Chapter 29: Wear bulletproof clothing first

  Although Yun Ting was not angry in his heart, he had to hurriedly release Xiao He and weakly shouted: "Big brother wait a moment, I'm putting on my armor." Then looking at Xiao He, his face turned black and said: "It seems that today's matter can't be resolved peacefully."

  Xiaohua's body was released by him, and she felt a sense of relief in her heart, but at the same time, she couldn't help feeling a little disappointed and empty. At this moment, Yunzheng spoke with an unpleasant expression, saying something that seemed to have a teasing tone, which made Xiaohua's heart skip a beat again. She didn't know whether she was feeling shy or annoyed, so she just bit her lip and remained silent.

  Yun Cong saw that she was only blushing and not speaking, her face seemingly a bit lost, so he pinched her small face and teased: "Good little He, although today's warmth didn't work out, but your family's young master is still very young, there are plenty of days to warm up with you in the future, don't be too angry, this girl gets angry, that will grow wrinkles..."

  Xia He listened and hastily said: "I... I won't get angry, Third Young Master has only been to Luoyang for a few days, how did he learn such bad things!"

  "Has he gone bad?" Yun Zheng blinked: "What's wrong with him?" Seeing Xiao He was about to get angry, he hastily said: "Alright, don't say anything for now. Hurry up and bring Young Master's armor, don't let them wait too long."

  "Yes, Third Young Master." Xiaohuo turned around and walked into the room next door, laboriously carrying out a set of armor and placing it on the table, asking: "Will this do?"

  Yun Cong took one look and was startled, because the armor looked like it was made of fine steel, and its weight was quite considerable. Although Xiao He's strength was limited, carrying that armor almost made him unable to walk. He hastily asked: "Young Master, won't you have only this one set of armor? Is there a lighter one?"

  "Hmm? There is a lighter one that's natural, but didn't Young Master like this set before?" Xiaohua asked curiously.

  Yun Cong was taken aback. How could he have liked such a heavy-handed person in the past? Wasn't it just because of his good martial arts skills that he deliberately showed off?

  Actually, Yun Zuo was mistaken. In the world before he crossed over, many people believed that ancient Chinese armies were mainly composed of light infantry and light cavalry compared to Western armies. This is actually due to the misconception of Western military historians from previous centuries, such as Engels, who mentioned that Eastern cavalry was mainly composed of light cavalry. Because information was not well communicated at the time, these Western military historians had no understanding of China and their impression of Eastern armies came entirely from nomadic cavalry that had fled to the West, leading to a series of views on Eastern armies being heavily mobile and lightly protected. The nomadic peoples of the East were indeed composed of lightly equipped but highly mobile light cavalry, but agricultural nations were not the same. For example, the Han dynasty helmets unearthed weighed 11 kg without headgear, while the heavy infantry armor of the Roman Empire at the same time was 9 kg with a helmet weighing 2 kg. By the Song Dynasty, infantry armor reached a world record of 33 kg (including crossbowmen's armor), while Western European knights' armor was still hovering around 20 kg. When Western European knights' armor reached over 30 kg, it was already mid-Ming dynasty in China, when the Chinese army had begun to use firearms extensively and infantry armor weighed 28 kg. Before the widespread use of firearms in China, from Qin and Han to Tang and Song, armor weights were leading the world.

  The only exception is the war horse, Chinese cavalry has never liked to armor their war horses, which is due to different tactical ideas. Chinese cavalry often detached from infantry and conducted rapid maneuvers independently, but the war horse was too heavy, and the strategic maneuvering speed was not much faster than that of infantry, nor was the endurance. Western European knights often followed infantry actions, with their own retinue, even when conducting independent strategic marches, the speed was the same as that of infantry. It can be said that from the perspective of marching speed, Western European knights were nothing more than infantry on horseback.

  In addition, another very important aspect is that the military-industrial system of ancient China was also different from that of the West. The military industry in Western Europe was privately owned, and the state had to buy weapons from private workshops with money, so every penny was carefully calculated. The best protection was for heavy infantry and heavy cavalry, but due to financial constraints, there were not many of them, while other long-gun soldiers and archers were relatively simple, with leather armor as the mainstay, and even no armor at all, with daggers as the secondary weapon. When the Macedonian phalanx was defeated by the Romans, the Macedonian long spearmen found that their spears were too long and their short swords were too short, making them basically helpless against the sword-wielding Roman infantry.

