In Great Wei, what were the military provisions like?

To understand that, one must first look at the history of Great Wei and its borders to determine the purpose of its military equipment.

All military supplies exist for one reason: to wage war more effectively.

A wide variety of military gear and combat tools are designed for the battlefield—meant to kill the enemy, destroy their operations, and protect one’s own forces from harm.

Before Great Wei, there was the Jin Kingdom.

At the end of the Jin era, the Emperor was foolish and indulgent—addicted to luxury and lust. Even during a three-year drought, he launched massive construction projects, leaving the people destitute and starving, which led to uprisings across the land.

The court sent troops to suppress the rebellions. However, by that time, the Jin government was dominated by treacherous ministers who held all the power. After the suppression, imperial authority fell into decline, the court’s influence faded, and the balance between central and regional powers broke down. Warlords seized control of their territories, and a time of fractured rule began.

The Founding Emperor of Great Wei—Emperor Taizu—was one of those warlords.

The Wei family rose to power through the salt trade. And just how important and valuable was salt? That’s something even a modern person would know.

Salt had huge profit margins.

Even in modern times, where industrialization has lowered production costs, the profit from salt sold at low prices is still nearly four times the cost!

In ancient times, without industrialization, the only way to cut costs was through labor.

And what was labor in ancient times?

No different from mules, donkeys, or horses—human livestock. They were the property of their masters, given just enough food to survive, with no need to pay wages.

Salt was divided into three grades:

First-grade was the five-colored salt, so expensive even the royal family and nobles couldn’t afford it—priced at 7,034 wen per jin.

Second-grade was green salt, used by commoners—priced at 81 wen per jin.

Third-grade was rock salt, commonly referred to as “poison salt” by the people—priced at 30 wen per jin.

The price gap between the three was enormous.

And in the late Jin, salt trading rights were never truly controlled by the court. Most salt lands were in the hands of wealthy local powers. During times of chaos, these salt lands became hotly contested.

The Wei family rose to dominance precisely because the Founding Emperor seized the opportunity amid the chaos—quietly seizing land and recruiting people.

While other forces were still probing and clashing, the wealthy Wei Taizu was already recruiting. When others were waging full-scale war, he continued recruiting, even offering free medical treatment to the wounded and comforting the survivors. When other forces started pillaging and murdering resisters, Wei Taizu had already built a reputation for kindness and virtue, attracting many aspirants to his cause. With his respect for talent and generous, compassionate image, he expanded across the Central Plains.

When Wei Yu read this part of Great Wei’s history, he deeply admired their Wei ancestor.

He clearly understood the principle of “develop in obscurity, don’t get cocky.” Lay low when necessary, spend money when needed, bow down when appropriate—while building up capital and strength, he also cultivated a powerful reputation.

A ruler like that—how rare was he in a time when commoners were treated like animals?

Rarer than a national treasure!

And because they truly understood the importance of salt, after founding Great Wei, it was strictly forbidden to trade illegal salt. Anyone caught would be jailed and exiled immediately.

It was Great Wei that ended the chaotic final years of the Jin Dynasty and unified the Central Plains. However, in its early years, Great Wei still faced a complex and tense external environment.

At the time, it wasn’t just Great Liang to contend with—there were also two small southern kingdoms, Qi and Jiang. In the northwest borderlands, there were many hostile nations and forces, especially various nomadic tribes skilled in horseback archery.

To better resist cavalry-based enemies and protect their soldiers, the Great Wei military equipped its troops with a weapon comparable to a long spear called the modao (stranger blade), and formed elite infantry corps.

In battle, they wielded the modao, and anyone struck down by it—man or horse—was left in pieces.

It took three generations of effort for Great Wei to subdue the weaker nomadic tribes in the northwest, leaving only a few fiercely resistant groups—the Xiongnu, Qiang, Khitan, and Tubo. These were collectively referred to as the northern nomads.

Later, Great Wei sought to unify the southern kingdoms of Qi and Jiang. However, due to the complex terrain and dense forests in that region, most warfare there revolved around siege battles.

This led to the advancement of crossbow artillery and catapult technology. Fire-attack tactics also emerged, involving the use of flammable oils, greases, or oil-soaked materials as fuel for siege warfare.

Military equipment in the Great Wei army was mainly divided into two categories: armor and weapons.

Armor included helmets, abdominal guards, scale armor jackets, greaves, combat boots, and chainmail.

Weapons included spears, halberds, arrows, sabers, swords, modao, rope-cutting awls, axes, and more.

To produce these weapons, materials such as metal, wood, and leather were needed.

These were all costly items. Crafting and maintaining them consumed at least 130,000 guan of money a year. No matter how rich Great Wei was, such constant expenditure couldn’t be sustained forever. Not to mention the food supply for the army—that added another 300,000 guan per year.

And now, 200 years later, even if the state treasury wasn’t entirely empty, it was very nearly drained.

Save money!

How to reduce costs and save money for the treasury?

That really was a question that made every official who genuinely worked for Great Wei lose sleep and tear their hair out.

The Ministry of Works often faces funding shortages because it is responsible for managing construction, logistics, water conservancy, and manufacturing. Pei Zhi was a practical person, and for matters related to his work, he always made sure to ask all the questions until he understood everything.

Pei Zhi: “Currently, craftsmen mostly use flat-ground furnaces or vertical furnaces to smelt iron. The craftsmen under the Ministry of Works use two parallel blast furnaces… I’ve heard His Majesty mention that His Highness says our current method is for steelmaking?”

Wei Yu: “Ah, yes! That’s right! It’s steelmaking, the stir-frying method.”

Pei Zhi: “Stir-frying method?”

Wei Yu: “Yes, you smelt the ore to make pig iron, then you refine the pig iron into steel. During the refining process, you keep stirring it, just like stir-frying vegetables. Isn’t that what we’re doing—stir-frying steel?”

That made quite a bit of sense.

The officials of the Ministry of Works nodded in agreement.

Pei Zhi pondered for a moment. “Steelmaking, huh? That description is quite fitting. Does His Highness have any other methods?”

From what he had learned about the history of iron smelting, who didn’t know there was also the method of pouring steel?

Wei Yu smiled. “Of course, the pouring method.”

Pei Zhi’s eyes lit up, and he quickly asked, “What is the pouring method?”

“This one’s simple. You first mix pig iron and wrought iron in a certain ratio, then heat them together until the pig iron melts. Then, you pour it directly into the wrought iron. The wrought iron absorbs carbon from the pig iron…”

When it came to his area of expertise, Wei Yu could talk on and on, completely unconcerned about whether those present could understand him.

Emperor Wei silently watched, his hand resting on the table, tapping gently. He observed as Pei Zhi and the others moved from excitement to confusion, and then from confusion to furrowed brows.

Inside, the Emperor was pleased.

See? It wasn’t just him who didn’t understand.

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