Then Shen Bing discovered that one hundred kilograms was actually far from enough.
The reason is that what he can't afford the most is time, and other things such as raw materials and manpower are actually insignificant: the raw materials are free of charge, and the manpower can be used by the whole army. It is the soaking of red vine that takes time.
So I simply sent out a fleet to transport several batches of red vines back for production.
The production method is quite simple, you just need to soak it in several large buckets and change the water frequently.
During this period, Shen Bing also went to find Yang Duanhe.
Shen Bing cupped his hands and said:
"General!"
"Our army has no armor to use, so I asked people to collect some old vines to make armor. Isn't this illegal?"
Yang Duanhe couldn't help being shocked when he heard this, and then laughed:
"Not illegal."
"This is because it is not illegal for you to control yourself."
"It's just this old vine... can it also be used to make armor?"
"Can it make armor that can be used in combat?"
Shen Bing sold miserably again:
"Alas, the general doesn't know something."
“Something is better than nothing!”
"We can't just wear brown clothes and go fight the enemy, right?"
"Using old vines to make some armor will make you look more emboldened!"
At this time, you should pretend to be pitiful, otherwise Yang Duanhe would shout loudly when he understood what was going on:
"There are actually such good things?"
"The navy will equip the equipment later, let the infantry and cavalry try it first!"
Where will Shen Bing go to complain?
At this time, Yang Duanhe could only smile bitterly in response to Shen Bing's words, and then he forgot about it as a trivial matter.
With Yang Duan and these words, Shen Bing felt relieved.
He first asked someone to weave a rattan shield out of old rattan...
This old vine is ready-made on the mountain. It has dried up and been exposed to the sun for a long time and has become fibrous. The disadvantage is that it is not soaked in water, so it is not tough enough. It will break with a "snap" just by forcefully folding it.
And if it is repeatedly soaked in water and then dried in the sun, the treated rattan will be very tough and cannot be broken.
Shen Bing wanted to test whether it could block arrows, so he tried it with the old vine first.
The result was beyond Shen Bing's expectation... Even the Qin army's powerful crossbows could hardly penetrate this kind of rattan shield.
Only then did Wei Wei, who was doing the test firing, understand what Shen Bing was using to collect so much red vine.
He sighed:
"Could it be that the captain wants to use this rattan to make a shield?"
"That's a good idea."
"The rattan shield can block arrows and is light in weight. It is indeed suitable for naval forces."
This is mainly because the naval forces of this era mostly used small warships, that is, small boats that could only carry 25 people.
Warships are small and require speed, so they must reduce their weight as much as possible.
How did Wei Wei know that Shen Bing not only wanted it to make shields, but also used it to make armor?
Shen Bing thought for a while and decided to design it himself... This was the major he studied, and he was feeling itchy at this time.
The shield must be large, like a Roman square shield.
This is due to the light weight of the shield. Under the same weight requirement, the larger the shield area, the better its protection.
In addition, the shield needs to be made into a double layer, with several layers of water-proof brown leaves and brown silk spread in the middle, and the surrounding edges are concave... The shield becomes a small boat that can be ridden by a single person.
The helmet should be in the shape of a hat, just like the hats popular in the Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty.
The characteristic of the helmet is that the brim is relatively long, which can deal with the threat to the neck posed by arrows shot from an angle in the air...
In ancient times, the protection of the face and neck of armor was always weak.
Because if you want to strengthen the protection here, it will be very inconvenient to fight with a layer of protective gear. A slightly larger movement may even cause injury to yourself.
However, a hail of arrows from the enemy will not be fatal to other places. Key parts such as the head, chest, abdomen and even arms are protected.
Only the face and neck...they are vital points and cannot be armored.
Under this circumstance, the wide-brimmed "flying saucer helmet" or "li helmet" came into being.
If an arrow strikes from the direction of the enemy camp, a soldier wearing this "helmet" only needs to lower his head slightly and lean forward to protect his face and neck.
Since most water battles involve bow and crossbow battles, Shen Bing would certainly not miss the wide-brimmed "helmet" used to block angled arrows.
Of course, it should have some additional functions.
For example, it is also a double layer with palm leaves in the middle. This not only increases protection, but also serves as a hat to keep out wind and rain. It can also be used to scoop out water that leaks into the boat when necessary.
You must know that Chu State is located in the south, a rainy and humid area, so these considerations are of course necessary.
Needless to say about the armor, it is made according to the Qin army armor.
It's just that ordinary soldiers don't have armours. On the one hand, it's difficult to make armours, and on the other hand, their weight limits combat.
Of course, there is also the problem of insufficient batch equipment resources, so often only high-ranking officers are allocated.
Shen Bing added it directly.
For no reason, the bronze armor may restrict combat, but the weight of the rattan armor is not worth mentioning. If you don't add it, you would be a fool.
Shen Bing even designed a mask.
The protection of the mask is very important in crossbow combat, especially in close range crossbow combat, because at this time the face is the enemy's primary target...
The characteristic of close-range crossbow combat is that the trajectory of the arrows fired is flatter and more accurate.
Attacking other armored parts has little effect.
Only one arrow to the face can render it incompetent.
The reason why facial protection was mostly not used in ancient Chinese battles was because it was often useless:
If the mask is light, it will be completely ineffective, and if shot through by an arrow, the injury will be fatal.
If it is too heavy, it will affect the movement of the head and reduce the agility in a series.
There are also eye vision problems and mouth and nose breathing problems.
In addition, the positions of the eyes, mouth and nose of each soldier are different, so mass production cannot be carried out... so the production time and labor costs increase exponentially.
Rattan mask does not have these problems.
It basically does not need to consider mouth and nose ventilation, because it is very ventilated.
If there is something to consider, it is that the mouth and nose should not be braided so densely.
Then two large holes are left in the eye for observation.
If it still blocks the view, just pry off a few vines to make the observation hole larger.
Therefore, masks can also be mass-produced in standard format. If this is the case, why not use them?
In this way, the rattan armor protects almost all vital parts.
The vine armor produced in a short time may not be enough to protect against swords and guns, but it is more than enough to protect against arrows.
Only then did Shen Bing understand why the rattan armored soldiers were called "invulnerable" in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
In fact, no type of armor is invulnerable, and rattan armor is no exception.
The problem is that it can protect as many parts of the body as possible with less weight, and has almost no weaknesses, so it has a great advantage when fighting against enemies with obvious flaws, such as no facial armor.
Of course, these are just designs.
Specifically, we have to wait for the rattan to soak in the sun for one or two cycles before making it and then check the situation.