Chapter 283: Second-generation Armor Of The Northern Frontier
Outside Hami City in early spring, the residual snow had not yet melted, and the wind still carried a biting chill.
A massive caravan was fully loaded and ready to depart, filled with large quantities of provisions, silk, and gold and silver.
Accompanying them were one hundred Gaochang beauties.
Of course, the indispensable one was Imperial Consort Aisha.
At this moment, she was draped in a white fox fur cloak, standing outside the horse carriage, looking up at Hami City’s wall, yet that familiar figure never appeared.
Qibidu ultimately did not come.
She naturally knew why she was going to the Northern Frontier.
“Sigh~”
A long sigh came, Kudina Yan draped in a purple robe, looking at his daughter’s tear-streaked face, his turbid eyes surging with guilt and helplessness.
“Aisha, don’t blame His Majesty and Father for being heartless; we have no choice.”
He knew that whatever he said now sounded like an excuse.
But for Gaochang’s safety, he could only do this.
They had just purged Alkus’s remnants and needed time to recuperate and develop national strength.
If they provoked the Northern Frontier Iron Cavalry to march south, Gaochang would collapse like a paper house in an instant.
So, on Aisha’s delicate shoulders rested the heavy responsibility of the entire nation.
Aisha bit her lower lip hard, swallowing the sob rising to her mouth, but tears fell like beads off a broken string, splashing onto the fur of her fox fur cloak.
“Father, Aisha understands.”
“I don’t blame you, nor His Majesty.”
She wiped away her tears with her hand: “I only blame that old thief Alkus for scheming against me, and blame myself for my beauty catching the eye of the Great Protector of the Northern Frontier.”
“It is all fate.”
“I only hope to win the Great Protector’s favor, to gain forgiveness for Gaochang’s coup d’état, and use this withered body of mine to exchange for a moment’s peace for Gaochang.”
Watching his daughter nod through her tears, Kudina Yan was filled with guilt; he had let Aisha down.
But he had no choice; for Gaochang’s stability and the glory of the Kudina family, he could only sacrifice Aisha.
Moreover, he harbored an unspoken plan: after Aisha set off, he would send his youngest daughter into the royal palace to serve Qibidu.
Aisha was already the link between Gaochang and the Northern Frontier, required to “visit family” in the Northern Frontier every year.
Moreover, if Aisha truly bore the Great Protector’s child…
That would be a great boon for the Kudina family; with the Northern Frontier Li Clan’s bloodline as backing, the Kudina family would stand undefeated forever.
But for Qibidu and the Gaochang royal family, it would be heart-wrenching shame.
Even if Qibidu yielded to the Great Protector’s deterrence and grudgingly accepted it, he would gradually distance himself.
Marrying off the youngest daughter would be different.
If the youngest daughter bore Qibidu’s heir, the Kudina family could firmly bind the royal family.
If Aisha truly bore the Great Protector’s child, even if the Great Protector did not acknowledge it, it would be an indelible bond of blood.
In the future, if the Great Protector forced that child to inherit the Gaochang throne, the Kudina family would still be the biggest winner.
Either way it was a win; Kudina Yan was determined to do it.
But he could not let Aisha know, fearing she would go to the Northern Frontier with resentment, fail to serve Li Xiao well, and ruin Gaochang’s major affairs.
Father and daughter exchanged a few more comforting words, then Aisha turned and boarded the carriage with the maidservant’s support.
The hem of her fox fur cloak brushed the carriage shaft; she looked back one last time at Hami City’s wall, blue bricks and black tiles hazy in the morning mist as before, yet that familiar figure never appeared.
A sob welled up in her throat; she clutched the handkerchief in her sleeve and ducked into the carriage compartment.
The moment the carriage curtain fell, her tears finally burst.
At this moment on the city wall, Qibidu leaned on the battlement, watching Aisha’s figure disappear into the caravan, his face twisted in fury, his heart in agony.
