Valley Emperor

Whether it is the Ministry of Industry or the Army, they have conducted special research and testing on the plate armor. After detailed testing, they found that although the plate armor has excellent protection capabilities, it is too heavy, far more than the existing data of the Datang Army. The armor is heavy.

At the same time, there is no precedent for this kind of plate armor in East Asia, and the Tang Dynasty has not produced it, so many of them know about plate armor, but they have not thought about equipping plate armor on a large scale for a while.

However, although they have never thought of equipping plate armor on a large scale, they are still relatively familiar with the plate armor of the Folang robot, after all, they have been specially tested and studied.

In the test, they found that the plate armor's defense ability against cold weapons is extremely outstanding, and the defense effect on muskets is also stronger than the cotton iron armor commonly equipped by the Datang Army.

With the 14mm matchlock gun of the current Tang Dynasty, it needs to be within 20 meters to penetrate the plate armor captured from the Folang robot. Of course, this is because the plate armor of the Folang robot is not common. In the early days, the plate armor was only about two millimeters, but it was influenced by the popularity of contemporary Western heavy muskets. millimeters, and even six millimeters in some key areas.

And such a thick thickness also brings a heavy weight!

Although it is very heavy, it is unrealistic for many officers to generally equip this heavy armor, but they are full of praise for the excellent defensive ability of plate armor.

Li Xuan did not know what the officials of the army and the Ministry of Industry thought, but Li Xuan knew that the main enemy of the Tang Dynasty, that is, there were still a large number of cold weapon troops in the Ming Dynasty, and the muskets used by their firearm troops were not as powerful as The musket of the Tang Army.

According to the measurement of the captured Ming army muskets, the caliber of the Ming army's muskets is generally smaller than that of the Datang Army, but on the whole it is between 11mm and 13mm. Don't ask why the caliber of the Ming army's muskets is different. , because the difference in the caliber of the Ming army's muskets is so big.

Basically, each workshop, and even the muskets made by each craftsman, have different calibers, and you can't blame them, because they don't have the concept of a unified standard at all!

The Ming army has a large number of cold weapon troops and musket troops of varying quality, so armor is still one of the important equipment of the Tang Dynasty in a short period of time.

This is also the main reason why the Tang Dynasty continued to manufacture and equip cotton iron armor in large quantities, and even traditional iron armor such as chain armor was still manufactured and equipped in large quantities.

However, compared with traditional iron armor, cotton iron armor and plate armor, there is a big gap in terms of cost, defense capability, and even the flexibility it brings to soldiers.

In the past, the industrial processing and material capabilities were not enough, and it was impossible to mass-produce plate armor, but now, after seeing these mechanical equipment, Li Xuan believes that the time to mass-produce plate armor and equip troops is ripe!

Therefore, on the way to inspect the Zhaoqing Arsenal, Li Xuan directly found the officials of the Ministry of Industry and some engineers of the Zhaoqing Arsenal, and directly asked them about the feasibility of mass production of plate armor.

Hearing Li Xuan's sudden question, they still couldn't react, because everyone knew that Li Xuan came here today to watch the test firing of the nine-jin artillery, and the inspection of other things in the arsenal was just on the way.

But since Li Xuan asked, they naturally need to answer!

They naturally know about plate armor, and they have also tested it!

Now the Ministry of Industry is basically the military-industrial production complex of the Tang Dynasty, and they will study all kinds of weapons that can be found!

Therefore, someone immediately replied: "Your Majesty, with our current technical capabilities, it is still difficult to mass-produce plate armor, but small-scale production is possible. If we want to mass-produce, we need to establish If there is no pressure on funding, small-scale mass production of plate armor can be achieved within three months, and large-scale production should be possible within half a year!”

At this time, Zeng Ziwen, who was a representative of the army, suddenly heard the mention of plate armor, and immediately said: "Plate armor, is it the plate armor that was captured from the Flang machine? This plate armor has also been tested by our army. The frontal thickness of several pieces of plate armor seized from the Folang machine is generally five millimeters. If it is a full-body armor, the weight is too heavy. Only a few strong soldiers can wear it. Most soldiers can wear it. Still can't wear it!"

Li Xuan said indifferently: "Any kind of equipment must be good or bad, as for the problem of heavy plate armor, it needs strong soldiers to wear it, which is not a problem at all.

Those who are equipped with armor are bound to be heavy armored sword and shield soldiers and heavy armored spearmen. They have good physical strength. Follow-up physical training is enough to wear this kind of plate armor, and the plate armor does not need to be full body armor. Half body armor, and even a breastplate are all right! "

"You should think more broadly, and look farther!"

