Chapter 68: I'll Go

"Horses?"

Zhang Zhuanggen glanced at Li You’s incredibly handsome face and didn't want to answer, so Zhao the One-Eyed, the headman beside him, said: "At least twenty-some!"

"Twenty-some? Doesn't that mean almost everyone has a horse?"

Everyone felt even colder after hearing this; if things went poorly, these could all be elite scouts. How great a combat force must this be?

During the Ming dynasty, the official price for a top-tier Mongolian horse at the border markets was eight taels, while the civilian price was slightly higher, around ten-plus taels. In the current era, a decent sturdy horse starts at sixty taels of silver, and if it is a well-trained warhorse, eighty to one hundred taels is quite normal. Because in these chaotic times, a horse can save your life, and they are basically impossible to buy.

Li You listened to these words, but his mind grew fervent. Twenty-some horses! If he had these assets, whether he wanted to encroach upon Longmen Gate or climb into the central command, he would have the capital to challenge others. Even if he couldn't topple Wu Dading, sitting in a position as a leader shouldn't be much of a problem.

Thinking of this, his heart began to thump wildly, and his mouth grew dry.

Wu Dading saw Li You licking his lips and his face immediately darkened. Just as he was about to lean over to Li You’s ear to ask, Li You stood up abruptly and declared with immense heroic spirit: "I’ll go... Great Leader, let me take some men and finish them off!"

Everyone in the hall was stunned, thinking they had misheard. As a result, Zhang Zhuanggen was the first to laugh, and then, like a plague, it spread throughout the entire hall.

Li Qin was also shocked by this sky-shattering idea of Li You’s, but a surge of indescribable heroic spirit rose in his heart, and he thought to himself: "Sure enough, I didn't follow the wrong person. Based on this courage alone, he is unmatched by ten thousand men!"

"Finish them off? How do you plan to do that?"

Wu Nai asked teasingly: "Is it 'The Immortal Points the Way' or 'The Great Tree Coils its Roots'?"

Li You ignored Wu Nai’s nonsense and said with full vigor: "Aren't they all just people? Who doesn't have two shoulders carrying one head? Who is afraid of whom? One life for one life, we’ll win in the end!"

Wu Nai listened and said with some jealousy: "One life for one life? Not everyone is as good at fighting as you!"

Wu Zhuge suddenly reacted, his face immediately darkening: "You bastard, don't even think about ruining my archers! That is my lifeblood!"

This made Li You’s chest tighten, thinking: This old schemer, his thoughts are truly filthy! I really wasn't thinking about trading one life for one to lose your archers!

"Great Leader, what are you saying? Those precious archers of yours, I wouldn't bear to use them either. I’ll just take the green recruits I’ve been training from the miners to go and take a look. If there’s an opportunity, I’ll take a swipe at them; if not, I’ll just come back!"

Li You licked his lips and said: "If it succeeds, wouldn't the Great Leader be relieved of a future worry? If it doesn't succeed, it’ll just be a bunch of mine slaves plus me, a miner, who die. Either way, it’s not a loss!"

Li You’s words were heroic and upright, with absolutely no flaws.

Zhang Zhuanggen’s eagle eyes locked tightly onto Li You; at this moment, he really couldn't figure out what this scholar was thinking.

He had been away from the Shanzhai for two days, but upon returning, he had heard about the stir Li You had caused. He felt both shocked and angry, thinking that Li You would sooner or later sit in the fifth chair of Longmen Gate, which was why he had that opening line when he saw Li You earlier.

Yet this Li You was sometimes like cotton, sometimes like a hedgehog; in front of them, he always acted with measured restraint, and even endured insults with a smile.

Just a moment ago, he had brought out valuable items like refined steel sabers, giving them away as if they were nothing, but now he suddenly wanted to go seek death?

"Are you telling the truth?"

Wu Zhuge hesitated for a moment. He absolutely believed in Li You’s martial prowess, and besides, who were those under his command? They included tough soldiers like Li Qin, and that book boy of his, Wu Dading, was big and burly, looking like someone with training. But in the end, wanting to fight two or three men at once was still a fantasy!

"It’s true, I’ll go take a look. What if they are just show-offs? Wouldn't we be making a fortune?"

Li You said: "If they are truly tough soldiers, then I’ll definitely tuck my tail and come back. Don't laugh at me when the time comes... haha..."

Wu Zhuge was actually somewhat tempted. If he could obtain some horses, why would he fear the Liu brothers? He stared at Li You for a long time and finally said: "You cannot take my men, but if you need any equipment, you may borrow it!"

"Good, thank you, Great Leader!"

Li You said to Zhang Zhuanggen: "If I am ready, you must let that brother who handles the intelligence make the connection!"

Having said that, he returned the brush and rice paper to Zhang Cang.

Zhang Cang took them and was overjoyed, because Li You had somehow already completed the unfinished poem for him. He held his breath and focused carefully, then immediately began to grimace...

It was written crookedly on the paper:

"Ninety days of jade dew vanish into yellow dust, (Amitabha, mwah), where are the hurried years now, (Amitabha, mwah)."

Just as Li You stepped outside, Wu Dading asked: "Brother You, are you confident?"

"Let's try it!"

"Good!"

Wu Dading was always too lazy to use his brain; since they were little, it had always been whatever Li You said, went.

