Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 583: Armor-Bomb Confrontation!

While others were chatting, Guo Kang was putting on his armor with the help of his two cousins.

Today, he would not wear this outfit, because his family had already prepared the attire for the ceremony. No matter what, the Guo family has not been reduced to the point where they have to buy all the equipment for the expedition at short notice. What's more, Guo Ponu was very active in this regard. Before he could prepare as planned, he had already finished organizing things for him.

After putting it on, he moved around a little to test the flexibility of the armor.

Although his talent in martial arts is not very good, Guo Kang was dragged into practicing martial arts by his adoptive father since he was a child, so he still has some foundation. Moreover, the armor is reasonably designed and the burden is not as great as it appears on paper.

In fact, in his past world, it was common for a suit of armor to weigh fifty or sixty pounds, no matter which civilization it was. Under some special conditions, the weight may be even higher.

For example, in actual combat, those who have the conditions often choose to have multiple sets of armor; in European equestrian competitions, thickened safety armor is also used as protection; in addition, every region and every era has some talents. A talented, tall and strong person. These people are often specially trained warriors and will wear special armor. Under these conditions, one hundred kilograms is also achievable. Even if there is no internal power, it can still be used, but mobility will be a problem, so it depends on the place to use it.

After all, war is the fiercest and fairest competition. Human beings can squeeze out the last bit of their potential for the sake of war. Theoretically, the strength of the armor only needs to pass the standard. No matter how many parts are added, the improvement will be limited, and there is no suppression of generational differences.

However, as long as they can gain a little advantage, everyone is still willing to do so at any cost. Except...even the Song Dynasty would try to raise a heavily armed army to protect the bottom line. It can be seen how fierce the competition is.

On the European side, because the competitive pressure is not so outrageous, the development ideas are also different. Although the impression given to future generations seems to be all kinds of "canned", except for the heavy armor route of Eastern Rome, other armors here have developed in the direction of flexibility and lightness.

And, like all mercenaries, the Irish's wages could be deducted, but their arrows could not be deceived. The Irish had no pay or food, so they could still keep fighting for a while, but if the arrows were not well made, they would really not be able to shoot accurately. What's more, if the Irish died in the battle, the money would not be given, but if the arrow broke, it would be gone.

The supply of arrows in the Central Plains has always been abundant, which easily gives people the illusion that these items are cheap and can be consumed endlessly. But even in modern times, better arrows are not cheap. If you kill one, you will feel distressed for a long time. This was especially true in ancient times. No matter which region they are in, arrows are definitely not cheap goods. The Central Plains has no shortage of arrows simply because people are advanced and developed and have high productivity; other civilizations are not so wealthy.

In ancient times, armor had to deal with various cold weapons, especially arrows. If the upper limit of an ancient army was determined by its fighting ability, then its lower limit was determined by its ability to fire arrows and resist arrows.

Everyone knows that bows and arrows are very useful, but not everyone can afford them. People from the Central Plains can use expensive arrows as consumables and shoot them out like raindrops, but it's hard to say that for others.

The reason is that arrows are too expensive.

In this mode, arrows are still very expensive. 100 pieces of good wood used as arrow shafts cost 16 pence; the finished product is even more expensive, 10 dozen arrows, 120 pieces, cost 1 pound. That worked out to two pennies per arrow—enough to hire an Irish pikeman for a day of hunting.

In England, the system for making and purchasing bows and arrows is relatively mature - at least much more orderly than most European and Mediterranean countries. Because England was so poor, everyone from the king to the peasants had to go out and rob in Europe if they wanted to make some money. A hole has been opened up and down the country, so the policy on armaments can be implemented more smoothly.

Expensive is just an appearance, and the price seems to only partially reflect the relationship between supply and demand. Because most of the time, even if you have money, you can't buy it because you really don't have time to produce it. There is no way to make it more with visible or invisible hands.

Since this system is so successful, the longbowmen must have plenty of arrows, right? Sadly, that's not the case.

As a "junk soldier filter", the arrows fired by the crossbow can effectively eliminate unarmored targets at long distances. As a result, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the front line by accumulating a large number of low-quality soldiers, or even rely on numerical superiority to win. Therefore, as long as it is an army with some pursuit, it will definitely work hard in this aspect: on the one hand, it must increase its own projection ability, and on the other hand, it must increase its ability to defend against the enemy's projection. These two are indispensable.

