The Rise of the European Emperor

In fact, if the weather is not cold, pour water on the cotton armor lined with iron sheets, and the bulletproof effect is simply invincible. This point is similar to the principle of covering the outside of the Eight Immortals table with watered quilts to resist the Devil's machine guns during the Anti-Japanese War.

Of course, the machine guns of the devils during the Anti-Japanese War were much more powerful than the muskets of this era. Therefore, if the cotton armor is watered, although it will become heavy, it will certainly be able to block the lead bullets of the weak muskets of this era.

But Marin will not promote the tactic of charging after watering the cotton armor. This is of course effective, but if it is really promoted, the biggest victim may be the North Sea State. Because the Beihai country has the most muskets!

Therefore, Marin will not promote the technology of watering cotton armor, but let the death squads charge directly in dry cotton armor. In this way, even if you are hit by a bullet, you will still be injured. However, the probability of fatality will be greatly reduced, and there is a high chance of being rescued.

Besides, those who charge in cotton armor are barbarians acting as death squads, so why should they care whether they are injured or not?

As for the real elite of the Beihai Kingdom, Marin gave a plan of "double-layer rhinoceros leather armor with steel plates". The double-layer rhinoceros leather armor is already strong in defense, but with a steel plate inserted in the middle, it is simply indestructible. Even if it is Marin himself, if he goes to the battlefield, he will just change the ordinary high-carbon steel plate inserted into a high-manganese steel plate.

As for ordinary soldiers of the Beihai Kingdom, they directly wore high-carbon steel plates inserted into the shark skin armor. Now, the North Sea State is vigorously promoting shark fishing. While cutting shark fins, the sharks themselves are not spared, and the shark skin is peeled off to make leather armor and scabbards. The scabbard made of shark skin is very popular. The unpalatable shark meat was directly processed into feed by Marin's order. In this way, waste is also avoided. You know, when fishing boats caught sharks in later generations, they only cut off the fins and then discarded the sharks themselves.

In this era, sea fishing has just started, and the amount of fishing is extremely small. Often, the amount of ocean fishing in a country is not as good as that of several large trawlers in later generations. No way, there are almost no fishing boats that dare to go deep into the ocean these days. The dozens of tons of medium-sized fishing boats that Marin withdrew from the Beihai State Shipyard were considered giants among fishing boats in this era. Only fishing boats with a size of tens of tons dare to leave the coastal waters to fish in the deep sea. Ordinary fishermen's small boats only dare to fish close to the coastline, and have to wait for the fishing season, so the harvest is very small. It's not that they don't know the benefits of fishing with big boats, but that these poor fishermen simply don't have the money to buy big boats.

Only a traveler like Marin, who has money after opening the hook, engages in the business of buying large fishing boats with loans, making it possible for ordinary people to buy large fishing boats.

The large fishing boat used the winch trawl that Marin withdrew, not only greatly increasing the catch, but also able to catch big fish like sharks. If it were an ordinary fisherman's boat, even if the shark was caught in the net, it would not be able to pull it up, and the shark might overturn the boat instead.

Dozens of tons of fishing boats,

With the addition of a winch, you will have the confidence to compete with the mighty shark. Also, catching sharks is easy - just kill the fish at sea and use the fish's blood to attract the sharks.

Sharks are more bloodthirsty, as long as they smell blood, they will rush towards them excitedly. Sharks are easy to catch as long as you have a strong trawl net ready. It should be pointed out that ordinary fishing nets cannot catch sharks, and they are easily broken and escaped by powerful sharks. Only special thickened fishing nets can catch sharks.

And because there are no professional shark fishing boats and fishing nets, sharks are everywhere in the ocean now. Except for the more ferocious killer whales, sharks have no natural enemies at all, so the number is huge. Even though the professional shark hunting team sent by the North Sea State has caught thousands of sharks, it is completely worthless to the huge ocean. Even in the large fishing ground of the North Sea, the loss of thousands of sharks would not cause much trouble. After all, there are a lot of common fish in the Beihai fishing ground, and there are naturally a lot of sharks that eat small fish.

Moreover, sharkskin armor has a special advantage - waterproof! After all, it is fish skin, which can be waterproof, and it can also prevent seawater corrosion. Wearing shark skin armor on rainy days can be used as a raincoat.

Therefore, now the sailors of the Beihai Kingdom have begun to promote wearing sharkskin armor when fighting on deck. After all, this thing is not only rainproof and waterproof, but also has strong protection.

...

In fact, shark skin armor was the most popular in ancient China. There were very few sharks that could be caught in ancient China, so shark skin was very precious, also known as "Jiao (dragon) skin". Although it is a bit rough, it is strong enough and non-slip. Therefore, the scabbard and scabbard made of shark skin were very high-end things in ancient China.