“Li Xiao, you scoundrel…”
He squeezed out these four words through gritted teeth, his voice hoarse like ground gravel.
In his heart, he secretly swore that one day, he would make those damned Northern Frontier lowly slaves pay in blood.
But for now, he could only endure.
Endure the heartbreak of sending away his beloved, endure the humiliation of sending treasure and beauties, all to buy Gaochang time to breathe.
He would seize every moment to strengthen national power, train the army, waiting for the day the Northern Frontier Army showed weakness.
No matter how strong the Northern Frontier, it could not win forever.
Arrogant troops will be defeated; the cycle turns, and their day of reckoning will come.
When the Northern Frontier Army suffers a great defeat, when that vast territory disintegrates, it will be Qibidu’s time to avenge and wipe out the shame.
Cold winds howled, whipping up snow on the city wall, slashing Qibidu’s face like knives.
He stood on the wall for a long time, until the caravan’s silhouette vanished completely into the vast land outside the city, before slowly turning away.
His eyes bloodshot red, his face ferocious like an enraged wild beast: “Men!”
“Drag out all of Alkus’s remnants!”
“Behead them!”
“This King will personally oversee the executions!”
Soon outside Gaochang City, the clanking of iron chains dragging on the ground echoed.
Batch after batch of prisoners were brought out: white-haired elders, male infants still in swaddling clothes—as long as they were male laborers, all were executed, roots eradicated.
The executioner’s saber fell again and again; cold light flashed, heads rolled, blood spread across the snow, forming a scarlet stream.
Wails, cries, pleas wove together, but none shook Qibidu’s resolve.
He stood on the execution platform, gripping a cup of strong liquor, watching it all with open eyes.
No pity, no softening; instead, a perverse pleasure rose in his heart.
“Hahahaha~”
“Kill, kill, kill them all for this King.”
Recalling how that old thief Alkus manipulated him like a puppet, how he sent Aisha to Li Xiao’s bed, Qibidu wished he could dig up the old thief’s corpse and hack it a thousand times.
Unfortunately, the old thief was already dead.
Still, he ordered Alkus’s corpse whipped for three days, then lit as a sky lantern, trying every vicious punishment he could think of on the rotting body, yet his hatred remained unquenched.
When the remnants were mostly killed, the last brought up were Alkus’s brothers and nephews.
Peiluo was chained, his former arrogance gone, terrified into collapsing on the ground, crotch soaked.
“Your Majesty, Peiluo is arrogant and tyrannical, bullying men and women, harming common people; a single chop is too merciful.”
Mocuowuba knelt on one knee, said hatefully: “This general requests to personally carve him up!”
He would never forget that day when Peiluo, taking advantage of his absence, broke into his outer residence and defiled his beloved woman.
That beast’s face, the woman’s despairing cries, were branded in his heart; without carving Peiluo a thousand times, his hatred could not be assuaged.
“Good.”
Qibidu replied coldly; though only two days into personal rule, he already carried the pressure of a ruler, with bloodthirsty ferocity in his eyes.
“Carve up Wuzhu Tu as well.”
Wuzhu Tu was Alkus’s most favored son, steady and cunning; if the old thief had succeeded in the coup d’état, this man was most likely to inherit the throne.
Everything Alkus cherished, he would destroy personally.
Executioners quickly brought two torture racks, binding Peiluo and Wuzhu Tu tightly.
Mocuowuba personally took a sharp knife, walked to Peiluo, hatred nearly spilling from his eyes.
“Peiluo, today I will let you taste what it means to beg for death.”
“No, General Mocuowuba, I was wrong, spare my dog’s life, aaaaaah~”
The small knife sliced Peiluo’s collar; amid his screams, a strip of bloody flesh was cut off.
……
The extreme cold had passed, and vitality gradually returned to Jin Prefecture’s land.
Tender grass sprouts emerged from thawing soil in the wilds, ice and snow melted, babbling streams carrying clear meltwater nourished Jin Prefecture’s land.
