The Rise of the European Emperor

The rattan armor is similar to the wood chip armor invented by Marin. They are both plant armor and very light. But there is still a big difference between the two. Marin's wood chips are pierced with armor, and the protection is not good. It's not very practical if you don't cover the wood chips with a layer of iron. At most, reducing the degree of soldiers' injuries cannot resist the damage of weapons, especially metal weapons.

Strictly speaking, wood chip armor is used to fight Native Americans. Because the Native American weapons are too bad, they are all stone tools, and even the bow strings are made of plant vines, limp and weak. Therefore, wood chip armor can still be fooled in America, but in Europe, it is absolutely useless without iron sheeting.

However, even if it is covered with iron skin, it can only resist some ordinary sword damage at most. For more powerful bows and crossbows, they can't resist. As for the musket, there is no solution to that, and the plate armor is useless.

But Marin still knew the defensive power of rattan armor. This kind of rattan armor has been tested on TV programs in later generations, and it can withstand the shooting of ordinary bows and crossbows (except for heavy crossbows), let alone resisting swords.

Moreover, its production cost is also low, that is, some old vines cut from the mountains, as well as tung oil and raw lacquer, are worthless. At least, it was worthless in the Ming Dynasty.

It costs nothing to cut old vines up the mountain. As for tung oil and raw lacquer, the price is not expensive. Tung oil was only 30 Wen a catty in Daming, and raw lacquer was more expensive, only 65 Wen a catty. To make a set of rattan armor (including rattan helmet and rattan plate), the cost is not more than 2 taels of silver, including the cost of the craftsman. If it is placed in Europe, the labor cost alone will cost more than 2 taels of silver.

It's just that ordinary rattan armor has a major disadvantage-fear of fire. The passage "burning rattan armor soldiers" in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is too famous, so even Daming didn't like to promote rattan armor. Because, with the popularity of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" script, even the traffickers and pawns in the Ming Dynasty knew the weakness of the rattan armor, so naturally no one was willing to make any rattan armor.

However, Li Zizi, a former guard soldier and rattan weaving master, combined with the shortcomings of rattan armor soaked in tung oil to be afraid of fire, came up with a method of applying a thick layer of raw lacquer on the surface of rattan armor and rattan plates to solve the problem of fear of fire. . Because raw lacquer is neither afraid of water nor fire. As long as the lacquer coating is thick enough, rattan armor is not afraid of fire.

Seeing that rattan armor is cheap, light, and has high protection, Marin was happy, so Li Zizi took a group of rattan weaving masters to help him make a large number of rattan shields and rattan armor, and returned to Europe with good luck. What's more, it is shipped to America for use.

The jungles of North America are too dense to send cavalry deep, only infantry. But because of the ubiquitous threat of cold arrows from the Indians, soldiers need armor with high protection. Plate armor is invincible, but it can't run at all. Even if you can run, you can't go far, and the speed is super slow. The rattan armor, which is light and has high protection, has become the best choice for jungle warfare. What's more, the rattan card is also the best shield for the indigenous people. Even for the local shield soldiers, Marin plans to switch to rattan cards to save the soldiers' physical strength.

...

Just when Marin asked Kong Tai to send a smuggled speedboat to Meizhou Island to purchase more tung oil and raw lacquer, good news came from Feng Xu, a hundred households of Quanzhou Jinyiwei—Liu Jin agreed that Marin's fleet went north to Dagukou landing request, but only Marin is allowed to land with his entourage, and it is strictly forbidden to carry weapons. This is because Liu Jin was afraid that Marin, a barbarian, would take the opportunity to attack Tianjin Wei. Therefore, Marin is required not to go ashore with weapons. As for the donated Franc cannons and muskets, they were handed over to the soldiers of Tianjin Wei and transported to the capital.

This news was sent to Quanzhou by Liu Jin through the post station system, using the official post station system. Because Di Bao pays attention to timeliness, it is often delivered very quickly. Although it is not as fast as eight hundred miles, but because it is a post station relay, the speed of transmission is much faster than that of ordinary people.

Because, by passing messages through the station system, horses can be changed at any time, without waiting for the horses to rest before going on the road.

But when the news reached Marin, it was already late May, and it was only two or three months before Liu Jin's downfall. Fortunately, Marin's ships are fast, and it is not a problem to travel nearly 100 kilometers a day. The straight-line distance from Danshuibao to Tianjinwei is only more than 1,600 kilometers, and there is no need to take detours when traveling by sea. Therefore, Marin is not worried about delays.

But before setting off, Marin suddenly remembered one thing - he needed some glass...

What does he need glass for? Not for trade, not for bribes, but to build a greenhouse for Galapagos tortoises.

