In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 162 The Strongest Stepman Armor
This kind of 350-jin cannon is used to defend the city and put it on the warship. There are two types.

The other is a short gun with a diameter of seven times, with a thickened wall, an inner diameter of nine, and a range of one hundred steps. It uses shotguns and holds 160 small lead bullets.

This 350-jin heavy artillery does not use granular gunpowder. With the same power, it needs two catties of gunpowder for one shot. After changing to granular gunpowder, it only needs one catty of eight taels.

The second is the 250-jin medium-sized cannon, which is also divided into two types. The former is 96 centimeters long, has a diameter of 120 times, and has a range of up to [-] steps. , loaded with [-] small lead bullets.

This cannon plus the gun carriage weighs less than three hundred catties, and it can be dragged by two horse mules in the field with a WISCO truck.

The third type is a 150-jin light gun, [-] centimeters long, [-] times the diameter, and a range of [-] steps. It uses shotgun shells and holds [-] small lead bullets.

The fourth type is a 170-jin bronze cannon, [-] centimeters long, [-] times the diameter, and a range of [-] steps. It uses shotguns and holds [-] small lead bullets.

The fifth type is a 170-jin steel cannon, 75 centimeters long, six times the diameter, and a range of [-] steps. It uses shotguns and holds [-] small lead bullets.

The Firearms Bureau has now produced three models and seven types of guns.

The effective range of all guns, or the maximum killing range, is about 70 to [-]%. (For example, a steel cannon with a range of more than [-] steps has the greatest lethality within [-] or [-] steps)

The lightest iron cannons, copper cannons and steel cannons are all built for field battles, and can be carried by two or three people.

At this time, the gunners were all young men from Prince Zhao Yurui's residence and miners from Xinzhou. After training, they could fire a cannon in about 3 minutes at the fastest.

But the gun barrel with such a rate of fire is not long. If you want to keep the cannon firing for a long time and protect the barrel, it is best to shoot a cannon in more than 10 minutes.

Among all guns, steel guns are the most durable, but also the most expensive.

Cannons were changed from cast iron to cast steel, which did not appear until the end of Ming Dynasty.

At that time, Hou Jinzhong used Han craftsmen Liu Han and others to build the strongest artillery at that time by the lost wax method. They also creatively changed cast iron into cast steel, and processed different parts of the artillery with complex annealing and quenching procedures, making the casting technology leading In the Ming Dynasty.

But the steelmaking technology at that time still used the traditional steel pouring method. In Shen Kuo's words, this was not real steel.

Shen Kuo in the Northern Song Dynasty had a steelmaking technique in Mengxi Bi Tan, which translates to: "Hand bellows iron smelting furnace, the iron and steel called wrought iron in the world, is to roll up the wrought iron first, then put the pig iron into it, and then use mud Wrapped and smelted, and then forged after smelting, so that wrought iron and pig iron are mixed and infiltrated with each other, the steel tempered in this way is called "tuan steel", also known as "filling steel". This is actually a fake Steel is only temporarily made by using pig iron to increase the hardness of wrought iron. After two or three times of smelting, the pig iron will naturally become cooked, and the resulting wrought iron is still wrought iron. However, people in the world do not think there is anything wrong with this method, probably because they don’t know what It is real steel. When I was a mission to Hebei, I went to the forge in Cizhou to see iron smelting, so I knew what real steel is. Anything that contains steel in iron is like gluten in dough made from wheat flour. The gluten will only be seen when it is washed clean. The same is true for steelmaking. You only need to take pure wrought iron and smelt it for more than a hundred fires. If it doesn’t lose weight, it’s pure steel, and even if it’s refined hundreds of times, it won’t lose any more.”

The technique of pouring steel began to be popularized in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it was still popular in northwest Sichuan and other places after the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and even in the 30s.

Shen Kuo mentioned the method of refining refined steel in the Northern Song Dynasty, but everyone may want to forge and refine refined steel for the sake of saving trouble or cost.

