The Rise of the European Emperor

This set of combined tactics is really invincible. The single-headed cannonball smashed a hole in the wooden city gate lightly and without pressure. And Knott's glue, relying on more than ten times the power of black powder, can easily break through the city gate. As for the unicycle with the iron roof, the enemy soldiers who have never seen it must be dumbfounded.

In this era, there seems to be no hand bullets in Europe. The famous grenadier will not appear until the 17th century. Prior to this, there were Greek fire pots thrown by hands in the Byzantine Empire. The so-called Greek fire clay pot is actually similar to the Molotov cocktail's Molotov cocktail later, and it is probably also extracted from oil. It is said that Greek fire was brought to Constantinople by a Syrian craftsman, while oil came from West Asia. Later, the reason why Byzantium failed to stop Turkey was because Turkey first occupied Byzantium's West Asian part, which cut off the supply of oil, the raw material for making Greek fire. Otherwise, the Turkish fleet would not be able to cross the strait.

What's interesting is that the Byzantine Empire, like Marin, also attached great importance to secrecy regarding Greek fire. Moreover, it has been kept secret for centuries, which is also very powerful. Even after the fall of Byzantium, the secret of Greek fire was lost.

But according to the records of the Arabs, the Greek fire looked like a petrol bomb. Therefore, it is not nonsense that Marin called the gasoline barrel he made out Greek fire. The only thing that Marin didn't quite understand was how the Byzantines sprayed the Greek fire to a distance of 50 yards. If you master this technique, naval battles are almost invincible. Because the ships are all made of wood, and they have no resistance when they are sprayed by Greek fire.

It is a pity that it seems that the Greek fire was also lost because of the death of Constantine XI, the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire. Probably, this secret is only held by the emperor, and the branch of the royal family who escaped later seems to have not grasped this secret. Otherwise, with the virtue of the Byzantine exiled emperor Andres Palaiologos who was willing to sell even the crown and the throne, the Greek fire must have been sold long ago. And, sure enough, the recipe for Greek fire must have been more popular than the Byzantine crown and titleless throne. Among other things, if Andres Palaiologos really has the secret recipe for Greek fire, especially the secret recipe for firing Greek fire 50 yards away, if others don't know, Marin will definitely be willing to pay hundreds of thousands of gold coins to buy it . Even millions of gold coins are acceptable. Because, after mastering this secret skill, burning the enemy's wooden boat is just like playing.

In fact, Marin is not completely ignorant of the principle of flamethrowers. But it seems that if you spray fire with canned liquefied petroleum gas, you can spray it 10 meters away. Spraying 50 yards, the genius inventor Marin couldn't quite understand it. Because, this distance has reached the range of individual flamethrowers in later generations. If you can get this technology, burning the enemy infantry is easy and simple, let alone burning a ship. Because the spray distance of 50 yards is about the same as the distance that a musket gun can aim at. It takes luck to hit the enemy with a musket, but a flamethrower is a must. Moreover, with a sweep, not only one person was burned, it was much more deadly than a musket. Moreover, in the face of the fire, the horses of the cavalry on the opposite side must not dare to rush over. After all, animals are afraid of fire instinctively.

Originally, Marin planned to ask Singed and Cruz, a pair of alchemists and apprentices, to help them figure out the flame jet technology. But after thinking about it, Marin still gave up. After all, he still has to rely on the mentor and apprentice to help prepare digestive dry oil and Knott's pressed gum.

If he was accidentally killed by gasoline because of the research and development of the flamethrower, it would be a big loss. So, the flamethrower just happened.

But unexpectedly, Cruz, the alchemist apprentice, brought Marin a huge surprise...

...

What surprise did Cruz bring to Marin? It turned out that this fellow accidentally added glycerin, which is the raw material for digested dry oil, into low-quality wine. As a result, when he drank the wine two days later, the astringency of the low-quality wine disappeared and it became much better.

Upon hearing the news, Marin stood up abruptly:

"Fuck, this seems to be Madman Tang's way of treating fruit wine with glycerin!"

