Armor is the main protective equipment in automobile battle, and almost every soldier is equipped with armor, so the strength of soldiers is often expressed by the number of armor, such as "training 3 thousand" and "wearing armor 100 thousand" When armored armor appeared, leather armor and rattan armor were still the main protective equipment of minority troops. For example, in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Meng Huo, the leader of the man who was once captured by Zhuge Liang, rode a red-haired cow in the battle, "wearing a rhinoceros armor, wearing a scarlet helmet, holding a card in his left hand and holding a knife in his right hand ..." There is also a story about rattan armor. It is said that 700 miles southeast of Shu, there is a kingdom of Angkor called "Wutugu", with a height of one. With scales, you are invulnerable. All his sergeants are wearing rattan armor: rattan grows in the mountain stream, and its edge is on the stone wall. People there collect these wild vines, soak them in oil for half a year, then take them out to dry, dry and soak them again, and repeat them for more than a dozen times before they can be used to weave armor. This kind of rattan armor is not heavy when crossing the river, and it is not wet when crossing the water. Known as the "Fujia Army". However, when Wu Tugu led his Fu Jia army to fight against the Shu army, they were defeated. The oil vine nail has not been soaked in water, but it can't stop the fire. So Zhuge Liang led them into the canyon, burned them first, and then shelled them with stones. As a result, 30,000 Fujia soldiers were trapped in the fire and all were killed. The scene was terrible, and Zhuge Liang himself couldn't help crying and sighing: "Although you have made meritorious deeds for your country, you will lose your life!" After all, romance is exaggerated, which is not enough. However, in the ancient war in China, all kinds of leather armor were indeed protective equipment used by the army for a long time. In particular, rhinoceros skin, buffalo skin and shark skin are hard, thick and tough, and bronze weapons and general light iron weapons are difficult to pierce, so they are quite protective. At that time, the army and horses were armored to protect the sword and arrow. Because of its brittleness and hardness, bronze has been used to forge parts and nail them on the chest and back of armor, which plays a certain role as a shield and protects important parts of the body. Therefore, bronze products have always been used as accessories for leather armor, but they have not replaced leather armor. In this way, until the emergence of elite steel weapons, leather armor as a protective weapon has experienced a history of more than 1000 years in the military. Leather armor, as a portable protective equipment, was still used with armor in Song and Yuan Dynasties. However, many frontier minority areas still use leather armor and helmets until the eve of national liberation.
In ancient China, armor was the main protective equipment of the army, so its production was always controlled by the state. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a "Fangjia Department" specializing in the production of armor; There were South Workshop and North Workshop in Song Dynasty. According to Song History, the total weight of a suit of armor is 45 to 50 Jin, 1.825 pieces of armor, and it takes 1.20 working days to make. It can be seen that it took a lot of working hours to produce a pair of armor at that time. First of all, iron should be forged into an armor. There need to go through many processes here, such as punching, rough grinding, punching, wrong hole, cutting, wrong edge, fine grinding and so on. And then woven into a whole collar armor with pimps. Armored armor is very strong in protection, but it is very heavy. Soldiers wear full armor, plus the necessary things they carry with them. Load 100 kilograms, and then they March with weapons. The workload and hard work are unimaginable. It can remind us of the scene of ancient border guards armed like steel robots and struggling to guard the border. In addition, the real nail has another defect, that is, the side close to the body is also very hard and often rubs the skin. In the Song Dynasty, the inside of the armor was lined with silk, and later a layer of cotton wool was added to the armor to prevent skin damage. "That fat coat is four feet six inches long, with two catties of cotton wool and half a catty of cotton trousers." The soldiers put on cotton-padded jackets, trousers and armor. If they are warm and safe in a cold place in winter, they can enjoy themselves. But riding a horse in hot summer is really like being trapped in a steamer, soaking in sweat all day, and often getting lice. Soldiers are extremely hard! Soldiers in real armor are very inconvenient to move. They depend on others to support their own horses and chariots. They can't bow down before the emperor and dignitaries, they can only bow down and worship. Therefore, the military salute stipulates that "no worship."
In order to reduce the weight of armor without reducing its protective ability, some light armor appeared after the Tang Dynasty.
There is a golden gun class teacher in the water margin, Xu Ning, who has a set of Yanling armor worth millions at home, and later it was stolen by fleas on the drum. This pair of Yanling armor is made of Yanling root, which can resist the shackles and thorns of light weapons. When Kublai Khan conquered Naiyan in Yuan Shizu, he gave Hong a pair of wild goose root armour. This kind of armor has light weight and good protective effect, but it is expensive and can only be used by a few generals. Light armor used to equip troops mainly includes felt armor, silk armor and tissue armor, among which paper armor is used more. During the Tang Yi period, Xu Shang invented paper armor, which is said to be so strong that fierce arrows can't penetrate at all. 1040, 30,000 pairs of paper armour were made in the Northern Song Dynasty and distributed to archers in Fangcheng, Shaanxi. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, when Qi Jiguang led troops to fight against the pirates in the southeast coast, he made the soldiers wear cotton paper armor. Although this kind of armor is light in weight, it can effectively defend against lead poisoning of birds, and is especially suitable for fighting in southern Ch 'ong.