"See Your Majesty, if the minister Claude had reported to you, he would have wanted to go to the Pier Palace to meet you, but he didn't expect to see you in the arsenal, so he took the liberty to come to see you." Reliable respectfully said.

"It's okay, Claude, I don't value the red tape, no need to be polite, just say something." William smiled and waved his hand.

Having been in charge of the Royal Arsenal for more than ten years, Master Claude is no longer the great blacksmith of Wood when William started, and he is quite familiar with bureaucratic etiquette.

"Your Majesty, please look." Claude took a piece of breastplate armor that was as bright as a mirror, bowed down and presented it to William, and said, "This is a part of the breastplate that my Norman plate armor was copied from the private blacksmith workshops of Milan, Florence, and Ancona in Italy, which was occasionally found by the caravans attached to the Royal Arsenal when they were procuring goods. ”

William rubbed the plate mirror of the breastplate parts with his hand, knocked it with his hand again, picked it up and checked it, and said: "This breastplate armor already has the basic performance of my Norman plate armor, but there is still a gap in terms of material, so the weight of this breastplate armor is heavier, even if there is a difference in strength, it is not far behind." ”

Then William shook his head and looked at Claude and said, "Claude, you are too much of a fuss, I don't care about the plate armor imitated by the Italian workshop. ”

William had already prepared for the Italians to copy his plate armor, which had appeared for so many years, had shown great might on countless battlefields, and was boasted of by his opponent in the decisive battle with the Holy Roman Empire, how could William's opponent not start to imitate plate armor.

As for the first appearance of this imitation plate armor in Italy, William was not surprised, because the earliest ring armor in history, that is, Rome, was forged by Italian craftsmen.

Plate armor is not a type of armor pioneered in the Middle Ages, and its use has been recorded as early as the classical period. A typical example is the Romans' ring plate armor.

At the end of the Roman Empire, the Romans did use plate armor, but after the Roman barbarianization, they still abandoned the use of ring plate armor, probably because of the high cost of ring armor and the high maintenance cost, for the economic decline of the Roman Empire, ring plate armor was no longer an economic option.

Although chainmail became the mainstay for a few hundred years after the fall of the western Roman Empire, the basis for forging plate armor by Italian craftsmen was not lost, so it was possible to quickly imitate Norman plate armor.

The two most famous types of plate armor in history, Milan plate armor and Gothic plate armor, were invented by the Italians, Milan plate armor as the name suggests was invented and manufactured by the Italians in Milan, Italy, while Gothic plate armor was first invented by the Italians, used by Britain, France, the Netherlands and other countries, and then came to Germany.

In response to William's question, Claude explained: "Your Majesty, the plate armor made by the Italians is obviously beaten by hydraulic machinery, which is very alarming, and this plate armor uses the unique Italian folded corrugated technology, although it is not much, but it can greatly enhance the strength of the plate armor. ”

"Oh?" William was somewhat interested in what Claude had raised, and he rubbed the mirror of the plate armor, and indeed as Claude said, there were obvious traces of the hammer blowing, and there were several obvious folds and corrugated in the belly of the breastplate, which was indeed a technique that Norman plate armor did not have.

This slotted fold was often used in Gothic plate armor under William's influence, and many people may not describe it when talking about Gothic plate armor, but he had a profound influence on it. This kind of slotting \ pleating technology is to form a raised edge on the surface of the armor, which can achieve the effect of strengthening the armor without increasing the weight, and also has a beautiful and conspicuous effect.

Especially when it comes to slashing with sword weapons, the protruding arcs formed by these folds are extremely effective, and the Gayne curves tend to be the strongest structures, while these raised grooves can also absorb the impact of some strike weapons, and also have a good defensive effect against maces and flails.

It can be said that this pleated slotting technology directly improves the protection ability of the plate armor by more than one level, and can even effectively make up for the weakness of the plate armor when fighting blunt weapons such as maces and flails.

This pleating technique is unique to Italian craftsmen, and it is not only used in armor, but also in construction techniques, such as various Italian churches, Greek columns, etc.

William put aside the breastplate armor in his hand and said to Claude: "Claude, Italian plate armor does have some uniqueness, especially this kind of folded slotted corrugated technology, we must crack it, quickly get familiar with it, and use it in our plate armor manufacturing."

At the same time, don't relax against Italy's plate armor technology, on the one hand, you must be good at absorbing the advantages of Italian plate armor, on the other hand, you must also find opportunities to carry out sabotage operations and delay the opponent's R&D and manufacturing progress, this aspect will be arranged by me, I will instruct Count Russell to send spies to Milan, Florence and Ancona in Italy as soon as possible, and you will also cooperate with him at that time. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Claude knelt on the ground, put his right hand on his chest, and said, "In addition, I have found that the Italians are copying our unique counterweight trebuchet, which is a sketch of the Italians replicating the trebuchet. ”

Taking the sketch book handed by Claude, William looked through it, and it was indeed as he said, that the trebuchet made by the Italians had a very conspicuous counterweight boulder, and was no longer a primitive stone thrower pulled by man.

It seems that in future wars, William will also encounter armies equipped with sturdy breastplates and powerful counterweight stone throwers, so that the superiority of one of his proud military equipment will no longer be prominent, which is indeed a bit troubling.

"It seems that the development of artillery and muskets will have to be accelerated." William made up his mind.

"Claude, I will arrange these things, the most important task on your side is to complete the mass production of artillery and the development and mass production of arquebuses, how is the progress on your side?" William asked.

"Back to Your Majesty, the mass production of artillery is very smooth, we have enough copper material to use to cast bronze cannons, there is no technical difficulty, but the success rate is slightly lower, but we can recast the waste products, and there will not be much waste.

And we have a unique hydraulic boring machine, after the barrel is cast, the use of hydraulic boring machine can remove the burr hole on the inner wall of the barrel, which is enough to ensure the accuracy of the gun.

At present, the arsenal has produced 32 six-pounder breech guns, which can produce 16 six-pounder guns per month, and the remaining 12-pounder breech guns and short-barreled mortar guns are only in trial production on a small scale, and they are still being improved. Claude replied with a few words.

"Artillery is the most important weapon we use to replace the counterweight trebuchet, and mass production must be carried out as soon as possible, as well as the rest of the artillery, and I will find time to check it out every week.

So how is the manufacture of arquebuses progressing? Well, take me and Richard to the workshop. William commanded Claude.

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will lead the way for you and His Royal Highness the Prince." Claude stood up and bowed.