Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 882 The Sword

What's interesting is that the things that the Dutch collected back then were not only things from their own colonies. For example, another large box contained a whole set of chain plate armor.

When it comes to chain plate armor, many people may invariably think of the armor used by Muslims in the Middle East and Central Asia.But in fact, chain plate armor has appeared in quite a few areas along with the exchange of military culture.

For example, in the Ming Dynasty of China, there was a kind of armor called full iron armor, which was actually a kind of chain plate armor. Considering that the Turkish muskets at that time could come to China under the name of Lumi Gun, then the Turkish armor was passed down. It is also normal.

But Liang En and the others have now found that this set of plate chain armor is not an original product from Turkey or a Chinese imitation, but a product from the Philippines.

Philippine chain plate first appeared in the 16th century.The current Philippines was actually a region with a rather complicated political situation at that time.

In Luzon Island in the north of the Philippines, there were Spanish colonists with Manila as the core.In the south, there is also a relatively powerful Sulu Sultanate.

In addition, there are a large number of monarchs of different religions on other large and small islands in the Philippine archipelago, presenting a state of chaos.

In the pre-colonial wars in Southeast Asia, the Ottoman Empire exported a large amount of military technology to the relatively backward countries of the same religion in Southeast Asia at that time out of its own religious obligations as a monarch and a caliphate and in order to expand its influence in the East.

For example, the exquisite cannon that Liang En and the others found before came from Turkey. They even saw inscriptions left by the Turks on the cannon. The chain plate armor is also one of these weapon technologies passed eastward. .

However, due to the remoteness of the Philippines, the Philippine chain plate is actually the country in the Indonesian region digesting the military technology provided by Ottoman, and then spreading it to the Philippines through trade and other means.

Although the technology is only a second-hand technology, considering the characteristics of the handicraft era, this technology has no effect on the quality of the Philippine chain plate.

In fact, according to the records of many Spanish colonists at that time, they believed that the iron armor of the Filipinos was of excellent quality, which was more than one level higher than the group of indigenous people they encountered before.

However, because many of the plate armors are made of hard leather, shark skin or even bamboo, and are made into a single layer to adapt to the hot climate in the Philippines, the defense is stronger than the original chain plate armor in the Middle East. Big discount.

What's more interesting is that the helmets matching these armors are not Ottoman turban helmets, but local production and imitation of ship helmets from Spanish colonists.This makes their overall style look more like a low-end Spanish infantry.

"Such a complete set of armor is rare, especially with a layer of gold plated on the armor." Liang En said after inspecting the armor. "So there's a good chance it came from the court of some famous king."

This set of armor opened Liang En's eyes, and when they opened the last batch of boxes, they found that the boxes contained ancient Javanese weapons.

Two of the boxes contained native Indonesian claw knives and small knives. Judging from the exquisite equipment, these knives should have been used by those with high status back then.

In particular, claw-shaped knives were first considered in tradition to be the tiger claws of the incarnation of the king’s soul that entrusted mysterious power. With the introduction of Hinduism, they were replaced by the claws of the Hindu gods Bima and Hanuman, and then gradually popularized by Europeans.

But in fact, this kind of thing was only used for harvesting crops at the earliest. It was very large in the early days, but it became such a small shape with the evolution of history.

But then again, although this kind of knife looks very cool, its actual combat effect is very average. After all, the size is placed there, and at the same time, because of the claw-type fighting, it tends to capture routines rather than short sword routines.

Therefore, when everyone is fighting with a knife, unless they are a real genius or a professional who has specially learned it, the claw knife will often suffer.

What's worse is that this kind of knife has only one function, only scratches but not stabs, and it hurts people with long and shallow wounds, that is to say, it is either useless in daily life, or it hurts large blood vessels or joints and loses money, jail or a combination of both .

Therefore, in addition to the convenience of ordinary people holding things to open express delivery, the only practical thing is to put them in the hands of police officers. After all, the design of the claw knife is conducive to the fastest removal and preparation for combat.

Considering that the police often encounter enemies wearing civilian clothes and mixing into the crowd, and then get close to the sudden attack, this kind of weapon that is conducive to quick combat in unfavorable postures is obviously useful.

However, this kind of weapon is basically not used in the army, because military knives are only a small part of their functions as weapons. The real core function is survival in the wild, and this kind of inner arc blade is not suitable for cutting hard things.

However, as Liang En knew before, although the performance of this knife is average, it has a great reputation, so these knives inlaid with gems and gold are not low in popularity, and they are very valuable whether they are exhibited or sold.

As for the other long box, there are all kinds of knives and swords, including the Brianan sword, which was popular in Indonesia in the 19th century. It was mainly used for noble hunting activities, so the swords found in the box are very exquisite. .

And from a historical point of view, because this kind of sword was outdated in the 19th century, there are no photos of the use of this sword, and there is even a lack of sufficient physical samples.

Therefore, the traditional swords that Liang En and the others found are very good in terms of value and historical value, at least they are very worthy of collection.

In addition to the three Burangan swords, there are many swords with completely different styles. It does not look like an exhibition of Indonesian local weapons, but a global weapons exhibition.

It can even be said that few regions of the world have a richer multinational sword and weapon tradition than the Indonesian archipelago, and the weapons and equipment in this region are so wide and varied that they are somewhat messy.

There is clear evidence of external or alien influences in this process of weapon diversification, particularly in hilts and holders, but interestingly there is little written evidence of these changes.

From those physical evidences, it can be inferred that after Indonesia became a very popular trading destination due to its huge resources, foreign weapons began to spread in the local area and became the mainstream culture of the local area.

For example, in addition to the health care that obviously has a local style, the two famous Indonesian golden swords they found obviously have the styles of India, China and Turkey.

However, in addition to the impact of various local weapons in places such as Central Asia and Western Asia, European colonists also had a huge impact on this region.

For example, in another box, there were two European-style long knives and two Russian-Caucasian-style long knives. However, after taking them out, they found that the blades of these swords were produced locally by imitating those European products.

This can also be seen as a process of global economic integration after entering the era of great voyages. At the same time, Indonesia is not the only one in the East that is affected by this wave.

To give the simplest example, the Yebilong Waist Saber, which was equivalent to Shangfang’s sword in other dynasties in the Qing Dynasty, was a German product, which obviously came from overseas trade.

(End of this chapter)