Chapter 622: The luxurious life of the great nobles, the improvement that doubled the power of gunpowder!
"Eckart, order a refreshing smoke without adding random herbs. Get some vanilla snacks and make a cup of herbal cocoa tea!"
"Yes, Master!"
The bright moon hung high, and the king's tent was tightly guarded. Shulot held the letter, turned his head, and gave instructions to the captain of the guard who was on guard with an axe. Then he closed his eyes, rubbed his eyebrows, and waited patiently.
Soon, the smell of tobacco rose from the purple pottery smoke stove and diffused in the ventilated tent. These whole pieces of tobacco came from the Mayan city-state and were of high quality. While burning,
The surface of the air-dried tobacco leaves will exude a faint oil, making the tobacco smell particularly mellow.
Shulot took a deep breath, feeling the floral fragrance and faint sweetness in the smoke, and his spirits immediately lifted. He had been a high priest for many years and often held celebrations, and he also had some understanding of the good and bad of the sacred smoke.
Intuitive experience and feelings.
"Well, it should be Tabasco tobacco. After simple fermentation, it has lost some astringency and bitterness. Oh! It has the taste of almonds and raisins, which means it has been settling for several years... Not bad, very ripe
Through it, there is also some floral fragrance!..."
Shulot closed his eyes and took a sip of the rich smoke. He held his breath, savored it for a while, and then exhaled the smoke. The smell of this tobacco was completely different from the paper cigarettes of later generations. Shulot
It's hard to describe, but intuitively, it might look more like the cigars he's heard of, being burned in boxes here.
After a moment of relaxation, Shulot's sleepy brain finally became active. Eckardt also returned with a plate of vanilla snacks and a pot of green grass cocoa tea.
This plate of vanilla snacks was invented by Xurotte at the request of the chef in order to improve his life. That is to beat and grind the aged vanilla pods to make real vanilla powder. Then add honey and cornmeal to the vanilla powder.
, put in turkey eggs, fermented and then baked.
To put it simply, it is "vanilla honey cornmeal cake". After adding expensive vanilla powder, it has become a precious snack unique to America in this era. And the taste of natural vanilla powder is...
"Very good! Natural tuxiang, endless aftertaste, not at all synthetic vanillin, comparable!"
Shulot nodded with satisfaction and ate two pieces of vanilla cake. However, although vanilla is delicious, its output is very small. Even in Mexico, where it originates, the price of vanilla is still expensive. The probability of natural pollination of its plants
, usually only one in 10, and require bees endemic to Mesoamerica for pollination.
Therefore, in history, it was not until 1841 that Edmond, a slave from Reunion Island, discovered the method of artificial pollination of vanilla. Since then, through artificial pollination, vanilla has finally been able to grow normally outside of Mexico.
It multiplied and its output was greatly increased. In the following decades, vanilla gradually moved from a royal tribute that was worth gold to ordinary nobles and big businessmen. As for ordinary people eating it, it would have to wait another hundred years.
"Hmm... Even if it is just to eat more vanilla cakes, we must teach the alliance the method of artificial pollination to increase the bean-bearing rate of vanilla several times! Of course, this method should be given first to occupy Chinampa.
King Avite, and the high priests of the capital..."
Shulot pondered for a moment and wrote down the matter. Then, he picked up a cup of slightly hot grass cocoa tea and drank a few large sips, feeling instantly refreshed.
Although the Alliance's herbal tea has a strange name, it is a drink that many people in later generations have tasted. It is "root beer" made from Mexican sarsaparilla. This is a medicinal drink first created by Native Americans.
Mainly used for antipyretic in summer, it can also be used to treat colds, rheumatism, gout and reduce fever.
The aboriginal people of Brazil have a heavier taste. They add exciting Brazilian cocoa (Guarana) to green herbal tea and use it as a refreshing drink. As for Xiulote, he is more accustomed to drinking green herbal tea.
Add a little cocoa to refresh your mind.
"Cigar smoke, vanilla snacks, grass cocoa tea...this is the luxurious life of the Mexican nobles!..."
Shulot laughed and laughed at himself. Then, he finally picked up Talaya's letter again, concentrated on it, drew pictures and recorded it, and thought about new gunpowder improvements.
"My Most Highness... After obtaining the soil salt, sulfur and charcoal, the craftsmen need to weigh the proportions. According to my experiments in the past few years, the explosion of Tao Nili is about 5:1:1
The most stable and most powerful. This ratio is easier to prepare than the 15:2:3 you calculated. Of course, if you want to burn poisonous smoke, you can increase the sulfur ratio. However, you don’t need so many gunpowder arrows to set fire.
