My brother Ying Zheng, who dares to kill me?.

Chapter 911: It's better to have something than nothing! If I don't work for the welfare of my soldiers, what kind of general would I be!

After receiving the personal certification from the villain Yang Duanhe, the battle report that should have been completed long ago finally came to the final touches.

Hundreds of messengers rushed out of the Yishui Great Wall and galloped westward on horseback!

December 10, the 16th year of the reign of Qin Shi Huangdi.

Daqin, Xianyang, Imperial Study.

Li Si sat in the audience, smiling and cupping his hands, "On November 19, Huang Chang, a powerful man in Jiyang County, learned that the coalition forces had sent more than a million troops to attack our Great Qin, and thought that our Great Qin's internal defenses must be relaxed, so he brazenly gathered hundreds of his former servants and intended to cause chaos."

"On the second day of the rebellion, six servants shouted the name of Chang'an Jun and suddenly attacked and killed Huang Chang. Most of the servants followed suit."

"Huang Chang has now been imprisoned in Jiyang County Prison, awaiting sentencing."

Ying Zheng nodded with a smile: "Good! Very good!"

"Jiyang County has made contributions to education, and all officials will be rewarded."

"Call those six righteous men to Xianyang. I want to see them in person and then reward them generously!"

Although the Qin Dynasty has always supported bravery and spontaneous killing of bandits, Jiyang County is in the former Wei territory!

The former Wei servants brazenly killed the former Wei dignitaries in order to protect the Qin state. This was simply unimaginable in the past.

But now, it actually happened!

what does this mean?
This is what the people want!

I’m afraid Ying Zheng will wake up laughing in his dreams tonight!
As for the fact that the servants were shouting "Chang'an Jun" instead of "The King", does it matter?

Not important at all!
Zhao Cheng, the Minister of Works, followed closely behind him and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, the weather is cold now, and it is no longer suitable to continue building the Qin Wangzheng Fifteen-type blast furnace."

"Before winter comes, I will serve as the Minister of the Imperial Household and build 27 Qin Wangzheng-style 15-type blast furnaces in Guanzhong, Yiyang, Daliang and other places, which can smelt more than 32,000 stones of iron every day!"

"When the weather gets colder, I don't know whether these 27 blast furnaces can continue to produce. I would like to ask Lord Chang'an for advice."

Ying Zheng's pupils shrank visibly, and he praised with emotion: "More than 32,000 stones of iron! More than 32,000 stones of iron!"

"How many farm tools can be made! How many tools can be made! And how much armor can be made!"

"My brother may look down upon this Qin Wang Zheng Type 15 blast furnace, but this Qin Wang Zheng Type 15 blast furnace is actually a powerful weapon for the prosperity of the country!"

Ying Zheng hated him so much for not fighting!
When Ying Zheng discovered Qin Shi Huang's Type 15 blast furnace, it was already autumn and the temperature had begun to drop.

Otherwise, with Daqin's infrastructure capabilities, it would be easy to build more than a hundred blast furnaces within a year!

In this way, Daqin can get hundreds of thousands of tons of iron every day! How much more iron can Daqin get in a year!
Thinking of Ying Chengjiao, Ying Zheng immediately asked: "How much armor can the Ministry of Works produce every month now?"

Hearing the sound of the strings, you can understand the elegant meaning.

Of course, Zhao Cheng understood that although Ying Zheng was asking about the armor production capacity of the Ministry of Works, he actually hoped to send more armor to Ying Chengjiao.

Zhao Cheng quickly replied, "The Minister of Works has ordered all the blacksmiths in the counties surrounding the blast furnace to make iron armor."

"With our current strength, we can obtain more than 4,000 sets of armor every month."

With sufficient iron materials and sufficient craftsmen, the production capacity of Shaofu will explode!
Nurhaci started his army with only thirteen sets of armor.

