Chapter 452: Close-Quarters Training: The Use of Armor and Discussions Regarding Armor

Next, Jier took the Long Sword and began testing it on each of Aoni's other armor parts one by one.

This made Aoni feel terrible; every time, he had to personally choose the spot for Jier to hack or thrust, insisting on finding a less important place to conduct the test.

Jier shook his head: "You fellow, have you worn armor longer, or have I? Let me tell you the truth: compared to just using armor, I previously designed armor together with professional armor Craftsmen! And because of that, I even received commendations from the Craftsman God Church, as well as from the Baron."

Then he added in a low voice: "Though not many people know that I contributed."

Hearing that Knight Jier had even designed armor, Aoni felt an even deeper, heartfelt admiration for Jier: "You are truly amazing, Knight Jier!"

Jier waved his hand, signaling to continue and not to keep flattering him; regardless of the flattery, Aoni still had to undergo the subsequent tests.

After the Long Sword, only the Cleaver remained. Looking at that large blade, Aoni looked at the armor on his body with hesitation: "It clearly hasn't been damaged much in combat with enemies, but it's getting so damaged because of this test. I wish I hadn't participated in tonight's training."

"What are you whining about? Come on! If we stop now, wouldn't the damage the armor has already taken be for nothing? Finish it up, so you can have a judgment yourself, a judgment of how much damage various types of weapons can actually inflict on you while you're wearing armor," Jier said earnestly.

"Although this kind of test looks unremarkable, it is actually very important; it can greatly improve your combat initiative."

Facing Knight Jier's explanation, Aoni did not quite understand, but Weier began to ponder.

But before Weier could figure anything out, Jier swung the Cleaver in his hand, striking Aoni's armor with moderate force.

With a clattering sound, the Cleaver, which looked like it should be very formidable, actually only caused Aoni trouble in the sense that it made his heart ache for the wear and tear on the armor.

"How is it? A Cleaver, this kind of thing that is simple to make and falls between a farming tool and a Single-handed Weapon—in the hands of an ordinary person, it can only cause you this much damage."

Jier shrugged, threw aside the Cleaver that was of no use even against Hard Cowhide Armor, and said to Aoni.

Aoni cautiously touched the armor on his body, wanting to figure out exactly how many tiny damages had been added to it, but with the armor on, his movements were not very flexible, and the surrounding light was insufficient, so he could only wait until daytime to check carefully on the carriage.

"I wasn't injured at all. Does this mean that in future battles, I don't need to worry about enemies using these Cleavers, Short Swords, or Daggers?" Aoni asked carefully.

He knew what the answer was, but he asked anyway, hoping to hear some different answer from Knight Jier.

But he was disappointed; Jier criticized him sternly: "Impossible. Even if a Dagger cannot break your armor's protection, this armor of yours is not the one I was wearing just now. This is not full-coverage armor; there are always weak points in your defense here and there on your body."

Jier held up a little finger to gesture: "Never mind a Dagger; even an Iron Nail of this size, I could use it to kill you."

Only then did Aoni put away his contempt and indicate that even when facing an enemy holding a Dagger, he would not fight carelessly.

"Very good. Now that you know the protective capabilities of armor, next I will teach you how to use it to fight."

Jier pointed at Weier, letting Weier act as a helper for the demonstration, holding a tree branch as a weapon to launch attacks at Jier and Aoni respectively.

Weier rubbed his nose, chuckled, and carrying a trimmed tree branch, he first launched a probing attack at Knight Jier.

But to his surprise, facing his probe, Knight Jier was not afraid at all; even though he was wearing a set of old clothes that fit his body, he still acted as if he were wearing a suit of armor, launching a counterattack a step ahead.

Or rather, when Weier launched the probing attack, Knight Jier ignored his own body and launched a counterattack directly.

Weier naturally did not trade blows; he withdrew his probing attack and instead took the initiative to open up the distance.

At this moment, Jier spoke: "Look, I pretended that I was wearing armor, but just such a seemingly reckless counterattack made Weier, who originally held the initiative in the fight, retreat. Weier, what were you thinking just now?"

Knight Jier and Aoni both looked over. Weier hesitated for a moment and then said: "I was considering it this way: Knight Jier launched a counterattack at me like that, not caring at all if he would be injured by my probing sword or two, so he must have something to rely on. I couldn't take the risk; I had to see what the situation was first. That's why I retreated a few steps."

Hearing Weier's explanation, Jier added: "On my side, if I were wearing a suit of armor, then I would fight just like that. Because I know that the 'Long Sword' in Weier's hand cannot hurt me much, so I can use the slight damage to the armor to trade for Weier's life or his retreat from the fight."

