Chapter 59: This is the Power of Matchlocks!
Yuan Ye spent the annual income of six or seven local samurai in a single day. He borrowed a cart for over two hundred kan of money and took it to Atsuta. By the time it was brought back, it had become armor, weapons, and horses. A Man, who had left with a dejected look driving the ox cart, returned happily humming a tune.
Upon seeing A Qing, she jumped off the ox cart and patted her “small lamellar plate dōmaru,” making a “bang bang” sound. She was so delighted that her eyes and eyebrows curved with joy. The small lamellar plate was made by stringing together perforated armor plates with leather cords, then covering them with lacquered horsehide. It was a type of lamellar armor that emphasized flexibility and had good resistance to arrows. Furthermore, this piece had a plate-like chest piece on the front, providing good defense against stabbing and slashing.
After happily patting her dōmaru, she adjusted the “peach-shaped helmet” she was wearing. Her Dou Dou eyebrows twitched, and she proudly said to A Qing, “How is it? Isn’t it imposing? Do I look like an important person?”
Yuan Ye had spent all the money, which made her reluctant, but she had acquired a suit of armor and felt very refreshed, her mood improving again. She had been wanting to show off for the entire journey back and immediately put her plan into action.
A Qing gave her a cool glance and didn’t reply. Seeing that she wasn’t playing along, A Man immediately turned to Yayoi and asked again, “Yayoi, isn’t it imposing?”
Yayoi dared not provoke her and honestly replied, “It is very imposing, Sister A Man.”
This was, in a way, the truth. A Man wore a peach-shaped helmet made of two iron plates. The top of the helmet pointed sharply upwards, and if she were to headbutt someone with it, an unarmored person might die. Moreover, the dōmaru she wore was brand new and gleaming, its lacquer shining in the firelight. Coupled with the short-handled axe hanging at her waist and the fearsome matchlock gun on her back, it made people a little scared to look at her—the power of iron. In this era, iron was power, and it was terrifying!
A Man was finally satisfied with the praise. She affectionately touched the dōmaru on her body and sighed, “Of course it’s imposing. This cost forty-one kan of money, which could buy ten of you!”
She couldn’t help but sigh. Her suit was a high-end item from “Atsuta Jingliu House.” The material used was top-grade iron, the kind where ten jin of pig iron, after being hammered by human strength, left less than three jin. This was then forged into armor plates, drilled, and combined with a thick chest plate, all woven together with leather. Just the assembly alone took several people a month of work. It was by no means the trashy dōmaru that used more leather and cotton than iron, which ordinary family retainers and followers used. Even high-ranking samurai wouldn’t be ashamed to wear it.
This type of armor, along with a few additional accessories like haidate and greaves, would be passed down for three generations in an ordinary samurai family. It was truly valuable, more than enough to be worth ten Yayois. At current prices, a little girl like Yayoi could only be exchanged for about two donkeys, costing a little over four kan of money, and donkeys couldn’t be used by three generations.
Actually, A Man hadn’t expected Yuan Ye to be willing to spend so much money on her. After all, she had only thought of being Yuan Ye’s “Head Shopkeeper” and working for him long-term, but she had never told him. Theoretically, she could leave whenever she wanted. Yet, Yuan Ye didn’t seem to care at all. Nearly a hundred kan of the over two hundred kan spent were on her and A Qing, which was truly generous.
If it were her, she would absolutely not be willing to spend that much. She could never be so generous!
Looking at Yuan Ye now, she felt he had a bit of the “bearing of a wise ruler” again.
…
“Let’s move the things inside before we chat!” Yuan Ye was still struggling to move boxes, and he was very hungry. Seeing them gathered together and not working, he quickly urged them.
He had bought quite a lot this time. For himself, he bought a set of “modern armor,” which consisted of a helmet, cuirass, and sleeves, along with arm guards, cuisses, and greaves, making a complete suit of armor, costing ninety-five kan and five hundred mon.