However, the current Qin Dynasty can forge more than 4,000 sets of armor every month!
If the Qin State is given a year, it will be able to produce nearly 50,000 sets of armor, and in just ten years, it will be able to have 480,000 armored warriors.

Although the armor worn by these 480,000 elite warriors was only cast iron nail armor, rather than the Qin Dynasty's standard copper nail armor, it was still armor!

If Bai Qi could be given 480,000 sets of raw iron armor, I'm afraid Qin Shi Huang would not be Ying Zheng, but Ying Ji!
However, Ying Zheng frowned slightly when he heard this.

Only more than 4,000 sets of armor can be produced every month?
This number is indeed astonishing, but for Ying Chengjiao now, it is probably just a drop in the bucket!

Observing Ying Zheng's expression, Zhao Cheng continued, "The other day Gongsun Qian (Ying Qian) offered a plan."

"Thicker iron plates were cast into an arc shape with holes on both sides. When the battle was about to begin, the soldiers were ordered to wrap the two iron plates around their chests and backs, and then string them together with ropes to form a piece of armor."

"Pour the molten iron directly into a helmet-shaped iron mold, make a hole at the bottom, and tie it with a rope to make a helmet."

"This armor's defensive capabilities are inferior to those of ordinary armor, but it is easy to cast."

"If we gather the strength of the Ministry of Works to forge this kind of armor, we can get more than 60,000 sets per month!"

"The Ministry of Works has already cast several finished products, ready for the king to judge at any time."

Ying Zheng became interested and immediately ordered: "Show it up!"

Soon, ten sets of cast iron armor were moved into the imperial study.

After two breaths of silence, Ying Zheng looked at Zhao Cheng and asked in a deep voice, "My dear minister, is this armor?"

You tell me, this is armor?

Do you think I know nothing about military affairs?

These are clearly twenty curved iron plates and twenty iron bowls!

Zhao Cheng was not embarrassed at all, but said confidently: "This is armor!"

Wang Jian took the initiative to pick up the two iron plates, looked at them, weighed them in his hands, knocked them, and gave his own evaluation carefully: "Compared with the Qin armor, this armor is more than twice as heavy, and it is not convenient for the soldiers to travel long distances."

"In heavier cases, this armor can only protect the chest and back, and has no protection for the shoulders and arms. If you want to protect the shoulders and arms, you should cover them with leather armor." "This armor cannot be bent at all, which is not convenient for soldiers to bend over, and cannot be used by crossbowmen."

"Moreover, this armor cannot be adjusted according to the height, weight and size of the soldiers like a sergeant armor. Once it is damaged on the front line, it cannot be repaired and can only be transported back to the rear to be recast."

"Although I haven't tested it myself, I'm afraid the defensive power of this armor is..."

At first glance, this armor looks a bit like the common plate armor in Europe, especially the breastplate of the French cuirassiers.

However, European plate armor was forged with the pursuit of defensive power, while this iron armor was cast with the pursuit of cheapness and easy availability. The starting points of the two are very different, and the raw materials, processes and technologies used are fundamentally different.

The key designs such as the dome structure and inclined corners that allowed European plate armor to prevail on the battlefield are also missing!
This directly leads to the fact that although this armor looks like plate armor, it does not have many of the advantages of plate armor, but has many of the disadvantages of plate armor, and it also has many disadvantages and problems that plate armor does not have.

As soon as Wang Jian took the first step, he pointed out more than ten shortcomings of the iron armor, each of which was enough to sentence the armor to death!
But in the end, Wang Jian changed the subject, looked at Ying Zheng and said sincerely: "If the armor distributed to my troops by the court is all this kind of armor, and the king does not give me an explanation, I will live in front of the door of this imperial study and will not leave!"

"But if the court can give me tens of thousands of sets of armor after allocating the armor that my troops deserve, I will kowtow to the king!"

"This is armor after all!"

