plumnovel Chapter 038 Forging Plate Armor
Chapter 038 Forging Plate Armor
Chapter 038
Prince Xin, Zhu Youjian, rode in a carriage out of the capital and headed directly to Changping.
Leaving the bustling capital, one sees homeless refugees on the official road. The heavy snow in the capital has caused many people's houses to collapse, leaving them with nothing overnight.
These people wanted to go to the capital to find a way to make a living, but the problem was that they could not enter the capital. They were stopped by the government troops, who were not kind to these refugees. They searched their remaining money and food and drove them out of the capital.
These displaced people could only wander again, searching for that extremely slim hope of survival. Countless people froze and starved to death, their corpses lying in rows, and cries of sorrow echoing across the land.
The emaciated children were either sold as merchandise with straw inserted into their bones to earn a meager amount of food to keep their families alive, or they stayed by their parents' corpses, calling out "Dad!" and "Mom!" Those desperate cries pierced Zhu Youjian's heart like needles, and he couldn't bear to look at those dull and desperate eyes.
Prince Xin, Zhu Youjian, was not the emperor, but just a little boy who did not attract much attention. He was more free than Zhu Youxiao and could leave the capital at will.
Of course, he didn't dare to go too far, but he often went out to play in places like Liangxiang, Gu'an, Zhuozhou, Yizhou, and Miyun near the capital.
Why is this happening?
Cao Huachun said with a wry smile, "Your Highness, it must be that some people have suffered from the snow disaster. Shall I go and ask them?"
"Just ask!"
Zhu Youjian sat in the warm, spring-like car, but felt his hands and feet were cold.
Before long, Cao Huachun returned and said, "Your Highness, I asked around, and many of them are from Miyun and Yanqing. They had a blizzard there..."
"Why isn't the government providing relief...?"
"Even the government doesn't have enough grain!"
"The Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture deserves to die!"
Cao Huachun dared not respond. In other prefectures, the prefect was a god, but the problem was that this was Shuntian Prefecture. Above the prefect was the governor, and above the governor were high-ranking officials in the capital. To put it bluntly, the power of the Shuntian prefect was less than that of a magistrate in a remote county.
Even if the prefect of Shuntian wanted to provide disaster relief, did he have the money? He could report it, but the six ministries and the Censorate were constantly bickering and couldn't possibly care about the people.
The reason why the army drives away civilians is simply to avoid seeing them and getting annoyed.
Zhu Youjian gradually realized that not only did Shuntian Prefecture lack real power, but his elder brother Zhu Youxiao was in the same boat. When they wanted to promote Chen Boying to the hereditary position of a centurion in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, these officials threatened to resign and hold court discussions.
This enraged Zhu Youxiao, but no matter how angry he was, he couldn't change anything. These officials of the Ming Dynasty were like rocks in a latrine, both smelly and stubborn.
Upon entering Shahe, he was stunned to find a wide road stretching all the way to the Shayu Garrison Command, with carriages traveling along this smooth road.
Large numbers of displaced people, with their families in tow, headed towards Changping.
"Go to Shahe. Once you get to Shahe, you'll have a chance to survive!"
"Really?"
"It's true! Commander Chen of Shahe is recruiting workers. Not only will he provide two meals a day, but you'll also earn three liters of grain!"
"Very good!"
"Thank God!"
This official road was unlike ordinary official roads; it had a faint white tinge, but it was actually just a simple road made of rammed earth. The road was bustling with traffic, even busier than the official road from the capital to Tongzhou. Despite the howling wind, laborers in red vests were working on leveling the road surface.
To get rich, build roads first. This was Chen Yingqian's first major project. It was impossible to build the road completely, given the limited time. Chen Yingqian's approach was to build and use it simultaneously. Moreover, the laborers used for the road construction were not all military households from the Shahe Garrison Command, but rather a large number of local people were hired.
There was no money to be paid for the work, but two meals were provided, and each person received three liters of grain. Yet countless people were willing to travel twenty or thirty miles, or even fifty or sixty miles, to come and work.
Winter was extremely difficult for ordinary people. Unlike later generations when everyone had work, in the Ming Dynasty, people could only stay at home and eat their meager savings during the cold winter. Even without wages, people would work as long as they were provided with food.
Providing meals meant saving food at home. Moreover, Chen Ying also gave them three liters of grain. Although three liters of grain may not seem like much, in the suburbs of Beijing at that time, it was worth fifty or sixty coins, which was quite a lot.
Now, Chen Ying used the military rations purchased from the Beijing garrison to begin large-scale construction. Road construction was the first step, and at the same time, kilns for burning lime and bricks were built.
Huge factories appeared along the official road, many of them with large chimneys belching black smoke.
Zhu Youjian was still young and didn't understand many things. He frowned slightly and said, "Cao Banban, why do they still have to work in this cold weather? Don't they feel cold?"
Cao Huachun smiled bitterly; this was simply a case of "Why don't they eat meat porridge?"