The soil saltpeter..."
Seeing this ratio, Shulot pondered for a moment and nodded with satisfaction. The Alliance's sulfur purification technology is limited, so more should be added. He secretly gave Taliya a thumbs up and couldn't wait to read on.
"...After the preparation is completed, the three ingredients must be thoroughly mixed, placed in a ceramic mortar, and slowly ground with a ceramic pestle. From here on, the craftsmen must be careful not to allow any fire...and
When the gunpowder is completely ground into powder, it must be sealed in a large clay pot according to your instructions, and the seal must be wrapped with a ring of rubber."
"...Since the Eastern Expedition, the kingdom's gunpowder transportation has been carried by waterways, and it has also experienced precipitation in the rainy season. Once the gunpowder is soaked in water in the open air, it will lose its power. You have reminded me of the reason. This is due to the dissolution of soil and nitrate.
In water, the result of being carried away by water."
"Last year's rainy season was very wet. The gunpowder in some large clay pots was improperly sealed and got damp during transportation. After the craftsmen found out, they transported them back to the kingdom. However, the gunpowder in this batch of clay pots was not seriously dampened, and the contents inside were not seriously affected.
The soil saltpeter was not taken away by the rain."
"At the end of last autumn, when the rainy season ended, I and the craftsmen dispersed this batch of gunpowder in pottery boxes and carefully dried it. After drying, some powdered gunpowder formed into small balls.
I used the gunpowder to pack some pottery pears. I originally wanted to test whether it could still be used. But, an accident happened!...The power of the gunpowder was surprisingly strong, and the broken pottery pieces even penetrated the blocking cloth bags.
Cut my cheek..."
"What?!"
Seeing this, Shulot suddenly stood up. He thought of Talaya's beautiful face, and his heart suddenly tightened. After a moment, he took a deep breath and continued reading.
"My Highness, my Sun God...I have lived up to your expectations. I finally discovered a way to improve gunpowder!..."
However, Talaya did not mention much about the injury in her letter. Her handwriting was very light, the tail of the pen was upturned, and her excitement almost overflowed from the paper.
"Your Highness! As long as you add a little water and dry it into small balls, the power of gunpowder will be doubled! I will never lie to you, it will really be doubled, or even more!
..."
"I couldn't believe it at first, and I did many experiments. It was really powerful, and I almost hurt myself... Add water to the gunpowder while slowly mixing it. As long as the gunpowder has the texture of thick clay, even if
It’s mixed! The ratio of adding water is between one part in twenty parts and one part in ten parts!..."
"After adding water, the gunpowder will stick to the medicine ball. At this time, use a pottery sieve to divide the gunpowder ball into many small parts and into many small particles. Finally, put them on the straw paper to dry in the sun. Their shape,
They will remain in the form of small particles, and their power will be like the thunder in the hands of the Lord God!...My Sun God, I will kneel on the ground and dedicate the thunder to you..."
After reading this, Shulot pursed his lips. His expression changed, including worry, joy, emotion, and a bit of enlightenment.
"That's it!... Add water, dry, and form granules... This is, this is black powder granulation! This is a real improvement in gunpowder that only appeared on the European battlefield at the beginning of this century.
The secret recipe!”
"...After black powder is granulated, it will maintain uniform gaps and fully maintain the inflow of oxygen, which facilitates the spread of flames and the burning of gunpowder! In other words, this will greatly improve the burning efficiency of gunpowder and will not
Like powdered gunpowder, it cannot burn completely. And a doubling of the combustion efficiency means a doubling of the power of the gunpowder!"
"From now on, the firing of the kingdom's artillery will be stable, and there will no longer be the need for superb gunpowder loading skills. And after granulation, the gunpowder will not be separated into sulfur powder, charcoal powder and saltpeter powder due to the bumps of long-distance transportation.
The layers do not need to be mixed again before the war... and one of the technical foundations of the heavy matchlock gun appears here!"
In the magical smoke of birds, Shulot wrote quickly, writing down the thoughts in his mind one by one. After a while, he was left with only the last thought, and he raised the pen, but he could not put it down.
"Talaiya, my loyal person...how should I reward you for your efforts and contributions over the years?"
The divine smoke slowly burned out, rising from the top of the tent, floating towards the bright moon. The king lowered his eyes and put down the paper and pen. A full moon shone in his heart, flickering for a long time before falling into the depths of the lake in his heart.
