As groups of spies spread out, all kinds of news came back from the island of Ireland with carrier pigeons. Marin couldn't help frowning when he read the information......

Speaking of which, the situation on the island of Ireland is not that complicated. Now, there are probably a dozen indigenous forces. Each of its forces is similar to that of the Japanese daimyos. To put it bluntly, he is a powerful "village chief". Among them, the most powerful O'Neill family has only one or two thousand soldiers and horses in their hands.

However, the Irish people of this era still have a bit of barbarian characteristics. That is, ordinary residents can also go to war. Unlike the mainstream serf society in Europe, the serfs had little combat effectiveness.

And the difference between serfs and barbarian people is - serfs were domesticated into sheep by the nobility and had no spirit of resistance. And the barbarian people are more aggressive because they like freedom by nature.

For example, the O'Neill family, which is close to the direct territory of the British king, is estimated to be able to muster thousands of soldiers and horses in wartime......

Others, such as the Dempsey family, the O'Reilly family, the Brooks family, the O'Connor family, etc., can each make up two or three thousand soldiers.

(Irish people seem to have more surnames that start with the word Ao and start with Mac\\MC, if you encounter something that starts with Ao and mac\\mc, they are generally of Irish descent.) Of course, O'Neill's fat man doesn't count, it's a name given by blacks in imitation of whites. For example, McDonald's was founded by people of Irish descent, and McDonald's begins with Mc in English. McCarthy is also an Irish surname, and as mentioned earlier in the book, the McCarthy dynasty was destroyed by the protagonist. ）

But the problem is that it is generally difficult for these natives to gather together to fight. They are more accustomed to fighting in their own homeland than in alliance with other tribes.

Thanks to this, the English were able to break through individually. Otherwise, England's 30,000 troops may not be enough.

Marin was not worried about how strong the military power of the Irish natives was, and in the face of the powerful North Sea State army, the Irish aboriginal forces were all scum.

However, the information sent back by the spy made Marin frown. Because, the spy reports, the western part of the island of Ireland is rainy all year round. Fighting there, the use of firearms was affected.

Of course, this refers to arquebuses, but at the same time to artillery. After all, the current artillery is still ignited with a fire rope, and when it rains heavily, don't think about firing the cannon.

The clockwork musket can be used, but when loading, it is necessary to hide in a rainproof shelter to reload, so as not to get damp with the gunpowder. Only when you shoot can you not be afraid of the rain.

It is also thanks to the fact that all the gunpowder of the musketeers in the Beihai Kingdom is now sealed and packaged in oiled paper, and they are not afraid of wet weather. If you are an old-school musketeer, you put gunpowder in a copper kettle and stir it before the battle, so that the gunpowder must be damp.

But because the artillery was ignited by the fire gate, there was really no way. When it comes to the weather in the west of Ireland, it's called a scratch.

……

What's even more blind is the question of how these 25,000 soldiers, including almost 20,000 people, can shelter from the rain......

Speaking of which, ordinary soldiers are actually very easy to do. Because, the Beihai State has a rainproof artifact like a cloth. But the trouble was with the nobles, including Edward himself.

It's okay for you to have ordinary soldiers wear robes made of straw to protect them from the rain, but you can make the nobles, including King Edward, wear clothes made of grass...... It seems that they can't save face......

But if these people don't wear clothes, how can they protect themselves from the rain? Is it possible to stop military operations on a rainy day? These nobles are commanders. Without them, the soldiers wouldn't be able to attack alone......

"Do you want me to get them a raincoat to wear?" Marin muttered frustratedly.

In fact, this year, it's not impossible to make a raincoat. For example, using tung oil produced in the Ming Dynasty and soaking cotton cloth to make waterproof tarpaulin.

However, while this tarpaulin is waterproof, it is very afraid of fire. If they were hit by an opponent's rocket, the soldiers would have to roll in the fire. After all, tung oil is also oil, and cotton cloth is inherently flammable......

Moreover, there is not enough tung oil and cotton cloth to make tarpaulin in Marin at this time......