Zhao Yurui tried Shen Kuo's method here, and it was really troublesome.

Shen Kuo said that he should be weighed once and weighed once. In fact, it is not necessary to weigh the first dozens of times, because it will definitely be forged once and lightened once. When it comes to the end, it must be weighed continuously. When the weight does not change, it proves success. .

The efficiency of doing so is very low and the cost is high.

One hundred catties of pure wrought iron, and finally twenty catties of steel, about five to one.

Because of the time-consuming, difficult production and low metal yield rate, it was usually used to make swords and swords in ancient times, and ordinary metal utensils were rarely used.

There are a lot of craftsmen on Zhao Yurui's side, and most of the iron materials coming out of the Xinzhou mine are pure wrought iron, so he is collecting refined steel for making firecrackers in the future.

At this time, Liu Fu of the Craftsmanship Bureau said to Zhao Yurui that now, ten heavy artillery pieces (five each with solid bullets and five shotguns), ten medium-sized artillery pieces (five each with solid bullets and five shotguns), and light artillery pieces are produced here every month. Fifteen doors (five each of iron, copper, and steel), and can store a thousand catties of fine steel at the same time.

"Produce 35 cannons per month and a thousand catties of refined steel?" Zhao Yurui was obviously not very satisfied with the output.

It has been almost a year and a half since he came to Dinghai, and it has been almost a year since he occupied Jeju Island. He collected artisans everywhere. There are over a thousand artisan households on the island, and there are thousands of helpers.

Jeju Island is his rear area, a large factory, and Zhao Yurui manages it in a factory model, with all staff in charge of food, drink, housing, and transportation, and the investment is huge. Such output is definitely not acceptable to him.

More craftsmen and people have to be recruited.

Of course, when most of the infrastructure on the island is completed and the building is completed, he can gradually increase the number of manpower.

"Let the firearms craftsmen think of ways, how to increase the range and power, and ensure the durability of the artillery. Whoever can think of a way, or has a major invention, will be rewarded, rewarded, rewarded with money, rewarded with land, rewarded with houses, and those who perform exceptionally well. , this king can help himself or his relatives to buy an official in the court and pay for it."

After Zhao Yurui said these words, the expressions of the craftsmen around Zhao Yurui changed drastically, and they were full of surprises.

In ancient times, who didn't want to be an official, and the Song Dynasty could buy an official openly.

But the official price is high. Ninth-rank officials in Dinghai County cost 10,000+ guan, how can ordinary people afford it.

Now Zhao Yurui said that whoever has a major performance and invention, he can help buy an official with money.

They can be officials if they want to, and their sons can be officials if they want to, Zhao Yurui will pay for it.

But Wei Wang was willing to pay, and everyone was still very excited, thinking about what is called a major invention.

"Dare to ask the king of Wei, what is a major invention?" At this time, a young craftsman asked directly.

This craftsman was recruited by Zhao Yurui from Fujian, and the average person really couldn't understand his speech, so he had to listen to it several times. Fortunately, Zhao Yurui could also sing Hokkien songs, so of course there was no problem.

"Significant improvements and advancements."

"For example, the protection of weapons and armor is improved, and the weight is reduced."

"The artillery has a high range, an increased rate of fire, simple installation, and improved durability--"

"The ship is faster, the load is higher, and so on—"

Zhao Yurui's words encouraged everyone's innovation and improvement, and laid a solid foundation for the continuous improvement of Craftsman Bureau.

Of course, if there is a reward, there will be a penalty. Whether it is armor, weapons, firearms, or boats and vehicles, as long as they are unqualified and of poor quality, they will be punished.

For example, important artillery and armor will have numbers on them. The numbers represent who the craftsmen are. Once there is a problem, the relevant craftsmen must be held accountable.

After leaving the Firearms Bureau, Zhao Yurui went to the Jiayi Bureau.

This is where the armor is made.

There are mainly several types of armor for soldiers in the Southern Song Dynasty. The most famous one is the Burenjia (that is, Zhajia), and then there are leather armor and paper armor.