Now that Li You was becoming increasingly unfathomable to him, he was even lazier to think about it. He would just follow; if he died, he died. In this world, the sooner you die, the sooner you reincarnate!

Returning to Nanzhai, Li You called the eleven men, including Wa Qingyun and Gao Conglong, into his room. After he finished explaining today’s events, the room fell into a silence, and everyone was shocked and terrified.

"Donkey, damn it, let's do it. This life was picked up by the Master in the first place, so going to have a big fight isn't a loss!" Guan Hongxin was also a daredevil and was the first to speak.

"Damn it, I haven't ridden a horse in two years, I really want to get a few to ride!" Zhou Yin was in high spirits.

"Don't be a fool, just do it! I said it, the Master is definitely going to do something big! These stragglers, kidnapping forty or fifty-year-old elders, they must be roasting and eating them. Calling them tough soldiers is simply a disgrace to us brave old Qin people!"

Li Qin was no longer composed and was rarely excited.

Gao Conglong, however, looked with some worry at his brother Gao Conghu, whose face was flushed with excitement. He loved his younger brother the most; if something were to happen to him, wouldn't he cry himself to death?

Having a burden on his heart for a moment, he actually changed his usual loud-mouthed style.

In his view, Li You had never truly experienced a battlefield and completely underestimated the concept of heavy armor. Didn't Nurhaci start his uprising with only thirteen suits of armor? [Note: Regarding heavy armor]

Xiang Ying and Qi Jingkun were much simpler; Li You had saved their lives, so they would follow him even into a mountain of blades or a sea of fire.

Wa Qingyun and Liu Longjin, although they could be considered old bandits, had always followed the kind-hearted old leader and were "good bandits" who did proper things. Neither of them had ever seen blood on their hands, and now that they were going to fight against deserters from the border army, they were both unsure, but they gripped their saber hilts tightly and said nothing discouraging.

Chen Shu, Lu Yi, and Mu Qianjun appeared eager to try. The three of them were considered the best fighters under Cao Er, but they had long since been won over by Li You.

"This world is truly terrible; those who can survive are all daredevils!"

Li You thought happily. He waved his hand to let everyone quiet down and said: "It is truly my good fortune that everyone trusts me so much... but don't worry, I naturally won't let everyone take risks lightly. It is not easy for us to stay alive, so no one is allowed to talk about dying easily... Still the same thing, listen to my orders. We will go and scout first. If they are truly elite soldiers, we will just come back!"

[Note]: Armor was a very important part of the cold and hot weapon warfare in the late Ming dynasty, and it was even related to the origin of the name of the Qing Dynasty's Eight Banners, and to a certain extent, it influenced the outcome of the war.

Although the Ming dynasty restored the orthodox Chinese clothing system, in terms of military equipment, it mostly followed the Yuan dynasty. At that time, most of the equipment was ring-mail or chain-mail, which all belonged to lamellar armor.

However, with Zhu Di, the firearms expert, establishing the Divine Engine Camp in 1410 to command and manage firearms, the deployment of firearms as a complete unit on the battlefield directly escalated the intensity of the war, and traditional lamellar armor became a living target for guns and cannons.

Therefore, it directly triggered an equipment upgrade. The Ming dynasty armor once again absorbed the exquisiteness of Tang and Song Han armor and the simplicity of Yuan dynasty armor. After the two were compatible, the new cotton armor came into being, which is commonly known as cloth-covered armor. The Qing Dynasty’s armor did not inherit and develop the Ming dynasty’s armor; rather, it was wearing the Ming dynasty’s armor while killing the Ming dynasty’s people!

One cannot intuitively think that armor pressed with cotton must be inferior, but the reality is exactly the opposite.

Whether in terms of practicality or artistry, Ming dynasty armor found the most scientific balance point. It is no exaggeration to say that it was the peak of ancient Chinese armor craftsmanship.

Its cloth-covered armor is also known as dark armor; dark armor and bright armor correspond to each other.

In terms of material, dark armor is still a type of lamellar armor. Dark armor uses cotton cloth and padded shirts as the surface to deal with the impact of guns and cannons and the severe cold of the northern winter, and both the inside and outside are made of cotton cloth.

Among them, it still has an inner lining. The inner lining is connected and filled with iron and steel plates to resist the attacks of cold weapons, as well as to block blades, spears, and arrows, thereby improving the overall defensive capability of the individual soldier. This inner lining can be removed.

The Qing Eight Banners army often mentioned in history books wore two layers of armor, mostly one bright and one dark, also called bright armor and dark helmet. The outside was mostly heavy bright armor weighing more than 30 kilograms, and the dark armor lining inside was all steel plates (about 3.5).

These are all compiled by me from "History of Chinese Armor," "War in the Ming and Qing Dynasties," "Cold and Hot Weapon Warfare," "The Eight Banners Rampage," and "Construction of Gun History." I originally intended to intersperse them in the text, but after thinking about it, I opened my computer and moved them to the [Note]. This point about armor is also an important reason why the Qing infantry was deified. Many people generally know that the Qing army was well-equipped, but where exactly was it good?

I am writing about armor here, and the subsequent reasons will be written later. Of course, I won't talk much about the system; one was a nascent military slavery system, and the other was a corrupt and declining feudal system.

These are what I copied into my notes. Many of the [Notes] should not be on Baidu. If they are on Baidu, damn, then I really lost out, having spent money to buy books for nothing.