Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

"For the Crown Prince!"

A Paris Police Academy first-year student with a sergeant's insignia looked toward Joseph, clutched his chest, and responded loudly, as if the Crown Prince were carrying out a routine inspection at the academy.

"For the Crown Prince!"

"For His Majesty the King!"

"For honor and France!"

The other injured soldiers immediately disregarded their pain and joined in the shouting, their voices echoing throughout the entire battlefield hospital.

According to their habitual thinking, with the medical conditions of the era, being wounded was basically tantamount to death.

What awaited them would be wound infections, and within one to two weeks, they would die in a fever-induced coma.

Although Doctor Perna had repeatedly assured them that at most only two out of ten would die from infections, the soldiers took her words as mere comfort to themselves. Thus, they faced the Crown Prince with the attitude of bidding him farewell for the last time while alive, bravely saying goodbye.

Of course, some young men were despondently curled up in their beds but clenched their teeth without any complaints.

The pursuit of honor had now become a consensus and a habit for the Guard Corps, making them unwilling to show any signs of cowardice.

The staff officers following Joseph then publicly read the list of those who had distinguished themselves and received medals, which immediately drew rounds of cheers, as if death were not a big deal in the eyes of these young men.

This caused the Luxembourg People who were helping around to cast sidelong glances, unable to understand why these dying soldiers were "crazy."

Every time Joseph passed a tent or a farmhouse, such a scene would occur.

More than half of these injured soldiers were students from the Paris Police Academy. He often saw them at the academy, and he could even call out some of their names.

But now, seeing the bloody bandages where they had lost limbs, he couldn't help feeling a pang of sorrow in his heart.

In fact, these wounded had already received initial treatment. Just yesterday, many soldiers wailed in pain as they underwent amputations, with bloodied uniforms strewn everywhere, much more horrifying than at the moment.

These unsung young men had propped up the prosperity and stability of France with their blood and youth. Yet, the rest of their lives would be accompanied by disability.

After leaving the last tent, Joseph turned his head to Bertier, the Chief of the General Staff following behind him, and ordered in a low voice, "Increase the casualty compensation by 20%. Try to arrange for injured soldiers to work in government departments. Also raise the living security for the families of the fallen soldiers."

"Let everyone know that sacrificing for France is worthwhile, and that France will not forget them!"

"Yes, Your Highness!" Bertier nodded, taking note without a word about the tight military budget.

As Joseph left the battlefield hospital, he pondered—If he could create bulletproof vests from the future, then the casualties among the soldiers could be greatly reduced.

In fact, in this era, there were primitive forms of bulletproof vests—breastplates.

However, these were purely made of iron and to be effective against the increasingly refined flintlock guns, they had to be at least 2 millimeters thick.

The problem this presented was that the weight was simply uncontrollable.

A decent breastplate weighed between 20 to 25 pounds, which might not seem excessive, but one must remember that this was additional weight on top of carrying weapons and personal equipment. And during combat, it had to be worn at all times; even the soldier with the greatest stamina would struggle to last half a day.

```

In addition, there's the price. A standard breastplate alone costs over 120 livres, and high-quality ones have no upper limit.

As a result, only a portion of the cavalry, who are involved in frontal assaults, are willing to equip themselves with these—the weight is borne by the horses anyway, and cavalry gear is already expensive, so the cost of one more breastplate doesn't make much difference—thus the famous cuirassier cavalry were born.

As for the infantry, only a very few "supermen" would be equipped with some breastplates, mainly to intimidate the enemy infantry.

So, could some future technologies be used to improve the breastplate?

Joseph soon shook his head slightly.

Whether it's alloy smelting or Kevlar fiber, these are far from the technologies of this era.

And just using steel forging, it is impossible to significantly reduce the weight...

Having returned to his temporary office, Joseph was still at a loss. Perhaps it would be more practical to improve medical and health standards.

It was then that he inadvertently caught a glimpse of the Luxembourg soldiers standing at the corner of the street—actually policemen maintaining order—dressed in military uniforms with gray squares on them, and his eyes suddenly lit up: "Right, how could I have fallen into this way of thinking!"

Who says that armor is the only way to stop bullets? Read latest stories on My Virtual Library Empire

Joseph remembered that in later times, statistics showed that being shot in the torso accounted for 70% of soldier casualties. That is to say, protecting the torso could prevent the majority of injuries and deaths.

This was also an important reason why breastplates were popular.

Joseph also knew of an even more convenient piece of equipment to protect the torso—bulletproof inserts.

In future times, a certain online marketplace sold hundreds of millions of these life-saving gadgets to soldiers all over the world, and it had been proven to be very effective on numerous battlefields from Africa to Eastern Europe.

The so-called bulletproof insert is essentially a thin plate the size of a tablet computer, used by inserting it into the "pockets" on the chest and abdomen of the military uniform. It is lightweight, provides good ballistic protection, and can also be inserted only in the front according to battlefield conditions, without worrying about the back.

In this way, the overall weight can generally be controlled within 10 pounds.

Joseph recalled the structure of bulletproof inserts—a layer of metal sheet, a layer of Kevlar, a layer of ceramic plate, another layer of Kevlar, all bonded together, the production process was very simple.

Of course, Kevlar was definitely not available in this era, but silk could be used as a substitute. Ancient officers used multiple layers of silk garments to protect against bows and arrows because of the excellent toughness of the silk, so the effect was still quite good.

Although silk was not as strong as Kevlar, it only needed to stand up to lead bullets fired by gunpowder, which should be strong enough.

Special ceramic technology definitely wouldn't work, so ordinary hard ceramics had to be used.

Again, due to the limited power of the enemy's weaponry, this could be a viable substitute.

As for the adhesive, Joseph was somewhat unsure; he would have to ask Lavoisier for help with this matter.

If it could be figured out, the cost of such a "youth version" of the bulletproof insert wouldn't exceed 5 livres each. At 5 inserts per soldier, that would be just 25 livres, entirely affordable.

He hurried back to his office, jotted down his ideas for the new equipment, and was just about to write to Lavoisier when Eman knocked on the door and entered, bowing, "Your Highness, General Leao wishes to see you."

Leao? Joseph smiled. It seemed the commander had finally arrived. He nodded in assent, "Please, let him in."

```