In May, this sentence pattern became a popular word in the governor's office of Qingzhou.
Whenever staff members with a certain status meet in their spare time and exchange a few pleasantries, they will definitely ask each other something like this.
"It's really hard to say about this matter. My lord has always acted unconstrainedly. Since he said it so firmly, maybe..." Out of their confidence in Wang Yu, most people were dubious. After all, for more than a year, my lord has
So many miracles have been accomplished, not even this one.
In order to provide footnotes for their words, these people also provided evidence: "Don't forget, when the Yellow Turban was surrendered, the lord led people to fly down from the top of Mount Tai!"
"Then, it's different, right?" The doubters were not easily persuaded. "Using a big kite to carry people, in the final analysis, is not a novelty. The key is to be bold. My lord is most famous for his boldness."
Unparalleled? But now...it still won't work after all, right?"
"Whether it's done or not, what's the use of just talking? You'll know after you see it for yourself when it's done?"
"That's true. However, making armor out of paper is really confusing. I don't know how my lord came up with it."
"Is it any wonder that extraordinary people do extraordinary things? Speaking of which, wasn't the improved Qingzhou paper also made by the lord himself? At that time, the shogunate wanted to name it after the prince, but he was
Hou declined, saying that he relied on the help of the craftsmen and could not do this alone, so he named it Qingzhou Paper. With the lord's foresight, maybe he would have..."
"That makes sense."
Similar discussions could be heard everywhere in the governor's palace. Wang Yu's idea of making paper armor really surprised everyone.
Whether you believe it or not, what everyone is discussing is not the specific situation of Zhijia, but inferences from Wang Yu's various deeds. This is one of the influences of Confucian concepts on the world. A good and capable person can do anything.
It makes sense; otherwise, everything you do will be problematic.
This reaction made Wang Yu feel helpless.
If possible, he prefers to keep the research and development and production processes completely secret, and then show his trump card unexpectedly on the battlefield to catch the enemy off guard.
But the problem is, even though he proposed the concept of paper armor with confidence, in fact, he doesn't know much more about the relevant details of paper armor than others. Therefore, he can only adopt the method of brainstorming.
Paper armor was a controversial topic in later generations.
Some people praise paper armor to the sky, thinking that paper armor is easy to make, cheap, and has higher defense than iron armor, making it a first-class magic weapon.
They also cited an example. When Zhen Dexiu was appointed magistrate of Quanzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, he submitted a memorial to the Privy Council saying: "All the weapons in this village are somewhat sufficient, but the navy needs paper armor. Today, this village has hundreds of pairs of iron armor."
, Now I shall keep half of it, and give fifty copies to my army in exchange for Yi paper armor."
If one hundred pairs of iron armors were exchanged for fifty pieces of paper armors, if there were no unknown reasons, such as a mental illness in this true master, it would only mean that the paper armors were indeed stronger than the iron armors.
Some people are dismissive of this equipment, thinking that it was used by corrupt officials in ancient times to defraud money from military expenditures. This statement has a certain truth, and it is also in line with the style of Chinese bureaucracy and more in line with the world's view of paper.
'cognition.
It is the characteristic of paper that it breaks when you poke it. To describe something fragile, it is also said to be as if it is made of paper. Using this thing as armor is purely a scam. Let alone comparing it with iron armor, even leather armor will not work.
Possibly comparable.
Paper armor first appeared in the middle and late Tang Dynasty and became popular in the Song Dynasty. Given the almost abnormal social atmosphere of the Song Dynasty that valued literature over martial arts, paper armor may indeed be a magic weapon touted by the literati. Anyway, they themselves do not need to wear armor in battle, but are used by warriors.
As long as it is cheap enough, is it strong or not? Is it important?
Because there are many and contradictory theories, Wang Yu is not an archaeologist, so naturally he has no interest in getting to the bottom of it.
However, when he got Cai Yan's tip and improved Caihou paper, he did already have the idea of producing paper armor. He did not put it into practice at that time. First, because the research and development had just begun and the paper production was still limited; in addition, he
I have no idea about the specific performance of paper armor.
Now, in order to resist the advantages of Jizhou Army's equipment, especially in terms of long-range attack power, he had to put this matter on the agenda.
Before making the actual production, he first needed to verify the feasibility of the paper armor.
"Everyone has seen it, what do you think?" Wang Yu asked his confidants on the school field, pointing to the three human-shaped targets in front of him.
"Well, it seems to make sense." Jia Xu was the first to walk up. He held his chin with one hand and groped back and forth on the target with the other hand, his eyes bright.
The experimental method used by Wang Yu was to cover the scarecrow with iron armor, leather armor, and a stack of thick paper, and then shoot with bows and arrows and crossbows at different distances. The three types of armor were verified based on the shooting results.
of defense.
The results are interesting.
At a distance of thirty steps, iron armor could withstand the bows and arrows of ordinary archers, but it could not block the bows and arrows of fierce generals like Tai Shici, nor could it withstand powerful crossbows; leather armor could not block anything; but the stack of paper could not block anything.
Like iron armor, it blocked the shots of ordinary rifle bows.
Although the arrow eventually penetrated the stack of paper, the sharp edge it revealed was far from causing harm to the person behind the paper.