"If Weier didn't retreat but fought me to the end, then he would be dead. I am wearing armor here, so there is a possibility of a mistake, but he doesn't have that; once he makes a mistake, he has to pay the price with his life. And since Weier chose to retreat during the fight, he lost the initiative in the battle, and the rhythm of the fight was suddenly grasped in my hands!"

Jier patted his body, although he was not wearing armor. Aoni understood Knight Jier's explanation and became excited: "So it can be like this! Use the partial damage of the armor to kill the enemy or force the enemy to retreat, and gain the initiative advantage in the fight?"

Jier nodded: "You can understand it that way. Next, it's your turn to try. Weier, go!"

Hearing Knight Jier's order, Weier thought for a moment before launching a probing attack at Aoni. At this moment, Aoni, just like Knight Jier earlier, did not care about the probing attack about to land on him and directly used the Long Sword with its Sword Sheath to launch a counter-slash at Weier.

Weier twisted his body to dodge the strike and wanted to do something else, but after Aoni pressed in close, firmly closing the distance between the two, he used a messy, ungraceful style—like a brawler—and somehow ended up in close-quarters combat with Weier.

They used fists, legs, heads, and of course weapons, all swinging and kicking at each other.

The two fought very uglily; of course, because one side used a tree branch and the other used a Sword Sheath to fight back, neither was injured, they just fought very uglily.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Jier hurriedly called for a halt: "What are you doing? This is training, not a life-or-death struggle with an enemy in the mud; it's too ugly. Pay attention to using moves and patterns. Also, you must bring the armor's function into play, Aoni. It is a defensive tool that can be used as an offensive weapon."

"Defensive counterattack, trading armor wear for an advantage; don't get too close to the enemy for close-quarters combat, otherwise how can you bring the armor's function into play? If your arm is locked by the enemy at close range, you can't even move, and you can't break free; hasn't the armor's function failed to be utilized?"

Jier gave a long lecture, and only then did the two separate, stand still again, and continue to face off.

This time, Aoni was much more cautious; he no longer pressed against Weier to fight messily, but maintained a mid-to-close combat distance with Weier, while using the Sword Sheath to parry and block Weier's tree branch, he also tentatively used the armor as a kind of offensive weapon, suddenly closing in, and regardless of Weier's counterattack, directly poked at Weier's vital parts with the Sword Sheath.

In this way, he could force Weier back every time, making Weier have to choose to retreat actively between the illusion of being seriously injured and retreating.

But once you retreat one step, you will retreat step by step.

Aoni quickly grasped the initiative in the fight; he kept relying on this method to force Weier back until Weier was forced back against the carriage box, with nowhere left to retreat!

"Haha, Weier, your death date has arrived!" Aoni shouted excitedly.

This made Weier very annoyed; if it weren't for the fact that he only had a tree branch in his hand, if he had a real sword, Aoni's head and face would have been poked to pieces long ago. How could he still be here spouting nonsense, shouting, being shameless, and disrespectful like this.

"Fine, I surrender." Weier tossed the tree branch in his hand aside and raised his hands helplessly, saying.

Aoni excitedly went up and hugged Weier tightly, causing Weier's unhealed wounds to ache, and then Aoni turned to Jier, who had been following them: "Knight Jier, I won! You taught me so well; even a master like Weier couldn't do anything to me. It seems that whether one has armor, and whether one knows how to use armor to fight, is really important for a Warrior."

Jier nodded: "Your summary is good; it is like that. Not only in one-on-one Warrior duels, but also in large-scale battle formations between several people, and even larger army slaughters, whether one side is armored or not is a key factor that can easily determine victory or defeat."

But Jier then said: "I know what you want to ask."

The two looked at each other and then looked at Knight Jier again. Unexpectedly, Jier really spoke their thoughts: "You are thinking, since it is so important for Warriors and Soldiers to be armored, why don't the lords everywhere issue armor to all the soldiers under their command? Wouldn't that make it easy to gain an advantage on the battlefield and win every battle?"

"Don't they want to?" Jier asked rhetorically, and then he answered his own question: "No, of course they want to. As far as I know, Kendall Baron especially hopes to prepare a suit of armor for every soldier under his command. For this, he invested a large amount of funds and resources into the Craftsman God Church, but until this year, he only barely managed to prepare a Crossbow for all soldiers, and a pair of new Boots for each person."

Weier said at this time: "They can't do it, right?"

Jier nodded: "Yes, yes, they can't do it, because one or two suits of armor are easy to handle, and even a few suits of armor used by Knights can be solved with money. But what about more?"

"Not to mention Metal Armor, just simple Hard Cowhide Armor. How many cowhides does one suit of armor need? You must know that every protective part on your armor is made of several layers of hardened cowhide stacked together and riveted in place. Cowhide requires raising cows, right? But Plowing Oxen are the most precious important labor used by Farmers to plow the land."