After all, the Galapagos tortoise is a tropical creature, which likes warmth and fears cold. However, the capital city is located in the north, and it is relatively cold for nearly half of the time every year, so the Galapagos giant tortoise may not be able to adapt.

But the problem is that the Galapagos tortoise is the "auspicious" presented by Marin, so there can be no problems. If it is raised to death, it is not auspicious, but unlucky. Dare to bring bad luck to the Ming court, and Marin's trading qualifications will be revoked in minutes.

Therefore, these Galapagos tortoises must not be raised to death. At least, not so fast. Otherwise, this is not auspicious.

Marin regretted catching these Galapagos tortoises in his heart, but the reason he landed from Tianjinwei was to escort "Xiangrui" ashore. Otherwise, he has no reason to take the shortcut of Tianjin Wei. If you land from the reception points of Fuzhou or Ningbo, which receive the vassal states, and then arrive at the capital, it is estimated that it will be delayed for several months. At that time, Liu Jin will fall, and things will be a little difficult. Because Liu Jin can handle affairs through bribery when he is in power, but it is not impossible for Liu Jin to fall and let those civil servants do business for you for a few years.

Therefore, Marin is now riding a tiger, and must sacrifice the Galapagos tortoise. Moreover, it must be ensured that tortoises are not raised to death.

The best way to keep tortoises from being raised to death is to build greenhouses. But Marin remembers that the Galapagos tortoise has a habit of basking in the sun for at least one or two hours a day, otherwise it will affect health...

This is difficult for Marin, how cold is it in the north of Beijing in winter? If the equatorial Galapagos tortoise goes out to bask in the sun in the cold weather, it will definitely freeze to death.

Therefore, the only way is to let the Galapagos tortoise bask in the sun through the glass of the greenhouse...

But the problem is that there is no transparent glass in the Ming Dynasty, and the crystal is too expensive...

In desperation, Marin had no choice but to act as a craftsman again, and decided to burn a batch of glass and take it northward, and help these "mysterious turtles" build a glass greenhouse by the way...

...

So, while Marin asked his men to build a crucible furnace for burning glass, he sent people to the Ming Dynasty to purchase quartz sand, alkali, and lead ore for burning glass... Obviously, what he wanted to burn was the most basic optical glass. lead glass...

In fact, there is another important ingredient for burning glass-borax, but Marin is not sure if there is one in the Ming Dynasty. As a result, after inquiring, Huaxia had already had this thing...

It turns out that in the Song Dynasty, borax was used as a traditional Chinese medicine. The "Taiping Shenghui Fang" officially compiled in the early Northern Song Dynasty mentioned borax and introduced its functions-clearing heat and phlegm, detoxifying and antiseptic...

Although the price is a bit more expensive, 500 Wen per catty, it is already several times cheaper than in Europe. In Europe, the price of borax is about 3 taels of silver per catty, which is 6 times more expensive than in the Ming Dynasty. Fortunately, this is only an auxiliary material for burning glass, and it is not used much, otherwise the price of glass will be expensive.

In addition, Marin also sent people deep into the mountains to look for the legendary Keelung Badouzi coal mine. It's a pity that the mountains are high and the forests are dense, so it's hard to find for a while. So, he simply asked people to purchase coal on the mainland. Anyway, coal on land is not expensive...

When the crucible furnace with the combustion chamber was repaired, the smuggling speedboat sent to Meizhou Island also brought back enough quartz sand, caustic soda, borax and coal.

Then, Marin called West, the first mate who had been an apprentice in a glass factory, to come over and make glass. Before smelting the raw material, West had the material washed and washed, and at the same time had a simple copper roller made of copper rods.

After that, the washed and sun-dried raw materials were poured into a crucible furnace, and coals were placed underneath to simmer vigorously. When it reached a high temperature of one thousand and several hundred degrees, which was enough to make steel, West asked the craftsmen who helped him to pour the molten glass on the platform prepared in advance. When the solution had solidified into a jelly-like form, West picked up the copper roller and began rolling the jelly-like glass back and forth until it took the shape of a large flat plate.

Then, the large piece of flat glass was put into the annealing furnace by West, and the annealing process was carried out, and the flat glass was considered successful...

West processed all the raw materials into pieces of one-foot-square flat glass in one go, and packed them for shipping. These flat glasses are enough to build a relatively large glass greenhouse. Anyway, the glass greenhouse does not need to be glass on all sides, as long as the south side is glass...

After preparing the glass for building a greenhouse for Galapagos tortoises, Marin finally prepared everything and led the fleet north to Dagu Port, where he was going to land a tribute...