this surname, you can roughly understand that he is not from the north. As a Xianbei person rarely seen in blacksmith workshops, Master He's origins are also interesting.
The matter dates back to the time of Huan Xuanwu (Huan Wen)'s Northern Expedition, which is thirty years ago.
At the beginning of the war, Huan Wen fought well, regaining a lot of lost ground one after another, and his troops were already pointing directly at Luoyang, and he was about to capture the city of Luoyang.
It was during this period of his greatest success that Huan Wen captured many craftsmen from northern towns. In war-torn ancient times, craftsmen who knew a certain craft had always been the focus of competition for armies from various countries.
Helan's father was also a blacksmith, and it was at this time that he was captured and brought to the Jin Dynasty. Since arriving in the Jin Dynasty, the Helan family resolutely gave up their original surname and changed their surname to He.
By the time Xiao He arrived, the He family had been established in the south for three generations.
Xiaohe quickly made a bunch of arrow clusters, handed them to the carpenter behind him, and put them on the arrow shafts. According to the standard equipment of the Jin Dynasty soldiers, a soldier, whether cavalry or infantry, usually carries a few arrows with him in every battle.
Carry twenty arrows.
These arrows are collected in leather quivers for easy use.
Xiao He saw Wang Mi and smiled heartily: "Secretary Wang, you have been in the army for a long time and you have done so many good deeds. Why doesn't the court give you a promotion?"
Tsk tsk, this kid really doesn’t like to pick up any of the pots.
What else could be the reason? The emperor of the Sima family is ignorant!
Wang Mi was a little embarrassed: "We are loyal to the imperial court and we should do everything we do. How can we be promoted and make a fortune?"
Xiao He curled his lips, it seemed that there was no hope of promotion.
Wang Mi said nice words, but in fact he was scolding his mother in his heart. Xiao He was right, why didn't I get a reward?
What did old man Xie brag about that day?
He said that if you were injured, Zhiyuan, I would definitely ask the court for help. These words were all said by him at the time, but what about now?
Liu Yudu has been officially appointed as General Xuanwei by the imperial court, but where is his promotion from Wang Zhiyuan?
Although promotion is not his pursuit, this result can only explain one problem.
Thanks to the old man, he didn't ask for credit for him at all. In his eloquent battle report, the content about Wang Mi took up an unknown amount of space.
I don’t even know how Xie Xuan described Wang Mi in his battle report.
Shouldn't he take all the credit for transforming weapons and winning battles?
Even a famous general in history is nothing more than this.
"How long does it take to build a pair of armor like this?"
Master He's men have already finished making arrow clusters, and the next task assigned to him is to make horse gear.
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, not only people had to wear armor, but even war horses had to wear a vest as much as possible.
Don't underestimate war horse armor. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, a fully equipped war horse armor had many components and was quite gorgeous.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was a special term for cavalry riding equipped with vests, which was called "equipped cavalry."
A complete vest includes several parts, including the face curtain that protects the horse's head, the chicken neck (a circle-shaped armor) that protects the horse's neck, and the armor that protects the horse's belly, not to mention the horse's back.
The main part of the vest is indispensable.
But some parts are a bit difficult to understand for modern people.
For example, there are also rides that specifically protect the horse’s butt.
A horse’s butt actually needs protection?
Jin people are really considerate and considerate.
Xiao He wiped his sweat and said, "It will take at least a day."
one day?
That’s really time consuming!
In fact, making a vest is far more time-consuming than making a set of armor for human use, especially armor with fine parts such as face curtains, which is even more time-consuming and labor-intensive.
"But, what is this?"
"What does Princess Iron Fan use?" Wang Mi murmured to himself, and Xiao He laughed: "Where is Princess Iron Fan from?"
"I've never heard of a princess named Iron Fan in the Jin Dynasty."
Xiao He put down the hammer and meditated, really carefully recalling the titles of princesses from various countries that he knew.
Wang Mi was speechless and choked. He is a goblin. Can you recognize him?
Then he smiled and said: "She's not from the Jin Dynasty, she's from the Penglai Fairy Island. She's from ancient times. You don't know her."
"That's it." Xiao He nodded fiercely: "It's actually written in a book. I don't read much, so I have to recognize it."
"You haven't told me yet, what is this iron fan used for?"
It’s not that Wang Mi is being picky, this piece of iron is really like an iron fan, with pieces of vertical iron armor connected together to form a fan shape, pointing vertically upward.
It is also divided into two parts in the middle, which looks particularly similar to a real feather fan.
"This, this is parasitism!"
"parasitic?"
"What it is?"
This time it was Wang Mi's turn not to understand.
Parasite?
Parasite?
Parasitized on what?
Seeing the confused look on Wang Mi's face, Xiao He understood that Wang Mi had never seen this kind of equipment before.
"This is also installed on the saddle and is part of the vest."
"The purpose is to protect the cavalry's back from attack, and it can also be used as decoration. Look, isn't this thing very beautiful when mounted on a horse?"
It's incredible that ancient vests still have this part.
Can such a gorgeous thing really provide effective protection to the cavalry?
Ancient times were also very strange. Some things were very complicated, more gorgeous and complicated than modern products.
And some places can be quite simple, such as the improvement of stirrups.
The prototype of the stirrup has appeared in the Chinese army since the Han Dynasty. However, after a long period of time, the stirrup, the most important component of horse equipment, has not made much progress.
So much so that by the Jin Dynasty, more than three hundred years later, stirrups were just simple triangular iron rings.
"Master He, when the spears and stirrups are fully equipped in a while, maybe this parasite won't need the equipment."
"You can also save a process and it will be much easier."
Although he and Wang Mi have been having an inconsequential conversation, Master Xiaohe's work has not stopped for a moment.
In the hot environment, even Wang Mi, who had not done any work, was covered with sweat beads on his face.
It's so hot!
But Xiao He seemed to be completely used to it. Even if the sweat dropped from his face, he could still keep working.
"Secretary Wang is really sure, but we can't make many vests in the first place. Nowadays, more than half of the war horses of Jin Dynasty, even your Beifu soldiers, don't have vests."
"Don't worry, I've asked other blacksmiths to make your spear together. We should be able to get it together today."
A person as valuable as Secretary Wang would never come to the workshop to see him for no reason. Xiao He then thought about it, what could Secretary Wang come here to see him for?
Ba Cheng was here to ask for the spear. Although this errand came in a hurry, Xiao He was not a brainless person.
He had already told the other masters in the workshop how to make spears. Since spears would be used by the army in the future anyway, there was no point in hiding this craft all the time.
"That's good, that's good!"
Wang Mi thanked him profusely, and as long as these weapons were supplied, he would be relieved.