Jier pointed to the nearby wilderness: "Many people in the team are from Farmers in various Cunzi; you should all understand how important the Plowing Oxen used for plowing at home are. Without Plowing Oxen, after the ground thaws and softens in the spring, it would require us Humans to spend a lot of effort to reclaim it ourselves. This is work that could potentially exhaust a person to death."

Jier spread his hands: "But even if it exhausts people to death, this work still has to be done, because if the fields are not reclaimed, crops cannot be sown, and without sowing, there is no harvest. People will still starve to death, or be arrested by tax officials for failing to pay grain taxes, and be worked to death in prisons or labor mines."

Jier changed the subject: "Therefore, if you don't want to slaughter the Farmers' Plowing Oxen on a large scale, you have to wait for the Plowing Oxen to die of old age or illness, or you can only graze and raise beef cattle. But the problem arises again: grazing and raising beef cattle requires vast, high-quality land that can serve as pastures. This is not something all lords can do."

"Look, just the raw materials for Hard Cowhide Armor have so many problems, and I haven't even counted how to recruit leatherworkers to process the cowhide, how to maintain the long-term survival of such a team of leatherworkers, and finally the recruitment and maintenance of armor Craftsmen. These are all a bunch of problems that are not easy to solve."

When Jier said this, Aoni was already stunned; he had never thought that wanting to equip every Warrior with armor would be such a difficult thing. But he had a sudden inspiration and said loudly: "I have a way, my lord. Since preparing armor yourself is so difficult, we can rely on looting in battle to get new armor, just like this armor of mine!"

Jier sneered: "You think too well. Look at your own chest area; was it repaired in the back?"

Aoni smiled sheepishly; that was correct, as there was a repair mark the size of half a palm on the front of the armor over his chest. This spot had originally been smashed open by a strike from Knight Jier, killing the Bandit who had been the armor's original owner. Afterward, it had been barely patched up using parts from other broken armor, and only after it could be used normally was it given to Aoni to wear.

Once Knight Jier mentioned this, Aoni understood just how absurd his previous conclusion had been.

This was because armor would be damaged and worn down during combat. When two sides fought, it was difficult to kill an armored enemy without damaging the armor. And once you killed an armored enemy, there was a high probability that the armor would suffer significant wear and damage, requiring parts from other undamaged armor to be used for repairs.

This meant that while it was possible to piece together a few sets of armor through looting after a battle, it was completely impossible to rely on battlefield spoils to equip an entire troop.

Weier, who was listening to this discussion nearby, thought about it a bit more.

He had never carefully considered the matter of soldiers wearing armor before. Because he was being cultivated by his family, he was originally 100% certain to become a Knight Rank Swordsman in the future. He would likely follow the path of his other elders and brothers: laying a solid foundation at the Swordsman Academy during his youth, returning to the family after reaching adulthood to use certain methods to become a standard Knight Rank Swordsman, and then being sent by the family to some friendly families nearby to serve as an attendant to well-known, powerful Knights. This would allow him to hone his martial arts while building relationships with famous powerhouses, expanding new connections for the family.

After he reached twenty-five or twenty-six, he would return to the family to undergo an enhancement of his equipment, then travel for a few years to accumulate fame, insight, and experience among the common folk and Nobles. Afterward, around the age of thirty, he would return to the family to hold important positions and officially enter the core of the family's power.

Only after reaching his thirties would he perhaps consider the status and issues regarding the armor worn by the soldiers the family possessed.

At this moment, Weier asked a question, addressing Knight Jier: "Knight Jier, I would like to ask a question."

"Go ahead," Jier said, gesturing for him to speak.

"Can a large-scale force of armored soldiers contend with a Knight Rank powerhouse?" This question was very important to Weier; he wanted to know the answer.

But he did not expect Knight Jier's answer to be so direct and affirmative, as if he had seen it with his own eyes: "It is possible. But the key to the problem is not whether the soldiers are wearing armor or not; the key lies in whether those soldiers have the means to injure a Knight. If they can injure one, even if only slightly, then the soldiers have a chance of winning, and a very high one at that. If they cannot injure one, then unless the soldiers are numerous enough to exhaust the Knight to death, they cannot deal with even one."

"At this point, whether the soldiers who can injure a Knight are wearing armor is what determines how many losses those soldiers will take to take down a Knight. If they are all armored, the losses will likely be very low—lower than you or I could imagine."

But Jier then shook his head: "But in reality, the difficulty of building a sufficiently elite troop of soldiers is far greater than organizing several Knights. After all, as long as there are a few Magic Beasts, Knights can be trained through some methods using the 'old leading the new' approach."

"Magic Beasts?" Weier was somewhat puzzled. What did becoming a Knight Rank powerhouse have to do with Magic Beasts?

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