GBP Chapter 412 What shoes do ordinary soldiers wear?
Chapter 412 What shoes do ordinary soldiers wear?
Although some of the words Shen Youyou said were very new and he had never heard of them before, although he was a military general and well-educated, he could still understand these words easily.
After Shen Youyou's little chatterbox, Fu Huaian felt a little frustrated.
In the eyes of outsiders, he can be praised for his extraordinary intelligence, whether it is military strategy, martial arts, or even classics and history, he has his own unique insights.
Especially in terms of creation, he feels that there are not many people who can surpass him. After all, his workshops are not just there for show.
But now thinking back, the weapons he made were all further improvements based on things left by his predecessors, rather than creations from scratch.
Look at Miss Shen in front of me. At such a young age, she has actually created plastic, such a magical thing, from nothing.
Moreover, this was different from before Shen Youyou came. I was a little bit unconvinced that this was made by Shen Youyou. Although I didn't understand why Shen Zhiqiu wanted to attribute the creation of this thing to his own daughter?
But now he knew that it was not a fake one, but might have been made by Miss Shen!
Didn’t you see that when he was explaining, there was almost no pause.
Shen Youyou didn't know what this guy was thinking, otherwise she probably wouldn't be able to speak so smoothly, because she was also standing on the shoulders of giants.
Although these things in this world were indeed created by him from nothing, he was able to create them because of the knowledge he learned in his previous life.
"Ahem, Miss Shen, if you are needed to provide such shoes to the army, can you keep up with the production?"
Shen Youyou pondered for a moment: "If there are 500 women making shoes, this kind of shoes is simpler to make than cloth shoes. It is estimated that one woman can make at least three pairs in two days, and a total of 22,500 pairs in a month.
There are twelve months in a year, but the three types of shoes provided to the army are the ones with holes for summer wear, the ones without holes for spring and autumn wear, and the cotton shoes for winter wear. These three types can basically meet the daily needs of every sergeant, so only three styles need to be made.
If it takes four months to produce one style, that means 90,000 pairs can be produced in four months.
One thousand people means 180,000 pairs of shoes. Tangjia Village alone should be able to recruit up to a thousand female workers to make shoes. "
Shen Youyou actually wanted to ask: "Just tell us how many soldiers there are in the North, and we can then find a way to recruit workers based on the number of your soldiers."
But she knew she couldn't ask that question, as it should be confidential now.
However, Fu Huaian was also shocked by the number Shen Youyou said. You know, there are only more than 400,000 soldiers in the North, including various logistics soldiers.
The entire Fu family army has only more than 200,000 soldiers. It can be said that the Fu family actually controls most of the troops in the northern border.
You have to know that there are many military suppliers who only provide bedding and clothing for the Fu family army.
They provide the army with quilts, clothes, shoes and hats all year round. Of course, there are also merchants who provide medicinal materials, food, war horses and other military supplies. They are also called "imperial merchants"!
These military supply dealers not only provided military supplies, but were also responsible for transporting them to locations designated by the imperial court, such as storage offices in various places, which would then distribute them to the outside.
Now, according to what Shen Youyou said, as long as there are a thousand sewing workers, they can almost provide shoes for the entire Fu family army.
Of course, soldiers’ shoes wear out a lot during training, so it is impossible to only issue a pair every three or four months.
Because most of the soldiers nowadays wear straw sandals or hemp shoes. The only ones who can wear boots in the army are some special troops such as the Imperial Guards, or those with certain official positions.
Therefore, both the imperial court and the Fu family army had previously planned to provide only this part of the people.
But now Fu Huai'an changed his mind. He asked, "How much does a pair of shoes like this cost?"
This topic made Shen Youyou want to roll her eyes: "General Fu, the specific cost depends on the labor cost. Add the materials and a pair of boots will cost dozens of coins at least."
In fact, a pair of boots costing dozens of coins was already very expensive in Shen Youyou's opinion. If calculated according to later generations, a pair of boots costing dozens of yuan would not be a big deal to provide to the soldiers, after all, living conditions were better in later generations.
But now only a few dozen cents are provided to the army, which is quite high. It feels like the army must have at least hundreds of thousands of people.
But for Fu Huaian, the price offered by Shen Youyou was simply too surprising. You know, the cheapest boots provided to the army by clothing merchants would cost more than three to four cents a pair.
This is because it is provided to the imperial court, and the imperial court will give a lower price than the market price. After all, if you do business with the imperial court and want to make big profits, do you want to do business without thinking anymore?
If you sell boots in a cloth shop, the cheapest pair costs four hundred and fifty coins, and the quality is not even as good as that provided to the army.
"Can you really make a pair of boots with just a few dozen coins?"
Because the two of them have completely different trains of thought, Shen Youyou is a little confused this time. Why does she sound so happy?
Seeing Shen Youyou looking at him with doubtful eyes, Fu Huaian explained: "In fact, in the army, there are very few soldiers who can wear boots, because the cost of boots is too high. A pair of boots costs about three taels of silver."
"What to wear if not boots?"
"Most soldiers could only wear straw or hemp shoes."
Shen Youyou suddenly realized that she had been misled by the TV series. Even in later times, when the Red Army was on the 25,000-mile Long March, the soldiers still wore hemp shoes and marched day and night.
What's more, in this dynasty,
Although hemp shoes are much more comfortable than straw shoes, they are also more wear-resistant.
But that is also compared with straw sandals. Who would want to wear hemp shoes if they can wear cloth shoes?
When Shen Youyou and her companions were fleeing famine, she was one of the first to see their uncles and aunts wearing straw sandals, their feet rubbed until they were bleeding.
She was a little bit unbelieving. It would be so painful to fight in hemp shoes.
So, thinking about this, Shen Youyou frowned and asked, "Is it because of the price, or is it that only soldiers with ranks can wear boots?"
Without waiting for Fu Huaian to answer, Shen Youyou asked again: "If I design a new pair of boots that are different from the long boots on your feet and much shorter, about at the ankle position, can ordinary soldiers wear them?"
Fu Huaian raised his eyebrows: "Do you have any drawings?"
"Yes, it's in the house. I'll get it right away."
She was talking about the house where they lived. Shen Zhiqiu of course knew which house her daughter was talking about. She stopped her daughter who was about to leave and said:
"Yoyo, take General Fu and Ah Chi over there. We're having dumplings today and it's getting late. Let's all go over and help."
Shen Youyou was thinking about the soldiers fighting in the war and wearing straw and hemp shoes, so she naturally did not refute Shen Zhiqiu's words.
Instead, he made a gesture of invitation to Fu Huaian: "Then General Fu, you and A Chi, please follow me."