I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 273 Lighter and Stronger
elephant?

Zhuge Liang had previously visited the Jiaozhi acrobatics performance at the West Market Women's Quarter in Jinling City with Pang Tong and others, so he naturally understood what the giant southern beast was.

Zhuge Liang, however, did not understand why Liu Miao had mentioned the elephant skin.

However, upon meeting Liu Ye, Zhuge Liang immediately understood Liu Miao's intentions.

"My lord, do you intend to use elephant hide instead of cowhide?"

"Is it possible?"

After discussing it, Zhuge Liang and Liu Ye felt that this matter might not be just wishful thinking!

Oxen are an indispensable source of labor in agriculture, but elephants... are merely exotic animals used for amusement.

If elephant hide could be used instead of cowhide, then the problem of raw materials for horse armor would surely be solved!

"In that case, let the merchants go and try to find elephant hide!"

Soon someone spent a fortune to purchase a complete elephant hide and brought it to Qingzhou.

After conducting the experiment, Liu Ye immediately provided Liu Miao's answer—

"My lord, it's feasible!"

Liu Ye was extremely excited: "Moreover, this elephant hide is thicker than cowhide! Using it as inner armor would probably be even more effective!"

Most importantly, using elephant hide will not harm agriculture, which is fundamental to the people.

Moreover, elephants are much larger, and one elephant could probably make enough for two sets of heavy cavalry horse armor, which would actually save more materials!
With the raw material issue resolved, the next problem is the warhorses.

Liu Miao simply summoned all his strategists, including Jia Xu, Sima Yi, and Pang Tong, and asked them to come up with a solution.

As the saying goes, three cobblers with their wits combined can outwit one Zhuge Liang!
Not to mention, there was a Zhuge Liang among this group!

However, the inherent weakness of the South in terms of warhorses is clearly not something that can be overcome by wisdom alone.

After much deliberation, the most reliable method turned out to be exactly what Liu Miao had envisioned: have the generals' best horses ride the three thousand mares to promote eugenics and improve the next generation...

"Tsk."

Just when everyone was at a loss, a slight noise from Jia Xu immediately caught Liu Miao's attention.

"Wenhe, just speak your mind!"

Now is the time for you, Jia Wenhe, to make your move!
Jia Xu narrowed his eyes slightly and said softly, "I am from Liangzhou, and I have seen some Parthian merchants bringing in armor from the Hu people."

"The armor was made of iron rings fastened together to form a garment, with each ring interlocking with four other rings, forming a net-like lock... Although it looked thin and light, it was able to be as solid as a chain, making it impenetrable by arrows!"

Jia Xu clearly took a different approach.

Since we can't solve the problem of warhorses right now, let's solve the problem of horse armor.

Since Yuan Shao's version of horse armor is too heavy, wouldn't it be better to reduce its weight?
Liu Miao was also suddenly awakened!

What Jia Xu was talking about was chainmail, wasn't it?

After this thing was introduced to China, it was improved and another type of armor was developed – the Mountain Pattern Armor!

Liu Miao slapped his thigh!
"Yes!"

"Yuan Shao uses cowhide, so we'll use elephant hide!"

"Yuan Shao uses lamellar armor, so we'll use chainmail!"

"In this way, the weight of the horse armor will be reduced! There will be no need to worry about the quality of the warhorses being inferior to Yuan Shao's!" It is true that Yuan Shao has livestock and warhorses.

However, Liu Miao's side had trade and technology!
Liu Miao immediately sent Jia Xu and Liu Ye back to Jinling Yecheng to discuss the forging of the mountain-patterned chainmail with the craftsmen.

At the same time, Liu Miao also issued an acquisition order for Elephant.

"One hundred gold coins for an elephant hide!"

Merchants traveling to and from the south were all awestruck by Liu Miao's magnanimity.

In the past, the most valuable part of an elephant was its tusk.

As for the skin and flesh, most of them were left in the local area.

Because elephants are now mainly distributed in and south of Koh Chang, where the weather is hot, even if they eat to their hearts' content, they can only consume a small portion of the animal, leaving a large amount of flesh to rot in the wild.

Now that they heard that Liu Miao was going to buy elephant hides at a high price, these merchants from Jiaozhi were filled with regret!
"I don't know how much gold I've thrown away!"

These merchants from Jiaozhi had some connection with Shi Xie, the overlord of Jiaozhou, so they all sent letters to Shi Xie, requesting him to organize his soldiers to hunt elephants.

Shi Xie was originally unwilling!
He's a powerful local lord, after all! What's the meaning of him going to hunt elephants for Liu Miao's sake?
But when Shi Xie heard the amount Liu Miao paid for the elephant hide, he fell silent.

He did not want to become Liu Miao's lackey!
Unfortunately, Liu Miao gave just too much!

Shi Xie then humbled himself and specially dispatched soldiers to hunt elephants and transport them to Jiangdong.

After these elephant hides were exchanged for gold, Shi Xie did not allow these merchants to directly transport the gold back to Jiaozhi. Instead, he ordered them to purchase many handicrafts from the Central Plains, such as pottery, lacquerware, and cloth.

As a border lord, Shi Xie knew better than anyone that gold was nothing but bullshit!
What the border regions need most are people! Tools! Cloth!

Everything else is utter bullshit!

However, as Shi Xie used elephant hides to exchange for gold from Liu Miao, and then used that gold to buy goods produced in Jiangdong and Jingzhou, demand was further expanded, stimulating another wave of production.

At the same time, with the increase in production, the government's tax revenue also saw a surge, which in turn covered the cost of Liu Miao's purchase of elephant hides, allowing the policy to continue indefinitely.

In this process, Liu Miao suffered no losses and obtained the elephant hide.

Shi Xie of Jiaozhi also suffered no losses, as the profits from the elephant hides were all directly pocketed.

Most people did not notice this magical scene. Only a few top strategists, such as Lu Su, Zhuge Liang, and Sima Yi, realized that something seemed amiss. They felt that the reasoning behind it did not seem to be what they had read in the classics since childhood.

However, it is not possible to investigate this in detail at the moment.

Because of Liu Ye's tireless research day and night, he actually managed to develop a complete set of equipment for heavy cavalry!
Its lining is made of elephant hides imported from Kochi.

Elephant hide is generally about twice as thick as cowhide, and its defensive capabilities are naturally one or even several times greater than those of cowhide!
The outer armor was no longer lamellar armor made of iron plates tied together one by one, but rather a complete armor made of plates intertwined like the character "山" (mountain), without a single nail or thread.

Moreover, tests have shown that this mountain armor offers even better protection against arrows than lamellar armor!
Heavy cavalry feared nothing more than powerful arrows; close-range attacks were not so daunting.

After all, it's impossible for anyone to stand in front of heavy cavalry and pose a threat to them, because once the heavy cavalry charges right up to them, the threat ceases to be a threat.

After the entire set of equipment was improved, the weight was reduced from an exaggerated fifty pounds to forty pounds!
The weight reduction of ten pounds means that the selection of warhorses for heavy cavalry will no longer be so selective.

With the quality of Liu Miao's warhorses, he could easily assemble a heavy cavalry force!

In other words...

Liu Miao's heavy cavalry might actually succeed!

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I humbly request a day off tomorrow to clear my mind, regain my momentum, and write more chapters at a rapid pace! I hope Your Majesty will grant my request!
(End of this chapter)