When the headquarters of Shulhaqi with a black flag appeared near the camp of the Ming army, the entire Ming army pointed at this poor army, and also laughed at Shulhaqi himself, the only one wearing full armor.

Shulhaqi knew what they were laughing at, and he felt a little aggrieved in his heart, but he couldn't admit that in front of the current Ming army, his subordinates were indeed only ridiculed.

This Ming army, which was as high as 20,000 people, not only was all in armor, but half of them were family members, and they all wore "cold iron armor" made of "stainless steel". The armor is a kind of armor, made by the Shenyang branch of Wang's Arsenal, the main material used is leather and iron sheet, of which the iron sheet part is specially provided by Jinghua Iron and Steel Plant, known as "stainless steel" to the outside world, in fact, it is a kind of gray cast iron.

Generally speaking, it is difficult to miniaturize gray cast iron in this era, but Jinghua can now do it, so the small shape of gray cast iron has become one of the special products of the Ming army, often used as armor and other things.

The main reasons for choosing this type of iron as the main material of armor are that the cost is relatively low, it can be produced in large quantities, and it has good wear resistance and plasticity.

As for the hardness, of course, it is not as good as real steel, but Jinghua's real steel production is also limited, and it is impossible to use it to equip ordinary soldiers, including domestic troops—of course, more importantly, the Ming army does not have the economic strength.

But even the armor with gray cast iron embedded in it was completely sufficient in this era. After all, firearms are the general trend, and the main role of armor is actually to prevent bows and arrows, and when it encounters a blunt weapon or the Ming army's own musket such as Wanli one style and Wanli two style, in fact, no matter what armor is of little significance, it can also penetrate within its killing range.

As for artillery, not to mention, even if Jinghua has not been able to make a real flowering shell for so many years, the lethality of solid shells is ...... That's like the description of the golden hoop stick in Journey to the West, if you rub it, you will be injured, and if you touch it, you will die, and what kind of defense is there.

Another characteristic of these gray cast iron armor is its color. As the name suggests, the gray cast iron is dark gray, so much so that these armors look like the legendary "Cold Iron Armor" from a distance.

When a large group of soldiers wearing this armor gathers together, it will give people a strong sense of oppression, like a black wave, and people can't help but give birth to an unrivaled fear.

In addition to the 10,000 family soldiers wearing the "Cold Iron Treasure Armor", the remaining Ming troops were by no means ordinary beggar soldiers, and they also wore complete cotton armor.

You can't just follow the name here, especially don't think that cotton armor is "rubbish when you hear it". In fact, as a foreign cash crop, cotton was introduced to China in the Song Dynasty, but it was limited by textile technology and did not become popular among the people at first. At the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Huang Daopo improved the spinning wheel, and the cotton textile industry began to rise, and the cotton armor was born.

After Jinghua made a copycat but strengthened version of the Jenny spinning machine, the level and even the quality of the cotton nail have actually improved a lot.

Before being "improved", cotton armor already had the characteristics of light and warm, cost-effective, high thickness and high resistance, and had good defense against early gunpowder projectiles, and was widely used in the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

At this time, most of the cotton armor is seven catties of cotton, sewn with cloth such as a jacket, and the arms are kicked with the feet, so as not to be fat and swollen, and dried and collected. As for the characteristics of this kind of armor, it is "not heavy when it rains, it is not rotten, and the bird can't be seriously injured."

After Jinghua improved the equipment, now the manufacture of cotton armor does not have to "kick solid", but the use of machine pressing, the quality is better and more stable, the only "shortcoming" is that the previous cotton armor is generally used to make cotton seven catties, now it has increased to eight and a half catties, and the price has of course risen a little.

The cotton armor is "sewn with cloth", the previous cloth is more general, and now it has also progressed, using the special canvas sewing from the Jinghua Shipyard - to a certain extent, the remaining 10,000 Ming troops have already put on the "cowboy armor" in advance, and the color is not dyed blue because of the cost, or the primary color close to white.

Black and white, this is how this Ming army feels.

Shulhaqi's department said that it was five hundred, but in fact there were nearly six hundred, which were counted as two Niu Lu, and it was his personal army headquarters. Nurhachi began to build an army in the twelfth year of Wanli, and according to his clan tradition, he carried the black flag as the banner.

After defeating Nikan Wailan, Nurhachi reorganized it a little, although he certainly hadn't made the Eight Banners yet, but he also made the "Niu Lu" according to the Jurchens' early fierce and restrained efforts, with three hundred people as one Niu Lu, which was directly subordinate to him and Shuerhaqi.

