Chapter 818: Li Wugou
All of the Black Robes Cavalry were at least Xiantian Beings. Otherwise, they would not survive the terrifying weight of the armor.
The infantry armor was made up of 1,825 armor plates, typically weighing around 35 kilograms. Adding more plates improved protection but also increased the burden. Crossbowmen’s armor was lighter, at around 30 kilograms; archers at 40 kilograms; and gunmen up to 42 kilograms. On the battlefield, an archer’s gear could be temporarily boosted to 42 kilograms and a gunman’s to 53 kilograms.
That was the pinnacle of armor weight at the time—53 kilograms. In contrast, the Black Robes Heavy Cavalry Armor weighed nearly ten times more.
Ordinary Houtian Beings would be crushed to death under such weight. Only Xiantian Beings with strong physiques could even hope to wear it, let alone move freely in it. That was why most of the Black Robes were Martial Arts Practitioners.
Their mounts were dragon-horse hybrids, also called Dragon Horses. These beasts had immense strength. They bore the weight of the fully armored rider and wore armor themselves that covered even their bellies and hooves. Altogether, they carried nearly one tonne of weight and could still charge forward fearlessly.
Including the Dragon Horse, each fully equipped cavalry unit weighed about 1,500 kilograms. The cost for the rider’s and the horse’s armor alone was nearly 20,000 Taiping coins, not including training a Martial Arts Practitioner fit to take on the role and their salary. So 10 riders meant 200,000 Taiping coins; 100 would be 2 million Taiping coins; 1,000 would be 20 million Taiping coins.
For comparison, Daoist income across the entire realm in one year only totaled about 100 million Taiping coins. This cavalry was the pinnacle of elite forces—an army literally built from gold and silver.
In some ways, even the Spirit Guard’s Armor was not this expensive, since its value came mostly from divine power. The Black Robes Armor relied purely on its material and craftsmanship.
The Great Xuan Court currently maintained about 9,000 such cavalry units. They were not created all at once but accumulated over decades or even centuries. Many sets of armor were passed down from generation to generation. If a rider died, the armor had to be recovered at all costs.
Still, they got what they paid for. The sheer might of the Black Robes Cavalry was unmatched. Their formation charges were like a tidal wave of steel. Any common Jianghu master or Fenglin’s cavalry would crumble on impact. They were mere rabble before a force that could defeat 10,000 men.