Chapter 2123： Aiqing is really a loyal minister!

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Opening the bag, the Frenchman looked at the dark gray "volcanic ash", smelled it, tasted it, and didn't notice anything special. Fortunately, Marin upgraded the manure to worm manure long ago, and the Frenchman did not taste the sour taste of manure. Otherwise, it will be exposed.

In fact, worm feces are very similar to soil. Although it is not smelly, it also has a smell of soil. Therefore, Marin mixed some plant ash and real stone powder to cover the smell of soil. The stone powder is actually leftovers when the masons in the quarry process the stones. There are stone powder and crushed stones.

Then, Marin organized some laborers to crush them with medicines stepped on by their feet, repeatedly crushing, and most of the stones crushed. There are also some gravel, which are hardly broken with a hydraulic forging hammer.

But the hydraulic forging hammer can only smash large stones, not very finely. The windmill mill, which is a stone mill, is not suitable for crushing stones, which will hurt the stone mill. Therefore, Marin simply took out a batch of iron medicine rollers and let some women who had no work to smash the stones. It just so happens, give some food subsidies or change.

Spring plowing in Beihai Country has ended, because it is rye that does not require much management, most people are very idle. For this reason, Marin asked the men in the Harz Mountains to chisel stones and the women to knock the stones and crush the stones. All of these can produce benefits. Of course, Marin is also paid. Food, or brass coins will do.

Stone blocks can be processed into ashlar for construction, to build castles or churches. The gravel can be used as a paving stone. But this time, Marin asked the women to crush the stones with medicine to deal with the French.

After all, you said it was volcanic ash. The volcano must be a stone mountain. Volcanic ash must be a little pebble, right? Therefore, Marin did not ask for the powder to be completely crushed, but kept some small fine stones, proving that it was "from the mountain".

Sure enough, seeing those mixed fine stones, the French did not doubt that it was not volcanic ash. If it is pure worm feces, the French might doubt it.

Marin didn't know, the French are actually starting to make Icelandic ideas now. After all, if you own Iceland, you have Iceland’s "volcanic ash". But the premise is that the French must first suppress England. Otherwise, if you send a few ships, they will be intercepted by England, which is meaningless.

But the French have not been very successful recently, because the English Channel in spring is very windy, which is good for sailing, and not very friendly to the French Calais. Therefore, we have to wait until the summer to launch more attacks on the coast of England.

However, the French did not know that the secret of the Calais had long been revealed to England in its entirety by Marin. Today, the English shipyards have begun to build Calais, and they have also recruited Italian captains to guide how to control the galley.

For the actions of the English, the Kingdom of Aragon in Spain gave strong support. Although because of the death of Princess Catherine, Spain and England almost turned their faces. But under the huge threat of the possible rise of the French navy, the Spaniards decisively put aside their prejudices and joined forces with the English.

Then, the Kingdom of Aragon, also proficient in paddle sailing, sent a large number of naval officers to England to serve as instructors. In addition, the construction of galleys by the English shipyard also received technical support from the Kingdom of Aragon.

In short, even in the summer, it is difficult for the French to get a bargain. Because the English also have similar warships and tactics.

…

Not only France and England are preparing for the summer conflict, but to the south of Austria, Emperor Maximilian I is also actively preparing for the war.

Ma Lin has already sent a batch of "Jiangnan Tannery" armors for export, which are leather wraps with steel plates. This kind of flapper leather bandaging armor does not affect the movement as much as the plate armor, and the connection method is a flexible connection. It is convenient to wear and does not affect activities after being put on. Especially the cavalry can do some difficult moves on horseback. For example, dodge the collision of the opponent's lance.

If you wear plate armor, you can bend over to try? Sorry, the person is fixed. It's like a splint on an arm joint, and it can't bend.

Therefore, in the 18th century, when Europeans came up with simple cuirassiers, they did not wear complete upper body plate armor, but all wore three-quarters of breastplates, or even two-thirds of breastplates. The waist was free so that the cavalry could move on horseback.

