Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 210 What kind of war did Gongsun Zan fight?
February, the third year of Chuping in 192 AD.

In the south of Daliang City, thick smoke billowed and the sound of casting could be heard.

Zhang Yu led the state officials to inspect the officers who were smelting weapons. As the temperature in the workshop was very high, Zhang Yu could not help but pull his collar.

"How many craftsmen are there in the Daling Engineering Office, and how many armors and weapons can they make?" Zhang Yu asked.

Guard Guo Jun bowed and said, "My Lord, the construction officials of Daling are supervised by the Minister of Agriculture. Since Bingzhou is close to the border, there are more than a thousand craftsmen of all kinds. If necessary, we can recruit the surrounding people to help."

"According to the current situation of the Daling Workers, more than 5,000 swords and axes can be produced each year. As for bows and crossbows, if they are prepared the year before, at least more than 3,000 bows and crossbows can be made that year. As for armor, it takes three months and more than 20 people to make a set of iron armor. Therefore, if we devote all our efforts to forging iron armor, we can produce more than 2,000 sets a year."

"Yuan Chang, the scale of the engineering officials in Daling is the largest among all the counties in Bingzhou. Now, after trying their best to forge iron armor, they can only deliver 2,000 pieces. Even if the engineering officials in other counties also work hard to forge armor, it is still far from the number of 12,000 pieces." Zhang Yu said, looking at the assembly line operation of making armor.

Zhong Yao said: "I have moved the craftsmen and their families among the refugees to the new city of Fenshui, and appointed Jinyang engineering officials to forge weapons and armor for the army, and do my best to supply armor for the army."

Zhong Yao picked up the cooled scales and said, "The number of scales in armor ranges from hundreds to thousands, and as many as two to three thousand. If all the scales are complete and connected with leather ropes, a skilled person can make a whole armor in two or three days. Therefore, the key to forging armor lies in forging scales."

"Now I want to have Jinyang's engineering officers fully devote themselves to casting scales, and have women skilled in craftsmanship assemble the scales. I expect that by the end of the year, we may be able to produce more than a thousand pieces of armor. I'm afraid the Heyang Army won't be able to supply them, but it shouldn't be a problem to equip most of the Gaoping and Yunzhong armies with armor."

Zhang Yu played with the scales in his hand, trying hard to recall the cloth armor he saw in the Armor Museum when he visited his previous life.

Cloth armor originated in the Tang Dynasty and was later used by the Mongols. The Ming Dynasty carried forward the cloth armor and integrated cotton armor into it to form a cloth armor with warmth-retaining capabilities.

Of course, the development of firearms at the same time was also a key factor in promoting cloth armor to replace lintel armor.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty promoted cloth armor on a large scale was that cloth armor was cheaper than scale armor, and its casting technology was not advanced. Minorities such as the Mongols and Jurchens could cast it, which was conducive to rapid production and promotion.

Why is cloth armor cheaper than lacquer armor?
The basis lies in the number of scales. The armor is essentially made up of accumulated scales. Due to different connection techniques and shapes, there are different types of armor.

For example, the armor is made of thin scales connected in series, while the cloth armor is made by fixing the scales on the cloth. The different ways of making the two armors lead to the difference in the number of scale scales. For example, the scale scale heavy armor has about 3,000 scale scales, while the cloth armor has only more than 500 scale scales.

Not to mention the size of the armor plates, the number of armor plates differs by six times. Although this results in the cloth armor having weaker protection, considering the time and cost saved in exchange for a higher armor coverage rate, it does not seem to be unacceptable.

"Your Majesty!"

Seeing Zhang Yu playing with the armor pieces and lost in thought, Guo Tu asked, "Are you going to inspect the bow-making department today?"

"Not urgent!"

Zhang Yu collected his thoughts and said with a smile, "Yuan Chang must have spent a lot of time and effort on making the armor."

As he spoke, Zhang Yu looked at Zhong Yao and Guo Jun and said, "I'm thinking of a new type of armor. If I can forge it now, it might save a lot of effort."

"Please give me some advice, sir!"

"Someone bring a towel!"

"promise!"

