Chapter Twenty: War Horse in Armor

  Jia Zhuang is a vague synonym.

  It contains many components.

  Although Li Zhuang personally purchased the formula drawings for Jia Zhuang, the drawings did not indicate that he did not fully know all the components contained in Jia Zhuang.

  Now that he has seen all the finished parts, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

  Full armor, including all equipment needed for knights and men-at-arms.

  Knight's weapon, armor, helmet, war horse's riding armor, horseshoes, stirrups, saddle, reins are all here!

  In the first-order armor diagram, the cavalry weapons include standard long guns, standard horse knives, standard long bows, and standard arrows, covering three aspects of charging, close combat, and remote attack.

  There are two types of cavalry armor, one is a full-body fish-scale armor made mainly of metal, paired with a metal helmet. The other is a leather armor made mainly of fur, paired with a leather helmet.

  The armor of the war horse also has two types, one is mainly metal and the other is mainly fur.

  Horseshoes, saddles, stirrups and reins are all the same.

  Li Zhēng did not expect that the drawings would include such comprehensive components.

  In this way, the equipment forged through first-order armor diagrams can be completely divided into two categories: light and heavy. Heavy war riders mainly use long guns and metal armor, which are mainly used for charging and breaking arrays.

  Light cavalry used bows and arrows, sabers, and leather armor as main equipment, mainly for harassment, luring the enemy, and pursuit.

  In this way, as long as Li Zhong's army scale went up, he could confidently face any enemy!

  Of course, over-refining equipment will also lead to a series of problems.

  First of all is the huge consumption of raw materials.

  The raw materials accumulated for more than half a month were consumed in just a few hours, and the armor forged was only two batches, or twenty sets.

  It's worth noting that although the mining technology and transportation capabilities are inefficient, the accumulated amount of minerals and furs over half a month is counted in tens of thousands!

  So many raw materials were used, yet they only managed to forge a mere twenty sets of armor.

  It's frustrating just thinking about it.

  Secondly, some preparations made by Li Zhong have become completely redundant. For example, blacksmiths and bow makers, they basically have no room to play now.

  To solve these two problems, Li Zhong must make some adjustments to the framework of the pasture and some previous plans.

  The problem with the ore is that, before the road is repaired, wanting to increase production can only be achieved by putting in more manpower. However, as for the grain stored in the pasture at present, it is already impossible to support more people.

  Only after the new crops of wheat and barley have been harvested can we open our arms to welcome refugees.

  The fur issue is more serious.

  For such a long time, the hunting team has been killing prey everywhere, and with the accumulated fur in the pasture, it will be used up in just a few hours. Calculated this way, it is even more serious than the mineral problem.

  The only solution is to expand animal husbandry and ultimately achieve self-sufficiency.

  But this is also not something that can be done overnight.

  As for the blacksmiths, bow-makers and armorers who had no room to play, Li Zhong thought about it and made arrangements. Isn't there a department under the Ministry of Industry that is going to be set up for civilian research? It's just right to fill them in.

  Although the level of knowledge of these craftsmen is very low, relatively speaking, they are already talented. As long as we focus on supplementing their knowledge and increasing investment, based on the experience of these craftsmen, I think we can come up with some good things.

  After he was satisfied, Li Zhēng immediately gave Zhao Wǔ some instructions.

  And he himself brought twenty sets of armor, with Zhang Shan, eagerly preparing to equip the war riders with first-class armor.

  The area of Shen Zhou pasture was originally only over 300 mu, after filling with various buildings, the actual grazing area is less than 200 mu.

  This nearly 200-acre pasture is basically all in the northern section, close to the water source.

  Especially after the successful planting of Mao Wei, due to its demand for water sources, the pastoral center of the grassland was transferred to this piece on both sides of the stream.

  The most important green armor cavalry for the grassland lives here.

  Taking Zhang Shan, he also called Wang Lao Hu, Xu Xiao Jiu, Lin Shi Tou and Bai Lang, Nu Luo and several others, went to the north section of the stream.

  As for Kamo, he is currently out hunting and has not returned yet.

  Arrived at the creek-side water pool, looking around, here has already grown full of purple pasture grass different from ordinary pasture grass. This is mu xu. At a glance, it looks like a piece of luxurious pale purple carpet, making people's hearts happy and refreshing.

  The growth cycle of the alfalfa is very short, it was planted in early March and now it's not even a month yet, but it has already matured completely. The fourteen green armored warriors are strolling around the alfalfa field, from time to time they would take a bite of the fresh and tender alfalfa, looking very relaxed and content.

  When Li Zhēn arrived, the lead qīng yún (a type of horse) lifted its head and let out a loud whinny, then kicked up its hooves and galloped over.

  The remaining thirteen warhorses also galloped forward, although their numbers were small, the rumbling sound was indeed not insignificant!

