Chapter 163: Section Twenty: The Screw

In the tenth month of the fourth year of the Tianqi reign.

Huang Shi was discussing administrative affairs with Yang Zhiyuan, Bao Jiusun, and others: "The ships from Minister Sun have already been handed over to Heidao Yifu to take away. Liu Qingyang has spent ten thousand strings of cash to buy a small town from the Zhangzhou Domain in Japan. It can house thirty people and is located near Nagasaki Port."

"A thing that houses thirty people is called a town?" Bao Jiusun stared wide-eyed and asked, "That's a stockade, isn't it?"

Huang Shi couldn't help laughing: "Don't set your expectations for Japanese towns too high. Let me tell you a story." This story was actually one Huang Shi had seen on television in his previous life, but now he pretended it was recounted by Heidao: "During the feudal wars in Japan, a family called the Amago and another called the Mori fought for over ten, twenty years..."

As Huang Shi recalled the plot from back then, he described it with irrepressible amusement:

The first scene was a Mori general reporting to his lord: "The enemy has broken through our XX Town!"

"What?" The lord, seated high in the center, turned pale with shock: "I give you fifty men. Retake the town for me at once!"

"As you command." The Mori general strode out, full of fighting spirit.

The final scene was that same general returning, glowing with health: "Reporting to my lord, I have retaken the town."

Yang Zhiyuan and Bao Jiusun listened, utterly dumbfounded: "These are feudal lords? This is clearly just a few village chiefs brawling, isn't it?"

"Haha, our Great Ming's village chiefs would count as feudal lords in Japan." Huang Shi casually recounted another story about the great Japanese lord, the Hojo family. When the Hojo father and son went on campaign, their food was rice soup with rice. The son ate two bowls of soup and made the father angry, who scolded him for eating too much.

"No wonder that bastard Heidao cried and shouted to join our Great Ming military register." Bao Jiusun's face was full of sudden enlightenment.

Yang Zhiyuan seized the opportunity to flatter him: "My lord is learned and well-informed. Your subordinate is utterly in awe."

In his previous life, Huang Shi had played many Japanese games and had been full of admiration for the so-called "three thousand arquebuses routing ten thousand cavalry." But after living with these Liaodong soldiers for a few years, he increasingly felt that wasn't quite how things were. The two hundred thousand Japanese troops in Korea, with tens of thousands of arquebuses, were routed time and again by the Liaodong Ming army, which at its peak numbered no more than forty thousand. In the end, they were bottled up like turtles in a few coastal forts by a Ming force less than thirty percent of their own size. And from Huang Shi's own tests, imitation Japanese arquebuses couldn't possibly harm the Ming cavalry's iron armor. He really wondered whether Takeda Katsuyori had even managed to fully equip his men with bamboo-and-hemp armor back then.

While Yang Zhiyuan and Bao Jiusun were flattering Huang Shi, they were also amazed that Japan abounded in silver and copper. They couldn't quite understand how a country with a huge amount of silver could be so poor. Huang Shi also found this natural wonder hard to explain. The Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine, discovered in the seventeenth century, had an output reaching over thirty percent of the world's silver production. From existing surveys, this silver mountain was not a common silver mine, but a massive exposed silver bed.

Nature often likes to play such jokes, randomly concentrating the earth's precious resources in a single spot. This time, its gift gave Japan the reputation of the "Land of Silver" for over a hundred years. Historically, the Tokugawa Shogunate squandered this enormous amount of silver, and after the silver bed was exhausted, Japan once again became utterly destitute.

Just as the three were chatting happily, He Dingyuan requested an audience outside the door. After entering, he casually greeted them and then immediately asked: "Your subordinate heard that Minister Sun allocated a batch of supplies, including armor."

"Yes, all genuine iron armor." Huang Shi had already inspected the items sent by the Liaodong Regional Military Commission. At first, when he saw the one thousand suits of armor on the inventory, he was somewhat casual about it, but upon seeing the actual goods, he was greatly shocked — this was not leather armor but iron armor, and high-quality iron armor at that. Sun Chengzong's understated use of the word "armor" on the issue slip was clearly playing word games.

This batch of iron armor consisted of long-sleeved scale-iron vests bound with ox sinew, with a large heart-protecting mirror in the center. The joints were lined with raw cowhide, and there were matching shoulder pieces to protect the collarbone and neck. Iron armor of this specification was originally only issued to officers at the Vice Regional Commander rank and above. Before Huang Shi became a general, he had worn similar iron armor.

