Chastity Layman

  Chapter 931 Uzi Sword

  Qin Lang sat in front of the desk, stroking a Damascus machete.

  The body of the curved knife is covered with beautiful forging patterns like flowing clouds and flowing water. It is so beautiful and pleasing to the eye. This sword from Persia also has a name in Datang, called Uzi Sword. All because this knife is cast using Uzi steel ingots.

  The beautiful patterns on the body of the knife are formed during casting.

  The Persians have kept the secret of Uzi knife casting for a long time. Persia and Tianzhu did not hesitate to hire these Persian blacksmiths at high prices to forge precious swords for themselves. Over time, Uzi knives have also formed different styles. For example, the Damascus sword produced in the Persian Sasanian Dynasty has a pattern like a silk weave, and its luster is eye-catching.

  The patterned Uzi knives cast by Persian craftsmen hired by the Jieri Dynasty in Tianzhu, the cross-sectional veins of the blade are often in the shape of dozens of layers of cloud trapezoids, which is ingenious and precious. However, in the Oasis Mall in the Arabian Peninsula, the pattern of the knife cast by the Persian knifesmith there is in the shape of a roll, and its veins are like agate.

  Qin Lang has collected no less than a hundred Uzi swords of all kinds, each of which is very valuable. The cheapest one is also worth thousands of guan.

  The knife is a good knife, not only sharp, but also extremely powerful in actual combat. Qin Lang once tried to make a counterfeit knife, and invited many famous masters of knife casting, including the very famous master of casting horizontal knives in the current dynasty.

He wanted them to study this kind of Uzi knife carefully and let them restore the forging method of this kind of knife. He even spent a lot of money on purpose to let Hu merchants take the risk of smuggling many Uzi steel ingots. He hired a Persian knife maker to come to Datang.

  But Persian swordsmiths who really know how to forge Uzi knives are hard to come by. Several countries that have Uzi swordsmiths now regard them as national treasures, and it is impossible to dig to the bottom of the wall. The few that were found with difficulty were also fakes.

   As for the swordsmiths of Datang, for this completely unfamiliar forging method, they couldn't restore the method. They managed to make some similar patterns, but the overall performance was far different.

   And the master also said that Datang does not produce Uzi ore, so even if the method is mastered, it is difficult to cast Uzi steel in large quantities, so it is of no value to study this method of forging Uzi knives.

   After all, the biggest feature of the Uzi knife is that it is both hard and tough. It is very rare to have both.

Wuzi ore is produced in Tianzhu, which is a high-quality knife-making raw material with extremely high carbon content. After the ore is smelted in a sealed crucible, it will form a steel ingot like a big iron ball. This is the legendary Wuzi This is steel ingot.

   It's just that because of the high carbon content of this Uzi steel ingot, although the sword made is very hard and sharp, it is very brittle.

Later, the Persian swordsmiths improved the craft and solved this problem. They combined the woozi steel with proficiency, folded and forged it repeatedly, so that the sword made in this way would form a soft and hard mutual support mode inside. This is also the origin of the beautiful patterns on the body of the knife.

  This top-level casting method makes the Uzi steel a perfect material for casting knives, and the Uzi knives are sharp and not fragile.

   At the same time, it has both hardness and toughness, allowing him to be sharper than ordinary swords.

  Wootz steel ingots and forging methods are indispensable, otherwise such a good knife cannot be made. Technology alone is not enough, and steel ingots alone are not enough.

   But Datang didn’t have any of these two necessary things. If you want to steal a teacher to learn art, it’s like a castle in the air.

In fact, what the master does not know is that although Datang does not have Uzi minerals, Qin Lang has a solution. steel ingot. In ancient times, this could only be done by nature.

  But in later generations, people have already discovered countless ways to increase the carbon content of steel ingots and increase the hardness. This is not a difficult mystery.

Foshan has erected a blast furnace to smelt iron, Hongji Coal Factory has also established a coke plant, and open hearth furnace steelmaking has also begun. These are subversive breakthroughs in traditional smelting technology. The shape of the material can only be forged with one hammer at a time, and it needs thousands of hammers to become steel.

  After the emergence of the open hearth liquid steel technology, it is possible to directly smelt molten steel furnace by furnace, and even control the hardness of steel through different technologies.

Qin Lang can let the iron masters gathered in Foshan solve the material problem, and use technical means to smelt high-hardness steel to replace Uzi steel ingots, but if there is no real Uzi knife forging technology, this material is not enough .

  Just like the Uzi mine is originally produced in Tianzhu, but the Tianzhu people have never understood how to forge this high-hardness Tianzhu steel ingot into a tough and tough sword.

   Without the guidance of a real Persian knifesmith, the folding and forging techniques worked out by Datang's own knifesmiths are far from the authentic ones.

  Similarly, the iron chain mail of the Persians is also very strong.

  In the west, the two great empires of Persia and Byzantium have been separated by the Mediterranean Sea for hundreds of years. The war between the two countries has continued, and both sides have a powerful heavy cavalry.

The Persian heavy cavalry is full of armor. Among them, the armor of the heavy cavalry knights is the iron chain mail, which is lined with cowhide armor, and an iron chain mail is put on the outside, and the outermost is covered with a layer of iron chain mail. Layers of iron armor, and finally a burqa.