  "Alright, alright!"

  Li Zheng stroked Qingyun's forehead, dodging its tongue while instructing Zhang Shan: "Including Qingyun, exclude the juvenile and pregnant mothers, and equip the strongest warhorses with armor!"

  He then turned to Nuro and Bai Lang and said: "You two go back to the horse herd and bring over ten of the best war horses."

  "Ah!"

  Fourteen young Kamen Riders, originally six were in adult form, five were in growing state and three were in infantile state. However, with the maturation of the Heisei Riders, the young Kamen Riders also entered a rapid growth phase.

  Adult Green War Steed, after being nurtured by the lush grass, appears even more robust and powerful. The juvenile and young Green War Steeds, on the other hand, have entered a period of rapid growth.

  Up until now, both the adult and juvenile Qiankun warhorses are ready to be ridden. Li Zhēn completely believes that they can carry knights into battle, galloping across the sandy battlefield.

  The attribute characteristics of the Qingjia War Riders determine their current service direction, which is heavy cavalry! The armor produced by the Forging Center has half, that is, ten sets are heavy cavalry armor.

  But excluding the three juvenile warhorses, there are four pregnant mares left, only seven suitable ones remain.

  In this way, even ten sets of heavy armor would be more than enough.

  Li Zhēng couldn't help but secretly mock himself. Earlier, he had been thinking of rapidly expanding the production scale of his armor, but for a moment, he hadn't considered the number of warhorses.

  What's the use of adding more heavy armor? Unless it's for equipping ordinary war horses, otherwise it won't have any effect at all.

  But for ordinary war horses, not only can't play the role of armor, but also will burden ordinary war horses, and even reduce the mobility of war horses to some extent, weakening their combat effectiveness!

  Shaking his head, Li Zhēn then began to work with Zhang Shan and Wang Lǎohǔ and others to equip the seven selected warhorses with armor. Although the spiritual nature of the cyan armored warhorse was not much different from that of ordinary warhorses, due to being synthesized through the system, it could achieve simple communication with Li Zhēn, the system's host.

  Li Zhengan comforted the seven warhorses he had selected, letting them all lie down - this was not easy for the warhorses. After all, they were synthesized based on war horses and to some extent inherited most of their characteristics. War horses even slept standing up, so it was not easy to get them to lie down.

  But for Li Zhong, it's not a difficult task.

  Let Qingyun take the lead, and the other six war horses followed suit, lying down obediently.

  First, shoeing horses and making horseshoes.

  With small nails, the horseshoe is nailed to the hoof of a war horse, which can play a great protective role. In the process of galloping, the unevenness of the ground and various obstacles will cause great harm to the horse's hooves. Therefore, the rate of scrapping of war horses in this era was very high, which led to the production of horseshoes later on.

  It can be said that Li Zhēng's horseshoe is one of the most advanced equipment in this era.

  Zhang Shan and several others originally did not understand the use of this small piece of horseshoe, but after Li Jing slightly explained it, they couldn't help but praise it repeatedly.

  The hooves of the Azure Steed are more robust and thicker than those of ordinary warhorses, but this does not mean that they do not need the protection of horseshoes. The Azure Steeds are far more precious than warhorses, so it is no wonder that they are protected in every way possible.

  The hooves of a warhorse, or indeed any horse, are actually made up of a layer of insensitive keratin, just like human fingernails. It may seem that nailing iron shoes onto the hooves would be painful for the animal, but in reality they feel nothing at all.

  Before long, the horseshoe was ready.

  The green armor cavalry who got up had a strange feeling, and they couldn't help but kick their legs randomly, as if they were not used to it. Li Jing thought that the feeling should be similar to suddenly wearing shoes after fighting barefoot for a long time.

  After horseshoes are put on, the war horse is saddled with a bridle and heavy armor, then mounted.

  These tasks Zhang Shan and others were much more skilled than Li Zhuang, and they were done in no time.

  After putting on the armor, the green armored warrior's appearance changed in an instant!

  If I had to describe it in one word, that would be majestic!

  After the Qīng Jiǎ War Horse is fully armored, at first glance, it looks like a metal monster. Their entire body is covered in armor, with only their eyes, the sharp horn on their forehead and their tail exposed outside, even their four hooves are only partially visible!

  This is an all-around protection, Li Zhēn believes that with the defensive strength of a first-class armor, ordinary attacks are absolutely difficult to break through. Unless it's a powerful martial general, ordinary small soldiers will have to face a killing fortress unless they attack the eyes of the Qingjia War Horse!

  Looking at the green armor war horse after Jia, whether it was Li Zhong or Zhang Shan and others, they all showed wolf-like eyes, eager to ride on and try.

  But at this time, Bai Lang and Nu Luo brought ten war horses over.