Chapter Twelve: Folding Quiver

  Having received Cao Cao's military order, a soldier immediately brought in a piece of leather. Although Cao Zhi said he made it himself, the one who actually worked on it would not be him. He casually found two soldiers who knew how to sew and had them demonstrate on the spot.

  Only Cao Zhi and two soldiers were gathered together, holding a piece of leather and saying: "Just like this, sew it first. Then turn it over and fold it again, so that the pleats are formed in this way." Cao Zhi said as he pointed and gestured.

  Cao Zhi spoke clearly, and the two soldiers were not too stupid. After explaining for about half an hour, the two soldiers completely understood and then sewed together on the spot.

  Cao Zhi's instructions Cao Cao was watching from the side, seeing Cao Zhi letting soldiers fold and sew leather, Cao Cao's eyebrows couldn't help but wrinkle.

  The quiver pointed out by Cao Zhi was actually a compression type quiver. This quiver is different from the ordinary quiver and was changed from the Mongolian quiver style in the Ming Dynasty. The compression type quiver is about half the size of the standard quiver used by the Han army today, but the leather inside is layered, with each layer of leather about one inch apart, forming a fan shape.

  As a result, the entire quiver is wider at the top and narrower at the bottom. After placing the bow and arrow inside the quiver, the arrowheads are all concentrated at the narrow end of the fan-shaped structure. By applying pressure, the arrows can be fixed in place without falling out. The quiver, being a layered design, can hold two to four arrows per layer. Even with five layers, the volume occupied by the quiver is roughly equivalent to that of the traditional Han-style quiver. Additionally, an extra compartment can be added on the side, making its width comparable to that of the original quiver. In other words, a single-layer compression quiver can hold around ten arrows.

  Now Cao Zhi also didn't let the soldiers sew up to five layers, only three layers. The compression type quiver can hold thirty sharp arrows without falling out.

  After the soldiers finished sewing, Cao Zhi excitedly picked up the sharp arrows next to him, one by one, and put them into the quiver. Then he directly turned the entire quiver upside down in front of Cao Cao.

  A surprising scene appeared, the thirty sharp arrows inserted in the arrow holder, even when turned upside down, not a single arrow fell out. They were still firmly stuck inside the arrow holder, no matter how much Cao Zhi played with it and flipped it over, they didn't budge.

  Seeing the arrow case he had made was so successful, Cao Zhi looked at Cao Cao with some pride and smiled: "Father, how is the arrow case I made?"

  Cao Cao was not as delighted as Cao Zhi had imagined, instead he took the quiver and examined it for a while before sighing: "Zhi, your quiver is indeed exquisite, but it uses too much leather, our army can't afford to use it."

  "Huh...” Cao Zhi had not expected that Cao Cao's concern was actually the cost. He pointed to the remaining leather used earlier and asked the two soldiers: "How does the amount of leather consumed by your traditional quiver compare to this new quiver made for me?"

  Two soldiers who were responsible for sewing arrow quivers every day calculated in their hearts and one of them replied, "General Hui and Fourth Master, although the new-style arrow quiver is small, because it has folds inside, it consumes more leather than the old-style arrow quiver by two points."

  "It's just two minutes, it's not too much." Cao Zhi tilted his head and muttered to himself when he heard the soldier's words.

  Cao Cao looked at Cao Zhi's serious expression, reached out and touched his head, and smiled: "Zhi'er, don't underestimate these two shares. My army has tens of thousands of archers, and the extra leather is enough to make several thousand more quivers, which can add a lot of combat power to my army."

  Upon hearing this, Cao Zhi shook his head solemnly and said: "Father, your words are incorrect. The new quiver can hold thirty arrows, while the old quiver can only hold twenty. Not to mention the loss of arrows that will fall out, even if we use the extra two pieces of leather to make an old-style quiver, it still cannot hold as many arrows as the new quiver. Moreover, I think that soldiers value quality over quantity. For example, when defending a city, no matter how many archers there are, they can only defend one section of the wall at a time. If one archer uses the new quiver, he can definitely fight for half a minute longer than an archer using the old quiver. When the archers on the city wall switch shifts during defense, it is easy to give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage. The same logic applies to field battles."

  Cao Cao was not a foolish person, and Cao Zhi first analyzed the numbers and then considered the actual effects that might occur during battle. As someone who had experienced war, Cao Cao found Cao Zhi's words to be quite reasonable. However, being cautious by nature, he dared not act rashly, so he nodded and said: "Zhi'er's words are not unreasonable, but changing the entire army's equipment is a major matter, we cannot act hastily."

  Cao Cao's cautiousness made Cao Zhi extremely appreciative, and he nodded heavily: "Father is right, I think it's better to choose one unit of archers to exchange equipment, and when we go into battle, we can test it out and see who is superior."

  Cao Cao heard this, and burst out laughing, striking his palm and saying: "You're right!" Then he loudly shouted outside: "Tian Wei, send someone to summon Bo Ning and Wen Qian to see me." From outside came Tian Wei's loud and clear response.

  Cao Cao pulled Cao Zhi to the desk, pointing at the yellowed paper on it and said with a smile: "Zhi, you also draw out the pattern, write down the key points, this way let Bo Ning supervise the manufacturing."

  Cao Zhi readily agreed, took up the brush on the desk and began to write and paint on that yellowed and rough paper. This yellowed paper was the famous Cai Hou paper in history, but the quality of this paper was indeed not commendable. Cao Zhi had used it once when he was a child and basically didn't use it again. He usually practiced calligraphy with cheaper silk fabrics.

  It may be surprising to say, but the fact is that such a poor quality paper was more expensive than silk. And paper was only available for people of Cao Cao's status, while others generally used bamboo slips to record words, and silk was only used in emergency situations, which also led to the frugality of Han Dynasty literati.

  Cao Cao had Cao Zhi use paper to draw a diagram, showing that he still attached great importance to this new-style quiver. After Cao Zhi finished drawing, Man Chong and Yue Jin also came into the tent. Cao Cao directly handed over the freshly drawn diagram to Man Chong, then pointed at the soldier who had just made the new-style quiver under Cao Zhi's guidance, saying: "Bo Ning, you follow this diagram to first make 500 quivers; if there is not enough leftover leather, take apart the old quivers to make them. These two have already made one, you can go take a look." After finishing speaking, he pointed again at the newly-made quiver placed off to the side.

  Man Chong took the pattern and looked at it for a few moments, already discovering its subtleties. However, he soon furrowed his brow and said: "Your Excellency, the leather required in this design is probably..."

  Before Man Chong finished speaking, Cao Cao nodded and said: "This is exactly what I was worried about, so I ordered Ben Ning to make 500 first and see the effect. As for the soldiers who test it, we will select 500 elite archers from Wen Qian's unit."

  The two of them nodded in agreement with Cao Cao's words and replied in unison: "Yes!"

  Cao Cao smiled and waved his hand to dismiss the two men, then said to Cao Zhi: "Zhi, tonight you will dine with your father in the tent."

  "Yes, sir."