The Rise of the European Emperor

Originally, Marin planned to promote briquette and briquette stoves earlier. However, the sudden issue of Simon's marriage forced Marin to temporarily delay the promotion of briquettes.

Why? As soon as briquettes are promoted, the Lamarck family will know how big a mistake they made in exchanging the Ruhr area. If they got angry, Simon's marriage would fall through.

And if Simon can't marry Princess Anna, old Hoffman will definitely find himself desperate! Therefore, Marin can only postpone the promotion of honeycomb coal for the time being. When Simon and Princess Anna get married, no matter how popular the Lamarck family is. Because divorce is not allowed these days...

Of course, Marin didn't want to completely turn against the Lamarck family. Therefore, Marin will definitely give up some benefits at that time. For example, let the Lamarck family be the general agent of coal distribution or something, and let them exploit a layer of profits. Anyway, the coal mine is still in his own hands, so it doesn't matter if he distributes it to them. Even if you don't find them as agents, you should find someone else to sell them as agents.

In this era, Marin could not realize Coca-Cola's "101 plan" for later generations. Because communication and logistics in this era are extremely inconvenient. It is unrealistic to bypass regional agents and dealers and directly face customers through the "101" plan. A single communication basically relying on the sad reality of roaring can bankrupt the plan.

Therefore, if you want to sell coal, you must find dealers in various places to cooperate. At that time, it will be a kind of compensation to let the Lamarck family act as agents for a few more regions. If you are not satisfied, then there is nothing you can do. After all, it is impossible for Marin to spit out the Ruhr area that he ate.

Speaking of which, honeycomb coal is really an artifact. Don't be inconspicuous, but it's so easy to use. Therefore, even if Master Guo, who invented honeycomb, was given a Nobel Prize, Marin didn't think it was too much. Because, honeycomb coal is too useful.

Of course, briquettes are somewhat untimely. Because, in the 20th century, coal gas and natural gas have become popular all over the world. Honeycomb coal only appeared in the 1950s, and it was invented a little late. If it appeared a hundred years earlier, it would definitely become a super classic invention.

Marin remembered that in the 20th century, Huaxia could not afford to install gas pipelines because of its poverty. Therefore, the vast majority of urban residents use honeycomb coal stoves for cooking. At that time, when you walked into the dormitory area of ​​the factory area or the aisle of the tube building, you could see piles of briquettes everywhere.

Especially building dwellers, can hardly imagine without briquettes. Because, a bungalow can also have an earthen stove with a chimney. Then, pile a lot of firewood in the yard. However, for a building like Tongzilou, why don't you try building an earthen stove? Residents on the top floor can still erect chimneys, but where are the chimneys of the residents on the lower floors? If the chimney is installed outside the window, then when the households in the lower floors are cooking with earthen stoves, the smoke rising upwards can be blown into the homes of the residents above and choke to death if there is a wind.

But with honeycomb coal, it is different. With honeycomb coal, building residents can cook and boil water by setting up a honeycomb coal stove in the aisle. Of course, the place at home is big enough, and you can also cook and boil water at home. But the area of ​​Tongzilou is too small. In order not to make the house dirty, most people cook and boil water outside the door. The briquette stove is a little bit bigger, and it can be easily carried around with one hand...

Before the invention and popularization of honeycomb coal stoves, people generally burned earth stoves or coal pellet stoves. However, the efficiency of the briquette furnace is not high, and the coal consumption is still large, which is not so economical.

In the era of earthen stoves, there was another occupation in the countryside called "woodcutter", that is, woodcutters. Because at that time, urban residents also burned earthen stoves, and there was a great demand for firewood.

In order to supply the needs of urban life, many woodcutters go into the mountains every day to cut firewood, and then carry or use small carts to push it into the city to sell. Moreover, it is in short supply.

Because there is no way to cook and keep warm without firewood, firewood was a very important living resource in ancient times. When the ancients described life as trivial, they also used "firewood, rice, oil and salt" to describe it. Among them, the word "chai" actually ranked first, which shows its importance.

But after the briquette appeared,

The world has changed. Maybe, when people describe life as trivial, they have to say "coal, rice, oil and salt"...

A simple briquette can bring great convenience to urban residents and change people's lives. Once briquettes become popular, the demand for coal throughout Europe will be huge.

With the demand for briquettes, Marin didn't need to build any coal-burning steam engines at all, he could lie at home and wait for the money. Because people can use industrial products for a day, but they can't cook and boil water for a day... and briquettes are so convenient for cooking and boiling water, and the cost is very low. As long as you are not stupid, you must choose honeycomb...

Of course, it is hard to say if the transportation is extremely inconvenient, or if it is too far away from the coal production area. After all, the cost of land transportation in this era is too high. If the transportation cost is too high, people might as well use firewood.

But what is certain is that wherever the water transport is well developed, it will be easy to transport a large amount of coal to promote the use of briquettes. Like the Rhine River Basin, the Ems River Basin, the Weser River Basin and the Elbe River Basin, it is easy to promote honeycomb coal. And the basins of these rivers are basically equivalent to half of Germany...

Also, don't forget that Marin is now the number one coal mine owner in England. In England, Marin can also make a fortune...

...

However, in order to make Simon's marriage go smoothly, Marin had to suspend the promotion of briquettes even if he knew the dominance of briquettes. It was not until Simon married that he planned to promote the use of briquettes.

Therefore, Marin sent a delegation to Cliff City to discuss the marriage with the Lamarck family. In order to make a quick decision, Marin asked the wedding date to be set earlier, so as not to have long nights and dreams. At the same time, he also sent generous gifts to the Lamarck family so that they could agree quickly. Once the Lamarck family agreed, Marin planned to get Simon married as soon as possible, so as not to delay selling coal by himself...

...

Just when Marin was having a headache about Simon's marriage and briquettes, the spring plowing in Europe was gradually coming to an end. At this time, only the northern region is still continuing spring plowing, while spring plowing in central and southern Europe has basically stopped.

At this time, the French began to move. Once the spring plowing is over, France will be able to free up a large number of civilians and even sergeants. In this era, Europe mainly planted rye and barley, which did not require much management. Once the spring plowing was over and the sowing was completed, European farmers basically had nothing to do. This time is very suitable for launching a war...

Therefore, after the end of the spring plowing in the southern region, Louis XII ordered the whole of France to move to prepare for the French army to march into Italy. The hegemony conflict between the Kingdom of France and Spain is also imminent.

The movement of gathering tens of thousands of troops and tens of thousands of civilians was so great that it was hard not to attract attention. Therefore, after most of the spring plowing was over, Louis XII was busy not with the issue of sending troops, but with the issue of secrecy...