"Eckart, order a refreshing smoke without adding random herbs. Get some vanilla snacks and make a cup of herbal cocoa tea!"
"Yes, head of the family!"
The bright moon hangs high, and the king's tent is tightly guarded. Shulot held the letter, turned his head, and gave instructions to the captain of the guard who was holding an ax on guard. Then, he closed his eyes, rubbed his eyebrows, and waited patiently.
Soon, the scent of birds' tobacco rose from the purple pottery smoke stove and spread in the ventilated tent. These whole tobaccos come from the Mayan city-states and are of high quality. When burning, the surface of the 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 has been a high priest for many years and often holds celebrations. He also has some intuitive experience and feelings about the quality of sacred smoke.
"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 It's clear, and there's some floral fragrance!..."
Shulot closed his eyes and took a breath of the rich smoke. He held his breath, savored it for a while, and then blew out the smoke. The smell of this kind of tobacco is completely different from that of later cut tobacco cigarettes. Schlott is hard to describe, but intuitively, it might look more like the cigars he's heard of, burned here in boxes.
After a moment of relaxation, Shulot's sleepy brain finally became active. Eckart also returned with a sonorous voice carrying a plate of vanilla snacks and a pot of green grass cocoa tea.
This plate of vanilla snacks was invented by Shulot specifically in order to improve his life. That's beating and grinding aged vanilla pods into real vanilla powder. Then add the vanilla powder to honey, cornmeal, and turkey eggs, and then bake them after fermentation.
Simply put, it’s “Vanilla Honey Cornmeal Cake.” After adding expensive vanilla powder, it became a precious snack unique to America in this era. And the taste of natural vanilla powder, you can taste it...
"Very good! Natural tulle fragrance, endless aftertaste, not at all comparable to synthetic vanillin!"
Shulot nodded with satisfaction and ate two pieces of vanilla cake. However, although vanilla is delicious, its production is very small. Even in its native Mexico, vanilla is still expensive. The probability of natural pollination of its plants is usually only one in ten, and it requires bees unique to Central America 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 reproduce normally outside of Mexico, and its yield has been greatly increased. In the following decades, vanilla gradually moved from being a royal tribute that was worth more than gold to being used by ordinary nobles and big businessmen. As for ordinary people eating it, they have to wait another hundred years.
"Hmm... Even if it is 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 green grass cocoa tea, took a few sips, and felt instantly refreshed.
Although the Alliance's grass tea has a strange name, it is a drink that many people in later generations have tasted. That is "sarsaparilla" made from Mexican sarsaparilla. This is a medicinal drink first created by Native Americans. It is mainly used to relieve fever in summer. It can also be used to treat colds, rheumatism, gout and reduce fever.
The indigenous people of Brazil will be more serious. They added the zesty Brazilian cocoa (guarana) to herbal tea as a refreshing drink. As for Shulot, he is more accustomed to adding a little cocoa to green herbal tea to refresh himself.
"Cigar smoke, vanilla snacks, grass cocoa tea...this is the luxurious life of the Mexican aristocracy!..."
Shulot smiled and laughed at himself. Then, he finally picked up Talaya's letter again and concentrated on drawing pictures and records while thinking 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. But for fire-setting gunpowder arrows, you don’t need so many The soil saltpeter..."
Seeing this ratio, Shulot pondered for a moment and nodded with satisfaction. The Alliance's sulfur purification technology is limited, so you need to add more. 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 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, and 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 affected by moisture, and the gunpowder inside was 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 powerful. It even shot through the broken pottery pieces, even through 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's letter did not mention much about the injury. Her handwriting is very light, the tail pen is upturned, and the excitement almost overflows 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... While adding water to the gunpowder, mix it slowly. As long as the gunpowder has the texture of thick clay, even if Mix it! Add water in a ratio of about one part in twenty to one part in ten!..."
"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, and their shape will be 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: he was worried, happy, moved, and a little enlightened.
"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 the black powder is granulated, it will maintain uniform gaps and fully maintain the influx 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 resemble Like powdered gunpowder, it cannot burn completely. And doubling the combustion efficiency means doubling the power of gunpowder!"
"From now on, the firing of the kingdom's artillery will be stable, and it will no longer require 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!"
In the divine smoke of birds, Shulot wrote quickly and wrote down the thoughts in his mind one by one. After a while, he had only one last thought left. He raised his pen, but 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 and drifting towards the bright moon. The king lowered his eyes and put down the pen and paper. A full moon shone in his heart, flickering for a long time before falling into the depths of the heart lake and disappearing into the dust and smoke.
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