……

"No, I seem to have the materials to make a raincoat!" Marin suddenly remembered something, something he had abandoned before—raw rubber......

Raw rubber is rubber that is not vulcanized, and it has little practicality. In general, rubber vulcanization is best carried out after the rubber emulsion has been cut from the rubber tree. Because, at this time, the sulfur is relatively easy to evenly disperse in the rubber emulsion. Vulcanization with raw rubber is more difficult. This is because raw rubber does not melt into a liquid state, making it difficult to process. Maybe future generations of professionals don't find it difficult, but for Marlin, a chemical half-hanger, the finished raw rubber is really difficult to handle. So, he planned to cut the pile of rubber pieces that came from the boat into rubber balls and distribute them to the children to play with. Of course, it has not yet been implemented.

And this time, thinking of the raincoat, the memory in the depths of Marin's mind was turned over - it seems that the earliest raincoats were obtained by applying rubber emulsion to the cloth. The rubber is not flammable, and it is not afraid of being dealt with by the enemy by the method of "burning rattan armor soldiers" when worn on soldiers.

Of course, Marin's idea is not right. Tarpaulin made of tung oil is certainly flammable. However, as long as you take it out to cover it on a rainy day and put it away on a sunny day, there is no danger. You still wear a raincoat made of oilcloth on a sunny day, are you sick?

However, it would be better to have a rubber raincoat......

Marin also recalled an anecdote that the first raincoats were made by the Indians, who applied rubber emulsion directly to the clothing to make it waterproof. Later, the Frenchman Freno also used this method to make the first raincoat, but it was not made public. Later, a worker named McKindoos in the United Kingdom accidentally rubbed rubber viscosity on his clothes when he was processing raw rubber viscosity (natural rubber does not melt, but it will soften into a solid rubber state after high temperature). When it dried, he suddenly found that the clothes that had been glued to the raw rubber had the function of waterproofing. Then, other workers imitated it.

However, this method of sticking raw rubber to the surface of the clothing is not effective. Because, after the rubber is dry and hard, it becomes brittle and easy to break.

Later, an engineer named Parkes used carbon disulfide as a solvent to dissolve raw rubber and then soak the clothes in the solution. After taking it out, when the carbon disulfide component volatilizes, it is made into a raincoat......

But this raincoat still has a disadvantage, that is, when exposed to high temperatures, the rubber on the clothes is easy to become soft and sticky...... If you wipe it with your hands at this time, your clothes will be ruined......

Therefore, later generations used vulcanized natural rubber to dissolve and then make raincoats, which solved this problem......

……

Marlin now has no vulcanized natural rubber in his hands, nor does he have carbon disulfide as a solvent. However, he knew that natural rubber was not only soluble in carbon disulfide, it was also soluble in gasoline......

Carbon disulfide Marlin doesn't have it, but Gasoline does have it. At present, Marin receives oil from Galicia every month, which can be used to fractionate gasoline as a weapon for the cost of burning wood in the future.

Now, it's time to make a wave of raincoats......

Although Marin now only has raw rubber that has not been vulcanized, the raincoat made cannot be exposed to high temperatures. But Marlin wasn't worried, why? Because of the high latitude of the island of Ireland, there is basically no exposure to very high temperatures.

Therefore, the raincoat he made of raw rubber generally does not encounter the situation of semi-melting and viscous. Besides, Marlin can ask Edward and other aristocratic users to take out raincoats on rainy days......

In this way, Marin took out raw rubber blocks and gasoline and began to make the original raincoat. This batch of raincoats was mainly aimed at the nobility of England. After all, these nobles don't want to wear face-losing clothes like lichen on rainy days. As for the officers of the North Sea Country, they didn't have that idea. After all, Marin himself took the lead in wearing a cloak of stalks.

However, Marin has enough raw materials in his hands this time, so he might as well get one for each of them. After all, it was a bit shameless for the British aristocracy to see their own officers wearing straw clothes......

Wait until the next time Cuba gets back the vulcanized natural rubber, and then produce cooked rubber raincoats that are not afraid of high temperature exposure......