After talking to Osborne's butler before, after he mentioned the situation of the Normandy Consortium, William found that he had not cared about anything other than military affairs for a long time, so he and Osborne found a day to visit several factories of the Normandy Consortium in the Earldom of Evreux.

William's first stop was the steelworks, arsenals, machine factories and mints under construction near Fort Vernon on the Seine, an area where the steel, machinery and military industries were concentrated, and William's most important center for the production and development of steel, armor, weapons and various machinery, could be called the flower of the industrial revolution in the Middle Ages, even in any county was more important than the factories here.

William is no longer familiar with this factory area where the steel industry is concentrated, from the construction of this factory area to the research and development and application of new technologies, William has led the credit.

If anything, the factory area differed from the blacksmith shops that were common in the Middle Ages, and it was the concentration of industries, the large-scale investment of capital, the large-scale employment of craftsmen, the elaborate division of labor, and the extensive use of new technologies led by hydraulic machinery.

This industrial zone alone produces 80,000 tons of pig iron and 18,000 tons of crude steel annually, and just last year, this industrial zone provided me with 8,000 sets of plate armor, 30,000 swords, halberds, guns and other weapons, 3,000 crossbows and 300,000 arrows.

In addition, there were 6,000 sets of full-body plate armor and 50,000 weapons supplied to the Normandy consortium for export, generating a revenue of 100,000 pounds of silver.

Of course, this factory area is also a real gold-eating beast, in order to develop and invest in new smelting technology, research and development of new weapons and machinery that have collapsed from William's head, and expand the new production capacity of the factory, the profit of 100,000 pounds of silver a year is simply not enough to spend, and William has to pay tens of thousands of pounds of silver every year.

But even so, William did not hesitate, like the iron-making blast furnace located in the new factory in front of William, which is the product of his heavy investment in research and development.

The huge furnace body up to nine meters high, the endless stream of iron ore above the furnace mouth is transported from below to the blast furnace mouth by a water-driven transmission belt into the blast furnace, and on both sides of the blast furnace, there are also coke ovens, hot blast furnaces, heating furnaces, boilers and other ancillary facilities, without a large amount of capital investment, this steel miracle simply could not bloom in the dark Middle Ages.

Next, William and Osborne's butler inspected the arsenal and the machine factory, two large factories employing thousands of people, which had widely used various hydraulic machinery, such as hydraulic forging hammers, hydraulic grinding wheels, hydraulic grinding machines, hydraulic turning machine tools and other equipment were successively 'invented' by the craftsmen here.

In addition, the quenching and annealing processes that were not used in forging weapons and armor during the 11th century medieval forging period were also widely used in arsenals and machine factories, and the one-man quenching furnace is a testament to William's industrial progress.

The function of the quenching and annealing process is to make the sword armor more tough, so that it is not easy to break in the chopping, and other countries and regions do not adopt the quenching process, the weapons they forge are very easy to break, so in order to increase the service life of the sword, these craftsmen use the method of increasing the thickness of the sword, so that these swords become a big sword and a big sword weighing more than ten catties.

Like the portrait of William the Conqueror in history, he is holding a heavy broadsword, as a king, the weapon in his hand must be the most sophisticated, but even as a king, he can only hold a heavy and clumsy broadsword, which shows what a heavy weapon other knights in the Middle Ages held in their hands.

In contrast, William's arsenals generally used the quenching process, and the swords they made were generally tougher and sharper than those produced in other countries and regions, and a single-handed sword produced in Normandy was generally more than twice as light as other old swords.

Therefore, the swords sold by the Chamber of Commerce of the Normandy Consortium were warmly welcomed by the princes of various countries, who had never seen such sharp, tough, and light weapons, and they all paid a lot of money to buy them from William's Normandy Chamber of Commerce.

However, compared with the developed steel and military industries of Normandy, its light industry and handicraft industry were not outstanding, and the only thing that could be used was cheap linen and cotton cloth produced using rudimentary water-powered spinning machines and looms.

There was still a large market for these inferior but unusually cheap linen and cotton cloths, and usually the serfs and free serfs were happy to buy cheap woven fabrics produced in Normandy.

However, if we want to change the imbalance of light and heavy industry in Normandy, we cannot rush it.

After visiting the steel base and textile factory on the Seine River in the county of Evreux, William and Osborne steward sailed north along the Seine, a journey of nearly 200 kilometers before landing at the mouth of the Seine, a port town called Honfleur.

Normandy is the closest beach to Paris, only 200 kilometres from Paris, where the port of Honfleur is located.

A small port town, the surrounding port berths are full of large and small trading ships and fishing boats, and the loud shouts of hawkers are heard one after another in the busy crowd.

In contrast to the hustle and bustle of the port area, the 10th-century wooden church is still quietly and majestically located in the center of the town, where prayer seekers can seek a spiritual habitat after being busy.

When William finally had the leisure to visit the seaside town, William specially asked the officials of the town to find the best chef here to cook a sumptuous seafood feast for himself, the steward of Osborne, and the soldiers of the Guards who followed.

All kinds of oysters thrive in the Atlantic Ocean for a whole year, just to bloom like this. In addition, there are fresh trout, fatty French deep-sea shellfish, fried in butter to satisfy your taste buds in every minute.

And, of course, there is the mussels, which in France are a perfect match with cream, and you just need to sprinkle a little salt to get out of the pan. So on the streets of Honfleur, you'll always find people on their tables with a huge container of butter mussels, a winter specialty.

William's favorite dish is this deep-sea shellfish with creamy mussels, which can be eaten with lemon juice or mixed vinegar sauce.

Finally, William also told everyone, don't underestimate this deep sea shell, the mellow and thick taste, absolutely unforgettable, and finally remember to dip the soup at the bottom of the bowl, the taste of mussels and the faint milky aroma complement each other.

On this day, William forgot about his work and wandered the streets of Honfleur, where he was graciously invited by local officials to taste the seafood and watch the dances and plays that are unique to the region.

William spent a day here, and the next day he went with Steward Osborne and his own Guards to the harbor salt works, the destination.