THE dense forests and deep ravines of the Taihang Moutnaisn once made southeastern Shanxi province one of China's more backward areas in transportation.…A commune in Huguan county once went in for collecting mountain products such as fruit and medicinal herbs, in the hope that they could be got out, but because of insufficient transport a thousand tons of them rotted one year.
There were no legharnesses but, instead, special boots modeled after the Roman soldier’s caligae.[…]In the early 1500s German armorers developed a foot-combat armor which had large symmetrical pauldrons with haute-pieces, full closed vambraces with laminated joint defense opposite the cowters, and full legharnesses with closed cuisses and laminated defense opposite the poleyns.
She used to bound through the plantations, her eye first caught by one object, then another, gazing round for something to admire and to love. Now she walked slowly, her eyes fixed on the ground, as if, in all the wide fair world, there was nothing to attract nor to interest.
On the whole, however, the dominie reckoned this as one of the white days of his life.
