There was no shortage of iron in the Wei Dynasty, but why was the iron armor so expensive?
The reason is simple: the technology is not up to par, and although there is a lot of iron, 99% of it is sponge iron with extremely high impurities.
The impurities here do not refer to carbon, but to things like sulfur and phosphorus that make iron brittle like wood.
Just think about it, if the strength of iron tools such as iron plows and hoes is not enough, you can increase the thickness to make up for it. Anyway, the volume is not that big. Even if the plow or hoe body is made one inch thick, it will not increase much weight.
As long as you use a little pig iron with little impurities to cross out the plow tip and hoe blade, it will be enough.
But the armor leaves are different. Let alone an inch. Can you try wearing a one centimeter thick armor?
If you don't have two hundred pounds, you're already one hundred and seventy-eight pounds. If you still fight, it won't kill you?
Therefore, if you want soldiers to be able to wear it, it should not be too thick. But once the thickness drops, you must find ways to remove impurities and increase the strength of the nail leaf.
In this era, there is no other way except repeated forging.
According to the blacksmith who just touched the steel plate, even with an experienced blacksmith like him and two strong assistants, it would take nearly a year to make a pair of armor leaves...
…
And what about Li Chengzhi?
It only took half a day, and the result was fine steel...
What is this if not a miracle?
If Li Chengzhi hadn't been glaring at him, Li Song would have knelt down long ago.
"Is it really fine steel?" He took two breaths of excitement and asked in a trembling voice.
"By the way, I dare you to pledge your head!" The old blacksmith said firmly.
Having relied on this craft for most of his life, how could he be wrong?
"Fine steel...this is fine steel..."
With tears in his eyes, Li Song tremblingly stretched out his hand to the steel plate that had been quenched by the water. His movements were light and gentle, as if he were touching his wife...
Following Li Song's scream, the others also woke up and looked excitedly at the four steel plates, the ten crucible furnaces, and the pile of iron materials like a hill...
Can nearly one thousand kilograms of fine steel be forged every day?
There are at least thirty sets of armor made into them. How many would they be if they were replaced with steel knives and gun heads?
Among all weapons, the saber, which uses the most iron, only weighs ten kilograms!
Isn't this a sign that Mr. Li is in high demand?
One by one, they were all breathing heavily, their eyes were red, and they looked at Li Chengzhi like they were looking at a god.
What do you think of your potential?
If I mix the explosives and then make the grenades, will you faint from excitement?
Li Chengzhi snorted and tried it again by breaking it with his hands.
Because of the thorough cooling, the elasticity of the steel plate is better than before. Li Chengzhi estimates that this piece should be high-carbon steel.
Not to mention forging armor, it is more than enough to make a gun barrel.
"Go, stand up!" Li Chengzhi pointed at Li Zhang and then at the steel plate.
"Ah? Oh..." Li Zhang suddenly woke up, picked up a steel plate, rushed to a high platform more than ten meters away, and stood on a stone.
The distances are all calculated, not far, just five feet.
"Crossbow!" Li Chengzhi stretched out his hand.
Li Bai hurriedly unhooked the crossbow from his back, stepped on the string with both feet, and loaded the arrow for Li Chengzhi.
Li Chengzhi picked up the crossbow, squinted his eyes, and took a sharp look at the hanging knife.
"Whoosh"
"When"
There was almost no gap between the two crisp sounds. When the sound reached the ears, the steel plate standing on the stone fell to the ground.
Li Zhang, who was hiding aside, ran over quickly. When he picked up the steel plate, he seemed to be frozen and motionless.
"Idiot, what are you doing here, why don't you hug me?" Li Song cursed loudly.
Li Zhang was startled, as if he had been frightened and woke up, and stumbled back.
"Father...Father...Father..." After shouting three times, Li Zhang finally said "Father" truly.
Li Song was so angry that he almost slapped him.
But when he saw the steel plate in Li Zhang's hand, Li Song's expression suddenly froze, like a sculpture.
The remaining clan members noticed something was wrong and all gathered around.
The one-foot-square steel plate is completely black, except for a mark near the middle that looks like it was scratched several times by a steel knife.
Most people didn't react, thinking in their minds: They clearly saw the crossbow arrow hitting the top, and the steel plate was hit and flew to the ground. How could it be possible that there wasn't even a hole as big as a pinhole left?
That's a stone crossbow...
But what happened to the scratch?
There are also those who respond quickly.
Li Bai asked anxiously: "Where are the arrows?"
"Ah, arrow?" Li Zhang was stunned for a moment, then replied, "It's rotten...the arrow was smashed, and the arrow shaft was directly split by the shock..."
"Pick it back!" Li Song growled.
Li Zhang stretched out his long legs, ran to the high platform, and ran back with a few broken arrows.
Only when they saw what was in his hand did the others know why Li Zhang was in a daze just now.
The original three-shuttle arrow was directly smashed into an iron ball.
As for the arrow shaft made of pine wood, it had already split into several pieces...
How can it be so hard?
Not to mention Zhajia, even Erlang's set of Yulin armor is absolutely impossible to collapse the arrowhead and crack the arrow shaft.
Everyone looked at the steel plate with bulging eyes. Apart from being stunned and gasping, they really didn’t know how to release the shock in their hearts.
The nails of the fish scale armor are all curved, and there is space between the two overlapping nails...
Li Chengzhi didn't have time to explain to them what "spring damping" and "dynamic energy absorption" meant. He just looked at the arrow and frowned.
Li Bai was unlucky and picked a wrought iron arrow.
But there is no need to try it with arrows. As long as you don't encounter bed crossbows and cart crossbows, sharp weapons that cannot be operated by one person, they can only protect against ordinary crossbows. Even a one-stone crossbow, a 1.5 mm steel plate is more than enough. If it weren't for the purpose of preventing gun stabs, he would even want to make it one millimeter thick.
Li Chengzhi thought for a while, then pointed at Li Zhang and said: "This time, come and use your father's spear to sprint!"
"Hey, good!" Li Zhang responded happily, and picked up a long stick that was more than ten feet long from Li Song's side.
The head of the spear is made of hundreds of refined steel and is two feet long. It looks a bit like a narrow sword and a bit like a four-hook awl.
There are also blades on both sides, which in addition to stabbing, can also chop and chop.
Coupled with the nearly one foot long Sangtuo wood gun shaft and the more than one foot long copper gun frame at the end, the weight is more than twenty kilograms.
This is Li Song's horse fighting weapon. It would be difficult for ordinary people to hold it, but Li Zhang was playing with it while walking, just like holding a chopstick, playing with great force.
The main reason is that this thing is too expensive, and Li Song usually won't let him touch it. Li Zhang was naturally excited when he heard that he could play with it.
The gun head and the gun are the next best thing. There are iron and copper, and they can be made with a little effort. The key is that the gun barrel is really hard to find.
A ten-foot-long mulberry gun shaft can only come from the main trunk of a mulberry tree, and there must be no knots in the whole body...
How many silkworms can a mulberry tree of this height support?
It is not at all like what later generations said, peeling mulberry wood into pieces and then twisting them together with glue or raw lacquer.
People who say this probably don’t know what glue and paint were made of in ancient times.
The former is made of fish fat or pig skin, which will melt when exposed to the sun for a long time. Once the strips are scattered, such a gun is not even as good as a poplar stick.
The latter is tree lacquer, which is as brittle as glass once it condenses. With such a weak and brittle gun, let alone charging on horseback, even if it is stabbed directly under the horse, as long as the enemy's bones are slightly harder, the gun rod may be broken.