Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 95 - 59: This is the Power of Iron!

Chapter 95: Chapter 59: This is the Power of Iron!

Harano spent, in a single day, the annual income of six or seven Earth Warriors; with more than two hundred coins, he borrowed an ox cart to haul goods to Atsuta, and by the time he hauled it back, it had turned into armor, weapons, and horses. Meanwhile, Ah Man, who set out drooping her head and driving the ox cart, returned singing little tunes and beaming with joy.

When she saw Wenqing, she jumped down from the cart and patted the "Plank-style Armor with Small Lamellae" on her body, making a "thump thump" sound, grinning from ear to ear—small lamellae armor is made by threading punched armor plates together with leather cords, then wrapping them in horsehide and lacquering it; it’s a type of lamellar armor that emphasizes flexibility and has decent resistance to arrows. What’s more, her piece came with a slab chest plate for added defense against both stabbing and slashing.

After happily patting the armor, she adjusted her "Peach-shaped Helmet," her brows lifting with pride, and smirked at Wenqing: "Well, what do you think? Do I look impressive? Like someone important?"

The money was all spent by Harano, which pained her somewhat, but scoring herself a full set of armor felt fresh and exciting, so her mood improved and she’d wanted to show off the entire way back—now back home, she immediately went into action.

Wenqing gave her a cool glance and said nothing. Seeing she wouldn’t play along, Ah Man immediately turned to Yayoi and asked again: "Yayoi, don’t I look imposing?"

Yayoi didn’t dare cross her and honestly replied, "Yes, you look very impressive, Sister Ah Man."

And she wasn’t lying: Ah Man wore a Peach-shaped Helmet forged from two iron plates, with the "heaven’s edge" (top) sticking up sharply—if she rammed someone with it, and they didn’t have armor, it could very well kill them. Plus, her Armor was new and gleaming, lacquered and shiny in the firelight, with a hand axe hanging at her waist and a fierce-looking iron cannon slung on her back. Just a glance was scary—iron meant power in this era, and power breeds fear!

Receiving all the praise, Ah Man was finally satisfied. She lovingly patted her Armor and exclaimed, "Of course it’s impressive, this cost forty-one kan—it could buy ten of you!"

She couldn’t help sighing: her gear was top-tier merchandise from the "Atsuta Pure Flow Shop," made from excellent iron—the type where ten pounds of pig iron is hammered, piece by piece by human hands, until there’s less than three pounds left of the best stuff, then it’s forged into armor plates, drilled, and then woven together with a thick chest plate using leather. All told, the work would take several people a whole month—it’s nothing like the trash Armor used by most Lang Faction vassals, which is more leather or cotton than iron. Even Advanced Warriors wouldn’t be ashamed to wear it.

Add some peripherals like shields or shin guards, and this kind of armor would be an inheritance handed down three generations in a typical Warrior Clan—its value utterly eclipses ten Yayois. A little girl like Yayoi, with current market prices, could maybe trade for two donkeys, a little more than four kan of cash, and donkeys don’t even last three generations.

In fact, Ah Man hadn’t expected Harano would actually be willing to spend that much on her. She’d thought about becoming his Chief for the long term, but never voiced it—strictly speaking, she could leave whenever she wanted. But Harano didn’t care; out of more than two hundred kan spent, almost a hundred was for her and Wenqing. That was real generosity.

If it were her, no way she’d be so free with money—she could never be so generous!

Now she looked at Harano and felt like he really had a bit of that "wise lord" aura again.

......

"Let’s move everything inside before we chat!" Harano was still huffing and puffing, hauling boxes, stomach growling with hunger. Seeing the girls huddled together slacking off, he hastily called for them to get moving.

He’d bought quite a lot of stuff this time. For himself, a set of "Modern Armor"—helmet, chest armor, and sleeve armor—the "three main pieces," plus cage hand, shield, and shin guards to complete a full set. That alone cost ninety-five kan and five hundred wen.

With his own set sorted, he bought top-quality Armor for Ah Man and Wenqing, each covering head, chest, abdomen, and shoulders, at another eighty-two kan. Then, for sixteen kan, he got a "Leather Armor" suit for each of the Momoi brothers—protection for vital areas only, using iron lamellae, with most of it made from tanned horse or deerskin: basic light leather armor.

This wasn’t favoritism—it’s just that neither brother knew any Martial Arts and had little fighting power. If danger came, they’d just poke with spears from the edge. Nobody expected them to brawl, so protection just had to be enough to stop them getting shot down easily.

On top of that, he bought each of Wenqing and Yayoi a three-shaku long, lightweight, curved-for-thrusting "Little Karasumaru Short Knife," at another five kan two hundred wen. Wenqing seemed to lack a melee weapon, so he got her one for daily self-defense; for Yayoi, he didn’t want her feeling left out—everyone else got something; it’d be wrong to give her nothing.

After all, she was an old employee too. Her feelings needed a bit of consideration.

With all the odds and ends, he pretty much blew through the money. He even wanted to buy a few horses but couldn’t afford them, so he just picked out a single cheap, docile mare to lead home.

Suffice to say, going to war burns a hole in your pocket. He was a transmigrator, after all—most Earth Warriors and Ordinary Households would need six or seven years of scrimping and saving to cobble together a cart of gear like this. It wasn’t easy.

......

He bought so much stuff, all of it bulky, that just dragging it all indoors took a good long while. Then, straight to dinner with Ah Man.

Hauling a cart full of money to town and back in a rush was exciting but exhausting. Neither dared eat much on the road, so by the time they got home, they were both starving and wolfed down food in great gulps.