In the massive factory outside Hexi Fort, the clacking of spinning machines rose and fell.
Li Xiao wore a black-trimmed gold-edged cotton robe embroidered with sun, moon, mountains, and rivers, standing in the factory center, watching the busy female workers shuttling around.
They skillfully operated the spinning machines; clumps of snow-white cotton and fluffy wool fed in, instantly becoming fine yarn wound on wooden spindles.
These yarns were then sent to another weaving factory, woven into cotton cloth.
“These female workers are all families of our Six Garrisons officers and soldiers.”
Beside him, Hexi Merchant Guild’s chief shopkeeper Li Dongkun pointed to a woman changing spindles and said: “They come here in spare time to earn money, supplement the household, and buy new cloth for the kids’ clothes.”
Li Xiao nodded, his gaze on the spinning machine.
This was a machine he personally improved, essentially the so-called spinning jenny.
In the past, a skilled woman could spin one even thread; now with the improved spinning machine, eight threads at once.
Spinning efficiency increased eightfold.
This was just the basic version.
Later improvements could produce machines spinning sixteen, even eighty threads simultaneously.
In short, textiles had preliminarily become a pillar industry of the Northern Frontier economy.
“This factory is newly built; there are five more like it,” Li Dongkun continued.
“Our cotton cloth is always in short supply on the market.”
“Per your order, Great Protector, we prioritize Northern Frontier needs, but demand is overwhelming.”
“This subordinate thinks to expand factories, so every soldier and commoner in the Northern Frontier can wear cotton clothes.”
The Northern Frontier is bitterly cold; even midsummer carries chill, winter can crack stones; demand for cotton cloth and cotton clothes is always high.
Besides supplying Six Garrisons officers and soldiers’ cotton armor, families and new settlers urgently need cold-weather clothing.
Hexi Textile Mill’s machines run nonstop, female workers on shifts, yet still short supply; machines are insufficient.
Li Xiao watched the busy figures in the factory, nodded slightly: “Hexi Merchant Guild matters, Third Uncle, handle as you see fit.”
“I trust your work.”
“But for expanded factories, select female workers from new immigrants, give them a way to support their families.”
As the Northern Frontier’s founding place, old Jin Prefecture people are well-off.
Six Garrisons’ mid-to-high officers are mostly old Jin Prefecture origin, with herds of cattle and sheep, fields in tracts, plus spoils of war treasures.
But new immigrants have nothing, urgently need jobs.
Though the Great Protector’s Mansion lends cattle and sheep, encourages reclamation, promises ten years rent and tax free, the first two years remain hard.
Fortunately, textile shops, military equipment shops, paper mills, ceramics factories, brick kilns, glass factories, Hexi caravans all lack hands, plenty of livelihood chances.
Li Xiao migrated these thirty thousand households to Jin Prefecture not just for farming and herding, mainly to fill labor gaps.
“This subordinate understands,” Li Dongkun nodded emphatically.
“Will prioritize unemployed women with heavy family burdens.”
He was no longer that good-for-nothing; he clearly knew what Hexi Merchant Guild meant to the Northern Frontier.
Earning money was secondary; most important was regulating the economy, solving issues the Great Protector’s Mansion overlooked.
For example, grain and supplies needed by Northern Frontier’s eight prefectures’ common people mostly came via Hexi Merchant Guild sales.
Even Northern Frontier Army’s many spoils of war were first sold to Hexi Merchant Guild, then shipped back.
No camp-following merchants; this was the camp state-owned enterprise.
Thus, Hexi Merchant Guild needed vast caravans to transport goods.
This required massive labor supplementation.
“Northern Frontier demand for cotton cloth and cotton clothes will only grow.”
Li Xiao shifted tone, voice heavier: “Hexi Textile Mill capacity insufficient? Build more textile shops in the great desert.”
