During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, there was a Tan Ji Shield Shop on the Chessboard Street in Chang'an City. The owner of this shop, Tan Liu, made cowhide shields that were not only light but also strong. Tan Liu called himself the First Shield Master of Chang'an City.
Tan Liu was making shields with his apprentice Qin Fei that day, and Lord Wu, the military attendant, came to them to make shields. Lord Wu asked Tan Liu to make twelve of the strongest shields. Luo Chachai, the little prince of the Arabian kingdom, came to the Great Tang recently. He wanted to discuss with the Great Tang about sending troops to destroy the Black Tooth Kingdom, and the task of protecting Luo Chachai's safety fell to Lord Wu's shoulders.
Tan Liu patted his chest and said, "This matter belongs to Tan!"
Lord Wu shook his head and said, "This is not as simple as you think!"
The Arabian Kingdom and the Blacktooth Kingdom were two countries on the northwestern border of the Great Tang Dynasty. The Arabian Kingdom was rich, while the Blacktooth Kingdom regarded the Arabian Kingdom as fish and meat. The war between the Arabian Kingdom and the Blacktooth Kingdom continued, and the old king of the Arabian Kingdom was really impatient. At this time, the little prince Luo Chachai, who was studying the art of war at the Cangshan Academy next to Erhai Lake, came back.
After all these years of study, Rochachai was already familiar with the battle, whether it was arranging troops or attacking, killing, and defending. Rochachai led the troops to fight, and indeed, he defeated the enemy in one battle and captured the eldest son of the King of Blacktooth.
The Black Tooth Kingdom was a country that had to be avenged. In order to maintain peace for a long time, Rocharchai suggested to his father that he borrow troops from the Great Tang to destroy the Black Tooth Kingdom in one fell swoop.
No matter how militaristic the Black Tooth Kingdom was, he was also afraid of the edge of the Great Tang and the Great Food Kingdom's allied troops. In order to stop Rocharchai's plan to join the Tang, the King of the Black Tooth Kingdom sent the most powerful archer in the country, Lu Jingwei, to start the assassination operation.
Lu Jingwei used an iron tire bow, and the cloud-piercing arrow in the pot could be said to pierce Yang in a hundred steps. Lord Wu asked Tan Liu to build a shield, the purpose was to deal with the cloud-piercing arrow and protect Luo Chachai.
After Lord Wu left, Tan Liu couldn't help but look sad, knowing that Lu Jingwei's cloud-piercing arrow was made of star-lost gold, which was said to be invincible, and ordinary rhinoceros skin shields couldn't stop the cloud-piercing arrow at all. His apprentice Qin Fei came over to ask about the situation and said, "Master, as long as we add one thing to the shield, after adding this magical thing, the invincible cloud-piercing arrow will not be able to penetrate our shield, haha!"
When Tan Liu heard his disciple finish talking about that thing, he couldn't help but say yes.
What Qin Fei added to the shield was actually the sebum of manatee skin. Manatees are produced in the cold polar seabed, and because they resist the cold, the sebum under the manatee skin is the thickest, which is the best material for soft cortex.
To make a shield, first of all, the hard cowhide or rhinoceros skin is tanned. After the leather is tanned, it is then cut into thin skins layer by layer with a sharp knife, and then the thin skins are laid layer by layer on the shield mold. Finally, it is glued with bone glue.
A good shield must have more than 50 layers of sticky cowhide to be considered a first-class shield.
When these shields were glued to the 20th floor, Tan Liu took out twelve pieces of manatee skin as thin as silk from the room. The manatee skin was silvery white.
The manatee skin was added to the middle of the more than ten shields, and the oil oozing from the manatee skin would gradually seep into the cowhide used to make the shield. Rhino skin was originally tough, and with the moisturizing of Shanghai cowhide, the surface of this shield was extremely smooth. Once the arrow was shot, the arrow would immediately change direction and slip away.
Three days later, the twelve shields were completed, and Lord Wu tested them. No matter how sharp the arrows were, they had no destructive power against the shields that were slippery.
But Tan Liu looked at the shield and said worriedly, "Lord Wu, the location of the assassin's ambush is uncertain. How effective can these more than ten shields be?"
Lord Wu chuckled and said, "I will let the prince of the Arabian kingdom, Luo Chachai, sit in the sedan chair all the time!" Lord Wu personally designed a sedan chair, and the four walls of the sedan chair will be lined with steel plates. Even if the assassin's arrow passes through the protection of the shield and hits the sedan chair, it will be blocked by the steel plates lined in the sedan chair.
Tan Liu said loudly. Lord Wu left a sum of silver and said, "Boss Tan, if there is nothing wrong with the protection mission this time, after returning to the capital, I will ask for credit in front of the Emperor for you!"
Tan Liu sent Lord Wu away. Three days later, Qin Fei arrived in Tan Liu's bedroom. He said in a worrying tone, "Master, I suddenly remembered a very serious problem!"
Tan Liu asked, "What's the problem?"
Qin Fei waved his hand and said, "Master, come with me!"
Tan Liu was full of doubts. He followed Qin Fei and came to the backyard. In the corner of the backyard stood a shield that Lord Wu picked up.
Qin Fei found a few "clicks" of the fire sickle and ignited the cotton ball in front of the shaft. Qin Fei opened his bow and shot the rocket at the shield with a "whoosh" sound. The shield soaked in the manatee skin grease met the rocket and ignited a fire with a "bang."
Tan Liu watched as the shield turned into a huge fireball. He staggered back a few steps and almost sat on the ground.