Paper armor became popular from the Tang Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty improved on the basis of the Tang Dynasty.

First beat the paper into a wheel, stack it to a thickness of three inches, nail four nails in each square inch, and finally cut it into armor.If this armor is wet by rain, it will be even more difficult for firecrackers and arrows to penetrate.In addition to being slightly inferior to iron armor in terms of durability, it is even more useful than iron armor in other aspects. Later generations have also done experiments abroad, and paper armor even surpassed iron armor in terms of defense.

But he also has many shortcomings. It is not suitable for preservation. The armor is relatively heavy, and it is even heavier after it rains. In the Southern Song Dynasty, it was mainly naval equipment. For example, Zhao Yurui's Dinghai Navy now has a lot of paper armor.

As a famous infantry armor in history, it is composed of nearly 58 armor leaves and weighs up to [-] kilograms. It is also standard equipment for heavy infantry in the Southern Song Dynasty.

During the Shaoxing period, the imperial court set a standard of 1825 armor leaves, and then limited the weight.

58 catties for infantry, 65-70 catties for pikemen, 56-66 catties for archers, and 44-54 catties for crossbowmen. You can also temporarily increase or decrease armor and weight depending on the battlefield situation. First.

This is also an important step in the standardization of armor in the Southern Song Dynasty.

At this time, the Southern Song Dynasty was short of war horses and had no cavalry. They mainly wanted to rely on heavy infantry and crossbowmen to fight against the Kingdom of Jin, which made their armor extremely heavy. This caused two major problems. The winning rate of the record is said to be the highest among all dynasties in the history of the Han people, but even if they win, they cannot expand the results of the battle. The heavy infantry cannot catch up with the fleeing cavalry and archers, so the Song Dynasty won fifty times and could not kill many enemies.

This also caused the second problem. Once the battle was defeated, the Song army with few horses and limited mobility would suffer heavy losses.

The court officials and civil and military ministers only valued the defense, and no one personally fought on the battlefield with such a heavy armor.

At the same time, the chain armor in Europe was only about [-] catties. Most of the soldiers in the Southern Song Dynasty were malnourished and their physical fitness was not high. They were already half-dead from exhaustion before they even reached the point of battle wearing iron armor weighing [-] to [-] catties. .

We must know that in the Southern Song Dynasty, a catty was 58 grams for later generations, and an infantry armor weighing [-] catties was equivalent to [-] catties for later generations.

Therefore, the stepper armor is too heavy, and it is extremely inconvenient to move.

The armor wearing rate in the Southern Song Dynasty is said to have reached [-]%, but this [-]% is not all Burenjia. Burenjia is expensive and difficult to make, so no matter how rich the Southern Song Dynasty is, it is impossible to have so many Burenjia.

The key step armor is still heavy, and not everyone can wear it.

Before the Kaixi Northern Expedition, officials found that among the Song army of more than 2 people, there were only 617 people who were worthy of wearing a belt.

There are more than 2 out of 600 people who are able to lead the leader and move freely.

Others have poor physical fitness, can't wear it, and can't walk with it.

Therefore, in the late Southern Song Dynasty, partial belts were often used.

Because the stepper armor is divided into three parts: the armor body, the shoulders, and the head, and each part is divided into several smaller parts. The armor body is also divided into breastplate pieces, back armor pieces, leg skirts, and greaves.

So if you have the conditions, just bring a few things with you, and don't wear them all, because you can't walk with them all.

In addition, walking armor is expensive. At this time, the official record is about 38 yuan per pair, and it takes [-] man-hours to make a pair of walking armor, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

If Zhao Yurui wants to prepare 20 elite full-clothed infantry armor in the future, the cost alone will be close to 800 million guan. Therefore, if he raises 20 elite soldiers, he will have to spend at least 2000 million guan in a year. The wealthy Song Dynasty could not afford 20 elite infantry armor.

(End of this chapter)