He walked to the window, gazing at distant snowy expanses, said gravely: “Compared to Jin Prefecture, the great desert has advantages.”
Cotton for textiles mostly from Gaochang and great desert.
Past two years great desert unstable, Li Xiao focused industries in Jin Prefecture.
Now Northern Frontier control over great desert stabilizing; time to relocate industries.
Jin Prefecture better as political center; geography unsuited for economic development.
Economic industries traditionally rely on local resources.
Great desert produces cotton, so weave cotton cloth.
Jin Prefecture produces wool, so weave woolen cloth.
Later-era woolen cloth price far higher than ordinary cotton clothes.
But now different; Jin Prefecture wool as abundant as great desert cotton, so woolen cloth cheap, affordable for common people.
“Cotton for textiles mostly from Gaochang and great desert; build factories there, make into clothes and ship back, saves most transport costs and time.”
Li Xiao calculated: “Moreover, this time three myriad household common people migrate to great desert; those women besides farming can work in textile shops, adding income path for great desert new immigrants.”
Li Dongkun nodded quickly: “Great Protector is wise.”
“This subordinate will arrange: first send people to great desert to survey sites, select high-yield cotton, convenient transport spots to start.”
“Mm.”
Li Xiao acknowledged, gaze back on spinning machine: “Train new female workers well, wages tiered by skill, reward good work generously.”
He knew Northern Frontier’s foundation lay not only in iron cavalry, but in cotton cloth from these spinning machines, copper coins in common people’s hands.
Only making lives ever better could truly anchor hearts to Northern Frontier.
Then, Li Xiao stepped into the adjacent weaving factory.
The scene here more spectacular: over a hundred looms neatly arrayed, female workers at machines, hands and feet in sync, wooden shuttles darting through warp, quickly weaving yard after yard of sturdy cotton cloth.
Freshly woven cotton cloth rolled into bolts, transported by specialists to another factory: the dyeing area.
Bright yellow, scarlet, black-gray dyes gleamed in large vats; artisans immersed cloth, stirred, dried; processes orderly, divisions clear.
Finally, Li Xiao arrived at a heavily guarded special factory.
Unlike ordinary factories, no bustling crowds here, only Wuwei Army soldiers with spears patrolling the walls day and night.
For this factory produced Northern Frontier military uniforms and armor.
Piles of uniform iron shards on the ground, edges smooth, curves even, forged from Tang Valley iron smelting base.
Using water-powered forging devices greatly boosted forging efficiency; shard hardness and toughness far exceeded hand-forged.
These finished iron shards shipped to Hexi Fort, sewn into armor by professional female workers with tough silk thread.
“Great Protector, please look; this is our mass-produced armor.”
Li Dongkun took a yellow-based red-edged armor from the rack, presented it to Li Xiao.
Li Xiao was long familiar with the armor’s style and quality.
After all, matters concerning Six Garrisons officers and soldiers’ safety required his personal review before mass production.
The finished product matched the reviewed sample almost exactly.
But compared to current Northern Frontier Army standard cotton armor, the new armor differences were obvious.
Precisely, the new armor was cloth armor, not original cotton armor.
Northern Frontier cotton armor sewed iron shards into thick cotton jackets; strictly, composite cotton armor.
Initially designed for Northern Frontier severe cold.
Officers and soldiers in cotton jackets with shards resisted saber and cold alike, two birds with one stone.
But as Northern Frontier Army lines pushed south, targeting Central Plains, cotton armor flaws emerged.
Too hot!
Last year’s Yanzhi Mountain battle, Northern Frontier Cavalry in heavy cotton armor fought Western Xia Army.
Mid-June to July, scorching sun; soldiers stifled in heat, many felled by heatstroke, causing non-combat losses.
Thus, Li Xiao launched Northern Frontier second-generation armor.
Cloth armor!
Simple structure: two layers cotton cloth sandwiching iron shards, no filling cotton.
