The anti-knife clothing developed by Ang Lee is a kind of soft and lightweight clothing, which can be very effective in cutting and piercing sharp weapons, but it does not have much defensive effect on heavier shield blows.

In terms of specific defensive weapons, the effect of defending bows and crossbows is undoubtedly the most ideal, secondly, the effect of defending ordinary small swords is also very good, as for large weapons such as Modao spears, the defensive effect is very weak, far inferior to hard armor, as for maces, sledgehammers and other blunt weapons, such clothes do not have the slightest defensive ability, just like not wearing one.

Therefore, if it is applied, it is very necessary to equip such clothes with troops who are often attacked by bows and crossbows, such as the light cavalry under Guo Ziyi, which is very much in need of such light armor.

Before, Guo Ziyi has been conflicted about how to equip the cavalry under his command with armor, if it is equipped with armor sufficient to resist horse thieves, it will be too heavy to carry out an effective pursuit of the fleeing horse thieves, and if it is not equipped with armor, then when pursuing, the horse thieves will turn around and release arrows, causing great losses to the pursuing Tang soldiers, many Tang soldiers will fall from their horses with arrows, and the horses will fall to the ground with arrows, and they will overturn the soldiers to the ground, resulting in serious falls.

In short, because of the damage of the bow and crossbow, the Tang soldiers at the Datang border pass died unexpectedly, according to the statistics of the relevant agencies at the border pass, the soldiers who died from arrow wounds accounted for at least half of the total, and as long as the problem of arrow damage was solved, the number of casualties in the Datang border pass could be reduced by half, which was a very tempting data, which made generals like Guo Ziyi excited.

How can one arrow be enough, Guo Ziyi released arrows many times in a row, but each time he was blocked by his clothes, and none of the arrows could break through the defense of his clothes, and they all fell to the ground.

"Okay, it's really a good thing, let the old man take a good look."

Guo Ziyi excitedly threw away the bow and crossbow in his hand, strode to the scarecrow, took off the slightly torn clothes, and observed very carefully, every detail was observed very carefully, especially the position where the bow and arrow had been shot, and it was the key observation part, because this is related to the life of future soldiers, Guo Ziyi naturally can't be sloppy.

In fact, the knife-proof soft armor developed by Li An is the cotton armor of the Song Dynasty, and the scientific and technological content is not high, as long as there is enough cotton, enough manpower and materials, it can be manufactured on a large scale at any time.

When it comes to cotton nails, we have to mention the famous figure Huang Daopo in the Song Dynasty, this old lady improved the textile machine, so that the weaving level of China has been greatly improved, the cotton textile industry has been greatly developed, and the cotton dispute is even more large-scale.

On this basis, cotton armor, a new type of armor, naturally came into being, after all, there is too much cotton, and the skin of various animals is very scarce, iron armor is not only easy to rust, but also extremely bulky, are not ideal.

The biggest advantage of cotton armor is that the quality is lighter, lighter than leather armor, lighter than iron armor, and it is also very warm, worn in winter, it also has the role of cotton clothing, and the price is relatively low.

However, it is not too easy to make cotton nails, and the hard work can only be understood by those who are personally responsible for making them.

The steps of making cotton nails first need to make cotton sheets, put several pounds of cotton wool into special abrasives, soak them in water and mold them repeatedly, and then sew them into thin sheets with thread mesh, and take sunlight without swelling as the qualified standard.

When making nails, several pieces of molded cotton are cut and superimposed, and components such as skirts and armpit guards are sewn respectively to form a collar full armor, which is distinguished by materials and sewing methods, and cotton armor is divided into two categories: cotton and iron composite armor and pure cotton armor. If they are compared to the rag clothing equipped by the army in later generations, the pure cotton armor is equivalent to the Kevlar outer skin part of the rag clothing, and the cotton-iron composite armor is equivalent to the Kevlar outer skin with ceramic inserts.

In terms of defense, the defense of pure cotton armor is naturally not as good as that of cotton-iron composite armor, but the advantage is that it is relatively light, and although the defense of cotton-iron composite armor is amazing, it is too cumbersome, at least, the light cavalry is unable to equip cotton-iron composite armor.