"And after the plate armor is equipped, all the cold weapons of the pseudo-ming thief army will be eclipsed in front of the plate armor, and the plate armor of this thickness also has good bulletproof ability!"

"And most importantly, the cost of this plate armor will be lower, allowing the Army to get large quantities of equipment!"

Plate armor, this is a natural choice made by a country in the face of the development of military technology after its initial industrialization!

The main enemy facing the Tang Dynasty today is the pseudo-ming. The pseudo-ming has a large number of cold weapon troops. Even the firearm army has a relatively small power of muskets. Plate armor will allow soldiers to have a stronger survival on the battlefield. The ability is at least much better than the current cotton iron armor, chain armor, scale armor, etc.

But Li Xuan thought again, what if the Ming Dynasty followed suit and started to equip plate armor?

The Ming Dynasty is not stupid. In a short period of time, they have already begun to imitate matchlock guns and artillery. Although plate armor has higher requirements on materials and processing, it cannot stand the crowd of Ming Dynasty. Woolen cloth?

Also, even if it is not the Ming Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty still has the enemy of Flangji, who is not allowed to fight with the Spaniards in the future, and these two European countries are all people with plate armor.

How Europeans deal with plate armor, the method is simple and crude: increase the caliber of the musket!

And this has led to the popularity of heavy muskets on the contemporary European battlefield!

In order to plan ahead, Li Xuan felt that the Tang Dynasty must also have its own heavy musket. For mobility, the first-generation musket of the Tang Dynasty had a caliber of only 14 mm, but now it seems that a caliber of at least Above seventeen millimeters, or even a heavy musket of twenty millimeters.

Then follow the example of European counterparts and use heavy muskets and light muskets together!

As for when the heavy musket is not used, and when the enemies of the Tang Dynasty are not equipped with plate armor, then the heavy musket can be thrown back into the garbage.

What weapons the army has been equipped with does not depend on whether it is easy to use or not, whether the technology is advanced or not, but on what weapons the enemy equips!

If the Ming army did not have plate armor or similar heavy individual defense equipment, then the Datang Army would not be equipped with bulky heavy muskets on a large scale.

If the Spaniards and the Flanges are no longer equipped with plate armor, the Datang Army will also not use them.

A 14mm caliber arquebus is already quite easy to use, with both weight and power taking into account. It is the best balance that the Tang Dynasty can achieve at present. If it is small, it is not powerful enough, and if it is large, it is too heavy!

So he still did not forget to mention the officials of the Ministry of Industry and let them develop a heavy-duty musket based on the existing muskets. As for mass production, there is no rush. Make technical reserves first, and then mass production when needed. .

But plate armor, the sooner the better, the more the better!

If it is possible, Li Xuan still hopes to drown the Ming army with the heavy armored infantry piled up with plate armor!

After returning from the Zhaoqing Arsenal, Li Xuan still cherished the issue of the military's weapons and equipment. Now that the Datang King Division cannot continue to expand in size, it is already what Li Xuan can think of to improve the training and equipment level of the troops as much as possible. The best way.

In the face of Li Xuan's personal instructions, the Ministry of Industry naturally did not dare to neglect, and soon dispatched special personnel to carry out the research and development of plate armor. The plate armor required by the Datang Army is naturally impossible to fully copy the plate armor captured from the Fulang machine, and must be adjusted according to the actual situation faced by the Tang Dynasty.

The most important thing is the thickness, because the thickness is directly related to the weight!

Considering that there are no heavy muskets in the Ming army today, and even the number of light muskets is not large, and the quality is not good, so after discussing with the officers of the army, it was decided to initially determine the thickness of the plate armor as two Between millimeters and four millimeters~www.wuxiaspot.com~ The thickness of the plate armor on the front chest is the highest, reaching four millimeters, while the other parts are two millimeters!

The purpose is very simple, as long as it can prevent a large number of bows and arrows of the Ming army and muskets at medium and long distances!

Then there is the detailed design of the various parts, it is important to be easy to wear, because it is impossible for every war to give soldiers enough time to wear armor!

So the design must be easy to wear, cheap, and easy to manufacture on a large scale, even with some defense and comfort.

This is also the key requirement that Li Xuan put forward to these designers. Although the protection of armor is very important, the convenience of wearing and the cost are equally important.

The cost is even more important.

And these requirements of Li Xuan also caused the plate armor of the Tang Dynasty to be divided into several types before it was born, namely full-body armor, half-body armor, and breastplate!