Huang Shi estimated that the entire one hundred sixty thousand Guan-Ning Army had only two or three thousand sets of this kind of armor. One set probably cost about one hundred taels of silver. He never imagined that Sun Chengzong would allocate a thousand sets in one go — worth a hundred thousand taels of silver!

Of course, armor was also subject to "drifting losses," but Sun Chengzong had great face, so this time only ten percent "drifted away." Huang Shi still netted nine hundred sets.

Although the armor on Changsheng Island was also called iron armor, much of it consisted of iron plates densely nailed onto leather armor or sandwiched inside cotton armor. This iron armor was dead heavy; a suit weighing nearly forty jin might have only a bit over ten jin of iron plates. When infantry wore it, they were very bulky and inflexible. The iron armor given by Sun Chengzong was not only light and convenient but also offered a higher level of defense — a thirty-jin suit had nearly twenty jin of iron on it. Saber cuts and javelins might not cause serious injury to the soldiers... Of course, direct thrusts from long spears could still pierce the scales.

Sun Chengzong did not provide helmets, but the supply inventory also included twenty precious pairs of iron gloves. These gloves were made of armor plates connected by iron rings, making them much safer than leather gloves when grabbing an opponent's blade. Naturally, two gloves had also "drifted away" according to custom, which both angered and amused Huang Shi. Truly, nothing gets done without rules and standards.

Although there was no telegraph or telephone, Huang Shi still couldn't resist giving a warning: "Mobile Corps Commander He, don't go talking carelessly. The other units in Dongjiang Town got nothing at all."

Huang Shi knew that a copy of this issue slip would be sent to the Dongjiang headquarters, and of course, it would also state "armor" — one thousand sets. So Huang Shi immediately ordered five hundred sets of the old armor sent to the Dongjiang headquarters. Originally, offering two or three hundred would have been enough, but Huang Shi didn't plan to share the other supplies with the Dongjiang headquarters, so he gave all armor. Armor was a scarce commodity in the Dongjiang army; captured armor was never handed over. These five hundred sets would presumably keep Mao Wenlong happy for some days.

Changsheng Island redefined the concept of iron armor. The batch of equipment sent by Sun Chengzong could now truly be called iron armor, while the original Changsheng Island standard-issue equipment was termed heavy armor. Among Huang Shi's previous equipment, no more than a hundred sets met the current iron armor standard. In the battle of Gaizhou, the Firefighting Battalion lost nearly two hundred infantrymen. The remaining seven hundred-plus veteran infantrymen who had completed training each received one set of iron armor. Their original heavy armor, after deducting the portion given to honor Mao Wenlong, was handed over to the new recruits undergoing training.

"Your subordinate understands..." He Dingyuan was just about to state his purpose when he spotted the items on Huang Shi's desk. He reached out to grab one.

"Mobile Corps Commander He, you are becoming more and more unruly." Huang Shi snorted.

But these words carried little weight. Nowadays, the officers on Changsheng Island privately showed little deference to Huang Shi. The modern person's concept of equality was already part of Huang Shi's soul. Although his subordinates were all Ming dynasty men with deeply ingrained feudal thinking, they had still thoroughly figured out this hidden side of Huang Shi's character. Ming dynasty people also didn't have an overly strong slavish mentality, and through subtle influence, they had all become more and more presumptuous.

There were two iron rods on the desk. He Dingyuan first silently picked up the shorter one, weighed it in his hand, and then suddenly grabbed the long iron rod, casually assuming a thrusting stance.

"Stop!"

"Careful!"

Huang Shi and Yang Zhiyuan shouted at the same time. Their agitated emotions startled He Dingyuan, who hurriedly held the iron rod level with both hands: "My lord, what is so important about this iron rod?"

"This is not an iron rod," Huang Shi reached out and took the object back, carefully placing it back on the desk. He handed the other short rod on the desk to He Dingyuan: "Take a look at this one. This one is not so critical."

The short rod in He Dingyuan's hand was only a bit over twenty centimeters long. The one he had just returned to Huang Shi was a full one and a half meters.

Huang Shi waited for He Dingyuan to examine it back and forth for a while before leisurely asking him: "Do you see anything special?"

"The pattern on it is interesting." The iron rod was wrapped with spiral grooves, three full turns from end to end.

"So this is no longer called an iron rod. It's called a screw." Huang Shi turned to Yang Zhiyuan: "Mobile Corps Commander Yang, tell him how much this thing is worth."

"Five thousand taels of silver."

Yang Zhiyuan's words made He Dingyuan shudder. He gripped the short screw tightly in his hand, looking it over left and right, and asked incredulously: "This iron thing is worth five thousand taels — of silver? More expensive than gold?"

