The previous year's hit "Daming Style" caused a wave of Ming Dynasty history fever, some people watched the plot, some people picked thorns according to history, some people cheered for their idols, and Xiaobian, as an ancient history military enthusiast, naturally wanted to comment on the armor and weapons in it.
In fact, although there are many mistakes in this drama, the props are also much stronger than the previous costume dramas, such as the armor worn by Emperor Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji when he personally conquered Zhu Gaoxu's rebels and Mongolia should be borrowed from the armor worn by the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun in "The Police into the Map", of course, the obstructive tiger head beast swallowing is absolutely non-existent. The phoenix-wing ornaments on the helmet are also not shown, but in general, most of the features of the Ming armor are shown, such as the iron arm hand and the shrapnel type iron helmet.
Ordinary infantry of the Ming Army.
Wanli Emperor.
But it must be pointed out that the current film and television drama rarely restores a famous armor of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the cloth face armor, the reason why it is famous, is not because the cloth face armor was first created in the Ming Dynasty, because the cloth face armor occupies a very important position in the Ming Dynasty army, the so-called cloth face armor is the use of nail nails to fix the armor piece on the inside of the cotton cloth (the armor piece here must be superimposed up and down, otherwise the armor will become a cool mat, which is also the most common mistake of the film and television armor) This kind of armor is relatively cheap relative to the Ming armor. Mostly used by ordinary soldiers, but zajia also existed in the Ming army.
The soldier in the upper left corner is wearing cardigan armor.
The Ming army's cloth-faced armored cavalry attacked the city of Daoshan.
Judging from this picture depicting the Ming Dynasty army attacking The City of Daoshan (1598), the Ming cavalry here is all cloth armor, why is cloth armor used so widely in the Ming and Qing armies? First of all, after the early Ming Dynasty, a large number of individual firearms were equipped with the army, especially the Jiajing mid-period bird rifle this sharp weapon introduced to China, so that the East Asian army's individual firepower increased a grade, and the traditional armor on the defense of individual firearms is very unsatisfactory, and cloth armor in addition to the attack of cold weapons, there is also the possibility of defending against the attack of musket lead bullets, the most interesting example is that in 1661, the Zheng army attacked Taiwan, the newly landed Ming army launched an attack on the Dutch castle, This attack was crushed by the powerful fire of the Dutch, but there was a "naked" Ming officer who did not retreat, using the ruins and bows and arrows outside the city to continue to circumvent the defenders of the city, the Dutch recorded: bullets continued to shoot into his flesh, but he was not affected in the slightest, and continued to shoot arrows at the shooting holes of the castle, until a black teenager in the castle immediately counterattacked with his arrows that he shot into the castle, right in his abdomen, and the man climbed back to his position with his hands and feet.
Ming cavalry crossing the bridge.
Armored sergeant and brocade guard.
But how could this person really not even wear armor, be shot several times and be unscathed? It was only his cloth armor that blocked the musket bullets, of course, the most important thing was that this man effectively used the terrain under the city, and the Dutch could easily mistake the Ming officers wearing white cloth armor for no armor from a distance.
Ming army cloth armor cavalry.
From the perspective of armor maintenance, the cloth armor is also very popular with the veteran oil of the inland guard, because the armor piece is not exposed, so it is easy to hide the sky and cross the sea, the upper-level officers come to check, will not deliberately look at the armor piece, so some of the armor of the inland Ming army troops is often very good in appearance, and the armor piece in the paste has long been rusted and broken, but the mixed inspection is only for a while, and when it comes to the battlefield, the only one who can protect their own life is their own armor. When someone else's weapon pierces into your body, you regret not maintaining your own armor? It's late!
Musicians wearing cloth face armor.
But in the northern border towns, the army for armor
It is very important, in some border towns in the middle of the Wanli Calendar, the armor equipment rate of the army there even reached 120%, which is exquisitely worked and well maintained
The armor once made the enemies of the Ming Dynasty army suffer a lot, in the Battle of bihookan, there were Japanese samurai against the Ming army's cloth face armor slashed three times, the Ming soldiers were still unscathed, the result of this samurai actually threw away the sword, using wrestling against the Ming army, the Japanese army with the western missionaries who watched the battle also praised the armor of the Ming army, and the Japanese army was at a disadvantage in this regard, the quality of their armor was not good, and the protective area was lower than that of the Ming army, and the Ming army lost more than 800 to 1,000 people in the Battle of Bijuguan. The Japanese suffered more than 6,000 casualties.
Ming army infantry.
Although gunpowder weapons have been greatly developed in the 15th and 16th centuries, the entire battlefield is still inseparable from cold weapons, so the Houjin army from the Ming army also attaches great importance to armor protection, and the Ming Dynasty has repeatedly recorded that the Houjin army wore multiple layers of armor to attack the Ming army.
Qing army armor.
With the rapid development of firearms, armor finally came to an end, and in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, armor gradually withdrew from front-line equipment, and only generals retained armor for ceremonial purposes.