Before time travel in his previous life, Ma Lin read a book called "XX Song Dynasty", in which the protagonist, the chemical man Tang Crazy, seemed to use glycerin to remove the bitterness in the fruit wine. According to Madman Tang's theory, the tannins in fruit wine are the source of the bitterness. Glycerin can react with tannins, decompose tannins in fruit wine, and remove the bitter taste. Moreover, because glycerin itself has a sweet taste, it also makes the liquid taste better, similar to fruit juice.

In fact, in later generations, glycerin is a food additive. At the same time, it is also the main ingredient of important moisturizing cosmetics and has a wide range of uses. However, edible glycerin and industrial glycerin are not the same. Just like the difference between industrial salt and edible salt, industrial glycerin is easily mixed with chemical raw materials, which is harmful to the human body.

But Madman Tang said that when using caustic soda and lard to react, put less caustic soda and put more lard (or other animal fat) to ensure that all caustic soda is consumed. In this way, the glycerin produced basically has no residue of bad substances, and can be used as edible glycerin.

In addition, glycerin and digestive oil are two substances, which are not as dangerous as digestive oil, nor have the drug effect of digestive oil to dilate blood vessels, and are relatively safe.

Moreover, in many high-quality wines, glycerin is obtained from the reaction, which enhances the quality of the wine. After all, glycerin breaks down tannins, removes bitterness, and adds sweetness.

But that's the stuff of fine wine. Poor quality wine is nothing like that. Or rather, lack of that stuff.

What Marin didn't know was that many cheap wines and fruit wines in later generations actually added edible glycerin to eliminate the bitterness. After all, not every wine produces enough glycerin on its own. Only top wines can produce enough glycerin by themselves.

Moreover, the glycerin produced by the wine itself can improve the taste and quality of the wine more than the added glycerin. The main function of adding glycerin is to remove the bitterness and astringency, and the improvement of the taste is much worse than that of the wine's own glycerin.

However, that is according to the standards of later generations. For this era, the wine has no bitter taste, and it is considered a high-end wine.

The bitterness in wine mainly comes from grape skins and grape seeds. Because, both of them have higher tannin content. However, tannins are also more useful. It reacts with other substances in the wine to enhance the complex taste of the wine.

And to get rid of the bitterness, there is only one way for the wines of this era - remove the grape skins and seeds, and use only the grape flesh to make wine!

This kind of wine made only from grape flesh is actually white wine. Because, mainly coloring, the skins of the grapes that make the wine red are discarded. While abandoning the bitter taste, the red color is also abandoned.

However, in Europe, the mainstream is still red wine. Because red wine has a religious color and is called "holy blood". In this era of strong religious atmosphere, although white wine tastes better, it is only drunk by a few nobles. And the members of the church still drink more red wine because of the "Holy Blood". Even, many aristocrats who believed in Catholicism usually drank bitter red wine.

Of course, the red wine that the nobles drank must be the lightest bitter one, brewed by masters, and the price is also very expensive. The red wine that the common people drink is cheaper. Of course, the astringency is also very strong. But in any case, even with astringency, it tastes much better than loose rancid inferior beer.

Many ordinary people can't even afford poor-quality bitter wine, and can only drink rancid and poor-quality beer.

In this day and age, a gallon of ordinary Bordeaux wine cost only three or four pfennigs. Local German wines are a bit more expensive, costing 6 to 8 pfennigs.

A gallon equals 8 pints, and a pint equals approximately 0.5675 liters, or just over half a liter. In taverns, the volume of wooden cups is generally a pint, and the price is calculated according to the cup. Under normal circumstances, the price of ordinary wine is 0.5 Finney to 1 Finney.

But this price is still too expensive for ordinary people, because the daily salary of ordinary people is only 2 pfennigs. If 2 pfennigs are added to calculate 100 yuan, then 0.5 pfennigs is almost 25 yuan. 25 yuan for a glass of wine, in the era of abundant supplies in later generations, ordinary people can't afford it!

And the rancid beer, because of the rancidity, is very cheap, and you can drink two cups with one Beihai brass coin. And a brass piece is an eighth of a pfennig. In other words, one Finney can drink 16 cups of bad beer. The price difference between the two is about 8 times.