In terms of cotton and iron composite armor, it is divided into dark armor and bright armor, the appearance of dark armor is not much different from ordinary cotton clothes, in fact, it is inlaid with iron sheets inside the cotton sheet, and then fixed with bubble nails out of the armor, and the bright armor is based on the cotton gall bladder, and the sheet metal iron sheet is connected to it in the form of a piece of armor, or the iron mesh is directly wrapped outside the cotton gallbladder, which is for the bright armor, the weight of the general cotton and iron composite armor is more than seventy or eighty pounds, which is equivalent to the weight of a relatively thin adult.

As the name suggests, pure cotton armor is completely composed of molded cotton sheets, weighing only about thirty or forty pounds, overall, the performance of pure cotton armor is weak, the dark armor and Ming armor of the Ming and Qing dynasties still belong to the category of iron armor, and it is a relatively practical armor.

The reason why the Ming and Qing dynasties want to equip cotton armor, or even cotton and iron composite armor, is mainly to defend against the needs of muskets, before the appearance of muskets, iron armor can easily resist the attack of the bow and crossbow, although the iron armor is very heavy, but the defense effect is still very ideal, but after the appearance of the musket, because its power is much greater than the bow and crossbow, this has caused the phenomenon that the iron armor will be penetrated by the projectile, and in order to prevent the damage of the projectile to the soldier, the cotton armor was invented.

Cotton has the characteristics of softness, when it is attacked by the projectile, there will be a certain buffer, which greatly weakens the power of the projectile, after the projectile penetrates the cotton armor, the only remaining power is not enough to penetrate the armor behind, therefore, the cotton-iron composite armor is very ideal for the defense of the early musket, which can greatly offset the damage caused by the bullet to the soldier.

Although the defense of pure cotton armor is relatively low, as long as the thickness is appropriate, it can also resist projectiles, and there is no problem in resisting arrows.

However, in winter, it is good to say, if it is summer, when the temperature is very high, wearing cotton armor will become an unbearable thing, and iron armor is also sad, however, the Tang Dynasty is rich in resources, and in summer, it will naturally be equipped with a sufficient number of rattan armor by the army, and rattan armor is also relatively light, and, the most important thing is to be cool, wear cotton armor in summer, let alone fight, heat can make people live to death, and in winter, if the rattan armor is transmitted, it will freeze people to death, so, Different armor is also used in different seasons, cotton armor belongs to winter combat clothing, while rattan armor is summer combat clothing.

Li An has long understood that Guo Ziyi has equipped his troops with a strong defense and light and flexible rattan armor, for this reason, he did not hesitate to go to Shuzhong in person, ask the relevant personnel in Shuzhong, and if he does not give it, he will not leave, but now, it is the cold season of the New Year, the temperature is a mess of low temperature, and it is unrealistic to use rattan armor, only cotton armor with strong defense and good warmth is the best choice for soldiers.

In ancient times, large-scale wars took place in the spring and autumn seasons, the main reason is that the spring and autumn seasons are neither cold nor hot, the comfort of the soldiers is the highest, and the combat effectiveness is also the highest, if it is summer and winter, it is either too hot or too cold, which will seriously restrict the combat effectiveness of the army, especially for the attacking side, spring and autumn are the best seasons, and winter and summer belong to the season of truce.

"Li Shilang, how much does such clothes cost?"

Guo Ziyi observed for a while and asked with great concern.

"The cost is still relatively high, but compared with the armor of ordinary soldiers, it is not much worse."

Li An pondered for a moment and spoke.

It's not that this set of anti-sword armor is cheap, it's because the armor such as Mingguang armor equipped by ordinary Tang soldiers is too expensive, so that the anti-knife clothing developed by Li An is not very expensive, and it is completely capable of large-scale production and distribution within the tolerance of the imperial court, so that ordinary front-line combat soldiers can wear such anti-sword armor, thereby greatly reducing the death rate of ordinary soldiers and preserving the strength of the Tang Empire.

"It's the same price as ordinary armor, so it's not that expensive! This court should be affordable, it should be afforded. ”

Guo Ziyi said happily, excited like a child.