Shulhaqi usually has the command of seven Niu Lu, two of which are his own soldiers, that is, the one he brought today.

In fact, these two cattle were basically equipped with cotton armor before, and the nail rate had reached seventy percent. However, Nurhachi refused to "show strength" in front of the Ming army, he wanted to "show weakness", so Shulhachi took away their cotton armor before coming here, and only he wore a pair himself.

Such a shabby appearance really made the Ming army ridicule, but Shuerhaqi knew that the eldest brother's goal had been achieved, and although he was a little angry, he was also a little relieved.

After placing these two cattle in the corner of the barracks, Shuerhaqi was invited into the big tent, and according to Nurhachi's instructions, he respectfully met the commander of the Ming army, Cao Yan, Ma Chengxun, Qi Jin, Zhang Wanbang, Pu Yuanyi, Cao Jian and others, and explained the reason for Jianzhou's dispatch of troops according to the "collusion" in advance.

These nonsense are meaningless, Cao Yan completely knows Nurhachi's intentions after reading Gao Shishi's letter, but since Gao Situ does not plan to move them now, Cao Yan will naturally not be embarrassed.

"The meaning of your two brothers is very clear, you don't need to explain this." Cao Yan said lightly: "Your willingness to come to serve in Ben Shuai's army also shows that you are obedient, and Ben Shuai still appreciates it." Come and enjoy Shuerhaqi's set of cold iron armor. ”

Shulhaqi was surprised and delighted, and hurriedly stepped forward, thanked him a thousand times, and said a lot of flattering words. These "Cold Iron Armor" are not only valuable, but the key is that they are priceless. Everyone knows that the Jurchens can't make it, so once someone wears it, it will lead to an investigation by the Ming army, and it will become a good thing that can't be bought with money.

But it was different when Cao Yan gave him a pair, it was reasonable and legal, and it was even more decent to wear it back - the eldest brother didn't have it!

Just such a pair of armor made Shuerhaqi feel that this trip was worth it, and it was not in vain that he fought for a long time in front of his eldest brother.

Cao Yan was very satisfied with Shuerhaqi's performance, showed a smile, looked at him kindly, and said: "Since you know that you are loyal and obedient, it is very hard to come, and this combat force is huge, and this commander is estimated to not need you, so you can follow Ben Shuai's side to observe and observe, which can be regarded as a little care for you." ”

When Shulhaqi heard this, he was even more overjoyed and thanked him again and again.

Originally, Nurhachi sent him this time, of course, with impure intentions. The first is to let his most trusted brother see what kind of attitude the Ming army has towards them, and the second is to show loyalty and buy peace by sending troops.

Nurhachi didn't expect Cao Yan to take care of Shulhaqi like this, and he received the cotton armor of Shulhachi's two personal guards Niu Lu, and he didn't want to lose too much material - at this time, it was not long before the "thirteen pairs of armor to raise troops", Nurhachi was very short of armaments and materials, and he was very cautious in using them.

As for whether the lack of cotton armor will lead to defeat, it will also lead to large losses, which Nurhachi also has a plan: the strength of the Mongols is mainly due to good archery, they usually do not charge in front of the Ming army, and arrow wounds are generally not fatal.

Nurhachi believes that the warriors of Jianzhou are very strong, and now that it is winter, the chance of dying from fever (actually infection) is very low. Besides, once you are injured, you can take advantage of the situation to withdraw, so even if you see some blood, you may not die much.

This little abacus is very shrewd, who knows that it didn't work. Cao Yan sent troops this time, and his style was very different from Li Chengliang, and he didn't use the servant army as cannon fodder, but protected it, which is really a strange thing.

But Shulhaqi didn't know that this was actually not Cao Yan's idea, but Gao Yimin's suggestion.

The reason why Gao Yimin has such a suggestion is because he had been received by Gao Pragmatic before coming to Liaodong, and he had been taught by Gao Pragmatic face-to-face.

One of the "opportune times" is the clause "treat Nurhachi and Shulhaqi separately".

According to Gao Pragmatic, no matter how brotherly Nurhachi and Shulhaqi brothers are now, they are always two people, as long as the Ming side is always better to Shulhaqi, at the critical moment, Shulhachi will definitely have a different heart for Nurhachi.

You must know that although Nurhachi and Shulhachi have their own priorities, Shulhachi's strength is not much weaker than Nurhachi. This kind of situation where the gap between strength and weakness is extremely small, it is easy to change with some seemingly inconspicuous changes, not to mention that the support of the Ming Dynasty is completely different? This is not an "inconspicuous change", and in the long run, there will definitely be a rift between Shulhaqi and Nurhachi.