He had his own, and he also bought a suit of high-quality dōmaru for A Man and A Qing each, which could protect their heads, chests, abdomens, and shoulders, costing eighty-two kan. He also spent sixteen kan to buy a “leather dōmaru” for each of the Momoi Brothers. This type of armor only had iron lamellae on vital areas, with most of it being made of tanned horsehide and deerskin for a lightweight leather lamellar armor.
This wasn’t favoritism. It was just that they hadn’t learned martial arts and had no combat effectiveness. If something truly happened, they could just poke from the periphery with spears; he didn’t expect them to engage in close combat. Therefore, the protective gear only needed to ensure they wouldn’t be easily shot to death.
In addition, he bought a three-foot-long “small U-shaped short sword” for A Qing and Yayoi each, with a reduced curve suitable for thrusting, costing another five kan and two hundred mon. A Qing seemed to lack a close-combat weapon, so he got her one for self-defense in daily life. As for Yayoi, he was afraid she might overthink things, as everyone else had received something, and she hadn’t, which wouldn’t be appropriate.
After all, she was an old employee, and her feelings certainly needed to be considered.
With all the miscellaneous items, the money was almost spent. He wanted to buy a few horses but couldn’t. He only managed to pick out a relatively cheap and gentle mare and brought it back.
It could only be said that war was a costly affair. He was a transmigator; for an ordinary local samurai or a common vassal to acquire this cartload of equipment, it would take six or seven years of not eating or drinking, which was not easy.
…
He had bought so many things, and they were all heavy items. It took quite a while just to move them into the house. Afterward, he quickly had dinner with A Man.
He and A Man had rushed back and forth with a cart full of money, which was exciting but also very tiring. They hadn’t dared to eat much on the way, and now they were very hungry, eating ravenously.
Yayoi helped them by refilling their bowls from the side, occasionally caressing the “small U-shaped short sword” Yuan Ye had given her with affection, her small face full of joy. A Qing was trying on the dōmaru assigned to her, moving slightly from time to time to see how it affected her flexibility, a rare look of curiosity on her face.
Although the Momoi Brothers received leather lamellar armor, they were equally excited. They helped each other put it on, seemingly eager to don their armor and go stab someone.
Yuan Ye paid them no mind. After eating, he just told the Momoi Brothers to feed the ox well and return it early tomorrow, then he declared the dissolution and went back to play with his armor. As men, most would be interested in armor. Even though modern missiles were flying everywhere and armor was useless, there were still people studying it every day, which showed how difficult it was for men to resist such things.
He returned to his room and opened the “armor cabinet” given by the shopkeeper, taking out the three pieces of armor and the three accessories. He had been in a hurry before and hadn’t examined them closely in the shop, only asking A Man to confirm they were okay before buying them. Now he finally had the chance to look closely.
This set of armor was the latest model of “modern armor,” which literally translated to “contemporary armor.”
Japanese armor also had a developmental process. It started from the wooden short armor of the Yayoi period, developed into the bronze hanging armor of the Kofun period, then to the cotton and iron armor of the Nara and Heian periods, and then to the Ō-yoroi of the Heian, Kamakura, and Muromachi/Northern and Southern Courts periods. Finally, it evolved into the “modern armor” of the late Muromachi period.
Compared to the Ō-yoroi, this type of armor placed more emphasis on defense against close-combat weapons, as the nature of warfare had changed.
During the Kamakura period and earlier, the main combatants were samurai, and the primary method of combat was mounted archery. Therefore, armor required high resistance to arrows. The left hand usually carried a large sleeve guard to block arrows in place of a shield, while the right hand had only a simple kote with little protective capability, to ensure flexibility for shooting arrows at enemies.
However, after the Onin War, a large number of ashigaru joined the ranks of combatants. Their numbers increased significantly, and it became difficult to stop enemies from swarming in with just archery. The method of combat also changed, shifting to close-quarters fighting with spears. Thus, “modern armor” emerged and became the mainstream armor of the time.