"Yes," Yang Zhiyuan was very satisfied with the expression on He Dingyuan's face. He adjusted his position in the chair to sit more comfortably: "When we returned from Shanhai Pass in the second year of Tianqi, my lord selected two blacksmiths to do nothing else but work on this thing day after day. It wasn't completed until the seventh month of this year. Never mind how many iron rods were scrapped or how many tools were worn out in the process. Just consider those two blacksmiths — if they hadn't been making this screw, how many suits of armor and weapons do you think they could have made in two years? I'm lowballing it at five thousand taels of silver."

He Dingyuan swallowed a mouthful of saliva and examined the object in his hand over and over: "What's so special about this iron rod... no, this screw?"

Yang Zhiyuan told He Dingyuan that although the screw had only three short turns of thread, the entire thread was exactly the thickness of a blacksmith's thumb, almost without the slightest deviation. The raised portion between the threads was also exactly three fingers thick. Huang Shi had instructed that not a fraction of a cun could be off. This screw was practically the pinnacle of handcraftsmanship, which was why these three threads had consumed two blacksmiths' manual labor for two years.

In the seventh month, after this three-turn screw passed inspection, it was used as a master to produce a batch of three-turn wooden screws, followed by five-turn, nine-turn, seventeen-turn, and other wooden screws. Huang Shi also specially built a set of water-powered grinding tools. Finally, using a large number of uniform wooden screws and waterwheel power, they ground a one-and-a-half-meter, seventeen-turn iron screw. The screw designed by da Vinci appeared as a practical item one hundred and fifty years earlier than in history.

Huang Shi saw that He Dingyuan was listening so intently that cold sweat was trickling down. The original master screw in his hand was being cradled like a piece of jade. Huang Shi smiled and said, "This three-turn screw is no longer useful. Mobile Corps Commander He, feel free to take it back to play with. What Mobile Corps Commander Yang and Garrison Commander Bao brought for me to see today is this long screw. This thing is now my, Huang Shi's, very lifeblood."

"Two blacksmiths' toil for two years, a dedicated set of water-powered cutting tools, all for this long screw." He Dingyuan stared blankly at the screw on Huang Shi's desk and asked incredulously: "Spending so much manpower and effort to make such an iron rod — its value must be worth over a hundred sets of armor. What use does it actually have?"

"Very, very useful." Huang Shi once again revealed that expression Deng Ken called "mechanical obsession." He stroked the screw on the desk and sighed: "This thing is priceless. It can't be measured in silver."

There were still over three hundred sets of iron armor in the warehouse. Huang Shi refused to hand them over to the cavalry unit, which was why He Dingyuan had come to see Huang Shi. He Dingyuan came from the cavalry, and the Firefighting Battalion's cavalrymen were all relatively close to him. So He Dingyuan shamelessly wanted to secure the remaining iron armor for the cavalry: "My lord, how can the cavalry be worse equipped than the infantry? This will seriously affect morale. Moreover, cavalrymen are hard to come by; each should be issued a set of iron armor."

"You say cavalrymen are precious?"

"Yes, are they not?"

"It is precisely because cavalrymen are too precious that I am not issuing iron armor." Huang Shi turned to Yang Zhiyuan and said with a stern face: "Do not secretly give Mobile Corps Commander He any iron armor, or this general will not let it go lightly!"

"Your subordinate understands." Yang Zhiyuan responded with a smile and gave He Dingyuan a look that said he was powerless to help.

"Your subordinate does not understand." He Dingyuan dragged a stool over and sat down on his own, assuming a posture that suggested he was prepared to lock horns with Huang Shi.

Huang Shi was in no hurry either. He picked up a writing brush and twirled it between his fingers; this thing was much harder to twirl than the ballpoint pens of his previous life: "Mobile Corps Commander He, how should the cavalry of my Firefighting Battalion be used?"

"Scouting, pursuit."

"Correct," Huang Shi was loath to use his few hundred cavalry to charge, so the Firefighting Battalion's training was tightly centered around the infantry. In Huang Shi's vision, cavalry-on-cavalry combat was to be avoided as much as possible, and the work of frontal engagement should be left entirely to the infantry: "For pursuit, a saber is enough. Scouting doesn't require iron armor either. The heavy armor they are currently equipped with is quite good."

"But... but..." He Dingyuan felt that Huang Shi was clearly talking nonsense, but for a moment he couldn't think of how to refute Huang Shi's twisted logic.