  Three-tiered Persian heavy cavalry, invincible.

   Among the three layers of armor, the most powerful is the iron chain armor. This chain armor is interlocked by countless iron rings, and its defense ability is extremely strong.

  Datang’s iron armor, whether it is bright light or fish scales, is actually bound armor, that is, piece by piece. Compared with iron chain armor, the biggest disadvantage of iron armor is that its mobility is not good, which affects movements.

  However, the flexibility of the iron chain armor on the body does not affect body movements at all. Even in terms of protection ability alone, it is still far stronger than chain mail, and even stronger than later plate armor.

  The iron chain mail of the Persians was also imitated by the Tang Dynasty, but its defensive performance is far inferior to that of the Persian ones. The root of it all lies in the forging method of the ring.

   It may not be an inconspicuous little ring, but it also contains top-level forging technology.

  The iron ring made by the Persians, the ring itself and the seal are extremely strong, especially the sealing technology is high, and there is no fear of slender sharp objects at all, and there is no need to worry about being stretched.

   And its hardness is also high, not afraid of chopping.

  The iron chain armor imitated by Datang himself has the same ring size, even the weaving method is the same, the ring size and ring density are the same, but the performance is not enough.

Especially for the ring seal, the technology has never been good enough. If it is pierced with a slender sharp object, the ring mouth will easily collapse, causing loopholes and gaps in the mail armor, and sometimes even deforming and cracking the iron ring brace directly. For A, it is a fatal flaw.

  The things are there, the standard mail armor smuggled from the Persian Sassanid Dynasty through the Sogdian merchants, and even the treasures used by the generals, but they are just like cats and dogs.

Later, the person who was beaten in the face of the weapon supervisor had to deliberately pick on the faults of the lock armor, saying that the ability of this lock armor to resist blunt weapons is far inferior to that of Zha Jia, and its ability to resist arrows and crossbows is not as good as that represented by Mingguang armor. Tang Jia also said that the cost of this armor is too high. A piece of mail armor requires countless iron rings, and ring weaving is also quite labor-intensive.

In fact, whether it is Qin Lang or Li Shimin, both have excellent Persian lock armor, and they are also very clear about the advantages of Persian lock armor. If you insist on comparing their shortcomings with their advantages, of course they cannot compare, but if it is comprehensive, Persian lock armor, Still better than Mingguangjia.

   Great Tang Dynasty, unexpectedly cannot imitate chain mail, and the performance of the manufactured ones is too different. It can only be draped outside to enhance a little defense ability.

Both the Uzi knife and the Persian mail armor reminded Qin Lang of the Greek fire, the Byzantine naval warfare weapon. After the fall of Persia, the Byzantines relied on this weapon to block the attacks of the unstoppable Arab Empire. .

   This kind of fire-breathing artifact installed on ships during naval battles can burn the Greek fire it emits even if it falls on the sea.

  It itself is a product of petroleum refining. Qin Lang's previous research and development of fierce oil tank is somewhat similar, but the effect is far different.

   It is said that the Byzantines placed the artisans who made Greek fire directly on a heavily guarded island, and no one was allowed to approach it, hiding it like a treasure.

  The Persian heavy cavalry once shocked the two rivers and defeated the Roman legion several times, but today's Persian Sasanian cavalry is not as good as before.

  According to the information collected by Qin Lang, the Persian emperor granted the land to the nobles, and then let them solve the equipment problem by themselves. This is similar to the Franks' system of entrusting knights and fiefs, and also somewhat like the Tang Dynasty's military system.

It’s just that the Sassanian Dynasty lasted for hundreds of years, and the problem of land annexation in the country is very serious now. The war between Persia and Rome has been going on for hundreds of years, and civil strife often occurred in the country, which caused a large number of heavy cavalry to go bankrupt. Expensive iron chain armor, iron armor, etc.

  Originally, the Persian heavy cavalry were the wealthy small and medium-sized nobles. When a large number of small nobles went bankrupt, the heavy armored cavalry, the ace of war of the Persians, was difficult to maintain, and it became worse every day.

It is even worse for a large number of civilian light cavalry. They only have light armor, and even light armor cannot be afforded. However, they not only have to undertake the original task of light cavalry, but even with the decline of heavy cavalry, they have to take over the task of heavy cavalry. , It is necessary to make up for the tasks of fighting and charging of the heavy cavalry.

  The once powerful Persian Sasanian heavy cavalry and light cavalry groups are no longer the same as before. Years of wars and domestic land annexation have made it difficult for the Persian cavalry to continue.

  In this regard, it is not surprising that Persia was later destroyed by the nomadic tribes of the Arabs who lived on the southern peninsula.

Although their old opponents, the Romans, established a new dynasty by Heraclius after ten years of civil strife, and fought back to Asia Minor and even Armenia, they did not destroy Persia in the end, but let the Arabs The fundamental reason for picking up the cheap is actually that Eastern Rome itself suffered a serious loss of strength in the successive years of war with Persia.

  The turmoil and rebellion in the country also seriously hurt the vitality of the Eastern Romans. In fact, the two countries are in the same situation.

  (end of this chapter)