When there was an urgent shortage of arrows, the king even issued an order requiring every goose in the country to provide six feathers to serve as arrow feathers. With one order, farmers all over the country gathered goose feathers... It can be said to be a very "Qin system".

In Europe in the late Middle Ages, the Kingdom of England was most famous for its use of bows and arrows. The backbone of their army is composed of long archers.

In England, under standard circumstances, ordinary yeoman farmers own a 30-acre allotment (approximately 180 acres), which allows them to earn an annual income of one to two pounds; while wealthy yeoman farmers, whose annual income ranges from 2 to 5 pounds, can earn their own income. Prepare bows, arrows and self-defense weapons, and practice archery daily. The royal government calls these people "Yeomen" and serves as the main source of troops. It requires intensive training every weekend and regular assessments. Judging from the results, the training and organization of longbowmen was relatively successful at the time, allowing the Kingdom of England to have a group of very cost-effective infantry, which was considered a relatively advanced and reliable system at the time.

In this regard, the difference between the Central Plains region and other places is very obvious.

Therefore, fighting with bows and arrows is really not cheap - you pull the bow and release the arrow, and with a whoosh, an Irishman flies out... Can you not feel bad about this?

From 1338 to 1344, the English army received only 13 arrows in six years. From 1344 to 1351, the English army used a total of one million arrows, including the consumption in the decisive battle with the French at Crecy in 1346. After this, England ran out of storage, and the rush of arrows could not fill the gap.

In 1356, Edward the Black Prince requested an urgent supply of arrows from the country to prepare for the upcoming war with the French. As a result, the Royal Government was unable to provide even this, because the inventory back home had long been exhausted, and there was no one left. In desperation, Edward hurriedly engaged the pursuing French army in Poitiers. The longbowmen quickly used up the last arrows they carried and even began to throw stones to attack.

After the war, the English received a large amount of ransom and had much more funds, so they hurriedly made purchases everywhere. In 1360, a stock of 28 arrows was restored. There were not many wars during this period, so everyone tried to save as much as possible. After using it for twenty years, there were still more than 375 guns left, which was very difficult... On the Central Plains, when an army of the Tang Dynasty went on an expedition, it theoretically had to carry 25 Ten thousand bows and arrows and crossbow arrows. The arrows of the Song Dynasty were simply stored in tens of millions. In the Yuan Dynasty at the same time, there was much less information. In the early years of Hongwu, arrow production had dropped to less than two million a year, because large quantities of firearms had begun to be made.

Given this difference, the influence of long-range weapons in Europe is definitely not as great as that in the Central Plains. The screening ability of bows and arrows has been reduced, and the requirements for protection have also been reduced a lot.

The development of armor is ultimately a matter of materials.

The penetrating ability of an arrow is greatly affected by its hardness. If the armor is softer, the protective ability will be much worse - there are some classic cases in later generations of accidentally shooting through a pressure cooker, which is for this reason. Because these metal materials are very soft, even if they are thick enough, they can be punched through by Liuya. On the contrary, if the surface is very hard, the efficiency can be improved, and it does not need to be too thick to achieve good results. If it can be harder than the arrowhead, it can even smash the arrowhead and explode the arrow shaft, causing a large amount of energy to be lost in the deformation of the arrow itself.

Bows and arrows in the Central Plains developed very early and very quickly. In the late Neolithic Age, arrowheads in the Central Plains gradually developed from triangular to conical, and arrow collars appeared. The length of arrowheads reached about 7 to 10 centimeters. In some large sites, workshops for mass production of arrowheads have been discovered.

In regional centers like the Taosi site, there is already a clear division of labor from quarrying, rough processing, finishing to final storage, and the entire process and each workshop area is obviously organized and managed by the regime itself. Some products are also exported to other settlements. Weapons production on this scale was also rare in that era. It can be said that this difference in style has existed since the beginning of civilization.

In this kind of combat environment, soft armor is very embarrassing.

In the Bronze Age, armor made of large bronze plates also appeared in the Central Plains. The style was similar to that of the Greeks. But this kind of armor has never been very popular, and the reason is the same - bronze is too soft, and the protective effect is not ideal. On the contrary, it is very heavy, and the side effects have outweighed the positive effects. Even if there is no shortage of copper, it is difficult to satisfy people.

