In addition to the appearance of the Storm Musket Legion, the Storm Army has a very significant change today, that is, the Storm Cavalry class, after several years of naming, truly has a human cavalry regiment!

I think that when Duke first came to Storm Castle, the cavalry of Storm Castle at that time was called the Frontier Knights, and it was also a cavalry unit that any frontier territory of the French Empire would have. And this is also the exclusive name of the minor nobles, such as the big lord, such as the Duke of Otto, is directly called the lion cavalry, and will not use the title of the obscure border knights.

At that time, there were only a few hundred people in the entire Frontier Knights, and these hundreds of people were the nobles who stood out from the tens of thousands of people in Storm Castle. Originally, it was impossible to have hundreds of knights in a small place like Storm Castle, but in order to attract people to come over to the border, the French Empire announced a long time ago that as long as there were horses willing to go to Storm Castle to fight against the Ice Demon, they would be able to get the title of knight granted by His Majesty the Emperor.

There has never been a shortage of warriors in this world, and there will be no shortage of people who are not afraid of death, the storm troopers are even as high as thousands at most, but due to the decline of the French Empire, the support for the storm castle is getting less and less, so in the end, there are only a few hundred border knights left.

And Duke relied on these hundreds of border knights to form the Storm Troopers. But it has always been only in name, and the Storm Troopers have never had the size of a regiment, at most they are responsible for the task of scouting. Even as time went by, the number of people became smaller and smaller, and at the very least, there were only a few dozen people left, and almost all of them became storm guards, and the human cavalry of the entire storm fortress was already in name only.

However, after Duke's efforts to be said to be a little bit of a pick, the number of horses in Storm Castle finally reached the size of 1,000 horses again, and there was also a systematic horse farm, which laid the foundation for the supply of storm troopers in the future. But these thousand storm cavalry are only new recruits, and the number is still too small to form a cavalry regiment alone.

Cavalry is more important than infantry, and only a large-scale cavalry charge can destroy any defense like the tanks of this era. And once the number of people is reduced, the impact power will also drop in a straight line, and it is basically impossible to take down the enemy.

So Duke had been waiting, waiting for the Storm Troopers to be able to truly gallop on the battlefield one day. This day has finally made Duke wait, with the addition of two thousand mountain cavalry, the number of storm cavalry has now reached three thousand, and two cavalry regiments will be perfectly formed!

At its peak, the Takayama Army was even close to tens of thousands, but after the battle with Duke, coupled with the consumption of the civil strife in Takayama City, there were only 5,000 people left. And these 5,000 people helped Duke establish two new types of troops, which can be regarded as a great achievement.

With the formation of the Storm Musketeers and Storm Troopers, the battle force at Storm Fort has now swelled to 25,500 men, including 9,000 Storm Human Infantry, 4,000 Musketeers, and 3,000 Storm Troopers. There were 3,000 heavy infantry in the dwarven army, 1,500 in the war sheep cavalry regiment, and 5,000 in the fish-man army.

But this is only the official combat strength of the Storm Army, if according to the general standards of this world, the hidden strength of the Storm Army is far more than more than 20,000 people. With 10,000 Storm Logistics Army, 10,000 Storm Recruits, and the 5,000 Fishmen Army and 5,000 Fishmen Reserve Army that are about to join, it can be said that the combatants of Storm Fort have exceeded 50,000, officially surpassing the personnel of the Andorran Prince's Army and becoming the largest force in the Andorran Prince's Kingdom.

After all, the strength of the Prince of Andorra's army is close to 50,000, including the 11th Army of the Imperial Bureau and the Alpine Army of 5,000, and now there are less than 10,000 people, and the Prince of Andorra's army can't even get together 40,000 people, it is because of the rapid decline in strength that the Prince of Andorra has never had the courage to attack the Storm Castle, after all, the Storm Castle has more than 20,000 people even if it is the military strength exposed before, can the Andorran Prince Army, which has more than 30,000 people, really be able to attack the city and defeat the Alpine City and the Storm Fort?

The answer to this is actually obvious, that is, according to the sturdiness of the fortress in this era, unless there is a hot weapon such as a cannon, or a powerful army of magicians, it is simply a fool's dream to capture Storm Castle. The Prince of Andorra was not stupid, and he was not carried away by anger, so he approached Archbishop Auray to discuss using the Light Army to cooperate with the outside world, but they didn't expect Duke's speed to be too fast, which directly shattered their idea.

The total number of military forces has exceeded fifty thousand, and Duke couldn't help but gasp when he saw this number, after all, his father, Duke Otto, had run the Duchy of Berry for so many years, and it was estimated that it was this number of lion troops, Duke guessed that the Silver Moon Army and the Maple Leaf Army would be added.

However, in the recent period, the Silver Moon Army and the Maple Leaf Army have also expanded wildly, and it is estimated that the 50,000 Storm Army is still slightly inferior to the Lion Army in terms of absolute numbers. But Duke firmly believes that in terms of combat effectiveness, it is basically impossible to be much inferior to the Lion Army, after all, the Storm Army now has epoch-making firearms!

After the Army Formation Parade, Duke also inspected the Storm Musketeers' cotton armor. The so-called cotton armor is not simply a vest made of cotton, which has little defense. The real cotton armor is to compact the cotton layer by layer, and the pressure is as firm as an iron plate, and it can even directly resist the chopping of ordinary weapons. And it is not enough to rely on cotton alone, in the cotton armor interlayer, a layer of iron should be added to increase the defensive ability.

Therefore, cotton armor is actually a piece of armor covered with iron sheets, which may be inferior to plate armor for cold weapons, but for hot weapons such as muskets, cotton armor is actually completely equal to iron armor in terms of defensive ability because it can be cushioned by several layers, and even slightly exceeds some.

Moreover, cotton armor is not as warm in summer and cool in winter as general plate armor, and cotton armor also has a certain function of keeping out the cold, which is much more comfortable than storm armor when worn in winter. And the cotton armor is much lighter, the weight of cotton is about three or four kilograms, and the weight of the patch and the inlaid copper nails are about the same weight, which means that even if the cotton armor is thick, the total weight of the helmet will not exceed ten kilograms.

This is a world away from the Storm Armor, which weighs almost thirty kilograms with a total weight, and the weight is directly reduced by two-thirds. If it weren't for the range and rate of fire of the Storm Musket, which required the Storm Infantry to block the front for hand-to-hand combat, it is estimated that the Storm Army soldiers would be willing to wear cotton armor, which is too comfortable!