"Your Highness, the people are poor right now, and the New Year is just around the corner. How can they celebrate without money or food? So they're lucky if they even have any work to do!"
Another question popped into Zhu Youjian's head: "How could our Great Ming Dynasty be so poor?"
"This...this servant is foolish!"
Although Cao Huachun knew what was going on, he dared not say it. This was actually a matter of opinion.
Chen Ying, of course, had no idea that Zhu Youjian, that little brat, had already arrived in Shahe. Looking at the map spread out on the table in the thousand-household residence, he said, "Bo'an, calculate how much money and grain we have left!"
"Brother-in-law, what do you want to do?"
Since Chen Ying arrived in Shahe, he has acted impulsively and done a lot of things. There are clearly enough houses in the city for the military households to live in, although the living conditions are certainly not good.
Most military households actually did not have wives and children because they were too poor to marry. The saying "poverty does not last three generations" is a very cruel death sentence. If you can't marry, you can't have children, and if you can't have children, you naturally have no descendants.
In later generations, many people complained about the heavy bride price. In the Ming Dynasty, the bride price was actually not light for ordinary people. Of course, even without a bride price, many people still could not afford to get married. More people to feed meant more burdens.
"Look at the Shahe River. Following the Shahe River leads to the Wenyu River, which in turn connects to the North Canal!"
Chen Ying laughed and said, "If we use water transport from Tongzhou Wharf, we can reduce transportation costs, and we can bring coal, timber, salt, and iron over!"
Although Tongzhou to Shahe is only 60 kilometers, or more than 120 li, this distance would take at least two days for the Ming Dynasty.
However, reality was very harsh. The Shahe River was not like the Shahe River of later generations. The Shahe River of the Ming Dynasty could not be navigable and needed to be dredged.
Song Xianze said, "Brother-in-law, you're not thinking of dredging the Shahe River, are you?"
"That's definitely an idea I've been thinking about!"
"Absolutely not!"
Song Xianze explained, "Dredging this river would require at least several thousand to tens of thousands of laborers, which is too costly. We can dredge it later, but we can't afford such a hassle now!"
Song Xianze was very troubled by Chen Ying's decision. Why not just fill the road with some soil and gravel and compact it? But Chen Ying insisted on doing it differently. He directly built a kiln to burn lime. As for building houses, he could build adobe houses, just like he did when he was in Ma Mu, Yongcheng. He would dig up the soil and compact it directly. Such adobe houses could be lived in for twenty or thirty years without any problem.
Chen Ying built sixteen kilns for firing bricks and tiles in one go. Each kiln could fire between eight thousand and twelve thousand bricks. For Song Xianze, each of these projects meant a large expenditure of money and grain.
There was no other way. Chen should consider selecting outstanding managers and technicians from among the military households and civilian laborers through these basic projects, so as to lay a solid foundation for future large-scale projects, rather than making do.
Although the number of military households in Shahe Qianhu Garrison had reached more than 7,000, it was still not enough for Chen Ying, because they had expanded too quickly. The Construction Bureau alone had eight divisions, and each division had six to twelve teams.
Build houses, factories, warehouses, roads, and schools. That's right, in Chen Ying's plan, Gonghua City can only serve as the production and research site for the gunpowder bureau, the ordnance bureau, and the artillery bureau. As for the carriage manufacturing bureau, the agricultural implement manufacturing bureau, the textile bureau, the clothing bureau, and so on, they will all be placed outside the city.
It was not a long-term solution for the school to be located in the Sengoku-zakura (Thousand Houses House). As more and more people were enrolled and the number of children increased, the Sengoku-zakura became too small and restricted the children's natural inclination to play.
Chen Ying rested in the backyard and worked in the frontyard. The children usually didn't dare to make a lot of noise, play around, or cause trouble, so Chen Ying decided to build a school outside the city.
Chen Ying also felt a headache coming on. Being transferred to Changping was not as good as when he was in Yongcheng. Yongcheng was so much better. With just a word from the county magistrate, everything could be settled. But now, it was all full of monsters and demons.
If it weren't for Chen Yingyou's connection with the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he probably wouldn't have been able to move an inch.
……
The closer Zhu Youjian got to Gonghua City, the more he felt that this place was finally starting to feel human, and the refugees were no longer visible.
"What's your name?"
"Zhao Dahu!"
"age?"
"Twenty-four!"
What skills do you have?
"My dad and I know how to build walls, does that count?"
"Sure, two meals a day, three liters of grain, are you in or not?"
"Dry!"
"Take this sign to the construction bureau..."
"I can't read..."
"Someone from the Construction Bureau, come and get them!"
"Next!"
The refugees who came to the Shahe Garrison Command to make a living were divided here. Those who did not have skills were assigned to dig soil, make bricks, or break stones and burn lime.
Those with technical skills were assigned to various bureaus and put to professional work. Although Chen Ying had just arrived in Shahe, he had already taken on a lot of work. Xu Xianchun of the Embroidered Uniform Guard wanted to replace the swords of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, which was a big business, involving 20,000 to 30,000 Tang Dynasty swords.