Yuan Ye had now bought such a set of “modern armor.”
The helmet was a “tsutsu-gata kabuto,” made from eighteen trapezoidal pieces of fine iron. It had a front brim, and originally, a fan-shaped front crest made of gold leaf was inserted into the brim, shining brightly and attracting attention. It looked like it was inviting enemies to aim and concentrate their fire. He refused it, removed it all, and returned it, saving one kan and five mon.
The dōmaru was a “yokohiki-ita dōmaru.” He hadn’t learned martial arts, and he was tall with generally poor flexibility. Therefore, he opted for maximum defense, directly choosing a plate-style dōmaru. This meant connecting horizontal strips of fine iron from top to bottom with rivets, encasing his chest and abdomen in an “iron barrel.” It was reassuring to him that even if someone stabbed him with a spear, it wouldn’t matter.
At the same time, the dōmaru had a “uketsutsu” inlaid on the back. The clasp on it was called “aite,” and the base was called “maji,” which could be used to insert small flags or other indicators. This was so that A Man and A Qing, being short, wouldn’t lose him in the chaos of battle.
Overall, this dōmaru had a certain defensive capability even against matchlock guns, providing a great sense of security.
The sleeves were “tōsei okisode,” a type of narrow sleeve armor made of iron lamellae connected by iron hinges. They primarily protected the arms without hindering slashing movements, unlike the sleeves of the Ō-yoroi, where raising the arm above the shoulder would cause the armor sleeves to flip over, making large movements difficult.
As for the kote, haidate, and greaves…
The kote were used to protect the forearms and hands. The haidate were tied to the waist with “koshi-o” and hung down to protect the hips and thighs. The greaves were two long strips of lamellar armor connected by hinges, used to protect the vital areas on both sides of the waist and abdomen.
In addition, because A Man was eloquent and thick-skinned, some free accessories were returned, such as the “men-ate” shaped like a mask to protect the face, the “muneate” and “sugake” to protect the neck, the “ame-tsuke” to cover the helmet from rain, and the “kōzō-kake” to protect the instep, and so on.
Yuan Ye fiddled with the armor in his room and found it quite troublesome. It was difficult for one person to put on. However, these pieces of fine iron gave him a great sense of security. He was finally not misled by some stereotypes from the internet in his previous life.
It was commonly believed online in his previous life that Japan lacked iron and that they wore bamboo armor in battles, poking each other with bamboo poles, essentially like village brawls. However, from his trip to Atsuta, he discovered that this was not the case at all.
Japan did have a shortage of iron, and iron was a bit expensive, but not that scarce. At least, it wasn’t that scarce in ancient times.
Modern industrial production could launch thousands or tens of thousands of tons of ships into the sea, which was difficult for Japan. However, forging knives weighing a few jin or armor weighing tens of jin was something Japan could manage. Japan still possessed iron ore reserves of ninety million tons in modern times. Although difficult to mine and unsuitable for large-scale industrial production, this reserve was considerable in ancient times. Furthermore, they could import from Great Ming, so forging some swords, spears, and armor was not too difficult.
The reason for such stereotypes was probably because Japanese people liked to lacquer and oil their armor. Since the region was quite humid, iron products would easily rust. To prevent moisture, they would make the armor shiny and oily. At first glance, the material didn’t look like heavy ironware but more like bamboo, which led to those stereotypes.
Yuan Ye thought for a while but couldn’t figure it out, so he put it out of his mind. He then re-packed the armor into the box and patted the box. His courage grew, and he began to wonder why the Danjō no Chū family hadn’t started infighting yet.
Perhaps this was another version of “holding a sharp weapon, the killing intent arises.” He had now encased himself like an “iron man.” With such effort, he didn’t believe anyone could kill him anymore. He was starting to look forward to the wars of medieval Japan, eager to witness the excitement and broaden his horizons.
