The Rise of the European Emperor

"Aren't your waist sore?" Louis XII and several French favorites looked at John Lafite strangely.

The ages of Louis XII and several French favorites are basically around 50 years old. Even the youngest John Lafite is over 40 years old. At this age, it's been so long...it seems incredible...

John Lafite naturally had no back pain, but he knew that this was just an illusion. Because there are ingredients in the drug that specifically stimulate the nerve center, which conceals the phenomenon of backache. In other words, it paralyzes the nerves, making people unable to feel backache.

However, when you wake up the next morning and the effect of the medicine wears off, you will still have backache. But no one will pursue the bad effect of the medicine. After all, everyone understands the truth, and it is impossible to have the kind of medicine that does not make you tired afterwards. Being able to feel no fatigue at that time is already considered very powerful.

Moreover, John Lafite also has a fat brother as his internal support. According to Marin's arrangement, after Louis XII started taking the lifting drug "Fangsilong", the fat brother would add some mild analgesic and numb drugs to Louis XII's breakfast every day, so that Louis XII felt no physical discomfort.

As for what to add? This thing is actually very familiar to modern people-the initial ingredient of aspirin, salicylic acid...

The ingredient in aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid, which is the product of acetylation of salicylic acid. But its active ingredient is actually salicylic acid. However, salicylic acid is liquid and acidic, so it cannot be directly used as a drug.

But the fat brothers have a way-they can use salicylic acid as a seasoning instead of apple cider vinegar and add it to food.

As the main component of aspirin, salicylic acid has a great relief effect on headache, neuralgia and muscle pain. It is disguised as vinegar and added to Louis XII's food, which can greatly reduce Louis XII's perception of backache...

What? Where does salicylic acid come from, you ask? Let me tell you, this thing is extracted from willow bark...

Those who are familiar with the history of aspirin will know that salicylic acid was first extracted from the bark of weeping willow. Later, people tried to find a way to synthesize it artificially. The emergence of aspirin also led to the emergence of Bayer Pharmaceuticals, the super giant in the pharmaceutical industry.

During Marin's trip to Ming Dynasty, he brought back willow trees and successfully planted them in Beihai country. It is relatively easy to extract a little salicylic acid from willow bark. As for salicylic acid damage to the stomach? This is easy, just ask the fat brother to suggest that Louis XII drink a glass of soda one hour after the meal.

Soda water is an alkaline aqueous solution that neutralizes the stomach damage caused by salicylic acid. Of course, you have to wait for the salicylic acid to exert its medicinal effect before drinking it, so as to avoid the reduction or even failure of the salicylic acid medicinal effect.

In short, in order to entrap Louis XII, Marin is also well-intentioned, and even the main ingredient of aspirin is made out, just to make Louis XII reduce the feeling of back pain...

...

Fortunately, Europeans in this era have strong tastes. Fatty brothers can replace vinegar with salicylic acid, and then add some other miscellaneous seasonings to cover the changes in food taste. If the person eats lightly, maybe the stuffing will be exposed.

While Marin was doing everything possible to calculate Louis XII there, news also came from southern Germany-Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg, has officially started a big counterattack!

Since this time,

Under the deliberate guidance of several spies sent by Duke Ulrich, the manors of many nobles in the Duchy of Württemberg who did not deal with Duke Ulrich were looted by the peasant rebels. The wealth, food, weapons, armor and war horses in the manor were all snatched by the rebels. Many nobles themselves were also bewitched by a few spies to kill the soldiers of the rebel army.

By June, the number of manors in the Principality of Württemberg that had been breached by the rebels had reached several hundred. There are more than two hundred noble manors alone.

In addition to noble manors, there are many Junker manors. The so-called Junker Manor mainly refers to the manor controlled by the descendants of nobles without inheritance rights. Although those manor owners are descendants of nobles, they can only be reduced to commoners because they are not from the line of the eldest son. However, they have the protection of their own family, and they are still much better than ordinary people. For example, they can own manors and large amounts of land. People without noble blood have no right to own manors. At most, you can only be a businessman or craftsman or something.

For this type of manor, there is generally not much oil and water. Because these Junker landlords, in order to obtain the protection of the main family, need to contribute a lot of property to the main family in exchange for protection. After all, this is an era of nobles. Without the protection of nobles, the property is easily robbed by other nobles. And this is also an important reason why Marin desperately wanted to become a mercenary after crossing over to obtain a noble title...

Generally speaking, these Junker estates have a limited number of generations, and some of them are only one or two generations old. Therefore, this kind of Junker estate generally has less oil and water. Moreover, there are no military supplies such as weapons, armor and war horses favored by the rebel army. After all, they who have lost their noble status are not qualified to have these, and there is no need for them.

Those aristocratic manors are different. The general aristocratic families are families that have been passed down for hundreds of years. Such a family will always have a lot of savings. As long as the noble manor is broken, the food and other income may be similar to the Junker manor, but it can harvest a lot more weapons, armor, and war horses than the Junker manor. Of course, there are also gold and silver treasures hoarded by noble families for hundreds of years...

Therefore, after sweeping hundreds of manors, including more than 200 noble manors, Kaspar's "Poor Conrad" rebel army has grown to a huge scale of more than 30,000 people. Not to mention, the scale of the cavalry has expanded to 800 heavy cavalry and 2500 light cavalry...

The scale of this cavalry scared Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg. In order to avoid further expansion of the strength of the rebel army, Duke Ulrich finally couldn't bear it anymore and launched an attack on the rebel army...

He first mobilized 6,000 noble soldiers and horses, including 400 knights, from his own territory and the noble factions of the Principality of Württemberg who obeyed his orders, as well as the neutral Württemberg nobles. Then, it also borrowed 8,000 soldiers and horses from the Swabian League to which it belonged.

In this way, the number of soldiers and horses used by the Principality of Württemberg to suppress peasant uprisings reached as many as 14,000.

Although it is said that the conscripts among the noble soldiers and horses are not very effective in combat. However, those who have received formal military training are always more powerful than those members of the peasant uprising army who have no military literacy.

Moreover, Duke Ulrich was very cautious. He knew that in the noble army, conscripts had the worst combat effectiveness and were not worthy of trust. Therefore, he simply let the 6,000 noble soldiers under his command call out 4,000 conscripts, and sent them to strongholds in his own territory and allied territories, replacing 5,000 regular army soldiers sent by the North Sea Kingdom. In this way, the confidence to suppress the peasant uprising will be even greater...

...

Subsequently, Duke Ulrich personally led an army of 15,000 to pursue and intercept the peasant uprising army. But what's funny is that the Württemberg Peasant Rebel Army seemed to be addicted to looting the manor, and they didn't even notice that Duke Ulrich had sent a large army to hunt them down.

When Ulrich led an army of 15,000 to catch up with the peasant rebels, Kaspar was besieging a noble manor in a valley with more than 30,000 peasant rebels...