Wei Zhongxian also wanted to re-equip his army. After becoming the director of the Eastern Depot, he began to swarm people into the Forbidden City. Despite being illiterate, Wei Zhongxian understood the importance of weapons. In the past two years, he had swarmed more than 10,000 men into the Warriors Battalion of the Forbidden City.
It wasn't that Wei Zhongxian deliberately wanted to favor Chen Ying's business; the main problem was that the Armory had been ruined. The muskets they made would explode after only a few shots, and the knives they made were just thin iron sheets that couldn't even cut a wooden stick, let alone a person.
When Sun Chengzong was serving as the military governor of Jiliao, he was to swear an oath before going to war. According to custom, a flag-raising ceremony was to be held. The soldier in charge swung his knife, but the ox did not die. Instead, it bellowed and ran away.
In the end, Sun Chengzong still used the imperial sword bestowed by the emperor to complete the ceremony. Wei Zhongxian knew better than anyone what the Bureau of Weapons and Staffs was like, and of course he knew that as long as enough money was given, the Bureau of Weapons and Staffs could make good things. What they lacked was not technology, but material costs.
The problem is that the silver that Wei Zhongxian painstakingly obtained, even after passing through the Imperial Treasury, was still partially reduced. When it reached the Bureau of Military Punishment, officials from the Ministry of Works would take 30%, leaving the craftsmen with barely half. Even if he assigned people to oversee the funds, they would still be misappropriated once it reached the Bureau of Military Punishment.
On the contrary, Chen Ying did not have this problem. Moreover, it was a "goods first, payment later" arrangement. He only needed to deliver the iron and grain, pay a 30% deposit in advance, and then wait to receive the goods and pay the rest.
This not only saves money but also guarantees quality. Wei Zhongxian was much more generous than Xu Xianchun. He wanted not only equipment to arm more than 10,000 men, including standard long guns, spears, armor, shields, crossbows, and other equipment, but also muskets and cannons.
In addition to the orders from Wei Zhongxian and Xu Xianchun, as the four-wheeled carriages were delivered one after another, he received another 57 four-wheeled carriages and RVs, bringing the total orders to more than 100 vehicles.
Since the relocation had just been completed and infrastructure construction was needed everywhere, there was a shortage of people, so Chen Ying issued a notice to recruit workers.
Among the recruited refugees, those with skills were highly sought after, while those without skills were also given opportunities to work. Now that the weather was cold, Chen Ying couldn't bear to see the soldiers suffer from frostbite.
The hands and ears are the parts of the body most susceptible to frostbite. Craftsmen rely on their hands for a living, so frostbite is no big deal. Naturally, he thought of coal briquettes and coal stoves in later generations.
This thing is not technically difficult at all; it's just a matter of concept. Although China has been using coal for more than two thousand years, the problem is that coal briquettes were only invented in the 20th century.
Chen Ying urgently adjusted the production schedule, allocated six furnaces of molten steel, and directly cast more than 5,000 sets of coal briquette machines, as well as a considerable number of radiators.
The biggest challenge is that he cannot yet mass-produce sheet metal cheaply. The chimneys for the heating furnaces are all cast from molten steel, and even the thinnest ones must be four millimeters thick. This prevents Chen Ying from further reducing costs.
When Zhu Youjian arrived outside the city, he saw many refugees carrying an iron object to press coal briquettes.
"What is this?"
"This servant doesn't know either!"
Zhu Youjian found it very strange that the coal briquettes they pressed out resembled lotus roots, with multiple holes.
Coal briquettes were spread across the open ground. As the coal briquettes froze solid in the cold wind, they were loaded onto flatbed carts and transported to the city. Chen Ying did not sell them for money; instead, he distributed one to each household. These coal briquettes could be used to boil water, cook, and keep the house warm.
They did their best to prevent soldiers from getting frostbite.
Chen Ying was still in the production workshop of the Ordnance Bureau, watching the craftsmen produce steel plates with human-shaped curves. This armor was neither like European plate armor nor like the lamellar armor of the Ming Dynasty, but rather the armor Chen Ying had created. The lamellar armor of the Ming Dynasty required more than 1,600 armor plates to be woven together.
The defensive capabilities are indeed astonishing, and the inner layer of cowhide rope also has a cushioning effect. As far as Chen Ying is concerned, Wei Zhongxian's need for the Warriors Battalion's equipment is just for show; they certainly won't go to the battlefield to fight.
So he took a clever approach and cast the plate armor. Of course, this plate armor was divided into more than sixty pieces, each consisting of a palm-sized plate, about five millimeters thick, made of low-carbon steel, and surface heat-treated.
As the assembled plate armor was placed on the puppet, Chen Ying took the bow and arrow and began to experiment. The results were quite good. Even when a stone arrow was fired at close range, it only left a dent.
Chen Ying asked with a smile, "Eunuch Lu, what do you think of this armor? Will it satisfy Eunuch Wei?"