Chapter 1618: Armor and Military Equipment

"Hehehehe..."

Hun could be said to be incomparably happy right now, even letting out a villainous laugh. Given the current situation, it was simply handing territory to their Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Alliance. There was absolutely no pressure in wanting to win this.

At first, he had thought that even with their huge advantages in weapons and such, since the opposing side had so many people, they would surely suffer considerable casualties. But looking at it now, there was absolutely no pressure at all.

Hun whistled directly, and all the Cavalry immediately laughed and began their charge. Those Shennong Clan Soldiers, who were confused, still wanted to counterattack, but they underestimated the power of these Cavalry. They had no chance to get close at all; the Cavalry toyed with them like they were toying with dogs, and they specifically killed those who hadn't reacted or were preparing to flee. One strike of a Knife, and even if they didn't die, they were heavily wounded.

Only the Soldiers of the Xingtian Tribe were crafty; when they saw so many Cavalry coming, they had already started to hide toward the back, trying their best not to appear prominent, praying in their hearts, "Don't see me." Fighting was impossible; in this situation, unless they had a rope long enough to stretch across and trip those horse legs, there was no way to fight.

Hun and the others killed their way through, almost reaching the top. Looking back, they had already killed their way through, but because the enemy had started gathering people, other surrounding Soldiers were already charging over. With so many people, if they were surrounded, they would likely be finished; even just throwing Spears randomly would turn them into hedgehogs, and some were already throwing Spears.

So Hun ordered everyone to retreat, scatter, and run in several directions, to regroup at the foot of the mountain.

Once the order was given, he didn't look back. Hun also felt that he had been a bit rash just now. Although the enemy used Slaves as Soldiers, they were people after all, and with those Wooden Spears, they were still very dangerous. This led to everyone feeling a bit surrounded.

Fortunately, because of the record of having just killed their way through, when they charged over, those people would move aside out of fear, so the breakout was not too dangerous.

After getting far away from the Shennong Clan Soldiers, Hun waited for all the Cavalry to gather, then began to return. During this time, he saw a Cavalryman clutching his stomach, his face pained, but he was wearing Armor, so he shouldn't have been hurt.

Once they arrived at the camp and dismounted, Hun first asked with concern about that Soldier: "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

The Soldier said with a pained expression: "Someone stabbed me with a Spear. With the Armor blocking it, it didn't pierce through, but it hurts terribly."

Hun hurriedly shouted for the Military Doctor. The Soldier waved his hand: "No need, no need. I can walk myself. It shouldn't be anything major. I'll walk over and have it looked at myself."

Hun didn't see any blood flowing out, and thinking that with the protection of the Armor, he shouldn't be injured, he let other Soldiers watch him go find the Military Doctor, while he himself went to see Baifeng and the others to report the situation.

Seeing Baifeng, he saluted, and the worry from just before had already turned into joy: "King, good news!"

Baifeng and everyone from the Xuanyuan Tribe gathered around to hear what the good news was.

"King, we just saw that among those people, more than half are replaced by people like Slaves. Their builds are thin and weak, and they don't have decent Weapons, just things like Wooden Spears. They have almost no combat capability."

"There aren't many decent Soldiers. Given our current situation, we can definitely win!"

Baifeng and Xuanyuan looked at each other, their hearts equally joyful.

"Hahahaha! Baifeng, our guess was indeed correct. They don't have many people left to use. What do you say, shall we start the war now?"

Baifeng naturally had no objections and immediately had people summon the great army to assemble.

Xuanyuan began to organize his own Weaponry and equipment. At this time, he would definitely go into battle personally; it was impossible to command from the foot of the mountain like Baifeng. He also obtained a piece of Huaxia Armor; this was left behind by the injured Soldier, and the size was very suitable for Xuanyuan.

After all, Xuanyuan was very important. If he died here, some issues between the two tribes would be difficult to handle later, and this war would also be a bit troublesome, so Baifeng was also very willing to let him wear the Armor.

At the same time, the Armor left behind by the Huaxia wounded and dead Soldiers was all exchanged to the elite Soldiers of the Xuanyuan Tribe. It wasn't a gift, but a loan; after the war ended, it had to be returned. As long as there was one Heavy Armored Infantry, their chances of winning could increase a bit more. Baifeng saw things quite clearly on this issue.

At the same time, he also discovered the problems with this Armor. Because the style of the Armor was designed and made by Baifeng based on his own impressions, his impressions came entirely from past movies and television dramas. At that time, television and movies were not attentive to the restoration of Armor; basically, they just made it look good and cool. The practicality was certainly not as good as what was tested on the battlefield.

And the trend of restoring and making Armor only started several years after Baifeng traveled here, so Baifeng did not produce sufficiently practical Armor. But on this battlefield, witnessing enough casualties, Baifeng also understood where the shortcomings of his Armor were and where improvements were needed.

Currently, his Armor was just an improved version of ordinary Leather Armor; one could even say it was just a change in material. There was no major improvement, and compared to the true Heavy Armor in history, it was far behind, and the protective power was also poor. Of course, this also had to do with Huaxia's smelting and manufacturing technology.

In Baifeng's heart, he already had a sketch of true Heavy Armor. After he went back, he would immediately arrange for its production. With the current smelting technology and Weapon quality of other tribes, they wouldn't be able to break through it at all, and they didn't have the concept of armor-piercing Weapons.

However, such Heavy Armor could only be produced in small quantities, because one piece of Armor would likely weigh forty or fifty catties. Making a dozen or so a year was probably the limit. Any more, not to mention needing to allocate more Iron for this, there weren't enough Artisans; they couldn't keep up.

Military expenditure was too high, and the price was a decrease in the living standards of the people. Huaxia still had quite a few places without Iron farming tools, and the Suiren Tribe could even be said to have none at all, simply because the output was insufficient. Once these Shennong Clan people were divided and migrated over, the demand for tools would be even greater, and Huaxia's current production capacity was completely insufficient.

Just like in ancient times, why was it that from the Ming Dynasty onwards, cotton was planted on a large scale in the country, yet until the end of the Qing Dynasty, a piece of cotton clothing was still very precious, and most people had nothing to wear?

Cotton Armor had to take a large part of the responsibility. A piece of Cotton Armor weighed seven or eight catties or even more. The annual military demand was so great that the rulers certainly prioritized using cotton for the army rather than for the people's clothing. After all, if there was no cotton clothing, there were other things to wear, but without Cotton Armor, the country might be destroyed.

Baifeng wanted to find a balance in this. Military equipment naturally had to be developed, and in the future, the army would have to be expanded. The production capacity for standard Weapons and Armor could not be lowered, but the tools used by the people in their daily lives and some Weapons could not be reduced either; they had to continue to increase to support the great development of Huaxia in the future. So this was a very troublesome and complex matter. It wasn't that if I wanted more Armor, I could have it. Otherwise, the Boar Skin wouldn't have been sold for such a high price just to get thirteen sets of Armor.