>>63947072
Fuck it I'll bite. If this thread is to be believed China was somehow in a quantum superposition between getting btfo by everyone and inventing everything first. That's bullshit. As someone who actually studies China, and understands enough about their culture, history and language to be properly bigoted against them, everyone here is wrong.

They did use Lamellar armor where it remained relavent. Like, when they were out in the steppe they were dealing with a lot of archers and very few guns. Eg, when they had to fight the Dzungar (one of many times the Chinese slaughtered a entire enthic group fighting for its home).

Outside of that the fuckers who did wear that armor where guns were used were mostly bannermen, who didn't know how to fight and were at that point state funded larpers because they were 6-7th generation Manchu warriors, who showed up in the square once a month to shoot their bows. I cannot stress this enough, they were quite literally state funded larpers and one of the largest drains on the Qing treasury.

Until they started getting serious (for the Chinese) about modernizing after the second opium war, their real army tended to be traditional peasant conscripts largely using crossbows, spears and matchlocks. These troops were a step up from say the Zulu, as far as tech went, but they didn't have armor.

As a side note if you ever really want to piss any type of thirdie off, it doesn't really matter what type, just bring up how well western musket drill absolutely btfo'd their tradional warriors. It worked in India, worked in Africa, fuck, the only reason the casualties aren't decisive tang victory high in China is because the Chinese kept on running really early into the battles. (Pic related)

I could go on about how impotent the Chinese were if anyone would like.