Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 435: Gap
After hearing what Ma Jun said, Liu Ye felt disappointed...
The smelting skills are far inferior, and the same plate armor is 30% weaker, which is not unacceptable!
In order to improve Wei's technology and curb Chu's development, it is worth paying some price.
But even with all the efforts of the skilled craftsmen, they can only produce dozens of pairs every year?
This number completely dispelled Liu Ye's idea.
The Wei State's Skilled Craftsmen Camp was equivalent to the Chu State's Ministry of Works, with the addition of a number of cooperating official workshops, which were responsible for developing new technologies and also commanding a large number of official craftsmen. The person in charge was none other than the "Skilled Craftsman Military Advisor" Ma Jun.
It not only represents the most advanced technology of Wei, but also represents a large part of the productivity of Wei’s official workshops…
In other words, almost all the blacksmiths in the official workshops of Wei State did nothing else and could only produce dozens of sets a year?
And how is it possible to do nothing else?
"This... When rescuing Miss Xiahou in Xu County, the State of Chu dispatched hundreds of heavy cavalry in plate armor, and since the King of Chu is willing to trade, it is impossible that he only has a few hundred in his hands. Could it be that the State of Wei really has ten times... no, a hundred times more craftsmen than us?" Liu Ye asked in disbelief.
It is impossible for the State of Chu to stop all other projects, summon all craftsmen, and devote them to the manufacture of plate armor, right?
If this is true, how could it be easily traded ?
"I suspect that some kind of mechanical technology was used in the manufacturing of Chu's plate armor." Ma Jun has a long face, and not only is he always stern, but he also speaks in a halting manner.
"Mechanical engineering?" Liu Ye said he didn't understand. Wasn't he a blacksmith? How did it have anything to do ?
"These sets of plate armor are almost identical, and there are no signs of forging. It's as if they were hammered into shape by a powerful force at one time using fine steel plates." Ma Jun expressed his speculation.
Ma Jun had indeed guessed correctly. There were currently two batches of Chu's plate armor. One was to use a stamping machine that lacked a power source and was used by the Jinling garrison to charge and use it in turns, stamping out all the parts at once. The other was to use hydraulic forging to save manpower and slowly build...
The former is obviously of higher quality, while the latter is equivalent to using water power, which saves pure manual labor and requires experienced blacksmiths to fine-tune and check. Moreover, steel that can withstand a single stamping has lower requirements for toughness and can have higher strength.
It can not only be used to punch out concave shapes, but also to directly punch out fine holes as long as a finger in some buckle positions.
These fine holes are one of the important bases for Ma Jun to speculate that the Chu State used some kind of mechanical technology.
In comparison, hydraulically forged plate armor is still relatively expensive and of lower quality.
After that, Bai Tu no longer planned to make hydraulically forged plate armor. The water power should still be used to make swords, farm tools, or to grind mills and weave cloth.
As the royal city, Jinling has a large number of garrisons nearby, and a high proportion of them are elite. Without affecting the training, it is still very easy to break out of the two-year output of Wei State every day - provided that there are no other projects that require large-scale true qi machines to supply energy.
"Hammering it in one go? Doesn't that require a thousand pounds of force? How is that possible!" Liu Ye exclaimed.
Ma Jun turned his head and looked at him. After a few seconds of silence, he said, "It would take about two thousand kilograms of force to hammer the largest upper body armor so neatly in one go."
"Qianjun", when mentioned generally, is just an empty word, referring to a very huge force.
One jun is equal to thirty jin. One jin in the Han Dynasty is roughly equivalent to half a jin in later times, which is 7kg. One thousand jun is... just over 7 tons.
Liu Ye had not expected that his casual pointing would be corrected so solemnly and "precisely" by Ma Jun, and even twice as high as the pointing?
If Bai Tu had heard what Ma Jun said, he would have had a higher opinion of him - his estimate was quite accurate. The largest stamping press in the Chu State at that time could indeed stamp more than 60,000 kilograms, which was equivalent to more than ten tons in later generations.
The stamping machine itself cannot be mass-produced, especially the stress-bearing parts, which, like the tungsten steel seal, were made bit by bit by Yu Ji and Pang Tong using "drawing talismans".
What does a stamping machine weighing more than ten tons mean?
The shell of an ordinary car can be punched out with a 50-ton punching machine...
The largest part of the plate armor is much smaller and thinner than the car body. It's just that the "steel" mass-produced by the Chu State, although compared with the steel produced by other princes, is far from the quality of later steel. It cannot have both yield strength and hardness, so such a large stamping machine is needed.
"How is that possible? Two thousand kilograms? Even for Lu Bu..." Liu Ye said and looked at Xiahou Yuan.
Seeing this, Xiahou Yuan also shook his head and said, "Although I haven't reached the realm of a divine general, it is indeed very mysterious. But even General Dian... can only have a thousand-pound power when he bursts out with all his strength."
Liu Ye: ???
Is it true?
Ma Jun's expression remained unchanged - he didn't know whether he had a thousand pounds of force, but... it would be useless even if he had it. What was the point of unleashing a thousand pounds of force all at once?
Can it be used to smash iron? Even if it can... what can you use as a hammer?
One or two divine generals are of little significance for mass production!
Ma Jun’s conclusion actually suits Pang Tong’s taste very well. For example, was the first stamping machine of the Chu State powered by God?
Even if Lu Bu, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong and Sun Ce were all called together to provide energy, they could only produce three or four sets of plate armor a day.
The reason for the large output is that there are more than 5,000 wood and stone warriors and more than 1,000 gilded warriors stationed near Jinling, who are charging the giant true qi storage device.
As for not converting true energy and directly using brute force to operate the punching machine?
Come on! Ten stamping machines are not enough for Sun Ce to dismantle in one day...
This is not a job that can be done just by strength.
Regardless of whether it was reasonable or not, Liu Ye at least believed in Ma Jun's estimate of the production capacity of Qiaojiangying - dozens of pairs a year, which was simply not something he could rely on!
In other words, at first glance, the technical content of this is not high, and it is not even as heavy and complex as the plate armor of infantry. It will be a "specialty" of the Chu State for a period of time.
And Bai Tu couldn't possibly be unaware of this. It seemed that if he wanted to purchase a large amount of plate armor in the future, he would definitely be ripped off.
…
At the same time, although the other envoys did not know that Xiahou Yuan had come to Chu in person, they also knew that as a gift for marriage, Wei was the first to get the first batch of plate armor samples!
Jian Yong, Liu Yi and others also hoped to see samples of plate armor in Wei State under the pretext of visiting.
Liu Ye pretended to be magnanimous and agreed to Jian Yong, Liu Yi and others' request to see the samples, but he didn't know whether the white map would be sold to them.
Liu Ye felt a little disappointed. The envoys of the major princes were basically all there. If there were only one or two families, he could have discussed it privately and worked together to lower the price...
However, now the Liaodong camp represented by Liu Yi even has a certain competitive relationship with the Wei State - both want to swallow up the last remnants of the Yuan family first.
Therefore, there is no such thing as joining forces to lower the price, and the price that Bai Tu gives to Wei State now must be the lowest, and Liu Ye does not want to be disliked for nothing.
