novelraw Chapter 143: Armor
Chapter 143: Armor
Ch 143: Armor
Regarding the material of the cloth armor, in Vig’s impression, Ming Dynasty cloth armor primarily used cotton cloth, but cotton requires a hot and dry environment, unsuitable for cultivation in Western Europe.
In comparison, flax, a plant that prefers cool and humid conditions, is more suitable for local cultivation. Therefore, he chose linen as the cloth for the new armor.
Wearing it himself, Vig found that the cloth armor weighed approximately twenty jin. The protective area included the torso, arms, and thighs. Its flexibility was strong, which helped conserve the soldiers’ stamina.
To verify his hypothesis, he went to the open space behind the blacksmith’s shop, jogging slowly for a dozen laps, drawing Dragon’s Breath Sword and waving it in the air for a long time, immediately after which he ran another dozen laps.
Taking the linen offered by the blacksmith, Vig wiped the sweat from his forehead, panting, “Whew, not bad, the lightness and flexibility are far better than chainmail. How about the defensive performance?”
Lucal pointed to a wooden stake not far away, on which a similarly styled cloth armor was fitted. Seeing this, Vig picked an ordinary iron sword from the weapon rack and repeatedly chopped at the stake, unable to break through its defense.
Afterward, he wielded the sword with both hands, performing a charged thrust, barely piercing the cloth armor.
Putting the iron sword back on the weapon rack, he picked up a bow and arrow, aiming and shooting from sixty paces away.
Whoosh whoosh~ Ten arrows were shot, hitting a total of six, a 60% hit rate.
According to the Song Dynasty’s assessment standards: Palace and infantry archers wearing armor, shooting twelve arrows at sixty paces, six arrows hitting the target is considered first-class（first-class）, Vig’s archery results were acceptable.
“Whew, that’ll do. With my mediocre archery talent, achieving this is already good enough; there’s no need to compete with Niels and Shrike, those kinds of archers.”
Walking closer, he found that the six arrows that hit did not penetrate the cloth armor, so he shortened the distance and shot again.
Reduced to thirty paces, the cloth armor could still block the arrows, achieving the expected level of protection.
As for hammer, axe blunt blows, and spear thrusts, these undoubtedly exceeded the cloth armor’s tolerance; Vig didn’t bother wasting his energy trying.
In fact, lamellar armor, scale armor, iron scale armor, and chainmail are equally difficult to withstand blunt blows and thrusts, unless you switch to a full plate armor from the Renaissance period, but the production process of plate armor is complex and costly, completely outside Vig’s consideration.
After the inspection, Lucal removed the battered cloth armor, informing the lord of good news.
“Sir, this armor can still be repaired; you just need to replace the damaged scales and mend the cloth, similar to patching clothes, temporary repairs are possible even in a field camp.”
“Very good, you’ve done very well,” Vig praised repeatedly, raising a crucial question—production time and cost.
Lucal’s answer was straightforward: twenty days of time consumption, and a total cost of 0.8 pounds of silver.
Comparing it to the Ming Dynasty cloth armor in his memory, Vig fell into thought:
“In the Ming Dynasty, the construction cost of a set of cloth armor was four taels of silver （149.2 grams）, likely because the ironworking industry was developed at the time, thus reducing the cost. But then again, even if the Tyne cloth armor requires 0.8 pounds of silver （279.9 grams）, it’s still cheaper than chainmail and iron scale armor.”
In summary, the cloth armor’s protection, flexibility, and cost all meet expectations. He instructed Lucal to arrange for the blacksmiths to take charge of production.
“Maintain secrecy, specifically arrange a secluded courtyard, and store the produced armor in this location.”
Currently, Vig has a total of one thousand sets of various iron armors, enough to cope with bandit suppression and small-scale conflicts. In the next few years, all the produced cloth armor will be stored in a hidden area, awaiting need.
With the production of cloth armor on track, Vig led the Royal Guard to inspect various villages in Tyne County. Along the way, the wheat sprouts were growing well, and his mood improved considerably.
Following the road northward for more than thirty kilometers, a reclamation team of two hundred people was working diligently.
The laborers of the reclamation team were all prisoners of war; seventy percent were Pictish Bandits, thirty percent Viking Pirates, and in addition, thirty soldiers equipped with shield axes were responsible for supervision.
The laborers’ main tasks were digging ditches, building windmills to drain the stagnant water from the swamps, clearing scattered bushes, and then moving to the next area.
After completion, their remaining barracks served as temporary houses for new immigrants. The drainage windmills, having lost their value, were converted into windmills and belonged to the Village Head, who paid a usage tax to Tyne regularly every year.
Currently, there are five such reclamation teams responsible for the initial land clearing; subsequent work is left to the new immigrants.
After five years of labor, the laborers would be sent to an area in the Northern Border to become free farmers. From this perspective, Vig had indeed not broken his promise.
While riding a horse, Vig saw a young Anglo-Saxon with light yellow short hair, “Connor, is the recruitment going smoothly?”
This guy was the Inspector of Stirling County, specifically recruiting spies to infiltrate the Northern Mountains. Besides the highly loyal released slaves, he also planned to recruit a very small number of captured gentlemen or noble guards, allowing those familiar with inside information to serve as intelligence advisors.
Hearing the call, Connor hurried to the Duke’s side and reported the work’s results during this time.
“Sir, currently nine people are willing to pledge allegiance; I am currently conducting screening.”
The two discussed various precautions for a long time until a rider interrupted the conversation:
“Sir, villagers have reported that a beached longship has been found on the East Side coast, along with many drowned corpses. The ship carried weapons such as double-headed axes, iron swords, and bows and arrows.”
Pirates?
Vig and fifty guards went to investigate. After a long walk, they crossed the last hillside before sunset.
The sky was gloomy, and the coast had grayish-white waves. A wrecked Viking Longship lay tilted on the beach; the dragon’s head carved on the bow was broken, the hull was severely damaged, and several crabs were crawling into the interior along the breach.
Twelve corpses were scattered on the nearby beach, pale and swollen from being soaked in seawater. A large flock of seabirds were feasting on their swollen, white cheeks, occasionally emitting high-pitched chirping, as if calling for more comrades to come and share this feast.
Approaching the longship, Vig discovered that the corpses’ attire was extremely strange; two corpses were clad in bearskin, six in wolfskin, and the remaining four in deerskin.
In addition, all the corpses had dark tattoos on their left wrists, seemingly from the same organization.
“Berserkers?”
In Vig’s impression, berserkers usually wore bearskin, loved honey wine and battle, and had never formed a strict organizational structure, unless…
He looked at the damaged sailcloth not far away; it depicted Halfdan’s unique scorched oak tree coat of arms.
“Berserkers organized? I didn’t expect Halfdan to pull off this ruthless move.
If I’m not mistaken, bearskin, wolfskin, and deerskin represent different levels of warriors; the organizational structure is similar to that of the historical Crusader Knights.”