  In ancient China, the military industry was state-owned, and even iron mines were state-owned because iron was a strategic material that prioritized national needs. The armory workshops produced weapons on an assembly line, continuously producing weapons without the country having to pay a single penny, only needing to pay workers' wages. Like Qin, all dynasties engraved the craftsman's name on the weapon, and the quality of the weapon was guaranteed by a strict tracing system. The unearthed Qin soldiers can prove the quality of the weapon.

  So the personal equipment of Chinese soldiers can be said to be luxurious, with a helmet, a long spear, a waist knife about one meter long, a bow and dozens of arrows, covering all combat distances from far to near. Especially the equipment of bows and arrows is very characteristic, the arrows are consumable items, tens of thousands of shots in one battle, and only a few can be used directly after recovery, Western European countries cannot afford to consume them, basically relying on close combat.

  Moreover, China's military workshop products still have a surplus, and local armories are set up in various places to store weapons. The central government also has a central armory. Weapons are consumable items, and with the scale of battles fought by the Chinese army, one war, regardless of victory or defeat, often wears out tens of thousands of troops, and temporary production often takes several years to replenish. Therefore, spare weapons are often produced in advance and stored in armories, and military workshops only need to supplement the armory's needs.

  During the An Shi Rebellion, the Tang central army repeatedly suffered defeats, with countless losses of soldiers and weapons. When Feng Changqing arrived in Luoyang, he had no choice but to temporarily recruit brave warriors. Within a few days, relying solely on the equipment from the local armory in Luoyang, he armed a 600,000-strong army. In Chang'an, Gao Xianzhi and Ge Shuhan successively recruited and armed nearly 100,000 troops.

  Yan Zhenqing and Yan Geng relied on the local armories in Hebei to recruit 200,000 troops after An Lushan's large army passed through.

  An adequate national arsenal provided the basis for a large-scale mobilization of reserves. In the Spring and Autumn Period, various countries recruited a large number of reserve troops to participate in wars, relying on the national arsenal. Historical records describe the armies of various countries as "holding spears of one million" or "wearing armor of one million", which shows that the amount of weapons stored in the arsenal was quite huge. In contrast, Western European countries were limited in their mobilization scale due to financial and military-industrial reasons, even in temporary conscription, they lacked weapons and armor.

  In addition, the number of strong crossbows equipped in China was also considerable. The unearthed Qin army phalanx had 200 crossbowmen for every thousand-man team. According to the excavation results of the Han Dynasty's Juyan Fortress, strong crossbows accounted for 60% of the city's defensive weapons. Siege engines were not suitable for field battles and were inconvenient for marching, so they were generally made by craftsmen in the baggage camp on the spot and burned after use, without participating in field battles and marches.

  Of course, when it comes to the unexpected emergence of the Great Wei, there are some slight changes. Due to the strong influence of the four hereditary border armies, the imperial court cannot prevent the four families from manufacturing their own weapons and equipment, so they came up with another idea: controlling iron mines.

  Taking Yunjia as an example, the armory owned by Yunjia has enough craftsmen. If they work at full capacity, their production capacity is likely to be stronger than that of the entire Liao country. However, since the iron ore is owned by the imperial court and the imperial court limits the supply of iron ore to Yunjia, Yunjia's armory production can barely maintain the current scale of the army. If a war breaks out with an external enemy, the loss of armor needs to be inspected by a special envoy sent by the imperial court, and then the imperial court will supply iron ore to Yunjia for production and replenishment at its discretion.

  Yun Cong's main idea for this expedition was "speed", so he would never wear the heavy armor that weighed over 100 catties. Seeing Xiao He bring out one piece at a time to choose from was too slow, so he went in himself to pick one out. In the end, he chose a suit of plate armor that looked somewhat strange for this era, but fit Yun Cong's aesthetic views.

  This set of armor was originally suitable for people with a medium build, but Yun Zhong's 1.8-meter height clearly didn't belong to the "medium build" category, so it was a bit tight when he wore it. After some thought, he simply took off his outer garment and directly wore the armor over his undergarments, then put on his long gown and fur coat over that. As it turned out, this way of wearing it was much more comfortable, and looked pretty good too.

  Yun Cong felt pleased with himself, thinking that others would probably think he wasn't wearing armor and wouldn't notice the "bulletproof vest" underneath his clothes.

  "Little lotus, wait at home for young master to come back and warm up with you... Haha, young master is leaving!" Yun Zhuang strode away with a heroic air of grandeur, if he hadn't secretly reached out to touch Xiao He's fragrant buttocks.

  A majestic and awe-inspiring dividing line

  A few pieces of bulletproof vest, one vote per piece, buddy, how many pieces do you want?

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