Perhaps because he likes confidentiality, he has committed another habit. In order to keep it confidential, Marin has created an export-type "Jiangnan Leather Factory" armor. Specifically, only steel sheets are inserted into the leather bag, not paper, silk or sisal.
Moreover, the inserted steel sheets are not high manganese steel sheets, but high carbon steel sheets. Of course, this kind of leather bandage armor with steel sheets is fine to defend against bows and arrows and spears, and looks similar to plate armor. The only thing better than plate armor is probably that it is more suitable for bent over and turning. Unlike plate armor, people can only be straight after wearing it.
Because the construction of high-carbon steel sheets is much simpler than building plate armor, this kind of leather bandage armor with insertion is very simple to manufacture. The cost is also very low. For ordinary plate armor, because it requires a long time to build by craftsmen with superb skills, a pair of plate armor often requires dozens of gold coins.
As for just steel pieces inserted into the small bag, blacksmiths can do this thing, and it takes very little time. Therefore, this kind of armor costs only 10 gold coins or even lower, which is much cheaper than those complex plate armors. Even larger horse armor costs only about 15 gold coins.
Of course, other countries do not have high carbon steel, so they can only use iron sheets of pig iron. Although their performance is not as good as that of Beihai Country's high carbon steel sheets, they are enough. Because pig iron sheets can also withstand bows, arrows, swords and spears. When facing guns and bullets, high carbon steel sheets, like pig iron sheets, cannot be stopped...
In order to actively "leak" the secrets, Marin specially gave Prince Philip 500 sets of high-carbon steel sheet leather bandage armor. Then, he deliberately revealed the secret of this armor and told the spies lurking in Ghent that this is just a leather-wrapped iron sheet armor.
Prince Philip did not care about this bad-looking armor, but the news came to Emperor Maximilian I, but it attracted great attention!
Why? Just because Marin said, this thing is cheap!
Marin still said that the cost of 10 gold coins. In fact, with the production level of Beihai Country, the cost is less than 5 gold coins. Because in the factory of Beihai Country, the main production force is only workers responsible for one production link, rather than craftsmen responsible for several production links. The wages of craftsmen are high, but the daily wage of workers is only 3 Finney, which is much lower than that of craftsmen. Then, high-carbon steel sheets are also repeatedly beaten with hydraulic forging hammers, not manual labor. The cost is naturally not high.
For ordinary plate armor, the cost is more than 20 or 30 gold coins, and the selling price is even more than 50 gold coins. This high cost may be affordable for those knights with fiefdoms. However, for wandering knights who do not have the right to inherit land, it is too expensive.
For example, when Marin left home, she couldn't even get enough armor, only her chest armor and a helmet, and no pants. This was not the poorest. Those poor simply gave an old horse and a one-handed sword and came out to make a spear. She couldn't afford to buy a spear, so she could only use a wooden stick to pretend to be a spear.
Of course, these poor wandering knights are not bad at martial arts. After all, when they are at home, they can still use their father and brother’s war horses, armor and rifles for training. But when they leave home, if there is no spare weapon, armor and war horses at home, they will have to wander in a desolate way.
...
In addition, it should be pointed out that the heavy cavalry of each country is actually divided into two parts - knights and cavalry!
Knights refer to those who have titles and fiefs, and are generally officers. Cavalry, although they also come from the knight family, have no inheritance rights, so it is good to be able to bring their own horses and armor. Those who cannot afford to prepare war horses and armor can even be selected as heavy cavalry, and are even forced to change careers to become low-class cavalry such as light cavalry.
That's right, you read it right, it's just a low-class cavalry! In this era, knights have not been eliminated, and they still maintain a sense of superiority, thinking that they are superior. Even those heavy cavalry wearing armor feel that they are superior and look down on those light cavalry without armor.
Generally speaking, in Europe at this time, the light cavalry did not serve as the main attacker, but served as the auxiliary to the heavy cavalry, responsible for covering the flanks of the heavy cavalry when charging. At the same time, they were also responsible for chasing defeated soldiers and reconnaissance and other matters. Therefore, their status and salary were far inferior to those of the heavy cavalry.
Many times, the light cavalry was responsible for helping the knights put on plate armor before the war and helped them get on horseback. When charging, they also had to serve as light cavalry to cover the flanks of the knights.
According to the custom of this era, a knight will fight and bring at least 5 servants. One of them is responsible for logistics, one of them is responsible for reconnaissance, and three or two others (judging the knight's financial resources) are responsible for riding horses and following the battle, covering the knight's flanks. When the knight goes back to change the gun, they are responsible for cutting off the rear.