Zhang Yu didn't care about getting his hands dirty, so he picked up a piece of charcoal from the ground and drew a few horizontal and vertical lines on the cloth. He said, "Look, my friends. If we can rivet or sew the armor plates on the cloth instead of tying them with leather ropes, the armor plates can be forged larger. When making armor, the number of armor plates used will be less than that of scales. Wouldn't that save time?"

"Sigh~"

Hearing this, Guo first took a breath of cold air, then looked delighted, and said with a cupped hand: "This armor is made of cloth, with a large piece covering the chest and back, and only the shoulders and arms need small pieces. Making armor in this way should be more time-saving and labor-saving than scale armor."

Zhang Yu smiled and said, "Not only that, when the armor plates are damaged during combat, they can be removed for repair and replaced with new ones and can continue to be used."

Zhong Yao nodded and praised, "Your Excellency is very clever. The scales are stacked up to form armor, which is a complicated and tedious process. Now we can use large pieces instead, let the craftsmen forge them to make them strong, and rivet them on the cloth to make armor. This will save a lot of manpower."

Gao Shun stared at the horizontal and vertical lines on the scarf and said thoughtfully, "Although the craftsmanship is simple and there are fewer armor plates, there are no overlapping scales to cover it. With only a single layer of iron plates, I'm afraid the protection will be weaker."

“You can ask the blacksmith to forge it with hundreds of hammers to make it very strong. Although this kind of protection is not as good as scale armor, it saves time and effort to make a skirt to cover the legs and crotch, making it a full armor.” Guo Jun is smart and can draw inferences from one example.

Gao Shun had nothing to say. In the Han Dynasty army, except for the elite soldiers and heavy cavalry, many soldiers' armor could only protect the upper body, and some even had no arm armor.

As Guo Jun said, the protective power of cloth armor is not as good as that of iron armor, but because it is made of cloth, it will increase the defense area, which is also a disguised way of enhancing the armor coverage rate, exchanging hardness for protection area.

"There are gains and losses!" Zhang Yu was very open-minded and said, "The cloth armor can be worn with silk, linen, or brocade, and the armor plates can even be riveted onto the leather armor. In the future, when we go to war, we can wear winter clothes under the armor in winter and summer clothes in summer. It will be much more convenient."

The manufacturing process of cloth armor is not complicated. For example, when the Mongols marched westward, in order to enhance their protection, they riveted armor plates inside the leather armor and fought with two layers of armor, leather and iron.

As for its defense level, it is weaker than scale armor, but it is enough to deal with the intense wars in the cold weapon era. Take the Korean War between Japan and Japan as an example. The Japanese army could not cut through the cloth armor with a sword, and even the short sword they carried with them could not pierce the cloth armor.

So much so that on the battlefield, it was common to see Ming soldiers being hit by several or even more than ten arrows while fighting, and everyone was like Zhao Zilong, until the Japanese army used muskets to attack and kill the Ming soldiers.

Of course, the forging technology of the Han Dynasty was not as good as that of the Ming Dynasty, but cloth armor had no problem dealing with opponents equipped with cold weapons of the same period.

Under Zhang Yu's instructions, Guo Jun arranged for people to make a test piece of cloth armor. If it passed the inspection, the engineering officers of the counties in Bingzhou would modify the cloth armor to quickly increase the armor rate of the army.

After inspecting the armor production, Zhang Yu successively inspected the bow making and sword forging workshops, and then returned to Jinyang from Daling.

There are too many things involved in fighting a war. Although Zhang Yu has handed over the logistics work to Zhong Yao, it does not mean that Zhang Yu really does not care about it. After all, the identities of the monarch and the minister are different, and the effects brought about by the inspection will also be different.

Shortly after returning to Jinyang, Zhang Yu received news from Zhang Yan about the situation in Hebei.

"What kind of battle did Gongsun Zan fight?"

Zhang Yu glanced at the letter and couldn't help but complain.

"Could it be that Gongsun Zan was defeated by Yuan Shao?" Guo Tu gloated.

"It was more than a huge defeat to Yuan Shao, it was a miserable defeat!"