Especially in the age of firearms, if you sit upright on horseback, you are likely to be shot. But if you charge on horseback with a steel helmet on your head, your safety will be greatly improved.

Of course, that was the situation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Right now, the biggest meaning of this kind of flapper leather bandage is that it's cheap...Then, the second biggest meaning is that it doesn't have to be waited on...

The average plate-armored knight, after wearing a full set of plate armor, walks well, but the stride is small. Can be mounted...plate armor pants affect the flexibility of mounting. It's easy to fail if you mount it alone.

Therefore, in the event of a war, a plate knight must bring an attendant. Even if they have no attendants, such as heavy cavalry, the officer will arrange light cavalry to serve the plate armored heavy cavalry and help them mount their horses.

Previously, when Malin was a wandering knight, he didn't wear plate armor pants. Although it was because he did not have them, it was also convenient for him to get on and off the horse. But even if you don't wear plate armor pants, getting on and off the horse is actually not convenient. Because of the full-body breastplate, the waist cannot be twisted casually, which greatly affects the efficiency of the horse.

Therefore, the Maozi of Eastern Europe and the native chickens of West Asia are unwilling to learn and adopt even if they come into contact with the plate armor of Western Europe. Because this is too inconvenient. In the face of muskets and artillery, the Eastern style zha and chain mail are the same as the Western European plate armor, and they cannot resist. Therefore, they are too lazy to learn. It's a musket, the Ottomans learned a lot. Musketeers from the Balkans were also the absolute heroes of Ottoman Turkey in defeating the Safavid Empire of Persia and the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt.

…

This time, Marin gave the emperor the flapper leather dressing armor, plus the matching horse armor, a total of 3,000 sets, each set only cost 25 gold coins. It's simply jumping off the property price and soaring the blood price!

In fact, the emperor himself did it. He ordered people to imitate 500 sets of flapper leather bandages sent by Marin. UU reading has nothing to do with leather bags and armor pieces. Everyone is at the same level, and the cost difference is too small.

However, the emperor was a little dumbfounded when it was his turn. Why? The nail plate produced in Austria is not only inferior to the high-carbon steel plate of the North Sea country, but the cost is also very high.

It needs to be pointed out that the high-carbon steel in the North Sea country is first used to smelt raw iron in an iron-making blast furnace. Then, put the pig iron into the crucible furnace, and use the crucible steelmaking method to smelt high carbon steel. Because it sits in the Ruhr area, Marin coal can't be used up and the cost is very low.

Austria is more miserable. There are no coal mines here and only charcoal is used. Charcoal is made from wood, and the cost is much higher than coal. Moreover, the furnace temperature is also difficult to reach the furnace temperature for coal combustion.

Therefore, in Austria, iron smelting furnaces are not widely used. Many blacksmiths are still using block iron making technology to produce iron ingots. However, block iron has many impurities and poor quality, which requires a blacksmith to repeatedly heat and beat on a charcoal fire.

The process of beating is also a process of refining. The impurities in the iron are gradually squeezed out, and at the same time, the carbon element in the charcoal fire also penetrates into the surface of the wrought iron, achieving partial carburization.

However, this process is too long. Moreover, because of the difference in the skills of the forging masters, the quality is very unstable. The quality of the master's products is stable, and the quality is not much worse than that of Beihai country's high-carbon steel. However, the wages are also very expensive!

Therefore, the emperor was surprised to find that if according to the Austrian processing cost, this set of 25 gold coin flap leather bandages was a loss-making business.

In this regard, Marin explained that he had recruited a large number of experienced blacksmiths from Italy at the beginning, with good craftsmanship, and also trained many high-level apprentices. In addition, the North Sea country has a lot of coal, which is cheaper than using charcoal...

But even so, the emperor was still very moved. He wrote back to Marin saying-Aiqing is really a loyal minister!