The Rise of the European Emperor

The real 100-year-old wild ginseng is very different from the artificially cultivated ginseng. Artificially cultivated ginseng is similar in shape to carrots and long strips of ginger, with fewer tentacles and a human shape. The real wild ginseng over a hundred years old not only has a more human-like appearance, but also has many more tentacles. When using medicine, you only need to pinch a tentacle, and you can make a tonic medicine.

Doctor Chen said that he could extend the pope's life for more than a year, so it was already done - just pinch some ginseng whiskers after a while, it will last for a long time. Moreover, when Marin was buying herbal medicines in Wuchang, he also met a Tibetan businessman from western Sichuan and bought a batch of Cordyceps sinensis. In addition, I also bought a lot of wolfberries from Northwest China, as well as common tonics such as Astragalus membranaceus.

In addition to these tonics brought back from the East, Marin also recommended to Imperial Physician Chen the miraculous natural tonic that saved the 78-year-old Pope Pius XII in 1954—royal jelly...

In other words, in 1954 in his last life, the 78-year-old Pope Pius XII was bedridden for several months due to diabetes, asthma and heart disease, and was almost critically ill. The helpless doctor in charge of the Pope decided to adopt a European native method of treatment—royal jelly treatment, and gave the Pope a large amount of royal jelly every day. Then, the aging Pope gradually improved, and he recovered after 3 months, and he did not die until 1958. In other words, royal jelly extended his life for 4 years.

It is precisely because of this legendary experience that royal jelly, including propolis, later became the darling of the health care industry. It is said that in the 1980s, 10 kilograms of royal jelly could be exchanged for a car in Korea...Of course, after the 1990s, with the fall of fake health products such as Sanzhu oral liquid and Chinese soft-shelled turtle essence, the health care product market The market collapsed, and the market of royal jelly was also affected, and the demand was no longer so strong. But then again, most domestic bee products are used for export to earn foreign exchange, and most of the honey and royal jelly freeze-dried powder on the domestic market are fake. If you want the real thing, you have to go to the beekeeper's tent and watch the beekeeper beat honey and dig royal jelly. Otherwise, the ghosts who bought it in the supermarket know what it is...

Ma Lin's instructions to Imperial Physician Chen were - when he arrived in Rome, he used traditional Chinese medicine to prepare tonics, and at the same time gave the Pope a large amount of royal jelly. It is not required that Julius II can extend his life for 4 years like Pius XII, but he still needs to extend his life for one or two years. After this year, Marin has digested 8 vassal states, so he doesn't care about the threat of those church vassals...

But at the same time, in order to prevent the sudden death of the pope's father-in-law, Marin secretly sent his men to Rome to secretly ask Leo X, who is still an ordinary cardinal. If Julius II dies unfortunately, Marin Holdings The Bank of Siena fully supports Leo X's election bribery...and if Leo X is elected, he needs to publicly support Marin...

In this way, even if the pope is changed, the new pope will help suppress the princes of the German church and prevent them from uniting with the secular princes to fight themselves.

...

Of course, it would be even better if my old father-in-law could live a few more years. After all, his father-in-law is always more reliable than Leo X's ally in terms of interests.

In order to get the full support of his father-in-law, Marin even slept with his sister-in-law. Now, the father-in-law is only a cheap son-in-law and has no sons, so all resources must be tilted towards him. But if it were Leo X, the first thing people consider must be the interests of the Medici family, not their own interests. Leo X will only help himself if it does not affect his own interests.

However, Imperial Physician Chen and his party went south, in addition to recuperating the body of Julius II, they were also responsible for informing the Pope's father-in-law about one thing - hoping that the Holy See would remain neutral in the following Italian war...

According to the information from Paris, the French have spent a lot of money this time in order to compete for the kingdom of Naples, Italy, which has many volcanoes.

According to intelligence, Louis XII is determined to occupy the Kingdom of Naples this time. Therefore, he plans to dispatch a full 60,000 troops this time. Among them, 20,000 people are planned to be dispatched for the plate armor knights alone, which is a war that has dispatched the most knights in recent years.