Yayoi stood by, filling their bowls and lovingly stroking the "Little Karasumaru" she’d been given, her face brimming with delight. Wenqing, meanwhile, was trying on her assigned Armor, testing her movements to see how much agility she’d lost—a rare look of curiosity on her otherwise aloof face.

The Momoi brothers, though only given leather armor, were just as fired up. They helped each other put it on, and looked eager to try it out—seemed like they wanted nothing more than to wear armor and stab someone right away.

Harano ignored them. After dinner, he just told the brothers to feed the ox and be sure to return it early tomorrow, then directly declared the day over and went off to play with his new armor—a man’s interest in armor is nearly universal. Even in the age of missiles, when armor is useless, you’ve still got fanatics tinkering with medieval gear. That says something about men—they just can’t resist this stuff.

He went back to his room, opened up the "armor chest" gifted by the shopkeeper, and took out all the three main and three auxiliary pieces. He’d been in a rush earlier and didn’t inspect them closely at the store—just had Ah Man verify things before paying. Now he could finally take a good look.

This set is the latest model "Modern Armor"—straight translation: "contemporary armor."

Japanese armor evolved over time: from wooden short armor in the Yayoi Era, to copper armor in the Ancient Tomb Era, to cotton-and-iron armor in Nara and Heian Era, then to Great Armor in the Heian, Kamakura, and Southern and Northern Dynasties of Muromachi, before finally reaching the "Modern Armor" of the late Muromachi Era.

This armor, compared to Great Armor, is designed more for melee weapon defense—warfare had changed, after all.

In the Kamakura Era and before, the main fighting force was the Samurai, and warfare mostly meant cavalry shooting at each other. So armor mainly needed to defend against arrows, and the left arm typically sported a great sleeve armor to substitute for a shield, blocking arrows, while the right had a simple cage hand piece—no protection, just flexibility for drawing and firing the bow.

But after the "Ōnin War," the bulk of the army became Ashigaru, swelling the ranks so much that arrows alone couldn’t stop a massed charge. Combat shifted to close-quarters stabbing with long spears, prompting the rise of "Modern Armor" as the mainstream protective gear.

So Harano just bought himself a set of this "Modern Armor."

The helmet is a "Protruding Helmet," assembled from eighteen trapezoidal fine iron plates, with a front helmet brim. Originally, a row of gold foil fan-shaped frontal crests was inserted into the brim, all shiny and flashy—a perfect bullseye for enemy fire, so he had them all removed and refunded, saving one and a half kan.

The Armor is "Horizontal Plate Armor;" Harano had no martial training and was a big guy, not especially nimble, so he just maxed out on defense and got a plank-style Armor—a set of horizontal fine iron plates riveted from top to bottom, basically locking his chest and belly in an "iron drum." Even if someone stabbed with a spear, he’d be fine—very reassuring.

The Armor’s back is also inlaid with a "Receiving Tube"—the socket known as "Atarashi," with a base called "Waiting Mount," so you can stick in a flag or marker to avoid getting lost in a melee, especially with two short friends like Ah Man and Wenqing who might otherwise lose him.

All told, even against an iron cannon, this Armor offered decent protection—makes you feel safe.

The sleeve armor is "Modern Attached Sleeve," a tight-fitting sleeve armor using iron chain to thread iron plates, mainly to protect the arm without hampering swinging and chopping. It’s not like Great Armor’s sleeves, which would flip over your shoulders if you lifted your arm, limiting motion.

As for cage hand, shield, shin guards...

Cage hand protects the forearm and hand; shield is tied to the waist with "waist threads," hanging down to guard the hips and thighs; shin guards are two long lamellar strips hinged together to protect the flanks and lower belly.

Plus, because Ah Man has a sharp tongue and zero shame, she even brought back a bunch of free accessories, like a mask-shaped "mencheek" for face protection; "Manjiluo" and "Suka" neck guards; a "rain flap" for the helmet to keep off drizzle; and foot armor for the insteps—the "Armored Foot Suspension"—and so on.

Harano fussed a while in his room, realizing this stuff is a pain to put on alone, but all that fine iron gave him peace of mind after all—thankfully he hadn’t been misled by some of those internet stereotypes from his old world.

See, there’s this widespread belief online that Japan lacked iron; that wars were fought wearing bamboo armor and poking each other with sticks—basically countryside brawls. But his trip to Atsuta proved it was nothing like that.

Japan did somewhat lack iron, and it was pricey, but it’s not like they had none, definitely not for ancient times.

Modern industrial production, dumping thousands of tons of steel into warships, is out of reach for Japan. But making a few-pound knife, a few dozen pounds of armor—Japan managed just fine. As of modern times, they still have nine hundred million tons of iron ore reserves. Hard to extract, not suitable for mass industry, but in ancient times a sizable stock, plus they could import from Great Ming. So, making swords, spears, and armor wasn’t all that hard.

Where do the stereotypes come from? Maybe it’s because Japanese people loved to lacquer and oil their armor—this place is humid and iron rusts easily, so they slathered on oil and lacquer for protection. At first glance, the surface doesn’t look like heavy metal at all—more like bamboo, hence the mistaken impression.

Harano puzzled over it for a while and just let it go. He boxed up the armor again, patted the case, and with his courage restored, started to daydream about when the Dan Zhengzhong family would start in-fighting.

Maybe this is just another version of "a heart filled with blade breeds the killing urge." Now with himself bundled up like an "iron-man," after all this effort, he refused to believe anyone could still kill him. In fact, he was even starting to look forward to seeing the warfare of medieval Japan—he was itching to see the show and broaden his horizons.