Zhang Yu handed the letter to everyone to read and said, "Gongsun Zan's disastrous defeat at Jie Bridge is a lesson for all the generals. How dare you use cavalry to attack armored infantry!"

Although Zhang Yu had heard of the Battle of Jie Bridge in his previous life, he did not know the specific losses suffered by Gongsun Zan. Now that he heard it with his own eyes, Zhang Yu could not help but sigh that Gongsun Zan was simply wasting his soldiers.

After defeating the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou, Gongsun Zan had more than 20,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, totaling more than 30,000 soldiers and horses. Yuan Shao only had 20,000 infantry and cavalry, of which only 2,000 to 3,000 cavalry. Yuan Shao had fewer soldiers and horses than Gongsun Zan, not to mention that Gongsun Zan had the elite White Horse Volunteers. Therefore, if Gongsun Zan used his troops normally, his advantage would be greater than Yuan Shao's.

Unfortunately, Gongsun Zan really looked down on Yuan Shao and regarded his soldiers as the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou. After the two armies were in battle formation, Gongsun Zan took advantage of the fact that Qu Yi had few soldiers and directly sent out cavalry to attack. However, Qu Yi hid thousands of crossbows in the army formation and directly shot Gongsun Zan's cavalry to pieces.

Gongsun Zan's cavalry was defeated, and Yuan Shao directly pressed forward with his entire army. Under the impact of the defeated cavalry, Gongsun Zan was defeated and fled, and Jizhou Governor Yan Gang was beheaded. Yuan Shao beheaded more than a thousand armored soldiers and captured many miscellaneous soldiers. Qu Yi pursued Gongsun Zan all the way to his camp and broke through his Yamen stronghold. Later, because Yuan Shao was surrounded, the generals returned to relieve the siege.

"You underestimated the enemy!"

Xu Chu frowned and said, "How can Gongsun Zan use his troops in this way?"

Gao Shun said with a serious expression: "According to Yuan Shao's military deployment, Gongsun Zan should send the infantry forward and the cavalry to attack the two wings. First, defeat the cavalry, and then attack the infantry from both sides. If we use the military in a safe manner, Yuan Shao will definitely be defeated by Gongsun Zan!"

Zhao Yun smiled bitterly. Before he joined Zhang Yu, he had considered joining Gongsun Zan. Fortunately, he did not join Gongsun Zan. Using cavalry to attack infantry in formation was something that only people who did not know military skills could do. Now, the only way to describe Gongsun Zan was to underestimate the enemy.

"Gongsun Zan was powerful, but now he has been defeated by Yuan Shao. This should be beneficial to stabilizing the situation in Hebei." Xin Pi said before reading the letter.

"I'm afraid not!"

Lü Fan pointed at the letter and said, "Gongsun Zan was defeated at Jieqiao and was pursued by Yuan Shao. He fled to Hejian County and asked Zhang Yan for help on the way. Zhang Yan sent Du Chang to attack, but unfortunately he was defeated by Yuan Shao. Now Gongsun Zan has led his troops to retreat to Zhuo County, and Yuan Shao has sent Cui Juye to lead his troops to besiege Gu'an County."

"This~"

Xin Pi looked suspicious and approached Lu Fan, only then did he learn the purpose of Zhang Yan's letter to Zhang Yu. Because Gongsun Zan was defeated so badly and Du Chang was defeated by Yuan Shao, Zhang Yan wrote to Zhang Yu for help, hoping that Zhang Yu would help maintain the balance between Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao.

"Sir, shall we send out troops now?"

Xin Pi looked at Zhang Yu, who showed no emotion, and asked.

"My lord, Gongsun Zan was chased into Youzhou by Yuan Shao. If we allow Yuan Shao to take over Jizhou now, your plan may fail!" Zhong Yao said.

Zhang Yu tapped the table with his index finger. If he remembered correctly, Gongsun Zan had been in Hebei for a long time. But now, he didn't know if it was the butterfly effect, but Gongsun Zan was defeated by Yuan Shao in one blow and fled back to Youzhou.

Zhang Yu exhaled and said, "We will send troops, but this time we will not send troops for conquest, but to quell the war between Yuan and Sun."

(End of this chapter)