The shooting distance continues to extend into the distance, fifty steps, eighty steps, one hundred steps...
The final result is that the performance of iron armor is the best. At fifty steps away, iron armor can effectively block the damage of a powerful crossbow; at eighty steps away, as long as the arrow does not happen to shoot through the gap in the armor, the iron armor can
Withstand the strong crossbow; a hundred steps away, the lethality of the strong crossbow against iron armor is almost non-existent.
The performance of leather armor is much worse. Within a hundred steps, it cannot even weaken the damage of a walking bow, let alone a crossbow that is several times more lethal.
The performance of the stack of thick paper, that is, the paper armor, is beyond everyone's expectations. Although its defensive power is not as good as that of iron armor, its performance is far better than that of leather armor. Even compared with iron armor, it is not much different.
.
If we take the cost and construction period into consideration, paper armor will immediately outperform iron armor. Can paper and iron have the same price?
"What's so special about this paper? It's as useful as iron armor? If it can really be made, why do you need iron armor?" Taishi Ci also found it very strange. Everyone who is a military general knows that armor is a good thing.
Why can generals like Wang Yu and Sun Jian, who like to take the lead, always be active and active? Good martial arts is one thing, but their armor is also a key factor.
Xu Huang's heavy infantry is the best proof. The horse-killing swords in their hands are sharp and the armor on their bodies is strong. As long as they have sufficient physical strength, they can continue to charge and kill without any disadvantage. Everyone knows that Xu Huang's heavy infantry
Why is it so powerful, but so few princes can copy it? It’s not that they have poor vision, it’s just that everyone has no money and can’t afford to build so many armors.
Thinking of the scene where the whole army was armed with paper armor that was similar to iron armor, and there were so many soldiers, Taishi Ci became excited and laughed: "Now Yuan Shao is going to be finished, let's see what else he can do to compare with us.
, he can’t even come up with tens of thousands of armor even if he sells iron at the same time.”
Others also gathered around, Mi Zhu was even more excited than Taishi Ci. Taishi Ci only thought about things on the battlefield, but Mi Zhu thought about things far beyond Taishi Ci.
Although he was very confident in what he said in front of Wang Yu, in fact, the promotion of Qingzhou paper was not as smooth as expected. After all, these are troubled times, and the turbulent situation in Xuzhou made scholars pay more attention to literary affairs.
Minus, the biggest consumer of paper right now is Qingzhou itself, relying on the academy and the governor's office.
Having such an exclusive product with huge potential but not being able to sell it was a double blow both mentally and physically to Mi Zhu, a wealthy businessman.
It doesn’t matter now. Although the cost of making armor from paper is far lower than that of iron armor, the amount of paper used must not be small. What you have to consider is not where to sell the paper you make, but whether you can make enough paper to satisfy your needs.
need!
You know, these are troubled times, and Qingzhou is one of the whirlpools of fierce fighting. If you want to fight, can you use less armor? This is a steady stream of sales!
If we think further and wait until paper armor is no longer exclusive to Qingzhou and becomes popular, then...
"Brother, big brother?" Mi Zhu's brother Mi Fang's cry woke him up from his reverie. When he raised his head quickly, he happened to look into Wang Yu's half-smiling eyes. He was a little flustered, and felt that those sharp eyes seemed to see through it.
His thoughts are average.
"Oh, Lord, Zhu..."
"Mr. Zizhong, how many of you..." Wang Yu ignored Mi Zhu's little thoughts. He smiled gently at Mi Zhu and the craftsmen of the Mi family and asked, "What's the point of making paper armor?"
idea?"
The craftsmen present included tailors, carpenters, and some who were specialized in handicrafts, but not paper-making. They were originally wondering what paper-making had to do with people like them, but after watching the demonstration, everyone understood a little bit.
.
"In my opinion," said the tailor who spoke first, "this paper armor is actually similar to cloth armor. If you fold the silk cloth in a few more layers, it can actually block arrows. But if you encounter a knife or a spear, it may
At once……"
"You can even block powerful crossbows, but you can't block swords and lances?" Taishi Ci was surprised and interrupted the tailor's words.
"Don't be surprised, General Taishi, I guessed it too..." The old tailor shrank back, obviously he had heard of Taishi Ci's evil reputation.
Wang Yu smiled and handed over a short knife: "You will know if you try it."
Taishi Ci took the knife and started to test it. After a few cuts, he could see the secret: "This is..."
"This paper armor is not as powerful as you think, but it should be fine in case of emergency."
Before putting forward the idea, Wang Yu had already tested it and came to a conclusion. The defensive power of paper armor mainly lies in the paper's ability to absorb impact and act as a buffer.
For example, if you use an awl to pierce a thick book, if you pierce it hard, a weak person may not be able to pierce it at once. But if the same person pierces the book with an awl, he will be able to pierce it sooner or later.
This is exactly how paper armor works.
In terms of defense against long-range attacks, paper armor has a defensive power close to that of iron armor. In close combat, paper armor is not much stronger than leather armor. Therefore, the evaluation of this item is polarized. The application of this item is originally It just has limitations.
"A few people have to work hard on the specific production. Let's make a sample first, and then we can study it together to see if there is room for further improvement and brainstorm ideas." (To be continued. Please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster. !)