Duke naturally didn't know what Hera was thinking, although he had already guessed that Hera's purpose was not simple, but he didn't expect that the Dark Witch Society was on the verge of life and death, and the main suppressor of the French Empire was his cheap father.

The successful trial operation of the hydraulic hammer forging allowed the metal smelting of Stormcastle to begin, and with the multiple blessings of coke, hydraulic blowers and magic arrays, the temperature of the blast furnace was finally able to reach an unprecedented level of about 1600 degrees, breaking through the melting point of pure iron, and the first furnace of liquid iron on the continent of Europa appeared.

The emergence of liquid iron can directly use a variety of casting molds, and with embryo casting, the cost of various later shaping can be greatly reduced. Especially in the area of agricultural equipment with low requirements, with the application of hydraulic machinery, the cost has been directly reduced to less than one-third of the previous one, and it can be further reduced.

This means that in the future, the farmers of Storm Castle will use the cheapest and best iron tools, and the production efficiency will be increased by at least 30%. It's just a simple change in agricultural use, and the sentence that science and technology are the primary productive forces has been implemented to the end!

Of course, this is only an additional project, and Duke's current need is still the high-carbon steel armor of the late Middle Ages, which is an epoch-making armor of the Cold Weapon Age. Duke thinks that it can be called epoch-making, not that the defense has reached any invincible realm, because many top-level handmade armor, after being mixed with other alloys, can not lag behind in defense.

Its epoch-making significance is that it refers to hydraulic hammer forging and has entered the initial stage of industrial production. Moreover, Duke has achieved a higher furnace temperature, reaching the temperature at which steel can be made from wrought iron, which omits complicated steps such as frying steel, decarburizing cast iron into steel, etc., and can also directly obtain large pieces of plate steel.

The wholeness of the whole plate not only further improves the defense, but also reduces the hammer forging and riveting time. In particular, if a one-piece helmet can be forged, then the life support of soldiers will be greatly improved, and even in the age of primary firearms, Duke is confident that his plate armor can resist the fire of early muskets.

A breakthrough has been made in the production of plate armor, and now the biggest problem facing the hydraulic factory is to manufacture ergonomic curved full-body armor in batches, and the biggest difficulty of this full-body armor is to ensure the flexibility of the joints, otherwise it will really wear an iron coffin to the battlefield.

The reason why the set of armor that Duke brought from the Otto family before was so precious that only the high-ranking swordsmen of the Otto family were qualified to wear it was because such a set of full-body armor might take the top armor craftsman half a year to make such a pair.

It is conceivable that with this kind of efficiency, it is almost impossible to mass-produce and equip the army, even if there is a hydraulic hammer forging machine now, it is necessary to have a machine tool known as the mother of industry.

However, Duke also knew that it was unrealistic to try to get the machine tool out at once, and it was enough to crush most of the army's equipment in the world by making the main plate armor and helmet first.

The blacksmiths of Storm Castle have a wealth of experience in making armor, after all, this kind of frontier castle is always facing the threat of war. So in less than three days, the world's first set of high-carbon plate armor and overall helmet has been produced.

At the same time, in order to verify the armor's defensive power, this time Duke directly brought Cassel and Alan directly to the hydro factory, where they will experience the new plate armor produced by Stormcastle for themselves.

Two brand-new sets of plates were placed right in front of them, polished to reflect a mesmerizing metallic glow. Cassel and Allen, when they first saw this plate armor, their eyes seemed to be attracted, they couldn't take their eyes off it at all, and the expressions on their faces were extremely surprised.

"My lord, is this really the plate armor forged from Storm Castle?"

Cassel walked over to the side of the plate and asked Duke in a disbelieving tone as he stroked it with his hand.

"That's right, this is the plate armor we forged ourselves in Stormcastle!" Duke replied proudly.

Alan also stroked the armor and muttered, "This is better than Duke Otto's exclusive guard armor, and even inferior to the armor of the royal knights." ”

"I feel better than the royal knights of Stormcastle, and probably only the knight chief Adams' full-body armor can match. If you engrave the magic runes again, then you will not lose to the best Holy See Knight armor in this world, which is really amazing!"

Cassel and Allen, one by one, amazed and praised, Duke's face was also full of smug smiles, what he wanted was this effect, after all, he made something beyond the times, if no one knew the goods and touted it, then life would lose the meaning of pretending.

"Alright, you guys put it on and try it on first, and see how effective this plate armor is!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Hearing Duke's words, Cassel and Alan couldn't wait to change into a new type of plate armor. A new type of plate armor is worn on the body, although there are no decorations yet, but the high-quality steel has already shown its gorgeousness, which is a rare metallic luster in the continent of Europa!

"What do you think?" Duke asked, as warriors, they were the ones who knew the armor best.

"Very good lord, not only has the defense increased several times, but it is also much lighter than our previous iron armor, this is the best armor I have ever worn. ”

Alan replied excitedly, he entered Duke Otto step by step from the bottom soldier, and he knew all kinds of armor, so he could feel the difference as soon as he put it on. “

"It's useless to just talk, Cassel will try it with his sword!" Duke said lightly, he had absolute confidence in his plate armor.

In the same way, Cassel did not hesitate at all, as a professional soldier of Duke, as long as it is an order, it must be carried out, because the first article of Duke's military regulations, that is, obeying orders is the first duty of a soldier!

So Cassel directly pulled out the long sword at his waist and slashed at the armor on Allen's body.

The sound of metal striking sounded, and even sparks came out, but the armor was not damaged at all except for a little impact mark, which meant that the armor was amazingly hard, surpassing the long sword in Cassel's hand.

Hammer forge the defense of the plate armor, Duke nodded in satisfaction, this is what he had expected. It's just that this kind of defensive ability is a shock to Cassel and Allen, in just half a month, the lord has forged one of the best armors on the continent, which is simply a miracle!

Perhaps wanting to test the limit of the plate armor's defense, at this time Alan said: "Lord Lord, I want to attack the plate armor with fighting spirit to see how strong its defense is!"

"Alan, are you still vindictive?" Duke asked in surprise.