Huang Shi placed the brush back on the desk: "I will eventually equip the cavalry with iron armor, but not now. It will be when I have more supplies. Mobile Corps Commander He, I promise you, I will let the cavalry unit have the finest armor, far better than what you see now."

"What armor?"

"You'll see." Huang Shi tapped the screw rod. "It all comes down to this treasure here."

Huang Shi was actually a plate armor devotee. He believed plate armor was far superior to scale armor. First, if the plates were equally thick, scale armor would actually be heavier due to the overlapping sections. Second, the weight of scale armor mainly rested on the shoulders, which greatly hindered arm movement. Third, thirty jin of scale armor contained less than twenty jin of iron plates, whereas thirty jin of plate armor was all iron — twenty jin of plate armor could match the defensive effect of thirty jin of scale armor.

The main advantage of scale armor was that it could be restored to like-new condition simply by replacing damaged scales. This design philosophy allowed the human body to absorb part of the impact, since human life was, after all, cheaper than armor. But since Huang Shi intended to follow an elite-troop path, he would rather let the armor take damage in order to protect the body inside.

Whether an arrow could tear through metal plate armor was questionable to begin with, and even if it could, according to the law of conservation of energy it would certainly require far more energy. The problem was that plate armor, under current technical conditions, was too expensive and also difficult to repair. But now that they had the screw rod, the water-powered forge would soon come into being. Once water power could be harnessed to cold-forge armor, plate armor could be produced even faster than scale armor.

……

Sun Chengzong allocated a good deal of supplies to Huang Shi. Although Wu Mu and his group were also quite pleased, they vaguely felt they had lost face. They strained to find reasons to prove that Huang Shi's success was a fluke, and that Sun Chengzong was an anomaly among anomalies.

On the tenth day of the tenth month, He Dingyuan got married. The bride also came from a Qin Army military family, a match of equal status for He Dingyuan. The other senior officers were all envious. Zhao Manxiong and the others had already reached no low rank, and in the foreseeable future they would rise even higher. This made them unwilling to seek marriage with daughters of military households, but they also could not find suitable candidates.

With ill intentions, they toasted He Dingyuan round after round, clearly aiming to make a fool of him. Seeing that everyone was deep in merry mischief, Huang Shi secretly slipped out, unnoticed by anyone — except Wu Mu. It seemed this fellow also had no taste for bridal-chamber horseplay.

Wu Mu expressed a wish to speak with Huang Shi in private. When Huang Shi arrived at Wu Mu's quarters, he saw him solemnly bring out a set of armor. "I heard that General Huang was wounded in valor. His Majesty originally intended to bestow a set of armor, but Eunuch Wei worried that General Huang would be reluctant to use armor gifted by the Emperor. So His Majesty changed his mind and had Eunuch Wei select this precious armor on his behalf. General Huang, please try it on and see if it fits."

It was an exquisite suit of mountain-pattern armor, even finer than the one Huang Shi currently wore. Every gleaming plate had been tempered a thousand times over, and there were also cold-forged knee guards and greaves. For a military officer, armor was his second life. As Huang Shi stared at this mountain-pattern armor, swallowing hard, Wu Mu handed him a sword as well. "Hearing that General Huang lacked a suitable weapon, Eunuch Wei also carefully selected this treasured blade."

The standard practice in the Ming army was that soldiers wore sabers and officers wore swords. But based on his own combat experience, Huang Shi felt that a long saber was still more comfortable to wield, so he had never switched to a sword. In fact, every officer in the Firefighting Battalion used sabers — they had all climbed from common soldiers to their present positions and had not yet learned to put on airs. He had never imagined that even this detail Wu Mu had reported to the palace.

After hearing Huang Shi's explanation, Wu Mu smiled magnanimously. "Eunuch Wei meant well. General Huang, please accept it. Just keep it in your tent."

Huang Shi no longer declined. He took the long sword, drew it, and examined it. It was indeed a fine blade — in both material and craftsmanship, far superior to his own saber. Somewhat sheepishly, he said, "This sword is truly better than my saber. I've changed my mind — I shall use this one after all."

"Good. General Huang, use it for now." Wu Mu watched with a faint smile as Huang Shi fastened the sword to his belt. When he spoke again, his tone had turned somewhat sinister. "Over three hundred heads this time. Changsheng Island reported twelve thousand troops. By all rights, General Huang ought to be promoted again. This servant is truly pained on your behalf, and Eunuch Wei also finds it most unfair."

Huang Shi focused his attention, listening for what Wu Mu would say next — Wei Zhongxian wants me to do something, doesn't he?