Tan Liu hurriedly came to the army headquarters. He found the master and told the story of the shield soaked in the oil of the sea cowhide burning in the fire.
When the master heard that, he dared not neglect him. He hurriedly sent a fast horse to inform Lord Wu, who had been away from the capital for two days.
Tan Liu returned to his shield shop. He waited anxiously for four or five days before Lord Wu's reply was finally sent back to the capital. Tan Liu opened the secret letter, and when he finished reading the secret letter, his heart hanging in his throat was put into his stomach.
Lord Wu was afraid that the assassins would attack the oil-soaked shields with rockets, so he ordered his men to secretly make more than 20 spray buckets. These spray buckets were filled with water. Once the assassins attacked with rockets, the guards would immediately pick up the water in the spray buckets to put out the fire.
After Qin Fei heard what Tan Liu said, he couldn't help but give a thumbs up and said, "Lord Wu is really an expert!" After Qin Fei finished speaking, he turned around and left Tan Liu's bedroom, and then went to work in the backyard!
He asked his wife to stir-fry a few dishes for him, then picked up a glass of wine and prepared to treat him. Anyone who had ever wanted to drink three glasses of wine heard someone shouting from the direction of the kitchen, "It's on fire!"
It turned out that when Tan Liu's wife was cooking vegetables, he accidentally burned the fire in the stove. In a panic, the family members who helped the chef grabbed the oil basin next to him and poured the soybean oil in the basin straight down. Only to hear a "hoo" sound, the small fire in front of the stove burst into flames.
When Tan Liu ran to the kitchen to put out the fire, the entire kitchen was already shrouded in flames. Tan Liu asked his wife to understand the situation, and he suddenly stomped his feet and said, "I've been fooled!"
Tan Liu hurriedly ran to the backyard. He saw Qin Fei release a carrier pigeon into the sky. Tan Liu shouted angrily, "Come and catch the spy, Qin Fei is a spy!"
Qin Fei was indeed a spy. In order to succeed in the assassination, Lu Jingwei sent his most clever apprentice, Qin Fei, to Chang'an and became an undercover agent in the Tan Family Shield Workshop.
Although Lu Jingwei was an excellent archer, he was not sure that under the protection of nearly a thousand Tang soldiers, an arrow would hit Luo Chachai in the palanquin lined with steel plates.
Tan Liu grabbed the bow and arrow. He filled the bowstring and pointed at Qin Fei's nose with the tip of the arrow and shouted, "Qin Fei, hurry up and tell me about Lu Jingwei's assassination plot, or I'll shoot you to death!"
Qin Fei laughed wildly: "Of course, I suggest that my master Lu Jingwei use the fire attack to burn Luo Chachai to death!"
Even if those shield faces caught fire together, it would not pose much threat to Luo Chachai in the sedan chair. In fact, all the conspiracies were in the more than 20 spray buckets. Lu Jingwei's subordinates had already made more than 20 fake spray buckets, and then secretly replaced Tang Jun's real spray buckets. These fake spray buckets contained kerosene.
The order of the fire attack plan was like this - after the shield made by Tan Liu was ignited by Lu Jingwei's rocket, Tang Bing, who put out the fire must use a spray barrel to put out the fire, but the fire oil sprayed all over the sky, and finally the fire oil would be ignited by the burning shield. Luo Chachai in the palanquin must be doomed!
Qin Fei finally said, "The purpose of releasing the carrier pigeon is to let my master Lu Jingwei implement the fire attack assassination plan as soon as possible!"
Qin Fei was killed by Tan Liuyi's arrow, then rode a fast horse and chased Lord Wu's team through the starry night. Five days later, Tan Liu finally caught up with Lord Wu's team protecting Luo Chachai and headed straight for Chang'an in front of Akasaka Slope.
But Lu Jingwei's plan to burn Luo Chachai had already begun. The palanquin that Luo Chachai was riding had now become ashes on the ground, and the burning fragrance of human flesh still floated in the ashes.
Tan Liu looked at Lord Wu who was riding over. His body shook and fell to the ground from his horse. When Tan Six woke up, he found himself lying in an airtight military tent.
Tan Liu struggled to sit up. Before he could apologize to Lord Wu, Lord Wu pointed at a young man behind him and said, "Boss Tan, let me introduce him to you. He is Luo Chachai!"
Luo Chachai was in his thirties this year, with a dark face and curly hair. After listening to Lord Wu's introduction, Luo Chachai nodded with a smile and greeted Tan Liu.
In order to prevent Luo Chachai from being killed, Lord Wu asked Luo Chachai to put on Tang Army's clothes, disguised as a personal soldier, and follow behind him. In the sedan chair, the eldest son of the King of Blacktooth was tied up.
Not only did the Black Tooth Kingdom want to be unfavorable to the Arabian Kingdom, but after they annexed the Arabian Kingdom, they also had the ambition to attack the Great Tang. In order to unite the Tang to destroy the Black Tooth Kingdom, Rocharchai brought the eldest son of the King of the Black Tooth Kingdom all the way. The purpose was to make the emperor of the Tang Dynasty make the determination to send troops as soon as possible.
The eldest son of the King of Blacktooth was burned to death by Lu Jingwei, and it was conceivable that Lu Jingwei would return to Blacktooth. When the eldest son of the king of Blacktooth was alive, he had already told Lord Wu about the ambition of Blacktooth to be unfavourable to the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, even if the eldest son of the King of Blacktooth turned into a charred corpse, it would not affect the outcome.
When Tan Liu heard this, he looked out of the tent with a smile on his face. At this time, it was a good time for catkins to fill the sky and warblers to sing and dance!