The Rise of the European Emperor

In fact, cryolite is mineralized in nature, but very few. Also, it appears that cryolite deposits are mainly in Greenland, in the Arctic Circle.

But there are very few cryolites in nature, and they are not enough at all. Therefore, later generations artificially synthesized cryolite for use in the electrolytic aluminum industry. But this specialty is too strong, at least, Marin, a liberal arts student, doesn't understand it. And Greenland is so big, he is unlikely to know where the cryolite mine is. The most important thing is that he doesn't know what cryolite looks like...

Therefore, knowing that Haiti and Jamaica are rich in bauxite resources, he has no way to develop them. A cryolite can make him kneel. Otherwise, you can get some aluminum alloy armor, how strong is that?

But in the absence of cryolite, Marin can only have one way to use those bauxite - making refractory bricks for smelting furnaces for steel and non-ferrous metals...

But now the demand for metal is very low, there are very few iron-smelting furnaces and metallurgical furnaces, and the required refractory bricks are also limited. Therefore, the bauxite in Europe is enough, and there is no need to import bauxite from the Caribbean.

But gold, silver, copper and nickel mines are still very important. Gold and silver don't matter, they can be used as money. The price of copper is also very expensive at present, and there seems to be no famous copper mines on Haiti, so it is better not to develop them. But nickel ore seems to be relatively easy to develop, because the nickel ore in Dominica is also lateritic nickel ore. At that time, as long as you observe the color and study the red soil, you will be able to find nickel ore.

Because Haiti Island was to be developed, Marin sent people to find people who had been to Haiti Island. Coincidentally, a student of Columbus named McCas, entrusted by Columbus last year, went to Santo Domingo on the island of Haiti to visit the place where Columbus made his fortune.

Hearing that Captain McCas had been to Santo Domingo last year, Marin immediately called him over to understand the situation...

McCas was in his thirties, in the prime of his life, and he was also one of Columbus' favorite disciples. Last year, McCas was ordered to transport nickel metal to the island of Cuba. Entrusted by Columbus, he went to visit the place where the teacher fought.

Knowing that Marin was interested there, McCas carefully introduced the situation in Santo Domingo...

Santo Domingo, the first colonial city established by Spanish colonists in America, has been abandoned for more than ten years. The once tall and strong castle is now almost in ruins.

The main structures such as the walls of the castle are fine, but the wooden structures in the castle have been demolished by the locals...

Including the gate, there are all kinds of wooden furniture, even the windows and walls, which were all dismantled by the locals and used as wood. McCas saw with his own eyes that on the houses of the indigenous villages near Santo Domingo, there were a lot of wood used by the Spanish colonists in the castle...

You ask why McCas can see the source of the wood? very simple,

There's paint on those lumber!

The natives on Haiti do not know how to use paint. Only in the castle built by the Spanish colonists will there be paint. Therefore, the wood with different colors of paint must have been dismantled from the castle by the local aborigines.

As for why the local aborigines don't live in the castle? Because the castle is too far away from their village...

These indigenous people mainly live off cassava and sweet potatoes and naturally live as close to their farmland as possible. The castle is too close to the sea, a bit far from their farmland. Therefore, the local indigenous people did live in the castle for a while after the Spaniards withdrew. But later I found it inconvenient to work in the field, and it was too far away, so I moved back to the village. Before leaving, they removed all the wood that could be removed...

McCass estimated that as long as there was enough wood, it would be easy to restore Santo Domingo. After all, the main structure, such as the stone walls, was not damaged.

Moreover, he also told a news that made Marin stunned - in the mountains and forests near Santo Domingo, there were many horses, cows, sheep and pigs left by the Spanish colonists...

However, more than ten years after the Spaniards left, these horses, cattle, sheep and pigs were all reduced to wild animals, hanging out in the mountains and forests. Moreover, it was also reduced to the prey of the indigenous people.

Among them, the best "mixed" is the pig. Relying on their strong reproductive ability, their population has expanded rapidly, and they seem to have become the local tyrant. Now, they are no longer considered domestic pigs, but wild boars.

The breed of domestic pig brought by the Spaniards is actually closer to wild boar. They are small and slow growing. Moreover, only a few are born in one child.

Even so, the strong reproductive ability of several births in one litter crushed horses, cattle and sheep. Therefore, in the mountains and forests near Santo Domingo, this kind of "wild boar" is the most abundant.

The locals don't dare to mess with this kind of wild pig. Because when the wild boar goes crazy, most people can't stop it. Although there are no fangs, it is no problem to charge up and injure and kill people. In particular, wild boars also like to travel in groups...

Then, horses and cows can mix well. The horses left by the Spaniards are Andalusian horses, which, although not very fertile, can run fast. When the local aborigines went hunting in the mountains, the horses had already run away when they heard the wind, so the safety was not bad.

And the cattle, the cattle brought by the Spaniards are longhorns. This is a kind of cattle brought by Columbus from the coastal areas of Spain. The horns are very long, but they are very gentle. The later famous Texas Longhorn is a descendant of this longhorn.

In fact, this kind of cattle is very timid and not ferocious. But the local aborigines felt a little guilty when they saw such long horns, and they didn't dare to provoke them...

So, the only unlucky ones are the sheep...

Because it is a tropical rainforest, the sheep brought by the Spanish colonists are not the famous Merino sheep, but some unknown goat breed along the coast. After all, goats are better suited to the climate of tropical rainforest regions than sheep with thick wool.

The local aborigines dare not mess with wild boars, can't catch horses, and dare not mess with longhorn cattle, so they can only start with these gentle sheep. Therefore, those Spanish goats that escaped to the wild and became wild sheep became the best prey for the local indigenous people.

According to what McCas and his team of sailors saw, it is estimated that there are at least a few hundred horses, thousands of longhorn cattle, thousands of wild domestic pigs, and hundreds of goats in the forest near the local village. ...

Yes, the goats are the least, mainly because they are hunted and killed by the locals, after all, they are easy to bully...

Well, it seems that after the reoccupation of Santo Domingo, there is no need to look for livestock, just send troops to the nearby forests to catch them.

Both horses and cows are easy to talk about, as long as you use the legendary lasso pole, you can deal with it. The goats can be directly surrounded and caught by hand, only wild domestic pigs are a bit troublesome.

In the end, Marin made up his mind to deal with it with traps. Those who can be domesticated will be domesticated, and those who cannot be re-domesticated will be shot to death with muskets, just to eat pork...