Although cast armor has many disadvantages and few advantages, the advantage of being cheap and easy to obtain is enough to cover up all the disadvantages!
No matter how poor the armor is, it is always safer than wearing no armor. No matter how poor the helmet is, it is always stronger than black cloth.

It’s better to have it than nothing!
Ying Zheng was somewhat surprised and asked seriously, "General, do you think this armor is worth the effort to forge?"

Wang Jian bowed confidently: "It's worth it!"

"I advise you to take all the iron materials obtained by the Qin this year and make a lot of armor."

"Use all the strength of our Great Qin to make all the soldiers of our Great Qin wear armor!"

Han Cang said with some distress: "But this will consume a huge amount of iron."

"Moreover, this armor is made by casting. If it is damaged, it can only be smelted in a blast furnace again, which is very wasteful!"

Such a set of iron armor weighs more than 40 kilograms!

The iron materials used to make a set of iron armor can easily be used to make sixty or seventy hoe heads and forty or fifty Chang'an plows.

If all this iron material could be used to make farm tools, how many more farm tools could Daqin have this year, and how much more wasteland could be reclaimed next year!

Wang Jian said in a particularly strong voice: "There is a world of difference between the morale and combat effectiveness of soldiers with armor and soldiers without armor."

"Although this armor is simple, it may save a soldier's life at a critical moment!"

"I know that making this armor will consume a lot of iron, but my soldiers are worth it!"

Wang Jian was ready to fight alone in the court.

What kind of general would I be if I don’t work for the welfare of my soldiers!

It so happened that I had a deep sleep for a long time during the court meeting just now, and I am full of energy now!
However, before Wang Jian could even begin to demonstrate his power, Ying Zheng had already made the final decision: "Build!"

"Chang'an Jun only led 700,000 soldiers to fight against the coalition army of more than one million. His strength is nearly half of the coalition army!"

"At this moment, Changan Jun must be under great pressure!"

"The court should do its utmost to help Lord Chang'an, instead of being stingy with a small gift of iron."

"The iron was originally obtained from the blast furnace developed by Chang'an Jun. It is only natural to use it to help Chang'an Jun win."

"Moreover, the outcome of this battle is directly related to the survival of our Great Qin. If we don't plan for today, how can we plan for eternity?"

Wang Jian excitedly bowed and said, "Your Majesty is wise!"

Wei Liao, Lu Buwei and others thought for a moment and bowed in unison: "Your Majesty is wise!"

Even Han Cang suppressed his pain and said, "Your Majesty is wise!"

Han Cang was just afraid of being poor, but he knew what was important.

If the Qin Dynasty loses this battle, what's the point of talking about sustainable development!

Ying Zheng nodded happily: "Good!"

"Bring up that armor."

Thinking of Ying Chengjiao's joyful look when he received these armors, Ying Zheng couldn't help but smile slightly.

Stroking the rough surface of the cast iron armor, Ying Zheng asked thoughtfully: "Was this armor developed by Gongsun Qian?"

"I remember that Gongsun Qian particularly loved to study the law. Now he is the commander of the guards. Why did he suddenly study the art of craftsmanship?"

Zhao Cheng smiled and said, "It's not just Gongsun Qian. Since Chang'an Jun invented Chang'an Paper, many princes of the royal family, such as Gongsun Yujiang and Shaofu, have been visiting him."

"Since February of the eleventh year of King Qin's reign, the princes and grandsons of the royal family have presented 386 pieces of craftsmanship."

"Except for the 302 pieces that are the skills that I, as the Minister of the Imperial Household, have already kept records of, the rest are all ingenious, and this iron armor is the most dazzling piece of craftsmanship among them!"

The reward in February of the eleventh year of King Zheng of Qin and Ying Chengjiao's deliberate guidance eventually planted a seed in the hearts of the Qin royal family.

After nearly four years of difficult growth and waiting, the seedlings broke through the soil, presenting a scene that is tender but thriving, and also produced the first fruit that, although not good in appearance, is sweet and thirst-quenching!

(End of this chapter)