Those heavy cavalry without a title and fiefdom are usually assisted by the official two light cavalry. Specifically, before the war, they were helped to put on the plate armor and support the horse, and after the battle, they were responsible for covering the flanks, and when changing the gun, they broke the rear...
...
The above are traditional plate armor knights, and the leather bandage armor given by Marin is not only cheaper, but also the knights wearing this armor do not need to be supported by someone to get on the horse.
As for marching, each heavy cavalry does not need to be equipped with two servings. Only one carriage can help 5 knights load armor and cavalry rifles. In other words, 5 heavy cavalry can be equipped with one attendant. In this way, funds can be greatly saved! The funds are the shortest of the poor emperor!
Usually, these knights only need to put a very ordinary leather bracelet on their bodies and wear a helmet. Once the war starts, they run to the side of the carriage to collect their own armor and rifles, and get their horses on their own, and then they can directly launch a charge.
According to Marin, this kind of armor that is not cool enough will have the same result when facing cold and hot weapons (either can be blocked, no one can be blocked). It is low cost and saves servants, which is really cost-effective!
It should be pointed out that the key to saving attendants is not the expenses of attendants, but the expenses of the horses riding by attendants! Even the most common horse riding, the food consumption is several times that of people. Therefore, reducing one horse means saving the food rations of four or five people!
After testing, it was found that this armor was indeed similar to the plate armor when facing cold weapons, the poor emperor Maximilian I laughed to the sky...
"Hahaha, my Habsburg family revival is expected!"
Why was the emperor so happy? Because he could explode soldiers! Moreover, explode heavy cavalry! Austria and the Netherlands did not lack aristocratic children, but only money, food and armor. At the same time, there were no shortage of noble children in southern Germany who were willing to serve the emperor!
Although the princes had been slandering the Habsburg family, Maximilian I was the emperor after all, and the great righteousness was in place. Therefore, many knights and even barons who had no inheritance rights and no way to go were actually happy to serve the emperor.
In particular, Marin, the son of the knight family who served the emperor, set an example for the children of the nobles who were eager to succeed.
The result was that the princes were slandering the emperor, but the nobles who had no inheritance and no way to do so under their rule wanted to learn from Marin, serve the emperor, and then obtain fiefs and titles...
This is also an important reason why the princes hated Malin. After all, he played a very bad role as a role model.
What about the emperor? There is indeed no money, but there is no shortage of horses. After all, in this era, there were many horses everywhere, and under the rule of the emperor, there were many horses. Can the emperor not afford to buy horses, but still cannot borrow horses?
If you want to fight, the emperor spoke and borrowed some war horses (mainly docile mares) from the nobles under his command, and it was still possible to give some rent. Moreover, the Habsburg family itself had a horse farm, which could provide many horses.
In addition, the emperor had the right to requisition civilian horses during the war!
Since there is no shortage of horses and weapons are not expensive. Racing a gun is just a consumable and the cost is not high. Then, the only problem is armor!
This thing is impossible for civilians to have, and the emperor cannot even force his levy in war. When Marin gave this kind of armor with a very low cost, he gave the emperor a solution. After all, Innsbruck had an arsenal opened by the emperor himself. This arsenal produces high-quality plate armor, so it is not too easy to produce this kind of leather bandage armor with steel sheets.
The emperor decided to expand 20,000 heavy cavalry!
The Habsburg family itself has 12,000 heavy cavalry, and if they expand 20,000 heavy cavalry, it would be 32,000 heavy cavalry. This scale can be reckless when encountering France. Because, France usually fights more than 20,000 heavy cavalry. Only when the life-and-death battle and the whole country mobilizes, will it be dispatched tens of thousands of heavy cavalry be dispatched.
Maximilian I decided to make a desperate bet, and this time it severely damaged France. Because the resistance troops in western Switzerland were mainly supported by France.
If the Habsburg family's army defeated the Swiss resistance, the French would definitely end up in person. At that time, facing 20,000 to 30,000 French heavy cavalry and a large number of heavy cavalry, and cooperating with Frenzberg's infantry, they will definitely be able to severely damage the French plate armor heavy cavalry!
However, after the passion subsided, Maximilian I had to face an embarrassing problem - it was the problem of money...
A set of steel-skinned bandage armor and the same type of horse armor are much cheaper than traditional ones, but they also cost 25 gold coins. 2,000 heavy cavalry, which is 500,000 gold coins...
The emperor's brain hurts so he wants to borrow money again...
In addition to the 500,000 gold coins equipped, the army also needs a lot of food and supplies to fight. Even if it is spared, 200,000 gold coins are still needed, or even not enough. Unless it can be fought quickly.
Therefore, the emperor's funding gap is as high as 700,000 to 800,000!
Chapter completed!