Therefore, wine is not something that the poor can afford. Only ordinary people with a little wealth can afford low-quality wine. However, there is no need to worry about poor wine sales. Because it is "holy blood", red wine is very popular in Europe. Even ordinary people have to drink "holy blood" on some religious festivals. Unless, the family can't even afford the cheapest wine, then there's not much to say.

...

Besides, this high-end red wine is generally produced in the Burgundy region, where the climate is good and very suitable for grape growth. Moreover, the brewing masters are also very skilled. In addition, there is the Bordeaux region, which is the largest wine producing region in Western Europe.

Of course, for now, the quality of Bordeaux wine is still very average. Only Chateau Lafite, which was secretly supported by Marin, used oak barrels to brew wine, which improved the quality. Oak barrels can absorb tannins, reduce the bitterness of wine and enhance the taste.

Therefore, in the past two years, Château Lafite has grown rapidly. The bitterness of Lafite red wine has been reduced a lot, and it has also become a high-end wine and a strong challenger of Burgundy red wine.

...

However, the effect of aging wine in oak barrels and absorbing tannins is simply too slow. Moreover, oak barrels are also more expensive. The quickest way is to add a little glycerin to the brewed low-quality wine, seal the barrel for a while, and then unseal it...

At this time, maybe the taste of the wine is still not as good as the high-end Burgundy wine and Lafite wine. But at least the bitterness is gone.

In this era, Europeans had little knowledge, and wine without bitterness was considered high-end wine. It is comparable, if not superlative, to the best wines of Burgundy, but to Lafite.

And what is the price of high-end wine? 5 gold coins for 1 gallon! That's an average of 37.5 pfennies per glass (1 pint)! This price is 75 times that of inferior wine!

Glycerin has been used to remove the bitterness and astringency of the wine. The most high-grade wine is definitely not considered, and the taste must be different. However, it is still no problem to mix a second gear. The price of the second-tier wine is about 1 gold coin per gallon, which is about 7.5 pfennigs per glass, which is 15 times that of inferior wine!

If Marin imports low-quality wine from Bordeaux at the price of three or four Finneys per gallon, and then sells it at the second price, the profit will be more than ten times that!

Not to mention the second tier, even if it is the third tier and the fourth tier, only a few times the profit is enough to make Marin's heart beat!

And most importantly, the sales of wine are huge!

The Royal Salute developed by Marin before was indeed very popular and very profitable. A bottle of wine can be sold for up to 5 gold coins, and the earning is flying.

Why is the Royal Salute so expensive? Because it does not have the bitter taste of general wine. And with the addition of maple syrup, the taste is very good. Coupled with the exquisite packaging and very compelling publicity, the price is naturally skyrocketing, and the minimum is 1 gold coin per bottle, which is really bloody money.

But here's the thing - the Royal Salute is only popular in the secular world. Moreover, only the great nobles and wealthy businessmen can afford it. Therefore, sales are limited.

Moreover, Western Europeans, unlike Eastern Europeans, do not like strong alcohol. Therefore, Royal Salute sales are limited.

But wine is different, because it is popular to drink red wine in religious ceremonies, so it is used in large quantities. In addition, in this era, most priests are rich and are very high-quality consumer groups.

But these rich priests usually only drink red wine and do not consume royal salutes, which makes Marin helpless.

Marin roughly sent someone to make statistics, and found that half of the rich people in the German region are middle and high-level church members, and they are richer than the nobles. Many nobles are actually swollen faces to pretend to be fat. In fact, they are so poor that they need to borrow money to survive.

And the people in the church are really rich. You can collect tithes, you can sell indulgences, and there are usually donations from believers... and a lot of land income...

In addition, like ancient Chinese temples, many churches also lend money. Although it is not as dark as the Huaxia bald people, the annual interest is still 15% to 30%, which is very profitable.

Therefore, people in the church have a lot of money. Later, so many princes joined Protestantism, not because they supported Martin Luther, but because they wanted to seize the property and land of the church!

Ordinary priests may not be willing to drink the highest-grade red wine with 5 gold coins per gallon, which is drunk by bishop-level bigwigs. However, the second-grade 1 gold coin per gallon red wine has no bitter taste, and there must be many priests who are willing to drink it and can afford it.

Marin felt that a golden mountain was slowly rising in front of his eyes, within reach...