Even, because Jiaolong is also a dragon, the shark called "Jiaolong skin" is often made into a scabbard and handle, which is a high-end product that can only be used by emperors. Its status is much higher than that of LV in later generations. For example, the sword of Chief Qianlong is a scabbard made of shark skin.

Why is the shark skin scabbard a high-grade scabbard? In addition to the rumored "Jiaolong" saying, the shark skin is rough and non-slip, so it is easy to hold. Moreover, it is relatively waterproof and corrosion-resistant, and it is not easy to corrode the blade.

You know, there is no stainless steel in ancient swords and swords, so maintenance is very important. If other leather is used, the blade should be wiped frequently to avoid rusting with water. Moreover, other leathers are not as waterproof and corrosion-resistant as shark skin. Once water seeps in and gets on the blade, the treasured sword will also rust, causing huge losses.

Therefore, using shark skin as a scabbard is not only tall, but also practical.

In dynasties like the Qing Dynasty, the hierarchy was particularly strict, and often only emperors and Manchu and Mongolian nobles could use shark skin as scabbards. If ordinary people dare to use it indiscriminately, their lives are in danger.

As for the Ming Dynasty, although the hierarchy was strict, it was much more relaxed than the Qing Dynasty. The only problem is that the Ming Dynasty banned the sea, so there were no big fishing boats on the sea, only a few small fishing boats sneaked into the sea.

And small fishing boats absolutely dare not provoke powerful sharks, so very few sharks can be caught. Even if the imperial court does not prohibit civilians from owning shark skin scabbards, you must have shark skin...

Of course, the Ming Dynasty was divided into two stages - one before the "Longqing switch" and after the "Longqing switch". Before the "Longqing switch", the Ming Dynasty banned the sea, so there were very few shark skins, so the price was expensive. After the "Longqing switch", some fishing boats went out to sea, and Europeans and Japanese businessmen exchanged worthless shark skins with Ming Dynasty people, and then the price of shark skins plummeted. In the Wanli period, a piece of shark skin even fell to one or two hundred cash, which was not even as good as cowhide.

But the "Longqing switch" happened in 1567. It's only 1515 at this moment, and the Ming Dynasty still closed the country and banned the sea. Even, the Japanese trade route has not been opened up by the big businessman Wang Zhi, and there is basically no cheap Japanese shark skin flowing in. Therefore, at this time, shark skin is still very rare.

For example, Marin sent 500 shark skins for trial sale while asking Kong Tai to report to the Ming Dynasty as a warning. As a result, the Ming Dynasty, who seldom saw shark skins because of the forbidden sea, directly charged a high price, and got 1 tael of silver for a shark skin!

Perhaps, in the European region where prices are high, one tael of silver per shark skin is not very high. However, in the Ming Dynasty when commodity prices were very low, this was a very high price. You know, in the Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver could buy two shi of rice. In Beihai, one tael of silver is 37.3 grams of silver, which can only be used to mint 49 standard Finney silver coins. Counting the value of copper, it is worth more than 50 pfennigs, and you can only buy more than 50 pounds of rye or ten pounds of wheat...

In the Ming Dynasty, sharks were mainly popular with military officers and Jin Yiwei. As for the soldiers...in fact, they also want to use shark skin as a scabbard, but the economic strength does not allow it...and military officers usually collude with civilian officials to drink blood from soldiers and eat empty pay, so naturally they have the money to buy shark skin as scabbards. As for Jin Yiwei, those officers, because there are many ways to make money, naturally have the money to buy shark skin as a scabbard...

The Ming Dynasty has millions of troops, but how many officers are there? So, this market is huge! And taking advantage of the current shortage of shark skins in the Ming Dynasty, Beihai Kingdom can still take advantage of the opportunity to make a lot of money...

The 500 shark skins that Kong Tai used for test sales were sold out as soon as they were delivered to Quanzhou Wharf, and many luxury merchants connected with the military also placed orders, asking Beihai to send thousands more shark skins. After all, there is too much demand here in the Ming Dynasty. Whether it is the Xiuchun knife used by Jinyiwei and the generals, or the ordinary Yanling knife, it needs a well-made scabbard made of shark skin, and it is used to wrap the handle (the wrapping of the handle with shark skin can prevent the hand from slipping and cause it to fall out of the hand, and also prevent sweat)……

After Kong Tai saw that shark skin was selling well in Daming, he sent a clipper to send news to the country that shark skin was selling well in Daming, and there was an urgent need for a large amount...