Designing Armor

The scales of scale armor are slightly smaller, requiring more plates for a full suit. It offers decent resistance against slashing attacks but is almost useless against blunt force, similar to chainmail. Moreover, scale armor has a critical weakness: an upward attack can easily flip the plates, compromising defense.

Plate armor, on the other hand, uses much larger plates than scale armor, providing significantly better defense against blunt force. Also, because plate armor requires double-layered ropes for fastening, it doesn't suffer from the fatal flaw of scale armor's plates flipping outwards.

Both types share a common characteristic: they achieve their strength through layered construction, either double or triple-layered. However, this also leads to a major drawback: their excessive weight.

Someone without a strong physique wouldn't be able to bear such weight. Fortunately, the Rhodok soldiers—the Morland soldiers—are all tall, strong, elite troops and can withstand this burden.

These two types of armor left Reiner undecided. Scale armor was cheaper but offered poor blunt force defense. Plate armor was more expensive and consumed more iron, but it provided excellent blunt force defense, almost perfectly complementing the Morland soldiers' chainmail.

Ultimately, he chose to produce full plate armor. The higher cost wasn't an issue; if soldiers died, it would be a far greater loss. Each soldier was acquired by Reiner at great expense, and their value far exceeded that of a suit of armor.

He began designing the armor blueprints at his study desk. As someone who enjoyed real-time strategy games in his previous life, he had some knowledge of armor, which allowed him to design these suits himself.

Holding a charcoal pencil, he drew and sketched on a yellowed parchment. It took Reiner over an hour to complete the blueprint.

This was a type of iron plate armor similar to the Footman Armor from Reiner's previous life in the Great Song Dynasty, though he omitted some parts. If he had copied it exactly, it would have been too heavy. Adding it to the armor the Morland soldiers already wore, the protective gear alone would have weighed a terrifying fifty kilograms, which isn't a practical weight for the battlefield. In the plate armor blueprint he designed, he didn't add too much extra armor to the chest area; it was simply full-body protection.

The plate armor covering only the chest, arms, and legs hung from the main body of the armor, connected together, giving it a very aesthetic look.

Reiner nodded in satisfaction as he looked at the blueprint, then rolled up the parchment and left the castle. He took two retainers with him to the blacksmith's workshop within the castle.

The blacksmith's workshop and the iron ore smelting workshop were separate. Iron ore smelting happened outside the castle, near the iron mine. Once the iron ore was processed into iron ingots, it would be sent to the castle's warehouse, and blacksmiths would retrieve it themselves if needed.

Currently, the Morland Castle warehouse had over three thousand kilograms of iron ingots, all part of the Moreland Family's previous reserves. While the value of gold generally remained stable, iron and grain were still more robust hard currencies than gold.

Goer Castle also had a considerable stock of iron ingots. Combined, the two locations likely held around six thousand kilograms. Goer Castle had a higher iron ore output, so even after selling a lot, there was still a significant amount left.

And so, Reiner led his retainers into the blacksmith's workshop. The blacksmiths there were far from idle, still weaving full chainmail or struggling to forge spearheads thirty centimeters long.

When the Morland soldiers were summoned, they didn't carry spears. Many times, they served as castle guards, wielding large broadswords or longswords as an honor guard. It was truly a waste of talent by those Rhodok Kingdom lords, using such powerful warriors to guard a castle.

Reiner wouldn't do such a thing. He wanted these formidable soldiers, veterans of battle, to return to their rightful place on the battlefield.

Therefore, the production of excellent long spears had become a necessity. He planned for the Morland soldiers to fight on the battlefield with four-meter-long spears. Coupled with their iron-like discipline and formations, these long spears would prove incredibly effective in their hands.

Reiner entered the workshop, handed the blueprint to a blacksmith, and asked, "Can this iron armor be made?"

The blacksmith, extending a hand full of calluses and burns, respectfully took the parchment from Reiner, examined it carefully, thought for a moment, and then replied to Reiner, "Yes, but it will consume a lot of iron. If you want to achieve the strength you desire, we'll need at least twice the amount of iron as the finished product!"

Reiner nodded. Loss during the manufacturing process was completely normal. Although these novice blacksmiths couldn't be called master craftsmen, they were quite good.

After handing the blueprint to the blacksmiths, Reiner left with his two retainers and headed towards the military camp. The Morland soldiers were currently undergoing adaptive training under the command of Sir Reiland, whom Reiner had appointed as a knight.

With extreme discipline, formation awareness, and obedience, the soldiers continuously changed formations under Sir Reiland's command, now holding the long spears they had not used in a long time.

Their long spears were currently being forged in the blacksmith's workshop. Based on the current forging efficiency, it would likely take several months to fully equip them.

"How are these lads, my knight?" Reiner asked Sir Reiland, watching the soldiers lining up in the field.

"Excellent, Baron! They are far stronger than any soldiers I've commanded before! They execute my orders with ease; they are a truly magnificent and formidable group of soldiers!" Sir Reiland replied to Reiner with admiration.

"Good. In the future, they will be my main force on the battlefield. Not just them, but my original soldiers must also be well-trained by you. They will take on a role similar to these soldiers; even if they don't reach their level, they shouldn't be too far behind!"

"Yes, Baron, I will train them using the same methods as the soldiers!" Sir Reiland said.

That evening, Reiner returned to the castle for dinner. At the dinner table, Little Wend excitedly told Reiner, "Brother, are they really envoys sent by the Holy Father? They look so strong, so powerful!"

He gestured animatedly as he spoke to Reiner, looking quite fervent. Clearly, he was very interested in all of this and found it incredible.

"Yes, the Holy Father told me in a dream that he would send envoys to help me, and they did indeed appear!" Reiner shrugged and said.

"That's great! If there's a battle next time, I want to participate too!" Little Wend looked at the others at the table and said to Reiner.

The child was intelligent. He knew that what others said didn't matter; only Reiner, his brother, had the final say.