Usually, the number of knights that France can mobilize is only 20,000 to 30,000. The mobilization of 20,000 plate armor knights this time is basically a desperate effort.

Except for the knights in the coastal areas of northern France who were not used because of the need to defend against England, the fief knights and titled knights in the central and southern regions were basically dispatched.

As for the infantry other than the 20,000 plate armor knights, it is not easy. Among the 17,000 Swiss mercenaries rescued from the Netherlands, 7,000 elites chose to join the French army in order to repay the kindness of the French army for their rescue, and followed the French army southward to attack the Kingdom of Naples at the southern tip of the Italian peninsula. The other 33,000 infantry, although not as elite as the Swiss mercenaries, are not bad.

Since last winter, Louis XII has quietly recruited soldiers and horses across the country, preparing to launch a war in the coming year. But Louis XII also knew very well that the food and supplies of an army of 50,000 to 60,000 were not a small amount, and it was not easy to get them all together. So, he could only prepare slowly.

Although the Kingdom of France is larger than the Grand Duchy of the North Sea, in terms of combat readiness, it may not be comparable to the North Sea Kingdom. why? For food alone, France's level of combat readiness is not as good as that of the North Sea country.

Because of Marin's mastery of the current fertilizer technology, Beihai has a lot of food reserves. Because he was worried that others would know the secret of high grain yield, Marin had piled up too much grain in the granary before. Once a war breaks out, the North Sea State can withdraw a large amount of grain from the cement granary at any time for military rations.

In the huge French Kingdom, because agriculture does not have high yields, most of the food grown on so much land is consumed in the market. If you want to prepare food for an army of 60,000, you need to draw it from all over the place. Otherwise, it will be difficult to get together.

In particular, the 20,000 plate armored knights not only need to consume a lot of food, but also consume an astronomical amount of food for their war horses and transfer horses. Even, in order to collect enough military rations, the French Minister of Finance specially sent people abroad to purchase a large amount of food.

And the funds used to purchase food were actually not from the French, but from the Venetians...

This has to say the credit of Baron John Lafite, the spy of the North Sea country - in order to gain the trust of Louis XII, the spy John not only offered a lot of Lafite wine to Louis XII, but also suggested that Louis XII send someone to Venice Turn to Venice for financial support.

Venice is the country with the best financial situation among European countries, and its financial strength is extremely strong. However, the strength of the Venetian army is not enough. Before, the spice trade channel of the Venetian merchants was cut off by Spain and Portugal in the Indian Ocean, and the Venetians had to endure it. After all, there is nothing you can do if you can't bear them. Because the galleys of the Venetians could not go to the Indian Ocean to fight the Spaniards at all.

Therefore, Venice and Spain have already become enemies because of the issue of Indian spices.

Moreover, after Spain occupied the Kingdom of Naples, it had the ability to block the Adriatic Sea from the Strait of Otranto at the eastern end of Naples. Once the Spaniards blocked the Adriatic Sea, the Republic of Venice at the northern end of the Adriatic Sea would be over. After all, if you can't get out of the Adriatic Sea, everything for the Venetians will be over.

Therefore, the Venetians were unwilling to allow the Spaniards to continue to occupy the Kingdom of Naples, regardless of interests or national security.

As for France, it is a standard landlubber country, and the navy is not worth mentioning. If the French occupy the Kingdom of Naples, there is basically no threat to Venice's maritime security.

Based on this, when Louis XII accepted John Lafite's suggestion and sent someone to Venice to ask for economic support, the Venice Parliament agreed to provide hundreds of thousands of gold coins to France as war funds after discussion. After all, it has to be the Venetian shirtless. Even if France loses, Venice will not directly enter a state of war with the Spaniards because it did not directly participate in the war.

Even, in order to avoid suspicion, the hundreds of thousands of gold coins that Venice gave to France were all provided to France by a certain Venetian financier in the name of "loans". But both countries know that this is a gift and will not let the French pay their debts...

In this way, after Venice provided a large amount of funds, Louis XII relied on the funds to purchase a lot of food, grass and luggage for the needs of marching into Italy.

The flames of war have just been extinguished in Germany here, and the flames of war in France are about to reignite...