Since then, the development of bows and arrows has been faster than armor. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, "Zuo Zhuan" recorded that Pan Dang and Yang Youji compared archery and stacked Zhajia to shoot, and the results were that they could shoot through seven layers of armor. During the reign of King Chuzhuang, the great noble Ruo Ao launched a rebellion. The leader Dou Yuejiao personally shot an arrow at King Chuzhuang. The first arrow penetrated the shaft of the chariot and the base of the war drum, and was inserted into the copper ceremonial used for command; The two arrows passed through the shaft of the car and penetrated the copper handle of the car cover.

Although these are examples of individual outstanding archers, the protective gear at this time is obviously not enough. Additional bronze plates began to appear on some chariots, but to be honest, even if these things were added, they could not stop the ruthless people who could penetrate the chariots.

Later, crossbows also began to appear, but armor still relied on leather armor. By the late Warring States Period, a very strange situation had emerged: the main forces of the two major powers were increasingly inclined to confront each other in a decisive battle. The war was filled with attacks and defenses around the fortress, and even competitions between the two sides sitting in silence to eat food. There were similar cases in the wars between Qin, Zhao, and Qin and Chu.

Later, when iron armor became popular, the situation changed. The reason here may also be the extreme imbalance of offense and defense. Since the killing efficiency of long-range weapons is too high, it is no longer appropriate to blindly carry out large-scale charges. Generals began to seek other means, such as fortifications and camps, to reduce losses. It can be seen that the level of technology and weapon performance themselves will affect the shape of war.

When Iron Armor appeared, this was the situation we faced.

Due to the limitations of the technical level at that time, the toughness of the hard nail plate was not very good, and it could not be made too large, otherwise it would become too brittle and affect normal use; to make it larger, the hardness had to be reduced. Two features, you can only choose one.

At this time, in order to resist overly powerful arrows, the armor must be hard enough, otherwise it will be penetrated by bows and arrows just like the previous armor materials. Therefore, for actual combat, users in the Central Plains did not hesitate to choose the idea of ​​​​small pieces of hard armor. Since bows and arrows are also developing, armor will not be able to keep up. From the Han Dynasty to the Tang and Song Dynasties, everyone was constantly researching and using various processes such as surface carburizing, hot forging, and cold forging on these small armor pieces.

Of course, there is nothing we can do about it. After all, the confrontation between armor and arrows has lasted almost throughout the history of civilization and is unavoidable.

When the forces in the Central Plains fought with each other, or even with enemies on the grasslands, they usually shot arrows first and then fought. Among them, the threshold for combat ability is higher. Some armies are corrupted because they rely too much on long-range weapons, and their combat ability has declined.

But the premise of this definition standard is that the military level of this circle has always been beyond the times, so the basic conditions can be directly ignored. But in other places, not so much. For example, during the Han army's expedition to the Western Regions, there were many records of "defeat". The reason was that the Central Asian forces were so weak that they could not even survive the first round of long-range shooting and were defeated. To put it bluntly, this kind of army is not qualified to enter the fighting stage...

However, as already mentioned, the strength of long-range weapons in Europe and the Mediterranean world is not as high as in Central Asia. Moreover, this difference cannot be made up.

Guo Kang was very sure of this. People of this era obviously couldn't do it - and he couldn't do it himself. Because this is not a short-term difference, or even a difference between one or two dynasties, but a gap that has existed since ancient times. Do you want people to start making up lessons from the Neolithic Age...

In the future, there is no possibility that enemies in the Mediterranean circle will strengthen their arrows, but muskets are expected to become popular on a large scale. What we should really pay attention to is no longer the confrontation between armor and arrows, but the confrontation between armor and bullets.

However, the penetration method of musket bullets is quite different from that of arrows. The lead bullet itself is relatively soft and mainly relies on strong kinetic energy to cause damage, so the surface of the armor does not need to be so hard. On the contrary, armor with better toughness and better structure has the most outstanding advantages.

The metallurgical technology of this era was also more advanced, so larger nail plates and even the practice of covering the nail plates with cotton layers became popular. An integrated armor made of a single piece of iron plate is a very suitable choice in the Mediterranean world.

Therefore, the style of armor does not need to be limited to long-ago experience. Armor-and-munition confrontation is a process in which both sides are constantly developing and upgrading. The technologies in different regions are different, the situations they need to face are also different, and the optimal choices may not be the same. From this perspective, there is only the "most suitable" for armor and bullets, and it is difficult to say which one is the "best". It is considered a success if it can meet operational needs and its actual performance meets expectations.

(End of this chapter)