However, these shortcomings are not unreasonable.

The reason why the plate armor is thick and like canned is that the steel in this era is not tough enough and strength. If it is not thicker, the role of the plate armor will disappear.

But what if you use alloy steel with higher strength? It can be made lighter.

The most important thing is that the advantage of plate armor lies in its integrated molding. If you can find a way to construct a simple milling machine or stamping equipment, it means that it can be produced on a large scale.

This is the main disadvantage of chain armor. Think about it, a scale armor requires hundreds or thousands of iron sheets, and they need to be stringed together. If you want to produce it on a large scale, how much labor does it take?

Those armors were obviously just toys for noble men. Although Ye Chunqiu wanted to create elite soldiers at a high cost, he did not let several craftsmen spend a few days specifically doing such meaningless things like beads.

So what about weapons? What weapon is the best?

In addition, there are boots, helmets, and even kettles, and so on.

Ye Chunqiu did not rush to design, but started with stamping machines and milling machines. The stamping machines can only be made with simple versions. In this era, everything is rough, and it is enough.

In fact, it is not too difficult to say, but the fundamental problem lies in the power issue. There is no electricity in this era, and the only thing that can be used is probably wind and hydraulic power. Hydraulic stamping seems to be more stable. Hydraulic forging machines have appeared in Europe for a hundred years, but they are too simple and just primitive versions. Ye Chunqiu became interested in some kind of improved forging machine in the 18th century.

In that era, forging machines specifically used for stamping plate armor had disappeared. The fundamental reason was the development of muskets, which made this well-made plate armor no longer work. Fortunately, France at that time maintained the tradition of making plate armor. Of course, it was mainly for the guard of honor. The French love face and like to pretend to be thirteen.

The structure of the forging machine is very simple and there is no steam engine, which gives Ye Chunqiu a space to imitate. He carefully drew the picture and handed it over to Sun Qi early the next morning, asking him to find a craftsman to find a way to make it.

Then there is the question of choosing alloy steel. These are not difficult. Originally, this basic material cannot be achieved overnight. It is like a chef who cooks food and adds salt. At first, he may not be able to master it. It takes time to accumulate and finally find the trick. The same is true for the development of materials science in Europe. It is all about staggering and difficult. How to make steel stronger and more tougher requires countless experiments and record data again and again. It may take three, five, or even ten or twenty years to find the most suitable ratio method.

And these, for Ye Chunqiu, have become completely unnecessary. He only needs to find the best solution that is easiest to mine and the lowest cost in this era. Various ratios are clear at a glance.

In the past two days, Ye Chunqiu did not go to the Zhenguo New Army camp, but lived in this newly built workshop. Most of the craftsmen recruited were blacksmiths with superb skills. However, they still maintained awe of Ye Chunqiu's new things. Just like that forging machine, they tried it many times, but they failed in the end. If Ye Chunqiu did not supervise, he would not make any progress in just a few months.

The smelting craftsman raised the fire today. Seeing the fire in the furnace burning under the action of the blower bag, pieces of ore entered the furnace. After a while, golden iron flowed out of the groove. This was pure steel. At the same time, in another groove, when the iron flowed into a special mold, someone familiarly used iron pliers to pull the mold open and replaced it with a new mold. When the steel in the mold gradually cooled down, but when it approached it, you could still feel the heat wave like fire. In this winter, the temperature in the workshop was extremely high, and Ye Chunqiu was already wet with sweat.

When the steel was completely cooled and formed, some craftsmen carefully pulled out the steel plate, and a piece of "alloy steel" fell into Ye Chunqiu's eyes.

Compared with previous steelmaking, the manufacturing speed of this direct high temperature melting and forming molten steel can be described as amazing.

For example, if ten craftsmen could craft thirty kilograms of iron a day, then here, with the same manpower, with the help of a high-temperature furnace, they can train one ton of steel, and there are fewer impurities such as steel, without forging, and they are directly formed in the mold, with no bubbles inside, and the quality is better.

In fact, the surge in steel production began with the emergence of high-temperature furnaces after the Industrial Revolution. In the previous era, steel was almost synonymous with luxury goods because of too little output, so that even in the wealthier Ming Dynasty, many farmers could only rely on stone tools to farm in the Ming Dynasty.

And now... watching the boiling golden liquid flow out, flow into the mold, and finally cool down, Ye Chunqiu finally knew that with this high-temperature furnace, this era can take a small step forward.

This is the alloy steel that Ye Chunqiu needed. The first piece of alloy steel seemed inconspicuous in front of Ye Chunqiu, and did not have the luster of steel metal like later generations. Uh... Ye Chunqiu thought to himself, this is okay, just let it go, it's practical. Ye Chunqiu ordered people to send the steel plate to the room next to him, and then put out the ordinary steel plate and take out the Japanese knife he brought. This Japanese knife he had used for a while. It was particularly sharp and had a very good texture. It was definitely one of the first-class weapons in this world.

Taking a deep breath, Ye Chunqiu waved his knife hard and slashed at the ordinary steel plate.

With a clang, the steel plate was divided into two, but... the Japanese knife also had several gaps.

In other words, ordinary steel plates could not withstand the slash of the Japanese sword under Ye Chunqiu's full strength.

Ye Chunqiu was a little disappointed, and then put his hope on a piece of alloy steel plate.

Ye Chunqiu nodded to the craftsman, and the craftsman put the alloy steel plate on the thickness of the alloy steel plate, which was obviously much thinner than the ordinary steel plate just now. Ye Chunqiu held the Japanese knife in his hand, rested for a moment, then took a deep breath, raised the knife with both hands, and cut it down hard.

His strength is more than a hundred pounds.

A silver arc drew through the void, and then... sparks flew everywhere.

clang...

The steel plate only cracked a mark, but at this time, the entire Japanese sword had been curled.

Ye Chunqiu smiled with satisfaction.
Chapter completed!