He has already thought clearly, he wants to go to the court desperately to ask for it, and let the light cavalry at the border pass be equipped with this new type of anti-knife clothing, so as to replace the light and heavy armor, to meet the needs of pursuing horse thieves and preserving himself, he believes that as long as he is sincere in his words and cheeky to ask for a few more times, the court will most likely agree, even if not all the equipment, at least hundreds or thousands of pieces will be allocated.

"By the way, Li Shilang, if you go all out to produce, how many pieces of such knife armor can be produced in a month?"

Guo Ziyi asked with great concern.

Li An thought for a while and said: "This is not easy to say, if you mobilize the greatest force and stop everything else, 10,000 pieces a month will not be a problem, but this is obviously unrealistic, why, General Guo is so anxious to equip his soldiers and horses with anti-sword clothing." ”

Looking at Guo Ziyi's impatient appearance, Ang Li felt that he was also quite cute, and he was also quite desperate for the lives of ordinary soldiers.

In fact, whether or not he is equipped with anti-knife soft armor, for Guo Ziyi himself, it does not have much impact, he is a general, and he will never be injured by ordinary little thieves, as for the death of the soldiers under his command, it is normal, it will not be because of the number of soldiers under his command who have died, he is not sure of his command ability, and the death of a few soldiers is nothing to the imperial court, just spend more pensions.

But Guo Ziyi is different, he is a general who loves soldiers like a son, he will feel sad when he sees the soldiers under his command die, as long as he can reduce the casualties of soldiers, he will try his best to make it good to let one more soldier live.

"This is natural, so that the soldiers have no worries, they can work harder when they fight, and they will be more handy in comprehensively exterminating horse thieves, Li Shilang is also a person who has led soldiers, and he should understand how much effect this knife armor will have!"

Guo Ziyi said.

Obviously, a soldier's courage is directly proportional to the strength he has, so the stronger the soldier, the more brave he is when he fights, Zilong is full of courage, not because Zilong is strong, if not, how could he go in and out a few times and rescue the second ancestor who couldn't think about it.

This kind of truth, how can Li An not know, so Li An thought of studying this kind of anti-knife soft armor, so, the combat effectiveness and mobility of the Datang light cavalry have risen to a higher level, the ability of the defensive swords and arrows of the anti-knife soft armor is much stronger than that of ordinary light armor, but the weight is far less than that of light armor, in this way, the mobility of the Datang light cavalry has been greatly improved, and the defense power has also been improved, Li An will take the initiative to ask the imperial court to produce anti-knife soft armor in large quantities to meet the defense needs of the Tang Dynasty soldiers.

In addition, Li An's refusal to announce the gun made Guo Ziyi a little regretful, and as compensation, he should naturally also announce this defensive armor, so as to make Li An's heart more comfortable.

"What General Guo said is that this armor is specially developed for the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, and it is a matter of time before the army is equipped, and I will also report to the imperial court, so that the first batch of anti-knife soft armor will be given priority to your Shuofang army to alleviate the losses you have suffered."

Li An said.

"Okay, good, that's great, with this anti-knife soft armor, the soldiers below will no longer have any reason not to pursue the horse thief with all their might, if anyone makes excuses, the old man will be dealt with by military law, and the horse thief must be eliminated, this is the old man's responsibility."

Guo Ziyi said happily.

"Haha! General Guo, don't get excited, there are a lot of interesting and useful things below, let's go, let's take a look. ”

Li An said with a smile, and took Guo Ziyi to continue the visit.

Because Guo Ziyi is a general, the part that Li An took him to visit is basically related to military use, first the powerful advanced artillery, and then the anti-knife soft armor that can defend against arrows, that is, a kind of cotton armor, and then went to visit a lot of improved weapons and equipment, each of which is very meaningful, and after equipping the troops, it can have a great positive effect on the military strength of the Tang Dynasty.

To say that in later generations, the renewal of weapons and equipment is very frequent, basically every year will occur the renewal of weapons and equipment, some large weapons, at most ten years will be updated, better equipped weapons, but in ancient societies such as the Tang Dynasty, weapons and equipment will basically not be updated, it is possible that a dynasty for hundreds of years, weapons are still the same, what kind of weapons were used when the country was founded, and when the country died, it was still the same weapon, which is the limitation of the times, There is no way to do it.