Excellent breathability, easily adapts to hot combat environments.
In cold weather, just add inner cotton clothes for wind chill resistance; convenient changes, far better than cotton armor for Northern Frontier’s varied future battlefields.
But this design raised costs.
Back when Jin Prefecture was poor, manpower and resources stretched; to save effort and money, cotton armor multitasked warmth and protection.
Thus ‘composite cotton armor’ with inner/outer cotton layers sandwiching cotton and shards.
Switching to cloth armor plus cotton jacket needed one cotton layer, one shard layer, plus four cotton cloth layers.
Just the extra two cotton cloth layers were burdensome expense then, so Li Xiao chose composite cotton armor.
But now different; Northern Frontier prosperous, extra two cloth layers or one more garment nothing.
Clang, Li Xiao hefted the cloth armor.
Lighter than heavy cotton armor at just over ten jin, handy and flexible for multiple environments.
Note: mid-Qing fully replaced cloth armor with cotton armor because firearms rendered cloth armor useless.
Cotton armor’s filling dispersed bullet force, superior protection.
But Northern Frontier opposite; Li Xiao not planning early firearms rollout, early guns far less reliable than bow and crossbow.
Of course, he secretly prepared firearms R&D team, to equip army once tech mature.
“Bring out a full set of cloth armor, test outside,” Li Xiao instructed.
Northern Frontier cloth armor modeled on Ming style: torso, skirt, arm, forearm, neck guards, tasseled helmet; balanced flexibility and protection, cotton armor upgrade.
Soon, a Wuwei Army soldier donned the new armor.
Yellow-based red-edged torso striking in sunlight; first batch for Wuwei Army.
Soldier mounted, galloped open ground, swung saber chopping, dodged low; actions fluid, no stiffness.
“How is it?” Li Xiao called.
“Reporting Great Protector, very light, much nimbler than cotton armor!” Soldier saluted on horseback, voice thrilled.
“Arms free swinging saber, no drag bending low, breathable beyond words; chilly at first wear, but moving warms right up.”
Li Xiao watched soldier nimbly maneuver on horseback, nodded satisfied.
This cloth armor solved hot-environment combat issues, suited cold weather too; extra two cloth layers’ cost worthwhile.
Just as Li Xiao finished inspecting factories, preparing to return, a Wuwei Army personal guard rushed up.
“Great Protector, urgent report from Gaochang!” The personal guard said gravely.
This Wuwei Army soldier was Li Xiao’s dedicated liaison to Imperial Guard; after all, Zhang Shitou managed overall, couldn’t always attend.
This intelligence from Imperial Guard scouts embedded in Gaochang, rushed delivery.
“Hand it over.”
Li Xiao took the wax pellet, thumb gently crushed shell, revealing rolled thin paper strip inside.
Unrolled, simple line: Gaochang coup d’état, Kudina Yan bribed Imperial Guard deputy commander Mocuowuba, ambushed on Tengger festival, killed Alkus, restored to Qibidu.
Currently, purging Alkus remnants inside Hami City.
Seeing this, Li Xiao’s brows slightly raised, flash of surprise on face, but heart calm.
Alkus and Qibidu’s struggle, whoever won or lost, was expected.
Only surprise: Qibidu’s side won so fast.
“Alkus is truly a waste.”
Li Xiao’s lips curved faint mockery, “Schemed to death by a rabble.”
He shook head inwardly, no pity for this father-in-law by marriage.
Though these two years Alkus always deferential, tribute never stopped, before Northern Frontier interests, any obstacle must die.
“Great Protector, Gaochang side…” Li Dongkun asked cautiously; after all, Alkus was Li Xiao’s father-in-law, sudden coup d’état inevitably affected Northern Frontier layout.
“No matter.” Li Xiao waved him off, tone calm as everyday matter.
“Whoever wins or loses there, ultimate winner is my Northern Frontier.”
“Besides, winter passed; my Northern Frontier Army should move.”