Although Cao Yan didn't know the key to it, he didn't care about it, after all, five hundred unarmored Jianzhou soldiers were of no use in his eyes, there were not many of them, and there were not many of them.

So the army marched again and marched towards the Bald Mountain. This time he only walked more than 20 miles, and he reported that he had encountered a Mongolian scout without closing the night ahead. The Mongol scouts said that they were very "timid", and they did not approach when they saw them, but simply pulled their horses and left.

When Cao Yan heard this, he asked his generals what they thought about this.

Zhang Wanbang was the most direct, and said: "Marshal, according to the general, we don't care what they plan to do, the bare mountains on the left and right are not very suitable for cavalry deployment, and the Mongols have no advantage over us." Let's drive the army over directly, if they feel that their teeth are good, then come and gnaw well, once you understand, it is the most trouble-free. ”

If someone else said this, Cao Yan would probably scold him directly, but Zhang Wanbang was a little different. The two biggest battles of this guy were to use bayonet formations to harden the Mongol cavalry, and both of them were won by crushing the charging formation of the Mongol cavalry when their own strength was far inferior to the Mongol cavalry.

So although this sounds like a big talk, it is not easy to refute it when it comes from Zhang Wanbang's mouth.

Although it is difficult to refute, Cao Yan knows that there is a characteristic of the bayonet formation breaking the cavalry charging formation, that is, the bayonet array must be prepared first. Now if you drive the army over in a daze, what if you are ambushed again like before in Chang'an Fort? Whether the bayonet array can be successfully laid out, it is difficult to say.

Who knew that at this moment, in addition to Zhang Wanbang, who is "not afraid of death", Qi Jin's style is also very hard, and he said very simply: "The last general seconded the proposal." ”

Well, with two thousand Qi family troops in hand, Qi Jin is indeed not afraid of any rush. The speed of the Qi family's army can basically be said to be the best, and the mandarin duck array has various changes in large and small formations, they are not even afraid of sneak attacks, even if they are attacked, they can directly put out a small mandarin duck formation according to the small team to fight the enemy.

Cao Yan saw that something was wrong, so he had to look at Ma Chengxun.

Ma Chengxun is the highest-ranking general here except for Cao Yan himself, as the Kaiyuan general, he is indeed a little more "stable" than Zhang Wanbang and Qi Jin, so he said: "The last general thinks ...... As long as more scouts are sent, it doesn't hurt for the army to march. ”

Cao Yan was stunned.

Okay, what kind of people did I bring to fight, and they all ate the bear's heart and leopard gall?

After thinking about it, Cao Yan also found that Ma Chengxun's words even contained private goods: Send more detectives?

In the case that Li Chengliang and Ma Dong did not come, the most elite part of the Liaodong cavalry probably belonged to the Ma family army from Xuanda, especially Ma Chengxun still brought his Ma family soldiers, not to mention.

Da Bing is actually "Tartar soldiers", seventy percent of them are Mongols, most of them are wandering knights who have failed in battles between small Mongolian tribes, and if they want to survive, they can only rely on superb equestrian skills and fierce battles in exchange. The rest of the people are Hui and Han, but they all have the same characteristics: excellent equestrianism, outstanding martial arts, and fierce and fearless of death.

Send more horses to explore the horses, isn't that just to give them credit for the Ma family's army?

It's really a group of warmongers who got together and asked the same thing: Lao Tzu is going up to do it!

Fortunately, Gao Yimin, who was Cao Yan's "staff" at this time, coughed lightly and interjected: "The generals are brave and commendable, and the Ming Dynasty has such fierce generals, why are you afraid of the mere maps?" However, the reason why our army came in this battle is, after all, to protect Yehe and the Beiguan trade route. Therefore, no matter how we fight, we must first ensure that Ye He is not lost. ”

Cao Yan was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly said: "Yes, yes, our primary purpose is to ensure that Ye He is not destroyed, and now Ye He has lost the West City, and only the East City is left to support him." In this way, our army still has to think of ways to relieve the siege of Dongcheng before making other plans. ”

Zhang Wanbang smiled: "What's so difficult about this? Dashuai, as the saying goes, 'one force breaks ten', in the current situation, let's go to Dongcheng to relieve Ye He, and we can also relieve Ye He if we go to Xicheng, it depends on which side Dashuai wants to fight first. ”

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PS: Unconsciously, another month has passed, and the temperature here has dropped sharply this week, known as "full thirty minus twenty", directly into winter, and the speed of code words has slowed down a lot because of cold hands. I wondered, why are we so cold here and we don't have heating?